“But one thing for sure when we all die, and we all do one day, then and only then will one know this lifes mystery!:-)”

I expect that when I die I will know very little. Suddenly uncovering the mysteries of the universe seems pretty far from being the “one thing for sure” we can agree on.

HA! I can prove it, with the current evidence at hand there is no god. Do you have some NEW evidence?

Or you will stick your fingers in your ears and say “LALALALA.” Same deal!

have you ever lived outside the united states ?
sounds like no

let me recommend for you….get real clear on
what the gospel is….use ”only jesus” as your
wisdom source….your gospel sounds alot
like a sales pitch or propaganda for consumers.

RH are you claiming to participate in a debate because you’re not.  You need to be willing to answer questions posed to you by Tip and others.  In the past you’ve refused to answer any questions.  You can only learn what the flaws are if/when you answer questions.  Anon3 refuses to answer questions or answers them with one word yes or no answers which get no where … I expect he’ll pass that trait to his children.  So open up and answer the questions otherwise move to a different blog.  Babe

I find it funny you claim to know what I think, know? I would never try to guess what one knows, and if your looking for answers to the things in life which will remain a mystery till we die, sorry you will just have to as everyone else wait till your time is up on this old earth and rest assured of one thing, either the atheist is right, nothing exists, therefore no one will experience anything, zero, ziltch etc., any other cute final words one wishes to use, but if something exists some will be not surprised, some might be surprised it was not quite what they expected, and some will be in total shock and awe since they expected nothingness!:-)

What exactly would you like me to comment on?  Guttmacher’s “unpublished” tabulation of CDC survey data?  As an exercise, I tried to reproduce them from the raw survey data, but I haven’t been able to.  The 2006-2008 cohort has an ever-had-sex figure of 45.5% while the 2008-2010 cohort has 47.8%.  Until I can get some idea of why this simple calculations don’t match theirs, I have no idea how to comment on their actual numbers.

But even so, the usual statistical caveats apply.   Looking at two data points and interpolating a trend is a statistical sin in which a lot of social “scientist”, politicians and journalists engage.

JD: I’m going to try to respond to your thoughts. This will be my last response to you, if you choose to follow this with a rant.  If you respond in kind to my thoughts then we can keep this conversation going.  I’ll ask you first if you are trying to learn or if you just are using this as a source to rant?  I’ll know by how you respond.
 
First ask yourself why atheist organizations have chosen to bring suits.  We are not wealthy like the churches and any money we spend needs to be spent prudently. We don’t collect money from members on Sunday’s.  Our money primarily comes from one source … Membership Fees which are very, very cheap.   Churches seem to have an unlimited amount of cash available, and when/if they run out they can simply tap their congregation for more.  They are not taxed, we are.
In this country, the Religious Right have made some significant strides in the past 2 -3 decades.  They have managed to re-write the high school text books so that our founding fathers are not portrayed accurately.  The result is that our young people are not learning an accurate history of this country.  Would you rather your children be taught history as accurately as possible or do you care that the religious right put their own spin on it? We want children to learn our history as it occurred.  The Religious Right wants prayer in public school.  Fine, but who’s prayer needs to be said?  Is it a prayer for christians, muslims, jews, hindus, north american indians,?  Does the prayer include atheists, agnostics etc?  Since a christian prayer cannot possibly represent all those people, atheists recommend a moment of silence or a moment of reason.  If there is a religious child attending the school, they are free to pray during their moment of silence to whatever god they choose.  The Religious Right successfully petitioned to have “In God We Trust” stamped on every coin and dollar bill.  But who’s god are they referring to?  The Religious Right is fighting hard to have religion taught as a real alternative to evolution.  That results in the dumbing of America when children think that “intelligent design” is as valid as evolution.  Why should we teach children anything like intelligent design when there is NO and I mean NO facts supporting it?  Would you teach doctors the same way or would you want them to perform surgery based on facts that have been learned over time?  As an atheist, I have no problem with religious studies being taught in a school provided it is taught as comparative religion to cover more than christianity and provided it is taught as the myth it is, because again “we have no facts backing up any religious claim” … If there are ever facts … ie they find Moses’ or Noahs remains and can verify Noah lived to be 900 yrs old, then those facts could be introduced in school. To date everything that archeologists have unearthed has worked against religion instead of supporting it.  Archeology as a science started with the intent of finding evidence to support the christian myths … so far the only thing they’ve been able to verify is some historical events and the bible got most of those WRONG.  So archeologists if anything fell short of their goal of verifying the religious myths.
 
