I'll tell you what; if it means that I never see "a bunch of box's" or "2 pizza's" again, then let's just say you can never use an apostrophe to pluralize and "CD's" is plain wrong.
Yeah, but what the fuck happened to Sealab this past Sunday? When irreverent postmodernism actually comes around full circle to its non-ironic origin, well, that's just going too far.
You're more tolerant than I am (tho I also write and edit, which I've found decreases my tolerance for any sort of poor writing). I made it to about the middle of the 2nd book before I'd had enough, mainly because of the cardboard characters. Skims thru later books did nothing to improve my opinion.
Who are you, Forrest J Ackerman? "Tho" and "thru" are still wrong, and yes, they may be shorter, but they still look stupid.
Talk all you want about campaign donations and the like, not about a disputed election that has since been resolved.
So, if I kill your mom and manage to get away with it, you don't get to complain or talk about it anymore?
When the SCOTUS rules along party lines, against personal precedent, in order to install a POTUS, I think that's pretty much on topic whenever you're talking about the national judicial system.
Yeah, okay, sure. If facing the facts causes too much cognitive dissonance, just repeat those feel-good lines until it goes away.
About a year ago, some Jeezer stopped me on the street with his healing gospel. He had all his lines memorized, so my arguments fell upon deaf ears. So I decided to let him enlighten me with the glory of God. He called upon the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit to show me the Way. I'm still waiting for it.
God knows that my heart is as sincere as it's going to get and he still hasn't shown up. He knows that I'm not going to accept any sign that can be explained by natural means. Yes, I recognize the wonder of the universe and my existence. But I don't need to worship an invisible, omnipotent, egotistical sadist just to be happy and amazed by all that surrounds me. Through patient application of the scientific method, I understand how I fit in with the rest of the universe. I'm made from the same elements as everything and I share a common ancestor with every living thing on Earth (which is just a huge rock flying through space and taking us with it). Why do I need to imagine something that I can't perceive just to enjoy the ride?
I know how my little monkey brain works. I introduce chemicals into my body and I feel euphoria. Sometimes the chemicals in my head do something special by themselves and I transcend existence. It's magnificent, but it's all in my noggin. I know it would be totally cool if God did exist, but wanting it doesn't make it true.
I'm happy enough with this life. I don't need to believe that there's something better waiting. Especially when there is no proof of an afterlife. If I believed that the CIA was trying to beam instructions into my brain you'd think I was a lunatic. But you believe something that can never be demonstrated and you're enlightened? Fuck that. Fuck God, fuck faith. Faith is something that makes con-men rich. Faith misleads. Faith is when you want to believe but have nothing else. Faith is a character on Buffy. Faith is the last refuge of the lost. If you don't have proof, I don't want to hear it. Why should I have faith in God and not Dr. Oyibo, who is evidently able to transfer the sum of THIRTY ONE MILLION UNITED STATES DOLLARS out of Nigeria, as soon as I fax him a copy of my passport and Social Security card?
So, pray for me. All of you. Pray that Jesus saves me. But as far as I'm concerened, he's in the mythology section, between Indra and Kokopelli.
Okay. I just want to know something. Do you, on any level, realize how silly this whole God thing is? Here, read this.
Allow me to belabor the point: The Old Testament of the Bible is a collection of myths and metaphorical stories that ancient people told each other before they had exciting things like "writing" or "TV" or "a working understanding of physics and biology". After generations of retelling (during which they were undoubtably altered) these stories were written down and subjected to editing, mistranslating, and even politically motivated wholesale cuts. Did you ever wonder why the "Literal Word of God" has a fucking census in the middle of it? Who really cares how many goats Eliab sacrificed this one time?
The New Testament is a collection of memoirs and letters by some guys who used to hang around with a fellow who said he was the son of God. I know that sounds like a big deal, but he wasn't the first and he was not the last.
So what I don't get is why you have this absolute faith in book that is, at best, only interesting to historians of early Middle Eastern civilization. I don't want to hear that it's "because the Bible tells me so." I can write an internally consistent account of an invisible pink unicorn by tomorrow. I don't want to hear that it's because there are other Christians; there are plenty of Muslims, too, so you'd better have a good reason for rejecting all the other popular religions in favor of Christianity. And if you're one of those people who've felt God speak to them, well, that's never happened to me, and I'd like to know how that's different from just being another crazy with a chemical imbalance.
I promise I'm almost done. You have an invisible friend. It's cute, but I grew out of that phase.
