----When i give my address to an ISP its for billing and maintenance ONLY---

Why do ISPs have to maintain records connecting an IP address with your name and street address? Are they required to do so by law? If not, it seems that an enterprising ISP could get quite a few extra subscribers by advertising that they do not keep any records on the connection between an Internet address and the real physical address of a customer.

When such an enterprising ISP provider then gets a subpoena for this information, they can honestly tell the judge or lawyer that they do not keep this data, at least not for more than a month or two. Is the perpetual keeping of this connecting information really at all valuable to any ISP? It seems that combing through a pile of records by the ISP is not exactly free either. Would it not be cheaper for them to simply send a form letter to the requester of a subpoena stating that they never record or no longer have the requested information.

---A decent lawyer ---
I did not now there was such thing, at least not in the USA.

Jesus the Christ said:

Mark 8:35 For whoever will save his life shall lose it; but whoever shall lose his life for My sake and the gospel's, he shall save it.
Mark 8:36 For what shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul?
Mark 8:37 Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?
Mark 8:38 Therefore whoever shall be ashamed of Me and of My Words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man shall also be ashamed of him when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.

No amount of money can buy happiness because only God can and does give blessings to anyone who believes Him and because of that belief does the will of God.

----They tend to hang on longer and die for other reasons---

In the United States life expectancy is about 77.5 to 80 years. That is the same as what God said through the psalmist about 3000 years ago.

Psalm 90:10 The years of our life are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty; yet their span is but toil and trouble; they are soon gone, and we fly away.
Psalm 90:12 So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.

Despite all modern medical knowledge and scientific research, the human lifespan today is no better than what God said it would be.

The world average lifespan is 67.5 years which is actually less than what was given to the people who lived 3000 years or more before our time. Now about all of this research can do is to make this allotted lifespan healthier and more pain-free, but not extend it much if at all.

---Both ASC and ESC research may have the potential to cure diabetes, Alzheimer's, etc. ----

If such research really could come up with viable cures for such diseases, then any one of the super rich megacorporation pharmaceutical companies would be doing this without the help of a single cent of federal tax money. They could use as many embryos as they could get a hold of because of the law only applies to the use of taxpayer funds.

They could come up with a patented drug or process and make millions. Obviously they don't see a big pot of gold at the end of this particular research rainbow, otherwise they would be doing this research themselves or at least funding it to be done at advanced university laboratories.

----gloss over the major role that natural selection plays which is not random---

The problem is that natural selection can only confer advantage on a completed working, functional part of an organism. A partially completed, partially evolved organ or system does not confer reproductive advantage and will therefore be invisible to the mechanism of natural selection.

For example, a partially completed red blood cell containing incomplete hemoglobin will not fulfill the oxygen carrying capability and therefore will not confer an evolutionary advantage by the mechanism of natural selection. A large number of changes have to happen all at once in order to get a complex working structure such as the oxygen transport mechanism found in living organisms.

Therefore, although natural selection is a established scientific fact, it is insufficient by itself to explain how many of the complicated mechanisms of life could have arisen by the small incremental changes that natural selection is capable of. Darwin himself admitted this to be true.

If you will simply search for the word "design" or "designed" in this thread, you will find that its repeated use in the numerous reference to the awesome complexity of the human brain, is unavoidable even by ardent evolutionists.

----What authority does the federal government have to regulate the Internet?---

In 1934, after the growth of radio, Congress established the Federal COMMUNICATIONS Commission. This commission was given broad authority over all COMMUNICATION that crosses state lines. Since the Internet is nothing more than another communications system, as is the wireless telephone, all these forms of communications fall under the jurisdiction of the FCC. Theoretically at least, being an arm of the government, the FCC is supposed to serve the common good, not the pocketbooks of the communications providers.

Before broadband services became common, people communicated by telephone, including dial-up computer connections to the Internet. There were efforts then by the phone companies to disallow or charge more for modem connections than for ordinary voice service. Was that horrible idea squelched by government regulation or the free market?

So now the communications companies are at it again, trying to squeeze more dollars out of their customers by charging more or less for different kinds of information traveling over their wires. If the FCC did apply the same rules on the communications providers of the Internet as they do over the communications providers of the telephone system, there is really no one except Congress that could change this. Even the courts would be hard-pressed to challenge the authority of the FCC given to them by Congress long time ago.

----But university isn't free. It can cost a lot of time and money----

In today's world, as in the past, it's always about the work a person eventually earns their living by, that is the number one reason for getting an education. In our world, a degree from a prestigious university will get a person in the door, thereby given the chance by an employer to demonstrate or not the ability to perform a given job.

