OK, so I told a little white lie to get you in here. My apologies. That data is from 2011:-http://news.gallup.com/poll/147887/americans-continue-believe-god.aspxMore recent data (2016) puts it at 89 percent:-http://news.gallup.com/poll/193271/americans-believe-god.aspxStill an absolutely staggering number.Is it perhaps fair to describe America as a religious state, even though there are a diversity of religions being practised there? Indeed, would this not be a faux objection in the first place, given that Judaism and Christianity are both practised in parts of Iran?Really think about it.Even if we accept that America is "different" because of the variety of religion on offer, this does not detract from the common themes these belief systems all share (i.e. belief in God, the afterlife, prophecy, miracles etc...). It is my belief that the differences are far outweighed by the psychology which is common to religious groups generally.Thoughts?

As a radical left winger, he and I are poles apart politically. However, I've been watching some of his content recently and have discovered he has an interesting and unique perspective on many topics. He's clearly intelligent and it's fun listening to him debate those who closely articulate my own political views (like Russel Brand for example).Any thoughts?

Capitalism exploits our lowest possible animal behaviours precisely because the biological mechanisms which drive them are so difficult to control. In order to sell you stuff, capitalists work first to build, and then appeal to your ego, your appetite, your greed and your lust.Hence, I argue, capitalism works diligently against the natural evolution of consciousness.

There are so many pertinent examples to illustrate the point that properly analysing them all would take a staggering amount of time. I do not believe it an exaggeration to say that one could easily find enough material to begin a linguistics or a political science PhD.However, this is not a PhD, just a public debate, so I will provide only one example for people to argue about.When conservatives say they believe in "personal responsibility", what they are actually saying is that they refuse to believe different circumstances often lead to different outcomes. It is a disguise for the assertion that circumstances do not shape who we are or the decisions we make, which rationalises the subsequent conclusion that everybody should be equally accountable. But is this not a fallacy? Equal accountability in a system which is not equal? A homeless man who steals a loaf of bread because he is hungry should be punished the same as a rich man who did it for no good reason?If one considers the implications of equal accountability in a system which is not equal, it soon becomes clear that the words "personal accountability" are a veiled defence of the wealthy elite. The circumstances of this group are so privileged that they have very little need or incentive to break laws which enforcement have the resources to detect and punish, and hence we come to the truth of the matter.Equal responsibility in a system which is not equal is a stacked outcome. That is, it is not equal, but rather weighted heavily in favour of those who have no incentive to break laws. By repeating this short, simple phrase about "personal responsibility" on an endless loop, what conservatives are actually doing is inculcating people into the notion that unfairness (i.e. inequality) is fair (i.e. equal).Please discuss amongst yourselves. However, no attacks against liberalism, please. Attacking liberalism is not the same thing as defending conservatism. This is something which honest people do not require to be pointed out to them. Such attacks are both deflections and, since I am not promoting liberalism, also straw man arguments.Thank you. Happy debating.

If you stopped this kid from beating up a Muslim, he would call you a racist for stopping him. 

Never understood that one.

I only found out last night. It genuinely made me sad. The last time I got sad about a celebrity dying was Robin Williams.

I've just checked now and he has literally rewritten all of the responses I tore apart to give his argument the false appearance of coherence. The reality is that he kept changing his argument over and over again every time it was disproved. He finally settled on changing the God paradox he was given into something he called an "infinite loop" and then he tried to argue (in absentia) that there was no paradox because computer programs can generate infinity. Someone else kindly informed him that they can't, because computers are bound by the law of entropy  and hence will stop working before they reach infinite. He banned that poor lad too and carried on changing his argument!!!This kid is INSANE. Please don't waste your time debating him, because as soon as you disprove something he says he will ban you AND change what he said.

**Far-right activists are using fake Twitter accounts and images of battered women to smear anti-fascist groups in the US, an online investigation has revealed.****The online campaign is using fake Antifa (an umbrella term for anti-fascist protestors) Twitter accounts to claim anti-fascists promote physically abusing women who support US President Donald Trump or white supremacy.****Researcher Eliot Higgins of website Bellingcat found evidence that the campaign is being orchestrated on internet messageboard 4Chan by far-right sympathisers.****One image shows the slogan "53% of white women voted for Trump, 53% of white women should look like this", above a photograph of a woman with a bruised and cut face and an anti-fascist symbol.**http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-41036631

Far-right activists are using fake Twitter accounts and images of battered women to smear anti-fascist groups in the US, an online investigation has revealed.The online campaign is using fake Antifa (an umbrella term for anti-fascist protestors) Twitter accounts to claim anti-fascists promote physically abusing women who support US President Donald Trump or white supremacy.Researcher Eliot Higgins of website Bellingcat found evidence that the campaign is being orchestrated on internet messageboard 4Chan by far-right sympathisers.http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-41036631