I don't need fossils. Look at this picture. These animals didn't exist in 4004 BC. What more proof do you want? Just remember that breeding is evolution with people doing the selecting, instead of the dangers of survival.
Well, wasn't that a smooth trick the authors of the Bible pulled? "Hey, guys, ummm, you have to do all this stuff because, ummm, God said so. And if you ask why, He'll punish you because He is all glorious and stuff."
Hey buddy, Christianity isn't 100% proven either. In fact, the only proof you've got is the Bible, and all it does is assert the correctness of itself. That's what's called "begging the question". And if you're going to get all semantical on the "theory" of evolution, I'll have to ask you to look up "faith" and how it's compared to "proof".
Science is the quest for knowledge. Religion is the opposite. Did you know that people used to think that the weather was caused by gods? That sounds pretty crazy now that we discovered pressure systems and cold fronts, doesn't it?
So there's this big question we all have: where did we come from? Science tries to figure it out using all the available data. You try to think of a plausible theory to explain all of the data and then see if you can use it to predict things. If the prediction is right, you make a little check mark on a clipboard. If the prediction is wrong, or new data shows up to invalidate your theory, you change the theory.
With religion, you're supposed to continue to have faith despite being proven wrong. Religion is intellectually bankrupt. You ask why we're here and religion says, "Because of God. Go pray and stop asking questions." Why do you want to take the easy way out? That kind of reason barely even works on little kids; even they know that "because I said so" is not a good reason. And even if you play along with the whole God created Man thing, you're in for it when you ask where God came from. Because, it turns out, He's always been here. Well, golly, I guess I'll just stop trying to figure stuff out and let others just tell me what to think.
If you want to talk morality, maybe you should read some Nietzsche. And I can tell you that my morals are just fine without an invisible superhero friend in the sky.
TiVo just needs to add optional sound output to the fast-forward features. I bet you could watch a show at the first FF level. Hell, that's how I watch Showtime soft-core porn right now...
Slashdot Mirror
Be careful; each time you misuse a homonym, you lose 5 points off your credit rating.
My family and social acquaintances are square; can we still watch movies?
Write something better, otherwise, quit bitching!
What, Netscape isn't good enough for you?
"Decently"? I think you mean "at all".
More like a pun.
This is not an issue with the Statue of Liberty because works created in the 1870s are now in the public domain.
Are you sure? She might have just snuck in with the last Mickey Mouse extention.
I'll tell you what; if it means that I never see "a bunch of box's" or "2 pizza's" again, then let's just say you can never use an apostrophe to pluralize and "CD's" is plain wrong.
But she's so hot!
The truly sad thing is that I was able to beat it again. The first time I tried it. That's just...creepy.
Wait, so it's not actually impossible? Fucking false advertising.
I feel sorry for asdf@asdf.com.
Yeah, but what the fuck happened to Sealab this past Sunday? When irreverent postmodernism actually comes around full circle to its non-ironic origin, well, that's just going too far.
You know, I'd noticed that, but I always just thought I was crazy. Thanks for pointing that out.
You're more tolerant than I am (tho I also write and edit, which I've found decreases my tolerance for any sort of poor writing). I made it to about the middle of the 2nd book before I'd had enough, mainly because of the cardboard characters. Skims thru later books did nothing to improve my opinion.
Who are you, Forrest J Ackerman? "Tho" and "thru" are still wrong, and yes, they may be shorter, but they still look stupid.
Try smacking the side of the console with your hand.
Talk all you want about campaign donations and the like, not about a disputed election that has since been resolved.
So, if I kill your mom and manage to get away with it, you don't get to complain or talk about it anymore?
When the SCOTUS rules along party lines, against personal precedent, in order to install a POTUS, I think that's pretty much on topic whenever you're talking about the national judicial system.
Yeah, okay, sure. If facing the facts causes too much cognitive dissonance, just repeat those feel-good lines until it goes away.
About a year ago, some Jeezer stopped me on the street with his healing gospel. He had all his lines memorized, so my arguments fell upon deaf ears. So I decided to let him enlighten me with the glory of God. He called upon the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit to show me the Way. I'm still waiting for it.
