1. No. The idea of a personal God is to me paradoxal on it's face. You could say I have an intuitive feeling, "a voice inside me", as it were, that tells me there is no such thing as a personal God. A pantheistic version of God however (God = The Universe) is slightly different though. I suppose I sometimes get that feeling: That life, the Universe and everything is "divine" in some sense. But it is not a person in any sense of the word. Persons are, by definition, finite, in both time and space. I don't understand how anyone can imagine an infinate personality, be it God, or their own immortal soul, without seeing the paradox. And I still don't believe that anyone really trully does. I believe that deep down we all "know" that we are finite beings. Nothing else makes sense.

2. Can't really imagine an infinite person, so...

3. No it is not true. There are several people on this board who have been active duty soldiers. Beyond that, atheists don't start believing in eternal souls in the face of death. If the colour blue hurt your eyes could you all of a sudden BELIEVE the sky was green? No ofcourse not. You might WANT the sky to be green, but that's not the same as believing it. Same goes for atheists facing death.

4. Christians (and other religious people) SAY they turn to God, but really what they turn to is themselves. They tell themselves everything is going to be allright, they find comfort with friends and loved ones, they confront their problems head on et.c. They may THINK they find the power to do so through God, but that is no different from an atheist thinking they found the power to work through their struggles because of an inspirational book they read, or a friend's advice or whatever. Fact is, everyone, atheist and theist alike, either overcome their problems, or they don't. There is no magic solution to it. You're not garanteed to succeed in overcoming your problems simply be subscribing to one tribe or another.

5. Fear death... That's just the way it is. We all do it sometimes. But the more you manage to enjoy life, the less you'll notice. Don't fear hell. Think of it this way: are you afraid of being reborn as a cocroach? Or that the zombies are gonna rise up any day now? Fiction is just that. I actually have a fear of zombies. I've seen one too many zombie movies as a kid I guess, and sometimes, alone in my apartment, I'll get this flash of fear: "what if a zombie came in the room right now?" But since I don't believe zombies are real, the fear quickly disappears. I CANNOT believe zombies are real, even if I wanted to, because I know too much about biology. You too will stop believing in hell, once you've thought about it long enough. Hell is a silly, utterly nonsensical idea, and I can realize this, if you just think about it. I can elaborate on that for you, if you wanna work it through with someone.

6. Melanin... Simple as that. Why do you have a different hair colour and eye colour and from your mom? Why is your nose larger than your dads? Why are you 2 inches shorter than your brother, but 5 inches taller than your friend from work? Think about it that way. People are all different. More closely related people are less different from eachother than more distant cousins. It's actually quite simple.

7. The brain.

8. There were never any "first humans". Life evolved from single celled organisms. At any given point in any animal or plant's evolution that given animal or plant "knew" what to do, because its parents "knew" what to do.

9. Agnosticism is the most logical conclusion, in that, as Socrates said: "The only thing I know is that I know nothing." But not knowing is what being sentient IS. None of us knows anything for certain. But does that matter? Logic is a linguistic exercise. Life is not. The fact that language can explain how NOTHING is truly knowable does not stop us from assuming the universe will still be here when we wake up tomorrow. So be an atheist, not because it is LOGICAL, but because you know that religion is stories made up by humans. And if they aren't, then why not believe in Thor? Or Ganesh? I mean isn't he as good as any God?

10. (almost) all life has to consume other life to live. That's quite sad sometimes. I mean, I want to live, but if eating me meant the difference between dying of starvation, or living to fight another day for a tiger that chanced upon me in the jungle then who am I to say it shouldn't try and eat me? The tiger want's to live too. So we would just have to fight it out, and one would live, and the other wouldn't. The basic premise of evolution is that whatever happens happens. There is no judgment, for good or ill. If a species dies out, another might get to flourish. That's just the way it is. That is harsh only from the relative perspective of the lifeforms involved. I mean, the dinosaurs must feel like they where dealt a shitty hand, but if they hadn't died out we wouldn't be here, so we are just happy they did.

