On Tuesday 19 June 2018 17:31:18 Felix Miata wrote:
> William Morder composed on 2018-06-19 15:52 (UTC-0700):
> > Felix Miata wrote:
> >> Gene Heskett composed on 2018-06-10 23:25 (UTC-0400):
> >>> Evolution has changed almost everything on this planet in the last 70
> >>> million years, including us.
> >>
> >> "Evolution" as taught in public schools and universities is 6/7
> >> religion, 1/7 science. http://www.ep.tc/problems/59/ is a relatively
> >> short 1974 comic that explains without fractions.
> >>
> >> Evolution as taught has 7 meanings, only one of which is proven science.
> >> The rest is entirely based on faith in various theories that have not
> >> been and almost certainly will not ever be proven. More at
> >> http://www.icr.org/ and elsewhere.
> >
> > I believe it's fine for us to express our opinions on subjects about
> > which we disagree in our individual ways. However, if we start to debate
> > evolution versus religion,
>
> It's not a versus. Evolution IS a religion:
>
> http://www.dictionary.com/browse/religion?s=t
> ...
> 2. a specific fundamental set of beliefs and practices generally agreed
> upon by a number of persons or sects:...
>
> "Evolution", as taught, is not subject to proof. As taught it's all based
> on theories, aka beliefs. Micro-evolution is without question real and
> provable, but micro-evolution is not taught as distinguishable from the
> other 6 types of unprovable evolution, such as that which says dinosaurs
> and man did not coexist. Technically, it's arguably true that dinosaurs
> didn't, because "dinosaur" is a word originally created during the 19th
> century. Before then, the creatures since referred to as dinosaurs were
> called dragons, and there has been found much art on the walls of caves and
> elsewhere created many tens of centuries ago that indicate man was
> interacting with living dragons.
>
> > then I think (or maybe, I believe) that we need to start
> > another thread, if not indeed a separate forum, list, or whatever.
>
> One of my reasons to reply was to highlight the unending inane off-topic
> threads about coffee, chocolate & dinosaurs polluting this list and its
> archive. If dinosaurs are OK, then anything should go. I'd like to see OT
> stuff keep to a minimum or less.

I would like to debate you just to show that you don't know what you are 
talking about, either in religion or science (since history of religion and 
comparative mythology is my background). However, I do agree about the 
endless off-topic posts. 

Also, as I said, I don't feel the need to try to prove or disprove anything, 
as it will not actually convince you of anything, except what you already 
believe. But I am quite content to allow you to keep on believing whatever 
you like, so long as you don't try to convert me to your own beliefs. 

On the other hand, as I pointed out, trying to force other people into a rigid 
regime will only destroy us all. I think people here are just letting off 
steam; and anyway, when we go off-topic, it is usually confined to a single 
thread. Others tend to stick to the topic. 

Maybe we can all agree to be civil and polite, if not always to agree? I would 
hate to imagine that we cannot find some way to get along without the help of 
moderators or policing. 

Maybe somebody can just cry "uncle"? 

Bill