Got Proof?

I'm open to gifts of cash, fine jewelry, Italian sports cars, and promiscuous women; or any combination thereof.

Well, don't. Here's a recent survey that demonstrates that atheists and agnostics know more about religion than the people who follow those religions do.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/28/us/28religion.ht...

I go into Edit Profile, change the name, and click save. It says the information has been saved, but the display name remains the same. Huh?

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2010/01/hubble...

"Scientists on Tuesday unveiled what they say is a photo of the universe captured at its earliest stage of development yet. The photo shows the universe 600 million to 800 million years after the Big Bang. According to scientists the photo, which combines an August 2009 infrared image taken by the Hubble with an optical image taken in 2004, reveals galaxies never seen before. Scientists can tell from the characteristics that the galaxies were relatively young, nearly primordial, when the light from them that Hubble recently captured, escaped those stars."

Just wondering how people who believe that the universe was created 4,000 years AFTER the Sumerians built entire city states, feel about discoveries that demonstrate that the universe is actually more than 13 billion years old.

My uncle was the black sheep of the family. A deviant person who spent time in jail on a number of occasions, once for nearly beating someone to death with a baseball bat. He abused his wife and children physically and psychologically. He rarely held a job for long because he would constantly call in sick when he wasn't. He simply didn't want to work, and mostly spent time figuring out how to get money out of the government through various scams. He once taught his kids how to shoplift. He squandered what little money he did have and racked up huge debts that his children ended up paying when they grew up. (I once lent him four figures because I was young and felt sorry for him. He never repaid a dime; never even made an attempt.) My father, who was his brother, said that he'd been that way his whole life, and had done things that no one in the family would talk about. When he had nothing left to squander or borrow, he moved in with my elderly grandparents and pretty much cleaned them out before they died. He was physically very large and imposing and intimidated them with threats of physical violence. When he found out that he was very sick and didn't have long to live, he became a born-again Christian. He said that he had repented and accepted Jesus, although he never made amends for the untold damage he had done to so many lives. Mostly, he hung around with his born-again buddies and lectured the rest of us about how sinful we were. Then he died.

Now, about me. I've never been accused, let alone, convicted of a crime. I've spent my life being as kind and helpful to people as I know how to be. I have been a volunteer literacy tutor in my community for over a decade; I'm happily married to the same woman for 10 years, I've never cheated. I've never gone a day in my life without gainful employment; even when I had to take menial jobs to make ends meet. If you asked the people I worked with, they would tell you that I'm the only person in the company that everyone likes and gets along with. I'm not perfect, no one is, but have genuinely tried to lead an honest life while helping others when I can.

Oh, and I'm a hard core atheist. I simply do not believe that gods exist. Not Jesus, not Allah, not Vishnu, nothing. I don't believe in an afterlife and I will not accept a deity I know isn't real.

Okay, now the question. When I die, do you believe that I will I see my deviant, despicable uncle, who deliberately ruined and damaged so many lives, floating up on a cloud with angels while I'm being roasted and sadistically tortured by demons for all eternity?

Do you truly believe that that is how it works? A lifetime of morally depraved behavior is wiped clean by an (almost) deathbed repentance but a lack of belief is justification for unspeakable eternal torment? I'll respect whatever answer you give and thank you in advance for your response.

I restored it so the content is gone, but will it always be registered under my name? If the person I give it to goes on iTunes, will it ask her to log in as me?

For the past several days, I've been getting the same e-mail (Congratulations, you've been chosen best answer) over and over at my e-mail address. It's come in more than 300 times and I can't seem to stop it. Have e-mailed Yahoo with no response yet.

Thanks.

Whenever there is an update to iPhone software, I have the same problems. During the download I get an error message and then it tells me I have to restore the iPhone. If I do, I lose everything on the iPhone. If I don't, it won't work.

Why does this keep happening?