The problem with that is that if you just pick and choose what you like you'll not be any closer to finding the truth. You have to find what is true, not what is immediately pleasant. Something like that.
Alcohol might not pack as much punch as gas, but it's renewable in the short-term--grow a lot of corn, turn it into mash, feed it to yeast with yeast nutrient to increase alcohol production, then put it through a still.
If every town had its own ethanol (which I think is the "pop" term for alcohol fuel ) plant (heh heh ), as opposed to trying to mass produce it for the masses, I think things would be better off in general.
And of course people could use manpowered vehicles for shorter distances.
The Old Testament is... I dunno how to put this exactly... Ah, perhaps unenlightened, but that's not the best wording, either, in some places.
Another thing to remember is context--for instance, when Paul writes a letter to a given group, they have specific needs--for instance, they're afraid that those who die before the Second Coming won't go to heaven. As such, Paul is speaking to them, from himself, during a specific time period, and it's been translated a few times.
Well, to start off, what's "scientific progress"? Killing an innocent baby? Taking away one's uniqueness via genetic engineering? Making a bomb capable of annihilating the Earth with the pressing of a button? Using birth control so as to make the human population's fertility fall below the rate of death? (yes, the preceding lines are loaded, I admit it. ) Contrary to popular belief, the world is in no danger whatsoever of overpopulation. (well, not by humans anyway--deer, on the other hand, what with all this "save Bambi" stuff...;)
However, I seem to digress. Genocide. Where? If you mean, for instance, Sodom and Gomorrah, or how the Re{,e}d Sea's parting collapsed over the Egyptian soldiers, God is not just a God of love--He is a God of justice. He knew/knows that that was exactly what they deserved. (Unlike us, being the mortals we are. )
And as to killing homosexuals, you have to keep in mind what one calls context--if the sports section in the paper mentions stealing, you probably assume they mean stealing the ball or something. But on the front page, it's probably related to a fabulous gem or ingot. Of course, I didn't really answer that, but I hope I've planted some insight or something. (I can't answer because I haven't read as much of the Bible as other people have, so I don't know the exact context of every verse... )
And you're thinking, well, what gives us the right to kill homosexuals if we don't know for sure if they deserve it, since we're not God?
Simply put, because we as Catholics (I'm speaking from a Catholic perspective, BTW ) are more enlightened than our predecessors the Jews, we shouldn't kill them. (them being homosexuals )
(I neglected to mention things like the Inquisition. These are a result of human fallibility. No human is perfect, or something like that. )
I'm sure I'm explaining this not as well as I could... I invite anyone on "my side" to correct me. Preferably here.:p
Eh, actually, one is to love one's neighbor regardless of their orientations, be they sexual, violent, or whatever. Now, love is not equal to approval of one's actions--I can love my son, but disapprove of his homosexual activity.
Homosexual activity isn't the same as being homosexual--i.e. it's not that you're gay, it's that you have gay sex.
Being the kind person I am, I feel that I'm describing this badly, but I'm probably not..
The way I feel is that, yes, poetry is a lingual thing. And now I will enter a subject known as "theology". Angels communicate via telepathy--they're beings of spirit, after all, as opposed to beings with physical manifestations such as ourselves. They sing praises to God, and I have gotten the impression that the praises are beautiful.
Anyway, in this half-baked bit of philosophy, perhaps there are/can be subtle nuances to telepathic communication that we, being non-telepathic, can't think of, as we've never experienced the medium. Or perhaps someone's memory of an ocean beach may actually be better in some way than poetry describing it.
Not that poetry isn't a really neat (albeit one might say primitive ) art form. When I played around with a GCS called ZZT (zzt.org may still be up, if not, zeux.org has a ZZT section... ), and we tried to squeeze as much as we could out of it--people figured out how to develop several different genres of games out of the inherent top-down sort of thing. Its graphics were plain ASCII, but people squeezed really nifty graphics out of it--lush forests, arid deserts, etc. We did this despite the numerous other systems available, such as actually programming with C or Pascal (barring the hurdles that we call difficulty and learning )
Anyway... I wonder if angels play around with language and poetry. We certainly could still do so if we developed some kind of primitive thought-transfer... system.
But, as a side note, this was generated on-the-fly and is fairly stupid, and such.
Slashdot Mirror
The problem with that is that if you just pick and choose what you like you'll not be any closer to finding the truth. You have to find what is true, not what is immediately pleasant. Something like that.
Instead of crack babies we can have COFFEE BABIES!
...I don't think this is a good idea.
