₦airaland Forum

wiegraf: What @evil said.

Iirc sickle cell has mutated at least 4x (but I'll have to check up on that).

You should definitely check that up 'cos you're wrong. The sickle cell trait is a point mutation. That means a single "letter" of DNA got flipped (out of billions) causing a single amino-acid to be changed, which then changed the way the Hemoglobin molecule folds, causing it to malfunction. Because it's just one single mutation, It has probably arisen countless times over the millennia. The reason it's not common is because being AS carries many disadvantages (some kidney problems, a small risk of sickle cell crises and the risk of mating with another AS person) thus, natural selection has kept its prevalence low, except where malaria changes the balance of things.

Anyways, contrast natural to artificial selection, where people with consciousness, intelligence and the resources with the goal of say breeding hairless cats will succeed in 10's of years tops. Natural selection is not conscious or aware of anything, it has no goals, no purpose, no will etc. Well, it's inanimate so that's obvious. It's just what happens when a set of conditions are met, like say the rain, or stars forming, etc.

Absolutely correct. Once you have a system that can make copies of itself, and pass on accumulated changes to those copies, natural selection, and evolution are inevitable. It's like a law of nature.

F00028: they're not my words. you obviously did not even read the whole thing, evil brain. else you would have the link at the end.

I skimmed through it. Reading inane cráp like that hurts my brain and I'm not a masochist. Doesn't change the fact that it's complete rubbish.

Imagine saying that the man who improved the telescope and used it to first prove that other planets also have satellites "contributed little to science" because "his achievements were technical". By the same logic, the guy who won the Nobel for designing the antimatter containment system at CERN didn't contribute anything either. He's just a technician.

Let me give you a tip. Whenever you copypaste something from the internet, read it out loud first. If it sounds rétarded, then don't click submit!

F00028: spoken like a true blind follower

Everything OP said is wrong. If he truly has a degree in a scientific field, then I'd like to know what school. Maybe it's the same one Goodluck Jonathan attended.

A smart secondary school student could refute everything he's written (or more likely copypasted)

E_monkey: So atheists think that evolution has no direction?

I used to think that evolution had a direction in the sense that it takes the path that enables the species to survive. Evolution tends to favor adaptations that facilitates an organism's survival and longevity.
Can this feature of evolution not be regarded as the direction evolution takes?

Evolution has neither goals nor foresight. Natural selection is a totally blind process. It's not like something is trying to turn all living things into intelligent, sentient creatures like us. It just means any mutation that makes its carrier more likely to survive and reproduce will gradually become more common in a given population.

An example: Sickle cell disease is common in Africa because children who are AS are far less likely to die of malaria than those who are AA. That means more of them get to grow up and give birth to more children who are AS (and some who are AA). Therefore, as long as there is malaria in a village, the prevalence of AS children will continue to rise until it reaches a point where it's so common that the risk of marrying someone who's also AS (and thus giving birth to SS children) becomes as high as the risk of your AA kids dying of malaria. At which point the advantage of being AS is nullified and the prevalence rate stabilizes. It malaria ever gets eradicated, then sickle-cell disease will most likely fall slowly.

There is no mysterious force trying to make Africans have sickle cell. It's just that over the years, more children with it have been surviving to have children of their own. The same applies to all other traits. Over time, small changes like this add up and the end result is what we call evolution.

I hope that is clear.

Its definitely not reading the bible. Reading it was what made me become an atheist.

Personally, I would advise anybody who wants to remain a Christian to read the bible as little as possible. Or you could stick to reading tiny portions of it out of context like the pastors encourage. I also recommend the use of study guides to spoon-feed you the meaning of each verse.

Never read large portions at once, never read it from start to finish like a novel, and most importantly, never ever try to figure out the meaning by yourself. To do so is to toy with atheism.

Don't let the truth of the bible destroy your faith. Read it with caution.

Kay 17: I don't understand these Islamists' problem. Can't they let others live in peace?!

No!

Mr_Anony: Lol, but the same Wikipedia lets us know that the first letter of Paul to the Thessalonians which I quoted from was written as far back as AD 52. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Epistle_to_the_Thessalonians

Let me quote for you from the link you gave me:

"The Rapture is a term in Christian eschatology which refers to the "being caught up" discussed in 1 Thessalonians 4:17, when the "dead in Christ" and "we who are alive and remain" will be "caught up in the clouds" to meet "the Lord".......
............Pre-tribulation rapture theology was developed in the 1830s by John Nelson Darby and the Plymouth Brethren, and popularized in the United States in the early 20th century by the wide circulation of the Scofield Reference Bible."

