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I just noticed that "The God Delusion" by Richard Dawkins is currently the #3 best selling book on Amazon.com. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/new-for-you/top-sellers/-/books/all/ref=sv_b_2/102-6972547-7015328 It is currently #8 on the New York Times Bestseller List for hardcover nonfiction. http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html/002-2663731-6688824?ie=UTF8&docId=239332

When I first register for a new domain, my registrar will direct the domain to a page of advertisements until I load my own web site. These ads are for various web sites, and the page will sometimes have adult ads. This has never bothered me before because I always upload my web sites before telling anyone to visit them. However, I was recently reviewing my web stats for one of my web sites, and I noticed most of the visitors were finding my web site by searching for pornography. It appears that a search engine bot visited my domain when the page of advertisements was still there. How will this affect my web site’s rankings on the search engines? Do I have to worry about my site being classified as an adult-only site now? Here is a picture of my registrar’s page of advertisements. I removed my domain name from the picture.

First, I hope that this post doesn’t offend anyone. If the moderators feel that this topic is inappropriate, I won’t mind if they delete it. Today, I made the decision to stop attending church. For several months, I’ve been attending only because I felt like I needed to. It seemed like my family expected me to, and it would be difficult for me to explain why I didn’t want to attend anymore. My parents were surprised when I said that. They instantly started blaming Sam Harris and Richard Dawkins, since I had bought their books a few weeks ago. However, I had made my decision long ago with the help of several SFN members. My parents told me that it was my decision to make, but they wanted me to keep quiet about it. They told me to never tell other family members or anyone else about why I don’t believe in The Bible’s version of God anymore. However, I feel that it is my right to do so. Why shouldn’t I be able to write books like Sam Harris, and attempt to convert people away from the prison of their own faith? Why should Christians be able to preach to everyone they see, yet non-Christians be forced to keep their opinions to themselves? I have a strong desire to spread my opinion. Does anybody here have a similar desire? Can anybody offer any advice for me?

I'm not talking about Christians in general. I'm only talking about one specific web site, and another web site that appears to be owned by the same person. I do not intend for this to become a religious bashing thread, just a place to laugh at how silly these two web sites are. I do have some things I would like to say about religion in general, but I will wait until the new religion forum opens. Will it be part of SFN or a completely different web site? That's another topic on these web sites that I just don't understand. Why do they think the King James version is so great while the new versions are incorrect? They claim it is because the new versions are just translations. Don't they know that the King James version is just a translation of the original Greek? They certainly can't believe that Jesus spoke Medieval English back in the days of the Roman Empire.

This web site appears to be owned by http://www.jesus-is-lord.com which also says some weird things. First of all, the owner says that you should save the whole web site to your hard drive because "the incarnation of the Beast is coming." They also have a very weird page about atheists at http://jesus-is-lord.com/bigtalk.htm Here is something they say about atheists on that page: I don't see how this proves anything because I have yet to find a Christian who knows everything about the universe. Like many creationist web sites, they also make misleading statements about evolution. They have a separate page about it at http://jesus-is-lord.com/gorilla.htm The web site's home page says, "Evolutionists say that YOU used to be a fish. Do you really believe that? Sounds like a Brothers Grimm fairy tale to me." I think they are getting evolution confused with Hinduism or another religion. I've never met an evolutionist who said I used to be a fish...

Has anybody seen the web site http://www.laststophell.com? It’s absolutely hilarious to read, but I think the author meant for it to be serious! Here are some of the craziest quotes from the pages of this web site:

Somebody at work said that she can't get a game to load on her computer. She told me that other programs load fine, but this particular game won't. She said that the game is less than a year old, and her computer meets all the requirements. She tried going to My Computer and she got the following error message when trying to access the CD-ROM: She thought that the CD was bad, so she went to the store and bought another one. She said the new CD also has the same problem. She also tried using both CD-ROM drives on her computer but neither one will work with this game. Does anyone have any suggestions?

I can snack anytime, especially if I exercise.

