Religion

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_and_Eve#Islamic_tradition Hey, everybody. I just read the above wikipedia article and it mentions that: "Shi'a Muslims believe that Adam is buried next to Ali,[13] within Imam Ali Mosque in Najaf, Iraq." If all Shi'a Muslims believe this than wouldn't this be easy to prove or disprove using science (e.g. carbon dating etc)? I think this would certainly be possible and it wouldn't go beyond the capabilities of science at all. But if Adam is buried in Iraq, then would his bones have turned to pretty much dust by now or would it still be present? Is there any information science can obtain if Adam is buried there?

http://abcnews.go.com/US/american-religion-national-council-churches-reports-pentacostalism-gains/story?id=12931023 http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2011-02-16-church_growth_15_ST_N.htm?csp=34news The largest denominations continue to decline. Only 17 million Americans remain in organized Protestant churches. Some smaller churches, including more extreme or dramatic groups, have increased their size, but the overall trend continues its downward trend. One article above says that Americans are still "religious", just no longer enamored with organized forms. Sounds about right to me.

Taken from here. Thoughts?

Theism must be true because atheists can't explain the tides.

For the poll: An atheist is someone who does not believe in god, which could either mean simply not believing in god or believing there is no god. But to have any meaning, one must first define what this god is that they don't believe in. There are many many definitions/conceptions of what god is. See Conceptions of God for more detail: * Pantheism is the view that the Universe (Nature) and God are identical. * a powerful, human-like, supernatural being * Some comparatively new belief systems and books portray God as extraterrestrial life. Many of these theories hold that intelligent beings from another world have been visiting Earth for many thousands of years, an…

Does GOD exist, or simply a metaphor denouncing believers in him; as ignorant? Neither a mathematician, scientist or professing a religion, I grope daily for a better understanding of our universe. Do I get soluble answers? "Rarely". I read through this Christian literature thing about an hour or so ago and thought it was quite interesting, yet not overpowering or provocative. I will likely have my a-- handed to me for presenting it to the forum before the day is over, but it is something that should be considered. Many brilliant people on this program are not faith orientated, but knowledgable in scientific fields because of their education. Me?, I just jump at the chanc…

It's like when WLC claims he can justify (1) of Kalam by inductive inference. Even given a valid method of induction(which is a HUGE given as no one has been able to find one thusfar), this is not the case. To take something from a specific case to a general case, one must have a specific case from which to generalize! We simply have no known instances of something being cause to exist ex nihilo. Any claim of induction on this matter is either ignorance or equivocation. Conservation laws combined with several cosmological models do infact suggest that the universe COULD have an infinite past. However, even if the universe began to exist ex nihilo, it does not impl…

Mark Walker puts forth an argument that the mere existence of humanity is proof that God does not exist. Note that this works only for gods which are omnipotent, omniscient, and omnibenevolent. This argument uses a moral scale. 0 is perfectly immoral and 10 is perfectly moral(humans are 5). S is the set of all possible worlds which is populated only by beings greater than 5 on the scale. The argument: (1) God is omnipotent (2) So, it is possible for God to actualize a member of S (3) God is omniscient (4) So, if it is possible for God to actualize a member of S, then God knows that He can actualize a member of S (5) So, God knows that He c…

I travel a fair bit, to places with fairly diverse religious beliefs. On occasion, I have either visited a temple, or met up with people who have taken me along to their religious ceremonies or included me in their beliefs. This is very nice, but I also feel that it is a bit strange of me to participate. I've been to midnight mass whilst staying with a family in England, and I did all the kneeling and crossing and so on that was required but it felt very odd to me. I get that same feeling at funerals, in fact even more so, when there is a hymn being sung or I am asked to participate in some part of the religious ceremony (as I was at most of my grandparents funerals).…

Does everyone wish for human equality and good global living standards? In what ways would this be a bad thing?

Dembski got pwned so hard the host of the debate filed DCMA claims against every trace of it on youtube. Here is a vid describing the opening statement. It too was filed against and deleted, so it has been mirrored by several people: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ir7B4xM75I8

Someone I know only over the internet came up with the following argument: It seems like a fairly decent argument against omnipotence. Thoughts? Rebuttals?

