Off Topic - Main

[John.d.h]

Am I bad American because I didn't know the Superbowl was tonight? 

[Sir modman]

Why do you make assertions like this in a debate atmosphere?  Where is your undeniable, irrefutable proof?  There is none.

Oh there is you just ignored it!

I actually presented evidence first, which you then dismissed.  Those three YouTube videos aren't gone, you know.  Watch them, find the parts you disagree with, and list them here.  Then, using logic or data, prove them wrong.

This is the process science has to use to debunk creationist disinformation all of the time, so it is rather tiresome when you write one or two line responses and call that "debunking".

Then, after you have debunked the videos, assuming you were right, then we will look at your mediumship evidence.  But not before.  Stop avoiding the question: what is wrong with those videos?  Cite specific examples.

exactly. evolution is believed to be a gradual process and so where are the missing blocks of the jigsaw?
Plus, even if the author isn't so confident in his theory, how can we be?

Really not sure what the missing jigsaw blocks are, but I have to comment that whatever Newton thought personally about his law of gravitation, it was correct (for the most part).  So whatever Darwin thought about evolution has nothing to do with whether it is right or not.

logically, if something came into existence following another, does it necessarily mean that the latter came from the former?
eg: Suppose a train is invented after a car, (or vice-versa) it doesnt mean that trains were invented from cars does it?

No.  Neither cars nor trains are living.  They are not subject to natural selection.  They do not reproduce.  They cannot pass DNA to their offspring.  They are not subject to mutation.  And they are known to be man-made.  Animals are known to be born from their parents, not "made" so much as birthed.  Every generation is a new mix of DNA.

a very simple argument: If humans came from monkeys, why are there still monkeys?

Because...there is no reason that monkeys would die out.  Also, we did not evolve from monkeys.  Why are creationists still asking about humans evolving from monkeys again?  I answered that already!  And seeing as though I am (nearly) the only evolutionist here willing to answer these repetitive questions, I'm a little tired of it.  Monkeys and humans evolved separately.

http://www.needananswer.co.uk/questions/monkeys.html

Am I bad American because I didn't know the Superbowl was tonight? 

No, just a little removed.   I normally don't watch football, only baseball.

[ElimiNator]

Ok so we want some proof of a fossil, skeleton,  or live animal of a half transformed/morped/Evolved animal, a pic, vid, or article.

[-Archmage-]

No, we don't need any of your super complicated crap!
There is a huge amount of vital proof missing on your part!
Where are all the interspecies?!?!

[softcoder]

Everyone take one step back.

Regardless of "evidence", the Christian faith is first and foremost based on "Faith" in God.

I personally believe that regardless of "evidence" of any kind, unless someone really wants to know the truth, simply presenting it will do nothing. So for example if you start the dialog with "there is no God" then you already have what you want. If a communist wants to believe communism is best, or a Nazi wants to believe his thing is best, they don't want something else.

Until a person is unsatisfied with what he has, then there is the possibility to show him something else.

So even if a person feels they believe in some "evidence" they may still not believe in God, that requires more than science, that requires a relationship.

Much more could be said, but the key element here is that a Christian (and Creationist) is "Saved by faith" not by evidence. Evidence is nice, but "without faith it is impossible to please God".

Thanks

[-Archmage-]

Please, just leave this topic, just about everything you said in that post is not true.

[hailstone]

I agree with softcoder. Perhaps there has been enough discussion and people need to do their own research if they are interested.

On another topic, my books arrived  : "Game Engine Architecture" and "Programming an RTS Game With Direct3D". I know Glest uses OpenGL but it talks about a lot of things Glest doesn't have like billboarding and playing videos, etc.

[-Archmage-]

I'd love to see some kind of campaign mode with videos in Glest, but that would be hard...

[Sir modman]

No, we don't need any of your super complicated crap!

You might be disappointed to know that evolution is complicated.  You're the one who thought to take down a huge theory, while at the same time dodging all requests for evidence.

There is a huge amount of vital proof missing on your part!

That hardly qualifies as a rational response to my prompt above.  You are ignoring the question.  On forums designed for debate, there are moderators who will ban users for doing what you are doing: repetitively dodging, and giving one-line responses (especially after I typed all that!)

Where are all the interspecies?!?!

Before getting all hyped up with a double exclamation mark, you might want to check your vocab.  Interspecies is not a noun.  "Inter-species" refers to activities within a species.  In fact, Firefox doesn't even recognize interspecies as a word.

Everyone take one step back.

Regardless of "evidence", the Christian faith is first and foremost based on "Faith" in God.

I personally believe that regardless of "evidence" of any kind, unless someone really wants to know the truth, simply presenting it will do nothing. So for example if you start the dialog with "there is no God" then you already have what you want. If a communist wants to believe communism is best, or a Nazi wants to believe his thing is best, they don't want something else.

Until a person is unsatisfied with what he has, then there is the possibility to show him something else.

So even if a person feels they believe in some "evidence" they may still not believe in God, that requires more than science, that requires a relationship.

Much more could be said, but the key element here is that a Christian (and Creationist) is "Saved by faith" not by evidence. Evidence is nice, but "without faith it is impossible to please God".

