It looks like Europe is going smash-smashy with particles

[Taem]

So, they finally got their big ring up and running. I found the suits filed against CERN to be interesting. Something tells me that in the U.S. such suits had the backing of fundamentalist evangelicals who don't want discoveries made. After all, where does it leave god if mankind can explain things by itself? More importantly, where does it leave the minister's BMW, Mercedes, Bentley, or RR?:P (and yes, I've gotten used to seeing ministers driving BMW's, Jaguars, Lincolns, Lexi, etc.)

I also find some of the arguments against the collider interesting. One would think that if the fundamentalist evangelicals were so certain that on death they had a 1 way ticket to St. Pete, they wouldn't be concerned with the microscopically tiny potential for the collider generating a black hole? Think about it, that's an early ticket to heaven.

Also, if they really believed in the teachings of the bible, they wouldn't worry about a potential black hole sucking the Earth into itself. Why? Because revelation tells them exactly how the Earth will end. Therefore, under biblical doctrine, it would be impossible for the Earth to be sucked into a black hole, because such an end is incompatible with the teachings of the bible.

I really wish the religious right would keep its hand out of progress. If they want to go live under a rock, hide from advancements, and revert back to the Middle Ages, then fine. I just demand the right to stay outside of the mess:)

Well, so far they've been wrong... so who cares? Religion has had its fair share of science stoppages to be sure, however I have also been reading recently about people throughout history attributing healing herbs and natural bodily regeneration to "magic" in most cases, or "miracles" in rare circumstances. How ironic is it that throughout history, religion has always had a negative view of "magic", which is essentially science.

If your purpose is to tout, "what good is religion for anyways?" then I suppose you picked a good topic to lay it on Tris. I for one feel that religion serves its purpose in comfort to those searching for answers, if nothing else. There are many different flavors to pick.

Someone in this thread mentioned myself as a more "anti-religious" poster. I for one became disenchanted with the whole Christian doctrine after reading historical proof of how it became put together, but I really, really, really don't want to get into that here! Basically my beliefs fall somewhere between Buddhism and my understanding of the religious teachings of the five major religions, and my own opinions. As for subject matter relating to biblical text, I won't go into that here, however I'd like to share some of my own personal musings: Of my own opinions, I feel I've heard enough "evidence" of aliens for them to be real (from Peter Jennings account, to generals on their death beds, etc.). If they are in fact real, I honestly don't see them sharing the same god we do, nor do I envision entering heaven with a bunch of alien souls cohabiting it as well. Also of my own opinions, I feel the negative energy people who do things they feel are immoral actually physically weight something, thus if you are "bad", you will in fact go down when you die, hence the burning lake of fire, abyss or purgatory while waiting to enter heaven, or white light and flying about in heaven if you go up. This would make the sentience of the entity known as god very centralized to our Earth alone.