'In the same way that we evolved a certain cognitive abstract capability
as a function of our capacity to read, there is every reason to believe
that there are other untapped abstract capabilities of our brains that
are not being developed by our traditional educational system.'''

ME: Do u mean the educational system that thinks our brains and
abstract thinking came about by pure collisions of random accidents upon
accidents originating from a random pond protozoa/ pond scum which
allegedly came from a convenient sea of chemicals which came from
NON-life which came from a totally accidental unpurposed Universe which
came from nothing , unwilled, by No One ??!! (Makes a nice fairy tale
for adults who 'dont want' there to be a Creator , doesnt it ; aka :
Pride and arrogance)

"CluelessDaveyinIllinois" wrote in message
...




ME: Do u mean the educational system that thinks our brains and
abstract thinking came about by pure collisions of random accidents upon
accidents originating from a random pond protozoa/ pond scum which
allegedly came from a convenient sea of chemicals which came from
NON-life which came from a totally accidental unpurposed Universe which
came from nothing , unwilled, by No One ??!! (Makes a nice fairy tale
for adults who 'dont want' there to be a Creator , doesnt it ; aka :
Pride and arrogance)


I have just a few questions for you, Davey--think hard....take as much time
in answering them as necessary :

==========



1. Explain why your God's only son had to be sacraficed so we can go to
magic happy land when we die.

2. Did everyone who died before Jesus died go to Hell? Justify your answer.

3. If a Catholic, justify the Inquisition and other persecutions of
"heretics" throughout the centuries, concentrating on why the Pelagianists,
the Priscillianists, and the Manichaeans were persecuted; if a Protestant,
justify the witch trials and the way that Protestants constantly hunted down
native Americans until there were so few that the government could simply
take their land; if a member of an Eastern Orthodox church, justify the
persecutions of the Old Believers after the reforms of the seventeenth
century.

4. Explain why I should believe that your God is all-good when the only real
information we have about him is the Bible, which clearly describes Him as
both good and evil. (See Isaiah 30:27-33, Luke 14:26, Numbers31:17-18,
Matthew 10:34, Amos 3:6, Deuteronomy 20:16,Exodus 20:5, Exodus 32:27, Isaiah
45:7, Psalms 52:5, Luke 22:36, and Jeremiah18:11 for a small sample of
Biblical passages which describe God as having an evil morality at times).

5. Explain why, when racism is clearly wrong, Jesus was clearly a racist
(see Matthew 15:21-28). NOTE: under no circumstances will I believe the idea
that racism is morally acceptable.

6. Explain why, when discrimination against women is clearly wrong, the
Bible clearly supports the oppression of women. Answering this question
entails refuting 1 Cor 11 and 1 Tim 2:11-15. NOTE: under no circumstances
will I believe that discrimination against women solely on the basis of sex
is morally acceptable.

7. Explain why, when slavery is clearly wrong, the Bible clearly supports
slavery. Answering this question entails refuting 1 Peter2:18. NOTE: under
no circumstances will I believe that slavery is an acceptable way to run a
society.

8. Explain why, if your god loves us all, more than half of us are going to
Hell after we die. Specifically, refute or explain the following words of
Christ, as presented in the New Testament: "Many are called but few are
chosen," and "Straight is the gate, and narrow is the way that leadeth unto
salvation, and few there be that find it." If your god loves all of us,
couldn't he find a better way?

9. Explain what type of offense could possibly justify eternal, unbearable
torture in Hell; if you do not believe in Hell,then refute every passage in
the Old and New Testaments which describes Hell (such as 2 Thessalonians
1:8-9 and Revelation 20:15).

10. Explain how your god can be both just and merciful,when these terms
apparently contradict each other.

11. Explain why possession by demons and/or other evil spirits was common
during the time of Jesus, but hardly mentioned in the Old Testament, and
apparently has been explained completely away today by things such as
epilepsy and schizophrenia.

12. If Heaven is a place where everyone is perfectly happy,then explain how
I could be happy in Heaven if I had loved ones in Hell.

