Well I see where you're coming from but that human DNA is specific to only humans, hence it's classification as human DNA, not human and chimp DNA.

And the reason organs are not human are because they are not alive by themselves. Even if a laboratory is keeping a heart alive, it is not a self-sufficient organism.

That's a good point. I guess it's something we'll probably never know. I mean, all we can do is observe animals. We can't really communicate with them to understand them as well as we do humans.

So then you agree. A chimpanzee is not human. It is only 98% human, which is my point exactly. the other 2% is what makes us human.

And a single organ is not an individual human in the same sense that a single antenna is not an entire television. Or one down feather is not a complete down feather jacket.

Other animals can have their own forms of emotions. Just look at dogs! When their owners come home, they are visibly happy and when their puppies die they are visibly sad.

A human being is an organism of the species homo sapiens. All you need to have to be human is human DNA. I mean, it's what separates us form every other species, right? And it proves that no computer can ever be human. Ever.

Reason. Common sense. Scientific insight. Things like this enable me to pick out the pure myths. Then there are stories that I don't know if they are real or not, but these are typically just historical contexts that I can't prove wrong or right.

I am allowed to believe in both God and the Big Bang. It just so happens that I believe the creation stories are mythical in their nature. Nobody important ever said "the Bible is 100% fact," except for maybe a few Popes throughout the ages.

I never said the Bible is 100% true and science must back it. I believe the creation stories and much of the beginning of the Bible to be merely stories meant to make people understand the power and awesomeness of God, not to tell them how the Earth began. They had no idea how it began back then.

Even the "American culture" is not one set culture. The human population is so huge and people are so different. There is nothing that every human being shares, personality wise, not even the will to live! (Suicidal people)

I understand how life is capable on Earth. I don't mean to boast, but I've taken AP Physics and AP Biology, as well as a year of honors Chemistry and Honors Biology freshman year- I'm well versed in the sciences (And I hope to go into medicine or mechanics!) Therefore, I'm fairly certain I know how there is life on Earth.

But we don't know why life is here! God always was and always will be. He is a complete enigma and a mystery to the human race. Any attempt to explain who He is and why He did the things He did is impossible.

Yes. I have looked at it and I fully understand the concept of global warming and greenhouse effect (not as much as somebody who studies it, but as much as the average person.)

I understand that the environment is slow on fixing itself. It takes thousands upon thousands of years for minuscule change. But it really shouldn't take too long to fix the economy and get us 180 degrees from the recession. We're on our way there, but I think we have some work to do. Of course, I promote multitasking. ;)

"Our planet is not expected to experience another such periodic warming/cooling for another 20,000 to 30,000 years."

I'm not saying that's normal, but I'm certainly not saying it isn't. Why is it that once scientists predict something based on past data, the same must occur in the future no matter what? The data can suggest an outcome, but it's never 100% fool proof. Maybe the prediction was another 20,000 to 30,000 years, but in reality it was supposed to be 10,000 to 15,000 years. We don't know. Sure, I agree we are speeding it up slightly, but I honestly don't think human beings have caused as much effect as before our time, what with volcano eruptions, meteor strikes, and the countless amount of animals with flatulence issues. :) lol

Well we do need to grow cotton and such, but the environment is not as fragile! The economy can collapse easily, but the environment fixes itself over time (yes, many many many years, but it's not like the economy can miraculously get better without our intervention).

I prefer physical books and I'm sure we will always have them, but I agree that e-books will take over. I mean, they take up less space, they're easier to read (with a light up screen), and it's something a lot of people will prefer with technology becoming more and more popular.

"I feel the environment is much more important."

I guess in the long run, it is- especially after every major government on Earth collapses. lol. But since the environment has been known to fix itself over the centuries and the economy affects more people right now, I think we should work on that first. Besides, as I stated on the other side, you need money from the economy to help fix the environment. ;)

Don't you need money to fund things like saving the environment? There, argument finished.

I'd love it if every nation abolished ALL forms of warfare. But the truth is that nuclear weapons can be a very good way of protecting the free world. Korea and Iran don't use the nuclear weapons the (might) have because they know that is they do, their countries would get annihilated by the hundreds of nukes we have. And even if we were able to abolish them, do you really think North Korea and Iran, for examples, would follow suit? No! They would surely attack us!

Getting rid of minimum wage laws would not raise wages. It seems as if getting rid of the minimum would cause competition between businesses in making the best wages out there, but I'm sure most businesses and companies would actually lower wages to what they are overseas to make more money. Minimum wage enables the government to ensure that any hard worker in America can live off of the money. Of course, it doesn't ensure the same for families or people who barely work though...