11. The appendix? That's a strange question. Could you elaborate on why you wanna know this?

12. it didn't "originate" as such. It is a pattern of behaviour, that certain animals can excibit under the right circumstances. But basically, my guess would be that since life started out without genders, and only evolved into dual-sexed beings, we are all built on the same template as it were. the gender of a baby is set the moment the sperm finds the egg, but the fetus itself doesn't have an actual gender until well into the pregnancy. So we may be born with one specific gender (or we may not, in the case of hermafrodites), but we are built from the same basic blueprint, so sometimes men are born with slightly more feminin traits, and those traits can be physical (I myself have a slender physique, and rather rounded facial features for example, and not that much bodyhair) or they can be psychological, like sexual attraction to one gender or another, or both. Everyone is on a sliding scale of bi-sexuality: most people are near the ends of the scale, but not everyone. It's actually pretty simple, and not very surprising once you think about it.

13. Yes, and no. All of our bodyparts, exterior and interior are "made" (though not really "made" in that sense) for one purpose. But it is not survival. It is procreation.

14. Kissing is... pleasant. We all instinctively recognise the signs of the two genders. We are attracted to one or the other based on our personal physical and psycological make-up. All is a product of our genes.

15. You have 50% of your mother's DNA, and 50% percent of your farther's Therefore you are not exactly like either of them. Your siblings get 50% from each of your parents as well, but they are not the same 50% as you get, so you are not exactly like them either (unless you are identical twins). In the case of lifeforms without sexual reproduction they really ARE the same until a mutation comes along (which happens all the time by the way). But they essentially clone themselves, so if not for mutation they WOULD all be exactly the same. It all about the way genetics works. It's quite fascinating, and not that dificult to understand, though it takes a long time to explain in detail. But basically the main reason we are all different is because reproduce sexually. And the rest is down to mutation.

The more flaws/defects a human body has, the less likely a loving God created it. Also, so i can give some reasons to my C friends as to why an all powerful and loving God wouldent have created it in such a screwed up way.

I have tons of voices in my head that frequently explain to me that if I don't eat yogurt after midnight, put shoes on my hands, wash with rubbing alcohol and beat the piss out of a used car Street Fighter 2 bonus round style, then I'll suffer an awful existence, but that's neither here nor there...

I'd put on my purple suit, get out my pimp cain and stroll up to the boss and speak in my best Dolemite swagger and say "Yo, bitch, tell me sumthin'; fo' one thing, why 'da fuck are black people so hung up on 'dat chicken, mang?  I mean, sheeeeit, we can't get enuff of it!  We straight up cap a mutha fucka for a bucket of KFC; even the pieces that get tossed after it be closin'!  Damn, alright, yo, next, why in da FUUUUUCK did slavery go down??  That was straight up cold, playa!  You can't be disrespectin' our people!  We always be kickin' it sayin' you was maybe black and now we be all like DAAAAMN this nigga ain't even a color!  Still, yo, slavery was fucked up!  So, let me slide on this one to you, brotha; you like bitches, right?  Hell, I LOVES them bitches, but tell me 'dis...why in the hell you make it so hard fo' a playa to get his dick sucked??  I be pimpin' women since I was twenty and I STILL gotta be like ho, you goin' down on me or you ain't gettin' no green!  'Dat ain't right, playas gotta get us some tenderness and don't need to act a foo' in order to get some.  Man, I know I had five questions I could ask, but damn if I dun run out of shit to lay down on yo' ass.  Listen, I gots to get paid, my bitches been givin' me the boo-shit all fuckin' week so, I holla at ya later; cognac in cryst-aaaaal cups with 'da finest herb yous EVER gon' smoke.  Stay straight, big daddy!  Awwwwooooo!!!"  *drives off in pink Cadillac*

...WHAT?  I mean, that's kind of how I envision it...   

