It's almost like I can't resist!

Almost?

---

It's like trying to imagine infinity. It always hurts my head.

Quantum physics and cosmology are the closest things I have to a religion -- there is some massively weird and powerful shit out there, and it awes me.

---

We have the big bang in a trap about 10 feet to the left of me, or so they tell me.

---

And on a completely other topic, does anyone have a good recipe for peppercorn salad dressing? One that I probably already have everything for in my kitchen?

---

Timelies all!

I don't recall if my high school taught evolution as such. Biology and earth sciences, yeah, but evolution? Not that I remember.(They certainly didn't teach creationism) As a tangent, I remember a point in high school biology(well, mammalian physiology) where I thought "all this is happening around us all the time! Cool!"(This being the workings of the various systems in a body)

---

We have the big bang in a trap about 10 feet to the left of me, or so they tell me.

What, now?

---

It's a Bose-Einstein condensate. Just a bunch of really cold atoms huddled together in a ball.

---

And Jesus agrees with me, too!

And supports you, in email.

But see, next to rainbows and lollypops, I see mass murders and child molesters. It's a nasty, two-sided coin which makes me doubt the existence of a benevolent diety. *shrugs*

I wasn't thinking so much about rainbows and lollipops, as about the wonders of nature, and babies, and love, and self-sacrifice. Still, I completely understand your point. I think I see it differently. A perfect system was created, but to make it truly perfect, there had to be free will, which on its own, only makes the system vulnerable, not imperfect. Once free will was used to break it, to introduce evil, it wrought all sorts of havoc on the system and its inhabitants.

From a philosophical perspective, the problem of evil is a classic that has been used both to argue against and argue for the existence of a God with what I shorthand as all the "omni" attributes: omniscience, ominpotence, omnibenevolence.

Theists argue an omnibenevolent God has to give humans free will. The theological argument is that creation springs from love, and that love seeks love, not robot-like obedience. Since people have free will, they can use it to in effect, shut God out. In that sort of framework, evil is not a substance on its own, but is defined as the privation of good. Like a moth hole in a woolen sweater, it does not exist in itself, but only in another (this doesn't mean it is an absence, but to explain that, I'd have to break out philosophy books and I don't want to).

They also argue that the very way we are able to realize evil exists (that is, that something is terribly, terribly wrong here, like with murders, child molestation, or even more mundane evils like illness) is because we are able to recognize good.

There are all different arguments against the existence of God based on the problem of evil, and likewise, there are as many counters to them, and then additional arguments for the existence of God, based on the same things (and counters to those, as well). After a while, philosophy makes my brain fall out. I lose track of the threads.

---

And on a completely other topic, does anyone have a good recipe for peppercorn salad dressing? One that I probably already have everything for in my kitchen?

Go to store.

Pick out dressing.

Approach cashier, slowly.

Gradually take out money.

This recipe may take you out of your kitchen, however.

---

In totally other news, I had a minor freak out in the grocery store tonight when my debit card was rejected. WTFF?? Oh. Right. "expires 04/05."

---