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Snow_Fox

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Everything posted by Snow_Fox

  1. The original article is interesting if not awkward thinking at some points. I would argue the house analogy needs a lot of work as well... If you find a more efficient way to build a house, there is nothing lazy about it.. In fact I would argue this is inspired by very motivated and active thinking. If you build a house faster, you can build another house sooner and you have become productive. I will definitely agree there is a major problem with lazy thinking as you call it.. A lot of my friends have beliefs and refuse to hear a logical argument against it, simply because they would then have to think, see the flaw in their logic and then correct it. The biggest issue, is when we discuss "over listening to music" I think we have to keep in mind I listen to say.. Pain Redefined by Disturbed and reflect on it think about it.. I actually hear the words.. Where as all of my friends listen to.. oh... I don't know.. 0.o um... Lets just say insert generic rap here.... They can listen to the song 50 times on repeat and have diminishing value in the song.. Because the song was only a back ground track for whatever they were doing in the first place. The over all point I am making is that there was a point you missed in your discussion where "the smart get smarter, the unthinking keep refusing to think". I don't watch T.V. If I do I actively watch T.V. What I am watching has some value to me and I am watching it for a reason. A lot of people just go brain dead and zone out while watching the boob tube. Then again, I like playing video games which require thought more than watching T.V.
  2. I can't give any peer reviewed scientific journals. I will leave it at this argument. You don't believe in a flying spaghetti monster. You know matter how much you want to, can't really believe in such a creature, you can't choose to believe it because you know it doesn't exist. I will concede the point about respecting their right vs respecting their beliefs. I don't want pointlessly argue but, I will say this. Being punished for doing wrong and rewarded for doing right is a precondition for everything learning right from wrong, be it children or dogs. If there was no possible way to do wrong before they ate the fruit, then regardless of what Eve said, it would have only been her regurgitating something that she didn't understand in the first place. You can leave a tape recorder going in front of a parrot that talks about theoretical physics. If done right the parrot might even be able to repeat information or mention it when it is relevant. That doesn't mean the parrot understands anything that he is saying at all.
  3. Because, there is a disgustingly large and growing base of Christians who believe that the bible isn't just supernatural, but something that can scientifically be proven? In the case of the link I included above.. there is what is actually suppose to be a human/dinosaur footprint overlapping. I am guessing that they assume humans and dinosaurs living within the same time automatically proves a god exist.
  4. *** Mod's note: Merged with a similar topic. - sN *** During a conversation with a Christian I was linked to this http://www.prorege-f..._source=message and some two hour long video on creationism by Kevin Hovind I believe is his name.. Sadly I still have a headache just thinking about the last video "proving creation" I watched which put forth no scientific arguments and just used the same escape mechanisms he complained about evolutionist using. I was just wondering how much evidence is there in favor of creationism, and are there any good resources on proving/disproving it.
  5. Michele.. that source makes less sense the more I read it. Children only learn and understand what they are and are not allowed to do by personal experience, and in most cases being punished for doing wrong. It is all about experience, which they would not have had.
  6. I think the major point I was making, which is they had no frame of reference for what "bad" would be. How were they to know dying wasn't the best thing since spliced rib woman? Everyone is subject to flawed thinking. I've come to realize you don't really choose what you believe, therefore even if I disagree with it, I should at least respect the fact that they believe it. Otherwise I won't be able to have a conversation and convince them otherwise. If they refuse to listen to all reason no matter what.. then Its time to move on and let them live in their world.
  7. I'm sorry after reading all of that.. I never really saw a point.. I felt like you did an interpretive dance where you literally circled around a point without ever getting to it. Could you please, in one or two sentences explain why a gold standard is bad? You made a lot of (as far as I can tell.. unfounded claims). While I find gold to be a somewhat silly unit of currency... at least with the gold standard there is a given amount of value to a dollar.. a direct worth to the money. Then again, I personally believe bullets and antibiotics are the only real unit of currency that matter.
