Dear reader - I didn't have the energy to go back and edit this at all. Please try to see through the rambling and incohesiveness to my point, which is buried somewhere in here.

I had a boyfriend who once asked me if it was possible that AIDS was God's way of punishing homosexuals. I have to admit, I hadn't considered that before he asked me. So I considered it. (No, seriously, I did! Never let it be said I'm not open to considering stuff - no matter how stupid it is on the face of it; I do it all the time.) After careful (yet expedious) consideration, I decided that his thesis was rubbish. Yes, at the time I was already happily Atheist (please don't even ask why I was dating a Mormon; there is no good answer for that), but that's not the reason I discounted the notion. I discounted it because if there is a God (which there isn't, but I suspended disbelief for this mental exercise), I simply can't believe He would create something (AIDS) to punish bad behavior, but not tailor it to only punish the appropriate bad people. AIDS, even when it first came on the scene, was never confined only to drug users and gays. Assuming God wants to punish that behavior, why also punish innocent kids getting blood tranfusions, or hospital workers getting pricked by needles, or (my favorite) faithful wives who don't know their husband's on the down low?

Ok, my yearly rant on valentine's day. If I have to think of one word to describe valentine's day, it would be BULLSHIT, ok..so MAYBE that's two words, but it's the context that matters here.

Capitalist driven holidays such as xmas and valentine's day are exactly the kind of holidays that turn people into sheep. It's the idea that on these "special" strategically designed holidays that we have to worry about giving gifts or expressing love by going to the jewlry store and droppin 1/2 a grand on some diamond necklace that some poor kid in Africa got paid 2 cents an hour to mine. Or worse, that some Cinta Larga Indian in the amazon got slaughtered by some white man who's greed over diamonds has led him to illegaly mine on indian land. It's amazing how capitalism has turned some carbon based mineral into some "precious" jewel. And the irony here is that diamonds are made up of crystalized carbon...usually from organic matter. And those who exploit diamonds (such as religious institutions: Pat Robertsons diamond mines in Africa) are those same ones that tell you the earth is young....well Diamonds take a looooong time to make.. boy can you just see the greedy religoius hypocrisy here? I mean seriously, I think xtian institutions should ban diamond rings, because their existence is simply contrary to xtian beliefs.....BUT...because diamonds make money, it's accepted as being ok. Anyway...So yeah...I don't buy the bullshit. But I digress here.

When entering a foreign land, learning the native language is the easiest and most assurable method of gaining needed or desired information and services. In fact, it is more or less necessary.

Even among people who speak a common language, misunderstandings often arise. Different segments and subcultures of any given civilisation give birth to many different methods of expression. If a person who has been raised in economic disparity in a major city meets someone who was raised in an upper-class small-town area, it is very likely that the two would find a great deal of difficulty understanding each other.

Personally, having reflected on the whole idea of their being no God, I have come to the conclusion that no one is truly an atheist. Kind of a big statement to make, but hear me out.

On Intelligent Designer
by Jason Dax

The consept of Intelligent Design is supported by a notion that the Universe requires a Designer due to the complexity of structures of the Universe (from subatomic particles to biomolecules, organs and solar systems). The purpose of this paper is to compare the complexities of the Universe and the Designer and what conclusions can be drawn from them.

The model of the following comparison is the following: Lets assume the existance of two objects, O1 and O2. Lets also assume that both objects have their own complexity C and O2 is the result of O1 (O1→O2).

I've been following the "Blasphemy Challege". I think that it is a good calalist for discusion. I think it's a good wake up call for Christians everywhere that people are no longer buying the "it's true because the Bible says so" mentality that most Christians have. Most Christians just believe in the Bible because that's what they've always been taught. I think that's why there are people who see us as air-headed, irrational, fanatics. I want people to know that we are not all that way. I do not believe Christianity just because that's what I'm told. I am a logical person who can think for myself.