"John A. Weeks III" <john@johnweeks.com> wrote in message 
news:john-474DC7.06555809012007@sn-ip.vsrv-sjc.supernews.net...

In article <D5Doh.14458$yC5.13708@newssvr27.news.prodigy.net>,
"BogusID" <BogusID@YesItIs.com> wrote:

Purely a semantic argument, since neither ARE conclusively proven today, 
and
both imply an element of faith and conviction toward one's position.

Again, you are wrong.  ET life is something that is very possible,
and we have all kinds of evidence that suggests that it is possible.
We just haven't conclusively found it yet.

Religion is something for which there is zero evidence to suggest
that it is even possible, despite over 2000 years of research by
very passonate people trying to show that it is true.  In fact, it
hasn't even been conclusively shown that Jesus ever existed.

I'm sure devoutly religious persons could use the exact same argument
against Darwin's theories of evolution as related to humans, because of 
the
missing link.

There is no such thing as a "missing link".  That is something that
was made up by ignorant people who were trying to make fun of Darwin.
These same people made up the concept of a thing called a "geologic
column", which is something else that doesn't exist.  The style of
argument that they use is invalid.  They make up something that isn't
in the theory, show that it isn't true, then conclude that the theory
is invalid.

At any rate, every aspect of evolution has been conclusively proven
without a shadow of a doubt.  The only question left in evolution
is if it was THE single factor in the origin of species, or if it
was only A factor (among others) in the origin of species.

Hmmm, wait, maybe everyone is right, perhaps alien gods helped us to 
evolve
and deposited us here, so OUR very existence proves both cases :-)

You can postulate anything once you are willing to ignore logic
and evidence.  That is why it is so dangerous to deal with anyone
who is religious--they will believe just about anything.  Just
look at how fast the religious people in Germany were to adopt
NAZI beliefs, and how eager they were to kill millions of people
such as jews and gypsies.

-john-

-- 
======================================================================
John A. Weeks III           952-432-2708            john@johnweeks.com
Newave Communications                         http://www.johnweeks.com
======================================================================

Um, ok.
I'm wrong, but you agree with me, and I agree with you, so we agree to 
agree, but we won't call it that.

(My last statement was of a facetious nature by the way...)

In the context of our discussion neither ET life or religious basis have 
been conclusively proven as fact, so elements of faith and conviction are 
involved in our pursuits for truth. This being the difference between a 
hypothesis, a theory and statement of fact.

That we as a people continue to pursue truth with a zealous curiosity gives 
hope that eventually we will overcome, despite <gov/rel> organizations using 
our curiosity against us like mice in a maze.

I'm sure most people agree <to some level> that the awesome scale of our 
universe certainly implies that we are not alone, even at 1-billion odds 
probability is high. (And that's without even going into 
multi-dimensional/scalar theories...)

Religious conflict has caused more death and 'justified destruction' in 
history than probably all other wholesale factors combined.
Organized religion has and does serve itself, feeds and supports separation 
designed specifically to control masses of people.

For chuckles consider that if a child smushes on an ant hill, to the ants 
perspective they cannot fathom the child's existence so (if they had complex 
brains) the event might be considered an act of god, a sadistic god perhaps, 
but a possible conclusion based on their perspective awareness rather than 
absolute fact.

Would you agree that religion is counter productive to society and not a 
true basis of morality?
I know atheists who are highly moral and logical beings, and I have also met 
some pretty defensive religious folks.

Ok, I'm going to stop staring at my hand now :-)

- David