Interestingly enough, there may be lunar microbes. It's a fact that microbes live in rock many kilometres beneath the Earth's surface. Why not beneath the moon's surface? Considering the two used to be joined, perhaps it's not that far fetched. We'll never know until we drill deep core samples of the moon's lithosphere.
A kleptocracy is not preferable to chaos. Kleptocracy is stable and can last indefinately, while chaos is highly unstable. Any time chaos occurs, it quickly breaks down into some form of order, as it easy for thinking people to make order out of chaos. Therefore, there is certainty hope for change. I'd much rather pick brief chaos followed by hope rather than be stuck in a kleptocracy my whole life.
I wonder how many police departments will allow cops to post on such a website. At best, you might see something posted by a police PR department, after being vetted by the police legal advisor. What that will probably mean is that both sides of the debate on the website will have about the same level of truthfulness, which is what you normally see whenever such a debate plays out in a local paper or other such medium. From my personal experience, police departments aren't any more truthful than random joe citizen... in fact in some cases they can be depended upon to lie.
Very nice, but your ideas fail on one very big point. You're asking religious people to have an open mind. Because of that, everything else you wrote is lost.
There's a perfect example here in Edmonotn. My wife just switched us from Telus to Primus for both telephone and internet services. the only thing that changes for is is they mail us a new DSL modem, the rest stays the same. From what they said, it's saving us $40 per month. Also they said the speed would be faster, I wonder how that works. As long as they don't throttle my wife's torrents, I think it will work.
The US is included in that. Though the majority of USA'ers are Christian, their constitution has kicked them out of government in all forms except some purely ceremonial that still remain. So yes, my argument was valid for the USA too.
The process of disentangling religion from the important functions of western civilization is long and complex, and much of it has been done by people who consider themselves religious People dismantling their own institutions doesn't invalidate my claim. The fact remains that much of religion is now irrelevant to western civlization, as evidenced by the multicultural and non-specific religiosity of the main aspects of western culture.
As for the abolitionist movement, of course there are religious people on both sides of the equation, everyone had to be religious back then or face discrimination. The point is that they replaced a strict theological interpretation of the bible with one that's much kinder, gentler, and less close to the dictates of the bible. Keep in mind the slavery side of the debate had the bible on their side. Jesus and Paul of the new testament encouraged slaves to be obedient, so it can hardly be considered a beacon of truth and right. The bible only condemns slavery when it's the Jews or Christians who are enslaved, so enslaving black people at the time was biblically the correct thing to do. I suggest YOU read about the abolitionist movement. The Bible's position on slavery is at best murky, which is hardly the right and wrong that one would expect. Again, western civilization's progress is one of people reaching for a moral high ground that is far above what religion dictates.
As far as the New Testament is concerned, morality is weak and selective. Why does it not speak against slavery? Or women's rights? Or science? Morality on these subjects have risen far higher than religious doctrine strictly allows. Religion has meekly followed higher western morality else it faces abandonment.
As far as residential schools in Canada are concerned, I will not provide examples. For this you will have to build a relationship with Google, and all your questions will be answered.
Ok, to counter your last 2 claims... I have not provided any lists of society that has eliminated religion. Such do not exist. Not even the hardest Marxism has succeeded in completely stamping it out. What I have provided is clear evidence of benefits of a society that has pushed religion to the sidelines of morality and governance. And as to your second assertion, I don't dispute that many religious people did it themselves. It is not necessary for everyone to do it to be an atheist. Religious people themselves are often capable correcting the failings of their own religion by making a society that is even more morally good than the Bible. It's not that hard, really.
Most of the major advances of western civilization happened as a result of the distancing of religion from mainstream culture. Separation of church and state is a prime example. Also, the abolition of slavery was a great moral victory of western ideals over religion. The foundation of modern science was another victory over religion, which was previously the sole arbiter of what was considered real. The concept of individualism and personal freedoms and rights is a relatively new concept, as previous religiously dominated cultures would not allow such independent thinking. Family planning and birth control would not exist if the church had it say. In my country (Canada), the abolition of religious schools for aboriginals was a great step forward in improving their lives. The list goes on...
