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Doesn't matter if the new approach represents a better use of funds, PORK is at stake. Fighting for PORK is the work of True Patriots. Taking PORK away is the work of Godless Commie Terrorists. Please think of the Children. The CHILDREN!

All men and women are created equal. Everyone has a right to practice what religion they so choose. So keep your religious crap out of our public schools.

It bothers me that people who profess a religious preference try to push their point of view on others. I'm equally bothered by those professing an agnostic or atheistic point of view trying to push their preferences for a godless world on others.

I agree that we shouldn't be spreading religious propaganda in the public schools, but we should also not be spreading atheistic or anti-religious propaganda in schools either.

But the Europeans pay extremely high taxes on their godless communist cellular service, and everything else!
I'm prowd to be an American cos at lest I know I'm free!

On thar IntarWebz!

Heh! Moore's law states that I can introduce Hitler into a discussion more frequently than Hitlr was discussed during his entire lifetime! Take THAT, Mr. Godless!

If your books are about half imagery and half story, when the movies end up having about an hours worth of plot and the rest as battle scenes and aforementioned imagery then I guess you have done a bang-up job. But Dune is a bit of a bigger undertaking. It's like trying to create a movie around The Foundation Saga. It's just not as easy as massive battle scenes full of cut and paste soldiers.

Gonna start a nerd holy war on that one. :) Lord of the Rings, both the movie and the book, was about more than just battles and imagery. Dune really is more of a psychological story than Lord of the Rings which was meant to be epic myth-making on an epic scale. Dune has a lot of character-driven conflict that could just as easily be played out on an empty stage. Lots of eye-candy and worldbuilding will be icing on the cake but there's nothing about the book that says the story has to remain in the book. The hard part, of course, is handling exposition in a fashion that is not an infodump but remains interesting and engaging.

The part I'm not entirely satisfied with in Dune is Leto II's interpretation of the Golden Path and the whole transformation into the god emperor. That was the point where the story felt like it slid off the rails and the following books cemented that feeling. The whole Honored Matres thing felt tacked on.

The other part that really bothered me was the whole other memory thing. The Dune universe is presented as materialistic and godless, at least with no more proof of God's existence or lack thereof than in our own world here and now. But there's evidence of supernatural things such as the other memories awakened within the bene gesserit by the spice. The baron's own personality lived on within Alia and consumed her. How is this so? Is there some sort of junian universal subconscious, a collective soul we're all connected to? Or is all of that memory supposed to preexist within the eggs of the female line? But then the male reverend mother they sought would have access to the male side of the memories as well so this means they're passed through sperm, too? Or is it really an external thing? And if there is such a thing, could it may as well be God for all intents and purposes? A god made manifest by the shared minds of humanity. And clones presumably only need the source DNA. But Herbert never explains it and the whole mystical side seems out of place given the otherwise hard scifi setting. I can buy superb mental conditioning and powerful developments of the human mind in the post-AI age. I can buy abilities that lie within the extremes of the physically possible. But the mystic stuff presupposes a mechanism to explain it and that raises a whole host of new questions. If I see a vampire, I now wonder if there are werewolves. If I see inexplicable psychic powers, now I wonder what else could be possible.

True that. Fundamentalist Christians are the biggest example here of the general problem of people having wacky non-fact-based world views.

I might have expected Americans to emerge from the fog of non-fact-based world views, but as that was about to happen, in the 50s and 60s, the non-fact-based-world-view people did that Southern Strategy thing. (Also, at that same moment, people were convinced to equate godlessness with Communism, which was very unfortunate for the godless.) It's the other side of the same coin.

Great point! I totally agree with you.

Wow, an anti-rationalist evidentialist rants against people whose epistemic system accepts sources for knowledge outside of the One True Prophet of Scientific Method. It's a pity that the author of the post is probably unaware of his kinship with those he apparently despises.

The religious--even the godless religious--always advocate regulating conscience in favor of absolutism. To them, "real information" is a definite known. It is "truth." The True Believer will not tolerate competition. It's easy to spot true believers; I have enough true believer in me to recognize the language. It's full of "outlaw" and "ban" and other such hate talk.

Fortunately for Americans, we have the "Establishment clause" which is designed to protect a certain basic right of conscience from the well-meaning but misguided people who know what is true and best for everyone else. It doesn't matter if one's religion is godless, as the modern secularism is; it is anything but irreligious. Parents have a right to their children, their own flesh and blood; to pass on their traditions and beliefs as they see fit. Contrary to the religious fanatics of all persuasions, we need not all be the same.

