Hurlshort

No, is it any good? It's the most awesome mod ever created. It's not even really a mod, but an updating of the current game engine. The fact that you can change the resolution is worth getting it alone, it makes the game look much better.

Yeah, I only read one. Sometimes I'll set down a book for another and pick it up later, or sometimes I'll read one book at work and one at home. But I prefer to focus on one book, and typically I go through one every two weeks, although it depends on my schedule and how good the book is.

WITHTEETH, I appreciate your explanation and I'm not arguing with it at all. But I still don't see how we get higher thinking, reason, and emotion out of this DNA. Sure, genes can point to certain behavioral patterns, but it's a long jump from living material to man. Why aren't there other species capable of higher thought? I've seen trained dolphins and monkeys, but there is a huge gap between what humans are capable and the rest of the animal kingdom? Why?

Huh, I disagree. The action scenes alone made B-13 worth watching for me. Heck, that's why I rented it, I wasn't expecting some great plot. I've yet to see a scene that topped the intro action scene in that movie, although the intro for Casino Royale is close. edit: Have you seen Brotherhood of the Wolf? That's the only other french movie I can think of that I really enjoyed.

Yeah, the first four titles Shadow mentioned have yet to be released. Hitman: Blood Money is still my favorite title on the platform. Other than that, I primarily play sports games on it.

I'm back at LotR Online. My captain is level 25. My quest log is starting to get overloaded with fellowship quests, but I think that just means I need to find new areas to solo.

I believe the major difference between religion and belief, is that religion has an absolute doctrine that is unchanging and cannot be proved upon... unlike science where its beliefs are self correcting, peer reviewed etc... Where as the bible cannot be, but i think the bible could be personally improved by sayings from basic philosophy, even saying something like though should not harm your children. I think you misunderstood. I mean there is religion, and then there is belief in a higher power, and the two are different things. I suppose the latter is required by the former, but you can believe in a higher power without subscribing to a certain methodology.

Actually, many religions are just manifestations of the same thing. I've never thought that someone who practices Wicca is wrong or right compared to a Christian, they just have different means to reach the same end, which is spiritual fulfillment. I also don't think it's any surprise that man seeks to name the divine. For some, it's reassuring, for others it gives them a place to release their guilt. Life is messy and difficult, and the thought of a higher power eases the way. But yes, that's all man-made constructs. I've said it a few time already and maybe I'm just not explaining it well, but there is a difference between religion and the belief in a higher power (God, Allah, Mother Earth, call it what you will.) You do not need to subscribe to a certain methodology to believe that life is a gift and the human spirit is greater than we can define. There will never be a good enough explanation for love and reason that will stop me from seeing it as supernatural in nature.

It seems like this Dawkins fellow is taking out all his problems with religion on the big guy up in the sky. But I haven't read the book, only what Meta keeps quoting. But I separate religion and the belief in God. Religion is man-made, man-run, and suffers from all the problems of man. It's caused great good and great evil. But in the end, it's just a tool used to reach a place of spiritualitiy. I don't need to be religious to believe in God. I don't need to buy into a certain ideology in order to live a spiritual life. I try to live the best life that I can and I have faith that it will turn out well in the end.

Xard, the problem with you not reading the entire thread, is that NO ONE has claimed the bible is an infallible source. In fact in the whole discussion, the people who believe in creationism have not brought up the bible once. The fact is creationism is a philosophy, it requires faith, and it should be taught in a Social Science classroom. It only should be mentioned in Science classes to illustrate the point that their are different beliefs and opinions in our world. edit: Eh, I'm starting to hate the term creationism. It's been manipulated too much by a single religion. Maybe there is a better term for the idea that a higher power is resonsible for life.

1 in 278, to be exact.

Dawkins uses an excellent analogy he calls "climbing Mount Improbable". Mount Improbable has a sheer cliff on one side, which is the phenomena that we wish to explain, such as the organ of sight (the eye), which seems almost impossibly difficult to imagine being created out of nothing (represented by the sheer cliff). On the other side of Mount Improbable is a steady, even gradient, whereby, rather than a leap of faith, we can progress slowly, by microscopic improvements, up the slope from ground level. This side represents natural selection, demonstrating how small random changes in this generation can build upon the cumulative best changes of the past, to create the bridge to the phenomena. Does that help? It does, but what about the point of origin? I'm not claiming to go along with the Genesis style of creationism, I'm just questioning how it all began. It is a matter of faith, that we can all agree on. Someone had mentioned that, as a skeptical person, faith just isn't enough to get by on. I can see that. I'm skeptical myself about car salesmen and telemarketers, but when it comes to life and death, I'm a bit more inclined to have faith in something greater than myself. Maybe it won't matter in the end, but I prefer to err on the side of caution. I don't know why that's considered crazy by those without faith, it seems fairly reasonable to me.