So my friend Rapture has been around since the days of Christ, in fact that is what the hope of all Christians is; That Christ will come again for us.
"Pre-tribulation rapture" is John Darby's idea of what rapture is. He thought that the rapture will happen before the tribulation and not after it. That's what became popularized in the early 1900s.

That said, we can now comfortably dismiss your post as fiction and not fact

You people are misinterpreting Thessalonians, that's my point. One person came up with an attractive,but incorrect interpretation and you people swallowed it whole without chewing.

That's what usually happens with religious matters. Religion isn't grounded in reality so people just believe whatever rubbish they like on "faith basis" and it is impossible to convince them otherwise. Everybody now believes in this rapture nonsense, so it must be true even though the scriptural evidence is tenuous at best. Religious people don't need silly things like evidence. They just believe.

Mörons.

Mr_Anony: Really? I'm quite sure that the verses I quoted were written long before 1900. Where do you get your "facts" from?

From the source of all human knowledge, Wikipedia amongst other places.

[url]en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rapture[/url]

Fact: There is not a single mention of anything resembling the rapture in any Christian writing, anywhere before the 17th century. For the first 16 whole centuries that Christianity existed, the idea of the rapture never occured to anybody. Founding fathers like Justin Martyr, Origen as well as thousands of "great men of god" pored over the scriptures for 16 centuries, and not a single one of them ever got the notion that all Christians on earth would suddenly disappear along with a bunch of newly undead zombies.

The idea of a rapture first cropped up in England around 1830, most likely originating with a soon to be expelled Presbyterian priest called John Nelson Darby. It bubbled under among the more "spirit-filled" (i.e. crazier) Christians until the turn of the century when it was popularised, like so many other bad things, by the Americans.

It is a very new doctrine. The fact that you're ignorant of this doesnt make it less true.

Edit: In case anybody missed that, let me just point out that I was joking about getting my facts from Wikipedia. I (used to) read extremely widely and I get my info from a wide variety of sources. I just like quoting Wikipedia because it has a nice summary of the latest knowledge on most topics. And also because it's easier than posting links to a hundred different articles. If you want more info, follow the wiki references or Google is your friend.

Mr_Anony: Really? I'm quite sure that the verses I quoted were written long before 1900. Where do you get your "facts" from?

From the source of all human knowledge, Wikipedia amongst other places.

[url]en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rapture[/url]

Fact: There is not a single mention of anything resembling the rapture in any Christian writing, anywhere before the 17th century. For the first 16 whole centuries that Christianity existed, the idea of the rapture never occured to anybody. Founding fathers like Justin Martyr, Origen as well as thousands of "great men of god" pored over the scriptures for 16 centuries, and not a single one of them ever got the notion that all Christians on earth would suddenly disappear along with a bunch of newly undead zombies.

The idea of a rapture first cropped up in England around 1830, most likely originating with a soon to be expelled Presbyterian priest called John Nelson Darby. It bubbled under among the more "spirit-filled" (i.e. crazier) Christians until the turn of the century when it was popularised, like so many other bad things, by the Americans.

It is a very new doctrine. The fact that you're ignorant of this doesnt make it less true.

The connection is that the American Coca-Cola company created the Santa character for advertising purposes in order to boost their sales during Christmas.

It caught on, went viral, and eventually, others retconned the whole Saint Nicholas backstory in order to make the whole thing looks like a legitimate tradition, which it isn't.

MFM people aren't really killing anybody, no matter what they say. You see prayers don't actually work. So other than wasting people's time and creating noise pollution, they are completely harmless.

Let her keep praying like that if she wants. If I were you, I'd be more concerned about how much of her money the pastors have convinced her to hand over.

Deleted. Double post.

Mr_Anony: ....For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a commanding shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet call of God. First, the Christians who have died will rise from their graves. Then, together with them, we who are still alive and remain on the earth will be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. Then we will be with the Lord forever.....
1 Thessalonians 4:16-17

Right, the Christian zombie apocalypse. You do realize that this rapture stuff is a very recent addition to Christian dogma right? It was basically made up by American Pentecostals early in the 20th century who cherry-picked bible verses to back it up. Before 1900 nobody had even heard of the rapture.

