funny you should ask

Post #144,991 by rcareaga 3/9/04 10:16:06 AM Reply	funny you should ask John Carroll discourses on or near the issue in today's Chron: It's a good thing the Christian fundamentalists don't care too much about theoretical physics. The demagogues and biblical literalists on the Christian right have a lot of trouble with evolution, a 150-year old theory that includes apparently objectionable assumptions about the age of the Earth and the specialness of human beings. ... Not only are we not special, but our entire universe is not special. Even our gravity is not special. Needless to say, the cosmology of the Bible says nothing about membranes, quarks, gravitons or invisible dimensions. All we need is for the wingnuts in Congress to get a whiff of this heresy, and it'll be Galileo time on "American Grandstand." The shameless pandering by the Bush administration and its allies to the brainless theories of the fundamentalists has pretty much ruined the national discourse. The fundamentalists have been allowed to set the terms of the debate, and the results have been dreadful. For instance: stem-cell research. Using objections based on a weird theory that postulates the sacredness of life not yet created, fundamentalists are intent on shutting down this promising line of inquiry. Doesn't matter how many diseases might be cured or how much suffering alleviated -- if the Bible doesn't tell us so, forget about it. ... It would be fabulously comic were it not for the blameless human lives being affected. But now we're in the middle of a nasty constitutional amendment fight, and once again George Bush has a golden opportunity to hold on to his base of true believers while distracting the electorate from his real and manifold failures. I believe in religious tolerance and the freedom of people to believe in anything, including the literal truth of any book at all, including "Peter Pan. " But when such a belief threatens to become the official policy of my country, I think it's OK to be intolerant of intolerance and to try to protect the ideals of science and the primacy of human kindness. [link\|http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/03/09/DDG3K52KA31.DTL\|http://www.sfgate.co...9/DDG3K52KA31.DTL] Whenever I feel my contempt for Christianity begin to waver I remember that you, dear Norman, are a believer, and my faithlessness is restored. cordially, Die Welt ist alles, was der Fall ist.
Post #144,992 by boxley 3/9/04 10:21:08 AM Reply	in one area of the article, only half is revealed For instance: stem-cell research. Using objections based on a weird theory that postulates the sacredness of life not yet created, fundamentalists are intent on shutting down this promising line of inquiry. Doesn't matter how many diseases might be cured or how much suffering alleviated this is true, but knowing our nature or nurture how long would it be before we would be buying, selling stocking spares? Fully functional, movable non humans that could be bought and sold like cattle. thanx, bill when I was young I envisioned myself as the embodiment of Trinity, Now I realize I have turned into the Bambino questions, help? [link\|mailto:pappas@catholic.org\|email pappas at catholic.org]
Post #144,996 by rcareaga 3/9/04 10:31:35 AM Reply	and this "agriculture" stuff We'd be courting all manner of social ills if we gave up our nomadic ways and established permanent settlements and a crop-based economy. (dissenting voice: "Here, try this fermented barley mash") cordially, Die Welt ist alles, was der Fall ist.
Post #145,019 by ben_tilly 3/9/04 2:02:20 PM Reply	You know, if you have to choose... A nomadic lifestyle is a lot more fun than primitive agriculture. Agriculture means a lot of backbreaking work. More disease. An awful diet. Anthropological estimates are that nomads get a lot more leisure time. And have longer life expectancies. So the brave has a better lifestyle than the peasant. He enjoys more leisure, a longer life, and better food. However the peasant needs less space and can support more kids. (Heck, the kids practically support themselves once they are old enough to work...) Which means that when you have peasants against braves, after a while there are a lot more peasants and the outcome is assured. And once the braves have been pushed around a bit, they are either dead or else trapped in a small enough space that they have to turn to agriculture. (With some exceptions. For instance the Mongols wound up ruling large numbers of peasants. Which still resulted in them being assimilated in the end...) Cheers, Ben "good ideas and bad code build communities, the other three combinations do not" - [link\|http://archives.real-time.com/pipermail/cocoon-devel/2000-October/003023.html\|Stefano Mazzocchi]
