Brodes

How many people alive today do you think have attained nirvana?

I understand it's hard to be precise about these sorts of things, so a a rough estimate is fine. Names of specific individuals would be great though

Why weren't the people who translated it? You'd think God would take the effort to make sure his works don't get horrendously garbled or become rather ambiguous

The U.S has the biggest problem with creationism in schools, while having one of the most well established legal separations of church and state? Countries like the U.K and Australia have no such separation and yet have a lot less problems with religion encroaching on government. Australia even has an atheist Prime Minister, which is something I doubt we will see in the U.S anytime soon

What is something from your religious doctrine that you think would benefit even non-believers? It can be anything: a proverb, an insight, an observation, whatever

You can pick just about any religion and find devoted followers, who know with absolute certainty that their religion is the one true religion, and that all others are misguided. They can quote scriptures and attest to miracles, and have such utter confidence in their religion that they would die in its name. What makes their faith any less valid than yours?

"Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel" - Isaiah 7:14

Normally prophecies are pretty vague, but you can't get much clearer than that. Why don't Christians worship Immanuel Christ?

I understand the need for self defense, as some temples have a history of getting invaded and ransacked (e.g Shaolin), but can the practice of martial arts also assist one in attaining enlightenment?

In your own words, what do you think evolution is exactly?

Say a friend approached you and asked what evolution was. How would YOU explain it to them? Please note that "It's a lie" is not an explanation.

Seriously, homosexuality is rampant in the animal kingdom. Did God make them that way?

In the olden days we got parting seas and people getting turned into salt. Now all we get is faces in toast and people in professional medical care getting cured.

In the final persecution of the Holy Roman Church, there will sit...

Peter the Roman, who will pasture his sheep in many tribulations, and when these things are finished, the city of seven hills will be destroyed, and the dreadful judge will judge his people. The End

No prizes for guessing what the tribulations might be, but I don't think Rome is going anywhere anytime soon. I also don't see much connection between Peter the Roman and Jorge from Argentina

Not naming names or anything...

http://www.palibandaily.com/2009/07/09/ireland-mak...

I personally find it appalling

Talk to yourself?

I do it all the time

Time for a little game. Why? Because I'm bored and learning Latin. The following phrases all came from, or are related to R&S, except they're now in Latin. 10 points for whoever can give translations of all of them first.

abyssus sepulchure est

si populus volvit ex simianus , quare es illic etiam simianus

entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem

Nihil curo de ista tua stulta superstitione

Or would it just be jumping on the bandwagon?

Genesis 1:27 says "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him", although it doesn't specify what exactly the image of God is. Is it then, fair to say that God is actually an ape and created Adam and Eve in His image, allowing them to evolve into present day humans? The fruit of knowledge could be a metaphor for the gaining of sentience/sapience

What is the deal with this?

Faith = Salvation

Faith + Works = No Salvation

What's the harm in having faith AND doing things to make the world a better place?

I posted a response to this question, as an amalgam of all the silly reasons Creationists throw forth against the Big Bang theory:

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=Ao0pf...

Unfortunately, my sarcasm was TOO good, as it spawned this:

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AvlZS...

I hope we've all learned out lesson from this. if you are going to make a sarcastic remark, remember to put a :P at the end so that people don't think you're actually a fundamentalist nut.

MQ: How many have had this happen to yourself?