Soth

Also worth pointing out is that it is Capitalism that creates theaters, and the capital required for mass college education, and the very specialized jobs such as the one your professor has lecturing in front of a class instead of working in a field somewhere from dawn till dusk.

Suppose she would have left the ball where it landed, and wouldn't let anyone inside her yard to retrieve it. Can we agree that in that case it would be the children's / their parents' obligation to get the equivalent of a court order to allow them onto her property to get the ball (if they cared enough to do so), and that the woman couldn't be held at fault for anything?

SuperMetroid, Thank you for some very clear posts describing the subject. I agree with what you bring up. It's something I've been baffled by for a while, and you put the matter much more clearly than I have up until now.

No, but we're heading towards People's Globe. Just ask Obama.

When something appears as a coincidence, the sign tells us that god did it, but chose to remain anonymous. Therefor, when faced with what appears to be a coincidence, we can be sure that god did it - but then he did not remain anonymous - he is identified as the cause.

Because everyone knows Objectivists don't have any feelings... Where did I hear that before? Oh yes, James Taggart to Dagny. And Philip to Hank rearden at the mill.

I can not hold myself and will comment on the specific Rom Houben story first, eventhough you make a general case. The videos and texts showing Rom Houben communicating via FC are clearly not actually Rom Houben communicating. This is evident from merely observing the speed at which the assistant lady types with the man's finger, a speed that might be possible if he were typing all by himself, but clearly is not possible if she merely interperts slight muscle movement on his part, and readjusting the finger position, fine tuning each letter like this. Moreover, there is a video showing him doing FC assisted typing without even looking at the keyboard, with both eyes closed. Seeing how they use a touch screen as a keyboard (which doesn't provide sense response to the finger upon key click, unlike a conventional keyboard) this is even more evidently not the man communicating, but his assistant. Now to answer your 3 questions: Seeing how the human brain is merely an object, and consciousness is an aspect of the human brain, there isn't any reason to assume that consciousness can not be detected in one way or another. Whether it can be done with present technology and understanding of the brain, or those that will some day be available. If consciousness CAN NOT be detected, then it raises the question 'why not?' Is consciousness floating in space somewhere, detached from the physical dimension?

Straight out of Atlas Shrugged. "Share the Sacrifice act"

Here's a nice list of false end of the world prophecies. http://www.randi.org/encyclopedia/appendix3.html It is by no means a complete compilation.

I'm guessing it's cheaper to settle than to lose a trial. I'm disgusted that this thing passes in today's age as justice. Next we will be required to gauge our eyes out in the name of equality.

I am surprised a lot of you felt the need to immediately declare your similar despise of Christianity here. It's as though you feel a need to justify your depise for Islam. It sounds like political correctness to my ears. Christians don't often go on killing sprees, and when they do it is usually not because of their organized religion establishments (obviously, rare exceptions exist). Muslims do it much more often. Do not equate current day Christianity to Islam in the amount of cruel deeds of violence it causes. Christianity is better than Islam. (Just in case someone gets the wrong impression, I am an Atheist, and most certainly not a Christian). When a terrorists is an Arab Muslim who shouts 'Allah Akbar' while killing 13 and wounding dozens, you can safely assume it's the Islamic religion who made him do it. Observe the amount of Islam terrorists and those who act violently as opposed to, say, Christians, and you will see that Islam is regarded as the religion of violance based on facts. Yes he had free will in choosing to go on a rampant killing spree, but Islam has been the driving force causing him to do it. I think it's time America treats Islam the way it treated Shinto in Japan after WWII; Islam as a personal belief will not be hindered, but Islam as a state religion be done away with. Enact it in Pakistan and as a rule in Muslim countries you wage war against, currently and in the future, and do so with the same moral vigor you did post WWII in Japan. Otherwise they will continue to encourage, wage, and sponser terrorist acts against America and the western world.

But surely you can't have everyone deciding which law is right and wrong and break the ones which they deem wrong? For instance if we live in a country which imposes taxes that contradict individual rights, we still pay our taxes anyhow, or go to jail. So when a person decides to immigrate illegaly, He's taking the exact same choice to break the law, and as that we expect the country to uphold the law and punish him as the law entails. We could say he's in the right and the country is in the wrong, but once you have individuals as arbiters deciding which laws are just and which ones can be broken, don't you have Anarchy?

