Moontanman

This probably needs to be in another thread, there is a Proof of God thread, but how do you know that Zeus is not god for instance? Which god can you demonstrate to be real? What is your evidence for this God?

The atmosphere would freeze out, I doubt it would go anyplace... The solar wind tends to tear gasses away from planets. http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/1998/ast08dec98_1/

If I may ask how do you decide which religions are fairy tales and which are real?

This will be my last Coffee with Claire but I hope you enjoy Chuck Norris as dim bulb of the week...

In a very real sense we are the descendants of Homo erectus, it's unlikely that homo sapiens will be here 10 million years in the future but some other species with us as it's ancestor might be. Could you discuss with out me having to join another site to read your text?

I love post apocalyptic novels.. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternity_Road_(novel) My absolute favorite post apocalyptic is Hiero's Journey and the sequel The Unforsaken Hiero, sadly the author died before he could write the third novel and left me forever wondering what would happen next... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sterling_E._Lanier

Do you think these things are actually based in our genes or are just behaviors we learn?

I have to ask, what do you think the fate of the human race should be? Extinction is inevitable, all species become extinct over time, the real question is will we leave descendants or does the human linage end here? I agree we need to establish our selves off world if for no other reason so that we can avoid the type of disasters that ended the reign of the dinosaurs but I think this is bad comparison, we have technology, as far as we know no species of dinosaur had technology. I have been alive for 57 years, I grew up in the "sticks" of WVa, I go back now and the areas that were fields and forests are now housing developments and factories, it seems very sad but to the people who live there now it is home and looks the way it should look. Doomsayers have been around along time, will things change, oh yes, drastically in some places, most of the people who predict gloom and doom seem to be trying to scare the 1st world nations but it will probably be the 3rd world that will suffer the most. That might seem harsh but it would seem to be true for the most part from what I've seen. The 3rd world will lack the technology and will suffer the most from over population. I honestly don't see the 1st world allowing their standard of living to drop drastically to raise up the standard of living in the 3rd world. I honestly think technology will if not save us then help greatly in the struggle to keep humanity going, the real test will be when fossil fuels run out. it might force us to use renewable energy or to use nuclear energy more wisely but I think we will survive it. I don't see us playing out some post apocalyptic novel in the foreseeable future but even if civilization does fall it doesn't mean humanity will become extinct, civilizations have fallen in the past but with a bit of luck ours will continue to evolve to meet the changing circumstances and instead of falling will adapt... Adapting might mean mining what we call trash dumps for recyclable materials or even digging up septic systems for fertilizers but we can adapt. I agree that population would seem to be a big problem now but that could and probably will change...

Ask and ye shall receive.. http://frank.itlab.us/photo_essays/papers/spider_defense_early_warning.pdf

Are humans evolving due to the pressures of living in large groups? I think it's pretty obvious that things like medicine are allowing people to live to be old enough to reproduce that in pre civilized times would not but does the influence of our civilization amount to a evolutionary pressure much like nature selection? I know that medicine saved my life at least three times before I had children, I am sure there are many others who wouldn't lived to reproduce without modern medicine. Medicine that allows individuals to change behaviors that would other wise have crippled them socially if not saved their lives would also be an influence as well. If you look back over history the behavior of the human species seems to have changed considerably. Is this change a real change in humans or is it just humans using a repertoire of behaviors we always had but were used in different ways before civilization? Are we in the middle of significant evolutionary change driven by the selection pressures of our own civilization and we cannot see it because we are too confused by the forest to see the trees? I think some of the possible evolutionary pressures to be considered are medicine, governments and laws, and religion. Behaviors that at one time might have allowed individuals to reproduce more successfully are now more likely to result in criminal behavior and jail time other behaviors that at one time might have doomed an individual to low status and fewer reproductive opportunities might have the opposite effect in modern times. Are these selection pressures considered significant or are they swallowed up by the gene pool with little or no lasting effects?

I keep waiting for the next really great science fiction show, a few years ago it looked liked we were about to enter a new age of science fiction but then quite suddenly most of the science fiction was cancelled, often in mid season hanging. I have been told is was due to the high costs of producing good science fiction but it seems to have been replaced with fantasy horror shows that hardly seem less expensive to make... possibly the days of good science fiction TV has passed and fantasy horror has taken it's place but shows like Grimm or other such fantasy shows hardly hardly satisfy my craving for good TV...

