The Carrot & the Stick vs. Socialization


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I Eat Meat

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A Christian apologist asks �what is the difference (according to your view of reality) between humans and other animals? And a follow up question, are you vegan?� I know where this question comes from. Christians, and many other religious types, view humanity as categorically different from animals and assumes anyone who accepts evolution thinks they are on par with wildlife. Well, yes and no. I don�t believe man holds a special place in any mystical or supernatural way, nor do we have a unique link to the transcendent. Modern humans share a common ancestor with all animals, but that doesn�t mean we aren�t unique in several important ways. Humans have a far greater potential for intelligence, reason, and self-awareness than animals. It�s hard to tell how far ahead of the second smartest animals we are in these regards, but it�s clear to me that we are far ahead. The apologist's question came up on a post about morality, so I will address the follow-up question in that context. I am...
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The Cause of the Big Bang

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At it�s heart, the cosmological argument for God says that anything that begins to exist must have a cause. Used in conjunction with the Big Bang Theory , apologists can rightly argue that our universe at least seems to have a point of origin and therefore a cause. As an atheist, I reject a supernatural creator that did not begin to exist...so, what caused the Big Bang? Well, I don�t know (which is a valid response .) I only know of scientifically informed options. Quantum foam. I can�t explain this better than Lawrence Krauss so I prefer that you come back after reading the book A Universe from Nothing or after watching a relevant lecture . The best layman explanation I can provide is that �nothing� (the absence of conventional matter, energy, space & time) is an unstable state and quantum fluctuations will give rise to something--even the singularity that became our universe. Self-Causation. Violated causality is a logic no-no, however, it is a valid interpretation of quantu...
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