Posts made by Field Marshal

Here in New England, the tribes are opening casinos on reservations. Trust me, here in the North East, pale-face is paying them back!!!
All kidding aside, it’s really sparking the dying economies in Connecticut. All people (not just native americans) have good jobs with excellent benefits. They’re finally realizing the American dream!

The “goal” of evolution is survival. Hopefully the mutations that occur in species are beneficial to the ever changing environmental conditions. If not they go extinct. The current evolutionary theory is still flawed. Certain mutations occur at quicker rates than others. Adaptive radiations are sporadic. Science often commits the crime of refusing to alter current theories. What they believe now is set in stone. As long as new discoveries do not contradict long held theories, they’re OK with them. Egyptology is a good suspect. Don’t rock the boat and your good to go.

I don’t believe Creationists voicing their opinion’s and/or beliefs is a reason to “hate” them. As long as, of course, their using words and not weapons. If you feel that threatened by someone’s “dogma”, I’d say your not too secure on your own beliefs. Freedom of Speech also means you have to listen to the guy you don’t want to…

No, not everytime. Just occasionally…

Clearly religion exists to give it’s follower’s hope for a better life and/or afterlife. Of course this varies from belief system to belief system. Religion, like governments and nations, can be born from the oppression of the former religion, government, etc., etc. Religious groups that use fear or propaganda have let their power and influence become abusive and need reform or revolution. Again, sounds alot like nations or governments. Why? Because they are all made up of PEOPLE who make mistakes or let power go to their heads. Religions are not imune - even if we think they should be - that’s life. Separating the wrongs in the past from the faithful of today can be and is difficult. Try not to hold it against them. I’ll only hate a man (or woman) who wrongs me. Not what someone in their religion did 500 years ago. This is where some “hate atheism” comes from. Some comes from religious oriented people who DO wrong them. Don’t fall into the trap of hating ALL of that group. Fear of different beliefs that you don’t understand covers the rest.

“Remember fear is the first step towards the darkside. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering…” - Master Yoda.

CC - come out of hiding!!!

Yanny’s got my vote, too…

Young kids really don’t understand the Pledge anyway. It means little to them. When your in high school, you say it or not, you might question it, once. Just another minute in the drab homeroom scene at the start of each day. Point being, the people saying the words probably could care less. The decision suited some adult complaint. My kid sang patriotic songs at the beginning of each day in 1st grade this past year. This is probably due to 9/11. Propaganda, maybe. It could be viewed similarly. Face it. Christianity is part of western culture. All facets of life are effected by it. Shall we hunt down and remove every little reference to silence the complaints? We could, and maybe we are. Seems to me like we could be focusing on the real problems hurting this country instead…

Sorry, been out of school too long to remember if this was even an issue (Class of 1986). I don’t think it was, Dzertfish do you recall?

The ultimate Green Peace alien!!!
Just because we deface the planet by building unnatural structures and tear down natural beauty?
We pollute heavily?
We waste natural resources?

They might be doing the earth a favor!

Hopefully they’ll have some wishy-washy science rules about not interfering with the local animals…

Just my point. Could everyone agree on an equal prayer time interval and what it entails? Silent prayer or outloud? Christian, Jewish, Moslem, etc., etc. ??? Can we reach common ground to compromise???

It would be great if they had a more noble purpose than sucking our planet dry of raw materials like in just about every movie made about this subject. More along the lines of “First Contact” like in the STAR TREK series. Of course I’m hypothetically reaching here…

TGM - I don’t know why some people (in this case certain atheists) got to get that extreme. I never had an issue with the “under God” line in the Pledge of Allegiance. They’re missing the point of the Pledge. As I said earlier, if you want to believe in something, believe in how good your country can be…

Life - definitely
Inteligent life - most probably
Inteligent life with the capability of interstellar travel - possibly, but unlikely

Have we’ve been visited by a superior alien civilization in the past or present? We’ll, it would sure clear up alot of mysteries (the Great Pyramid at Giza for one). Who knows. Impossible to determine.

You better believe world governments would keep it quiet. We would have to rewrite our entire planet’s history. Science, religion, and civilization would be turned upside down. Are we ready for that???

I DON’T THINK SO !!!

Now we’re getting to the real issue. Now we have no prayer in public schools. Say tomorrow, the law changed. Who’s prayer shall we recite? Will the Christians allow time for Muslim prayer? Will it be majority rule? Is this fair to the minority? I’d say no. This is the real issue our law makers are facing. Satisfy the Catholics and and the Jews might take offense. OK, lets hit the middle ground. Would all groups endorse a private silent prayer for each student? I’d buy that even with atheistic beliefs. But the real question is : will this compromise be enough???

Take those quotes with a grain of salt - I’m a US Navy Veteran, patriot, and oh yes, an atheist. Hey, if you can’t find a deity to give your allegience to, believe in your country. You’ve all pointed out the faults in the US and other countries, help make the future better for our children…

The political poll threw me off. I like to think I’m a-political!!!

YB - sorry I haven’t return posted sooner. I thought of those miracles you listed AFTER I posted. I’ll admit - they are a mystery to me. I don’t know what to make of them, and I’m not really familiar enough with the phenomenon to give you a fair opinion. More research for me! I will state that it is possible that this phenomenon may be occurring outside the religious realm. Although this seems like a longshot, I’d like to stay open for ALL possibilities. But I’ll still say however, Bigfoot using our current view of evidence, has a better shot. Prints and sightings - OH MY!!!

I see the posting got a bit nasty in my absence! CC - you get points for your attempt to calm things down! I’ll have to review what our friend FinsterniS has to say about the Christian related miracles. Keep it clean, all…

TG Moses VI - I agree with your previous post. If the Axis can weaken the UK enough in turns 1 to 4, the UK’s effectiveness is greatly reduced. NP can be down to nearly half (losing it’s African and Asian territories). After that, the Axis can can co-ordinate a mutual attack on Russia. The US needs to be kept at bay, which can be difficult but not impossible. If the Axis can disrupt the Allied effort in Europe long enough, Russia can fall…

Zero - without an official ruling from the game creators or MB, I’d say use it as a house rule…

I’m not sure when it started, either. Being a contributor to it, as long as we keep it respectful and clean - I’m for it. I realize we’re getting way off subject : If you decide to “pull the plug”, I’ll deal…

The biggest motivator for science is the almighty dollar. Science now is driven by results for profit. As TG Moses VI said, war is a good contributor to science and technology. As Vietnam showed us, big business can keep a war going. I’ll agree politics is a motivator, probably not as much now as in the Cold War. The doesn’t seem much left for religion to affect…