Ben Carson admits fabricating West Point scholarship

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Does evil exist?

The university professor challenged his students with this question. Did God create everything that exists? A student bravely replied, “Yes, he did!”

“God created everything? The professor asked.

“Yes sir”, the student replied.

The professor answered, “If God created everything, then God created evil since evil exists, and according to the principal that our works define who we are then God is evil”. The student became quiet before such an answer. The professor was quite pleased with himself and boasted to the students that he had proven once more that the Christian faith was a myth.

Another student raised his hand and said, “Can I ask you a question professor?”

“Of course”, replied the professor.

The student stood up and asked, “Professor, does cold exist?”

“What kind of question is this? Of course it exists. Have you never been cold?” The students snickered at the young man’s question.

The young man replied, “In fact sir, cold does not exist. According to the laws of physics, what we consider cold is in reality the absence of heat. Every body or object is susceptible to study when it has or transmits energy, and heat is what makes a body or matter have or transmit energy. Absolute zero (-460 degrees F) is the total absence of heat; all matter becomes inert and incapable of reaction at that temperature. Cold does not exist. We have created this word to describe how we feel if we have no heat.”

The student continued, “Professor, does darkness exist?”

The professor responded, “Of course it does.”

The student replied, “Once again you are wrong sir, darkness does not exist either. Darkness is in reality the absence of light. Light we can study, but not darkness. In fact we can use Newton’s prism to break white light into many colors and study the various wavelengths of each color. You cannot measure darkness. A simple ray of light can break into a world of darkness and illuminate it. How can you know how dark a certain space is? You measure the amount of light present. Isn’t this correct? Darkness is a term used by man to describe what happens when there is no light present.”

Finally the young man asked the professor, “Sir, does evil exist?”

Now uncertain, the professor responded, “Of course as I have already said. We see it every day. It is in the daily example of man’s inhumanity to man. It is in the multitude of crime and violence everywhere in the world. These manifestations are nothing else but evil.”

To this the student replied, “Evil does not exist sir, or at least it does not exist unto itself. Evil is simply the absence of God. It is just like darkness and cold, a word that man has created to describe the absence of God. God did not create evil. Evil is not like faith, or love that exist just as does light and heat. Evil is the result of what happens when man does not have God’s love present in his heart. It’s like the cold that comes when there is no heat or the darkness that comes when there is no light.”

The professor sat down.

The young man’s name -- Ben Carson

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By now, we've reached the point where the positive feedback loop is almost self-sustaining: the ideas that circulate as acceptable and normal in the social-conservative, religious and Tea-Party parts of the GOP are so alien and offensive to people on what used to be the moderate left of the political spectrum that they react as though the Republicans are insane and evil, which just reinforces the Republicans' narrative about Democrats.

Yes, and some of the things that circulate as acceptable and normal in the social-liberal free-for-all, for instance all this transgender nonsense, are so offensive to people on what used to be the moderate right of the political spectrum that they react as though the Democrats are insane and evil, which just reinforces the Democrat's narrative about Republicans.

As someone who considers himself center-right on fiscal issues and center-left on social issues, the rancour, vitriol, and apparent absence of any ability to offer reasonable positions from the center is truly disheartening. Neither of the narratives being offered by the major parties is of much use to those of us who struggle in the center...

If you're trying for the Atlas Tedious Hack of the Year Awards, it should be noted that the "more moderate than thou art" category has some steady competition.

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Well said, BK. I find it infuriating how some people think they alone can define what is "moderate" and the entire political spectrum must revolve around their special snowflake selves.

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I'm sorry realisticidealist but I fail to see how this is a subjective issue in the slightest. SillyAmerican there literally dismissed an entire group of people, a group with whom I identify, as "offensive nonsense". The notion that Republicans are somehow becoming more extremist on a wide range of issues just because I chose to be open about my gender identity, (let alone the notion that members of the Democratic party are somehow inherently accepting and supportive) is patently ridiculous.

Ok, I'll try to explain it to you in the simplest terms I can. The reason we have bathrooms marked "men" and "women" (oh, and by the way, this is a generally accepted practice throughout the world) is that some people (most specifically women) don't want to have to share their bathroom space with members of the opposite sex. It's a simple matter of their privacy. And it has nothing to do with what gender you wish to be associated with, it has everything to do with what's dangling between your legs. How is it that the women being asked to forgo their privacy, as well as their fathers / brothers / sons, are painted by you and others as bigots? Since when has respect of ones privacy become an outrageous policy? Sorry, but I stand by my initial statement: this is simply nonsense, and is symptomatic of a general breakdown of common sense within our country.

Man, I didn't know the PATRIOT act had got so bad that Americans have to have genital checks every time they go the bathroom. THIS IS WHAR RON PAUL WARNED US ABOUT

As a resident of "the world" the "accepted practice" here is actually that we enter and leave bathrooms without in the process checking out each other's genitals. Has America tried out this radical solution?