Most of the good things you cherish about modern civilization exist because religion has been pushed to the sidelines. You have no idea how horrifically stifling a society is when religion dominates.
I doubt that lack of religion was what made those societies evil. There are enough evil societies who embrace religion around the world to show that what you say is completely without merit. Take your wishful thinking that religion somehow improves the behaviour of a society as a whole and flush it.
What you described is a perfect example of what happens in countries that water down the meaning of the word Engineer. It loses meaning and value. Hiring an engineer becomes the same thing as hiring a technician. This is exactly why many foreign engineers have a hard time getting accredited in Canada. We covet the P.Eng after names in Canada because it actually does mean something.
That answers your question about why he's whining. And personally I think he's an idiot, because we do have software engineering programs in Canada that are probably far more rigorous than the article writer has ability or money to complete.
And the difference between a programmer and engineer? Real accountability.
An engineer has the mandatory legal responsibility of due diligence. That means an engineer must do "whatever it takes" to design something right the first time. And there's an organization with the heavy force of law behind it to make sure they do.
Boy would I love to see Microsoft held to those standards.
Yes. Because they use it to suddenly compare Vista with Solaris, which isn't even in the same category. That kind of pointless connecting-the-illogical-dots to make something look good is what someone in marketing would do. Kind of like bringing up Vista's speech features and similar talking points and buzzwords.
Slashdot needs a moderating system to identify possible paid shills. This guy hits way too many marketing points to be a real user. Vista has SPEECH RECOGNITION? He must have gotten that from the glossy brochure. Nobody uses speech recognition but it's a great advertising gimmick.
First memory was a friend of mine getting an Atari 2600 for Christmas, and playing Yar's Revenge, and some dumb racing game. It was a great novelty but it didn't last long, because my friend also had a giant star wars collection. I swear he was spoiled.
The memory of my first intense gaming experience is playing Ultima IV at school after hours. It was the first computer thing I actually OWNED. By owning, I meant that I bought some floppies from a store, punched the side to make them double sided, and then I got a friend to copy the game for me. (Like a kid my age could have ever afforded to buy a real copy.)
I remembering staring at these 5-1/4" disks and marvelling at how the could contain an entire world inside, that was set up just for me to explore. I was hooked. Ever since then, I've been trying to recreate that high. Oblivion almost did it, but it got old quickly.
I've been considering a trip to Korea. This discovery would definitely help tourism. Now tourists who are uncertain what they are eating just need to bring a portable UV lamp with them to the restaurant! No more "kitty surprise" dishes.
"CDN Forces Reactor Online Against Safety Regulations"
Though this reactor is near a Canadian Forces base, it is not operated by the Canadian Forces. It's operated by a private company. I wish people would blaming the military for nuclear problems! They have nothing to do with this reactor. I don't think the military even has any nuclear reactors, unlike our neighbors down south.
Seriously, why wouldn't a brain, which exists to process data in one form or another, respond to math positively at some level? Geometry is math, and that is hardwired in our brains to a high level. Any brain that has to process spacial information in any way must be predisposed to math.
Another variable to the Fermi Paradox that needs some serious looking at is the mortality rate of civilizations.
Suppose we assume a good deal of Darwinian interaction between species. Eventually, we will get a few top species. It stands to reason that they will keep down the small upstart species, much like our bodies keep bacteria at bay. Therefore, a species evolving radio communications is a death sentence, unless the home star is very remote, and the civilization can grow fast and aggressive enough to survive a galactic war.
How do local supernovas scouring away all live in their regions fit in? Perhaps we're overdue and don't know it?
Slashdot Mirror
Interestingly enough, there may be lunar microbes. It's a fact that microbes live in rock many kilometres beneath the Earth's surface. Why not beneath the moon's surface? Considering the two used to be joined, perhaps it's not that far fetched. We'll never know until we drill deep core samples of the moon's lithosphere.
That could show evidence for both, depending on how well the new life forms compete with the ones that are already there.
