The Like/Hate Thread

[Psyren]

Like: Bill Nye. His slogan should be "Provin' everyone wrong with science since <insert when he started>". He's most well known for his kid's show, but all his other stuff I've seen has been totally awesome, too. I mean really, I'm pretty sure he was the only fun part of science in my childhood, and I'm sure plenty of other people agree with me.

lol He taught me how to blow alot of things up

[Mr. Zhu]

http://www.youtube.com/user/AtheistPlane...FjoEgYOgRo

Seriously, watch this debate he has with an Intelligent Design proponent and tell me you don't die a little inside. And he's been arguing with these guys for years.

Honestly this film made me laugh. It just distinctively depicted a huge gap in the intelligence level of the two. The Intelligent Design representative really was just like the next youtube commenter. ZoMG~! WHERE'S DA EVIDENCE1?!??11

[Kaden]

And suddenly there's a lot more posting on the actual forums.

Go figure.

[Ashe]

Show me a crocaduck that isnt a fake and maybe ill play along.

I know he's trolling, but he had me twitching in my chair for a good five minutes. (*edit* By trolling, I more specifically mean that he's holding a position that he knows is a misconception. I don't actually believe he honestly believes that Kirk Cameron strawman. I don't want to have to debunk him right here and now.)

Regarding the fall of Rome... Why do you feel that it was the opposite (I assume you mean lack of Christianity is what lead to its downfall)?

[Jarka]

Like: Bill Nye

Awee man, I was just singing the Bill Nye theme song yesterday. He's one of the large reasons I'm such a huge nerd.

[Ashe]

Interestingly enough, I watched Bill Nye do a debate regarding some kind of scientific issue vs some kind of religious issue the other day. Apparently after this, people all across America decided that Bill Nye was an idiot and doesn't know anything. GO FIGURE.

[Piper Juunanagou]

Regarding the fall of Rome... Why do you feel that it was the opposite (I assume you mean lack of Christianity is what lead to its downfall)?

No, I meant that I believed Christianity played an important underlying role in the collapse of the Western Empire.

Christianity and its spread created whole throngs of conflict within the Roman state by destroying the traditional values that had held most of society together during the Republic and early Principate (namely, paganism and the cult of the Emperor). The rising influence of Jesus/God and the Church ruined the legitimacy of the emperor and caused a lot of people to turn away from the state at a time when everything was going to hell. This was worsened when Christianity became the state religion. The emperor was unable to keep a lid on it and thus the Church began to rival him in authority. Christians were also less willing to serve in the military, which, when coupled with a change in citizenship laws and general apathy, forced the Roman state to enlist thousands of mercenaries to defend their borders. And mercenaries do not an efficient army make.

Of course, it didn't help that the Roman state was collapsing economically and being constantly harassed by folk movements and the Persians.

Lastly, my opinion is just one of many that ancient historians have about the fall of Western Rome (I specify, because the Eastern half dragged on for a thousand more years). Others up-play the importance of economic decay, while others will tell there was no reason and it just sort of happened.

[Rafael]

Like: Hit the 'net to see if anyone else thought current Bleach is as horrifically, terribly bad as I do. Many do =D

[Sigfried Hunin]

Like: Cookin da meats.

PS:
Christians have been browbeating lunies to we Atheists for years. I think it quite hypocritical when others call out Dawkins for calling down his supported, fundamentally sound points against the presence of God when I've been told I'm personally going to burn in hell forever because I don't believe in God and his zombie son.

[Psyren]

Sigh im sorry I cant beleive in the theory of evolution when the man who made it famous (Charles Darwain.) even on his death bead said it was a load of hogwash.

[Kaden]

Well at least you get credit for saying as much in a relatively intelligent and reasonable way.

[Psyren]

Well at least you get credit for saying as much in a relatively intelligent and reasonable way.

Dont start with me

And Ashe Go ahead make a seperate thread and ....Debunk away...I promise you for every point you give...Ill debunk you...But ill gladly play your game

[Kaden]

Start what?

Your posts speak much more than I have. If anyone started anything, it was you.

[Psyren]

Start what?

Your posts speak much more than I have. If anyone started anything, it was you.

Glad you see it that way. Wouldnt expect anything less.

[Kaden]

I had a much more passive-aggressive post half typed up, but I simply don't have the energy or interest for it.

[Jesper]

See what happens when we don't have a cbox?

[Psyren]

I had a much more passive-aggressive post half typed up, but I simply don't have the energy or interest for it.

My apologies. Im stressed out over some issues here at home and im letting it carry over onto Chubbs. Im gonna take a leave of absence for a bit. Again Apologies Kaden.

[Kaden]

No worries. It's a forum. If I took the things people said seriously/personally in the Asylum... well... I don't even know what would happen.

Nothing good.

[Belle Hibiki]

Sigh im sorry I cant beleive in the theory of evolution when the man who made it famous (Charles Darwain.) even on his death bead said it was a load of hogwash.

Although I am fully convinced of the truth of the views given in this volume under the form of an abstract, I by no means expect to convince experienced naturalists whose minds are stocked with a multitude of facts all viewed, during a long course of years, from a point of view directly opposite to mine.

Charles Darwin, Origin of Species, second British edition, 1860

Full quote:

[spoiler]

Although I am fully convinced of the truth of the views given in this volume under the form of an abstract, I by no means expect to convince experienced naturalists whose minds are stocked with a multitude of facts all viewed, during a long course of years, from a point of view directly opposite to mine. It is so easy to hide our ignorance under such expressions as the "plan of creation," "unity of design," &c., and to think that we give an explanation when we only restate a fact. Any one whose disposition leads him to attach more weight to unexplained difficulties than to the explanation of a certain number of facts will certainly reject my theory. A few naturalists, endowed with much flexibility of mind, and who have already begun to doubt on the immutability of species, may be influenced by this volume; but I look with confidence to the future, to young and rising naturalists, who will be able to view both sides of the question with impartiality. Whoever is led to believe that species are mutable will do good service by conscientiously expressing his conviction; for only thus can the load of prejudice by which this subject is overwhelmed be removed.

Charles Darwin, Origin of Species, second British edition, 1860

[/spoiler]

He fully believed in what he was writing. His tempered language is because no one really believed him at the time. His observations and ideas bordered on heresy.

Edit: I said he was part of the church, but that needs fact-checking. I might be thinking of Hobbes or some other guy.

[Orion]

Actually, the rise of Christianity did play an important role in destabilizing the late Roman Empire and helping usher it toward its inevitable collapse. >_>;

True, but many of the fathers of modern science were Christian and used their cosmological understanding of the universe as declared by the Bible to assist them. If I can find my examples on my PC I'll put them up, however I do recall that the Big Bang theory met heavy resistance from atheist scientists at the time because it presupposed a "beginning" of existence, which didn't fit well with metaphysical conceptions.