Well, I'd imagine that you'd probably die after awhile if the hole is deep enough for you not to be able to crawl out of.  If it's a hole like the one Buffalo Bill had in his basement in Silence of the Lambs, then you'd be mega fucked and have to deal with lotion being lowered down in a basket while being barked at by a dog named Precious.  Oh, sorry, no foxholes are just shallow holes that you use to avoid mortar fire except instead of putting your combat prowess to the test, you're rolling the dice and hoping odds are in your favor that you won't be vaporized while you hunker down in the fetal position.  If you're religious, you pray and if you're not religious and your nerves are shot to the point where you sneak a "help me out up there," you're really just trying to make a futile attempt to increase your odds that the shell that hits your hole is a dud and not really trying to get assistance from god.  So, yeah... 

We mostly play heavy metal, smoke weed, have sex, go clubbing, remain active, get a cat (no BBQing, damnit...) or playing video games LIKE A BAWSE.  You know, all the fun things zealots pretty much abhor.

I'd straight up slap you and throw a stiff drink in your face.

All the crayons in the cosmic container melted together.  Hey, you have to store those are room temperature.

Imagination comes from the hidden LSD stockpile in our cerebellum that we utilize from time to time with the help of a subconscious Dr. Timothy Leary administering small doses depending on the artistic activity being attempted.  Creativity is when the LSD kicks in and we are given a few more tabs to really get the ball rolling.  Doubt is when we are offered said LSD and we hesitate while asking stupid questions like "Is this really what I want to do?  Why am I questioning my brain?  It's my fucking BRAIN.  I'm not crazy and nothing bad will happen so, why am I being a Debbie Downer?  I'm going to do some silly, abstract shit that the world hasn't seen yet and it'll be awesome no matter what because it came from my fucking THOUGHTS."  That's pretty much where all three originate.

I'm pretty sure they went out to fancy dinners beforehand, the males got tired of paying for the females and noticed that the females didn't have a raging boner all the time.  They figured "well, they must have a hole for me to put this irritating, hard thing.  Have I been wasting my money for nothing?  Time to collect!"  So it began; the first EVER gang bang of Pangaea. 

I believe the answer you're looking for is right through this curtain.  Yes, right through this- *CLONK*  "Alright, what do we do with this guy?  Truth serum?  Rub lye on his balls?"  "Oh, no no no...we have much bigger plans for this one..."  "You can't possibly mean-"  "Yes!  Give him...THE BRADY BUNCH MARATHON!  MUAHAHAHAHAHA!!!"  But seriously, both are a simple matter of how strong your grip is on not being sure or without hesitation. 

Snooki from Jersey Shore.

Those corners of your nails that you can't seem to clip no matter how accurate you are; they are still pokey and annoying.  Ingrown hair is another one.  Wisdom teeth, but those are already phased out in newborns.  Oh, and nipples on guys; seriously?  You can't milk me or anything.

Two guys got tired of being rejected by snobby cunts, looked at each other, were oddly attracted to each other, realized they both had holes of some sort and went to town.  Similar story with lesbians; they got tired of alpha male pricks, looked at each other, were oddly attracted to each other, realized they had dildos AND more holes than a guy and went to town. 

A nose smells of impending fast food for our sustenance, fingernails are excellent at picking our noses, hair is best used to look like an incredible douche bag if styled right to attract the shallowest opposite sex for possible procreation, skin is obviously used as an outlet for bad smelling perfume/cologne to be sprayed on and emit false pheromones, teeth are used to convey false pretenses or show humor when it isn't warranted (can sometimes be mistaken for a "I'm going to rape you" sinister demeanor) and I assume the remainder of our exterior is used to create fear in the hearts of savage animals that we may encounter in the wilderness after the nukes destroy 75% of the world's population; I thought that was obvious...?

Kissing was used by women to spread herpes around during the early 15th century before they got pregnant because if they were exposed a little at a time, they were more likely to not lose their baby.  Weird theory, but the University of Leeds seems to think that it had something to do with this.  We have attraction because the other gender has invisible cookies that we are never given access to, but we hope they someday let their guard down just enough to get a piece.  We males enjoy the bewbs because it represents security and safety when we were younger and just like the va-jay-jay, we want to go back to that safe environment.

