Oh, so besides a daycare God should have made his people implement a big conspiracy.  In a society of millions of people, don't you think one guy might leak something?

No, that's just it.  They don't.  If someone hasn't taken the time to research an issue then they have no right to speak about it.  If a person who is uninformed on an issue speaks out about it one way or another, then they will be doing nothing but blabbing someone else's conclusions without understanding how they were determined.  This leads to millions of people mindlessly walking around saying things like "guns are evil" because they heard it on CNN.

MILLIONS OF PEOPLE???
Do you actually think the Israelites who were coming into Canaan under Moses were MILLIONS of people???

It doesn't matter if their opinions are wrong, they still have a right to hold and express them.  That's what we call the Freedom of Speech.  You may have heard of it.

LOL.  Now I know you're full of BS.  Everything you said about reading the bible "more times than you can remember" is false.  Millions of people is historical fact.  It even mentions in the bible that the number of fighting men was something like 500,000-600,000.  That means at least 1 million adults.  I guess you're nothing but an idiot talking about what you truly don't understand.  I withdraw my earlier apologies, troll.

Edit: Exodus 12:37
As I'm sure you're unfamiliar with the bible, EXODUS is the second book.  The first number denotes the chapter of that book and the number after the colon refers to the specific verse.  Let me know if you need any help.

I wasn't talking about constitutional rights.  I was talking about a logically legitimate right in the sense that any uninformed troll (much like yourself) who goes about spewing forth that which he doesn't have a basis for is muttering worthless drivel.  But I don't expect you, Mr. biblical-scholar-who-apparently-hasn't-read-the-bible, to understand the concept of "basis" or "logic".

You don't know the meaning of the word troll, apparently, among the many other things of which you don't know the meaning.  There is no way there were really that many Israelites: I already told you I don't buy the Biblical account as an honest history.  As a student of history, I am well aware of how the side that writes the history aggrandizes itself, particularly among a mythic people such as the Bronze-Age nomads who made up the tribes of Israel.
If you, for religious reasons, wish to accept the number from the Bible as factual, that's your perogative...you have the right to your opinion (a right you don't extend to others, ironically enough) but I disagree, as do most serious scholars of that era.

Of course you weren't...you aren't familiar with the concept.

My cheap shot at RikWriter earlier notwithstanding, I agree with him on the opinion issue.

zonan is insisting that every opinion must be an informed opinion, which in a formal debate might be required and then defended (in that case it's called a position, I believe).

In life that is seldom the case. Very few people are "precisionists in thought and deed" and most people have casual opinions that they've given little thought to. They are entitled both by law (the First Amendment) and by natural right to think and hold whatever opinions they wish.

If you disagree with someone else's opinion, that's fine. You're expressing your own opinion; which someone else probably disagrees with too.

Different and opposing opionions are important, though. There is what I think of as the Socratic learning process that is vital to the way I grow intellectually. Someone tells me their opinon or perceptions of an issue and I tell them mine. Sometimes their view fits what I perceive better than the view I held previously and I change my view incrementally. Other times I perceive things differently than they do and I don't learn anything about the universe from the discussion, but I DO learn something about the person I'm discussing it with.

Reading this thread, I learned something about RikWriter that I didn't know. He's the son of a Baptist minister. I didn't know that before, and when I take that information and integrate it with my previous experience with the children of ministers, I have a better frame of reference to understand some of what he's said.

I still don't understand everything about him, but his opinions as presented here are a window on his mind. Perhaps he doesn't want anyone to peek through that window, but that's what discourse is.

Of course, if you never state your opinion, then it never gets to see the light of day. Your opinion never gets a chance to be challenged and you don't have a chance to grow. If you aren't allowed to state your opinion, then you are locked into that narrow perception of the universe with no chance to face your own preconceptions and prejudices and change them. That's fine and dandy when someone has a vested interest in keeping your experience and knowledge to a minimum because they want to keep you under control.

(going to get more philosophical wax, as I'm definitely waxing philosophical...)

Reeeaallllyyy?  Well,I hear they have a sale on one way tickets to Afghanistan.  But wait!  There are Muslims right here in this nation.  Just grab your black rifle & start exterminating....just don't be too surprised if some of us shoot back.

Come get some...we are not that hard to find.  In fact, we stick out like a sore thumb these days.

I am very curious.  Are you just blowing off steam (which you are entitled to do) or you truly advocating genocide of all Muslims everywhere?

Ohhh!  Nice witty retort.  Unfortunately it has nothing to do with what I was getting at, so it's not a very stinging insult.  You really don't understand what I'm saying, but I don't know if that's biologically possible for you anyway.

Hey lets kill the islam shit its to close to my name. Isam Yes I am white and very Irish.

I wasn't advocating preventing people from stating their opinion, no matter how moronic.  I don't favor the abolition of any part of the bill of rights.  Freedom of speech is a good thing, I just wish people would shut up when they don't know what they're saying.  It's an issue involving personal responsibility to me.  If someone asks me about something I haven't had exposure to or thought about, then I'll tell them that.  If I am at all interested in the particular topic I go and research it, gradually formulating a conclusion.

Using freedom of speech haphazardly is similar to using a gun in the same manner.

Take your own advice.

Another witty retort from the primate.  Go home troll.

I am home, Mr. Newbie.  I've been here for almost four years...where have YOU been?
You can blather "troll" at me all you want, it won't change the fact you made yourself look like an ass.