The platypus was the joke part. (I think you got that);-)
Please...first that's not proving a negative. That's about understanding the definition of a word....and second it is wrong...divorced men without children (but that had been married) are bachelors, married men with a bachelor's degree are bachelors, young married knights that follow another's banner are bachelors, as are married landless knights. D'OH! ;-)
I don't have to prove the universe isn't designed, nor do I say anything that definitive. (because one could say that the laws of physics are a form of design, so in that sense I do think the universe is 'designed', but not by a 'designer god'). If you feel the need for others like me to believe as you, it's up to you to prove it IS designed, and by who.
I do say there's no need for a 'designer', and it seems incredibly unlikely as well as completely unnecessary. I will also say all I've heard about 'god' only references stories told by men long ago (or anecdote), and trying to 'prove' some of those stories is not proving god. I can't say what might prove god...if he existed omnisciently he might know, but he's keeping quiet about it! ;-)
I also say incredible claims require incredible evidence, not anecdotal 'evidence'...conversely 'that which can be asserted without evidence can be discarded without evidence.' (Hitchens)

I'm sorry your Mom died, but what you have is an anecdote.

I'm sure your perceived experience means a lot to you, but the most probable answer is pretty simple: you imagined it. Human memory is incredibly fallible and at times of emotional stress even more so. There have been numerous studies that have shown this.

And yes, science can't explain everything.... yet. But that doesn't mean we just get to fill in the blanks.

There is no "fact" that there is "something beyond us". In fact, everything we know has shown that there almost certainly isn't anything beyond us (at least in a supernatural sense).

Meanwhile, where's our resident young earther? Cmon @shinyblurry. Bill Nye is calling you out.

You're right about one thing, I definitely did close my mind more to those idiots.

I like how they brush "anecdotal evidence" off as some cop out answer but then in their bio they claim they're promoters of "good science".

I suppose what the random mum attributes the death of her child must be taken as credible. The rest is irrelevant because the stupid in the first few paragraphs invalidates me taking seriously the rest of the content.

you're ONE cop out of hundreds of thousands.

you honestly think you CAN "represent" cops here? You think you SHOULD?

Who elected/appointed you? Why should we consider you credible in any way? Even if I had zero prior contact with you and my opinion of you was neutral or even the slightest bit positive, you're committing an appeal to authority fallacy. You just defended the notion that a cop can/should lie.

Once again, you have this problem with anecdotal evidence. You are ONE datapoint out of hundreds of thousands. You don't have this magic insight you claim to have. you...can only speak for...yourself. The cop in this video has already spoken for himself.

you have NO authority here. You're just like shinyblurry mindlessly quoting the bible as if it should mean something.

You're impotent

*quality video.

If anyone would like to read more on this subject, I recommend Steven Pinkers The Better Angels of Our Nature, which also covers deaths by crime, disease, malnutrition, etc. It's one of the most information dense books I've ever read, filled with all kinds of historical anecdotes* and grisly statistics about violent deaths per capita throughout history, but it basically boils down to this:

we live in the healthiest, happiest, most peaceful time in history.

The reason it seems so bad is that we simply have more access to information about conflicts, murders, etc than we did in the past.

It's important to note that while Vulture Capitalism isn't as bad as colonialism, it's still Pretty Fucking Bad.

* fascinating fact: the reason dinner knives are generally blunt (apart from steak knives) is because it's stopped people getting into an argument over dinner and stabbing each other. It was previously commonplace for everyone to carry their own knife to dinner and eat with it.

Actually you said

Cannabis cures cancer. To HELL with western medicine.

Then you posted a bunch of anecdotes from a hemp oil salesman.

Then you talked about Dr Marcia Angell; I presume that's the same Marica Angell that said

It is time for the scientific community to stop giving alternative medicine a free ride... There cannot be two kinds of medicine — conventional and alternative. There is only medicine that has been adequately tested and medicine that has not, medicine that works and medicine that may or may not work. Once a treatment has been tested rigorously, it no longer matters whether it was considered alternative at the outset. If it is found to be reasonably safe and effective, it will be accepted.

and finally a bunch of studies that show that cannabis may affect cancer.

None of which implies that "cannabis cures cancer" (again, your own words).

Cannabinoids certainly have some interesting properties that might well lead to some breakthroughs, but right now, NOTHING cures cancer. As you said, it gets cut, burnt or poisoned (all of which is preferable to dying), or it just goes into remission.

