George Aar

"but I will always elevate the spirit above knowledge," Just like they did in 16th century Spain, or Salem Ma., or for the 30-years War, or ...

D.w.w. Gee, where to start? I've known The Invisible One - more or less - for a number of years now and I can't think of anyone who's managed to develop any animosity towards him. I don't even know how one would go about doing that. But you did. Congratulations! You get the "Dubious Achievement Award"! Other than that, I find it more than a little incongruous that you blather on about "agape" and such and yet seem to annoy just about everybody you converse with. Well, "religious" and "intolerant" do seem to be old bedfellows. Un uh...

"Do you believe the above verse and take it literally? " Uh, NO. I used to. And I know NUMEROUS people who do/did believe it. But you know what? It never happened. I HEARD about it happening, LOTS. But where "the rubber meets the road", I found that particular bit of doggerel extremely lacking. We'd pray, "believe" (what the hell the WayWorld version of that was, I still don't know, but it didn't stop us from trying), and wait, and WAIT. No, Oldies I never saw it come to pass. Oh yeah, there were times when I got a parking place pretty close to the front door of the K-Mart, but never "right up front" like I was "believing" for. And there was lots of anecdotal stuff that we kept ourselves going with ("Jimmy got a job! And after only 8 months! Isn't God GREAT?"). But when the chips were down and you really needed something in your life I never saw it come to pass. Like most of the miraculous events in life, they always play a lot better in retrospect. In the here and now? Not so much...

Hey Topper, Best to you today! Happy Birthday geo.

"I don't discount the merits of prayer" I do. I think it's an utter waste of time. How many times have we prayed for someone's health, and shortly thereafter - without missing a beat in between - start praying to comfort the hearts of the relatives of the recently departed? O.K., I'll leave now...

From Dr. Barrett's "Quackwatch" site: "In 2005, the FDA ordered Mercola and his Optimal Wellness Center to stop making illegal claims for products sold through his Web site ." (and it goes on for several pages) And Dr. Mercola is a D.O. and his main proponents are in the Chiro industry. Hmmm, my spidey senses are tingling... And no, Rocky, I don't agree that a strict proportionality according to body weight would be appropriate. We're talking about a preservative used to stablize a given amount of vaccine. The preservative has to be proportional to the amount of VACCINE not the recipient. And then there's the problem of who's going to determine and mix the dosages. The little I've read of Dr. Mercola doesn't fill me with confidence that I'd want him filling my prescription...

I guess the first question I would have is: How MUCH do they expect him to drink? And how much is in an injection? Hell, I'm no doctor but if it's an amount equivalent to an injection, sign me up! Damn! I knew I should've gone to Med School...

I'm glad they Simpsonized the Burger King. Geeze Pete but that is one creepy S.O.B.

Hey there Eph. 4, I think you misread the sign. This is the Greasespot Cafe. If you're looking for the Pretentious, Self-righteous, Smarmy-Religiosity Cafe, that's down the road a piece. Bon Apetit...

Well PB, as a minor hero of mine is want to say, "This ain't no dress rehearsal". If you don't do it now, when will ya? OTOH, I had always dreamed of being a paleontologist. Somewhere along the way, I got sidetracked. And I don't have the energy (and probably not even the desire) to pursue that now. Eventually life gets the better of us all, but if you've still got the moxie, go for it man...

Shifra, Since you seem to have already concluded that the Pauline epistles are something other than "God-breathed", wouldn't it make a lot more sense to just accept what the Bible critics have said for eons? That is, that The Bible is simply a collection of man-made doctrines, mythology, and a smattering of history that - although "baptized" many years ago- is no more holy or inspired than a few dozen other "holy" writs. That is - not at all. Just what is it about The Bible that makes anyone think it - or any part of it - is "GOD"S WORD"? I mean, other than the fact that our parents and (western) ancestors generally seemed to think so? The Bible makes so much more sense to me, now that I've given up on any idea of it being Godly, infallible, or some sort of guide to "THE TRUTH". No more contradictions or "difficult" verses, just the ramblings of fearful, ignorant, and superstitious people. Voila! All that hard to understand stuff becomes transparent.

"The man, who says he has had sex with five women but prefers the dolls, is one of a gradually increasing, though secretive, group of Japanese men who have given up on women." Hmmm, makes sense to me...

