Or death by snu-snu!

ASCII is even easier than that - because 0-9, a-z and A-Z are represented by sequential binary numbers.

If humans are present in an ecosystem, tastiness can be an evolutionary advantage!

I don't hear my wife complaining...

His short story "Wang's Carpets" - which then became a chapter in "Diaspora"

No - Apple fans are more into turtlenecks.

Because sin is not merely bad actions, but an attitude of rebellion against God.

One part of the answer then is that sin in an infinite offense against an infinite God.

But I don't think that on its own is enough. Another part of the answer is that the biblical pictures of punishment show that even while being punished, sinners continue to curse God (eg Rev 16:9, 11, 21).

The Christian answer is that the evidence is God coming to earth in the person of Jesus - dying for the sins of the world and being raised to new life as recorded in the Scriptures. Claims about the personality of God such as "love" and are backed up by the historical events of the crucifiction and resurrection (eg John 3:16 - God so loved the world that he gave his only Son).

Now maybe you don't accept that evidence. Fair enough. But in order to fathom why Christians believe that God has certain personality traits, the evidence that we are basing our understanding on is the person and work of Jesus as revealed in the Scriptures.

The caricature of the devil _reigning_ over hell is not a biblical one - rather, hell is where the devil will himself be punished (Matt 25:41, Rev 20:10). Your strawman pastor doesn't know his basic theology if he can't answer that one :)

Factually nonsense. The report of Paul meeting Jesus on the Road to Damascus is in Acts 9, written not by Paul, but by Luke. Acts also reports Paul's meetings with the other disciples. In 2 Peter 3:16 Peter acknowledges Paul as an author of Scripture. And - nitpicking - Paul writes less than half the New Testament - 13 books out of 27, and even less as a proportion of verses. Whether you believe the Bible or not - at least accurately represent its claims.

The illustration that I've heard is if the nucleus was a basketball, the electrons would be orbiting kilometres away.

The downside of the invention of vaccines was the unintended consequence of anti-vaccination nutters.

I'm a Christian but not a creationist. I have a degree in physics and a degree in theology. And I thank God for Stephen Hawking and the insight that his incredible mind has given us into the universe, despite his defiance of God. I read his book "A Brief History of Time" and it blew my mind, it was one of the factors that led me to study physics. I used his latest book, "The Grand Design" in my honours thesis for my theology degree which was an investigation into the appearance of fine-tuning in the universe.

Not looking for an argument, just want to point out that not all Christians have the anti-science attitudes that seem so prevalent in American evangelicanlism.

My wife just got one - loves it. It's her first smartphone - upgraded from a Nokia candybar. She finds it reasonably intuitive and there are no major frustrations. The only minor frustration so far is that there is no indicator LED or equivalent so she can't just glance at it to see if there's a missed call or message.

It's called shifting the Overton Window