Royd

Na, we're more interested in turning the children into fuzzy warm little socialists, who still needs mommy to fix their breakfast at the age of 25.

OK, you asked for it. Your hair stinks, your clothes stinks, your vehicle stinks, your breath stinks, you throw lit butts out of the windows and start fires, you dump you ashtrays at the stop light instead of taking it home and dumping it in the trashcan. When I have to do a paint job in the house of a smoker, I have to wash everything down that I intend to paint. You have a two year old in the backseat, and somehow, think that opening the window 1/2 inch is keeping the child from breathing smoke. Give those little lungs a break. After opening packs of cigs for twenty years, and looking directly at the warning, you still think that you have the right to sue the tobacco company for ruining your life. There! If I think of more, I'll come back. Here's another one. The worker who wastes time lighting up, squinting through smoke, taking the cig out of his mouth to exhale, and thinks that he is as valuable as the nonsmoker.

I don't have a problem with genetic selection. We see it every time a new creature[ there's that damned word, again] is born. We keep the good looking calf to help propagate the herd and send the runt to market. As per your example, we still wind up with the same species, only with variations. Once we have a variation that we like, we must isolate it from further cross breeding, which tends to lead to its own set of problems. Here's a serious question. You say that dogs came from wolves. Would it be possible to reverse breed them and get wolves from dogs?

So can me and my dog. Nothing new there. Water is a hostile environment for any land based mammal. No matter how well they can swim, if left there long enough, it will kill them. They were simply designed to do what they do. They look rather awkward on land. I doubt if those lumbering sea cows ever walked on land. They are designed to float and consume water plants so that boaters don't get all of those weeds in their props. Their body design was designed for thirty mph sprints. On the west coast of Fl. I got to watch three dolphins herd mullet into a shallow cove, hold them there, and decimate them. Pretty cool. They are obviously intelligent. Too intellegent to want to do it on land. The picture that you present is that everything at one time was some bumbling creature that couldn't get out of its own way until suddenly, by some stroke of luck, it finally hit its stride. An architect doesn't, with intention, start out to design a bungalow and wind up with a skyscraper, nor does he design a functioning community and winds up with a mud hut. The whole, everything used to be something else, mentality flies in the face of common sense, logic, and reasoning.

I have been to Dinosaur National Monument and the Florissant Fossil beds. I've seen fossilized tree stumps 15' in diameter at 10,000 ft elevation. All of this shit didn't happen 1/4 inch at a time. A whole lot of stuff happened real fast. Not an occasional little volcano here or there. Have you been to the Big Bend in Tx? There are arroyas 40' deep in compressed volcanic ash. I just don't buy the statements that a mouse can become an elephant, or a reptile can become a mammal. Personally, I just think that he is punching buttons. If you could live long enough and sit under a live oak, not one acorn that sprouts will ever become anything but a live oak. It definitely will not become a pine tree or any of the plants that are growing in my garden. I also understand cross pollination. If you don't want the possibility of hot bell peppers, don't plant them next to the habeneros, but I will surely never get a zuchinni with a scoville rating of 700,000.

Apparently, the writers weren't filled with the greed of today's secularists, who write a useless book at the drop of a hat. Why should that be hard to believe. Two millenium later we still throw people to the wolves for the sake of political expediency. That tells me that time sure isn't doing much for the improvement of the human mind. Didn't I read that somewhere in the Scriptures? Something to the effect that "Man shall wax worse and worse." I am just not conflicted about such things. Maybe I'm just one of those simpltons that God looks after. Let me put this in a human scenario. It may be lame and incomplete but here goes. You are the parent of a typical boy who has a bunch of like minded freinds. There is an abandoned junkyard down the road, which you have deemed to be a dangerous place to play. You have warned your child not to go there because it's not safe. One summer afternoon there is no sign of the boys, and you know exactly where they are at. You decide to let life take its course. Not only is there a possibility of them getting injured and learning a lesson, but they will also be punished when they return for disobedience. To do less would be neglecting your responsibility of being a parent. God does the same with us. We are not just puppets. Just like the child in the junkyard, as we mature we recognize that Pappa knows best, and hopefully, we lose the rebellious attitude.

