CobraA1

Reply to How can we all be athiests in Off-Topic GalCiv2 Forums

The way the US seems to be lately, it really does frighten me. It seems that moderate Christians and Atheists are being forced to remain quiet and the such. I wonder, do those states that are predominantly Democrat/liberal/atheist (they seem to go together), perform better economically, do more science research etc? Actually, our congress went from mostly Republican to mostly Democrat. Despite perceptions, I don't think anybody is really being silenced.<

Reply to God gave us thought in Off-Topic GalCiv2 Forums

a unity similar to a wife and husband as it is stated in one of the gospels. No - closer. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." (John 1:1) Also, "The Word became flesh . . . who came from the Father . . ." (John 1:14) Most people take that to mean that the "Word" is Jesus. The logic goes like this: -The Word is God. -The Word became flesh. -The Word came from the Father.<br

Reply to How can we all be athiests in Off-Topic GalCiv2 Forums

Quotes from American Taliban: Luckily, we don't consider the words of other Christians to be gospel - yes, even within our own ranks there is the occasional extremist who takes a concept and pushes it to an extreme that contradicts what the Bible teaches. It could be hyperbole also in many of those quotes. Henry Morris does make an interesting statement, though: How do we know that our science is really interpreting the data correctly?<

Reply to God gave us thought in Off-Topic GalCiv2 Forums

When ever Christ refers to GOD, he always says god my father. A person would never refer to himself as his own father. Christ's main mission was not the forgiveness of your sins. It was the removal of the sin of the fall of adam and eve. Actually, he never says "god my father" either, he just says "my father." And there is some agreement that the father and the son are separate. However, it is also believed they share some unity as well - John 10:38 refe

Reply to How can we all be athiests in Off-Topic GalCiv2 Forums

i'd be really interested to know how these theorists/researchers you were reading qualified 'information loss.' a lot of DNA is junk, leftover information from evolutionary anscestors. Sounds good, but I'd like to see this "junk." Have any references? I wasn't so much reading as watching - the information I obtained came from Answers in Genesis' videos - in this case, the "origin of the species" series of videos. http://www.answersingenesis.

Reply to God gave us thought in Off-Topic GalCiv2 Forums

It is possible to obtain immortality from our current state of mortality. I bieleive that Jesus life was a public demonstration of one who had finally through many lives finally gotten back to the perfect state he had before the fall.I'm aware this isn't current Christian thinking. The importance of though is demonstrated between the old testament and the new. You are correct that this is not a Christian teaching, and for a good reason: The Bible

Reply to God gave us thought in Off-Topic GalCiv2 Forums

We will forever increase our understanding. we will eventually know all there is to know. You logic got totally lost there - if what I'm reading about quantum physics is correct, there are potentially unknowable things - for example the exact position and velocity of a particle at a point in time. So man will become Gods?, know all that it is possible to know, Be omnipotent, eventually? I serious

Reply to How can we all be athiests in Off-Topic GalCiv2 Forums

Hmm, doing more research on the information stuff, especially as it pertains to the debate about the origin of species. It seems creationists are not necessarily saying information gain is impossible - just that it tends towards loss rather than gain. Natural selection does not necessarily save the evolutionist in this case: Natural selection only selects on whether mutations increase the odds of survival, not on how much information is present in the genes. If a mutation that

Reply to Be smarter than everyone else-have the facts on your side! in Off-Topic GalCiv2 Forums

"Nevertheless, there is still hope for the Human race, and what many intelligent people consider to be the BEST SOURCE FOR FACTUAL INFORMATIION ON ANY SUBJECT is Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. It can be read in many different languages. It's available to you on the internet right now, just a tiny little click away, and having the facts at your disposal just might be the smartest thing you've ever done. I think it has been for me, ignorant as I am." This is a joke, right? Any

Reply to making LETTERS in microsoft paint in Off-Topic GalCiv2 Forums

If you want something more powerful than paint: http://gimp-win.sourceforge.net/

Reply to How can we all be athiests in Off-Topic GalCiv2 Forums

Hmm, interesting - I was reading up on information, and it seems that indeed creationists are relying on a "law" that states that there must be some sort of "mental force" for the creation and use of information. However, I know where that argument is leading: A denial of the "law" they propose. I don't think it's impossible to formulate a theory of information without that "law," so I imagine that's exactly what's going to happen. So it appears that the "information" theories

Reply to How can we all be athiests in Off-Topic GalCiv2 Forums

often enough for what? survival? For the transitions along the hypothetical evolutionary tree to happen. does putting the same old words in different orders result in new ideas? does ordering 1s and 0s in different sequences result in new computer programs? Randomly, not very likely. With a programmer, very likely. genes aren't information in an important sense. inform

