How is the balance between boys and girls maintained?

[Provost Harrison]

[Elok]

Somebody hasn't seen Thor yet.

[Kidlicious]

Make sense again now? Again, are you saying that because of your inability to comprehend evolution that it can't possibly be true?

Idk y u keep mentioning evolution. It has nothing to do with my argument. I had no idea you were this brain dead.

[Kidlicious]

I seem to recall Jesus Himself saying that, of faith, hope and love, love was the highest virtue. Also St. Paul saying that though he speaks with all the tongues of men and angels, works mighty miracles, etc., if he doesn't have love, he has nothing.

EDIT: Nope, it was St. Paul for the first one too.

1 Cor 13:13


And earlier in chapter 13...

It must be convenient for you to happen to believe that part of the Bible and not all the rest of the Bible that emphasize faith and passion for God.

[loinburger]

You mean all the parts of the Bible that you haven't read and that conveniently confirm your beliefs and biases?

Einstein wrote like a hundred books about how special relativity is bull****. Naturally I haven't read any of them, but still, they completely trump everything he wrote or said in favor of special relativity.

[Kidlicious]

That doesn't really make any sense you know, its just one of those talking points that sound good on the surface. We have no idea if the universe could even exist with different physical laws, and we definitely don't know for sure that it couldn't exist with different physical laws, all it means is that life as we know it could only exist with the physical laws that are in place, and well.. duh: we're here to talk about it.

There maybe some variation of the physical laws that would allow life to be created, but nothing like it is, and it's extremely unlikely. You have no idea about the point I'm making. It absolutely incredible.

[Elok]

Please keep your rancid hypocrisy to yourself; I'm not interested in having a passive-aggressive scripture fight with you. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure it would be fun to dig through the Bible for one-upping opportunities, "reinterpret" verses to fit our own agendas, disguise pique as "the guidance of the Holy Spirit" and hatred as "concern for the state of your soul." But, while I don't make an idol of scripture as you have, I don't think it was written so we could slather a thin veneer of fake piety over the rusted pissiness of a Pharisees' fight. I much prefer even your "dick" and "*******" to that kind of stale Tartuffery.

[Elok]

There maybe some variation of the physical laws that would allow life to be created, but nothing like it is, and it's extremely unlikely. You have no idea about the point I'm making. It absolutely incredible.

I don't think you have an idea about the point you're making. Why should he?

[kentonio]

There maybe some variation of the physical laws that would allow life to be created, but nothing like it is, and it's extremely unlikely. You have no idea about the point I'm making. It absolutely incredible.

The point you are making is wrong. We have no idea how 'likely' or 'unlikely' any of it is, because we lack the data to make any such an assumption. You're trying to add strength to your religious views by calling on science to support you, and it doesn't. If you want to believe in god then thats cool, that's your business, but why do you need to step beyond faith and into science?

[Elok]

The point you are making is wrong. We have no idea how 'likely' or 'unlikely' any of it is, because we lack the data to make any such an assumption. You're trying to add strength to your religious views by calling on science to support you, and it doesn't. If you want to believe in god then thats cool, that's your business, but why do you need to step beyond faith and into science?

If the sun did not produce heat and light, none of us would exist. Why should the sun emit heat and light instead of icicles and peppermint oil? If you consider the millions of different things there are, such as bicycle horns and plaid, it's really very unlikely that the laws of physics should cause the sun to specifically emit those two things we need to support life.

[loinburger]

I was watching some BBC/Discovery Channel/PBS/whatever series where they said that the sun isn't really a prerequisite for life - you just need some heat, which you can get from a hot planetary core (if, say, a planet formed in the early solar system but was then flung off into deep space)

There might be other forms of non-heat energy that might be sufficient for life, but we wouldn't know about them since sunlight and heat are much more convenient (on our planet, at any rate) than, say, magnetism or x-rays

[kentonio]

If the sun did not produce heat and light, none of us would exist. Why should the sun emit heat and light instead of icicles and peppermint oil? If you consider the millions of different things there are, such as bicycle horns and plaid, it's really very unlikely that the laws of physics should cause the sun to specifically emit those two things we need to support life.

No, its very unlikely that they should cause the sun to specifically emit those two things we need to support our specific form of life. Which is a pointless statement, because if it wasn't the case we wouldn't be here to argue about it. It's especially pointless because we have no damn idea whether a universe with completely different rules would support some other form of life.

Even if life of any form is only possible under these specific conditions, so what? That still doesn't mean that there was any design involved. We think it must be the only plausible outcome because its the one we live with. It could be nothing more than a gigantic cosmic fluke, and yet it would still mean nothing. The idea only even makes any sense if you start out with the preconception that life is somehow inherently special.

[Elok]

Uh, Ken, reread what you quoted. You're preaching to the choir there. And here I thought I should've been more subtle...

[kentonio]

My bad. It's been a long day..

[loinburger]

There might be other forms of non-heat energy that might be sufficient for life, but we wouldn't know about them since sunlight and heat are much more convenient (on our planet, at any rate) than, say, magnetism or x-rays

I forgot about Jupiter's moons. They're using heat energy, but it's not derived from the sun (they're too far away) or from a hot core (they're too small and their cores have cooled and solidified a long time ago) - it's derived from Jupiter's tidal forces. A few of Jupiter's moons might have life living under their icy surfaces. (The hottest moon, Titan, is probably too volcanically active to have any life on it)