I do not suspect...but I KNOW that neither of these is true. God Himself is the Creator of all that man can see and can not see. The natural and the supernatural. It never ceases to amaze a regular person like me...that you self-important "Scientists"-(FYI Jehovah GOD is the Chief Scientist of all)-grasp desperately at any alternative, OTHER than GOD, that comes down the humanists pike through which the majority of scientific self-inflated "egos" feed off one another.Ever preening before each other. Like Richard Dawkins who clings so desperately to his delusions..no matter what the evidence for Design and THE super-intelligent, all Powerful Designer is. Stephen Hawkings is the brilliant one in relation to created man--he KNOWS and has stated this fact...that Evidence for a Grand Designer is everywhere. Truly I feel sorry for all who figure they can do away with God....it's so sad to see. Believe me when I do not say this in any way mockingly..but because I care. You understand that YOU cannot save anyone-not even yourselves- from what is to come upon this earth..and in God's Perfect Timing, upon all those who reject God's Son, mankind's Savior on the Day of Judgment -before Whose Throne of Holiness and Righteousness the unrepentant will stand. 1 Corinthians 18:25~"For to those who are perishing the message of the cross is foolishness, but to us who are being saved it is God's power. For it is written: I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and I will set aside the understanding of the experts. Where is the philosopher? Where is the scholar? Where is the debater of this age? Hasn't God made the world's wisdom foolish? For since, in God's wisdom, the world did not know God through wisdom, God was pleased to save those who believe through the foolishness of the message preached. For the Jews ask for signs and the Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Gentiles. Yet to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is God's power and God's wisdom, because God's foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God's weakness is stronger than human strength. Romans 1:18-25~" For God's wrath is revealed from heaven against all godlessness and unrighteousness of people who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth, since what can be known about God is evident among them, because God has shown it to them. From the creation of the world His invisible attributes, that is, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what He has made. As a result, people are without excuse. For though they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God or show gratitude. Instead, their thinking became nonsense, and their senseless minds were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man, birds, four-footed animals, and reptiles. Therefore God delivered them over in the cravings of their hearts to sexual impurity, so that their bodies were degraded among themselves. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served something created instead of the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. Truly He is God Almighty..and there is none other God besides He. I share this with you in the love of Jesus Christ.

Hell I don't agree with ANY religion being free of taxes, but that's just a godless heathen talking.

Being in the north you are luckier there though my friend. Here in the bible belt (AR right smack dab in the center) it is truly scary how much the Fundies are like brainless zombies.

I begged my late sister to sue the school district (she chose to home school instead) because even the TEACHERS would attack students who were "different" or "satanic" or any other bullshit that pastor Leroy said was evil that week. What finally ended my boys public school experience is a teacher bringing a bible to the middle of class (this is public school now) and gave a lecture on "satanic idol worshipers(catholic, which my oldest is) and Godless sodomites (the youngest is gay)" when we charged down there to have a royal shit fit the principal said "what do you expect? We are Christians and don't tolerate 'those kind" in our midst."

Frankly I would worship Satan before I ever became a Christian, thanks to the years of hatred and bigotry I have seen thanks to the Fundies. There is NO DIFFERENCE between a Fundie Christian and Muslim. The only reason you don't see Christians blowing up abortion clinics and stringing up gays is because Pastor Joe likes his Lexus and doesn't want to risk getting sued by the victims families. But believe me I have NEVER met a more hate filled people, and their ability to just turn off their minds and do whatever the pastor tells them to is truly horrifying to me.

If you are a Fundamentalist that actually thinks I'm afraid you are in the most tiny of minorities pal, sorry to say. I am pretty much surrounded by them and if the pastor told them to shoot up a building I have no doubt it would be on the news tomorrow. Truly terrifying.

But since we are already talking about the god vs. computer simulation,

We aren't. We are talking about pope urging priests to go forth and blog. You simply went off on a tangent to deliver your anti-religious speech. Or was it a clever demonstration on the necessity of your suggested domain ?-)

Anyway, I'm all for it, as long as all religious-related rants go there, including atheist ones. Now have fun convincing people who view each other as godless heathens, stone-age fairy tale believers, and various other nasty things to coexist in a single domain. It should be entertaining to watch, at the least :).

You picked those axioms. Other believers pick their own axioms:

1. God hates queers
2. I can keep slaves
3. Kill/Stone those who go against us
4. Godless people are akin to devils
5. Women are objects
6. I don't have to worry too much about doing bad things, so long as I ask forgiveness
7. Abortion is even worse than queers

And so on. Note that both sets of axioms can be taken from the bible. Because your beliefs come from the bible and therefore God himself you know with certainty that these are truth. You have no reason to question them and anyone that hold different beliefs is plain wrong. Can you see how this might cause problems?