The idea has spread so far because it's a very effective way to scare small children and the weak-minded into professing Christianity (it scared the hell out of me until I was about 7) But it, is as are all religious dogmas, complete bullshît.

You guys need to grow up (like I did) and face reality.

lastpage: http://www.netdoctor.co.uk/childrens-health/medicines/cervarix.html#ixzz2E3Zj55bJ

Therefore, l advise you to thread with CAUTION!

Lastpage!

The HPV vaccine protects against all the virus subtypes that are commonly associated with cancer. Of course, no vaccine is 100% effective, but this one is more than close enough.

Also, I warned against herpes, the other major STI that is spread through oral séx. Your post is redundant.

Logicboy03: Your point is foolish.


Atheism is the disbelief in god.

Religion is a belief and a set of practices which are not always dependent on a belief in a god.



Simply put, you can be an atheist and religious at the same time.


Go and read about atheistic satanists or atheistic buddhists

Also, there's such a thing as a secular religion. Religion only requires that you suspend your common sense and accept a world view that should be quite obviously bullshît. Belief in god(s) is common, but not required.

Just like Christians believe Jesus walked on water, many people in North Korea believe that the late Kim Kong Il hit 9 consecutive holes in one the first time he ever stepped on a golf course.

Either that's a religion, or the guy was really, really good at sports.

What a bunch of mórons! This is why you should never mix religion with politics.

When you give irrational people that kind of power, one can only expect large scale acts of stúpidity.

Deleted. Double post.

I started reading OP expecting him to be another religious rétard venting his ignorance mainly because of his poor grammer. Instead, I found a well reasoned post written in bad English.

This proves 2 things: 1. Not all religious people are rétarded. At least one of them has a brain in his head.
2. Having a poor command of English doesn't always mean you are stúpid. It is possible to be intelligent and be semi-literate at the same time.

There is a vaccine for Human Papilloma Virus. It is Highly effective, affordable and available in Nigeria. If you're worried, then go to a good private hospital and ask for Cevarix. Then you can enjoy all the cunnílingus and/or BJs you want (But look out for Herpes!).

Everybody calm the fúck down!

Double post. Deleted.

mexzony: Tell me something,we hear of armed robbery attacks everyday and thses people attack different people from christians to muslims to pagans.are you telling me that all these people don't bow down due to fear? Why do you just single out christians as if they are the only ones who are attacked.so no muslim or pagan has ever bowed down to an armed robber before or what.

Christians are the ones claiming that they have magic powers that stops weapons from working against them. So how come they don't practice what they preach? If your faith really works, then everybody should be able to see it.

There were no invisible miracles in the bible.

190-the-clown:
yes it leads to untimely pregnancy especially amongst Nigerian girls

Condoms

Nobody has even noticed the most crazy thing that he guy said: They plan to sell our census data to private companies.

Let me repeat, they plan to sell! the private information of millions of Nigerians to the highest bidder so that evil corporations, identity thieves, stalkers and hired killers will find it much easier to track us.

Its not bad enough that the last set of rêtards ruling us handed over the last census database over to the Americans without asking any questions. Now they want to sell the next one.

Congratulations, sir, you just guaranteed that I will not be participating in your next census. The government can take my citizenship if they want. They can kiss my àss while they're at it.

striktlymi: I am really at a loss why this topic made front page. I believe firmly that topics such as this which has the potential to bring about quarrels shouldn't be allowed or at the minimum they should not make front page. I really do not know but it seems some moderators get a kick from seeing people quarrel and insult each other over very trivial matters.

Topics like this force people to think and question their beliefs. If what you believe in can't withstand skeptical inquiry, maybe you shouldn't be believing in it.

If insults are being thrown, then blame the people who are throwing them not OP who has asked a fair and relevant question.

The only reason someone would get offended when someone questions his beliefs is if that person knows he can't defend them. If you get upset because someone forces you to turn on your brain, or because they point out the gaping holes in your reasoning, then you're the one with the problem.

Most Christians know deep down that that "serpents and scorpions" stuff is really just bullshìt so when exposed to real danger, all that faith nonsense goes out of the window. The ones fooliah enogh to try any stunts in that situation end up getting shot.

Occasionally, you may get lucky and meet an armed robber who's also a superstitious rétard like you and backs down when you start your incantations. But the fact is that most armed robbers know that it only takes one tiny bullet to shut any prayer warrior up.

advocate666: It depends on which god exactly they are asking about.

Do you also keep your mind open to the possibility of existence of Santa Claus, Spaghetti monster and fairy godmother?