And, you can't prove that they are. Sounds like and impasse to me.

First off, flying squirrel is only a name. They are actually gliding squirrels. Now, let me take that mentality to its logical conclusion. If I jump out of an airplane without a shirt on enough times then the skin under my arms should become loose and floppy, and if I breed a bunch of women, one my offspring should come out with very loose skin under his or her arms. After several generations wing suits will not be needed. From there, by the logic of Billvon's evolutionary theory, eventually feathers will begin to develop. Soon, my offspring wouldn't even need a parachute. Am I on the right track. Go evolution!!

So, are you stating that all life began at a moment in time. If so , obviously there was a catalyst of sorts. For lack of a better word, shall we call it creation?

Maybe I'm not so easily impressed. I've heard that a mouse can become an elephant, and a reptile can become a mammal. Sorry, but I should be able to look out my door and see animals in all stages of transition from one species to another, and from one genus to another. After all, nature, or would that be mother nature, has had millions, or is it billions of years to put the whole thing into motion. It just ain't happenin'. I want to see proof in hand, kind of like atheists want to see proof of God.

How would that improve my day to day living?

All of your following names and ages tell me nothing, and honestly, I doubt if they mean anything to you. So now, you are telling me that I evolved from a reptile. I thought that it was stated earlier that we didn't even evolve from apes. We only had a common ancestor. Was that a hairy crocidile? Do you believe that any species had held the line against radical change through the eons? If there is one, there must be others. Some things are what they are.

What I find to be interesting is why someone who claims to have absolutely no belief in God would spend so much time[I'm guessing several hours in this thread alone] arguing about absolutely nothing[remember, God doesn't exist] with those who believe otherwise. Browbeating someone who doesn't hold your point of view is an absolute waste of time. This is a two way street. I personally don't care if your eyes are opened ten seconds after you take your last breath. On a side, to give glory to Satan is to admit that he was created by something or someone. You can't have it both ways.

Wrong. That's like saying that someone doesn't rob a bank because there are armed guards there. A personal sense of morality is what causes monogomy.

There goes the Stampede.

Now, there's a fairy tale that I can put a lot of stock in!

shall have dominion over the fish of the sea, the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moves upon the earth. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Agreed, but it does take us out of the"just another animal along for the ride" category.

Only if they had a woody!

I did the first 16 miles starting in Ga. about 8 yr. ago. With a full pack[ 60-70lb] you will comfortably make 4-5 miles a day.

Please, you sound like a politician. Give me a real example. I would say 1969.

Is it possible that there really is something special about us as a species? It tells me that we didn't rise to the top echelon by chance, just to keep our bellies full. In other words, to quote the Blues Brothers, "We're on a mission from God."

We are not the only species with the capacity to feel compassion. Yet, we are the only species that makes an effort to preserve another species. You shall have dominion over the fish of the sea, the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.

Accelerate rapidly to your desired speed. Common courtesy is worth more than a few pennies of fuel. When I'm first in line, noone behind me can say that they didn't make through the light because of me. I do it out of courtesy, not desire for speed.

the shadow of my truck was cast back into my headlight beams, virtually making the first 50' in front of the truck completely black. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I'm no physicist, but is that possible? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Are you saying that a vehicle behind me with a bright set of lights is not going to cast the shadow of my truck in front of me just because I have my headlights on? Now, that sounds like a phenomenon. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Since we are all products of evolution, why should we care. After all, we are nothing but animals with no soul who should only be interested in the survival of our immediate herd, pack, or flock, unless of course, there is a drive that comes from a force outside of ourselves that demands that we reach out and help those who are weaker than us, those whom we have only heard about through the written and spoken word, something which the rest of the animal kingdom cannot do. Is it possible that there really is something special about us as a species?