I explicitly did not say God; but yes, I believe I either do not have free will, or there is something beyond the physical which gives me free will. Some sort of 'soul', if you will, though not necessarily a soul like the word soul usually implies.

You don't get it because you're equating consciousness with yourself. I do not. I am much more likely to equate myself with this particular arrangement of neuron connections in my brain, or the actual stuff of my body.

Realism is just as subjective as everything else.

This has got to be the most retarded thing you've ever posted.

I love how you can jump to the end of these threads and know exactly how the thread has unfolded up to this point just by reading the last post.

I think Christians and other religious people who don't believe in evolution are stupid, because they don't contradict each other. The Bible says God created the universe and life and everything, but it doesn't say how. Most Christians seem to think he just snapped his finger and everything existed, but it's just as likely that God stretched his hand down from the heavens, dipped his finger into the primordial ooze, and gave it the spark of life- and then directed that spark to create the myriad plants and animals that fill our planet using natural process, like evolution.

Religion is the why. Science is the how.

Um, evolution and 6000 year old earth doesn't go together well.

Not all christians think the earth is 6000 years old.

You forget the mentality of these people, Vin. To them, anything that challenges their notion that their pastor has preached an undeniable truth must be a sinner/heathen/devil.

i remember hearing this in south park

Or the simple desire to feel like we have a special spot in the universe. I mean, to believe we share a common ancestor with hairy, dirty primates we see in the wild and in zoos is a overwhelmingly humbling concept, and one that is very hard to shallow. To view humanity as a divine race apart from mere animals, brought to this earth and crafted with pride and purpose is not only an uplifting feeling but one that adds a degree of certainty; being a product of a long, chaotic process is nowhere as near as comforting to take to heart than to have been given a life and duty under a forever watching, loving figure. Look around you, it's not hard to see that the world sucks. People gruesomely die every day. Children die. Diseases and natural disasters kill off thousands every year. The history of humanity is littered with events of immense human suffering and death.

If we look at evolution, countless species are wiped out in one way or another due to numerous circumstances. Our intelligence and creativity, the very thing that protected us from rampant predation and dangers in the wild throughout generations, could be the very thing that kills us off (i.e. nuclear war). To say humankind could plunge into extinction and the only left alive are cockroaches is not very positive note, no? Unless you love cockroach and worship them. Why wouldn't you, through evolution, these guys can pretty much survive anywhere and through any condition.

Haha, no, more suggesting that the lack of explanation only furthers the thought of the story being nothing more than a regional flood.

i dont see how people can not believe in evolution when the evidence is on their dinner plates every night.

admittedly its not natural evolution, but evolution by genetic manipulation by breeding plants and animals to have specific traits to better serve our needs. i.e. chickens wiht large breasts (everyone likes the white meat :P), the banana in its current form (a plant modified so far that it can no longer reproduce naturally, the exact opposite of natural evolution), or any other number of plants and animals that we eat every day.

goat, deer, horse, lamb, frog, snail, eel, shark, swordfish, lye fish, camel, turkey, eggs, quail eggs, fish eggs, quail, kiwis, squid, octopus, lobster, oyster, lots of stuff

I don't get how someone can believe in microevolution and not macroevolution. They're exactly the same thing. The only difference is that with macroevolution, changes have accumulated enough over time that a new species is formed.

People can and will believe anything, especially things that maintain their social structure and way of life. Logic kicks in only when these are not at risk.

You eat horse?

I TOLD YOU YOU WERE KOREAN. [No Offense, Echo.]

What the ****, horse? Atleast get the right animal.

horse would be french

cat and dog and grass would be korean

Pfft, French people only eat the wang of the horse.

Swing and a miss.

Clearly, our beloved Scotsman had too many sheep entrails and whiskey this morning.

Whisky.

Whiskey is irish, Dogbreath.

north koreans wouldn't have to eat grass if the greedy capitalist pigs in south korea would accept the glorious leader

My favourite part of the latest Futurama movie was the little evolution segment: