mikester

salutations (<--- better than starting off with 'hi' eh?),

got some n00b questions for all you savvy people.

first, what are theists?

what are these things called existentialism, realism, dialetheism, idealism, syllogism and the rest? (are they theories or something?)

what are these 'basic' ideas on evolution (ie. creationism and such)?

many thanks.

Chicken Girl

A theist is someone who believes in one or more gods.

As for your other questions, you'll have to ask someone else.

never been there

Ah-ha! Getting a head start on the big words, huh?
Simply put, those who believe in one or more gods. Not usually applied to those who believe in fairies, Xenu or The Force.
Isn't it past your bedtime? Seriously, you want to lurk around the "upper forums" (Philosophy, Existence of God, etc....). Also a trip to a second-hand bookstore for any old "Intro to Philosophy" text will give you a good start. Note: if you meant to write "dialectical materialism" the above are theories with the exception of "syllogism" which is a building block of logicCreationism = "abracadabra"
Evolution = what happened
Natural selection = a widely-accepted idea of why what happened, happened. Many variations (read Gould and Dawkins for two sides).

Also try the Library - some intro to the jargon stuff in there. And don't be afraid to pop into a thread with a request for definitions. Someone will undoubtedly be rude to you, but this only trashes their credibility in the eyes of everyone else on the forum.

mikester

hehe, its late but im still wide awake.

ill start lurking more, i plan on learning a lot from this place anyway.

i cant really make a trip to the bookstore at the moment, im reading some books for school so im occupied till the summer.

actually, ive taken some philosophy classes for my 1st year uni this fall, and i figured i might get a bit of an intro here.

thanks for the info guys, really appreciate it.

thanks for the heads-up.