  8. Something I had never thought about before, but saw argued recently was that in situations where people become rich to a degree that is incredibly disproportionate to the general population. They then gain the ability to invest in any given thing they want and create bubbles, which will then pop and cause everyone who was in the bubble and got a job, salary and living wages from that bubble to then lose everything they invested into the bubble. Meanwhile, they never risk their own comfortable lifestyle. An example here is if you have a billion dollars, throw 500 million into a failed business endeavor.. You can temporarily employ people, pay for the business venture.. And still have it totally flop. You still have 500 million, but you've displaced a lot of jobs, possible even people who move to take part in your business venture and you may even move them away from jobs they had already, that may not be waiting there when they get back.
  9. A bit close minded I think :/ If they went to this school, then I would presume they actually wanted to do better in the bed room themselves. I would actually have to respect that fact. You might be surprised how many women out there are fairly clueless about sex, and believe it is solely the responsibility of the man to rock her world. Not saying that the school is a great idea..
  10. I have very mixed feelings on this. On one hand I believe people should have the right to do what they want with their own body. On the other.. I start to wonder about people who get in the situation they are in due to a lifestyle they know is destructive to begin with. If I had a child and for some reason I couldn't give them my organs.. I would want to be able to buy them an organ.. I would try to in a heart beat if possible.. On the other hand.. I watch my parents drink, smoke and wreck their bodies nightly.. And the idea that they could just buy another organ to wreck is really well.. disgusting.
  11. Ayn Rand said herself. “Reason is not automatic. Those who deny it cannot be conquered by it. Do not count on them. Leave them alone.” And "Do not ever say that the desire to "do good" by force is a good motive. Neither power-lust nor stupidity are good motives." The truth is we can not force people to be rational beings. I believe female circumcision is a horrific thing done to girls and I abhor that it happens. However, I can not force the people who practice it to understand that it is "bad" when they believe it is "good". And to say we should declare war on countries who allow it to be practiced is just begging for exploitation and marked with imperialism. Maybe one day I will travel to countries and try to educate people and maybe I will have some luck in getting the practice stopped.. but, war would not change anything. Forcing our ideals and values on other people will not work. For all of these reasons.. I firmly believe the Iraqi citizens will not be any better off after the U.S. invasion. The truth is, even with Saddam gone, they will still cling to what many of us consider backwards ways of life. It is so easy to point to dictators and place the blame squarely there.... but, we quickly over look cultural differences which shouldn't be so quickly swept under the rug. It bothers me that there are a lot of horrible things going on in the world, but the reality of the situation is there is nothing we can do to stop all infringements on human rights.
  12. After some thought on the subject, I've come to wonder if perhaps our congress is outdated. I realize that we as voters elect the members of congress however, how effectively can congress discuss the issues going on in the current time? We now have a growing number of issues like SOPA where I have to wonder how effectively can any of the current congress members can really understand, much less explain to those who do not understand the SOPA bill and why it is good or bad. For that matter when it comes to issues involving piracy, arguments tend to be one sided "MONEY LOST PIRACY BAD MAKE ILLEGAL". How do we create more room for rational conversation? Is there any reasonable way to remedy this situation?
  13. I do think there is a problem. I hesitate to comment on the Occupy Wallstreet movement too quickly because I have been having loads of trouble making sense of anything going on with it.. I think the ultimate truth, is there is just a group of people who don't know what to do, say, or think anymore. They just want things to get fixed and don't care how it is done.
  14. Actually going from the conversation I'm having right now with a kid on facebook.. You can't defend biblical authority even with biblical authority. I mean from Genesis forward.. you set yourself up for failure.. I even did the kids a favor and went with the assumption the bible is right. I just pointed out that Adam and Eve were expected to know right from wrong before they ate from the fruit.. and the kid is going a round in circles defending it.. I drew a comparison to a blind child being punished for using a red crayon.. And he said it doesn't make sense XD Even though without knowledge of right and wrong.. they would have been morally blind and not known it was evil to eat from the fruit... Also to poorly quote Richard Dawkins "If absolute morality involves stoning people for having sex and murdering children for disobeying, I don't want absolute morality"
  15. I do my absolute best to respect everyones beliefs... but, that guy really needs to get a grip on objective reality.. I start to wonder if he knows he is wrong at some points..