In times past, throughout most of humanity's history, the employers themselves would train an apprentice to do a given work. This model would still work in many professions or industries, but with the rise of large corporations, the burden of training for a given job is no longer on the employer like it used to be. It is now placed on the shoulders of society as a whole and those seeking work. The corporate employers no longer have to bear the burden of educating the workers, thus making larger profits themselves.

No matter how smart or skillful a person is, they will not be considered for employment unless they have some sort of paper that attests to the fact that they have warmed a chair in an approved school for a certain length of time. The only alternative for a smart and skilled person not possessing said paper is to become an entrepreneur unless they are related to the CEO or other higher up management of a company.

Even Jesus Christ, not being educated by "approved" teachers, would not likely get a job in a modern factory making furniture.

Until this system of filtering for employment is changed, the uncredentialed Internet educated genius is not likely to get a decent job.

In a way, I agree with you. You can't change human nature, at least not easily. However, it would send a message to all politicians especially in the federal government, that the voters are very unhappy with the direction they are steering his country. It would tell them to truly represent the people, as they are supposed to, rather than whoever paid their re-election expenses.

Also, meaningful election reform, such as limiting the amount of money any particular person or group of persons can contribute to a particular candidate would go a long way, to keep our elected officials tuned to the needs and desires of their constituents. It would take a constitutional amendment, to prevent activist judges from simply declaring such a reform unconstitutional.

---- If just voting is not working ---

The only reason that voting is not working, is because people are voting for the same politicians year in and year out. One of the definitions of insanity is: "doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result each time".

A simple solution is not vote for anyone currently in office, regardless of whether they are a republicrat or a democan. Give the newcomers, many of which have a better idea, a chance. The voters simply need to clean house once and for all. With all new blood into elected offices, it will take a while at least before the corrupt old boy network can be reestablished.

--- The more I hear of this the more I think we should declare the lot of them "Common Carriers"---

Indeed true, what is the difference between a telephone line and any Internet connection? For a long time, in the beginning, telephone lines via dial-up carried Internet traffic as well as voice. So now, what is the difference, except that we speeded things up a bit? Since the same lines carry both voice and other material, they should still be common carriers. If the FCC had declared the Internet communications providers as common carriers right at the beginning, we would now have none of this controversy. No act of Congress is required for the FCC to decide, albeit belatedly, that there is no difference between a telephone line and an Internet line. In this regard it is a common carrier highway just like a physical highway.

----what scientists currently believe are the explanation for how the world is ---

Indeed, scientists BELIEVE! It seems that every culture has its religion and the associated high priests. It just so happens to be that in the Western religion of secular humanism, the high priests are labeled "scientists". In every culture and society, the high priests of necessity are always held in high esteem.

There are two mythologies about nature. One of them is our modern 21st century myth and the other one is ancient in that it was held and still is held by much if not most humanity. The modern mythology says that the universe is an accident and is the only thing that exists and is real. The modern myth of secularism and materialism teaches that this world is all there is. Those that have embraced this, live for wealth and power.

There are many mythologies, modern as well as ancient, but they all hold in common, that whatever exists came into being from something else. The Earth rests on turtles all the way down or came from a mathematical thing called a singularity. The ancient mythologies mostly insist that this world is not important, but the world to come is. Modern science did not rise out of cultures that embrace these mythologies, but from a Christian culture and society, that taught the existence of a transcendent rational Creator.

Only the biblical creation account tells us that everything came into being out of nothing. Only the Bible teaches us, that material world is important and valuable.

Eastern religions concentrate on the hereafter, elevating the spiritual and consider the material somewhat of a prison to be ultimately set free from. God of the Bible is interested in all of creation, both material and immaterial. Jesus, being God, came into this material world and was physically resurrected in a new arrangement of matter.

If someone gives you a complicated machine or device, are you primarily interested in how or when it was made? More likely, you would be more interested to know what it does, who gave it to you and why. This is what the Bible is primarily all about. It tells us who made the universe, why he did and our place in it. When and how he did it is not nearly as important to our existence than to answer the question why we are here and how to use this gift of life properly.

Education is about teaching truth that is applicable to life right now. Speculating about how and when things began is nice, but not crucial to how we live our lives here and now.

---we weren't needing to sell that capacity to Californians---

Actually, the Pacific Northwest, Washington and Oregon would love to sell their cheaply generated wind and hydropower to California at a high price. However the truth of the matter is that the power lines going to California are maxed out, especially in the summer. California is hot and needs a lot of air conditioning power in the summer, while in the winter the Northwest uses excess power from California for heating.

