Harris: Can I add myself to the list of people who request you use spoiler tags round your posts please? Just because they are so long, that they take forever to scroll past. You do it like this:

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Your post here

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Thank you

(February 1, 2015 at 3:08 am)Harris Wrote: Have you ever given a thought why malaria is not a problem in the secular west but it is a problem in Africa?

Sorry, that's as far as I could get!

Have you ever given a thought why slipping on ice is a problem in Canada but not in Uganda?

Let's make this multiple choice:
a) Imperial pigs
b) divine retribution
c) different climates
d) the will of God

Hint: when in doubt, pick _____.

The moment I checked out on your little mental masturbation:

Quote:As a side note, simply keep in mind that “The Theory of Evolution” is not open to examination, experiment, or experience. It simply cannot, as it is not an observable and testable phenomenon in the world of science.

At that very moment, you demonstrated that whatever else you had to say was not to be taken seriously. If you do not understand why I say this, it's because you don't understand what you're talking about. That was like five paragraphs of biased, baseless personal opinion, and a bullshit opinion at that.

So, to sum it up?

Quote: Tell me why educated people of the secular west are coming to Islam if Islam is a false movement.

I don't have time to make a full reply to everything right now but
Harris, I could PROBABLY list you about 100,00 movements that were/are false, stupid, insane, dangerous that at least some educated people of the secular west are involved in.
Educated people in the western secular world came to the cult of scientology, mormonism, the nation of Islam, the cult of hailes comet (was it called the gate of heaven or something?"
So to answer your question, thousands of people in the secular west, who are also well educated, follow totally insane ideologies, that's why it's not such a big deal that some educated people in the west are coming to Islam, some sects of Islam are less insane than others.

People do dumb shit. People copy other people who do dumb shit.

Why did people follow Jim Jones? Why did people follow Marshal Applewhite? Why did Germans get convinced by one man that they were the master race and God's chosen people?

Because it is very easy for humans, especially disenfranchised youth to be hooked on a utopia. Sell someone an absurdity it is very easy to lead them off a cliff.

I just remembered that Harris was the person who, in our last significant interaction, posted a link and then insisted the link said the exact opposite of what it actually said, due to the presence of a single word which, in isolation, was conducive to his argument, but in the sentence it was a part of, said literally the opposite. I was never able to convince him that a sentence which read "the data was not misrepresented," meant that the data was not misrepresented: the sentence had the word "misrepresented" in it, after all. The only possible thing that could mean is that the data was misrepresented!

Essentially, I don't have the time or inclination to deal with that level of willful ignorance or dishonesty again.

I only read the beginning, so I will only address that part. What is a "venue of atheism" or an "environment of atheism" and what does atheism have to do with "The Problem of Evil"?

(January 13, 2015 at 2:02 pm)Harris Wrote: As a side note, simply keep in mind that “The Theory of Evolution” is not open to examination, experiment, or experience. It simply cannot, as it is not an observable and testable phenomenon in the world of science.

Of course it is. We have already watched RNA develop, replicate and mutate under laboratory conditions. We are keeping records of everything we observe today. Now granted we cannot observe evolution that has already passed, but we have enough information to establish how it progressed. It may take some time to verify present day evolutions, but it will be done.

Fucking Christ, I didn't know Lev Tolstoy was a member here.