Two days ago, a Theist posted a topic in GENERAL conversations and humour.

This post and replies to it was moved to Freethinking anonymous forum by moderators, where the theist posts and replies were promptly destroyed.

Theist replies to this insult have also been deleted.

An apology is in order. The theists involved have not broken any rules, the moderators involved have contorted the rules of the forum to their own ends unjustly and unfairly.

That is all.

This story was in the newspaper here this weekend: http://www.news.com.au/perthnow/story/0,21598,21956391-2761,00.html

It is about a catholic university censoring the student newspaper.

The situation here in Western Australia is that, until recently, we had 4 universities. these universities were completely secular and admission was given on academic merit. You could enroll as a full-fee paying student to bypass this but that was mostly for foreign students and was far from the norm. About 10 (I think) years ago Notre Dame university opened here. It's a catholic university and worse than that, all positions are full-fee paying (except for scholarships) and your academic performance as less bearing on accepance than at (what I would consider) our real universities. Admission is based in part on an interview to determine if you will fit the mindset of the university.

I thought this discussion among some of the philosophy students in Florida was pretty interesting, and I share it here for interested readers. It's their take on the recent atheist literature promulgated by Dawkins, Dennett, and Harris, responsible for increasing the popularity of more agressive forms of atheism. Enjoy:

http://unfspb.wordpress.com/2007/01/26/will-the-new-atheism-survive/

I have a question about individual Christians and their relationships with Jesus Christ. What exactly does a personal relationship with Jesus mean? How do you participate in that kind of relationship? What does it feel like?

I used to have this kind of relationship... or rather I attempted one many years ago. I just remember wondering why everyone else had this "relationship" and I was being completely ignored. I'm wondering if there are any theists around that can explain their own relationship to me.

All of my human relationships involve communication and joint sharing. I wasn't sure how to apply the word to Jesus, even through my prayers or Bible reading. Any thoughts?

why do you feel mankind "got the urge" to tell stories.  these could be non-fiction or fiction in formats of wittings, tv/movie, word of mouth, and others that you may think of:

    -thoughts from the fiction side;  why do we create fiction novels?  create history for our stories (star wars, lord of the rings, etc.)  why do we over exaggerate true stories?

    -thoughts from the non-fiction side; why do we record our history?  why do we have heroes?  why do we tell stories about events?

    -thoughts from the abstract; draw art or illustrations,  write poetry, "create" video games.  why do we identify with some characters.. like in movies, books or video games - fiction or non-fiction.

1. There is no Xena

A. This is not a logical position to hold, since to know there is no Xena means the person would have to know all things to know there is no Xena. Since he cannot know all things (if he did, I contend that he would be Xena), then he cannot logically say there is no Xena.

2. I believe there is no Xena

A. To say "I believe there is no Xena" is a conscious choice. Then, on what do you base your choice: evidence, logic, faith, or a combination of the three?

i. If evidence, then what positive evidence is there that disproves Xena's existence?

In my last essay, I feel that I did not go into enough depth as to the infinite consciousness. So, in this one I hope to explain my position in more detail.

First I need to lay down a foundation for my essay. The universe is full of matter. The second law of thermal dynamics states that a closed system will tend to disorder. Matter (at the classical level) contains molecules and atoms. With me so far? Well the first part is to establish a physical backround about information. The second part is the actual applications. 

 Basically, data is the inequality of elements. For, example, the number 5 looks different than the number 9. If the numbers didn't look different (have a visual in-equality) then you wouldn't be able to do math, since all the numbers will look the same. Same thing with the alphabit. Now, as I type this, it contains data. Once you read it it becomes information (the message I am trying to send). If I had typed all d's then you would not be getting the information I was trying to get across, because all the elements are equal, and you will not be able to use the data to form words. The alphabit is data, and when we form words, we assign meaning to the data and hence turn the data into information. 

I saw something in the news today about "the Royal Family" and it just makes me sick.

Okay, so at one point in England's history (and other countries, esp. Europe) the monarchy deluded people into believing they were appointed to rule over the good people by...GOD!!!!!

Correct?

 Nobody in their right mind believes that crap today, even the most fundy of fundies (believe me, I know quite a few--runs in the family). So why put up with them?

THEY ARE WORTH BILLIONS!!!!!!!!

They bilked their citizens out of BILLIONS for absolutely no reason. I think they should have to give back all "their" money to fund worthy causes, have them live in obscurity and never be heard from again.

I've actually held no particular quarrel with evolution, but I recently ran across the notion that evolution is probabilistically impossible.  Not just somewhat unlikely, mind you.  A noteworthy number was that the odds of a horse developing by random mutation - even with favorable assumptions - were 1 in 10^130.  The presumed life of the earth is vastly, inconceivably insufficient for evolutionary development by random mutation for all life on earth.

Of course, it doesn't begin to address how life got started in the first place, but that's probably beyond this particular discussion.

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