The lore of 'Harry Potter'{Not Another Harry Potter Thd}Babylonia and Mesopotamia

www.usatoday.com ^ | 11/16/2001 - Updated 09:29 AM ET | By Claudia Puig, USA TODAY

[It'salmosttolate]

"My, but doesn't that observation by King hit uncomfortably close to home??? Hmmmmmmmmm?"

I'm sure everyone knows exactly what you are talking about. (sarcas/off)

[Capitalist Eric]

absolute accidents cannot exist...

Obviously, you don't comprehend the observation made by King. And, as such, you just gave us another demonstration of religious zeal superceding reasoned thought.

Religion is based on faith. Faith is the belief in something, absent any evidence. You have a lot of faith, I'd wager. Which is why you can't acknowledge facts which definitely contradict your preconceived opinions.

Thanks, but you are the weakest link.

Good-bye!

[Capitalist Eric]

I'm sure everyone knows exactly what you are talking about.

Was there supposed to be a modicum of wit to that non-reply reply???

It's about as intelligent as your posting of this thread initially... Which is to say, not at all...

[Russell Scott]

Wait until God unleashes His Army of super annointed saints on this planet. Its going to make Harry Potter, Star Wars, and every other fantasy/fairy tale look like a girl scout cookie sale. And its going to actually be happening on this earth, not some "vain imagination of man's heart".

Yes, "a great people and a strong there has never been the like". Folks, all of Hollywood special effects combine "can't touch this". "Eye hath not seen, ear hath not heard, neither has it entered into the heart of man the things that God has prepared for them that wait for him."

[Aquinasfan]

This is not your college roomate who might be impressed with your schtick. In the real world, you have to back up your arguments with facts or deduction from first principles.

In your materialist world, everything is matter in motion. Every event is predetermined because it is (by this theory anyway) the mechanical working out of prior mechanical events. Therefore, there is no chance and no accident. Just raw, meaningless determinism.

The frustrating thing about materialists like yourself is that you aren't rigorous.

Here's another problem. If everything is matter in motion, then your mind and thoughts are simply matter in motion, as are mine. So if my thought that materialism is false is just as blindly determined as your thought that materialism is true, on what basis do we determine which is true?

For that matter, what is truth in your theoretical materialist universe? For Christians and most sane people, it is the adequation of thought and reality. By what mechanism can thought conform to external reality?

Another problem. If your mind is a mechanical device, how do you know if it's functioning properly? Materialism quickly lapses into solipsism.

[Capitalist Eric]

In the real world, you have to back up your arguments with facts...

I didn't have to read any further than that, to do the "copy" thing, and reply.

Funny thing- religion is based on a lack of facts. There used to be a God for the Moon, the stars, the wind, the rain, the ocean... Hell, there was probably even one for bad breath!

As science has evolved, it has been able to explore the mysteries of life. And as such, the power of religion has died.

Religion does have a purpose; it lays down tenets that all civilized people must follow, in order to coexist in a society. In other words, it establishes a code of conduct for all to follow.

But don't bother to try arguing facts with me. You're arguments- ostensibly based on (what was that feckless term you used?) "first laws"- won't make it off the ground, much less be convincing.

Good try. Go get on the "Christian Chronicles- the Neverending (and diaphanous) Debate" thread, if you want to spew your dogmatic garbage.

Dogmatism works on simpletons.

Which, of course, explains your blind faith...

[Capitalist Eric]

BTW, don't bother to keep trying to keep up your nonsensical arguments to support an inherently untenable position.

I could waste my time repeatedly demonstrating your being a nincompoop, but why bother? You are unworthy of my energy and time.

'Nuff said.

[ikanakattara]

Julius Caesar wrote of travelers encountering horrific creatures in an ominous forest back in the first century B.C. ...

Those were the Britons, probably...

[ikka]

All of the HP-lovers and HP-defenders on other threads have been certain to tell me that it's all in fun, just a bunch of stories, whatever.

Why, then the need for all the research? Why are even the potions that are mixed accurate in terms of such a potion's effect on people?

[Mmmike]

Here is my best guess. You have your own assumptions which claim to account for certain people and/or beliefs in their entirety; and, seeing the logic of those assumptions and hoping to have some fun, you endeavor to belittle them in a way that won't get you some kind of formidable backlash. So you do some pshaw-ing and when you feel you're about to get some backlash, you walk through a litany that your assumptions prescribe and then you say, "See, there's no point in talking to you."

[Capitalist Eric]

you endeavor to belittle them...

Endeavor? There's no "endeavor" about it...

when you feel you're about to get some backlash...

There's no point in talking rationally with someone who has no facts, nothing substantive to back up their claims. Religion is based entirely on emotion and wishful thinking, not substance. When they try to introduce some religious dogma as a given fact, it relegates their argument to that of zealot.

Kinda' like the Taliban.

And liberals...

But, you already knew that, right?

[Aquinasfan]

Why are you so angry?