dimreepr

It is my belief that jesus went into the wilderness to avoid temptation, not to be tempted. This is an example of the disconect between knowledge and understanding the problem is in the translation.

Define free will?

Wisdom and knowledge are mutually exclusive. Wisdom of the ages, deal with the truths of life where as science deals only with facts.

Given the problems such a large brain presents, why is it that evolution developed such a brain that is only partially used?

This is a direct contradiction to descartes teaching, and to be honest, his argument is better.

I may be really thick but what exactly is your question?

Burying your head in the sand doesn’t make the science invalid; it just makes your argument invalid.

And yet it still remains smaller than all the numbers submitted so far in this thread, so WHAT is the question you posed to arrive at your answer?

How then do you hope to gain credability?

why not your number plus 1?

Happiness and pleasure are two different states of mind. You can't associate a pleasurable experience to happiness, as happiness is, in effect an absence of pleasure it's the default state of all animals. Pleasure is meant by nature to be a fleeting experience any attempt to associate this to happiness results in addiction.

I have no compulsion to conform in any way to the doctrine of the church, or any religion. My reference to happiness is an observation that if people are happy then religion becomes obsolete.

Your analogy is now clear and is good but I still question the ultimate aim of the church, surely Jesus would have preferred a good moral to an acceptance of fate?

Not a very good analogy, I’m not attacking the church here (my father’s a lay reader and a very prominent member of the local church and of course I respect him) I’m trying to find out what the aim of the church is, for me a good and decent society depends not on believe but rather on a happy populous.

So God is petulant? Isn’t a good life worth rewarding? What if I have dedicated my life to bringing happiness to as many as I can? Compared to the man that has sinned his entire life but accepts God into his heart on his death bed?

Thanks I'll try but this isn't really a question for an atheist.

As an atheist I have a question, if I lead a “perfect” life according to the bible but refuse to believe in God would I go to heaven or hell?

Technically you're correct my statement is missing a word that being complex life.

The question seems moot to me. The, fact, is food chains exist as part of the reality of life and as such we need to simply allow that it’s a constant and will be true where ever life exists.

You assert that people don’t get along, what informs this assertion? My experience is that people do generally get along it’s cultures that don’t seem to be able to do so.

Quite right, having read the thread properly, I can only agree. My post was a reaction to a deviation of the original premise. oops sorry Tres.

Of course you would react to the stimuli of your house burning down, but as Descartes points out, our senses are fallible and so can’t be relied upon. The reality might therefore be that you’re dreaming...

I'm sorry tres I have to say I'm a little disapointed in this reply as would descartes. Solipcism is the cornerstone of his philosophy.

I don't believe this is true, fairness is an inbuilt mechanism common to all mammalian social creatures. As such is the instinct that drives what we perceive to be good and evil. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=97944783