You may be correct, there may be as many atheists who are pedophiles as their are christian pedophiles.  However, what you are overlooking is that the christian pedophiles use their church and their position as a way to approach the vulnerable children. Christian parents are willing to turn their child over to a priest or a minister because ‘they trust them” when they shouldn’t. 
 
Ultimately, what atheists are attempting to do is to keep State and Church separate as our forefathers intended.  We do not attempt to convert any christian.  This blog exists for people to learn, regardless of which position they hold. For the most part, we have no interest in any “christian” being on our team.  What we do is protect your rights as a christian to worship as you see fit.  We protect this country from becoming similar to any theocracy such as Afghanistan, Iraq or Iran.  Religion corrupts government.  While no atheist is likely to get into congress today, support  is growing.  There are scientists who are considering running for elected office.  Obama has taken a strong stand and as far as I know he has not set foot in a church since he took office.  He was raised as an atheist and that’s a really positive point. If he’s re-elected I am hoping he puts more emphasis on science.  And, what’s the net result of that?  Well JD, your health, your children’s health and their education is likely to improve.  Christians (IMHO) are on the wrong side of every social issue.  I don’t know if you are sick or healthy, but if you have parkinsons, alzheimers etc stem cell research 15 yrs ago might have resulted in a solution to your problem by now.  While you disagree with my position on abortion, you must understand that by forcing a woman to have a child likely (more chances than not) will result in the child being raised in horrid poverty.  240 million children born around the world are living in disgusting conditions.  I am not saying that ALL those children should have been aborted, or even one.  I am only saying that IF a woman chooses to abort her fetus, then that is HER choice and the decision should be made between her and her doctor.   And, what about end-of-life decisions?  No one wants to force anyone to end their life if they are terminally ill.  However, some people when faced with that situation do want to end their life.  The state of Oregon had 300 people over a decade who chose to use legal assisted suicide … 30 people a year.  I personally would rather they die in the comfort of their home with their family present, then ever know that they chose to head out to their backyard or lock themselves in a bathroom and put a bullet thru their head.  The christian vote forces people to endure unbelievable pain when they fight end-of-life … and it’s very painful.  A close friend who’s father was terminally ill lost his dad to a bullet in the head.  His son’s pain went on for years.  If his dad had sat down with the family and expressed his desire to die and if the family had been given more time to accept dad’s decision it could have been easier for all parties concerned. 
 
I won’t even get into the gay discussion, which by all means has caused more suffering, confusion, and death because of religionists ill thought out position.  No gay person will ever be anything but a second class citizen until they have every right that you have.  They aren’t asking to be better, they are asking to be equal.  It’s time. 
 
Let’s see how you respond this time.  Surprise me.  Babe
 
So, let’s recap … 1) don’t rant in your response. 2) If you disagree with any position then FINE … state why you disagree.  We want the same thing you do … happiness for each team.  We simply don’t want a theocracy AND we want to protect YOU and others who fail to understand that your rights are being whittled away by the Religious Right.  Don’t make any mistake, christian zealots are every bit as confused and frightening as the islamic extremists.  And, there are many christian zealots who are leading this country amock.
 
It’s important for atheist organizations to lobby Congress and bring attention to christians and their desire to overtake the public school system as well as everything else.  We have to act as their balance.  We have no issue with religionists being involved with whatever church, synagogue, mosque or indian temple they care to join.  We are simply doing our best to keep reason and science up front where it needs to be. Most christians are poorly educated, therefore it’s important we make sure that we protect children from religious ‘zealots’.