A kleptocracy is not preferable to chaos. Kleptocracy is stable and can last indefinately, while chaos is highly unstable. Any time chaos occurs, it quickly breaks down into some form of order, as it easy for thinking people to make order out of chaos. Therefore, there is certainty hope for change. I'd much rather pick brief chaos followed by hope rather than be stuck in a kleptocracy my whole life.
Yea but they still eat seal flipper pie. And just about every other part of the seal. There's no accounting for taste.
I wonder how many police departments will allow cops to post on such a website. At best, you might see something posted by a police PR department, after being vetted by the police legal advisor. What that will probably mean is that both sides of the debate on the website will have about the same level of truthfulness, which is what you normally see whenever such a debate plays out in a local paper or other such medium. From my personal experience, police departments aren't any more truthful than random joe citizen... in fact in some cases they can be depended upon to lie.
Very nice, but your ideas fail on one very big point. You're asking religious people to have an open mind. Because of that, everything else you wrote is lost.
There's a perfect example here in Edmonotn. My wife just switched us from Telus to Primus for both telephone and internet services. the only thing that changes for is is they mail us a new DSL modem, the rest stays the same. From what they said, it's saving us $40 per month. Also they said the speed would be faster, I wonder how that works. As long as they don't throttle my wife's torrents, I think it will work.
The US is included in that. Though the majority of USA'ers are Christian, their constitution has kicked them out of government in all forms except some purely ceremonial that still remain. So yes, my argument was valid for the USA too.
The process of disentangling religion from the important functions of western civilization is long and complex, and much of it has been done by people who consider themselves religious People dismantling their own institutions doesn't invalidate my claim. The fact remains that much of religion is now irrelevant to western civlization, as evidenced by the multicultural and non-specific religiosity of the main aspects of western culture.
As for the abolitionist movement, of course there are religious people on both sides of the equation, everyone had to be religious back then or face discrimination. The point is that they replaced a strict theological interpretation of the bible with one that's much kinder, gentler, and less close to the dictates of the bible. Keep in mind the slavery side of the debate had the bible on their side. Jesus and Paul of the new testament encouraged slaves to be obedient, so it can hardly be considered a beacon of truth and right. The bible only condemns slavery when it's the Jews or Christians who are enslaved, so enslaving black people at the time was biblically the correct thing to do. I suggest YOU read about the abolitionist movement. The Bible's position on slavery is at best murky, which is hardly the right and wrong that one would expect. Again, western civilization's progress is one of people reaching for a moral high ground that is far above what religion dictates.
As far as the New Testament is concerned, morality is weak and selective. Why does it not speak against slavery? Or women's rights? Or science? Morality on these subjects have risen far higher than religious doctrine strictly allows. Religion has meekly followed higher western morality else it faces abandonment.
As far as residential schools in Canada are concerned, I will not provide examples. For this you will have to build a relationship with Google, and all your questions will be answered.
Ok, to counter your last 2 claims... I have not provided any lists of society that has eliminated religion. Such do not exist. Not even the hardest Marxism has succeeded in completely stamping it out. What I have provided is clear evidence of benefits of a society that has pushed religion to the sidelines of morality and governance. And as to your second assertion, I don't dispute that many religious people did it themselves. It is not necessary for everyone to do it to be an atheist. Religious people themselves are often capable correcting the failings of their own religion by making a society that is even more morally good than the Bible. It's not that hard, really.
You ask for examples and I shall give.
Modern western civilization.
Most of the major advances of western civilization happened as a result of the distancing of religion from mainstream culture. Separation of church and state is a prime example. Also, the abolition of slavery was a great moral victory of western ideals over religion. The foundation of modern science was another victory over religion, which was previously the sole arbiter of what was considered real. The concept of individualism and personal freedoms and rights is a relatively new concept, as previous religiously dominated cultures would not allow such independent thinking. Family planning and birth control would not exist if the church had it say. In my country (Canada), the abolition of religious schools for aboriginals was a great step forward in improving their lives. The list goes on...
Most of the good things you cherish about modern civilization exist because religion has been pushed to the sidelines. You have no idea how horrifically stifling a society is when religion dominates.
