People did not get paid for fixing the bug, they got paid for finding it.

Of current modern philosophies in play, that religion which is most intolerant of other philosophies is currently Islam. Comparing the number of incidents caused by "Christian terrorists" vs. "Islamic terrorists" or "Jewish terrorists" is no contest. And yes, both Christian (Northern Ireland) and Jewish (Palestine) terrorists have existed in the past, but they don't hold a candle to the destructive nature currently being done. It is also hard to compare the Crusades by King Richard (of England) vs. the Jihad of Saladin as both were destructive. But I'd still go with the grandparent to point out that the Soviet Union, in the name of atheism, killed more than almost all of these religious crusades/jihads combined throughout nearly the entire history of mankind. It was certainly multiple times that killed by Hitler for religious reasons under the Third Reich. I was by far and away a much larger threat to other religious philosophies than any other philosophical movement ever

To the first paragraph I say this: There are fewer incidents involving Christian and Jewish terrorists because they are currently the philosophies that are in power. The only people that feel they need to resort to terrorism are the ones that feel they are being persicuted. Your mentioning of the people in Northern Ireland show this. They are Christian but because they feel they are being persicuted they resort to terroist acts. Of course past incidents do not hold a candle to todays acts of terrorism because the terrosits have a lot more firepower available to them.

To the second paragraph I have this to offer: You make it sound like the Soviet Union decided to create an athesist state then adopted an ecconomic theory of communism after. That was not the case. The Russian Revolution was to help the working man get out of horrible conditions. The US did it with unions the Russians with revolution. After that they became, shall we say, a little too aggresive (I am not a fan of the soviet union) but their actions were not done "in the name of aetheism" but as an act to keep the ecconomic power that they had. They could have gone with a state religion but that would mean that other countries that had the same state religion could have some influence on the way the soviets ran their country.

As the Soviet state wished absolute power, they removed the church. So it wasn't "atheists killing Christians," it was "dictators killing religious people who might follow something other than the state." You hit the nail on the head there. Communist atheism - if it deserves the description at all - is a means to an end, no more and no less.

It was actually dictators killing ANYONE that went against the state. The communist leaders would not have had a problem with religion if people just kept it to themselves. Unfortuantely they knew that religious people formed groups, these groups sought power in order to allow them to share their beliefs and that is where the problem occured. The communist leaders did not want to share power with ANYONE no matter where that power was comming from.

The communist nations chose to be atheist not because of a belief that there was no God but because it prevented any one particular religion from gaining an advantage. That is very different from someone chosing to be an atheist because they actually believe that there is not a God.

I personally am coming to the belief that if there is a God that created all of this then that God would want us to learn everything we can about this place He (could be a She) created. If we are God's children then we should learn to live in it as adults and not have to constantly ask "Dad" for help. I am not a parent myself but isn't it a basic understanding that a parent's job is to prepare a child to live in this world and to teach that child all they can about the world.

With the passing of Michael Jackson we see the end of a fantastic musical career..."Weird Al" Yankovic's I won a wierd pool at work. It was worth 5.8 million dollars. I said that Michael Jackson and Farah Fawcett woudl dies on the same day. Unfortunately I will never see any of it. Ed McMahon was going to deliver my winnings.

Ok, let me give this a try. It differs from using a phone with a camera because the picture quality is better and you can connect the iPod to a TV screen and still watch it without the picture looking like crap. It differs from using a real camera, something major league baseball has been doing for years, in that with the real camera will usually need you to be in a specific location like a film room to view it. The iPod would allow the players to view the film on the plane when they are travelling or in the hotel room.