its a hank miracle, i have the power to declare *quality

So, cross our fingers and hope for the best then? That seems to be the answer I usually get. Getting even half the planet to agree on basic moral and ethical ground rules, much less getting into specifics would be a miracle I think. I hear lots of pie in the sky generalities about how this will all "just work" but very little concise thinking on exactly how it will work.

Your video, Louie Schwartzberg: Hidden miracles of the natural world, has made it into the Top 15 New Videos listing. Congratulations on your achievement. For your contribution you have been awarded 1 Power Point.

GREAT!!! A MIRACLE!!! Allah be praised.
Of course, he'll stand behind his miracle and allow himself to be injected with Hepatitis C and aids repeatedly by any detractors or deniers to PROVE how miraculous his treatment is, right?

My argument is sound, logically, and if it were unsound it would be very easy to point out what the flaw is. I'll elaborate further:

Occams razors states that the theory with the least number of assumptions balanced against its explanatory power should be preferred to an argument with more assumptions and less explanatory power. The question is how do we explain the apparent fine-tuning in the Universe, a "goldilocks zone" for life. Scientists propose the multiverse theory which explains the favorable conditions as just being lucky, in that there are innumerable Universes and we just happen to be in the one that is very favorable for life. The problem with the theory is manifold; one, that is no observable evidence for the theory, and no way to test the theory. Two, it raises more questions than it answers because the mechanism that generates all of the Universes is even more finely tuned than the Universe itself, how did it get there, etc. It simply pushes back the problem another step. Eventually you must get to the point where a miracle occurs..ie, something came from nothing, or an eternal something which is infinitely fine tuned. According to Occams razor, the theory of an eternal Creator of the Universe should be preferred over *multiple* unobserved universes, that the fine tuning we observe isn't just apparent, but actual.

When you ask, why did God not do it "sooner", you do realize that you are making a temporal reference point? The bible says God "began" to do something because we are temporal beings and we think in terms of beginnings and endings, but we have no idea what that looks like in eternity. If your problem is simply with something being eternal, then maybe you haven't thought about the consequences of there not being anything eternal. You have to ask yourself the question, why is there something rather than nothing? You are facing two absurdities in this case; either an infinite regress of causes, or something coming from nothing. There has to be something eternal otherwise you are left with positing logically impossible outcomes. So, if there is something eternal, and whatever it is must be infinitely fine-tuned, and it ultimately created this Universe, you might as well call it God because it already possesses many of His attributes. Whichever way you turn, you are facing the Almighty.

The bible tells us why God didn't need to create light first:

Revelation 21:22 And I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God Almighty is its temple, even the Lamb.
Revelation 21:23 And the city had no need of the sun, nor of the moon, that they might shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it, and its lamp is the Lamb.

You should ask yourself, why do you object to the possibility of a Creator? Are your arguments just excuses to cover up the plain facts that have already been revealed to you by God, and the expression of your desire not to be accountable to Him? Something to think about..

Yeah, I'm just being the glass is half empty guy for all the miracle thinkers. heh

Apparently there just happened to be a 2000 year old witness to Jesus' water walking miracle present. Or maybe he was a time traveller.

why exactly should we care what a "mystic" says?

I think it's extremely funny how theists arbitrarily determine what is and isn't a miracle in their obsession with appeals to emotion.

every single theist has a different idea of what is and isn't a miracle. And you wonder why we dismiss the idea of miracles? As braindonut already mentioned, there are countless things out there that don't require surrendering to an imaginary sky being to have awe and wonder about.

I've been fragging ever since Doom and I haven't killed anybody yet. The bigger miracle is having gone through middle and highschool and not murdering anyone.
The handling of weapons? Yeah, I can see a bunch of kids wondering how you run around at 40mph with a chaingun held directly in front of your chest.
Also I did fire up Doom again lately using GZDoom and the Brutal Doom mod, and it's pure awesome.
http://www.moddb.com/mods/brutal-doom

I appreciate the vote for my intelligence, but I was hoping my intended conclusion would be more understood.

What I basically meant by that was: what if what clay is to us in the difference of perceived intelligence, happens to be what we are to a supposed higher-being.

You can never rule out the impossible, and as much as I believe in human kinds miracle of existence and legitimate accomplishments on the human-scale, I can never agree to be so egotistical as to not accept the possibility that I am far less consequential than a molecule in some other unfathomably-complex creatures universe.

