I don't know if you noticed but he does not mention anything about the electric universe (plasma cosmology). He calls the missing links to the calculations as dark matter or dark energy which makes up 99.99% of matter and energy we could not see in space. I watched a few clips on youtube about plasma cosmology and it is mind blowing. I recomend it.

Peace

Hope

I have actually heard a little about that model, but as far as I know it seems to have some major holes and a general lack of details and predictions.
It for example doesn't have a satisfactory explanation for the background radiation, but if it could develop and get some aspects testified then we'll see if it'll become a valid view.
I am no physicist really but I trust that it will be either falsified or validated eventually.

If you came across a human being who did nothing but eat, fornicate, play computer games and burn stuff, would you call him a noble creature? If not, why this fondness for bonobos?

I find them noble because they are magnificent creatures, it's merely an opinion I have. They are splendin because while they are in my view without any sin like all animals, they still resemble us in many ways. I could imagine Eve and Adam living and being like these apes before they ate the forbidden fruit.

Selam

Interesting yes. His views and jokes on religion might be offesive so be warned ;D He feels he has everything explained but I am sure it will change again soon.

Peace

Hope

True, though the jokes and banter are mostly a result of annoyance at the ID and creationist movements over there in the US and with the mostly atheist audience he have sitting through the speech, he is just adding the commentary to lighten up the long lecture. Nonetheless, it is a minor annoyance though as I'd preferred it if he had skipped all the bush jokes(as amusing as they are) and spent the extra minutes talking more.

Oops, I completely forgot the link
Thanks for providing it afridi220

I suppose one cannot ask the question "who made god" for the same reason one cannot ask the question "what was before the big bang?", they are nonsensical questions - much like asking what lays north beyond the north pole.
The universe is at many times quite bizzare and hard to comprehend in simplr words.

I love midsummer, though it's mostly the food I love.

Strictly from a medical viewpoint, sex during menstruation don't pose any challenges.

I have suffered from this too, but I found that there is no worthy alternative. The Quran, though absurd, is the most logical in its outlook of life.

I don't know what the point of being a deist, agnostic or an atheist.

Peace.

I don't think there is a point, it's just how it is.

Are you serious? Where do you get your protein from?
BTW, there is a difference between good and bad quality meat.

I was just slightly tired when I wrote that message, the meat I abstain from is cow meat, and I do it cause of how nutrionally unbalanced it is compared to chicken or fish for an example, and then there's the risk of mad cow's disease - I'd rather have an parasite than prions on my brain. I mostly eat vegetarian nowadays after switiching to that out of respect for my girlfriend, but with the addition of fish and seafood whenever that's possible. But I won't say no to any food that's been prepared for me, that'd just be a waste of food.
Wouldn't say no thanks to some pork if I was offered it, bacon is always delicious.

Most meats shouldn't be consumed uncooked, and even cooked some can carry even dangerouser diseases than a brain parasite.
Abstaining from meat still since it's rather unhealthy generally.

Oh please dont look deep when there is nothing there to see, I simply forgot about this thread. And please dont turn my question back on me, I was the one asking you for an answer... confused Why does a lack of evil mean there is no free choice. Isnt there supposed to be no evil in heaven, will there be no free choice there? Just some questions I have, you dont have to become aggressive, simply adding peace does not hide anything.

Haha that is an interesting question, if a lack of evil constitutes no free choice, does that mean that there either is no evil, and no free will, or no free will, and instead evil in heaven?
And this baby would have experienced no free choice at all since she died at birth, and will thus in her entire existance not have made a single choice and gone to heaven. Could not then God just placed all souls in heaven without going through life just like this baby?

Attraction depends on the eyes of the beholder.
Lust isn't hard at all to controll, seeing an "attractive" woman and feeling hot/getting an erection/perspirating slightly more is an natural reaction to what your eyes see, that here is a woman you want to have sex with, and by having sex you'll hopefully impregnate her - and your genes, including the ones that code for attraction and more, will have moved on to the next generation and spread a little more.
This can be reversed as well, the woman making herself attractive, not in order to attract all men with the intention of sleepng with them all, but in order to easier chose between potential mates, and chosing the one with the best traits (strength, intelligence, beauty even) so that her offspring will become as succesful at surviving and reproducing her/himself.

