Mr Rayon

Which languages are predominantely taught in US highchools? In Australia, both in elementary and highschool, Chinese, Japanese, Indoesian, Italian, French are most commonly taught. In USA schools is it just Spanish and French which are prioritised?

I would like to die as a martyr or for another equally noble cause, just like Mahatma Gandhi. It depends on your beliefs though, some atheists dream of dying by being raped by some hot tempresses and having too much sex and dying due lack of energy.

Hey, guys I'm curious why when one goes to another's (or their own's) profile page to see their past threads/posts on SFN only the last few are listed? I'm not angry or anything but I think it would be better if somebody could incorporate a feature which allows users to view all their past posts/threads? Would this be possible in any way? It's just sometimes it's a bit hard to find out who has responded to you threads until you go through all the pages of each individual subforum which can get a bit tedious. The search feature also doesn't seem to be working as well (at least on my computer and several others).

Which foreign language is most beneficial to learn for an Australian? Are there any Australians on SFN (I think I've only ever spotted two )? Anybody got an ideas? If you could learn any language in the world which language would it be?

Hey, guys I heard that China and India may become superpower nations in the future... My question is, if they do how will this affect the US/European economy as well as our way of life? Are people anticipating any form of conflict to arise in the future due to the dominance of Asia? Furthermore would there be any increase in respectable science career/employment opportunities in the future for the US/Europeans in China or perhaps in India? Wherever you are do you see the rise of Asia as being a good thing?

hey guys I recall reading somewhere that it was Saudi men who were responsible for the september 11 attacks on US soil...yet immediately after the US attacked Iraq as "payback"? My question is, despte Saudi Arabia and the US being great allies, if the US were to wage war against Saudi Arabia for harbouring terrorists would they be able to do this without angering and involving the global Muslim population worldwide? Wouldn't future wars be impossible in Saudi Arabia as there are some senstive holy sites of worship there to Muslims? I have heard also that in the US religion/politics are tightly intertwined things? Could it be that USA is in fact at war with Islam? What does everyone think?

Hey guys! Is it true that one's handwriting as an adult is genetically predetermined before birth?

What do you mean? They seemed pretty sincere to me. How can you tell?

I think that's a bit of a leap in logic however for the sake of argument let's say that there is extra-terrestrial life somewhere in a distant and unknown planet. If we did encounter it and see it, how would it even look like? Would it have tentacles or release some type of toxic radiation? Would it be a solid, liquid or in a gaseous form? If it was gaseous, how would we distinguish it to other things that may be non-living? It may be somewhere in between or perhaps even indistinguishable. You could even go further by labelling it a 'supernatural' being and if it were a more sophisticated and superior being than us humans, some people may even call it a god. Certainly it would be different to the Abrahamic God and it may not be a god at all but if we keep investigating and finding more different extra-terrestrial life (assuming they exist) than those on Earth how would we distinguish this from the supernatural? It depends on the situation really and the quality/quantity of evidence being presented, there are too many variables to consider. However from personal experience I can say for sure that most theists are quite open-minded to different possibilities and are often quite determined and creative people. My root believe is in some form greater entity. I am particularly drawn to the Abrahamic God mainly because I was raised in a religious household. I do have doubts sometimes but the concept of a Creator, who is perfect in everyway seems more logical in that in actually provides (proposes) answers to the questions that we've all been so curious about. I'm not saying we should stop looking for alternative answers but perhaps focus more on proving/disproving the currently existing models for why God exists. As much as I am concerned no one seems to have debunked the Bible, Koran, Book of Mormon or Torah or any of those other scriptures. They present possible answers and we should all be trying our best to find out which is the real one true religion. Some religions suggests that God sent prophets over the time over His existence. If God didn't exist, how could He have let these proclaimed prophets perform miracles and other supernatural phenomena which were witnessed by many people. How could some people have fooled so many over the years into believing a false deity/belief system? There had to have been a strong and solid reason why so many people embraced all these different faiths worldwide. I mean Mormonism is pretty new, they couldn't all have been idiots right? One of these religions has to be right and my bet is it's one of the Abrahamic religions. Everything just doesn't make sense and religion proposes some of these answers which science cannot provide for as right now. Maybe there's a reason why God is not appearing before us in a visible form to prove that He exists, I'm sure there's a reason for it. I'm sure we'll find out in the Afterlife, maybe by doing this He is testing us for certain qualities which we cannot perceive nor comprehend at the moment in our imperfect human form. There's a lot in this world that we humans cannot physically perceive nor understand. For example, certain animals can hear and even see colours that go undetected in the human eye. I'm sure it's something like this.

Is it true that Tiger Woods is a sex addict? And what is it that causes someone to become a sex addict in the first place? What's the root cause (if there is one!)?

Who do you think would win in a fight between Satan and the Anti-Christ?

But would this mean that Barrack Obama is Satan?

Why do so many atheists believe in the existence of extra-terrestrial life despite the fact that it's not scientifically proven? They are not ready to accept in the existence of some form of a god however they are willing to believe and have faith that aliens exist? Could anything be any more ridiculous?

Will it ever cease to exist? And what about humans, will humans always exist forever? What's the general consensus?

Do scientists believe in the concept of infinity? Is infinity proven?

I have Russian friend who says that politics is the root of all evil. I laughed when he said this but then he asked me how many wars have not been started by politics and this got me thinking, is there any truth behind this? Do you trust your most well-known politician? I don't trust any politicians, not even the Australian ones.

What exactly are the suicide rates in the Middle East?

Yeah sure. I'm up for it!

Is it true that high population density creates poverty? If so, is this true and are there exceptions to this rule? What's the logic behind it (if it is true)?

Why does the price of oil differ between different countries? What is it that determines the price of oil? Is it more than supply and demand? Is there more to it that that? Who has power over the price of oil?

What are the benefits for a society which emraces gambling in comparison to one which does not? And generally speaking, is gambling healthy for a society?

Hey, what do you SFN members do for fun? What are your hobbies? And how do you guys find the time to contribute so many posts on SFN?

If all human beings were immortal and we knew this were the case, would this make people happier? Or would it make them sadder? Would you like to be immortal? If you thought you were, how would you live your life more different?

How much alcohol do you recommend people to drink? http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2011/mar/07/safe-level-alcohol-consumption Also, did anybody recently here in the news about the link between alcohol consumption and breast/colon cancer? I think it's unsafe but how can we get rid of this tradition when alcohol is so embedded into our culture? And for the record, I blame Jesus, what the heck was he thinking turning water into wine... ...very irresponsible for him to have done that I think.