Before I had any political views at all (or at least before I knew about them), one of the first things which drove me to the left was the dishonesty of the right. Early on I was able to see (if not identify) the abuses of reason being used to support and proliferate their ideas. A little later I began to question whether it was dishonesty at all, because too often the emotion on display clarified that perhaps these people actually believed the things they were saying. I began gradually to view it more as a type of self-deception, in which the liar has evolved a defence against the biological signs of deception by mastering the art of deceiving themselves. This is when I first began to see the remarkable similarities between Conservative ideology and Christian ideology. In any case, although this would obviously only be an extremely limited sample study, we can see that the general principle holds true empirically for this board. The contributors here who use dishonesty and sophism in their argumentation are almost invariably on the right. There seems to be a measurable divide in the *intent* of left versus right wing contributors. Those on the left (e.g. Wolfgang, Grenache, Catninja, Rattbag) seem to want to establish facts, while those on the right (e.g. Bronto, Outlaw, Amarel, Antrim) seem to want to establish myths.

Welcome to the wonderful right wing theme park, guys! Here is a very special place where up is down, left is right, backwards is forwards and climate change is a conspiracy against the fossil fuel industry! In fact, whatever the truth obviously is, we are going to pick it up, drop it upside down, and argue the complete opposite!! Trump isn't a Nazi. You're a Nazi for calling him a Nazi! That's how we roll, fellas!

They seem a bit fired up today. Or is it just me? All I said was that goose-stepping is a bit silly and it appears to have set them right off.

You don't understand how life happened? God.You don't understand why life is complex? God.There are gaps in your knowledge of physics? God.And so on, ad infinitum. Since there is no actual evidence for God, creationists seize upon the gaps in present knowledge (i.e. ignorance) and use them as an argument that whatever we don't yet know must be because of God. But what we don't know is shrinking all the time. Sooner or later God is not going to have anywhere left to hide.

The very basis of democracy is that decisions are made by a majority vote of the people. You might presently think it is practical or reasonable to delegate these decisions to a handful of "representatives", but I urge you to think on it a little harder. Is this reasonable, or is it a symptom of a lifetime of political indoctrination?My counter argument is simple. If we place decisions into the unilateral hands of individuals then we do not have a democratic political system. What we actually have is a dictatorship in which the dictator is chosen through a (semi) democratic election. Clearly, these are not the same thing.

What did you expect to happen in a society where selfishness and greed are worshipped as desirable attributes? Instead of working together for the benefit of all, people in America work against each other for personal economic interest. The inevitable result is the culture of bullshit you have today. Everybody is lying to each other to see what they can get out of the situation for themselves. Objective truth has become the most irrelevant thing in the American system, and many Americans (specifically those on the right) like it much better that way, because the only things they know how to do anyway are lie and exploit the naivety of others for their own personal gain. The sheer, wanton stupidity of the American system is singularly exemplified in the fact that, when there is a crisis potentially threatening everyone -- for example climate change -- instead of working together to overcome it, people continue fighting with each other over their own personal economic interests, to the point where the very scientific reality of the crisis is denied. America is the absolute epitome of a failed social system and the direct result of what happens when you nurture and reward mankind's worst characteristics. Many Americans consider themselves Christians, while at the same time they work against the principles attributed to Jesus in the Bible. Why feed the five thousand when you can feed yourself five thousand times? The acquisition of personal wealth and power are considered the most important goals (proven by the incentives offered by the American system) and this is something the Jesus of the Bible would find utterly abhorrent. America is a culture of brainwashing unlike any the world has ever known.

A NASA research team of scientists at the Johnson Space Center (JSC), Houston, TX, and at Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA, has found evidence that strongly suggests primitive life may have existed on Mars more than 3.6 billion years ago.https://www2.jpl.nasa.gov/snc/nasa1.htmlBacteria from Mars found inside ancient meteorite.http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/science-news/6660045/Bacteria-from-Mars-found-inside-ancient-meteorite.html

http://www.thecactusland.com/2013/11/jfk-and-911-common-thread.htmlI wanted to link this for you guys because it's a well researched article and very interesting to read. I'll quote a short passage as the first comment.

So, there is a stack of evidence that both the Afghanistan and Iraq wars were planned well in advance of 9/11 (note: if you doubt me I will gladly post it). Only wait a minute. The Bush Administration can't start these wars because they've got no reason. The public will never stand for it. Never gonna happen. Oh wait. What is this? A conveniently timed mass terror attack. What a shocking coincidence.

One of the predominant suppositions in both M-theory and other types of string theory is that there are more dimensions than those four we experience in macro reality, but for some reason or another we cannot access them. Could this be because our universe was created in a place where there are more dimensions? Exactly like a 2-D video game can experience certain dimensions but not others?Believe it or not, there are qualified and distinguished physicists who give weight to the idea that the entire known universe might be a holographic projection.Any thoughts?

All of the cells in our body are different from the ones we were born with. We are technically not the same creature. But -- somehow -- we still are.

I believe that in terms of IQ there isn't much difference between Americans and most other nationalities, but Americans have had their powers of reasoning and critical thinking snatched away over the last hundred or so years. American capitalism is quite simply incompatible with a critical, free thinking, logical population. After 9/11 is when it really became apparent to me, but perhaps older people will tell you it began even earlier.