This is of course all not thought about in most of the cases, but instead show itself as our biological urges and feelings and instincts.
But thanks to our big brains we can controll our big cocks (objectivily our cock is the biggest among all the great apes) and shut down emotions and urges selectivily, that's usually what happens in wars - we shut down empathy and compassion, letting only rage and bloodlust through.
And in your case, you got your woman, your desires are fulfilled and your urges taken care of even perhaps
And your child will have two loving and stabile parents raising him or her, making sure he'll be successful and get children of him or her own.

In before free will.

Sounds about right, the gene for believing in religion is most likely a very effective propagator.

If I was religious I'd pray for you.
But I think that what you could do is decide upon rejecting or accepting hadiths before taking a look at these contradictions and whether you should reject or accept the Quran as what you seem to want to see it as, a divine book I guess.
And even if you dismess the Quran, or even Islamic faith, it doesn't mean that you have to abondon spirituality or the idea of a God completely.
Good luck with everything.

I doubt that a muslim is supposed to feel uncomfortable with anything really that is asked of him or her from the Quran, there's not much in it really that a nonbeliever even would take offense with. If perhaps these things that you are uncomfortable with stem from hadiths then you could like many other muslims dismiss these, since they are afterall not really a necesity in my opinion for being a muslim, and focus purely on the book itself.

I guess you'll have to wait and see what people more knowledgable than me in this subject says, there might not be any contradictions afterall.

What would a loss of faith mean to you?
Would it change the way you act from day to day in your life?

So if you find answers to all those contradictions, but one remains - you will lose your faith in the book simply because it claim to not contain any contradictions?
And I am not a believer myself, I am just interested in learning more of everything.

If these contradictions contradict with science then one really doesn't need to worry oneself, science is everevolving and everchanging, and the Quran might make perfect sense, without any contradictions whatsoever, in a future science.

But contradictions that are drawn from the very content of the book itself might be harder to resolve, which is usually where the persons of an ignorant nature tend to ignore them due to the very same fears that you have, but another method could be to realize that the very language itself might have a meaning on a deeper, non-literal, level which absolves all contradictions.

Those are just my thoughts on the issue and I hope you find it helpful.

I must say that I am puzzled that the person arguing against the argument ( see http//prophetrejectors.wordpress.com/61-proving-that-quran-is-word-of-god-life-from-water62/65-creation-of-the-universe-from-smoke-in-the-quran/ ) about the Quran claiming the earth being the oldest object in the Universe missed out on this verse, in the very beginning in the Holy book

229 He it is Who created for you all that is in the earth. Then turned He to the heaven, and fashioned it as seven heavens. And He is knower of all things.

I suppose that this mean that God created the Earth before turning to the heaven, fashioning it as the seven heavens - creating the stars.

But this merely hinges on the definition of the word "Tumma" I must point out.

I'm a born Muslim and I've believed in the Qur'an my whole life but I recently came across "The Skeptic Annotated Qur'an" which just f**ked me over. This website really gave me the creeps and I really don't know what to say. They have so many powerful arguments, not just one or two to be interpreted differently. They list out numerous contradictions and absurdities in the Qur'an which forms just a very long list. It pretty much goes against the Islamic claim that the Qur'an is free from contradictions (and even paradoxes) and that it is completely compatible with science.

I tried searching for answers that refuted these Skeptics but I couldn't find anything. This has been nagging at the back of my head for a long time. I really haven't lost faith in my religion and in my book, but that's simply because I'm too afraid to and because of my instincts. I hope someone will clear this up for me!

Well, would it really matter if it turns out that the Quran isn't free from contradictions and paradoxes?
Do you base your faith on the contents of a book and the words it contains, or your feelings and inner connection to God?