Eliminator Jr.

Yeah. Well, more of an interest: I'm just starting to hear stuff by 'em. Pretty good so far, though.

Hi again, hows it going? The sun is killing me.

You're a fan of The Doors? :|

Haha I wasn't getting any visitor messages so I got bored and kinda left out on this forum altogether. But something (namely insane boredom) made me check it out today and voila new notification. So you gotta accept my apology for not replying sooner as well.

As for the massive comment, well what can I say I like to talk :-p

The following proposal is based on the premise that you are going to approve of it, which is further based on the premise that you have an open mind: if you want we could discuss the Religion issue further, in one-on-one arrangements rather than public discussion forums, for reasons pointed out earlier. My intentions? Obvious, I take pleasure in talking about the philosophical paradigm I accept, follow and take pride in, and the pleasure is only enhanced once I see someone else appreciate it :-) But then again, don't we all?

Don't get me wrong though, your conversion to my faith isn't my purpose, rather it's about sharing the beauty of the pearl I've managed to seek out.

I guess the following excerpt from an article summarizes my "motives" well. This is taken from an article written by a recent revert to Islaam.

"Before I converted to Islam several years ago, one of the profound thoughts that struck me was; that no one had told me. That my views on Islam were so different from reality. That it is in fact so beautiful, so logically consistent, so amazing. Why had they kept this secret to me up until then? Or perhaps people had tried, but I just wasn't listening before. Or perhaps yet; they simply couldn't reach me since they had no idea just how profoundly off my views were. After converting, I made it my personal mission of telling people what I had found, and how much it had put my world up-side down, and how much I loved it and benefited from it. And doing so has been a very interesting learning-curve so far. It has pushed me to constantly expand the boundaries of my knowledge, to seek answers for all and any question people might have."

Also, if you have facebook or an email account, we can discuss the issues over those as well, God willing.

Cheers
Hassan

not really sure. I bearly have the time to watch television now. :( I guess it'll be easier after this year.

brisbane lions. I live in brisbane btw. And i might try out for tennis this year, cuz i sometimes play when my brother has to practice during the holidays (he is in one of the school teams)

yeah its called university, I meant I don't know anything about microbiology since semester is yet to start. Yeah Im planning to get a Masters if God wills and then become a researcher in the field.

As for Muslims calling Allah God, well in general cases, especially when addressing a non-Muslim audience we are allowed to use this term, to avoid the misconception of Allah and God being two different things. Basically the God of the Abrahamic faiths (i.e. the one in the O.T. and the Father in N.T.) and Allah are one and the same. Muslims, generally speaking, use the terms God and Allah pretty much interchangeably, save some special cases like lets say prayer etc.

The only reason we as Muslims use the term Allah is it is a tad bit more comprehensive, because (Im being brief here) while the traditional picture of an Almighty Omniscient personal God is present in Islaam, there are some additional attributes which are unique to Islaam and no other religion. So Allah carries the notion of the Islaamic Deity, while the term God is somewhat general.

As for Dr. Chomsky, according to New York Times he is "arguably the most important intellectual alive". Yeah Im a really big fan of his (which makes me one in a few billions I guess), I think he is one of the most- if not THE most- brilliant minds of our time. Ever since the Vietnaam war he has been a very vocal critic of the US foreign policy. His works and lectures are simple and reach a wide range of audience.

And erm hes not really a philosopher, he is originally a linguist (professor in M.I.T.). He has got his own theory in the field, I read a bit about it but forgot. The main appeal about him however is his works on current world affairs.

As for the issue of burden of proof, although for the most part I agree with you and twocows, sometimes it would fall on the atheist as well. To cite one case as an example:

Theist claims Religion X is from God based on premise Y (lets say historicity or scriptural evidence i.e. prophecies etc.), but he didnt give proof for the existence of God to begin with. In other words, his argument is, one will rationally arrive at two conclusions once he considers the Premise Y, a) a God being existent and b) the religion being from God.

