Aleatoric

Reply to Harry Potter books are evil? in WinCustomize Talk WinCustomize Forums

@ Baker!

Reply to Harry Potter books are evil? in WinCustomize Talk WinCustomize Forums

If... she ... weighs.. the same.. as a duck ... she's made of wood. And therefore? A witch! A witch! A witch!

Reply to What are your top 5 favorite horror movies? in WinCustomize Talk WinCustomize Forums

Baker, Thanks for reminding me -- Ghost Story -- I was thinking about it, but couldn't remember the name. Very well done movie, makes me want to see it again. Changeling was also a good one.

Reply to What are your top 5 favorite horror movies? in WinCustomize Talk WinCustomize Forums

Not in any particular order Alien -- Although it doesn't have the same effect on multiple viewings, I saw it on the big screen when it first opened, very effective on first viewing. Wait until Dark -- Not a horror movie per se (more suspense), but the lights out bit at the end was extremely good. The Haunting -- The original Robert Wise version. One of the quintessential haunted h

Reply to A "Words to live by" thread.........again. in WinCustomize Talk WinCustomize Forums

If all else fails, immortality can always be assured by spectacular error.

Reply to Creation vs. Evolution in WinCustomize Talk WinCustomize Forums

Baker, Yeah, it's often sad how discussions of this type tend toward the unnecessarily confrontational (religion and politics, that's what we're told to avoid ). Truth is, creation vs evolution is, at heart, basically a religious discussion, even though the arguments are often a spectrum rather than a pair of polar opposites. Given that, it's not surprising that ancillary religious issue

Reply to Creation vs. Evolution in WinCustomize Talk WinCustomize Forums

EH, Unfortunately, people do go around 'whacking kids knuckles' (and worse) merely because they feel like it. This behaviour is certainly not restricted to religion by any means. There are people who are most definitely not qualified enough (or emotionally mature enough) to be placed in a position where they are allowed to supervise and / or discipline others (especially children). However, far too many of these people *do* end up in such positions, both inside and outside of a

Reply to Creation vs. Evolution in WinCustomize Talk WinCustomize Forums

paxx, re Tennessee, etc. Unfortunately, there's a pretty substantial number of such people here in the states, especially in the central parts. I live in Oklahoma, and there are people like that here, also. They aren't everywhere, and the whole state isn't like that (and neither is Tennessee), but sometimes that's what gets the attention. Unfortunately, such attitudes are less about faith than about indoctrination. I'm not bashing anyone who truly believes, but even th

Reply to Creation vs. Evolution in WinCustomize Talk WinCustomize Forums

Kona, Nothing will change these Beliefs Even if God Himself came to you and told you otherwise? motion, Sorry to hear about the events of your youth. There's no question that such people were not really working for God, but only f

Reply to Creation vs. Evolution in WinCustomize Talk WinCustomize Forums

Nothing about evolution denies creation. I place creation at the beginning of the universe, where the initial framework was designed to produce a particular result. I'm an engineer and I find greater wonder and power in a God who can design from a fundamental starting point that grows into the full scope of what we observe and deduce in our entire universe than one that was merely created from whole cloth a few thousand years ago.

Reply to Creation vs. Evolution in WinCustomize Talk WinCustomize Forums

Jafo, 'In spite of established religion (or the desire to have one) was pretty much my point. Reading my post, I see it could be taken either way, depending on the way it was read . Kona, The idea that there is only one truth (and that the speaker only is in posession of it) is responsible for far more evil than any other human action in history. Faith in God is only be

Reply to Creation vs. Evolution in WinCustomize Talk WinCustomize Forums

"The kingdom of God is inside you. And all around you. Not in buildings made from wood and stone. Split a piece of wood and I am there. Lift a stone and you will find me." Not only just from a movie, but one of the verses of the coptic gospels of Thomas, ostensibly an apostle of Jesus. And very much in line with my particular vie

Reply to Creation vs. Evolution in WinCustomize Talk WinCustomize Forums

Kona, Even as one might agree that such things happen, they are not a prima facie argument for the existence of God. They could simply be due to a mechanism we haven't detected yet. *I* believe that God has a hand in them, but that isn't proof. Even if we could actually *prove* (to everyone's satisfaction) that God does indeed exist, that would still not justify imposing any default or defacto religion upon everyone (especially at the level of government).