In the end: doesn't much matter! We should just all have sex to our hearts content, and make sure everyone like us is warm at night and well fed.

The people in the video are either friends of friends or acquaintances of mine, so I can say that there is a lot of chatter about using the money to replace the airplane that was destroyed and fix the one that was damaged.

As for selling footage - your comment about greater good is spot on. I wouldn't charge for footage of police brutality, administrative abuse, human suffering, etc. but I'd haggle a very good price for any footage that is just a soft news piece with no greater relevance other than appeasing the general public's desire for human interest stories.

The commercial pressure of finding human interest stories isn't all that bad in my opinion. It can definitely go too far (look no further than the frenzy about the royal wedding), but this sort of event falls well within the bounds of reason in my book.

But above all, I'm just glad these guys all survived. A lot of them had a decent chance of getting out, but having everyone escape with no fatalities or even injuries is pretty much a miracle.

Edit to add: I'm pretty sure the FAA doesn't have to ask permission in order to get ahold of this sort of footage. They will investigate the hell out of this.

It's true that separate people can design things which are similar, however, let us say that you saw two 747s flying on different continents..would you assume that they were separately designed?

According to your beliefs, as some have pointed out, the hummingbird and hummingmoth were designed by the evolutionary process, so the observation would hold true; a common design does indicate a common designer. You may believe that designer is evolution, and the miracle of the hummingbird wing was independently developed in the hummingmoth, but that strains credulity and probability. It is more reasonable to believe that they were intelligently designed.

It would not be correct to say that I assume that there is a design. I know there is a design because I know there is a God.

Okay then, lets arbitrarily exclude everything that's not part of the so-called "first world" -- which leaves the U.S. "empire" and its satellites/provinces.

"Regulated" how? What specific "regulations" did you have in mind? (You have an "out" by saying that it has to be the "right regulation," so, pray tell, what is the "right" regulation?)

And ultimately, so what? Is Greece better off because it is more "regulated" (whatever that means)? Or because it has less "inequality?" Or is Greece now no-longer part of the "first world?"

And by "Europe," do you mean the EU (have you seen Europe's economy lately)? How about Switzerland? Are they more "regulated" (whatever that means)?

In case you have noticed, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece, the UK (most of the EU, really) isn't doing that great right now, is it?

Edit: Let me know of the specific regulations you have in mind that will make everyone equal (like the Greeks, apparently). Hint: Just "regulations" does not mean anything without context. Do you mean to say that the EU has more laws than the U.S.? I wouldn't think of the U.S. as being a "deregulated" or an "unregulated" place. Would you? I live in California where the legislature is just now reviewing no fewer than 400 new laws to implement. I doubt that many (if any) Swiss cantons have more laws and regulations than California. Or Luxembourg. Or Estonia (which, by the way, is Europe's most recent economic miracle: a country with one of the freest -- albeit not perfectly free -- markets, relative to other countries).

Or perhaps you mean the Scandinavian countries (which I contest are not as "regulated" as you might think)?

I'm just going to save everyone else the bother and call you a fucking idiot right away.

In Type 1 diabetes the body doesn't produce insulin. It's not just a little short, it has none. You can't survive long without insulin, not in any semblance of normality. Regardless of diet, you simply can't. Like you can't survive without oxygen. No amount of eating your greens will stop you drowning.

If you can find us a proper scientific double blind controlled study that shows that a placebo can make the pancreas of a type 1 diabetic produce insulin then I'll take back the fucking idiot bit. If you can't, you've just proved the fucking idiot bit.

I'm gonna go out on a limb here and predict that after your next reply, the fucking idiot bit will remain.

No-one's saying a good diet and exercise aren't important, of course it is. But to say it can perform the miracles you're attributing to it is absurd. You even mention Cancer, as if it's a result of poor life choices. It's true that you can get cancer from poor life choices, but that's not the same as saying if you don't make poor life choices you can't get cancer.

Fucking idiot.

Show me the science (proper science) and I'll gladly retract all the nastiness. I challenge you to prove me wrong.

and now the articles in the news focus on THC content, yet again.

There is a PHd chemistry professor at my school, young guy, who didnt even know cannabidiol was from cannabis. CBD. You know, the anti cancer neuroprotectant miracle drug?

Yea. Current research and the US PATENT on the substance say we have been misled. Where is gupta on this EASY to find information?

FUck.

Please spread the word. The sin of omission is the greatest of all.