Atheist however would not give him any benefit of doubt, because he claims that first one needs to establish independent evidence for the existence of God before arguing about a religion.

In this case I would argue that the atheist's reasoning is fallacious and he needs to give his reasons behind not giving the theist any benefit of doubt. In other words, in this case the burden of proof would fall on the atheist as well.

A lot can be said on this issue though, I just presented one scenario.

well im not good enough for outside afl teams. I just play for the school. And i play the clarinet

im not exactly sure how the beep test works. So how much is about 7 for 100m sprints? (seconds) and as for AFL, theres only one team for each year level. So im in the year 12 team for this year.

what i mean is, did u want to really post on my profile, but u acidentally posted on your own?

Oh you're Aussie too? Yeah that's awesome, which team do you go for in AFL? Yeah don't worry, you're not showing off, you're just stating the facts. I want to start playing AFL for a team this year but I'm nowhere near fit enough (I'm not fat, as in I look pretty fit/slim but I can't run more than 2km at once and can only get around 7 on the beep test :( so yeah I need to exercise more) so I might give it a miss until next year. That or try and join the Monash Uni football team if there is one.

Or I might give tennis a shot, because I like playing it heaps but I've never joined a club or anything because my parents don't want to pay for it (and being a musician as well, most of my own money is spent on music equipment and booking rehearsal studios and stuff). Are you from Victoria (you don't have to answer if you don't want to)?
was that supposed to go on my profile? But anyways, Im from queensland, and i also play music as well! I also like buying musical instruments (i only play 1)

To clarify the point on debating: from my experience, and I am being perfectly general here, debaters on the internet strive to do the very thing you don't i.e. winning the argument. Also in the case of forum debates or discussions, a percentage would not know the ethics of debating and therefore resort to things like ad hominem (personal attacks) or other logical fallacies. So at the end of the day, and Im talking from my experience here, the input you need to give in such cases are massive, and the payout is zero, if not less (stress and fatigue are negatives). If I gave my opinion on the religion and atheism thread, Im 99.999999999% sure people would have taken it personally and/or would have made ignorant and stray comments. So this is why I said most of the time, online debates do not achieve the purpose that I (and you) wish it to achieve.

But yeah, Microbiology ^_^ semester hasn't started yet, bro. So I have no freakin idea what that is. But yeah I guess bacteria virus and thats what we people would end up with : -p

My class is B.Sc., and the grduation year would be 2015 I think **if God wills**.

So...du like Dr. Chomsky :-p (casual conversation starter :D )

yeah. I play soccer (2nd best out of 4 teams at school), basketball (also 2nd best out of 4 teams at school) and AFL (its an autralian sport and thers not many people who know of it) Im not trying to be a show off, but i <3 sport.

ah. well we could chat about other stuff, not just songs?

Hey there ^___^

I have been meticulously keeping up with the thread "Religion and Atheism", though I do not write anything since I do not believe in online debates (waste of time, thats what they are). Upon reading your posts, I have observed (my personal observations, they are subjective) that you have an open mind. Open minds are hard to come by, especially on the internet.

So, I am Hassan, aspiring scientist (Microbiologist) and theologian (centrally an Islamist), and its nice to meet you (note the underlying not-so-subtle inplication: I am assuming that you will share the pleasure of my acquaintance as I do yours ^_^).

have you listened to the ones i like? just youtube it or something?

hmm im not really sure. Ill think about it

Alright for the second one. I like it, but i prefer the 2nd one. The main singer is cool but don't get me wrong, I prefer the music rather than her. :P

the first one link, her voice sounds really awesome. I see why its one of your favourites, because its sounds nice :D :D :D :D :D im listening to the second link right now!

hey thats actually a pretty good song, mostly with the drum beats. Unfortunately, they don't seem too popular because theres not many views. Hey? But still, the coments were either "This is Awesome" and "I can't wait till the new album"