13. What is Heaven like?

14. What is Hell like?

15. Explain why original sin exists. Why should I be eternally tortured for
something that a pair of naked fruit-munching simpletons did in a garden
over six thousand years ago? If you believe that children are born stained
because they were conceived sexually, explain why I would be punished for
something my parents did by your merciful and just God. If this does not
apply to you, explain why.

16. Explain why getting dunked in or sprinkled with water will prevent me
from being eternally tortured for the actions of the nakedfruit-munching
simpletons mentioned in #15.

17a. If your God did not want Adam and Eve to eat from the Tree of Knowledge
of Good and Evil, why did he put the tree in the garden of Eden (and at the
center, no less)? Was it for shade? If the purpose of the tree was to tempt
Adam and Eve, explain why the temptation was necessary. If God knows all,
then He already knew they would not be able to resist the temptation. So
what was the point?

17b. Explain why your God created humans as imperfect, then set his
standards so high that no one could possibly live up to them, then punishes
us for not living up to his standards.

18. Explain why sex, potentially one of the most wonderful, beautiful things
in human nature, is considered "bad" by your particular denomination. If
your denomination does not consider sex to be "bad,"then refute Matthew
19:12, 1 Corinthians 7 (particularly verses 1 and 9),Galatians 5:17, 1
Thessalonians 4:3, James 1:14-15, Matthew 5:27-31, Luke17:27, and Revelation
14:4.

19. Explain why, if Jesus was perfect, he thought that the end of the world
was coming soon, when it has clearly not come yet.See Matthew 16:27-28.

20. Explain why some people (James, Peter, Paul, Thomas,etc.) should get
convincing physical proof of miracles, while the rest of us are supposed to
take these happenings on faith.

21. Why are the stories of the resurrection inconsistent?

22. If you are a Protestant or a member of an Eastern Orthodox church,
explain why you are still using the Catholic Bible, which was formalized by
a vote among (supposedly divinely inspired) cardinals and bishops in the
fourth century CE, when you disagree with the idea that the Pope, who is
higher in the Catholic hierarchy, is divinely inspired;if a Catholic,
explain why your church accepts the canonical Bible while rejecting the
Apocrypha (do not use the "divinely inspired" argument:Because I am not
religious, I will not be able to accept it).

23. If your God wants us to worship him through our own free will, why does
he threaten us with Hell? If you have someone threatening you with a
punishment, it isn't free will.

24. Why would your God deliberately cause sinners to sin(cf. Romans 9:15-23
and numerous parts of the book of Exodus where God says, "I will harden
Pharaoh's heart."). Are these sinners still responsible for the sins which
your god forces them, against their will, to commit? Justify your answer.

25. Why should we accept the words of the gospel writers as truth when they
are known to be liars? (See Romans 3:7).

26. Explain why prayer is OK, but spell casting is not, when both amount to
the same thing: requesting that a superior supernatural force to intercede
in a way that would be impossible according to the normally accepted laws of
physics.

27. According to the Gospels, from the Christian standpoint, Jesus was the
most important person to ever live. From the Roman standpoint, Jesus was a
huge pain in the butt because of his political activities. Explain why
nothing was written about his life for over thirty years after his death,
and nothing except the Gospels was written until the third century CE.

28. Explain why you believe a person whose life is so poorly documented (see
#27) was even ever born.

29. In light of Matthew 10:34, explain why Jesus is called the Prince of
Peace.

30. The name "Jesus" has been anglicized. What was the original (Hebrew)
name of Jesus? Where did you get this information? This is a bonus question.

31. Why is it that the life of Jesus was so similar to the lives of pagan
Christs, particularly Herakles, Dionysios, and Asklepios?

32. If your God requires that people believe in him and follow his orders
through their own free will, why do Christians push their views on public
policy?

33. Explain why being a good Christian requires you to push your beliefs on
others. If you do not believe that you have to push your views on others (no
matter how much this annoys them), explain why you do not believe this
despite the fact that the New Testament seems to suggest that you must do
this to get to Heaven (for instance, in Matthew 28:19-20).

34. Explain why spreading the "truth of Christ" requires you to spread lies
about other religions, such as the idea that Wiccans (so-called "white
witches") worship the Christian devil. (Incidentally, they don't, and this
rumor has been persistently spread by Christians since the second century
CE).

