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Gramsci wrote:

matthew wrote:
.......and too little common sense. Stop overthinking all this shit! Mercy! You'll drive yourself crazy!

Yeah fellas! Stop being reasonable. You'll find it much easier to swallow this nonsense if you suspend a little disbelief!

Oy gevalt!

Happy Yule!

I love our pagan holidays.

Rejoice in the birth of God Incarnate...and stop being so bitter!

matthew wrote:Rejoice in the birth of God Incarnate...and stop being so bitter!

I renounce the existence of your God Incarnate.

Oh, and I find atheism brings me a lot of happiness. Far more than I could find in myths and folklore.

Enjoy your pagan celebration which the Romans dumped their State imposed religion on.

Easter's next... now there's a festival without any pagan history.

[ironic winky face]

Gramsci wrote:

matthew wrote:Rejoice in the birth of God Incarnate...and stop being so bitter!

I renounce the existence of your God Incarnate.

Oh, and I find atheism brings me a lot of happiness. Far more than I could find in myths and folklore.

Enjoy your pagan celebration which the Romans dumped their State imposed religion on.

Easter's next... now there's a festival without any pagan history.

[ironic winky face]

Even though you were being ironic, you are right. There is nothing to compare to Easter......what other person claimed that He would die and then rise from the dead 3 days later.....no one has ever claimed to be able to do that and then followed through, but Christ did- and there were people people witnessed the event and the events that transpired thereafter involving Him.....these are all facts.

Really Gramsci, you're stuck in this archaic sort of mindset that has effected what C.S. Lewis called a "chronological snobbery"..........that's soooooo 18th century.......

(Why are so many Brits and other Commonwealth people like this??? Apparently nothing's happened since David Hume where they come from intellectually......)

matthew wrote:Even though you were being ironic, you are right. There is nothing to compare to Easter......what other person claimed that He would die and then rise from the dead 3 days later.....no one has ever claimed to be able to do that and then followed through, but Christ did- and there were people people witnessed the event and the events that transpired thereafter involving Him.....these are all facts.

Facts through the eyes of faith!

M_a_x wrote:

matthew wrote:Even though you were being ironic, you are right. There is nothing to compare to Easter......what other person claimed that He would die and then rise from the dead 3 days later.....no one has ever claimed to be able to do that and then followed through, but Christ did- and there were people people witnessed the event and the events that transpired thereafter involving Him.....these are all facts.

Facts through the eyes of faith!

Yeah. Matthew, when your historical source is the Bible, all your arguments end up circular. Are you right? Maybe. Probably not. Will you ever convince anyone? Not anyone with good critical thinking skills. You either believe in this stuff or you don't. I'm not saying people with good critical thinking skills can't believe in it. I'm not even saying that people with good critical thinking skills can't come to believe in it. I'm just saying that people with good critical thinking skills won't be convinced by your shoddy circular reasoning.

From today's Trib. I just cut and pasted the whole damn thing since you have to register:

Intelligent design strikes out again
Rural California district to end class covering evolution alternatives

By Ann Simmons
Tribune Newspapers: Los Angeles Times
Published January 18, 2006

FRESNO, Calif. -- In a second defeat in a month for proponents of teaching intelligent design in public schools, a rural school district in California's Kern County agreed Tuesday to stop a course that had included discussion of a religion-based alternative to evolution.

As part of a court settlement, Frazier Mountain High School in Lebec will terminate the course one week earlier than planned, and the El Tejon Unified School District agreed never to offer such a course in its classrooms again.

The settlement comes on the heels of a court battle in Pennsylvania, where a U.S. district judge rejected the Dover, Pa., school board's decision to teach intelligent design as part of a science course, ruling that it was a theological argument and not science.

Intelligent design holds that some biological aspects of life are so complex that they could not have evolved randomly, but rather, must have been produced by an unidentified intelligent cause, or designer.

The El Tejon school board had argued that its course, "Philosophy of Design," was not science, but philosophy, and sought to explore cultural phenomena, including history, religion and creation myths. But a group of parents sued, charging that the district violated the constitutionally mandated separation of church and state.

