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Posted by Andy™ on October 16, 2000 21:41:06 UTC

Ok, i`ve got about 25 minutes or so until my genetics midterm, so forgive me for answering your well done detailed rebuttle with a crappy small paragraph response of my own.

How d`you think that exam went? Do pretty well, y`reckon?

1) Thanks for the tip, i will henceforth italicize instead of using quotations cuz it`s so much niftier and aesthetically pleasing. :)

It does look cool. You can make words colored by typing this (without the spaces, of course.) < f o n t c o l o r = f f 0 0 0 0 > This text would be colored, and when you want to stop the color, you type < / f o n t > . The only spaces to apear in the HTML is between the tag (font) and the attribute (color) so it`s font color= yadda dadda.... The FF0000 is hexadecimal for the color red. You can find a whole list of practically every color possible at this site: http://users.rcn.com/giant.interport/COLOR/1ColorSpecifier.html.

2) Regarding maturity of humanity: Well, we had to learn these hard lessons you`ve proposed. First i must question whether or not we`ve actually matured since.

I suppose I miss-worded what I said... I didn`t actually mean the maturity of humanity as a whole. The human race, that is. I actually meant the maturing of humanities individuals. For instance, I am not going to become a maniac because others before me did and I can see their effects. Naturally, this isn`t the way it works on a broad-base. If it were, there would be no Saddam Hussains (or however you spell his name. I try not to acknowledge him.)
Bad choices will be bad choices, no matter how much they may change forms.

The threat of nuclear war may not be as looming as it once has been, but other more subtle forms of imperialism are happening - be it cultural or through economical means. Just take a look at this little trend:

WWI - once thought to be the most atrocious act in history, showed the deplorable extremes to human agression.


I learned from that one, big time. It portrayed much more than extremes of aggression, though.

WWII - about 15 years later, we did it again... this time with the atomic bomb.

Actually, WWII was totally avoidable, but the the world wasn`t through making Germany squirm, and they got mad enough to get it on again. Well, no one can ever say that humanity doesn`t improve the effectivness of it`s weaponry. ;)

KOREA - yup, another war.

Yup.

VIETNAM- yet another war rooted in ideological motives: capitalism vs. communism.

The tap root was a capitalism/communism conflict, but there were more factors involved, methinks. One of which was fear of communism`s viral spread. Sidebar: If humans were better people, communism would be the best form of government on this dirty orb or water.

GULF WAR - all out scud missle party that highlighted how efficiently we can blow stuff up.

That war was baised on keeping a maniac (good ol` Saddam) inside his own playpen. Our main mistake in that conflict was we didn`t finish the stupid job and now the nutball is arming back up again. We blew a bunch of stuff up, but it wasn`t exactly like Saddam was negotiating... at first. (Did you watch the missle launches on TV? I want some of those things for the next 4th of July. Celibrate the liberty of your land by blowing up a small peice of it! :)

MIDDLE-EAST/BOSNIA/YUGOSLAVIA- senseless war continues, lives are needlessly wasted every day. It`s still happening.

I swear, I think the sun gets to people in the middle east. The governments down/over there are like savage dogs all chained around a circle, waiting to break loose and maul each other and any passerbys.

So my point is, humanity really hasn`t learned that much despite the hard lessons we`ve witnessed. The trend of fighting for ideology, economic, etc. persists. History has shown us time and time again, the Hitlers (charismatic, dictatorial leaders) take power.

HISTORY has shown us these things. This is a prime example of how lazy and pathetic so many members of this race can be! History shows time and again that these kinds of people are BAD NEWS, but humanity just refuses to know this. IF people weren`t slaves to their own entertainment and realized that it`s our own fault when people like these take control, then maybe (not likely) we`d figure out that we need to know a little more about history. Woe is a nation that has limitless information and gains not knowledge.

Furthermore, God seemed into intervene alot more in the old testament. Heck, he`d openly push on certain conflicts so that the Jew`s would win in certain instances. In others, he`d let some other race win ex. Philistines, to punish the Jews.

This is a tricky issue... Yes, there are certain things in history that are completely and utterly un explainable. Miracles, we like to call them, although that term is far too over-used. I`m still working on my hybrid of determinalism and free-will. (SURPRISE! I`m not an extremest free willer) I think certain aspects of reality are predetermined, but somehow humanity fits in as a variable in some cases, but not constantly. (You see why it`s taking me so long to bang this thing out... I`ve been working on it for about six years now. I may end up compiling a book, y`never know.) It`s really easy to understand when you look at it as a clone between .... well, nevermind. I can`t explain it over the net, sorry. Anyway, it`s a very effective explainer, even in it`s segmented state. I don`t adapt it to fit the situation. That`s curve fitting. Situations fit in very well with it. Humanity has its free will, and that free will, in a sence, when you take all humans who exist now and ever will exist, have possible paths of choices to make, and each path they take is irretraceable, thereby they can have a "destined" set of paths, yet no destined path which they specifically must follw. That`s my only attempt to explain it, and I think, even though you may be able to make sense of it, I didn`t convey the whole hypotheses, just a little peice of it.

3) Regarding free will: I see Christianity and free will as being contradicted sometimes. For instance, Christains often refer to themselves as "instruments of God`s will". If you`re somebody`s instrument, then you`re just a tool that somebody else manipulates... how can there be free will there? or is "heaven" giving up your free will for God? If that`s the case, then free will isn`t really a big deal in the first place, and his intervention would mean everybody would be his "tool".

Yes and no.... Christians are tools of God`s will only by choice (there`s that buzzword again). When a believer decides to not do as God says anymore, then he stops being an instrument of God`s will. It`s not a binding thing. As for heaven, there`s something different about heaven that no one can explain because the only people who ever went there and came back didn`t stay long. Angels were able to choose not to stay in heaven (a bad choice) and I believe we could have that option as well, but given the alternative (which can be "seen" from heaven) I`d doubt if any human ever in the history of heaven chose to leave and go to hell. You wanna talk about restricting free will, hell is the ultimate in effective restriction. Anyway, in my experience, the bible doesn`t say you can`t choose to drop from paradise into hell, though it DOES say that you cannot have your salvation taken away from you.... Maybe after your sins are absolved and you exist in a sinless place as a sinless being, you no longer need a savior, only a brother, or a father, or a guide.

That`s all for now. I`ve got about 8 mins. Time to sprint to the exam room!

Procrastination is good for the cardiovascular system!! :)

So, again, how`d you do on your test?

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