35. At no point in the four Gospels did Jesus claim to be the son of your
God. (He said "son of man" quite frequently,and at one point referred to
himself as "a son of god," but that was a common Hebrew expression at the
time. Someone who was "a son of god" was a Jew. This reflected the
Israelites' belief that theywere the chosen people of your God. See Job
1:6). Why, then, do you believe that Jesus was divine? If you don't believe
that Jesus was divine, then why do you call yourself a Christian?

36. Given the fact that Jesus did not say anything original(the Golden Rule
and the "turn the other cheek" idea were stolen from Buddhism; and the
Beatitudes were common in the Jewish devotional literature at the time), why
do you see Jesus as such a great thinker/philosopher/ ethicist?

37. When Jesus said, "Resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy
right cheek, turn to him the other also,"why do you suppose that most
Christians fight for their rights? To put it another way, why don't we, as a
country of 85% Christians, let the government abuse us?

38. Why are so many Christian holidays on the same day as Pagan holidays?
Couldn't the early Church fathers have converted pagans only by appealing to
their reason and/or faith if Christianity is the true religion?

39. Do you believe that the Old Testament should be accepted as part of
Christian theology? If so, explain how you can worship such a cruel,
sadistic being (see Numbers 31:17-18, Deuteronomy 20:16, Proverbs20:30, Amos
3:6, Deuteronomy 13:8, Psalms 3:7, Psalms 52:5, etc.); if not,explain how
you can believe that Jesus is the promised savior sent by your God without
the messianic prophecies and the ruling rights of the line of David, both of
which are in the Old Testament in books such as Isaiah, Zechariah, Daniel,
Psalms, etc. (as opposed to, say, believing that Jesus was an irritating nut
wandering around saying things that people didn't like much).

40. Explain why your "just and merciful" God sent bears to kill forty-two
children who called his prophet Elisha "baldhead."(See 2 Kings 2:23-24).

41. If prostitution is wrong, why are there so many examples of it in
Genesis? (For instance, Gen 19:8, where Lot offers his daughters to a mob so
that his guests can avoid gang rape).

42. What is the sin that people committed that is so incredibly bad that
your God had to become flesh and die to correct?

43. Are all members of other faiths bad? Are they all damned to Hell?
Justify your answer with quotes from the Bible.

44. Are all atheists/agnostics/humanists bad? Are they all damned to Hell?
Justify your answer with quotes from the Bible.

45. What was your motive in proselytizing to me?

46. Where is Heaven?

47. Where is Hell?

48. Why don't animals go to heaven or hell when they die? What makes us so
special?

49. Why does Satan try to get peoples' souls?

50. Once Satan has someone's soul, what does he do with it?

51. Is your God perfect? Justify your answer.

52. Where does our soul stay while we are alive?

53. Why do evil people often prosper? Justify your answer.

54. Why do good people so often fail to prosper? Justify your answer.

55. When the end of the world comes, will your God raise our actual bodies,
or just our souls? Explain.

56. Explain why your god lets airplanes with sinless infants on board crash.

57. What is sin, exactly?

58. If Jesus is perfect, justify the parable of the fig tree (Matthew
21:17-19, Mark 11:14-20).

59. Explain why Christians harass Wiccans ("whitewitches")when the central
rule of the Wiccan ethical system is "an it harm no one, do what thou wilt."

60. Explain why Christians (yes, that includes all branches of Christianity)
have spread the lie that Jews put Jesus to death when, in actuality, it was
the Romans who put Jesus to death. (For a good example of New Testament
anti-semetism, see 1 Thessalonians 2:15).

61. If we are created in your god's image and likeness(Gen 1:27), how can we
also be imperfect?

62. Why was it OK for the ancient Israelites to sacrifice animals to their
god, while it is wrong for modern religions to sacrifice animals to their
gods? Justify your answer.

