In that case stay away from satire. It is not your strong suit:)

This post is coming from an atheist so skip the rest if you are a theist. The question is similar to "What is the meaning to life?". The question can be answered but not in any universal sense. Each culture and each individual has to decide for themselves what it means to be human. With the biological and evolutionary sciences continuously blurring the gap between human and primates even in the most esoteric ways, we have to decide for ourselves what it means to be human. This definition is more metaphysical than scientific however. I realize that this is a very qualified "yes". Hell, it could be in the No column as well.

Touche. Point well taken bradley. I also have problems spelling "tomorrow and "friend" despite a post-doctoral degree. I do think people on this debate forum can get a bit too emotional when they ague, which does make for poor debate. Too many people think debate means "fight". But I do like to be kept in check. I hold no absolute beliefs and am always open to reason and proof. I wish more persons were the same as that is the main purpose of debate..... I believe. No person beef with you my man. Hell, I even marked my own mis-spelled post down a mark.

Hell yes they scare me. Richard Dawkins compares religious indoctrination of childer as tanamount to child abuse and I agree. What a terrible thing to instill a child with supernatural beliefs that only serve to segregate people and create fear and suspicion in adulthood. All over what? Some goofy god guy that has somehow managed to propagate from the ages of mysticism and ignorance. Religion is shameful.

Hey, we need the dumb people. Who else is going to do all the unskilled manual labor? We just need to limit reproduction on lazy people.

Umm...... Debate. Some poeple just think you are a moron in everything you say. Get thicker skin.

I almost hate to write a comment on an argument that is so infiltrated with paranoid schizophrenics. Conspiracy theorists persist in magical thinking rather than accepting the obvious. I don't trust my govt. but I also know they are incapable of producing a conspiracy that cannot be easily uncovered. I can hardly believe that this is an actual debate. I'm so disgusted I don't even want to argue this silly postulate.

Ah, Bradford, you seem to think you are the sole authority on both the subjects of philosophy and science. Such arrogance usually implies ignorance. And your ad hominem attack on the "Ignorant American" is rather childish and, once again, ignorant. I agree that philosophy is not dead, for only philosophy can claim it's own death, and therefore re-direct it's avenue of thought. As Bertrand Russell put it (in his Unpopular Essays), "contempt for philosophy, if developed to the point at which it becomes systematic, is itself a philosophy."

Science has indeed eclipsed philosophy in many realms. The modern scientific method had provided us with concrete answers to many of the classical philosophical postulates that were once unknowable in pre-technoligical societies. If you state that philosophy is alive in anyone that questions the unknowable metaphysical questions that all thinking people eventually ask themselves, then the practice of philosophy cannot die as long as there is intelligent life to ponder these things. Quite frankly, I find philosophy pleasurable as a form of mental masturbation, but its actual utility has been overshadowed by scientific pursuit of The Knowable. All else is speculation. A theory that cannot be tested is not a scientific theory. So lighten up, you take yourself a bit too seriously I think. Go and actually do something to help people in a concrete way instead of thinking of clever snipes for those who disagree with you. You may find it more fulfilling and lose some of your venom.