Science:

Modern Medicine

Cars

Computers

Airplanes

Televisions

etc...

Religion:

A list of reasons to hate your neighbor

You claim that GMO's can cause negative mutations in your DNA. From this statement alone I can assume you don't know anything about genetics. Your DNA cannot be affected by what you eat (unless you're eating radioactive food).

As for genetics, it's not like the scientists randomly tweak some stuff and throw the plants out into the wild. They do tests, and we actually know a whole lot more about genetics then you imply. If your argument is that we need better regulation, then I see no harm in that. Make the scientists prove their is no harm before they release a certain GMO. You don't need to know everything about genes to conclude weather the plants will be safe or not. Instead you can observe the plants in tests in order to determine the potential risks.

As for your article, I was only able to read to abstract so I cannot comment fully, but from what I saw it seemed to be fairly unrelated. More importantly though, it was published in 1991. That means before the human genome project and all the other advances that have taken place in genetics. That means the article is obsolete, and irrelevant to the discussion.

If you want my opinion on alien human marriages, I would say this: you can't marry what doesn't exist. When actual aliens come along I will form my opinion based on their nature, but until then the debate is about as nonsensical as a debate about human elf marriages, or human troll marriages (more so if you take into account the fact that we actually know something about elves or trolls).

If the aliens were so much like humans that you could actually mistake one for the other, then I guess I might be in favor. Once again though, if we did meet aliens they would almost certainly be nothing like humans.

I love the fact that our nation has certain core beliefs. Freedom of speech, religion and the press, the right of every citizen to vote, and the fact that we are innocent until proven guilty are all examples of how we have a government that respects individual rights above all else. Theoretically anyone can run for any political office (even president!) and people can say anything they want to about the government without fear of repercussion. I laughed my ass off when I saw a video of someone telling dick Cheney "fuck you." It was a great example of the extent of the freedom we have in this country.

What I don't like is the hypocrisy: from historically denying citizens their rights (women and minorities) to denying other people their right to self government (Vietnam, Iran, the Philippines etc...). Our current spending is an example of how we attempt to force our will on others for selfish motives instead of sticking to our principles. We spend about half of our budget on the military. Sound like the land of the free?

As for our people, there are positives and negatives. We're pretty good at running a democracy and compromising when we disagree. We've only failed at this once in our entire history. What I don't like is our feeling of superiority. We assume that we can't learn from other peoples, but that everyone can learn from us. This occasionally gets us into trouble when we try to impose our way of life on cultures we know very little about (coughIraqcough).

Overall I do love America. I love what we stand for and how far we have progressed throughout our history. If I am sometimes disappointed in our actions, it's only because I have such high expectations for a nation founded on such noble principles.

If you want to talk about hating Jews however, look no further than Christianity. It has a long history of antisemitism (they used to burn Jews at the stake). Let's not forget the holocaust took place in Europe, in a predominately Christian nation.

Sorry, Islam has always been radical, has always been violent. The only way to deal with them is to destroy them.

If you believe the death of over a billion people is the only way to deal with Islam, then you are much worse than the people you are against. You are both a hypocrite and an extremist.

I'm not sure how I feel about your nickname, but if we go by the saying "the majority is always sane" then Christianity would be very sane.

In conclusion, don't put words in my mouth and infer meanings I did not intend. I was defending conservatism but you were blinded by your bias against me. Most of my friends and all of my family are Christian so in no way do I think Christianity makes you crazy.

There is always the possibility that something greater than the natural exists, but if so, why should we care? Clearly it doesn't affect us, otherwise science would find evidence of it. Nearly every mystery that baffled mankind was eventually explained as having natural causes. No divine intervention necessary. Rainbows were once thought to be intelligently designed because people didn't fully understand them. At this point we know enough about evolution and natural selection know that the process can work fine on its own. An intelligent designer is superfluous.

I respect your position as an agnostic, but I prefer the term atheist for myself because I know (to a reasonable degree of certainty) that I live in a world that follows natural laws. Can I explain everything? Of course not. Does that mean I think there isn't an explanation? No, and I would never try to explain the unknown through a deity or supernatural power. Really that's no better than saying "it's magic". Such a response doesn't help us understand our universe any better.

Maybe I'm just dreaming this entire world and nothing else exists. Technically you can't disprove this, but if that's the truth why does it matter? It still appears as if everything else exists so why should I worry about the unknowable?

We built tools

We created fire

We passed knowledge from generation to generation

We learned to read and write

We built towns

We built cities

We made ships

We conquered the world

We used electricity

We made cars

We learned how to fly

We made radios and T.V.s

We went to space

Today, I can communicate with someone from across the world through the internet without even leaving my bed. That seems pretty smart considering our origins.

Also, just because an idea is accepted doesn't make it right, or even good. Slavery used to be an accepted idea, and so did the idea that the world is flat. Truth is not a popularity contest.

As for marijuana specifically, there are a couple reasons why it was outlawed. States began to outlaw it in the 1920's because newspapers were printing stories that claimed the drug made people go crazy and go on killing rampages. Obviously we know now that is not true, and in fact these newspapers were simply writing these sensationalist stories to make a profit.

Companies like Dupont also wanted marijuana outlawed because hemp was competition for nylon and other products they created. See the link below to get a more detailed answer to the prohibition of marijuana.

I know your a conservative Jake, and as such you tend to accept the status quo and reject change, but sometimes it's important to ask why things are the way they are. If you don't have a reason why marijuana should be illegal then maybe you need to reevaluate your position.