This is why Westboro Baptist Church is a joke

[kandrathe]

But... The flip side of establishment is free exercise. The government should not be telling the people that their religion is superfluous either.

How is saying that religious explanations are superfluous *to evolution* (not superfluous in general - good prevarication, though) violating free exercise? Presumably, mathematicians would tell you that God is not necessary to perform algebra, chemists would tell you God is not necessary for molecular bonds, and political scientists would tell you that God is not necessary to establish a voting system. The only reason biologists make a point of saying so, is that so many have claimed otherwise, but that this is scientifically incorrect.

Should they be bandying about opinions about God in any way? Is that not a violation of the "Separation"? God is not necessary for me to go to the restroom, but I pray that someone remembered to replaced the toilet paper. You don't want "wink and nod" indications that "God is necessary", but you are OK with "wink and nod" suggestions that "God is unnecessary"? And, you are actually wrong about how Christians, or Buddhists, or Muslims view the superfluousness of God in all things. To them, God is the simplicity of an equation, God is the beauty of a flower, God is the process of a chemical reaction, God touches the hearts of elected and electorate, saints and sinners. It is not necessary to contradict their beliefs, and it is not constitutional either.

Not every scientist is on board. Of course, when they are not, they are called crackpots. For example, "When I began my career as a cosmologist some twenty years ago, I was a convinced atheist. I never in my wildest dreams imagined that one day I would be writing a book purporting to show that the central claims of Judeo-Christian theology are in fact true, that these claims are straightforward deductions of the laws of physics as we now understand them. I have been forced into these conclusions by the inexorable logic of my own special branch of physics." -- Prof. Frank Tipler, Tulane Univ.

But, as we've discussed before, I view cosmology as just another type of religion, requiring little proof and a lot of faith.

In the US we've managed to slow down the free fall, but we are still in a relative decline compared to the past two decades. I think if we can figure out how to balance the equation between taxes and entitlements, and trim out some of the most cumbersome corporate regulations we'll snap back on track, and we'll lift Europe out of it's slump as well.

Deregulation and spending cuts: the universal solution? Growth is constrained by demand shortages. Demand is constrained by lack of employment. Employment is constrained by lack of hiring. Hiring is constrained by lack of growth. The trap goes snap.

In a linear model that makes sense, but in reality the equations are more complex. Hiring, and productivity are also constrained by resources devoted toward unproductive regulation. Demand is constrained by income which is made lower by taxation, and prices which are made higher by adding taxes and conditions on how the product is produced. Eventually (unless you believe in perpetual deficit spending) we must choose to purge those things (processes) that we can do without, or we can transfer the burden of maintaining them to the tax payers.

Without a consistent, cheap and abundant (infinite) source of energy we cannot sustain the productivity of the past.

Second Law of Thermodynamics, anyone?

I think you understand what I'm saying. The sun will eventually burn out and we'll all die.