As for your general distain for "western medicine" aka medicine, you continue on with your fairy dust and good wishes. Me, I'll be over here with the scientific method and the single most successful endeavour in the history of humanity.

The website may be biased, but the polls listed are world recognized polls that are mostly above reproach. Christianity is not at the table on this, nobody is saying that there aren't wackos involved in any religion, but realistically how many christian holy war incidents can you list in the last 20 years? I mean real incidents, not just some random guy doing one thing to a doctor or clinic, but a group of holy christian fighters blowing up swathes of people or beheading them. It's not in the same ballpark, in fact it isn't the same league, or sport.

As far as US international policy goes, we do stupid shit a lot of the time. Other times we get dragged into shit because people complain if we don't. Personally I wish we would cut our defense budget in half and tell the rest of the world to go pound sand when they ask for help, but again it is not the issue of discussion we are looking at.

The issue is whether or not Islam, due to the nature of it's teachings, promotes certain things that lead to war and/or brutal acts. The fact is that it does, assuming you follow the tenets laid forth in the Koran and other works, such as the Sunnah and the anecdotes of the 12 Imams.

What other religion currently follows these tenets in it's religious laws?

- Leaving Islam is a sin and a religious crime. Once any man or woman is officially classified as Muslim, because of birth or religious conversion, he or she will be subject to the death penalty if he or she becomes an apostate, that is, abandons his or her faith in Islam in order to become an atheist, agnostic or to convert to another religion.
- If a person has never been a Muslim, he or she can live in an Islamic state by accepting to be a dhimmi and pay a Jizyah tax. They cannot practice their religions openly and they also do not have the same rights and legal protections as Muslims.
- Death penalty for Homosexuals
- Numerous women's rights violations and restrictions
- Child marriage
- Jihad is an important religious duty for Muslims. It is only very recently that it has started to be redefined by a small amount of Muslims as being possible to be non-violent in nature.

As it stands, Islam is not a religion of peace but of strife. Unless you are a casual follower, you will be trying to promote tenets of this religion either through non-violent or violent ways. As we can see around the world and even through the events of the Arab Spring, the violent ways are far more likely.

When he started talking about his peanut allergy anecdote, first thing I thought was "where was his epi-pen?"

Added for anecdotal evidence.

*related=http://videosift.com/video/South-Carolina-cop-shoots-man-for-getting-license

the point myself and others have been trying to drill into lantern's thick skull is that his claim is irrelevant. he's making a huge appeal to authority fallacy.

it's a bad case of "my dad can beat up your dad" mentality. The moment he inserted his RL into this "debate" he lost.

Even if he has been 100 percent truthful, it's all anecdotal. He's overcompensating for his small sample size again

"Obamacare" is not as good as single payer, but it's the best he could push through, sadly. It is also a Republican plan from the mid 90's that he appropriated, and now is given credit/blame for. Single payer, his original plan, was much better and may have saved billions (by eradicating the 'insurance' industry that adds immensely to our health care cost while adding nothing positive, only cost and confusion). Oh well, thanks obstructionists...you really won that one, huh?
The US is less insolvent and moving in the opposite direction than when he became pres, so he reversed the trend towards insolvency, not accelerated it....but nice try.
Actually, Bush had more 'cronies' and known felons in his administration than anyone before or since (yet), no matter what your propaganda link said, and it actually didn't say he was the 'most crony-friendly president in history', it didn't compare him to any other administration at all except McDonnell where it made comparisons of proven apples and alleged oranges to imply Obama had 'sold' access and favors like McDonnell was convicted of without offering anything but minimal anecdotal evidence of any 'quid quo pro' or wrong doing...it actually called an appearance at a Dreamworks function a 'quid quo pro' that should be prosecuted...WHAT?! Hardly a federal indictment.
True enough, one should never believe a candidate will achieve all they promise to attempt, but they should expect them to attempt what they say they'll attempt. For that huge failing, I can't bring myself to applaud Obama's 'successes'.

I don't know if it is junk science, but I read that boy baby rate is plummeting. The postulation is all the plastics in the environment are increasing estrogen in men's systems and they are making fewer Y sperm.

Or something like that. I'm too lazy to google it. But @ChaosEngine 's anecdote bears some witness to this.

Interesting. Since I've reached the age where my peers are having kids, of the 20 or so kids born to various friends in the last 3 or 4 years, there have been only 3 boys.

Obviously this is anecdotal, but I wonder if the stress of living in a post earthquake city has affected the birth rate?

oooo, and now more anecdotes.

For a brief moment there you were actually having a constructive discussion.

A brief moment.