63. Why is it ok for modern day Christians to eat "unclean meat".

64. Why would your God confuse people? (See 1 Sam 7:10and Gen 11:9). Isn't
life confusing enough already?

65. Why would your God cause blindness, deafness, and dumbness? (See Ex
4:11)

66. Why would your God want to damn people by making them believe false
things? (See 2 Thessalonians 2:11-12).

67. Should the book of Revelation be taken literally? Explain your answer.

68. Would it be good for men to castrate themselves? Justify your answer,
taking Matthew 19:12 into account.

69. What exactly is faith?

70. All of the various Christian denominations ignore parts ofthe Bible,
usually because those parts of the Bible are inconvenient. Explain which
parts of the Bible your sect ignores, and explain why it is OK to ignore
those parts of the Bible.

71. Why did your god allow Satan to do evil things to Job (Job 2:7 etc.)?
Wouldn't your god better spend his time punishing unbelievers?

72. If Jesus and his father are one (John 10:30), then why does Jesus have
to pray (i.e. Matthew 26:39)?

73. Explain your belief in heaven in light of Job 7:9 and Ecclesiastes 9:5.

74. Christ giving himself up on the cross was a great gesture, true, but
wouldn't it have been more sensible for him to continue spreading his
message until he died a natural death? Answer this question in light of your
answer to question #1.

75. What is your interpretation of the temptation of Christ by Satan in the
desert (Matthew 4:5-8, Luke 4:5-9)?

76. In view of Matthew 6:5-6, shouldn't prayer in public schools be
discouraged? Support your answer with scripture quotes.

77. Do you feel that the last words of Christ were significant? If so, why
do the four gospels attribute three different sentences to Christ as his
last? (Matthew 27:46 and Mark 15:34: "My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken
me?"; Luke 23:46: "Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit"; John 19:30:
"It is finished").

78. Matthew and Mark say that the last words of Christ were, in Hebrew,
"Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?" This has traditionally been translated as,
"My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?" However, a more accurate
translation would be, "My El, My El, why has thou forsaken me?" El is the
name of a specific pagan god. Why would Jesus call out to a pagan god at the
moment of his death?

79. A commonly recited litany in many forms of Christianity is "The LORD is
my shepherd." (Psalm 23:1). Given the fact that the only reasons that people
raise sheep are to rob them of their clothes and to kill them for meat, and
the fact that sheep will often follow the shepherd to their destruction, do
you think that this is any appropriate image for your God? Justify your
answer.

80. Why is the theory of the big bang any more (or less)likely that the idea
that your God created the universe? Justify your answer. NOTE: I admit that
science has not explained where the original super condensed particle came
from, but no one has ever explained where your God came from, either.

81. If your God is everywhere at the same time, and hell is the absence of
(or separation from) your God, how can he be omnipotent?

82. In the Genesis story, your God tells Adam and Eve that the day they eat
from the tree of knowledge they will surely die (Gen2:17). The devil tells
them that they will not die, but that their eyes would be opened and they
would know the difference between good and evil(Gen 3:5). Wasn't Satan
telling the truth here? Is your God a liar? Justify your answer in light of
Jeremiah 20:7 and Ezekiel 14:9.

83. If Lucifer is not as powerful as your God, then he cannot possibly be
omnipresent. How could he possibly get as many followers as you seem to
think he has?

84. The Bible constantly describes your God as male. In view of the fact
that your God supposedly created everything, and creation is very much a
female function, isn't this at least a little bit absurd? Justify your
answer.

85. In light of the Trinity, angels, the Virgin Mary, etc., isn't
Christianity polytheistic? If the Trinity is three who are one, why the
three names? Justify your answer.

86. Have you read the entire Bible? If not, how can you be devoted enough to
try and convert me to a religion that you don't know that much about? Isn't
knowing as much as possible about something necessary to understanding it?
Isn't understanding something necessary to being completely devoted to it?

87. Why is 2 Kings 19 exactly identical to Isaiah 37?

88. Is Jesus's three days in Hell really an ultimate sacrifice, when more
than half of humanity is going to spend eternity there(see question #8)?

89. If your church considers the King James Bible to be the official and/or
authoritative translation, justify this in light of the fact that King James
commissioned his translation to be poetic rather than accurate. How can you
possibly use an inaccurate translation as your reference for what is/is not
the word of your God? If your church does not use the King James Bible, what
translation do they use? Justify the use of that particular translation.

