I think more atheists get it than you give credit for. There's lots of (in my mind unnecessary and unproductive) quibbling over semantics here. There's many self-identified atheists who take the soft position ("I don't believe in god") rather than the hard position ("I believe there is no god"). The soft position is basically equivalent with what you are assuming is strictly the realm of agnosticism. I've seen so many words thrown around over what's basically a disagreement as to whether soft atheism exists and is or isn't really agnosticism, it seems like a real waste.

Metaxas' entire article seems to hinge on a failure to understand the anthropic principle. It's not even remotely a novel argument, either. Why the WSJ decided it was worth printing in the first place, I'm not sure.

Descartes presented an argument. Philosophers since then have been poking holes in that argument. I have never heard a modern philosopher state that they consider his argument a valid proof.

Sounds interesting; thanks for the recommendation.

Don't tell me it was our system's seventh planet ...

I can remember a couple of sessions where we never even got fully equipped before getting into trouble because the party thief tried to rip off the shopkeep or someone in the bar where all the characters met to start, but I can't think of many cases where the thief didn't have at least a little respect for his party. The rest of them knew where he slept, after all.

I know I spent far more time reading the manuals than playing. Especially reading monster descriptions, treasures, and equipment. I was mostly interested in D&D but probably read manuals for at least half a dozen different game types, just out of curiosity, even though I never played any of them at all.

Hah. No, but carrying a large knife does very adequately suggest, "Don't stand so close to me."

I think you overestimate the amount of authors who are either top-selling or locked into a rewarding specialty niche. I'd bet it leaves 80% or more in what you're calling "the dreck." There's bound to be middling writers who don't have the clout or fortitude of the top-sellers, rising stars who just want to get into lots of hands, promising beginners who are happier with Amazon's $1.33 than they would be with a traditional publisher's $0.50 for their debut, niche authors who don't have command of a good audience for whatever reason, the poorly advertised and undiscovered, and, yes, of course there's still drek.

You know what lots of other people call a carefully crafted misdirection? Wit. Or humor. Why is it automatically "a dick thing to do" and not one of the former? Because Jesus is involved?

You're forgetting the Bioshock scenario here. That would be far more sensational.

Very modern humans with excellent nutrition. It can be delayed by poor nutrition. I'm pretty sure I've seen people talking about that number dipping lower in recent centuries. I suspect it was higher in neo/paleolithic ages, when the food supply was less consistent.

The largest number of birds I've ever seen in flight came right before a massive blizzard. I was standing by a river and over it tens of thousands of ducks and geese were flying due south, away from the incoming snow. "Wow, that's ominous," I said, before going home and being trapped inside for several days by nearly three feet of snow.

What do you mean I don't own it? I can burn a CD and keep physical copies. Plus I can also get a new copy from Apple if I lose both the physical version and the digital version on my computer/iPod.

I've got a much better record buying from them than I did in previous years buying physical media that, once broken, borrowed, or lost, didn't have a replacement.

It's a fun site, though some of the entries are so far off I lean toward assuming they're jokes/spam rather than real. (Then again, someone above claimed they heard "pet shark" for "best shot" so maybe anything really is possible.) Good way to spend some time, though.