I'm still having some trouble understanding natural selection, or rather how it works against the belief of a higher power. Can you elaborate? Great Luther and Galileo quotes, by the way.

Eh, anyone who defines love as a series of chemical reactions in the brain really needs to examine their love life.

Actually I disagree on there is no evidence of intelligent design. Think on this. We have a moon that had propelled us to seek a way to reach it, to motivate us to see what is there. On that moon there just happens to be ice, water that we can use for it is necessary for our survival. Next we have Mars, which just happens to be terraformable and also has a source of water. By the time we get to Mars we will need large amount of metals and ore to continue and Earth is a long ways away. We now have the asteroid belt to get raw materials from. Now by this time we need a more fuel and even more water to do deep space missions. Where do we go? Jupiter and its moons, which one of them has tons of water just happen to be available and the gas giant itself is a good source of fuel if we can collect it. Now is this all coincidence that this happened? Maybe, but I don't believe in coincidence. A Vacuous truth i believe. That is a logical fallacy. Right? I already pointed out what I feel is evidence for Intelligent Design, and no one addressed them.

Just a quick point: evolution DOESN'T mean that life is random; natural selection (to give it its proper name) drives the creation of more appropriate and specialized life. Sorry, I was getting ahead of myself. I suppose the Big Bang Theory might be considered more of a randomization theory, but even that could be set in motion by forces unknown. My "life is random" and "evolution is a fact of life" were not really related to one another, they were just separate thoughts I crammed together.

I like how everyone keeps throwing up flaws in the bible and religion in general as some sort of "proof" that God doesn't exist. Religion and the bible are products of man. Let's look at actual amazing stuff when trying to determine whether a higher power exists. Love Courage Family Reason These are a few things that make me question the suuposed random nature of the universe. Why are we so different than one another? What is the human spirit? Why does my daughter have a personality of her own, instead of just acting exactly like my wife and I? Seriously, I find it hard NOT to believe that there is something greater at work here.

I don't believe that life is random. I believe that evolution is a fact of life. I don't believe evolution disproves the existence of God. I think people who rely strictly on what a religious denomination tells them are being naive. I also think people who dismiss religion as mass hysteria are being naive.

Ok, I got NCAA 08... I started on the Campus Legend mode, which basically lets you create a player and take them through an entire career. You start out in High School playing for the State Championship. It's a pretty fun 4 game tournament, and scouts come out and watch you play. I played well enough to get offers from pretty much every university, although some were 3rd and 4th string offers. I decided to join Rutgers as their second string QB. Practices are actually important now, you have to earn a certain amount of points in practice in order to move up the depth chart. It took me a week and a half to earn the starter spot. I haven't played my first college game yet. One great new feature is that you can fast forward through any plays that you aren't in, and it's super fast, not painful like Madden 07's superstar mode. This means games fly by. I can now play an entire game in about 20 minutes.

Worst. Show. Ever. Which is kinda surprising since its from the same guy that makes Survivor. I agree, but it's like a train wreck, and I can't tear my eyes away from it.

I'm picking up NCAA Football 08 in a few hours for my 360. I visited the EA Sports boards, and I don't think I fit in. I'm trying though. ncaa is da bomb yo.

For a second, I thought Cyberpunk was losing. Then I noticed Bladerunner has 6 votes. Given that Bladerunner and Cyberpunk share quite a few similiarities, I feel comfortable combining them. Hurrah, K3 is still one vote shy.

Um...why do you keep going to the movies then? I mean, fool me once, shame on you, fool me 5 times, shame on me.

Just a suggestion for the person that read "Animal Farm", I highly recommend Mikhail Bulgakov's "Master and Margarita". http://www.amazon.com/Master-Margarita-Mik...v/dp/0679760806 It's considered one of the greatest satire pieces ever written. It's important to note that Bulgakov wrote it during Stalin-era Russia. Bulgakov actually petitioned to leave Russia so that he could further his playwright career, but Stalin personally called him and told him no, he was too valuable to Russian society. This book was suppressed by the USSR until it's collapse, and even then the translation of a satirical work is no easy matter. But the edition I have pointed out does an excellent job in doing so.

Ok, time to do the worst list. 1. Ira (JA2) - super annoying local foisted onto your team at the beginning of the game. I kept waiting for Fidel to whack her. 2. The droid from KotOR, GOTO? He never really made it into my party...why would I want an evil droid from my enemy in my party? 3. The childhood friend who gets killed in NWN2 right away. Maybe she should have listened better. That's all I have now.