90. Assume that I do not believe that Jesus died for my sins, or that if he
did, that necessarily means I will go to your heaven. Name one thing that
Jesus ever did for me personally.

91. Before Mary was knocked up by the Holy Spirit/Ghost,she was never asked
for her consent. (She was warned; see Luke 1:31). Mary was also asleep when
your God knocked her up; this strongly suggests that He didn't want her to
protest. Does this mean that Mary was raped by your God? Do you think rape
is wrong? Explain.

92. If it was foretold that Jesus was to be crucified,and if he knew this,
and if he was the son of your god, why did he do everything he could to
avoid being crucified? (See, for instance, Matthew 26:39).

93. If the Holy Spirit/Ghost is the father of Jesus (Luke1:35), then why is
the central figure of your trinity called God the Father?

94. Mary and God were never joined in wedlock. Does it bother you that Jesus
is technically a *******?

95. The original Hebrew word for the Holy Ghost/Spirit includes the idea
that the Holy Spirit/Ghost is female in gender. Isn't this rather silly when
you consider the fact that the Holy Ghost/Spirit is actually the father of
Jesus (Luke 1:35)?

96. Matthew 28:11-15 contains an account of a conspiracy between the Jews
and the Roman soldiers to spread the story that the disciples stole the body
of Christ. How could Matthew have known about this, since no Jews or Romans
would have admitted to it? If it was such a transparent conspiracy that an
outsider could have seen it, why didn't the other three gospels mention it?
Why didn't the Roman soldiers get into trouble?

97. Jews believe that people are basically good people and can work to
overcome their sinful tendencies. Most Christians,following the teaching of
Psalm 51:5, 1 Kings 8:46, Ezekiel 18:4, Isaiah59:2, and Psalm 143:2, believe
that people are completely debased and hopelessly lost in sin, and that only
your God can lift us out of this state if He decides to bestow His gift of
grace on us? Isn't this an incredibly negative view of people? Isn't Judaism
a more mature faith just for this reason?

93. How do you, as an individual, feel about Psalm 51:5?

98. What does your denomination teach about Psalm 51:5 (and 1Kings 8:46,
etc.), predestination, and similar matters?

99. Don't you think that the idea that no matter what we do, we can never be
good and righteous without help from your God (Isaiah64:6) fosters an
unnatural and unhealthy dependency on Him?

100. Revelation 22:16 says that Jesus is the "offspring of David." Mary was
not descended from David, but Joseph was. Doesn't this mean that Jesus
wasn't the son of your God at all, but the (mortal and not divine) son of
Joseph?

101. What would the correct thing to do be if your God gave you a command
that was harmful and/or destructive to you? A common argument, which comes
from Paul, states that because clay pots don't complain about what the
potter does with them, people shouldn't complain about what their maker
(supposedly, your God) does with them, but this completely ignores the
vitally important argument that clay pots have no sense of self-awareness
and cannot think or feel love, pain, anger, etc. If you want to make this
argument, you have to deal with this difference.

102. What (or who) do believe the number 666 represents? Justify your
answer.

103. If your God is "just and merciful," why would He take Solomon's kingdom
away from Solomon's son while not punishing Solomon, when it was Solomon
himself who committed the sin of idolatry? What did Solomon's son do to
deserve punishment? (See 1 Kings 11:12).

104. Why is Solomon commonly considered to be the paragon of wisdom by many
Christians, when he constantly sinned against your God(1 Kings 11:4-10,
etc.)? Personally, if I had a God talking to me, I'd do what he said.

105. Don't you think that an anti-sex position (see question#18) is a rather
silly position for your denomination to take when the biblical book "Song of
Solomon" is a piece of erotic poetry? (For instance,in Song of Solomon 8:2,
the bridegroom proposes to "drink of spiced wine of the juice of the
pomegranate." The pomegranate was a symbol of the female genitalia, and the
"spiced wine" represented menstrual blood).

106. Does it bother you that the cross, supposedly a Christian symbol, was
actually stolen from the Egyptians? Why or why not? (The Egyptian cross, the
ankh, was a male-female symbol similar in concept to the yin-yang.When the
Christians stole the ankh from the Egyptians, they removed the female
symbol, or yoni, leaving only the masculine symbol-- a subtle way of
reinforcing the idea that women are lesser beings).

