?

I just reported a question that painted all Republicans as "fat/ugly/rednecks", and I am a more or less Liberal Democrat Atheist.

I have Republican friends, I have Christian friends, shoot, I have Redneck friends, and I am sick of the stereotypes, insults and useless nonsense cluttering up an otherwise useful website.

How many agree that this kind of thing harms discussion, understanding, and learning? Can we agree to click "Report" and not feed the trolls and haters?

We can disagree with each other without stooping to childish namecalling.

The oldest of the kids from "19 kids and counting" the family/religious cult has been exposed as having molested 5 girls when he was 14.

Considering he was hired to be the leader of the Family Research Council and has used his position to attack others on sexual issues, does this make him a hypocrite?

I'm sure this has been asked by someone, somewhere, but,

I've noticed that the name "Muhammad" is extremely popular in the Middle East.

When someone calls out "Muhammad, come here!"

Do twenty people come running up?

Or in school, if there are 10 guys named Muhammad in the same class, do the teachers refer to them by their last name or what?

I was in a class with 2 other guys with the same name as me once, and that was confusing, I can't imagine if half the class had the same name.

Why do people pray for the same things over and over again?

For instance, you go to church, and you and everyone else prays for little Billy's misshapen head.

The next Sunday, you are back, and Billy's head still looks like a half rotten apple.

You pray again for Billy.

Next Sunday, same thing, pray for Billy.

..and so on...

What is the underlying reasoning here? Does God need to be reminded? Or maybe he needs to be convinced? I was taught that God was everywhere and knew all of our thoughts and deeds.

They say that when a loved one dies, the grieving typically go through these stages:

1 - Denial

2 - Anger

3 - Bargaining

4 - Depression

5 - Acceptance

However I went through these during my loss of faith in the religion I was raised in.

(This has been about 10 years ago)

Others that have lost your religious faith (whatever religion) , do you find this to be true?

Maybe for you it was on/off like a lightswitch, or more complicated than the 5 stages above?

This morning about 6:00AM I was outside and looking South , up maybe 30-40 degrees from the Horizon I saw what looked like a star, only it was flashing on about every 4-10 seconds for about 2 seconds, then it would go out. It flashed about eight-10 times then stopped and I never saw it again.

This was stationary- it never moved from the spot I saw it so it was not an airplane. It went completely OFF for 5-10 seconds at a time, so it was not a pulsar or star being seen through atmospheric weirdness. There were no clouds (no other stars flashing)

I tried looking this type of thing up on google but only found descriptions of pulsars which "shimmer" not flash on and off.

I have seen satellites fly over before, and it was not a satellite (maybe geosynchronous though?)

The closest thing I could find is a "solar sail" which is a new thing NASA put up I think, it "flashes" as it tumbles end over end in Space, but it MOVEs- not stationary.

Obviously its not a UFO cause it didn't FLY. (unidentified flying object)

Anyone have any idea?

Yesterday morning I was stung/bit by an insect of some kind, I brushed it off so fast I didn't see what it was. I assumed it was a bee or wasp, well, because that is what it felt like. But the original red bite spot has spread into a thin line about 2 inches long down my arm. It is in the appearence of little dark brown, slightly recessed spots. I can feel a slightly aching pain along the whole line.

I've never had a flying insect sting that looked like this (generally those just stay a red spot in one place) I have been researching and spider bites don't generally have pain until after a while, so I cannot figure out what bit me! I've looked and looked on the web for stings in this pattern but I cannot find anything, any idea???

As a condition to be allowed out of jail on bail/bond, before any conviction, often there is a 4th amendment waiver. This is the constitutional protection against unlawful search and seizure. Exactly how far does this go? Can your car,home, property, office at work,etc. all be searched at any time for no reason at all? Are your fourth amendment rights completely removed? Can government officials walk in your house every day just because they feel like it? Do they have to have any reasonable cause at all, or is it a "free-for-all"

What is heaven? What goes on there? What does it look like? Do you eat, sleep, poop there? Are you aware of your relatives and friends that did NOT make it? What happens on a day to day basis? Will you ever get bored? Where is heaven exactly? "up there"?

Does God allow free will there, can you be sad if you want to? Do babies that die have to spend eternity as babies? How about old people?