I don't really see too much of a problem with a national school system that regulates curriculum and the like, but I still think there should be local school systems simply out of practicality. There are just too many schools in America to all be in the same system centered in one place, unless there are other secondary school systems throughout the nation.

"The national curriculum should not include any material pertaining to the origin of life or the history of life, i.e., evolution and creationism/intelligent design should not be addressed."

I believe these subjects should be taught together. If you think about it, most children, like myself, go to some sort of catechism or Sunday school, which would only teach creation. I think every child should be taught both and make up his or her own mind on the matter.

Finally, I find your remark about how "private schools do not work and cannot serve as an alternative to public schools" very offensive. I just graduated from a private school and I must say it's a better education than what I would've gotten at my public school, which is overcrowded and full of vanity and materialism. My public school gives students very short classes and too much free time throughout the day. My schedule, for the most part, was 40 minute classes, with 8 classes a day and double period labs. We only get one lunch period, until senior year when we no longer take gym and health (but my school was so big on sports and clubs and stuff that gym was a joke any way. I skipped every day junior year.) So even though we got out a month earlier than public school, we technically got more time for each class than the public school students. Not to mention, since our school is a college prep school, we didn't waste time with electives and such, but had math, science (bio, chem, and physics), English, world language, history, and religion (lots of philosophy, morality, and history of Church. Not so much Church teachings.)

Why do things happen by chance then? Why is there randomness in the world?

"As the Beatles said: "Money Can't Buy Me Love.""

I agree.... but money can certainly but you lust ;)

Just because there were several people that were successful without a college education, does not mean college is not worth it. Almost every person that is that successful without college is famous for writing novels, acting, singing, etc. The average person will not be that famous and thus we all kind of need higher education to be able to get jobs. It looks really good on a resume. :p

"Where do you go from there?"

That's it. Once somebody accepts that there is an initial force, he has to realize it is a supernatural being (because it cannot logically be a natural being) and a god or gods will follow suit. Thus "initial force = god/gods".

Okay, so let's say it was an accident- how did the accident come to be? There really is no explanation for why the universe began without factoring some supernatural being.

We don't need to know anything about the initial force that created the universe- that's why there are many different religions out there. We just need to understand that there was some initial force.

The beginning of time. How did it all start? The Big Bang, right? Okay.... Explain how the Big Bang came to be. Oh right, a very dense piece of matter exploded and created the universe. But wait, how did that piece of matter come to be? There was nothing before it. Oh, that's right. God, the being who always was, created it, fully intending for it to explode and make the universe. Duh.

Religion seeks an explanation for why things happen. Science only answers how things happen.

i.e. How did the Earth form?

-Well, after billions of years the dust that composes earth eventually clumped together and condensed to form a planet. Some of this dust also made the sun.

How did all of this matter come to be?

-Billions and billions of years ago, at the beginning of time, there was the Big Bang, where an extremely dense piece of matter that held every atom in the known universe- the size of a pinhead maybe. All of the energy there caused it to explode and from there, galaxies and solar systems were born.

Where did the small piece of matter come from? or Why did the Big Bang happen?

If you can logically come up with a scientific answer to this, then you are absolutely amazing. How can everything come from nothing? Unless.... God made it! The spiritual being that always was and always will be created everything that never was and will cease to be!

I have never understood why people cannot accept that religion and God exist simultaneously with science. Science explains how things happen, but religion seeks the explanation of why these things happen- something science will never be able to do.

Look at the famous composers of the past or any other musician who has ever had a strange life but amazing music. The first thing that comes to mind about these people is their music. After this, we think about their lives.

Yes, I think the Earth is warming right now. But that doesn't mean it is only warming and it will never cool down again unless we change. I think this is a natural occurrence, since global temperatures go through warm ages and ice ages. No matter how much we may be speeding this up, I feel like the Earth will fix itself like it always has. Maybe that means a mass extinction- we're overdue for one by now anyway.

Nor is pissing people off a good way to honor the civilians, firefighters, and police officers who died that day.

I could easily see the NYC skyline looking very nice with new towers and I hope to see them once they open. Maybe, I'll actually go into the city, or maybe I'll just go to Atlantic Highlands, NJ. Beautiful look over the Raritan Bay and Sandy Hook. I went there on 9/11 after the towers had fallen. Very sad seeing all of the smoke. :(

But I would prefer the new towers because their aim is to honor those who died that day and show that we will not give up without a fight. Rebuilding the same things would only show the terrorists that they really pissed us off and now we have to waste time by redoing what was done already.

No, we all have the necessary anatomy to have sex and procreate. Rape is a spin-off of sex and is an invention of man.