Also if we were to give a certain list more weight it'd be the commandments I mean its friggen god giving orders pretty much. But if you go through that whole list and follow it absolutely there ends up being problems anyways. :/

"I smelled this coming when he sided with the Telcos on the wiretapping."
I don't have a big problem with this. If I federal security agency goes to a Telco and asks for a wire tape then the Telco should be protected from prosecution. A company should not be held at blame for following the law.
The problem isn't with the telcos but with the fact that the government can get warrentless wiretaps at all! Change that law which Obama has not done.
"I knew we were in for it when he kept Gitmo going."
It is closing. I fear that Obama found out the world was not the place he thought it was. Adaption is a good thing.
"ACTA secrecy pretty much cemented my opinion."
Boom! With you on that one. It is a huge misuse of "National Security" terrible and slimy. Shameful, rotten, nasty, immoral, and just wrong.
If you want to reel in the Content folks your best bet is probably going to be a Republican. They might leverage the more outrage of cracking down on the Godless, drug pushing, sex selling, music and movie industry .

Porn and freedom are both seen as bad things from outside.

Porn is bad?

The whole "sex is bad" theme is primarily from Judao-Christian-Islamic religions. Eastern religions seem to have a much more open attitude towards sexuality. So, I'd expect a "Godless Communist" government to reject the tenets of western religions as "bad things from outside". To the degree that religious influences of any type would be tolerated in China, I'd expect that they'd promote the domestic ones over ours.

The perception is that if you get one you get the other.

They don't seem to have a problem adopting capitalism and numerous other outside influences.

... by the parallels between the Chinese and American right wingers' war on pornography. I'd think that the Chinese would be more intent on stamping out possible challenges to Communist rule (Falun Gong), independence movements (Tibet) and threats to national security. The American conservative logic is more understandable. The economic conservatives don't care about porn per se (its just another business after all), but in order to assemble a viable voting block, their 'deal with the devil' (the religious right) requires that they adopt their position that every ejaculation must have a name. The Chinese don't suffer from the same political pressures as the GOP does. There's no opposition party espousing sexual freedom that could benefit from the circulation of porn. Sitting at home wanking in front of the computer screen is not an activity around which groups tend to organize.

Although the battle cry of our right wingers has been "Godless Commies", it seems that these two groups share quite a bit of ideology.

Your first choice of example is odd, considering that appealing specifically to Catholics and crusading against the "godless movement" were key tactics used used by the Nazis to consolidate power in the early 1930s. They most certainly did use religion (and more specifically anti-atheist sentiment) to consolidate power over their rival radical group, the communists.

The history of the world is 10000 religions leading their adherents to extinction in religious wars. All religions do eugenics; they breed their people to be supportive of and subservient to the administration. This leads to evolutionary losers who must be culled to maintain the successful adaptations to the environment. Eugenically modified populations cannot compete. So the eugenically modified populations are attacking the superior adaptations in an altruistic suicide to remove themselves from the gene pool. It is only our subservience to the godless religion of political correctness that interferes with our duty to our species. Of course, this godless religion is also doing eugenics on us to breed us into submission, so in the future we will become the subspecies to be culled. Nature always wins, thankfully.

This news correlates perfectly with the rise in the number of politically correct laws on the books. Political correctness is a godless religion invented by the communists to overcome the west from within. It's working. Countries which once ran on scientific bases now are theocracies. It'd drive anyone mad.

You could draw many fun, but useless conclusions from this data. This is probably the kind of info that sales pukes, marketing drones and security theater types drool over.
Mad Men was only rented by those Hollywood types in Glendale and West LA
Tyler Perry's chitlin flicks do well in South Central, Inglewood and Long Beach - why?
Religulous' demographics proves that rich people really are godless.
White people really liked Australia, but Vicky Cristina Barcelona is better than the US Census for racial profiling.
Crooked cop movies, Pride and Glory, do well in "concentrated urban areas" - interesting.
Pinapple Express proves that some things are universal - legalize it

Actually interracial marriage was more about "keeping them colored boys away from the white women". My mom was a military brat in the 50s and 60s and said many of the white guys coming back from Japan and Korea brought back Asian wives with them, in fact my great uncle brought back a sweet little Japanese girl with him from being stationed in Tokyo. As long as the "other person" wasn't black nobody said anything, even here in the deep south.

And I hear you with the mods here. I really miss the old metamod system, which IMHO worked MUCH better and encouraged metamodding more than the current system. With this new system I have to trawl at the negative level because so many here now are using mods to mean "I disagree" and some really insightful posts that go against groupthink end up in the dumper. Meanwhile even our trolls have really gone downhill, whereas before we had long winded GNAA style trolls, or trolls that spent many an hour making truly vulgar ASCII art, now the trolls are pretty much the word nigger or faggot repeated several times. I swear sometimes it feels like playing Halo.

but the level of discrimination against gays here in the south is nearly as bad as the way blacks were treated in the late 60s and early 70s. I have a gay relative and he had to leave public school because even the teachers were allowed to hassle him. One even went so far as to whip out a bible in the middle of class and call him a "Godless Sodomite". I just wish I could have talked his mother into suing their sorry asses off.