A country has no business restricting immigration of law abiding people - that's a given. But what would you say is the status of a person who becomes an illegal immigrant? Is that person right in deciding to violate the law and immigrate illegaly? If so, then how is this any different from a person deciding by himself which laws he agrees with and which he does not, and breaking the ones he does not agree with?

Ah, the good old 'pick a card and I'll magically remove it' followed by removing all the cards trick. I'd hope no one falls for that one.

Perhaps someone should tell her the temperature on Venus are over 400 degrees celcius, and that it isn't green...

Interesting. I have never thought about it this way before.

That's pretty good

Knowing the inside of a specific religion is not needed to refute it out of hand. I know a great deal about Judism, and I still hear in arguements with religious Jews the statement "You don't know enough about Judism to be able to refute it". Now imagine if I was oblidged to gain a similar level of knowledge in every single other religion on earth before I could refute them. That's just silly. To refute religion, any religion, it's enough that you know that they are not based on evidence. Therefor religions can never be proved, and they go to great lengths to prevent themselves being disproved. Whenever a religion makes a specific verifiable claim, and science debunks this claim, the religionists are completely unphased by this and carry on following their religion. Something this arbitrary does not require you to waste your life studying aspects of it before dismissing it.

As a Objectivist Jew living in Israel, it is my opinion that given the way things are, forced conscript is the only way for us to survive as a country. In an ideal world it wouldn't be necessary. But we are surrounded by barbarians who are a thousand years behind and we must live by our sword in defense. I wish it weren't so but presently that's the way things are, and it doesn't look like our neighbors will be getting any more rational in the near future. The only other option would be to flee to another country, the U.S. perhaps, where the threat of death is less imminent. And then maybe when Israel falls to the barbarians and antisemitism rises it's face like it has so many times in history I could run again, if there will be any place left to run. But I refuse to run from my country just because our neighbors force us to have mandatory conscript. I don't think Israel is any less moral for having it. In fact I think it's more moral, because it does what it must for self preservation, which is an essential part of living on this world. Having said that, I wish Israel was less Socialistic and adopts Laissez-Faire Capitalism. And that the people here would sober up from religion. But then again, I wish the same for many other western countries, including America. I guess this is something we just have to work on. And Daniellecs, you are not alone.

This is one of the few issues I am not yet resolved on. As a Jewish person living in Israel I am obviously circumsized. Like the others who are circumsized and posted in this threat said, I also don't feel mutilated or hurt in any way because of it. If anything, being uncircumsized would probably place me in a more difficult position in life. For instance, my girlfriend, who is Jewish and has empathy towards religion/tradition, would have probably been dettered were I not circumsized. Also it would undoubtedly make me somewhat of an outcast amongst the people around me who would know my situation, being a very odd and rare thing. From everyone else, I'd be living in constant fear that they find out and how they'd react toward it. That's why, if given the choice, I'd had chosen to get circumsized and glad that I were. You could argue that how society reacts to something should not be a consideration in one's life. But it certainly is. I wouldn't choose to be an outcast for the sake of not getting circumsized. Is it a primitive tradition based on religious reasons? Sure. Will I circumsize my future baby boys? I am leaning towards yes. If I can save them grief later on in life, then I see it as my obligation as a future parent to do so.

That depends. If I call out for superman, would he come?

Someone posted a photo of some muslim terrorists in white clothes saying they beat pacifists. So red wine completely dominates their white clothes. Case closed. Unsure why did picture get removed.

Two wrongs don't make a right, but 3 lefts do.

Alcoholics Annonymous cures you of your desire for red wine.

It's very easy for gifted children to grow up 'damaged' in a way. The schools aren't any good for them, because schools are focused on the bottom part of the classroom in terms of intelligence. They will go through lessons painfully slow, and then gifted kids just get bored and frustrated. With proper education a lot of those gifted kids can grow up to be incredible adults. Public school is very much not proper education though, not for a regular kid, and certainly not for a gifted one.