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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 5/31/2013 12:34 PM, Scott Dredge
wrote:<br>
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<blockquote cite="mid:BLU175-W31E31615DDC1788C82B253E4920@phx.gbl"
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<div dir="ltr">Tom posts a graphic that reads 'You are the result
of 3.8 billion years of evolutionary success. Act like it.'<br>
</div>
</blockquote>
<br>
As a parental prescript, the line above does have an expected
imperative urgency, but it assumes too much.<br>
<br>
<blockquote cite="mid:BLU175-W31E31615DDC1788C82B253E4920@phx.gbl"
type="cite">
<div dir="ltr">Seems to me that everyone is acting as *exactly*
how they should be. Evolution / Creation / Something in
between. What difference does it make?<br>
</div>
</blockquote>
<br>
Within a stable ecosystem with checks and balances to its growth,
sustenance, and long term stability, the system takes care of itself
without conscious thought from the system as a whole about itself.
However, conscious thought and action are necessary when some
elements of the system have characteristics and abilities that could
result in systemic instability and perhaps failure.<br>
<br>
<blockquote cite="mid:BLU175-W31E31615DDC1788C82B253E4920@phx.gbl"
type="cite">
<div dir="ltr">Dr. Gier at the start of this thread posted 'The
problem of evil and the very unsatisfactory answer from the
Abrahamic religions is one of the primary reasons why good,
rational people become atheists.'<br>
<br>
Religious types are free to be become non-religious.
Non-religious types are free to become religious. To sum it up,
everyone is free agent when it comes to their own spirituality
or lack thereof.</div>
</blockquote>
<br>
Not everyone. Some individuals within some cultures and societies
may have the ability to choose and to change, but many people, for a
variety of reasons, don't have those choices available to them.
More people might have those choices available were they able to
feel sufficiently free and safe to consider and to choose.<br>
<br>
<blockquote cite="mid:BLU175-W31E31615DDC1788C82B253E4920@phx.gbl"
type="cite">
<div dir="ltr">Evolution hasn't reached the stage of mind control
over others yet.</div>
</blockquote>
<br>
Evolution has neither purpose nor plan, so it is not working toward
mind control. On the other hand, some individuals, and the
organizations to which they belong, do attempt, often successfully,
to exert power and control over the minds, movements, and monies of
others.<br>
<br>
<blockquote cite="mid:BLU175-W31E31615DDC1788C82B253E4920@phx.gbl"
type="cite">
<div dir="ltr">When and if that happens, we'll all become part of
the Borg and won't even be able to tell heaven from hell.<br>
</div>
</blockquote>
<br>
For some individuals, the if is a reality, the when is now, and the
abilities of no small number of individuals to distinguish between
fantasy and reality have been compromised.<br>
<br>
"Do you know why you are here, Neo?"<br>
<br>
<br>
Ken<br>
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