I remember the "Mr. Potato Head" that I got for Christmas in the '50s. I don't even remember there being a artificial potato to use, though. We always just used a real potato. Wasn't that the idea? Can you imagine buying one for your kid today? "What, no graphics or artificial intelligence? Man, this sucks!"

"do you still believe them to be true?" Uh, nope. Just your basic garden-variety superstitions to me anymore. Sorry...

How would there be culture without faith? Well, we've never seen it yet, but maybe someday, huh? ( I can dream, can't I?) My idea of faith? I dunno, nothing spectacular. Just belief in a god or gods. Belief in unknowable entities of any sort. Any belief based on the unfalsifiable...

And what "confusion" would that be?

I don't find it remarkable that certain basic tenets of all faiths have been around much longer, and in many other cultures than one would normally assume. At least someone of a particular faith would assume. There's basic ideas of Confuscianism in "The Golden Rule", Greek, Indian, and Chinese philosophy in much of The Bible and other "holy" writs. What I find remarkable is the, often, knee-jerk response that "Yeah, those other guys knew some of this stuff, but we know the REAL source of it all. Don't we? (wink, wink, nudge)". I just find that kind of response to be odd. Sorry that offends you Clay. But, it seems most of my opinions have that effect...

"Christ was the myth come into concretion" Yeah, I guess that's the crux of all the religious arguments, no? All the other religions think that their's came "into concretion" as well. The only thing lacking is proof. Just saying it (or writing it) doesn't make it so, does it?

I remember being freaked out when I heard that the "Corps" were married in group. It reminded me a bit to much of Rev. Moon's organization. Geeze, all those blatant signals and it STILL took me another 10 years to bail. No, I wasn't brainwashed. Not a bit...

Oh Gawd, Kevlar, Those were almost my exact thoughts. The "boy are they gonna regret that one day" was the first thing to pop into my head too. I think my second thought was something like "Boy, I bet mom and dad are proud"...

I don't mean to pry Bols., but is your degree from Bob Jones University perhaps? Just curious. And just a quick comment (I promised myself I wouldn't, but I just can't help it). Re: Bias and Science. The reason we have something called the "Scientific Method" was specifically to try to eliminate bias in research. Was it absolutely 100% successful everytime toward that end? Of course not. Is anything humans do? But it's the best we've got. Look at all the advancement in technical fields that are a DIRECT result of the method. On the "faith-based" side? Uh, not so much... And peer-reviewed publications aren't designed to "prove" anything. They're there to REVIEW. One PEER looks over another's work, if he's interested in the work, maybe will try out the experiments himself and see if he gets the same results. If he does that tends to confirm the findings, but it's far from being a proof. But if he DOESN"T get the same results it immediately puts up a red flag, and everybody's on notice that the concept needs a lot more scrutiny. Faith-based "science" OTOH, doesn't seem to care too much for real peer-review. Wild-a$$ed claims, vague assertions, and bizarre theories do just fine, so long as they seem to prop up a-priori assumptions about "scripture". And just for fun, how many REAL "scientists" can you name that don't accept the basic concepts of Darwinian evolutionary theory, that AREN"T Christian fundies?

Thanks everybody! I just got back from Todai, an all-you-can-eat sushi bar (yes, there is such a thing). On your birthday dinner is free if you bring three friends with. I didn't have that many friends to bring with right off, but I managed to borrow a couple for the evening. Any good food, good sake and some nice notes on GS when I get home. That's more than a break-even day. Thanks again, geo. (David those guys sure get a lot of work out of just three strings, don't they?)

http://skepdic.com/maya.html Gee, of all the religions in the world, it sure is good that we have the only right one, isn't it?

"they hurt him in all kind of ways. And he still sings there praises." Stockholm syndrome?

And for the faithful fans, who just can't seem to accept reality, Just take a look at the physiques of some of these guys. As Groucho already alluded to, one season they look pretty much like everybody else on the team, then all of a sudden (and at age 30 something!) they put on 30 pounds of muscle and their stats go from "good" to spectacular - all in the space of a few months. Then take a look at guys like McGwire who've left the game, and VOILA! a few months later and they're just a weeny-looking Joe again. Kinda makes one wonder...