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Originally Posted by concheet
Of course that's true that many species have become extinct. But you have claimed that they became extinct out of ignorance. I say not, rather that they became extinct because of changing circumstance. You have not proved your point. Humans may be able to do something about circumstances, but whether our intelligence will ultimately prove to prevent our extinction is yet to be seen.
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Had a species that humans caused to become extinct possessed enough intelligence, they could have combated our actions, right?
No other species have been able to create cures or treatments for diseases except for humans. If our brains were less developed, we very likely could have become extinct already.
Use the asteroid theory as it is used with dinosaur extinction. Humans have the ability to track such things and even predict when they will hit. It may be somewhat unlikely that we would survive, but it isn't entirely impossible that humans could create some sort of bunker for a few of the species to live in and survive with the needed substances for survival of the species. Other species could not even come close to that. That is an extreme change. Lower the extremity of such an occurrence and the chance of the human species surviving rises.
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Both Stalin and Mao had rationales for the Great Purges and 5 year Plans and such. Obviously their followers followed those same rationales.
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Oppressive regimes do not require followers. The people are forced violently.
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But faith in a higher being can sometimes help a person to reach great heights and do great things. I just don't like to see people of religious faith be condemned anymore than I like to see those without it condemned.
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It's the bad things that people do that concerns me and the reasons they use to justify such acts is what usually causes it. I'll just refer to the great Bob Dylan,
"and you never ask questions when god's on your side"
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I am not sure that Christians used theology as an excuse for slavery, although I guess once they got the Africans over here they did they to convert them. But it was the Christian idea that led to their freeing. Harriet Beecher Stowe ("The Little Lady that Started a Big War") made her appeal out of "Christian" charity.
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The slave owners were christians. But yes, they were practicing a very perverted form of christianity.
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In fact, to me , secularists tend to consider themselves intellectually superior to anyone else who believes in any of the organised/ or not religions.
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I don't disagree with you on that. Well....I don't know about "superior" though...just that secularists feel they aren't being tricked. Agnostics at least are open minded enough to leave the option of a creator open, while atheists like myself consider that notion to be ridiculous.