107. What is the incredibly important doctrinal difference that requires the
fighting between Catholics and Protestants in Ireland?

108. Even if your God did create the universe, why does He want to be
worshipped? Is your God an egomaniac?

109. What are your beliefs concerning Wicca? ("whitewitchcraft"). How much
do you know about Wicca?

110. What do you think the word "Satanist" means?

111. How do you explain the fact that the word "blood" occurs over 400 times
in the Bible? Isn't this a rather savage way to write a book that is
supposed to be at the center of an ethical system?

112. Throughout the Bible, your God commands His followers to wage merciless
war on unbelievers (Luke 22:36, Deuteronomy 13:8, Exodus20:23-25,
Deuteronomy 20:16, Matthew 10:34, Numbers 31:17-18, etc). If you are one of
His followers, why aren't you out waging merciless war on unbelievers?

113. Numbers 23:21 says that your God "has not seen wickedness in Israel."
If this is so, explain why your God burned Israelites for complaining (Num
11:1), sent a plague against them for eating the meat He had given them (Num
11:33), why He burned people for using incense (Num 16:35), why He sent a
plague against the Israelites who accused Moses of wrongdoing (Num
16:44-49), and why He sent fiery snakes among the Israelites (Num 21:5). Is
your God a liar, or was it just more convenient for Him to lie at that
particular place and time, or what?

114. What was it that was so bad about eating an apple that death had to
result from that act?

115. What was it about humanity's torturing and killing of your God's only
son that made your God so happy that He again promised eternal life to
everyone who believed in Him.

116. How do you explain that Matthew and Luke give different genealogies for
Jesus?

117. Matthew says that the prophecy given in Matthew 27:9 was given by
Jeremiah. How do you explain that this prophecy was not given by Jeremiah at
all, but by Zechariah (in Zech 11:12)?

118. Matthew says (in Matt 2:23) that Jesus dealt in Nazareth so that he
could fulfill a prophecy stating that the Messiah would be calleda Nazarene.
Where is this prophecy in the Old Testament?

119. Matthew says that on the triumphant entry into Jerusalem, Jesus was
riding on an ass and a colt (Matt 21:7). How do you explain that the
original prophecy (Zech 9:9) stated that Jesus would be riding on only one
ass, and the other gospel writers place Jesus only on one ass (Mark11:7,
Luke 19:35, and John 12:15)?

120. In Matthew 1:23, Matthew has the angel say that Jesus would be born of
a virgin. However, the prophecy that Matthew is referring to, Isaiah 7:14,
uses the Hebrew word almah, which simply means a young woman. It has nothing
to do with sexual purity; the Hebrew word for virgin is bethulah. How do you
explain this?

121. Isaiah 7:16 seems to say that before Jesus had reached the age of
maturity, both of the Jewish countries would be destroyed. Where is the
fulfillment of this prophecy in the New Testament?

122. Matthew 1:23 says that Jesus would be called Immanuel,which means "God
with us." Why does no one (not even his parents) call him Immanuel at any
point in the New Testament?

123. How many inconsistencies in the Bible, other than those mentioned in
this paper, do you know of? Cite chapter and verse for as many as you have
room for.

124. If even the contemplation of sinning is a sin (i.e."sinning in your
heart"; see, for example, Matthew 5:28) and if Jesus was tempted by Satan in
the desert (Matthew 4:5-8, Luke 4:5-9),how can you say that Jesus was
without sin?

125. Do you believe that the existence of your God can be established
through a formal proof? Why or why not?

126. Pick a famous argument for the existence of your God, then criticize
that argument. (Assume I mean for you to use the academic definition of
criticize).

127. Pick an argument against the existence of your God.If it is not a
famous argument, copy it down here. Criticize this argument.(Assume I mean
for you to use the academic definition of the word criticize).

128. What does your denomination think of the government? Read Paul's letter
to the Romans, chapter 13. Now what do you think of the government? If
necessary, reconcile the two views.