Well yeah, but I'm just saying that in that case, it could still fluctuate.

No. I said some animals are prey and some are predators. We are predators at heart. We can also digest plants for when meat isn't readily available, but I believe we are predators first and foremost. Why else would we have evolved thought, thumbs, carnivorous teeth, etc? If you have the necessary anatomy to eat meat and you can eat meat, then eat meat! I'm not going to give up something that I was made to do. :)

Animals are not human beings. They do not have rational souls and are on this earth because some of them are prey and others are predators. We just happen to be special animals, with logic and reason, that are predators.

It's all relative. I'm sure anybody would shell out more dough for a sibling or parent than a random Chinese man or French woman. So a life is worth different amounts depending on who is appraising it.

No. I'm just pointing out that eating a vegetable is destroying life just as much as eating a steak. I have no problem with vegetarianism/veganism, but I see them as unnecessary. Human beings are the master species and we have control over this world and it is our job to take care of it AND ourselves. Meat is essential to many people's diets, like mine, where I want a lot of protein. Sure, you could get these things in other foods, but we have the power to digest meat, just like a cougar or a bear.

Besides, don't you realize that I don't care if an organism can think? Remember our little debate about abortion? :)

Plants have a nutritive soul and they react to different stimuli, like light, wind, and temperature. They can also grow in different directions depending on these factors and most are grown against gravity, in fact. They may not be sentient, as animals are, but they can still "feel" and react.

I believe the Earth is warming, and possibly faster than ever recorded. But I also believe this is mostly a natural occurrence. Scientists have confirmed that temperatures before the last ice age were about 4C higher than they are now. Although we may be increasing at a faster rate now than ever before, I have not seen anything about how long the rate of global warming will remain the way it is now.

"Humans have no major role in the warming climate. The earth has been warming on its own."

Agreed, but I think it's important to preserve aesthetic beauty in our nation and we also need land for farms and resources. We can't just develop on everything.

Yes, animals are alive, but so are plants! So suggesting that meat is murder would also say that vegetables are murder. Therefore, we shouldn't eat any food and we should remove ourselves entirely from the food chain!

This was a well thought out argument with no spelling or grammar mistakes that I can see. I would like to know why it was down-voted because this is really starting to bother me and it bothers everybody on this site who puts effort into his or her arguments.

I know for a fact, being recently 16 and having a 14-year-old brother, that politics is possibly one of the most boring topics around at that age. A young teen is not going to research the candidates and find the best policies for the nation. True, some will (like I did), but the vast majority will not. They will vote for the candidate that they like better of whom their parents told them to vote for- this is not a choice of the voters then, it is an extra vote for someone else or a faulty and uneducated vote. Just look at student council elections! In grammar school and high school, who wins the student council elections? More often than not, it's the popular kids who have no intention of doing anything good for the school, but just want to have that prestige over the rest of the student body.

I really don't think a 16-year-old will look into the policies of a candidate, but would rather vote for the candidate that his or her parents will vote for, vote for the candidate who's more popular in school, or vote for the candidate purely in a superficial way, kind of like the way I choose a team for the Superbowl (which one lives closer. :P But other people base it on uniform color lol).

Yes, terrorism still has the same meaning it did 50 years ago. But today, more has been added on to what a "terrorist" is. To the typical modern American, a terrorist is no longer just one who uses violence or the threat of violence to get his point across or to scare or hurt others. To modern America, a sense of racism and racial profiling has entered the picture. Now, a terrorist is, in most cases, your typical radical Islamic man. What used to be a word that I can see being tossed around like many words are tossed around today (i.e. gay, slut, etc.), is now a word that if somebody labeled you as a terrorist, surely you would take offense and see it as a truly horrible thing to say. It has become one of those words you wouldn't even call your mortal enemy because of all of the baggage attached to it. This is why the word "terrorist" is not the same word that it used to be.

I say, don't f@#& with nature. :) I think we are made the way God intended and that we were all made the way we were for a reason. And if you don't believe in God, then replace it with nature. ;)

If the baby endangers the mother's life, then yes, a late-term abortion is justified. Other than that, absolutely not. I don't care if your baby is going to have down syndrome or will be missing a limb or organ! That baby is a human by almost any body's standards and aborting it at that point would surely be murder! I don't like abortion at any point, but getting one that late most likely means that the mother does not want the baby because it will have a defect. If this is the case, that woman should not even be trying to have a child because she is an immoral and selfish person.

I've always loved the movie Jarhead. Really amazing movie about Desert Storm and the like. Awesome shots, especially in the burning oil fields. And it really went into the lives of the soldiers, especially the main character. Duh. :)