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fountainhead777

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Everything posted by fountainhead777

  1. reason is just applying natural laws and reality. that what exists does exist. There is no basis for the existence of God hence no reason to give the claim of God's existence any credence. God by definition is the supernatural but the supernatural cannot exist, it defies reality and existence. So if you find some being akin to a God naturally existing it is not a God it is just a different lifeform with bounds and limitations within reality. And you cannot find the supernatural anyways so there is no proof of existence there. There is no Objective or reasoning way to prove God or any supernatural being's existence. The existence of God is one giant contradiction chasing it's tale to evade the answer that it does not exist. Also as reason is the application of knowledge of reality any irrationality or anti-reason idea is essentially evading reality.
  2. theres smokeless cigarettes that give the nicotine without the smoke or many of the cancer causing products. they seem fairly interesting
  3. achieving values. you wanted an instrument and got it for less than you expected you could by trading money, one value, for another, the guitar. pursue values and try to do so more productively.
  4. I love how all the famous presidents and the ones that I learned were good in high school are the ones most disliked here. I can see why though. Go public education...
  5. I believe in women's right to abortion. A full grown living woman's life is of more value than a fetus. As I am not fond of them because of the lost potential of a human being and the graphic nature of its disposal i think it should be used as rarely as possible, but I do think it is a necessary procedure. Most likely all the restrictions placed on abortion by anti-abortionists cause the most increases in late-term abortions by making the process more difficult to accomplish.
  6. I liked this movie better than the rest. The special effects were good and I think there was more depth, atleast in Marcus Wright's character. The sketchy areas of human and machine made it thought provoking and made atleast oen of the characters actually develop. Christian Bale sucked though. He had liek one motivation and no depth or range of emotion. His dialogue was weak and so was his acting. I think the movie was fairly good. Nothign excellent or must see but entertaining. I am not a fan of the ending though.
  7. for one you forget some things. Also you do not always see things the exact same. I have read AS and the FH 3 times each and each time i gain different things from them and improve myself by questioning things about my character that I know are not as good as they could be. maybe reading is not for you but Objectivist works keep my mind working much better
  8. Im not too fond of late-term abortions. In some cases the fetus is viable and can live outside of the womb depending on how late it is. I do believe women have a choice but I think it is far preferable to make that choice earlier, emergency cases such as late diagnosis of birth defects and danger to the mother excluded. To me the methods of late-term abortions are fairly graphic. They often involve ending the fetus' life early to allow easier extraction and in some cases the fetus is dismembered prior to extraction.
  9. fountainhead777

    Zune

    i frequently use usb drives and have never had that problem. I would say you need an update to the program or usb port drivers most likely. I enjoy my Zune greatly and like its features better than the ipod. Everything seems neater and works much better to me. And it interfaces with my other Microsoft products easily. Despite it having a smaller market share I think it is still worth purchasing. It is not going away anytime soon it seems so it should continue competing. I think a large portion of iPod's claim on the market comes from popularity and marketing not functionality. Additionally there is a Zune marketplace where songs and albums may be purchased with Microsoft points
  10. That was incredibly spot on and entirely refreshing. Thanks for supplying this. I hope more people of all backgrounds learn something from her.
  11. I am an engineering student and aside from learning some extraneous things I do not see any harm in my education. I knocked out most of my general requirements in high school so I am pretty much only on core classes. My teachers have been great and I am pretty sure they will continue to be. On top of that I have access to tons of resources and I am working between semesters of college. I admit there are some flaws but I think part of it is what you make it and the other part is the quality of the education you choose.
  12. Music tastes differ due to different value systems. I enjoy metal and some occasional classical. Some agree some do not. It depends on personal experiences and tastes. It is near impossible to argue which taste is better accept in rare cases where one type of music is near universally appreciable or absolutely terrible. You guys could argue on technical aspects of music; i.e. lyrics, technical prowess, etc. but on what taste is better you both are probably wasting your time. I would say be less heated about and not try to prove whose musical taste is more correct or try and insinuate that the other could never understand your tastes.
  13. From these definitions is seems that dielectic thought styles are reactionary and are unstable because they progress by constant revision. Also it sounds liek a reforming of pragmatism where you focus on the scope of the moment instead of a long term goal. Models inducted logically based on fundamentals and axioms are better suited than utility of the moment thought styles with little to no consistency.
  14. but to say an objectivist follows the golden rule would mean that objectivists treat others how they wish to be treated. It is not sanctifying any moral code its setting ours as an example. its a decent rule with the precondition of a good moral code.
  15. If bad things happen to someone who does not deserve them they have no claim to loot from others via the government. They can deal with their unfortunate luck or seek legal recourse if it is the direct result of someone's actions. Other than that they can rely on voluntary charity not charity by force.
  16. I never watched the shows and have only seen like one of the movies but overall it was decent. There was some questionable statements but i think the idea behind them was better than the questionable (from what I've heard) ideas of the original. one of the better movies ive seen this year
  17. Service is already required at some high schools. It was not at mine but I volunteered at a place I liked and believed in and was eventually offered a job because of my hard work. The people required to volunteer did a few weeks of poor work and left.
  18. Concerto 5- the Concerto of Deliverance makes me think of the song Deliverance by the band Opeth. Not classical at all but it fits in my head.
  19. I had identified with most Objectivist ideals for a while. I was not completely sure on religion but organized religion itself seemed faulted. My senior year of high school a teacher and the one student with a higher class ranking than me recommended AS so I read it. Best book I ever read, so uplifting and the ideas really made sense to me. After that I just began introspecting and redefining who I was and how I thought through reason and after work reached where I wanted to be. Now I just work on small issues to overcome and being successful.
  20. I do not think that I am the best person to talk to but there are boards such as the Psychology and self Improvement Board that have many discussions on similar issues. I would give those a look to start out.
  21. I agree both parties are very poor but I would still prefer Obama to not have full rampant power of state which he probably will soon.
  22. My dreams are typically a pretty decent blend of reality and fiction so that at times I recall an event or the feeling of it, like deja-vu, think about it and realize it was just a dream I had at some point. I do not think that I dream often though or I do not recall them much.
  23. I think his disdain is more with this statement and one's like it: That general mindset is that no one has all the answers and no one will. This is the mindset that creates self-doubt and spawns subjectivism. There is nothing wrong with thinking you are correct but objectivity must be maintained. Additionally everyone's values are not the same as yours. They can still be rational and objective without being yours. Opinions may differ but about the nature of knowledge there cannot be any concession.
  24. The basic learning elements of your mind on which you discern reality for the first time and any time after is basically a feedback recall loop. You receive sensory information and record it, then you make predictions based on what you know and test it against continuing sensory information. Now if reality did not exist none of this would work and we would be the equivalent of blind, deaf, sensory-deprived people with no ability to manage effectively. Since after maturing you can make effective predictions on the basis of reality ans this is not an isolated occurrence I would say reality exists. There's a neurological researcher named Jeff Hawkins who has interesting theories on the functioning of the mind. He is even applying these theories to programs to identify objects with programs much like we do.
  25. I think the whole idea stems from the fact that for a time Texas was its own country before joining the Union. I do not know what privileges this grants although I have heard they are the only state who can fly a state flag at equal level with the American flag. Does that give them the right to secede? probably not but I suppose they are closer to that right than any other state is.
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