Here's a recent news article about this subject: http://money.cnn.com/2006/10/12/news/economy/trade/index.htm?postversion=2006101212

What exactly do you consider to be "internet privacy"? I believe there should be law enforcement to catch people who want to use the Internet to cause harm to others. People who are online predators should be caught to keep the Internet as safe as possible. However, MySpace and Facebook use exclusive friends lists. These are just online cults. There's no way to join these cults unless they allow you to. They never invite you to join and see their profiles. They just build up their cults with people they actually know in the real world. After that, they hide themselves from the outside world. You never have a chance to see their profiles online, yet you see them walking around in the real world. It's very creepy to see people daily and never have a chance to know them. Having groups of friends out in the real world just wasn't good enough for them. If they sat in a group at a lunch table, someone like me could sit down and join them. However, the cults have built "social networking" sites to suit their needs. They are not really social networking. They are ways for friends in an online cult to learn more about each other without allowing outsiders to join them. They can keep you out, and never let you try to be friends with them.

I'm normally excluded from any type of social contact in the real world. The Internet should be a place of freedom from the social isolationism of the real world. Anyone should be able to learn about and communicate with anyone else online. People should have the right to make friends online. Nobody should lock themselves in so that they can only be visible to the people they know in the real world. I hate how MySpace excludes people with their private profiles, and I also hate how Facebook excludes people from almost everyone. These sites are operated by cruel tyrants of the Internet. I think it's about time that the hermits fight back. We shouldn't be left outside to die.

I just received the book in the mail today, and I've read about half of it. It seems to be very well written. While this book will probably be very interesting to Atheists, I think it would be even more important to encourage Christians to read this book. It is written directly to them, and it promotes the rational way of thinking that Atheists and Agnostic people already believe in. After reading some of this book, I've decided to order "The End of Faith". I also ordered "The GOD Delusion" by Richard Dawkins. Is anybody familiar with either of these other books?

It appears that all the graphs you posted are from one source, the EIA. I'm not saying they are wrong, but they are still only one source. Here are some interesting sites that contain articles written by a variety of different scientists: http://www.dieoff.org/ http://www.lifeaftertheoilcrash.net/ http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/100303_eating_oil.html

I wasn't talking about you in that statement. I was just talking about some of the other peak oil skeptics out there. You wouldn't believe how many people actually think oil is a renewable resource. Of course, peak oil is a fact. Everything that is limited will eventually be depleted unless everybody stops using it. Either way, the production of oil will reach a peak. The main question is when will it happen? That is where Peak Oil Man and others need to be careful about confusing facts with predictions. Yes, the rate of discovery of new oil sources is decreasing. That is a fact. However, it is not known if that rate will continue to decrease until oil production peaks. It is possible that new technology could be developed that could increase the rate for a while before it starts to decrease again. In that case, it is possible for a cheap supply of oil to continue for hundreds of years. However, the vast majority of data I have seen is pointing to a peak between 2006-2010. I have read about advanced satellite technology that should be able to map any remaining oil supplies yet to be discovered. According to the sources I have seen, the chances of more large oil discoveries are very small. That does not, however, make it impossible. I agree with Peak Oil Man and his prediction that oil production will peak around 2008. Most of the sources I have seen support his prediction. However, I do not believe he should present it as a fact. While he does provide some data to support it, it is still just a prediction. Could you please provide links to the other charts and graphs? Most of the ones I've seen predict the peak of oil production in the near future.

I believe that Peak Oil Man is making the best argument in this thread. He has posted a graph created by an oil company, and it clearly shows that the discovery of new oil sources has declined sharply. This data is also comparable to data from other reliable sources. Most of these sources are showing that production will start to decrease between 2006-2010. This prediction was made by calculating the known supply of oil, the current demand for oil, and the decreasing rate in which new oil is being discovered. I'm sure you could get these numbers from reliable sources, and come up with the same prediction yourself. Just do the math. What I have trouble understanding is how people assume peak oil is all fictional. It's obvious that oil is a non-renewable resource, so its production will decrease someday. Peak Oil Man has already provided the data that supports his prediction. Where is the data that says we have enough oil to last hundreds of years?