Thanks

Thank you for your opinion, but no one requested salvation here.  I do believe in freedom of thought (of course!), but I also think some thoughts tend to lead to actions which are violent.  The US is not fighting a war on terror, but a war on extremism!  Muslims are willing to turn themselves into bombs because of their beliefs.  They are convinced the acts of violence earns them a seat in paradise, along with 72 personal "dark-eyed" virgins.

Similar bronze-age beliefs got Spain (and the rest of southern Europe) an Inquisition.  This was ideological attrition warfare.  And nasty too: they invented most of today's torture devices.

Softcoder, you are free to believe in whatever you want.  But don't impose them on others, and don't hurt anyone else.

And I always encourage people to join debatingchristianity.com for rational debate on these topics.  I think that creationists will find that what they were once sure of is not as founded in logic as they once thought.  It is in my signature for a reason.

[John.d.h]

I personally believe that regardless of "evidence" of any kind, unless someone really wants to know the truth, simply presenting it will do nothing.

I strongly agree with this.  Most people have a very strong confirmation bias, especially when it comes to politics and religion.  When you present a point that threatens someone's beliefs, it threatens their very identity, and people are very afraid of letting go of the beliefs that make them who they are.

[-Archmage-]

Modman, you accuse me of dodging all the requests for evidence while you point out spelling errors to dodge requests, I gave you evidence that you need to check out, you ignored it, your turn, now please provide us with the huge block of evidence that you need!

[Sir modman]

I personally believe that regardless of "evidence" of any kind, unless someone really wants to know the truth, simply presenting it will do nothing.

I strongly agree with this.  Most people have a very strong confirmation bias, especially when it comes to politics and religion.  When you present a point that threatens someone's beliefs, it threatens their very identity, and people are very afraid of letting go of the beliefs that make them who they are.

I also agree.  This is why it is important to have an open mind, and to look at all evidence objectively.  The hardest thing for me is to simultaneously keep an open mind and think objectively, demanding proof for all assertions.  This is what science is about.

For example, the reason that Newton's gravitation was so revolutionary to physics is that it tied the trajectories of falling objects and the motions of celestial bodies together in a simple equation.  The same was for Kepler's three laws.  Newton's law of universal gravitation was the final nail in the geocentric coffin.  Geocentricism is shown below.

Theories do not conform to mainstream are fine.  Flat earth theory, for example, is a valid theory.  It is testable, and makes predictions.  The predictions are what scientists test.  Flat earth theory predicts that ships should fall off of the earth if they stray too far away from land.  This is known to be false.  If someone, however, was able to prove that the earth was indeed flat, this scientist would indeed win a Nobel Prize, and would easily become one of the most celebrated scientists ever.  I'm not too worried about that, though, because the chances of that happening are near zero.

Modman, you accuse me of dodging all the requests for evidence while you point out spelling errors to dodge requests, I gave you evidence that you need to check out, you ignored it, your turn, now please provide us with the huge block of evidence that you need!

No.  That is simply not true.  In fact, I again believe you misunderstood my last post:

• I was not asking for evidence, but an appropriate rebuttal of the videos I posted pages ago.
• I did not point out "spelling errors" so much as the fact that the word you used was not a word.  There is no such thing as an "interspecies".
• I did not ignore your evidence, I am simply refusing to respond to any more of your evidence until I read an appropriate rebuttal from your party.

//EDIT: To make the tone of my post a bit less harsh.

[hailstone]

ATI is better because it works well on all systems, nVidia brags to much, and then craps out if your not on Windows.

I think you mean them the other way around. nVidia has always had better support for Linux in my experience.

[-Archmage-]

Well, it f*cked up my computer and I had to reinstall linux.

ATI has always worked!

[Omega]

Wow, what'd you guys think of the Olympic opening ceremony? I thought that was spectacular! I've never seen such amazing effects before, ever! Boggled my mind how those lighting/video effects were done... Team canada of course is looking very good this year. 2nd largest team, with USA having a mere 2 more people, as well as some fantastic athletes such as Patrick Chan, Cindy Classen, Kristina Groves, Charles Hamelin, Jennifer Heil, Pierre Lueders, Ashleigh McIvor, Scott Moir, Jon Montgomery, Manuel Osborne-Paradis, and Hayley Wickenheiser. Beat that USA/Russia/Germany/Switzerland/Austria/etc!


Of course, you gotta feel sorry for the georgian team...

Anyway, what'd you guys think of the Opening ceremony?

[-Archmage-]

Didn't see it.

[ultifd]

Do you guys like the "new Youtube"? 

[ElimiNator]

Down-load some stuff here.

[John.d.h]

Down-load some stuff here.

What is it?  Virus?

[-Archmage-]

No its just some of Elims stuff.

[ElimiNator]

Not a virus sory. 

[ultifd]

Olympics!  
 
Now that's how you describe the Olympics.
Well, kind of. Depends. At least at one point...  
Kinda weird... Olympics/Valentine's Day/Chinese New Year... for some.] at the same time...
huh.

[Scenariole]

Wow this is a good way to get my post count up!

[John.d.h]

Posting is a great way to raise your post count?  What a concept.

[Scenariole]

+ 1 Post count