I doubt that lack of religion was what made those societies evil. There are enough evil societies who embrace religion around the world to show that what you say is completely without merit. Take your wishful thinking that religion somehow improves the behaviour of a society as a whole and flush it.
What you described is a perfect example of what happens in countries that water down the meaning of the word Engineer. It loses meaning and value. Hiring an engineer becomes the same thing as hiring a technician. This is exactly why many foreign engineers have a hard time getting accredited in Canada. We covet the P.Eng after names in Canada because it actually does mean something.
That answers your question about why he's whining. And personally I think he's an idiot, because we do have software engineering programs in Canada that are probably far more rigorous than the article writer has ability or money to complete.
And the difference between a programmer and engineer? Real accountability.
An engineer has the mandatory legal responsibility of due diligence. That means an engineer must do "whatever it takes" to design something right the first time. And there's an organization with the heavy force of law behind it to make sure they do.
Boy would I love to see Microsoft held to those standards.
E
I'd rather have an arm that would alway me to type accurately. :-)
Yes. Because they use it to suddenly compare Vista with Solaris, which isn't even in the same category. That kind of pointless connecting-the-illogical-dots to make something look good is what someone in marketing would do. Kind of like bringing up Vista's speech features and similar talking points and buzzwords.
Slashdot needs a moderating system to identify possible paid shills. This guy hits way too many marketing points to be a real user. Vista has SPEECH RECOGNITION? He must have gotten that from the glossy brochure. Nobody uses speech recognition but it's a great advertising gimmick.
What happened to outright expulsion after the first instance of cheating? Isn't that what's normally done?
Mod parent up for conveying the true meaning of science.
First memory was a friend of mine getting an Atari 2600 for Christmas, and playing Yar's Revenge, and some dumb racing game. It was a great novelty but it didn't last long, because my friend also had a giant star wars collection. I swear he was spoiled.
The memory of my first intense gaming experience is playing Ultima IV at school after hours. It was the first computer thing I actually OWNED. By owning, I meant that I bought some floppies from a store, punched the side to make them double sided, and then I got a friend to copy the game for me. (Like a kid my age could have ever afforded to buy a real copy.)
I remembering staring at these 5-1/4" disks and marvelling at how the could contain an entire world inside, that was set up just for me to explore. I was hooked. Ever since then, I've been trying to recreate that high. Oblivion almost did it, but it got old quickly.
Change the colour of a pretty graphic on TV from red to blue? That's about the only difference people have the power to effect.
Have fun picking a new jailer.
I've been considering a trip to Korea. This discovery would definitely help tourism. Now tourists who are uncertain what they are eating just need to bring a portable UV lamp with them to the restaurant! No more "kitty surprise" dishes.
"CDN Forces Reactor Online Against Safety Regulations"
Though this reactor is near a Canadian Forces base, it is not operated by the Canadian Forces. It's operated by a private company. I wish people would blaming the military for nuclear problems! They have nothing to do with this reactor. I don't think the military even has any nuclear reactors, unlike our neighbors down south.
"As for being fat. If you eat like a predator, you'll have a body like a predator. If you eat like a herbivore, you'll look like one."
I eat like an omnivore. Would that make me look human? Maybe that's why I'm built like a grizzly.
Bork!
P.S. Atkins diet worked for me.
In other news, reality is hardwired for math.
Seriously, why wouldn't a brain, which exists to process data in one form or another, respond to math positively at some level? Geometry is math, and that is hardwired in our brains to a high level. Any brain that has to process spacial information in any way must be predisposed to math.
I don't get it.
Another variable to the Fermi Paradox that needs some serious looking at is the mortality rate of civilizations.
Suppose we assume a good deal of Darwinian interaction between species. Eventually, we will get a few top species. It stands to reason that they will keep down the small upstart species, much like our bodies keep bacteria at bay. Therefore, a species evolving radio communications is a death sentence, unless the home star is very remote, and the civilization can grow fast and aggressive enough to survive a galactic war.
How do local supernovas scouring away all live in their regions fit in? Perhaps we're overdue and don't know it?
It's not margarine, it's Parakey!