Some of the clay used to make us was a little easier to manipulate than other pieces since some were left out in a warm setting so, as a result, we each might have certain disfigurements or indentations where the guy sculpting us took a drag on his cigarette and gave up after awhile because there wasn't anymore flexibility to work with.  The fucker didn't even bother trying to use water to moisten the material; what a dick... 

lol funny post    

Remember, AVERAGE lifetime means people tended to die around 30 ON AVERAGE. That actually means for every person who died in infancy, someone else could live to 60. It's just an average, not a specific number, like a cutoff point.

Today, people in the western world often live for as long as the human body can manage before it deteriorates to a point where "Old age" is a potential life ender. Human beings can live to something like 100 to 120 years, but usually die from ilness or accident before that. In the stoneage EVERYONE died from ilness or accident before that, because nutrition and medicine was so much worse, and safety from accidents or violence was practically non-existant. So in theory the psysical bodies of stone age people were as robust, or almost as robust, as yours and mine, but they lived much more dangerous lives. They could die from disease since even the most simple infection, which you can just take penicillin for today, could kill you, and you could die from cold in the winter, and starvation at any time there wasn't any food to be found. Just imagine falling and breaking your leg today... A bummer, to be sure, but you just go to the hospital and after a couple of months on crutches, you are right as rain. Meanwhile, of you live in the stoneage, you can't run from a lion, you can't help your tribe collect food, and they might be so desperate for food that they have to leave you behind. You can get internal bleeding due to the fracture, which a surgeon today could easily fix in a matter of hours, but back then it can cause your leg to die, or you could get an infection et.c et.c. And finally there's tribal warfare. Some estimates say that 1 in 3 of all men died before the age of 25 die to violence from other humans in the earliest days of human civilisation.

So it's not that our bodies have evolved very much since the stoneage (allthough a few things, like height for example, has changed a little) it is just that society has become safer, especially in terms of having enough food, protection from cold and heat (air condition and central heating) and safety from violence.

Well, I've explained alot of that above, but just think about it. Imagine living as you do, in Chicago, except the city isn't there, and you have no tools or technology. Just your naked body and your hands. How easy do you think it would be to survive? Wolves, bears and mountain lions are a threat (the only reason you don't ever see them where you live is because Chicago is there, but if it was just the wilderness that was there before, there could be lots of predators), but animals aren't really the biggest threat. Just think of the winter you've just been through. I don't know how cold it got in Chicago, and how much it snowed this year, but just imagine having to live through it with nothing but an animal skin and maybe a primitive tent to protect you from it. Not to mention the lack of food, since plants mostly grow in the summer. Just imagine that, and I'm sure you can understand our ancestors had it rough.

The most commonly held theory is that the earth was struck by a large meteor approximately 65 million years ago. As with all science, we can never be sure, but this is a very well established theory by now. What we expect happened is that the explosion from the impact threw so much ash into the atmophere that the entire earth became covered in a twillight-like darkness for many many years. I don't know how dark this would actually look, it sound quite dramatic, but maybe it would just be like very early evening.

But it was enough that all the plants on the earth, who were used to much more sunlight, started to die off in great numbers. Of course they didn't all die, otherwise there would be no plants today, but enough of the plant population suffered so greatly, that the plant eating dinosaurs started to die from starvation, and then the meat eating dinosaurs had nothing to eat so they died too. Mammals at the time must have suffered to, but the only mammals around at the time where small rodent like creatures, so they didn't need to eat as much, and could reproduce much quicker, so while many probably died many new ones could still take their place. When the earth started to recover from the ash cloud, plant life came back quickly, but by then the dinosaurs were either allready dead, or so few in number they could not find enough others to reproduce with and thus died out. Meanwhile the small mammals now had the earth to themselves (well ofcourse there were fish, plants and small reptiles too, but you know what I mean), so they quickly flourished and evolved into many different species, like mammoths, sabertooth cats, monkies and apes (some of which became us eventually ).

