Shotgun

I just watched a really good documentary called "Buck." http://buckthefilm.com/ It's about a horse trainer (the guy who inspired the book "The Horse Whisperer"), but I don't think you have to be into horses to like it.

Maybe you and I have different ideas of what "nothing" means, but I don't think any of this even comes close to showing that there was a time when "nothing" existed. But, back to the original statement about getting God out of the picture, none of this really has anything to do with whether "God" exists, since "God" is typically (conveniently) defined as being beyond what is physically knowable. So even if we could show that everything came from "nothing," people could still say that God created it from nothing (since God doesn't fall within the limitations of being defined as "something"). Sheesh, this God stuff really is silly. I think I'll switch to being a . . . what was it? An apatheist? The history and cultural phenomenon of religion is interesting, but the God argument has grown old.

Actually, we have. Further, it's not all that hard to understand the basics of it. Just because you seem to have not made the effort to do so doesn't mean its not out there. Here are some of the basics to get you started; http://curiosity.discovery.com/topic/space-exploration/did-god-create-universe-episode.htm Where in your link does it state that the universe (everything) came from nothing?

You certainly have the appropriate sig line. If your voices said it, it must be true. I sort of got the impression that Johnny was joking. Seeing as he has "beer" listed as one of his interests.

I think that this is something that is being addressed through evolutionary religious studies and such. I'm no expert, but I think the idea is that religion or belief in gods came about as we developed brains that were neurologically capable of coming up with such ideas. And, judging from the prevalence of people who believe/have believed in god(s), it suggests that this belief has had some kind of evolutionary advantage. Or something like that...

John, these are merely BS stories. For one thing in the Kingdom Of Saudi Arabia, if a daughter or wife or a female member of a family (Arab Muslims) The husband will be the one that's punished, that's their law. In some instances if the father isn't available to be punished one of the sons from one of the Father's families will be punished. In fact the Saudi Govt is allowing women to go around without their face masks, and are being taught to drive. Things are really lightning up over here. I know the BBC seems credible, but you'd be surprised of how many differences there are between CNN, BBC & Al Jeezera. The story about the woman being sentenced to lashes was also reported in Al Jazeera (English).

I think it would depend on the situation.

I already mentioned Jump in the Fire and Master of Puppets in your other Metallica thread, but for #3 I'll choose Am I Evil? Not for the lyrics so much, but the music is awesome.

What do the babies do to deserve death when your wife kills them? What did the raped woman do to deserve to have to carry a rapist's baby, potentially putting her own life in danger, and very likely causing her much more trauma than she's already been through?

What about when a woman is pregnant from rape?

Terminated the pregnancy? Does that mean that your wife has killed babies? Yes. She has had to make the decision to save one life over the other. Either that, or the mother would have died. Then, there would have been two deaths instead of only one. However, I am only talking about prior to viability. Reasons can include rejection, premature natural delivery without being able to adequately stop it, water breaking prematurely, baby dying for whatever reason in the uterus causing infection, etc. I'm not a Physician but there are indications for such measures...all of which are medical in nature and not of convenience. Added: uncontrolled gestational diabetes, hypertension leading to eclampsia (seizure activity, protein in urine, possible death of mother), etc. Added also: And each of those rare times haunts her every day...brings her to tears...regardless of when it occurred. Again, it's rare...but it does happen...and the physician has got to make the hard choices sometimes. Fair enough. I guess I just found it interesting that you were talking about killing babies and then it suddenly became "terminating the pregnancy." Also, I am curious if the physician actually makes such a decision, or if it is left to the mother (or father)? Anyhow, I'll agree that it's a "baby" in an unborn stage. I haven't met too many pregnant women (who actually want to be pregnant) that go around referring to their fetus, or buying fetus clothes, or reading through fetus name books, or painting the fetus's room, etc. And if these women have a miscarriage, we're not likely to say, "Don't cry about it; it was just a fetus." We usually acknowledge that she lost a baby. OK, so abortion is killing a baby, or terminating a pregnancy, depending on which wording you prefer. You acknowledge that there are instances where it is acceptable to kill a baby, so you're close to the same page as some pro-choicers; we just vary on when it's acceptable and what can be accomplished with law.

Terminated the pregnancy? Does that mean that your wife has killed babies?

When I saw the thread, it did take me a minute to figure out whether the getting lashed was a good or bad thing.

And seems to be what this Saudi woman was doing. So does she "deserve" to be lashed for driving a car? No. But if she does get lashed, it might hasten the removal of an unjust law. Either way, she has succeeded in bringing a lot of attention to it. I don't think your argument about cultural differences makes much sense here. If we were over there telling the women they need to drive when they didn't even want to, that would be one thing, but that's not the case here. The women are wanting the right to drive, and we're agreeing that they should have it.

Not necessarily. Sometimes electing to disobey an unjust law might help to remove that law for future generations. Because we've had millions of Americans choosing to disobey the marijuana laws, it has become pretty obvious that the old propaganda about it was nothing more than propaganda. So it has slowly become decriminalized over the years, and will likely continue to do so until it becomes legal. And there was a time when oral sex was illegal. Who do you think was more miserable--the folks who followed the law or the folks who elected to disobey the law?

Just because some of us disagree with the female driving ban in Saudi, it doesn't mean that we think all U.S. laws are valid. (I certainly don't.)

Doesn't surprise me either. I had an Asperger's student in my class 3 years ago, very smart but quite unable to process any illogical rubbish the same way "neurotypicals" can. I recall reading something where a person with Asperger's was having trouble with addiction, and how the traditional 12-step program was not working because of his literal interpretation of it (a program that would be non-sensical for most people if they took it literally). He ended up finding help through Rational Recovery. And I don't mean to insult 12-step programs here, but I think a lot of folks who have been helped with the program have basically "translated" the language into something less literal, which is perhaps less of an option for other people (such as those with autism).

I think there are a lot of (non-autistic) people who don't necessarily believe in God/religion literally, who see God as somewhat of a metaphor, but who wouldn't go so far as to call themselves atheists (for whatever reason, perhaps because it's still a bad word in our society). But, because people with high-functioning autism tend to take language quite literally, they're not likely to say, "Yes, I believe in God," while thinking of God metaphorically.

It is easy as pie. "Deny yourself, pick up your cross, and follow Him."

Man, I've been trying for 40 years to do whatever I want without having any consequences. But life just doesn't seem to work that way for me, or for anyone else that I know. So if you're aware of someone who has figured out how to escape the consequences of life, please send them my way, because I would love to learn how to do that.

DVDs from Netflix. I like their streaming selection too (and the picture quality is usually excellent here), but most new releases only seem to be available on DVD. I've been looking into using Redbox though, and that seems like a good alternative if you mostly watch new releases. It's not instant watch, but it's pretty easily available (out here anyway).

So, did you find anything that helped?

Glittery pink nail polish works better.

It's been years since I've had chiggers, but for other insect bites, I use Solarcaine (lidocaine HCL). Or if you have an aloe vera plant, just break a leaf open and rub the juice into the bites - works for fire ant and most other insect bites, so it might work for chiggers too.

I don't think so. I don't think my divorce had much of an effect at all on my views on dating and relationships. But then I wasn't really looking for someone when I got married the first time, and I wasn't looking for someone else after I got divorced.