Why does the catholic church consider birth control to be a sin even with married couples? This policy not only results in unwanted children that cannot be cared for and are a burden on society it also results in Aids being spread due to the anti condom fetish of the church.

Are Jews allowed to eat Halal meat based on Judaism belief? Are Muslims allowed to eat Kosher meat based on Islamic belief? Essentially are Halal and Kosher meats the same things? What are the differences?

Just something I heard somewhere and am curious about.

With the increasing rate of scientific discoveries and our greater knowledge of different cultures, most modern religions come under a lot of outside pressures that they didn't in the past. Which religions do you think have the greatest chance of surviving for the next few hundred years? In my opinion it would be some form of Buddhism, as large amounts of it are based on claims that cannot be refuted by science. Not all of it, of course, but it avoids a lot of the larger sweeping statements of supposed fact that occurs in Abrahamic religions. Again, it's not immune. Although Buddhism can be all consuming in some people's lives, my sister in law for example is a Bu…

First of all, I'm an undergrad and am currently do undergrad research. So today I was chatting with the graduate student I am working under and somehow the subject of Harry Potter came up and I mentioned that I am going to see it on Thursday night. She then told me that she never read the books because a church elder told her not to. I was really taken aback. Here is this PhD candidate who I know to be an excellent scientist, not reading a childrens book because their minister told them it was bad. I just don't understand how scientists could be so rational and empirical about everything during their work, and then somehow forget all that when it comes to religion…

many religions have a code of rules and they may be perceived to help society ie Christians believe it is wrong to steal. but some extreme forms of religion can cause war and chaos. ie imperialism, the crusades religious wars, terrorism to name just a few. so does religion have a positive or negative impact on society? do religious people make the earth a better place to be? or a worse one?

So I was looking at Godel's Incompleteness Theorems a while back, and I realized that the same should apply to people as well. So then the Godel sentence for God would be, "God cannot prove that this statement is true" or, if you prefer, "God does not know that this statement is true" If you think about it, those statements are true, but only so long as God does not know/prove them. But if He does, then God has a contradiction (ie God would be mistaken). Of course, the same goes for you and me. For example, "I do not know that this statement is true" I'm not sure what exactly to make of that. I realize that it must be true so long as I don't know that, but i…

The Song of Solomon is a rather unique book of the Bible. It starts out And gets more interesting from there. I think most Christians would consider that book too prudish for their tastes. It's also really funny to look at the sort of metaphors used; use some of those today and you probably will get slapped or stared at.

I recently came accross a paper which suggests that Paul's "vision" was likely a hallucination caused by an epileptic event. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1032067/pdf/jnnpsyc00553-0001.pdf This would make sense of the disparity between the teachings of Jesus and the teachings of Paul. What do you guys think? Any arguments for or against?

I recently watched a TV documentary about the Biblical plagues. They said that they were a chain reaction of events stemming from a red tide in the Nile and a hailstorm. That seems more or less plausible. What was rediculous, imo, was the passing through the Red Sea. For that, they purport atmospheric letdown uncovering a landbridge. However, their tests used 100mph winds to move an inch of water to uncover land. Does that strike anyone else as odd? How much wind would it take to uncover an actual ridge? I'm betting far more than that. I'm also betting that the Israelites(whose slavery is completely missing from history) would be unable to walk the ridge in such winds…

There is an interesting report by Raymond Ciao in "Quantum Mechanics--Scientific Perspectives on Divine Action" (Vatican Observatory Publications) on the quantum eraser/delayed choice experiments his group carried out at Berkeley. Effectively, the observer, by his choice of experimental arrangement, can go backwards in time to effect particle paths. Ciao interprets his results as "In this viewpoint, every elementary, individual quantum event... is a result of the creative act of the universal Observer, in which all properties of all particles come into existence upon their observation, in continual acts of creatio ex nihilo, which constitutes a kind of creatio continua oc…

islam christianity and other religions exept for some have one god and a prophet or somthn is that true

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/09/100922155120.htm