The correct way to deal with this problem would be to build more power lines, but that effort runs straight into NIMBY which greatly increases the cost which ultimately comes out of the electricity prices. Also, the terrain over which these power lines run is very rugged and isolated, greatly increasing the cost to build them. A lot of places where the power lines would go are also very scenic, causing the people who live in those places to fight them tooth and nail, because we want to preserve the beautiful scenery. All of these reasons combine to make it extremely expensive and therefore highly unlikely that additional power lines would be constructed anytime soon.

Everybody wants to plug their electrical gadgets into a working outlet, but object to the necessary environmental impact of adding to the power infrastructure.

----The Bible isn't that unique----

There are several aspects in which the Bible, especially the Gospel, is very unique. One of them, probably the biggest difference is that all other religions, with not a single exception, teach their followers how to approach God or whatever else they may call the goal of their religion. Only the Christian gospel of Jesus Christ is exactly the opposite. It is God, out of love, reaching out to us humans, by becoming human himself. There is nothing anyone of us could do for God. All he has ever asked and is still asking is that we should truly trust him and depend on him. This is where the first humans failed and those who refuse to believe God's word still fail. Only the God of the Bible commands people love him and through Jesus Christ has given human beings the ability to do that. Other religions, such as the Muslim's Allah commands strict obedience, not love.

The founders of all other religions are still in the grave. None of the other religions, not even one, dare to even make the claim that the one they are following was physically, bodily raised from death. It was the fact of the Resurrection, that transformed a bunch of scared followers of Jesus to enable them to fundamentally change their world and subsequently human history down to our very own day. Other religions, such as the Muslims have a dead prophet, but Christians love, adore and serve the living Lord.

Only in the Bible do we get history written down accurately in advance. It not only accurately foretells many details of what happened in the life of Jesus Christ, but is literally being fulfilled before our eyes. For example, it accurately foretells that the Jewish people would be scattered all over the earth, but in the last days be gathered out of all nations into their ancient land. Biblical prophecy about Jerusalem again being the capital city of a sovereign nation of Israel has come true. Zechariah's prophecy about Jerusalem becoming a bone of contention to all nations all around the world is echoed almost every day in the headlines of the news-media. Does it not strike you illogical, that the tiny nation of Israel with only 8200 km is such a bone of contention, the subject of unreasoning hatred of nations occupying millions of square kilometers? Yet this was predicted by Jesus Christ would happen to his people.

-----I'd dearly LOVE to believe in the Christian faith------

This is because your Creator God has put within you a deep yearning for himself. To achieve that peace and happiness your heart is crying out for, you only have to trust and believe him, nothing more. Once you do that, his Spirit will indwell you, enabling you to love him, live for him and your fellow man right here on earth. Once you graduate the University of Earth by death, you will be, as Jesus told his disciples,"where I am you will be also, for I am going to prepare a place for you".

It is not at all unreasonable or illogical to believe in the transcendent God who created the universe and loves you. I am a retired electrical engineer. I have spent most of my working life at Stanford University building and testing complex apparatus which enabled a number of scientists to earn Nobel prizes while discovering the secrets of creation. To be a Christian does not mean you have to check your brain at the door of the church. The apostle Paul, in the Bible, the book of Romans, admonishes Christians:

Rom 12:1 I beseech you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, pleasing to God, which is your RESONABLE service.
Rom 12:2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your MIND, in order to prove by you what is that good and pleasing and perfect will of God.

As a Christian, I believe in a reasonable God who expects that belief in his offer of grace and love is a logical thing to do. I sincerely hope, that in reading the Bible, you too will come to the conclusion, such as I have, that the offer of God's grace is also there for you.

---- Why exactly do you think that's an either/or proposition?----

The word evolution is a very elastic word. If the world and everything in it is a product of time and chance, then it specifically contradicts the Bible. Anyone who does not believe in God, can offer no explanation for what exists, other than time and chance.

Only a belief in God can offer purpose and meaning for your life. If Carl Sagan was right, if the cosmos is all there is and ever will be, then there is no meaning to life. If there is no God beyond the universe, (one verse) then life truly is "a tale told by an idiot signifying nothing".

Suppose someone gives you a gift, a package. You open it and find a beautiful but complicated device or appliance. Is your first thought to determine when or how it was made? Probably not. Foremost, you would like to know who gave it to you and why. Hopefully it comes with some instructions telling you what it is good for and how to use it. You might ignore the instructions and try to figure it out on your own. In doing so, you could damage or totally ruin the gift.

God gave you the gift of life and wants you to operate this life correctly in his beautiful, complex universe. Doesn't it stand to reason that he would have included an instruction manual? I believe this instruction manual is the Bible, a very unique book. In it he tells you not only how to operate this thing called life, but also why he gave this life to you in the first place.

He gives a lot of detail, but the bottom line is that he loves you and created you in such a manner that you can love him in return. Ask your stepfather and friends WHY they believe in God.