I dont think any of those things are likely, but logic demands that I keep my mind open to all possibilities. Fairies and Santa many exiat in a form that we don't expect.

Maybe they're aliens, or part of a secret US experiment. Maybe the myth of santa claus has a nugget of truth in it like all many legends do. In any case I don't think either are likely so I act as if they don't exist. The same applies to god.

Logicboy03: What I listed about the religious polls are documented problems with the polls. You on the other hand, are just using desperate conspiracies to bash atheism


1) No one is an atheist out of rebellion. Who are they rebelling against? That is foolish christian doctrine talking and not reality. Atheism is a disbelief in god.

2) People dont tick "christian" out of ignorance neither do people tick atheism out of "ignorance". What I said was that some people tick christianity only because they come from a christian background. That same reason doesnt exist for atheism because it is not a religion or a religious background.


3) If 30 people tick that they dont believe in god, it means 30 people dont believe in god. There is an option for "dont know".

Also, atheism and agnostism answer different questions. If you ask me "is there a god?" my answer would be "almost certainly not", but aince it ia impossible to prove a negative, logic demands that I keep my mind open to the possibility in case some evidence ever shows up.

If you ask me "do you believe in god", then the answer will be a definite "no". There is no credible evidence, and no convincing philosophical evidence that god or gods exist, therefore I don't believe in them.

All scientific minded atheists are also agnostics. So are most religious people imho. Most of them suspect deep down that it's all a bunch of cràp, but go along with it out of habit, social and family reasons.Or because they want it to be true. In any case, if you have even a shred of doubt, then by definition, you're an agnostic.

Wearing perfume is only a sin if it's the overpowering, obnoxious type that makes it difficult for other people to breathe.

On the other hand deodorant is encouraged. In fact, it is a mortal sin to go out without wearing either roll-on, or spray deodorant. The Lord does not want to smell your funky armpits. And neither does anybody else.

Oh and btw, I fully agree with Rossike's comment.

Kay 17: The State speaks for itself, the wishes of the founding fathers is inconsequential.

This! Plus the fact that the American founding fathers clearly wanted the state to have no religious leanings whatsoever.

The constitutional seperation between church and state is clear and unambiguous. The founding fathers' justifications for it are well documented. The Christian Taliban are just playing dúmb to justify imposing their religious beliefs on everybody else.

Funny enough, these are the same people who will cry bloody murder when someone tries to promote anything even vaguely resembling sharia.

Hypocrites and fanatics!

OP is talking nonsense. Secular means not religious, and the constitution is clear that Nigeria is a secular state.

Just because the government is wasting our money on sallah rams, Christmas gifts and ridiculous pilgrimages doesn't invalidate the constitution, or change the meaning of the word "secular". It simply means that the government is breaking the law and violating the constitution, and they need to stop.

Let me remind OP that Christianity and Islam are not the only religions Nigerians practice. What about our traditional religions? What about the grail people, Eckankar and others? What about atheists? Why are they being discriminated against?

People who support this type of nonsense just because it happens to favour their own religion are short-sighted and stúpid. They lack the sense to see the consequences of what they're promoting. I wonder if when they get a Guru Maharaji worshipping governor, they'll be happy when he starts using state resources to promote his religion.

frosbel: I make no apologies for rejecting our ancient pagan religions to embrace the one and only GOD that there is.

Every religious person thinks his or her god is the biggest/best/only one.

Even if I didn't know how much of a narrow-minded, intellectually dishonest fanatic you were, I still wouldn't believe you over all the other many flavours of religious nut out there without some form of evidence. And you have none.

Except for "Christianity is the one true religion because the christian holy book says so" circular logic.

frosbel: I am not assuming, all African tribes whether tiv, zulu or whatever , believed in not just ONE Daddy but thousands of smaller Daddies in the sky.

I am sure this includes your tribe.

By embracing atheism you have denied your ancient heritages and denounced the belief of your forefathers. In fact you are ashamed of the whole thing.

Stop follow following the white MAN.

By embracing monotheism, you have denied your ancient heritages and denounced the beliefs of your forefathers (you see? I know how to make senseless statements too!) Not to mention that your fellow Christians lie against and defame African religions at every
opportunity, defile their holy places, and have almost succeeded in driving them into extinction.

Just watch any random home video and see the fallacious way our local religions are depicted. And this is almost always done by Christians who have been lying like this for so long they are barely even aware of it anymore.