Post #145,015 by jb4 3/9/04 1:49:14 PM Reply	Actually, less than half is revealed this is true, but knowing our nature or nurture how long would it be before we would be buying, selling stocking spares? Fully functional, movable non humans that could be bought and sold like cattle. Hell, that ain't nuthin' Wait till they open the Futures market on CBOT! Then the fun begins! jb4 shrub\ufffdbish (Am., from shrub* + rubbish, after the derisive name for America's 43 president; 2003) n. 1. a form of nonsensical political doubletalk wherein the speaker attempts to defend the indefensible by lying, obfuscation, or otherwise misstating that facts; GIBBERISH. 2. any of a collection of utterances from America's putative 43rd president. cf.* BULLSHIT
Post #145,109 by a6l6e6x 3/9/04 7:40:36 PM Reply	China is far more advanced in this area. They don't wait for people to die, [link\|http://www.christusrex.org/www1/sdc/organs.html\|they execute prisoners] as needed to satisfy the market. Alex Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom ... the argument of tyrants ... the creed of slaves. -- William Pitt, addressing the British House of Commons (1783)
Post #145,174 by lincoln 3/9/04 11:43:40 PM Reply	When I was there Wait till they open the Futures market on CBOT! Then* the fun begins!* I tried to get then to open a Northern California Sinsemilla trading pit - couldn't get the mucky-mucks interested. Never could figure out why, since it has become the biggest agricultural crop in the USA. lincoln "Windows XP has so many holes in its security that any reasonable user will conclude it was designed by the same German officer who created the prison compound in "Hogan's Heroes." - Andy Ihnatko, Chicago Sun-Times [link\|mailto:bconnors@ev1.net\|contact me]
Post #145,276 by jb4 3/10/04 12:31:24 PM Reply	The problem is an expired contract... The reason why that is a problem is left as an exercise for the reader..... jb4 shrub\ufffdbish (Am., from shrub* + rubbish, after the derisive name for America's 43 president; 2003) n. 1. a form of nonsensical political doubletalk wherein the speaker attempts to defend the indefensible by lying, obfuscation, or otherwise misstating that facts; GIBBERISH. 2. any of a collection of utterances from America's putative 43rd president. cf.* BULLSHIT
Post #145,103 by Ashton 3/9/04 7:25:35 PM Reply	Bought/sold :-0___ you mean like IT workers?
Post #145,122 by Ashton 3/9/04 8:02:37 PM Reply	bRandishment \ufffd l\ufffd Rand -in Sydney Greenstreet clothing- re that last voir dire: Thou takest mine very thoughtz, Oh Beamish One.. I too.. whenever feeling a moment of shallow Jack-of-Hearts naivete, whereby I might.. see the Foulwells, Robertsons as merely sincerely misguided -?- yet fortunately I ever recall, stet fortuna domus [Ricketts House motto \| Fortunately the house (still) stands] - and the aforementioned human resultant of such stuff. No, the damage is too obnoxious, the extent too pervasive and the now more likely fatal planetary results: too daily palpable -- ever to offer a Christian Spokesperson that 'charity' which (so few of those ever remember) was mentioned somewhere in their committee-redacted tome. (And then I remember Constantine - the Real mischief maker of the fold, and become even less-charitable; Behold I Become Death, The Destroyer of Worlds (of Illusion)) Suffer, Leetle Cheeldrun
Post #145,145 by boxley 3/9/04 9:39:41 PM Reply	for every blowdried3piecesuitlimoowning preacher telling you how to get rich in real estate with no money down iffen ya kiss Jesus's ass his way, you have folks handing out sarnies on the street corners, working with the terminal infective and terminally ill for no more glory than its the right thing to do. Not all christians act like christians, let god sortem out and if the preacher at your church drives a nicer vehicle than you he shore didnt give it to someone who needed a ride more than he did. Caveat Emptor. thanx, bill when I was young I envisioned myself as the embodiment of Trinity, Now I realize I have turned into the Bambino questions, help? [link\|mailto:pappas@catholic.org\|email pappas at catholic.org]
Post #145,216 by Ashton 3/10/04 2:51:19 AM Reply	And those sammich-handing-out ones remain silent as their more manipulative cousins - speakin fer Jesus - go about their mischief. Inaction is action of a kind - it is condoning via silence. Gutless is as gutless does.
Post #145,225 by boxley 3/10/04 8:24:51 AM Reply	nope, in their view meek get sh*t when I was young I envisioned myself as the embodiment of Trinity, Now I realize I have turned into the Bambino questions, help? [link\|mailto:pappas@catholic.org\|email pappas at catholic.org]

Welcome to IWETHEY!