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A message to those who want to shift burden of proof onto the atheists: Either you have evidence/proof for god's existence, or you don't. If you do then please present it and it will be discussed/debunked. If you don't have any evidence/proof then, to use a NTB-style case, your reasoning...

A few things: - I generally don't buy into the 'standing back and not doing anything doesn't count as killing' stance. E.g. if you can push a button to save a life but choose not to then I think you are culpable (of course, many disagree with me on this). - Given the above my rephrasing of...

Thinking in terms of the NSW unit system - what about kids who want to go into areas where they are probably better off doing other subjects - e.g. bio, chem, phys, 4U math for a biotechnology/med science degree?

You also need to ask whether their manner of life (the animals that is, prior to euthanasia) is a reasonable one. Are they treated well in the facility where they are brought up? or are they shoved in a small enclosure with a little food trough? Also, a large difference between animals and...

My personal issue is with needless suffering. If similar knowledge can be gained without running a prac class which involves killing animals then I would rather the class be avoided.

Two things which bother me: 1) It's discrimination 2) By virtue of (1) it undermines attempts to prevent discrimination based on sexuality.

I strongly disagree with such a principle. In particular, you can have faith in some being 'G' who is such that 'G cannot be shown to not exist'. Using your principle, it is rational to believe the following: If X is such that 'X cannot be shown to not exist' then X exists. Let your mind...

Check out the 'prion' link in my above post to see an example of a fuzzy line between living/non-living. The problem which your semi-rhetorical question, regarding how a living can come form the non-living, is that there isn't a clear cut off between the two things. This is fairly similar to a...

(1) The theory of evolution isn't designed to explain the universe - it's primary aim is to explain the diversity and forms of biota. (2) That bad evidence exists does not imply that all the evidence is bad. In fact there exists a lot of very good evidence. I ecnourage you to try and argue...

I typed this a while back in another thread, but I figure that it's relevant now: "We have observed the evolution of simple organisms - the strong example is that of bacteria and antibiotic resistance. Another example is dog breeding where humans, acting as a selective environmental pressure...

I thought that scientology does have rules, e.g. regarding psychiatric treatment and childbirth. Need a religion recognise other views as existent or valid?

As someone who isn't religious it seems like a fine line to me. For example, if you look at acceptance of beliefs - I don't accept a lot of religious beliefs e.g. attitudes towards homosexuality and abortion, also the notion of a soul and an afterlife. Similarly there are religions from other...

What's the difference between a religion and a cult?

"[D]ecent honest peaceful law abiding citizens [don't] deserve to have their civil liberties curtailed" ... don't you think that preventative measures kind of fly in the face of this ideal?

Should business owners receive such a 'right' if we're going to deny it to their employees?

A point of contention - there is no proof (accepted by the greater community) that god does not exist, however I do believe that there is evidence which counts against the existence of certain conceptions of god (e.g. see a compendium called 'the improbability of god'). (Edit: Major typo...

I realise that it's somewhat dodgy to extrapolate from the individual level to that of the economy, but consider the following maxim: "We work to live, not live to work." I don't think that economic wealth, in and of itself, has any great value - it's what we can do with this wealth, in...

Your UAI would probably increase by a factor of ei.pi

It'd be more than reasonable for you to bring that up as a topic of discussion in this thread.

The evolution vs god issue only really comes up when a person's religious beliefs include the belief that 'evolution is impossible' or that 'evolution never occured' (etc). I think there are enough strong examples of evolution to challenge such assertions. However, if a person wants to try and...