Rebdragon

I love science, especially chemistry which I took last year. I'm the kind of guy who likes to look at the little things before I get to the big picture... when I see an object, I like to think of it not as one thing, but an intricate culmination of many atoms. I like examining the world down to the point of the atom or even smaller... which is why I like Chem, and Fullmetal Alchemist (hawt show), so much. I'm taking Physics next year, so I'll see what that's like, it seems pretty interesting.

Many species of great apes have a proper social order without god; For example the Bonobo chimpanzee. Things like Religion being the centre of culture, morality etc. all really on the same fallacy, Correlation doesn't not mean causation. Yes, but apes don't need hope for the afterlife and moral guidance, they just need instinct. Heck, they wouldn't even understand the concept of a god, so there'd be no point in them needing any kind of religion.. Humans and apes are very different; you're walking on thin ice equalizing them. EDIT: I hope you realize that when I say "the social order" I mean "our social order", or the order of the human race. I seriously wonder how much suicide rates would go up if no one had a religious background telling them that there's hope in heaven in the afterlife, that life has meaning.

Actually, the fact that there used to be little to no oxygen is the only reason anything did start. Cells just later developed to use oxygen is all. Mind linking me to anything that can explain it a little more (something other then wikipedia and preferably a university site or something of the sorts.) I just had a test on "The Origin of Life" in Bio, and basically my book and teach' claimed that the presence of oxygen in the atmosphere would hinder the formation of organic molecules from inorganic molecules because of oxygen's bonding qualities. Thus, it is hypothesized that in the beginning of the Earth that there wasn't much oxygen in the atmosphere. The "Heterotroph First" hypothesis also supports that claim. Now, that's way before life, so it's a bit off topic. The site for the textbook is mhhe.com/maderbiology9 . Look under self study, Chapter 19, section 1. It might be in there somewhere. Ya, the one tree I'm thinking of may be like 850 years old... not sure. But ya, I get what you're saying :P .

Actually, the fact that there used to be little to no oxygen is the only reason anything did start. Cells just later developed to use oxygen is all. I believe certain trees can :-k . Just felt like pointing that junk out, ignore me :lol: . Anyone else notice how the science threads always get religious spam, and the religious threads seem to get science spam? :lol:

Please tell me where you got the information in the bolded area. And the "rules", like the stories, are meant to be guidance for the human race- they serve the same purpose.

...'Kay? That doesn't answer the question. If none of the stories are literal, then why is God literal? Why is God not a metaphore? I'd love to hear this one. I don't even believe in the Christian God, so I might not be the right person to answer this. Sad to say it, but I agree with you. Anyways, my post was answering what you said about all Christians saying the stories in the Bible really happened, which isn't true.

Amen. I love sci-fi and fantasy as well, about equally. I read books to escape reality, not to read about it :lol: .

We should make a thread "are you a girl/woman?", then just assume everyone else is a guy :P . Honestly, the only reason I went through this thread was to make sure who the women were, as nearly everone is a guy :lol: .

If none of the stories can be taken literally...Then why is God's exsistence? Ask Christians if they think the stories are literal. They'll say yes. If they don't, they're saying the Bible is just a buncha' hoo-haa, and why follow God if his word is a bunch of fake stories? It is meant to be taken literally, except for select metaphores. Stories are not metaphores. I got to a Christian High School, with 1500 students. I know only one person there, including the faculty and pastors, who is a Fundamental Christian. Ironically, he's my AP Biology teacher.

For the love of Allah Tigra, the Bible isn't meant to be taken LITERALLY. Stop slamming it just because Moses didn't really part the Red Sea. They're stories to entertain, stories and parables with a meaning. The Bible is considered Truth for what it teaches us to do, not for the truth of the actual stories it tells.

The average age is 16? Or is that just the median? Man, todays youth must just be really intelligient :lol: . I'm 17 by the way, always thought I was on the younger half of the forum.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEPpdNQ7CsE Great FMA AMV. I just can't get tired of it. If you love FMA, watch this 8-) .

It think even our search button is up to finding an exact copy of this thread.

True. But these days we have laws in place to punish those who do wrong. However, I see where you're coming from. Some people don't commit crimes soley because they want to go to Heaven. That depends on your opinion on human nature. The world could be chaos, and it may not be. People already don't beleive in a God. 1.1B atheists and so why arn't we in chaos? Poltics and Government is more important to keep us inline. Even atheists have that little thought in the back of their mind saying "don't do that bad thing, you'll got to hell". I was an atheist less than a year ago, and that's exactly how I felt. I didn't believe in Hell, and yet the idea of it had been imbued into my mind since I was a little kid, I couldn't fully go against it. Atheists may not believe in a God, but these ideas are ingrained in human beings throughout the world, so completely disregarding them is quite difficult. Note: I bolded the second l in hell because "go to heck" is blocked. Lol.