Reply to How can we all be athiests in Off-Topic GalCiv2 Forums

Here is a good one for you cobraA1. Why does God allow Satin to exist? If this is a "good" one, I'd like to see a bad one. It's commonly believed that Satan was an angel, and that God gave angels some free will, just as he gave humans free will. If a person goes to hell, it's because of their own choosing. In addition, God has been known to take what was originally evil and turn it around to be used for good: A man who was sold by his brothers b

Reply to How can we all be athiests in Off-Topic GalCiv2 Forums

We see bacteria evolving new traits by mutation constantly, both in the lab and in nature. All that hoo-ha a few weeks ago about about Andrew Speaker was the result of Mycobacterium tuberculosis mutating over successive generations into a form which is resistant to antibiotics. Drug resistant staph evolved the exact same way. Creation of new traits by mutation isn't just an observed fact, it's the root cause of a growing medical crisis. Now go back

Reply to How can we all be athiests in Off-Topic GalCiv2 Forums

Depends on the mutations. Also, define 'information loss'. In the case of DNA, I would assume that the necessary sequence of bases to produce a functional protein would suffice as a unit of information. You only need look at the appendix or the construction of the eye in the body to see a gradual alteration and either recession or development. The development of the eye in a single organism from birth to

Reply to A preview of the NEXT Galactic Civilizations II update! in GalCiv II News GalCiv2 Forums

I've come pretty close to filling my bandwidth with a single download, if the people serving it have good servers and a good connection. Sure, it can be a bit of a gamble sometimes, as many places still have slow servers, but most places I've encountered can now handle the bandwidth of broadband. Due to being behind a router, I'm lucky to get 1/10th of my bandwidth filled with Bittorrent. IMHO they still need to do a lot more work to support clients behind firewalls and routers. I think

Reply to A preview of the NEXT Galactic Civilizations II update! in GalCiv II News GalCiv2 Forums

Bittorrent? Blech, too slow and way too sensitive to firewalls. No thanks.

Reply to How can we all be athiests in Off-Topic GalCiv2 Forums

well, fair enough. though one thing to realize is that a big part of 'evolution' is the emergence of traits. Indeed, but unless you believe in a creator or magic, they just don't appear out of nowhere. The current hypothesis for the emergence of new traits is, AFAIK, mutations. Unfortunately, mutations often cause a greater loss of information than gain, so it's a questionable explanation at best. at what point does th

Reply to No Open Border in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

ie we have sent a radio signal through a solid object which is supposed to have traveled faster than light and it has been done at least twice That's because the speed of light in an object is artificially slowed down to begin with. This is totally different than trying to go faster than light in a vacuum. It wouldn't be necessary to have ships anywhere except maybe trade routes between the major planets and the astero

Instead of epic story generator, how about this? in Dark Avatar GalCiv2 Forums

Hey, I was thinking: EA games recently added a "commentary" system to Command and Conquer 3 where somebody could comment on games in progress or add commentary to recorded games. Now, Stardock experimented with some sort of "epic story generator" which, due to technical challenges, never quite made it. Now how about this: Some sort of commentary system instead? What I'm imagining is some sort of panel the player could access where the player could take text notes on a

Reply to A preview of the NEXT Galactic Civilizations II update! in GalCiv II News GalCiv2 Forums

Wow. Just wow. You people really keep cranking on this game and adding more stuff. Kudos to Stardock for continuing development after release - something a lot of other game companies won't do. Most of the time, especially with single player games, all you really look forward to after release is bug fixes and balance changes. Stardock has gone beyond those and developed new features and made some major changes to the game! I know as a programmer myself, that graphical overhaul was likel

Reply to How can we all be athiests in Off-Topic GalCiv2 Forums

Wow, this discussion goes by fast - can I have a break to play GalCiv: DA, please? Anyways, I'd love to say something about everything, but I'll just limit myself to one issue this time. if all animals were created during the first times described in genesis, and evolution doesn't happen, they why have been been able to observe it in progress? such examples include British peppered moths and Russian silver foxes. Well, read my last post

Reply to How can we all be athiests in Off-Topic GalCiv2 Forums

Ah, I see what you mean. The theory basis itself on the assumption that all life ultimately derives from a single common ancestor, which is not necessarily true (gets into the various theories of arbiogenesis though, and I'm no expert there) . Well, that's what's being taught in schools. Pretty much everybody who graduates from High School or College will be taught that they come from a single ancestor. Yeah, yet the b

Reply to How can we all be athiests in Off-Topic GalCiv2 Forums

Ask the astronauts, they'll just tell you it's space outside of here. “To look out at this kind of creation out here and not believe in God is to me impossible, ... It just strengthens my faith. I wish there were words to describe what it's like.” -John Glenn

Reply to How can we all be athiests in Off-Topic GalCiv2 Forums

I've never seen any reason why natural selection couldn't explain the origin of our species (unless your talking about life itself, the origins of which have nothing to do with evolution). I'm actually talking about the idea that single cell organisms eventually changed over a long period of time to become the species we know today, including humans - and yes, mutations are required for this. DNA differs greatly between the organisms we know of