Written by Joel

THE WORLD IS GOING TO END DECEMEBER 21, 2012!!

The problem of evil arises when one attempts to reconcile the existence evil with the existence of a benevolent, omniscient, omnipotent deity.  The existence of evil indicates one of two alternatives.  If suffering exists God either can’t prevent it, and may therefore be benevolent but not omnipotent, or won’t prevent it, and may therefore be omnipotent but not benevolent.  A third alternative does exist, as well, which is that God may be neither omnipotent nor benevolent.  Several attempts have been made to reconcile the two and provide a solution to the problem of evil and, while generally consistent, I find most of them to be unsatisfactory because they make unjustified assumptions about the objectivity of evil and the anthropomorphic nature of God.  
Evil can be divided into two subcategories; they are natural evil and moral evil.  Natural evil suffering brought about by natural phenomena, whilst moral evil is human suffering brought about by the will of other willful entities (1).  Evil, in the context of this discussion, almost always refers to something that results in suffering.  Any process whereby suffering imposed can be said to be evil.  Moral evils consist of circumstances where, through action or inaction, one human being allows suffering to be imposed upon another.  Natural evils consist of circumstances where, through action or inaction, and God allows suffering to be imposed.  

The teleological argument is an inductive means reaching the conclusion that the universe was designed by an intelligent entity. Essentially, if were to find a complicated machine in the middle of nowhere, we would not suppose it were there by chance or by whim of nature. Rather, we would suppose that the complexity and form, and perhaps function it is apparent, inferred that it was created by an intelligent being. In the same sense, though, we find that complexity of equal and greater magnitude, and form far more impressive, is readily observable in the universe. The complexity of any human made machine pales in comparison to the complexity of the biological machinery of a single bacterium. So complex is nature that even today it never ceases to surprise us and evade our predictive and descriptive capacities.

Now the process of induction begins by claiming that like effects warrant the assumption of like causes. Within the complexity of every single human creation, we find evidence of intelligent human design. Thusly, in other incidences of complexity and form for which no designer is known, the only logical and consistent conclusion is that it was intelligently designed.

Remember banana man?


 

According to Phil Plait, he has a blog! It's only a little stupider than the banana video, which leads me to wonder if Ray Comfort is actually an actor who's a closet evolutionist making creationists look stupider than they actually are. Creationists can't be that stupid, can they? Oh… I am so tempted to invoke Poe's law on Ray Comfort.

Right then, from his latest blog post on the Phoenix lander…

Pasadena scientists rejoiced recently when their robot landed on Mars. Their expedition cost $420 million, took years to plan, and required an amazing ten months for the flight. The robot will collect soil samples and look for evidence that Mars could support life. Does the red planet have the "building blocks of life"?

            Where did language come from?  Why do we talk?  Why does there exist such a mosaic of languages around the world?  These questions may be the most central and awe-inspiring in all of linguistics.  They are also the most important, because without some general understanding of these fundamental questions all other endeavors to understand the complexity of language will ultimately fail.  Thus, we should courageously ask the tough questions, regardless of where the answers may take us.  In other words, we must look at language scientifically, shedding ourselves of all prejudice, bias and desire for a specific outcome.  With this view, it shall be noted that the origin of language is as yet still a mystery which beckons to be answered, however, a strong theory, known in biology, called Evolution, by means of Natural Selection,  seems to answer and explain the aforementioned questions with, in the words of Carl Sagan,  “systematic grace”.

Where Language Came From

This is a blog written and submitted to us by Splendid Elles, one of our members.  Let her know what you think.  She is the only person who volunteered to go see expelled, so I asked her to give us her review.  You can find her normal blog at http://splendidelles.wordpress.com/.

Expelled

April 19, 2008

I don’t know what masochistic tendency within me compelled me to sit myself down in a theater and watch Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed!

I think that the best way to describe my experience of viewing Expelled is… so much stupid, so little caffeine.

The RRS@MSCD Paranormal Challenge

The Rational Response Squad at Metropolitan State College of Denver is issuing a paranormal challenge similar to James Randi’s famous million dollar challenge, with the exception of a million dollar award.

Are you psychic, telekinetic, or otherwise endowed with a paranormal or supernatural ability?
Have you mastered some untapped potential of human knowledge and understanding such as astrology or tarot cards?

If so, the Rational Response Squad at MSCD is giving you the opportunity to prove it by subjecting your claim to rigorous scientific analysis.

In the interest and pursuit of truth, knowledge, and understanding we are willing to look at such phenomenal claims seriously and critically, and we hope you are too.

The demonstration of a previously unknown, uncharacterized, and unexplained phenomena could shatter the very foundations of science and forever alter our perception and understanding of reality.

If you’re interested in confirming your ability and demonstrating a phenomenon currently unrecognized by science then contact us at [email protected], http://www.
myspace.

com/metroatheists, or

President: Joel
Vice President: Chalmer, 303-916-2318
Representative: Brent

HOW MANY HOSPITALS HAVE ATHEISTS BUILT? 

By Doug Ittner, found through RRS MSCD via Christian Pwnage site, reposted by Sapient in RRS MSCD blog. (isn't information great?)   

Cloned Meat and Social Paranoia

Why Christians can’t disregard The Gospel of Thomas

In a recent debate with a Christian, he told me that The Gospel of Thomas is “simply a heretical forgery, much the same as the Gospel of Judas, the Gospel of Mary, and the Gospel of Philip.” After an extensive amount of research, I have found that his statement has some profound ramifications. I went through all 114 sayings in The Gospel of Thomas and found that approx. 84%* of the sayings are contained within the Canonical Gospels, either verbatim or slightly changed in wording. Some of these sayings are the “important” ones. (Examples of this are below¹) Ones that most Christians themselves point to about how compassionate Jesus was, such as “turn the other cheek” and “love thy neighbor as thyself”, are in the Gospel of Thomas. (Sources and characters are at the bottom)

When was the Gospel of Thomas written?