129. What is your definition of the word Christian?

130. Why do you think it is that the ancient Greeks, who had a very liberal
sexual morality, had many fewer sex crimes (compared to the population) than
the United States, which is 85% Christian?

131. If someone accepts Jesus, and is "saved,"but then turns away from
Jesus, is that person still saved?

132. Where did your God come from?

133. What are the requirements for being saved? Some say that faith alone is
enough; others say that faith without works is dead. The Bible supports both
these viewpoints. What does your denomination think?

134. If I decide I like the answers to the above questions, where can I get
in touch with you? (Give name and email if available).

135. What is the name of your denomination?

136. How is your denomination organized?

137. How can I get in touch with a priest (minister, etc.)of your
denomination?

========

--

SVL

"PrecisionMachinisT" wrote in message
...

"CluelessDaveyinIllinois" wrote in message
...




ME: Do u mean the educational system that thinks our brains and
abstract thinking came about by pure collisions of random accidents upon
accidents originating from a random pond protozoa/ pond scum which
allegedly came from a convenient sea of chemicals which came from
NON-life which came from a totally accidental unpurposed Universe which
came from nothing , unwilled, by No One ??!! (Makes a nice fairy tale
for adults who 'dont want' there to be a Creator , doesnt it ; aka :
Pride and arrogance)


I have just a few questions for you, Davey--think hard....take as much
time
in answering them as necessary :

==========



1. Explain why


watch the History Channel....

-a|ex

Some folk in this group may find the following
selected extracts from a research article at
www.NoticeBoard.co.za/read.htm of some
interest. (After all, anyone who repairs his/her own
faucets is also a darn good parent :-) )

Quote:

Two of their most surprising and profound discoveries are that the
brain uses the outside world to shape itself and that it goes through
crucial periods in which brain cells must have certain kinds of
stimulation to develop such powers as vision, language, smell, muscle
control and reasoning.

''It's just phenomenal how much experience determines how our brains
get put together,'' Pierson, a neurobiologist, said.

''If you fail to learn the proper fundamentals at an early age, then
you are in big trouble. You can't suddenly learn to learn when you
haven't first laid down the basic brain wiring. . . . That's why early
education is so important, why Head Start is so important,'' she said,
referring to the federally funded program for preschoolers.

But what the brain can do depends on whether or not it is used. It is
the ultimate use-it-or-lose-it machine, and it is eager to learn new
skills. The ability to form abstract thoughts, for instance, is now
seen as a consequence of the brain's learning to read.

''In the same way that we evolved a certain cognitive abstract
capability as a function of our capacity to read, there is every
reason to believe that there are other untapped abstract capabilities
of our brains that are not being developed by our traditional
educational system.''

Long thought to be a clean slate to which information could be added
at any time, the brain is now seen as a super-sponge that is most
absorbent from birth to about the age of 12.

Thus, the brain can reorganize itself with particular ease early in
life during crucial learning periods. Information flows easily into
the brain through ''windows'' that are open for only a short duration.
Then the windows close, and the fundamental architecture of the brain
is completed.

''A kind of irreversibility sets in,'' Harvard's Earls said. ''There
is this shaping process that goes on early, and then at the end of
this process, be that age 2, 3 or 4, you have essentially designed a
brain that probably is not going to change very much more.''

The best time to learn foreign languages, math, music and other
subjects is between 1 and about 12 years of age, yet these years are
usually put on pause, given over to youngsters to ''enjoy their
childhood.''

Faced with the new evidence about how the brain develops and
functions, many scientists are concluding that society is wasting a
tremendous amount of the brain power of its young, and creating a lot
of unnecessary problems-including crime, aggression and
depression-later on in their lives.

That's not to say that all is lost if this early learning period is
not optimized. Using the tools left over from shaping brain cells and
their connections, the brain gives its owner a second chance.
There is, however, a price to pay. Instead of being easy, learning
becomes harder later on.

''If you want to significantly influence a child's ability to think
and to acquire knowledge, the early childhood years are very
critical,'' said neurobiologist Peter Huttenlocher of the University
of Chicago, whose studies helped open the door to understanding the
brain's plasticity.

UnQuote.

Justin Powers