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And it's not a requirement to worship Jesus when celebrating Christmas.

Well clearly, that's not the definition of gnosticism I was referring to (and it's just dawned on me that a similar error occurs when speaking of agnosticism; there's the agnosticism that it's impossible to know anything or (for example) prove or disprove that god exists, and then there's the...

When speaking of terms, the idea is that we are speaking of an agreed term that everybody knows and is aware of, including the context. Which means you also agree not to switch the context or meaning of the word halfway through your explanation. That would be considered sophistry if you did...

Actually, a friend recently held similar views as you did regarding Christianity, and had the same doubts when I told her that Christmas had pagan roots. So I looked up the roots of Christmas again, and there is nothing particularly Christian about it; there's no evidence that it ever was...

Ja, that's the idea. The problem is also in distinguishing between past events we are aware of, or events simply being spontaneous--was the event caused by something else not from the past, or was there actually something in the past that caused it, but we were either incorrect in our...

And celebration doesn't have to be public either; there's nothing stopping people celebrating whatever holiday they want in their own private lives. Which I suspect is what most people do. I guess the reason we'd like there to be more secular celebrations is probably to encourage the idea that...

And why do you believe that to be the case? Is there a logical reason to believe that previous events are the only things that can determine what will happen? I agree it can have an effect on what will happen, but I guess because our view of time is also inductive, I don't know if you can ever...

Well, Christmas isn't really a Christian holiday anyways; it's mostly pagan, and I can't see any reason why non theists can't celebrate it. I don't think pagans would be offended just because you wanted to borrow a few traditions from their holiday and create a more secular one; having a winter...

Well, there's been a heckload of stuff I drew since the last time I was here, so I'll just post some highlights. http://Angelus-Tenebrae.deviantart.com/art/Tanz-fur-mich-152092449 Some lineart for Hellsing. Someone else colored it and won a DD on DA. You can see his colored version here...

Well ja, I was aware of that, and that's precisely how science works. Most of it depends on inductive logic, which is also the same reason why we never say anything is true with absolute certainty in science; we can consider something as fact and still not be completely sure that it's true; but...

I don't mind if you use it, and in fact, I'm sure you'll find equally good explanations for such if you search hard enough (the Atheist Experience and their wiki is a good place to look; they explain lots of things pretty well). And speaking of the Atheist Experience, I think they're one of the...

Was it's schlong...green? That's what Dr. Tatiana says about elephants in musk.

Obese children are a sight for sore eyes, I won't disagree, but on the other hand, you have people who are genetically predispositioned to look fat, or have diabetes genetically, and can't do anything about it. However, such people are specific cases of being overweight, and not everyone is...

Germany. I'd like to go there to see a world where there's actually German on the streets and on the signs and everywhere. Not just in movies, books, music and video games. But I'm probably going this summer anyways, so.

Determinism is true only insofar as induction is true. Inductive logic basically relies on the fact that if the sun rises every day I wake up, it must rise tomorrow as well--it sounds reasonable, but the fact remains that nothing is preventing the sun from not rising tomorrow. We can reasonably...

Actually, there is a distinction between agnostic and gnostic, and atheism and theism--you can't compare agnostic with being atheist or theist because they're completely different comparisons. So you can be an agnostic atheist or a gnostic atheist, or apply a/gnosticism to theism. Here's how it...

Actually, ridicule is one way of doing it. Because if you try to get your message across any other way, it may not work. And sometimes, it does require ridicule. Some people get the message if you try to explain it to them rationally, but it doesn't work for others. For them, they will only be...

It's not that you should be worried about; stealing your kids' money is almost tantamount to telling your kids it's alright to steal money if you're low on cash. Even from people who are close to you, and are your family members.

It's not a matter of whether or not it's alright; it is natural according to evolution to do that. Just be aware that there are some people smart enough to realize that having bigger boobs or a bishie face isn't all there is in life--if that's all you had, your employer would find out pretty...

Another good reason why automatic respect for old people fails. You judge people by who they are, and not their age. If old people were handicapped, they'd be in a senior's home rather than in the public. They're going to die sooner anyways. Conversely, I have met nice old people before. This...