"We see this as sending a signal to school districts across the country that you can't just change the title of a course from science to humanities and then proceed to promote religious theories as alternatives to evolution," said Ayesha Khan, legal director for Americans United for Separation of Church and State.

"You can teach students about historical, legal and cultural aspects, and about the controversy, but you cannot do so in a way that promotes a religious point of view," said Khan, whose Washington-based group represented the Frazier High parents opposing the class.

District defends course

El Tejon school Supt. John Wight said in a written statement Tuesday that it had been "very difficult" for the school board to make its decision to halt the class.

Neither the school board nor its employees "have promoted any religious belief in any academic setting," Wight said. "The idea was to have an open discussion of the different points of views on the origin of life, a philosophical exercise in critical thinking."

The course began Jan. 3 and was scheduled to run for one month.

The initial description said the class aimed to examine evolution as a theory and to explore why the concept "is not rock solid." The class also sought to "discuss intelligent design as an alternative response to evolution."

Wight said the course would be discontinued on Jan. 27.

Advocates for the teaching of intelligent design believe school officials in Lebec--a mountain community of about 1,300 people--had been intimidated into settling in order to avoid the prospect of a costly suit.

Wight acknowledged that, as a small school system with limited financial resources, the district "cannot afford to spend the amount of economic funds to defend the Philosophy of Design class in the court system."

"What you have here is a small school district that essentially got bullied into an overreaching settlement by Americans United," said Casey Luskin, an attorney for the Seattle-based Discovery Institute, a public policy think tank that supports intelligent design.

Luskin, who traveled to Lebec last Friday to advise the school board prior to the settlement, said his group was actually opposed to the Philosophy of Design course because it was "mixing up" the theories of intelligent design and "young Earth" or biblical creationism--a theory that insists there is scientific support for the biblical book of Genesis being literally true.

But by promising to never again offer a course that promotes or endorses creationism, creation science or intelligent design, school officials had essentially "abdicated their constitutional right to present this scientific theory in schools," Luskin said.

Backer weighs new complaint

Bent Frederiksen, whose 9th-grade son Christian, 14, was among the students participating in the controversial class, said ending the course violated his son's 1st Amendment rights because the course was being offered as an elective, and his son had a right to choose it.

He also noted that, according to his son, the course's teacher, Sharon Lemburg--a minister's wife--never tried to force her personal religious beliefs on the students. But in an interview the day after the suit was filed, Lemburg said, "Did God guide me to do this? I would hope so."

"I am still going to investigate whether there is a basis for a cross-complaint, or a new complaint," Frederiksen said.

None of the 11 parents originally opposed to the philosophy course could be reached Tuesday for comment. But Khan said the plaintiffs were satisfied with the outcome.

"Intelligent Design being regarded as a topic of serious debate"

Number 428, of "reasons why I am happy I don't live in America".

Gramsci wrote:"Intelligent Design being regarded as a topic serious of debate"

Number 428, of "reasons why I am happy I don't live in America".

"a topic serious of debate being regarded as a legitimate noun phrase"

Number 395, of "reasons why I am happy I don't live wherever you live."



[grammar pedant winky-face]

[Good Grief Face]

solum wrote:

Gramsci wrote:

solum wrote:... horrible stupid bastard.

Ok, aside from you acting like a childish retard, pray-tell explain why there is reason and logic in invoking flawed mythology?

If this is some kind of purely epistemological argument, fine, enter into the realm of the nonexistent and I'll see you on the other side.

Oh, and fix your post so it doen't make screen do that, it's fucking annoying for everyone.

You are incapable of reason! If noone else except me gets frustrated at what a fucking tit you are, then I can't seriously go on! I refuse to debate with you, at any point, ever again.

FUCK YOU!




edit: I am aware of how stupid it is to get so angry. But I really am. So, this will be my last post. I like the idea that my last one will be the 500th. Seeyalater.

Whoa! It really was his last post! I upset him so much he never came back.

There's a lesson here.