Alcohol might not pack as much punch as gas, but it's renewable in the short-term--grow a lot of corn, turn it into mash, feed it to yeast with yeast nutrient to increase alcohol production, then put it through a still.
If every town had its own ethanol (which I think is the "pop" term for alcohol fuel ) plant (heh heh ), as opposed to trying to mass produce it for the masses, I think things would be better off in general.
And of course people could use manpowered vehicles for shorter distances.
...a different mantra? Why? Run or shoot.
I dunno if you took it this way or not, but I wasn't condoning homosexuality.
Sorry if it was taken as such, even though this comment probably won't be read.
Just wanted to set that straight.
May you find peace and enlightenment.
The Old Testament is... I dunno how to put this exactly... Ah, perhaps unenlightened, but that's not the best wording, either, in some places.
Another thing to remember is context--for instance, when Paul writes a letter to a given group, they have specific needs--for instance, they're afraid that those who die before the Second Coming won't go to heaven. As such, Paul is speaking to them, from himself, during a specific time period, and it's been translated a few times.
Hope this helps.
May you find peace and enlightenment.
Well, to start off, what's "scientific progress"? ;)
:p
Killing an innocent baby?
Taking away one's uniqueness via genetic engineering?
Making a bomb capable of annihilating the Earth with the pressing of a button?
Using birth control so as to make the human population's fertility fall below the rate of death? (yes, the preceding lines are loaded, I admit it. )
Contrary to popular belief, the world is in no danger whatsoever of overpopulation. (well, not by humans anyway--deer, on the other hand, what with all this "save Bambi" stuff...
However, I seem to digress. Genocide. Where?
If you mean, for instance, Sodom and Gomorrah, or how the Re{,e}d Sea's parting collapsed over the Egyptian soldiers, God is not just a God of love--He is a God of justice. He knew/knows that that was exactly what they deserved. (Unlike us, being the mortals we are. )
And as to killing homosexuals, you have to keep in mind what one calls context--if the sports section in the paper mentions stealing, you probably assume they mean stealing the ball or something. But on the front page, it's probably related to a fabulous gem or ingot. Of course, I didn't really answer that, but I hope I've planted some insight or something. (I can't answer because I haven't read as much of the Bible as other people have, so I don't know the exact context of every verse... )
And you're thinking, well, what gives us the right to kill homosexuals if we don't know for sure if they deserve it, since we're not God?
Simply put, because we as Catholics (I'm speaking from a Catholic perspective, BTW ) are more enlightened than our predecessors the Jews, we shouldn't kill them. (them being homosexuals )
(I neglected to mention things like the Inquisition. These are a result of human fallibility. No human is perfect, or something like that. )
I'm sure I'm explaining this not as well as I could... I invite anyone on "my side" to correct me. Preferably here.
May you find peace and enlightenment.
Eh, actually, one is to love one's neighbor regardless of their orientations, be they sexual, violent, or whatever. Now, love is not equal to approval of one's actions--I can love my son, but disapprove of his homosexual activity.
Homosexual activity isn't the same as being homosexual--i.e. it's not that you're gay, it's that you have gay sex.
Being the kind person I am, I feel that I'm describing this badly, but I'm probably not..
May you find peace and enlightenment.
The way I feel is that, yes, poetry is a lingual thing. And now I will enter a subject known as "theology". Angels communicate via telepathy--they're beings of spirit, after all, as opposed to beings with physical manifestations such as ourselves. They sing praises to God, and I have gotten the impression that the praises are beautiful.
Anyway, in this half-baked bit of philosophy, perhaps there are/can be subtle nuances to telepathic communication that we, being non-telepathic, can't think of, as we've never experienced the medium. Or perhaps someone's memory of an ocean beach may actually be better in some way than poetry describing it.
Not that poetry isn't a really neat (albeit one might say primitive ) art form. When I played around with a GCS called ZZT (zzt.org may still be up, if not, zeux.org has a ZZT section... ), and we tried to squeeze as much as we could out of it--people figured out how to develop several different genres of games out of the inherent top-down sort of thing. Its graphics were plain ASCII, but people squeezed really nifty graphics out of it--lush forests, arid deserts, etc.
We did this despite the numerous other systems available, such as actually programming with C or Pascal (barring the hurdles that we call difficulty and learning )
Anyway... I wonder if angels play around with language and poetry. We certainly could still do so if we developed some kind of primitive thought-transfer... system.
But, as a side note, this was generated on-the-fly and is fairly stupid, and such.