Interestingly, paleontologists today are pretty sure it was actually only the biggest dinosaurs, the ones we know from Jurassic Park and the like, who died out, and that the smaller ones, better equipped to survive the violent climate change the meteor caused as they were, survived too, and evolved into the birds we know today. So really, humans and dinosaurs DO co-exist. There's a family of dinosaurs living in a tree outside my bedroom window actually: they are Magpie dinosaurs to be specific

Cosmology is some heavy shit, and involves alot of math stuff that I don't really get, but like Luminion said, there are many theories, and they are hard to fathom, most of them. He does a better job of explaining it than I do, but at any rate, even though it sounds counter intuitive, maybe there ISN'T really an egde at all. Maybe if we keep going in one direction, we'll end up just where we started, just like if you travel around the earth, you'll do the same. That must have seemed weird to imagine for a Stone age man, but for us it's easy to understand: we live on a ball after all And maybe people in the future will be better able to understand the psysics involved in the way the universe is, and then to them it won't be so strange to understand that the universe doesn't have an edge at all.

That's more than rough that's insanely rough. If I was in that situation, I think I would die because it's not possible to survive certain Chicago winters with the stuff you mentioned. Even with a jacket we'd be dead, but an animal skin dam. I think everyone that lived in Chicago back then simply died because it's not possible to survive the harshness that is, a Chicago winter. 

1. As a child, but puberty cured it.

2. Why the Jews?, Didn't you see the snake coming?, What is the deal with the obsession with penises? A drunk and his three perverted kids were the best you could do on the ark? You set up your own death by Roman, so why did you blather about forsaking yourself when it worked?

3. There was always one Atheist in my fucking foxhole.

4. I draw on myself, my family and friends... real sources.

5. Were you afraid, in pain or anything like it in the year 1890? Then why fear the same state which you will be in in 2090 (or so)? Why fear non existence?

6. Genetic drift modified through natural selection. Racial differences are largely cosmetic, like the differences between brown rabbits and white rabbits.

7. Higher functions of the human brain. The mind is an emergent phenomena of the brain.

8. The same way their ape ancestors did. 

9. Atheism is a lack of belief, nothing to do with logic in the formal sense, Agnosticism is philosophic in nature, dealing with what we know, thus Agnosticism has more to do with logic per se'.

10. If evolution is harsh, it's because it's NOT a directed process, but rather cold, logical and mathematical. However, since evolution tends to work toward survival, it would be hard to catagorize it as 'harsh'.

11. The playground next to the waste disposal plant comes to mind... the breathing tube next to the eating tube one blocking the other. REALLY bad eyesight. Ageing. Disease. I could go on.

12. Lack of women? (or men, let's not be sexist)... seriously, our ancestors in many cultures seemed to be FAR more tolerant than we christian influenced people are today. 

13. Yes.

14. Two completely different lines of thought. Kissing, we taste, and feel with out lips just as our fellow primates do. We like the sensation of kissing and in fact, the exchange of hormones and pheramones through saliva is a physiological turn on...

15. Minor changes in genetic structure, in point of fact, if we all DID look alike, it would be a point against evolution.

LC >;-}>

1. No. However I have had an inner or innate belief that there is more to reality than what meets the eye. There is a connection to something bigger than "us" and there is a continuity of the conscient process.

2. Does it have to be the Christian God? Cause I don't believe in him. Ok....

    1 What parts of the Bible are true accounts and what are false?

    2 If you are all powerful; all loving and all knowing why do you permit suffering?

    3 Why do you purposely hide yourself, very effectivelly, from creation thus allowing neverending debates between theists and atheists?

    4 What am I suppose to do?

    5 How could conciliate the fact that quantum mechanics is random and thus unpredictable with your quality of All-knowing?

3. Yes, very few atheists (including self proclaimed agnostics) are in the foxhole.... but wouldn't say NONE.

4. I suppose an atheist turns to himself and his abilities to try to escape from the hardship. But this is actually what many theists do as well.

5. I would show him NDE and research about it showing him there is no such thing as eternal damnation or death.

6. Race is small genome deviations on the human species.

7. Human intellect

8. The same way other animals do it - Instinct and watching others do it.

9. Agnosticism because it doesn't pressuposes anything.

10. I go with Luminon answer: "It's evolution through natural selection. The naturally unselected individuals, the ones unfit or not adapted enough simply die. That's harsh enough, I suppose."