That's funny. From what I've seen, atheists are actually just as bad ( or even worse) at 'slamming' their beliefs on people. Yeah, any follower of any religion can be just as bad. At times I wonder if the world would be better off without religion. No wars over who's beliefs are right, no extremists, ect. But then I think of people who use religion to get them through hard times, and without it they might just give up.. I suppose the world would be better off if we all just listened to each other beliefs and didn't instantly question them or shoot them down. The only way to know if your religion is right or not is to die and see where you end up. And even then, only you and anyone else who has died know whether they're right or not.. I feel like I'm rambling again.. :anxious: Without religion the social order would be in chaos. For example, if the good religious leaders hadn't thought up Heaven and Hell (whether they believe in it or not), then everyone would feel like they can do whatever they want in life and not get punished for it in the afterlife. There are a lot of people that are good solely because they believe in Heaven and Hell, so kudos to those guys for thinking those two places up. The only reason Christianity is against homosexuality is that it's not procreative, and even then, nearly all Christians (including pastors, bishops, etc. not just followers) have nothing against homosexuality. I don't even know why there's any argument against it, except for those idiots who are scared of people different from them.

In my honest opinion i think the bible was created by the authority at the time as a form of control. If you think about it, all the bible does is tell you if you break any rule, your going to hell. Scare tactic much? The bible allows a sinner to have a forgiveness regardless of the past wrongs. What more do u need? Go to heaven and do all the sins u want? Defender2516, u got my respect man =D> . Heaven serves the same purpose as Hell, except that it's not a scare tactic to get people to do what you want, but a reward to get people to do what you want. I'm not denying the existence of a Heaven or Hell. I'm just saying that they were, and are, useful devices to control people. I respect your belief in Jesus, but (if you don't already know this) don't depend too much on the bolded part. I.e., don't interpret it as God's going to give you every material thing you want just because you believe in him and Jesus. Just want to make sure you understand that.

If there were a God, and It were to reveal Itself to humans, wouldn't it be possible and logical for one system to have all the right facts? If one system embraced all of the things that God had revealed, and others systems did not, then wouldn't it be logical to say that that religion is God's religion? I suppose so, I ment more like it was highly improbable. In all of the universes and all the sentient races that exist, it wouldn't make much sense for any religion to have a proper, complete view of a "God", if one exists. We on earth argue over Gods existence, and we all have the same history of thinkers and religions influencing our ancestors, and and thus our ideas are melded together in the fact that they all stretch out from one common source in history. What of some other race on another planet, who's "source of knowledge" is completely different, having no influence from our thinkers, thus resulting in a completely different worldwide ideology? There could an infinite number of planets like that, so thinking that any religion on our planet is not only more accurate than the other religions on this planet, but more accurate than all the other beliefs throughout the universes, it just doesn't seem to make any sense. Then again, if humans really are the only race in existence (doubt it), then I suppose the chances are at least possible that a randomly chosen religion on our planet is right :lol: .

Everyone just ignore Carlin. There's no way to have any form of an argument with him, just a flame war. All I have to say is Carlin, open up the doors of your mind, 'cause you got some pretty big intricate locks keeping the doors closed.

If there was a God, it would be completely illogical to think that It'd be specific to any religion. Too bad religions seem to think they're right and everyone's wrong, which is where all this fighting comes from.

Definitely not. Translations please.

That could be dangerous for Jagex. Quick updates may not be great, but if they're a flop it's not too much of a sacrifice (and many like PC definitely were not flops). If they spend 2 years developing some other land and race, and it's a flop that ends up completely revamping the game and having players quit, that's a lot of time and money wasted to lose even more money on players leaving. They're playing smart- Jagex is getting more and more players every day with what they're doing, so adding such drastic updates isn't necessary, it's dangerous business-wise.

Not sure if I've responded on this thread, but I'm a guy.

I did, but with PC there are like 21,000 people who can Barrage, so it's not as fun as it used to be, especially when you get into CW clan wars where everyone and their mom can Barrage there. Too bad, that was the only thing driving me to play the game. As for school, it's easing up :) . I suppose my biggest question is, do you respect high skill levels and good accounts? I used to respect them highly when I played, but now I almost look down having a Runescape character with thousands of hours put into it. Everyone who plays the game seems to respect them, but it seems so odd to me to respect people for spending hours on something that takes no skill or brainpower, and doesn't develop your mind or body in any way. Many other video games take skill, intelligience, and coordination to get good at them, and thus "good" players deserve respect. Runescape takes no skill or intelligience at all, yet 'Scapers respect high levels just like people who gain respect for actually having skill. It just seems so odd that [nearly?] every player feels that way.

If anything the average IQ rose by about 35-45 moving from General P2P to the Off-Topic. I swear, most of the guys there wouldn't understand half of the stuff you guys talk about. I mean, I feel much smarter at General P2P, and now I feel like the dumb one on the forum :lol: . Loving all the stimulating conversations here. Everyone seems pretty friendly, minus the guys who live to start flame wars. Posts are a bit long for my tastes, but I'm not exactly one to complain :lol: .

Disclaimer: I know that we're technically not supposed to chat about Runescape here, but I don't think I can exactly put this in General or General P2P. This part of Tip.it seems to have the most "retired" people, so I was just wondering what retired players were thinking. Recently I quit Runescape, but I still spend a lot of time at General P2P, which often feels odd as I'm talking to people with a completely different stance towards the game. I was just wondering, for those who have retired, looking back at the game how do you feel about Runescape in general? What about the mindlessness of the game? The constant clicking? The achieving of high levels? How it reflects towards daily life? The fact that players respect high levels? How has your stance towards the game changed over time? Do not limit yourself to these questions, they're just there to stimulate a discussion. It'd be nice to compare how I feel about the game to other peoples' opinions :lol: .