There is an old narrow road between my neighborhood and the main road. The road is surrounded by trees, and has many curves. The road is about 2 miles long, and is very dark at night because there are no houses around until you enter the neighborhood. Anyway, there are many legends and myths about the road. Different people have claimed that the road is haunted. Lots of people talk about a mysterious fog that appears on certain nights, and some people have even claimed to have seen ghosts. A school teacher who lives in my neighborhood claims that she saw a ghost on that road. She said she was driving home late one night, and a very thick layer of fog suddenly appeared. She then claimed that a ghost of a girl walked in front of her car, and that the girl was wearing a dress from the 1800's or earlier. She stopped her car for about a minute, and she said the girl just stared at her. Eventually, she stepped on the gas and the girl just passed through her car. Almost immediately, the thick fog disappeared. In the past year or so, I've really dropped my beliefs of the supernatural. I even believe there are scientific explanations for the "ghost" pictures I took in Gettysburg several years ago. Therefore, I am skeptic of her story. I've never actually seen a ghost on that road, but I have seen the mysterious fog appear on some nights, including tonight. There is a pond by the main road, right before you reach the narrow road I've been talking about. On normal foggy nights, the fog is thick near the pond but it normally clears when I turn on the narrow road. Tonight, however, there was no fog near the pond or anywhere else I had been. After I turned on the narrow road, a very thick fog appeared. I'm sure that it was fog, because it didn't smell like smoke or anything else. It was very thick for a couple miles, but it completely disappeared the moment I turned off the road. Doesn't this seem a little strange? What causes this fog to occasionally appear, and why is it only on one road?

Ok, I decided to signup under a fake name. I can see my classmates, but I can't view their profiles. I just see their name, picture, and the option to add them to my friends list. If I click on that option, it says they will have to approve me before I view their profile. Maybe they will approve me since I'm using a fake name. I will also be able to send them messages. This could me a good chance to make friends, and learn more about my classmates. I just hope nobody figures out who I really am.

That seems very selfish of them. They should think about people like me, who don't have any friends. So, I don't have the right to know my own classmates just because they aren't my friends?

The web site facebook.com really annoys me! I've heard that it is similar to MySpace, but it won't let me view anyone's profiles. They actually expect me to give them my information before I can even view the site. Isn't that ridiculous? I sent them an e-mail saying they should visit MySpace because they obviously have no clue on how to setup a web site.

I just ordered "Letter to a Christian Nation" from Amazon.com. It looks very interesting. Thanks for telling me about it.

I've never gotten drunk in my entire life. However, I do not criticize Callipygous for drinking alcohol. It seems like he did it in a responsible way. He wasn't driving, working, or endangering other people. I believe age is a very bad way to measure responsibility. There are many people over the age of 21 who would drink and drive at the same time. There are also many teenagers who would consume alcohol only in a responsible way. Sometimes the law can be flawed by using age to measure maturity. For example, some creators of the law seem to think that anyone under the age of 18 would go on a killing rampage if they purchase "M" rated video games. That is absolutely ridiculous. I've played some of the most violent games out there, and many people say I'm the politest teenager they ever met. Yeah, I might be a little crazy, but that has nothing to do with the games! Anyway, age is not the best way to judge someone for using alcohol. Callipygous's use of alcohol might be legally wrong, but I don't see any moral problems with it. As long as Callipygous acts in a responsible way, I don't believe law enforcement officers would have any reason to punish him.

I agree with everything you said. However, I'm not sure if there are enough remaining resources to give people in developing countries a lifestyle even close to what we have lived. I believe a lot of the world's resources have been consumed during the period of luxury in the western world. Most oil experts believe the western world has already consumed over half of the world's oil. Large amounts of other resources have also been consumed. Therefore, there will be fewer resources for everyone to share if the world's economies do balance out. I know exactly what you are talking about. Around ten years ago, two large office buildings were built near where I live. The buildings were owned by a major credit card company. I remember the newspaper talking about the large number of local jobs the office buildings would create. About five years later, both office buildings closed because the credit card company outsourced all of those jobs to India.

Will the loss of manufacturing really destroy the middle class? The middle class is no longer made of almost all blue-collar workers. Most of the younger people I know who are "middle class" have received or are in the process of receiving a college education. Therefore, they will be able to work in technical jobs above simple manufacturing. The problem is that China is also becoming more technical. As their economy grows, their own citizens will start taking technical jobs. Lenovo, a Chinese company, has already taken over IBM's PCs. China isn't simply manufacturing computers for US companies anymore. They are starting to design, manufacture, and sell the computers themselves. Eventually, won't technical jobs in the US also be lost to China? If China becomes as technical as the US, I can see problems forming with the global economy. In the US, we seem to be unable to support our current lifestyle. We need the cheap labor in developing countries to manufacture the products we design. When China starts designing the products, where will they find enough cheap labor? If their billions of citizens take white-collar jobs, where could they find the labor to support all of them? In other words, if the US needs China to manufacture goods, who will manufacture goods for China when they become a developed country?

Oh, that is bad...

Computer science.