All Debates
You are browsing through all debates. You can refine the results by using the drop-down boxes above. You can view more information about each debate by clicking Show Details at right.
There is current talks in the trial of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev (aka. the Boston bomber) that he could recieve the death penalty if found guilty. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is accused of, along with his now dead brother, setting off a bomb at the finish line of the Boston matathon in 2013, which killed 3 people and injured about 260 more. Do you think he should or should not get the death penalty if found guilty? Why or why not?
So in June the US Supreme Court ruled that Myriad Genetics (a bio medical company) could not legally hold the patent for the BRACA I and BRACA II genes (genes that show a strong predisposition to breast and ovarian cancer). Previously the company had exclusive rights to the gene sequence so that they were the only ones allowed to test for the gene, and do research on it.
Do you think that companies and researchers should be allowed to patent genes that they find? What about genes that they synthetically make?
Link to New York Times article on the case if you want more info: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/14/us/supreme-court-rules-human-genes-may-not-be-patented.html?_r=0
I have noticed that a common comment from some Athiests is that religion is a huge waste of time.
So I am wondering (from people who are theists mostly) if at your death you found that there was no god, or that your religion was completly wrong about the greater workings of the universe and what happens after death, would you feel as though you had wasted your time practicing your religion? Or would you feel as though it did not matter and it was still a good use of your personal time?
This issue has cause a huge debate in my area and I was wondering what a larger opinion was. In a place where lisenced gun ownership and non-concelled gun carrying is leagle, should a law be in place to ban guns from public parks/playgrounds? Is a law such as this unfairly restricting gun rights? Is it a law which should be implimented for safety reasons? What do you think?
Every day people die while waiting on a transplant list for ograns such as kidneys, livers, hearts and lungs. Some organs can be donated as a live donation (eg. liver or kidney) while others are only donated after death (hearts and lungs). There are a few differnet ways of getting organ donations major ones include
Assuming people are not donnors unless other wise specified by patcient of family
Assuming people are donnors unless otherwise specified by paticent or family
Along with previously mentioned, you must be an organ donor in order to recieve organs
How would you fix the organ shortage issue? Should families be able to opt-in or out of organ donation after the deseased has already chosen? How should we deal with people who are brain dead?
What has caused the decline in practicing religion in the US?
As time goes on more and more people in the US are saying that they do not have a religion, and fewer people are practicing members of a faith community.
Why do you think that is? Is it due to the attitudes of those religious institutions? The scientific knowledge we now have? Do people not find religious worship fulfilling any more? Is it something else?
Note this is NOT a debate about whether this decline is a good or bad thing! It is about why you think that the decline has occurred.
A GMO (genetically modified organism) is an organims whose genetic material (DNA) has been altered through some type of genetic engeneering. Thisincludes genetically modified crops (eg. corn, soy, rape seed, ect.). Should companies be required to label on their food that genetically modified products were used?
Note if you are unsure what we currently know about GM crops and how they are made/what they can do, this is a very short and consise article about it, which I find to be pretty objective. http://www.ornl.gov/sci/techresources/Human_Genome/elsi/gmfood.shtml
In the past few weeks there has been much news about a papyrus fragment which is thought to be part of a gospel which was not used in the actual bible we know today. It mentions Jesus speaking to his wife. There has also been talk of tis being fake. Whether you are Christian or not, there is much evidence to suggest Jesus was a real person. Do you think this fragment is real or fake? Either way do you think Jesus had a wife?