Reply to Creation vs. Evolution in WinCustomize Talk WinCustomize Forums

Congress should not establish a religion and enforce the legal observation of it by law, nor compel men to worship God in any manner contary to their conscience, or that one sect might obtain a pre-eminence, or two combined together, and establish a religion to which they would compel others to conform (Annals of Congress, Sat Aug 15th, 1789 pages 730 - 731). -- James Madi

Reply to Creation vs. Evolution in WinCustomize Talk WinCustomize Forums

(careful now, we don't want to call Godwin on this thread ) scientific discovery ran amuck unchecked in nazi germany. Nope, idiocy ran amok in nazi Germany. Apart from some work in jets and the V2 (which was actually more along the lines of engineeri

Reply to A Little Perspective on $87 billion. in WinCustomize Talk WinCustomize Forums

Actually, I don't really think it's such a bad deal either. I do think the government spends too much money overall though.

Reply to A Little Perspective on $87 billion. in WinCustomize Talk WinCustomize Forums

Erk. Above numbers should be 4.83% and about 21 piles of money. @#$ decimal places (next time I'll use the calculator *first*)

Reply to A Little Perspective on $87 billion. in WinCustomize Talk WinCustomize Forums

Even a bit more perspective. 87 Billion dollars is about 0.483% of the yearly federal budget (using 1.8 trillion dollars as outlined here: http://w3.access.gpo.gov/usbudget/fy2001/guide02.html ) That's about 208 of those 87 billion dollar piles. No matter which way you look at it, there is *WAY* too much money being wasted by the government. [Message Edited] [Message Edited] [Message Edited]

Reply to Creation vs. Evolution in WinCustomize Talk WinCustomize Forums

Bangkokboy, I don't necessarily disagree with you. Part of the problem with translations is (much like you mention) that many words can have quite a few meanings, even in their own tongue. When the translator plies his trade, he may or may not select the best word to transmit the original meaning. Additionally, some translations, even if as accurate as possible, can contain phrases that are archaic and have no reference that the current reader can understand. As a result, some

Reply to iTunes is going to change the world... in WinCustomize News WinCustomize Forums

I have acquired it, and pronounce it cool I don't mind the brushed metal look, but I do agree that it would be nice if it hardwired with its theme. I'm just starting to play with it, but so far, I'll give it good marks

Reply to Creation vs. Evolution in WinCustomize Talk WinCustomize Forums

you're telling us that if a highly qualified group of scholars looks at any translated document ( and its peers and antecedents), they can only muddy it up - that it is impossible that they would render it better translated and more concise no matter what their qualifications were. Yep, pretty much. <img src="http://images.stardock.com/images/smi

Reply to Creation vs. Evolution in WinCustomize Talk WinCustomize Forums

grayhaze, As a believer, I am in complete agreement with you. I think that part of the problem comes about because of real differences in believing that God exists and the interpretations of the religious dogmas created to address and/or understand that belief. My belief in God is pretty much the *only* matter of faith in my life (I have reasons for that faith that are too involved to detail here), but I'm a scientist and sceptic where just about everything else is con

Reply to Creation vs. Evolution in WinCustomize Talk WinCustomize Forums

Kona, Even if you believe that the differences between catholics and protestants are so great that the decision of the pope is not meaningful, there are clear cut cases of *many* protestant clergy (some of whom I know personally) who have no problem with the science of evolution. They recongnize that there is nothing about the existence (or veneration) of God that precludes the idea of evolution (or anything else discovered by science, as well).

Reply to Creation vs. Evolution in WinCustomize Talk WinCustomize Forums

Kona, Catholics ARE christians, by definition. You're probably thinking of the difference between Protestantism and Catholicism, which are different sects of christianity (but both still christian, by all definitions of the word). EventHorizon, Even *with* God, morals are subjective. You may have the argument that you can point to a definitive source for your moral structure, but the interpretation of what that structure means is still supremely subjective. Di

Reply to If you were building a computer what parts would you use? in WinCustomize Talk WinCustomize Forums

For motherboards, I've had good luck with ASUS, Abit, Iwill and Epox, for either Athlon or P4. Get one of the better ones if you want more life from it. 4x or 8x agp, plenty of memory space, good chipset. Don't scrimp on the RAM. Get good quality ram from crucial, corsair, mushkin, etc. They tend to use top of the line chips, and they are much more reliable, and not all that much more expensive. Get 512M minimum, get 1G if you can afford it. For IDE hard drive, get a Maxtor, or