11. The flaw of the human body is that it has to obey the physical laws!

12. It originates exclusively from genetic traits. The other forms of homosexuality are not homosexuality... they are just sex.

13. I don't know... but I think so... yes

14. Kissing probably originated when we started to do frontal sex and because kissing allows for a more intimate relationship. We have a big concentration of nervous terminations in our mouths. We have an attraction for the opposite sex because that benefits species propagation.

15. We have genetic variability that allows our species to adapt to different situations, if there was no genetic differences and we were all the same that would prevent the species from adapting.

1: No.
2: Why? I'd reserve the other 4 until the first was answered.
3: No.
4: Friends, family, oneself.
5: I'd refer you to any and all posts I've written on the subject of death. If it didn't help, I'd have nothing to offer. Ultimately, fear can only be conquered by those experiencing it.
6: We aren't all the same colour because we aren't all living in the same climate. Put a white city in Africa on the equator, isolate it, wait 3 - 4 generations, and you have a black city.
7: The brain.
8: Intercourse became a prevailing method of reproduction millions of years before mammals existed. The only humans who ever had a problem were either retarded or educated with lies.
9: They are effectively the same thing. Neither position is more logical.
10: Harsh is subjective.
11: The tailbone. Wisdom teeth. Down-turned nose. Excessive emotions. Excessive aggression. Cognitive limitations. etc.
12: It's likely existed as long as heterosexuality.
13+: Too complicated to get into.

Inherently false as only one and male are from a particular tradition that has only been enforced by political power. Clearly many gods is the norm. But the single god idea was first produced by the Greeks who held the single primary god was unknowable. The other gods were knowable aspects of that single god.

That said, yes there is something in most all of us which indicates there is something more but no hint of what that is beyond a feeling. However that feeling is what is used by priests to demand obedience to what they claim is the will of their god. That is the difference between religion and the feeling.

The first question would be Does anyone speak for you? If Yes then who? If named then are they getting it right? And so forth. A no to the first question leads to a Thank you for your time and sorry to have bothered you.

I once read a study of the claim and the conclusion was that it was false based upon asking the people who have been in that situation. In any event the saying is attributed to someone who was never in foxhole.

Many atheists came to be such because god and religion failed to deliver. Blame the victim, failure of god to respond is the fault of the petitioner, is rejected as a legitimate excuse.

Believers Anonymous? Twelve step program? Recovering Christian? What are you looking for? Bottom line we are all on our own. Suck it up and get on with life. Nothing has changed. You do not behave any different. Other than the belief and god parts your actions are quite reasonable or the police have not caught you yet.

Other than a mess of annoying things upon which the gospels are silent that which is sinful is also illegal. So if you are not involved in a life of crime you are not sinning.

What does this have to do with religion? It is impossible to have arisen from the Noah story. If really interested google it. There are only a few theories none of which are interesting.

Part of the human condition. What brings you to ask the question? Who told you a soul was necessary for those and why did you believe them?

My manual said, insert tab A in slot B.

What does harsh mean? It is what it is.

Do you wear glasses?

Not from temptation by the devil.

How else? Keep in mind neutral differences, those which have no effect on survival, also propagate.

Explain rather how grossly obese women some places in Africa are the most desirable.

My explanation? They are female. I don't really need to give anything any particular merit.

google allele

All sperm and eggs are different from the same person.

1. Psychology (intuition) and Biology (instinct)

2. Philosophy and Theology

3. Psychology (on phobias)

4. Social Science

5. Psychology (on phobias)

6. Biology (genetics and evolution)

7. Neuroscience

8. Anthropology and Biology

9. Philosophy (epistemology and logic)

10. Anthropology and Biology

11. Biology (genetics and evolution)

12. Psychology, Anthropology and Social Science

13. Biology and Anthropology

14. Biology, Psychology and Anthropology

15. Biology (genetics and evolution)