It's more likely that you were hopelessly out gunned by a lack of empirical evidence... One person with empirical evidence of god could defeat an entire army of atheists trying to assert there is no god... I see no reason to assume a hacker is theist or atheist but simply stating there are a lot of them is as informative as saying there are a lot of theist hackers.. I agree, it would be nice if theists stopped doing that... How so? I've never had an atheist knock on my door looking to bring me the good news...

I'm not sure why you and SwansonT thought I was suggesting that I thought videos were going to be eliminated, I was just saying that I thought not allowing them would be a bad idea possibly my ability to communicate was somewhat off the mark with that remark... But I will agree that some guidelines are a good idea, I would hate to see threads degenerate into dueling videos... While I do occasionally use a video to make a point I do agree that simply posting a video is more like soap boxing than discussing... unless of course the video it's self is what is meant to be discussed. I do not like the very long videos being used as talking points or evidence, if it's more than few minutes long I need to understand why it is important to watch the video at the very least. I have to ask, what about the posting of videos as items of interest? Videos like Coffee with Claire or the Golden Crocoduck awards are for the most part just general interest items that can be watched or not watched as the forum likes, does anyone have a problem with videos of that nature being posted?

I have mixed feelings about this, I rather like using videos to show a point especially if the video is short and to the point and makes the point much better than I ever could. A case in point is the expanding earth nonsense that keeps popping up, potholer54 has a great video that debunks that nonsense quite well and posting information, the same information, over and over is just tiresome. Videos can also be helpful in getting a point across that is difficult to visualize in text. Some of the videos about evolution are quite useful especially the ones that give a text of what is being said and have links to the sources of the information. Then you have videos that I just like to share, such as the golden crocoduck awards which are just humorous and not intended to start discussions although sometimes they do and then videos like coffee with Claire which I think are kind of like mini news casts about current events surrounding society and science and the people out there who are just batshitcrazy but still manage to influence others. Some videos are very thought provoking by themselves and often generate discussions, i know I have learned quite a bit from various videos by several people, AronRa, Thunderf00t, potholer54, and bretpalmer to name a few. Another thing to keep in mind is that videos are increasing in popularity as a means to communicate ideas, I don't see how it would be productive to eliminate them completely, it might even be counter productive over the long term to stop using or allowing them completely.

More Golden Crocoduck award nominees...

Here you go, use this to calculate the parameters.. http://www.johnbray.org.uk/planetdesigner/

Sadly I think that is the most likely use for the idea of a "gay gene" but I doubt that there is one gene that can be blamed for anyone being gay, human genetics is very complex and one mutation much less one mutation unique to one individual is highly unlikely to be responsible for homosexuality... in fact the idea that homosexuality is anything but an aspect of human sexuality is unlikely...

I thought this was already known to be true, the brain is the most important if not the biggest sexual organ... Again, I doubt your take on genetics has any relevance in this particular case, I don't see gay as a mutation any more than blue eyes are a mutation but I have no doubt the net will be all a twitter over any such revelation if it were to indeed prove to be true... but does that make it important in of it's self? Kim Kardashian barring her ass makes the twitter world light up but it has no real impact on the world as a hole... How would such specific revelation about a "gay gene" affect the world?

I don't know dude, being able to trivially tear you limb from limb might make a relationship a bit one sided... "Wait a second, you're not finished yet"...

Careful... the revelators will come and get you... http://www.urantia.org/news/1998-09/revelators-plan-and-urantia-foundation and adjust your thoughts http://www.watchman.org/profile/urantiapro.htm

I'm not sure about the extra arm and head but an extra boob might be interesting... an extra penis might be redundant, since i have it on pretty good authority that most men don't know what to do with the one they have... I know i know, butt it's funny when you think about how they could be used.. where... it... or what ever... Only thing better than Dark Angel would be two of them... She was very very hot in Firefly as well... Yes Netflix rocks! Have you seen the Movie "Serenity"? My youngest son says he knows a guy who speaks Chinese and the Chinese words and phrases they use are genuine and not just babble...

And why would it be a historical day?

I'll tell the truth for sure about this, the deeper I look into politics and the politicians the more cynical I become and less optimistic about the future of the human race in general. No wonder aliens don't bother with us... would you trust us if all you had to go on were the rantings of the political parties? Then again maybe that's why they don't land on the White House lawn, several drunk rednecks probably seem safer to interrogate than the inevitable politicians... I bet they fear that anal probe more than we do.... all we seem to do is poll people relentlessly, what would we do to them...

Why do you say that some gene was mutated to make people homosexual? This implies quite a bit that needs to be supported, not the least of which is the idea that homosexual behavior is the result of a mutation and not just part of the human genome...