  16. Lets see how far you can make it into this video before you want to kill yourself.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCvIO3Tombg I am not one to look down on people for being religious.. I have a lot of respect for people who devoutly believe there is a higher good in the world, and admire people who are sincerely better at least in some ways because of it. However, this.... blew my mind.. he openly misrepresents every single argument, admits to using circular logic! and he openly discourages reason and logic.. I don't know.. maybe its because my head hurts so much right now that I'm being overly critical.. but, this has caused a headache like no other.. Time to play some Skyrim...
  17. Not to be a jackass or someone who only makes excuses. However, a million grammar and English courses are only going to be about as productive as pissing in the wind. It will result in me writing up a paper in the worst grammar you've ever seen in your life, then having someone correct my mistakes one page one.. and me fixing the mistakes on page 2 through 6. rinse and repeat until I have a passable English paper. I lack the ability to maintain great grammar. Along the way, wasting insane amounts of time I could be doing far more productive things, like learning code.. In fact, in order to make relevant post on most forums, I must totally forsake grammar in order to post before the thread is totally irrelevant. Believe me, I've taken more English courses than you'd probably realize. I am a Comp Sci major and I would love to be a programmer. I am in Data Structures this semester and have decided to at least finish this semester.. I am having more trouble with my Comp Sci classes this year than I have had since I started..however, I'm hoping to at least finish and have a great understanding of data structures. I want to stay in CMPS if anything..
  18. I've learned the hardware the managers try to string employee's along.. Hence why I'm trying to get some ideas before jumping into anything.
  19. Eh, I think there is a lot of interesting things to discuss in the American Psycho movie. I never really felt that people who look after themselves were psychologically flawed at all.. I came away with the impression that people tend to want things and be driven to do things without knowing why. It also seemed that the movie was pointing out that to a large degree, people go through life on auto pilot with no real appreciation for what they have and only have it as a status symbol in the first place.. I do think there is a tendency by people to assume that people who are in shape are trying to compensate for something.. but, as I said.. that is more because people justify their own reasons for not being in shape.. and then take this malformed logic and apply it to people who *are* in shape and thus, the person who is over weight and has a real problem, now sees everyone else in the world through a filtered lens suggesting the people who are actually in shape have the problem.
  20. As cliche as it is.. (and as much as I feel it is traditionally used as a one phrase catch all by morons). There is some truth to the saying "haters gonna hate" People need to feel good about themselves. Some people do it in a productive way by getting in shape, learning and improving themselves. Others, go about it by believing in god and that they are his special child and live perfectly according to a set of rules which are impossible to practically follow.
  21. Well I am no conspiracy theorist but, I do feel safe in saying with all the money being so casually thrown around that it seems like it would in theory be very easy to pocket a decent portion without anyone noticing. And I do think your right in one major factor, he doesn't have to be "out to destroy the country" to still plan to abuse a position of power and profit from it. It would be childish to believe he wants to destroy the country just for laughs, however that isn't to say that he doesn't have alterior motives that aren't in the countries best interest.
  22. I have always found a large degree of amusement when people get offended over profanity. I do try to be respectful of other peoples desire to hear a minimal amount of profanity and maintain a degree of mutual respect. On the flip side, I eventually get to a point where I'll tell people to get over it if I slip up once and they freak out over it. The truth of profane words is that even if we got rid of all of them, new ones would just take their place.. Or words that aren't profane now, would suddenly have a whole new totally negative connotation. I find it a bit annoying that people freak out over profanity the way though do however. Then again, I'm the kind of person who thinks if you want to insult a person, the truth is far more insulting than any use of profanity I've ever heard..
  23. I define "living" as paying for rent, every so often video games.. A few bigger luxury purchases a year like computer components or periphreals.. And maybe saving up enough in case something happens.. I've never been interested in Entrepeneurship I prefer working for other people. Then again if I was amazing at developing apps, I might be self employed doing that... I digress.. I will take those into account, thanks.
  24. I am most likely going to end my degree early. I don't think it is feasible to continue nor a realistic possibility. I am wondering if there are any jobs which I would be willing to make a reasonable living (insurance, bills ect).
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