God knows that my heart is as sincere as it's going to get and he still hasn't shown up. He knows that I'm not going to accept any sign that can be explained by natural means. Yes, I recognize the wonder of the universe and my existence. But I don't need to worship an invisible, omnipotent, egotistical sadist just to be happy and amazed by all that surrounds me. Through patient application of the scientific method, I understand how I fit in with the rest of the universe. I'm made from the same elements as everything and I share a common ancestor with every living thing on Earth (which is just a huge rock flying through space and taking us with it). Why do I need to imagine something that I can't perceive just to enjoy the ride?
I know how my little monkey brain works. I introduce chemicals into my body and I feel euphoria. Sometimes the chemicals in my head do something special by themselves and I transcend existence. It's magnificent, but it's all in my noggin. I know it would be totally cool if God did exist, but wanting it doesn't make it true.
I'm happy enough with this life. I don't need to believe that there's something better waiting. Especially when there is no proof of an afterlife. If I believed that the CIA was trying to beam instructions into my brain you'd think I was a lunatic. But you believe something that can never be demonstrated and you're enlightened? Fuck that. Fuck God, fuck faith. Faith is something that makes con-men rich. Faith misleads. Faith is when you want to believe but have nothing else. Faith is a character on Buffy. Faith is the last refuge of the lost. If you don't have proof, I don't want to hear it. Why should I have faith in God and not Dr. Oyibo, who is evidently able to transfer the sum of THIRTY ONE MILLION UNITED STATES DOLLARS out of Nigeria, as soon as I fax him a copy of my passport and Social Security card?
So, pray for me. All of you. Pray that Jesus saves me. But as far as I'm concerened, he's in the mythology section, between Indra and Kokopelli.
Okay. I just want to know something. Do you, on any level, realize how silly this whole God thing is? Here, read this.
Allow me to belabor the point: The Old Testament of the Bible is a collection of myths and metaphorical stories that ancient people told each other before they had exciting things like "writing" or "TV" or "a working understanding of physics and biology". After generations of retelling (during which they were undoubtably altered) these stories were written down and subjected to editing, mistranslating, and even politically motivated wholesale cuts. Did you ever wonder why the "Literal Word of God" has a fucking census in the middle of it? Who really cares how many goats Eliab sacrificed this one time?
The New Testament is a collection of memoirs and letters by some guys who used to hang around with a fellow who said he was the son of God. I know that sounds like a big deal, but he wasn't the first and he was not the last.
So what I don't get is why you have this absolute faith in book that is, at best, only interesting to historians of early Middle Eastern civilization. I don't want to hear that it's "because the Bible tells me so." I can write an internally consistent account of an invisible pink unicorn by tomorrow. I don't want to hear that it's because there are other Christians; there are plenty of Muslims, too, so you'd better have a good reason for rejecting all the other popular religions in favor of Christianity. And if you're one of those people who've felt God speak to them, well, that's never happened to me, and I'd like to know how that's different from just being another crazy with a chemical imbalance.
I promise I'm almost done. You have an invisible friend. It's cute, but I grew out of that phase.
Nature doesn't care how (or why!) the organism survives and procreates, only that it does.
Nature doesn't even care that it does. It's just that the organisms that procreate are the only ones that made it this far.
I don't need fossils. Look at this picture. These animals didn't exist in 4004 BC. What more proof do you want? Just remember that breeding is evolution with people doing the selecting, instead of the dangers of survival.
Well, wasn't that a smooth trick the authors of the Bible pulled? "Hey, guys, ummm, you have to do all this stuff because, ummm, God said so. And if you ask why, He'll punish you because He is all glorious and stuff."
Hey buddy, Christianity isn't 100% proven either. In fact, the only proof you've got is the Bible, and all it does is assert the correctness of itself. That's what's called "begging the question". And if you're going to get all semantical on the "theory" of evolution, I'll have to ask you to look up "faith" and how it's compared to "proof".
Science is the quest for knowledge. Religion is the opposite. Did you know that people used to think that the weather was caused by gods? That sounds pretty crazy now that we discovered pressure systems and cold fronts, doesn't it?
So there's this big question we all have: where did we come from? Science tries to figure it out using all the available data. You try to think of a plausible theory to explain all of the data and then see if you can use it to predict things. If the prediction is right, you make a little check mark on a clipboard. If the prediction is wrong, or new data shows up to invalidate your theory, you change the theory.
With religion, you're supposed to continue to have faith despite being proven wrong. Religion is intellectually bankrupt. You ask why we're here and religion says, "Because of God. Go pray and stop asking questions." Why do you want to take the easy way out? That kind of reason barely even works on little kids; even they know that "because I said so" is not a good reason. And even if you play along with the whole God created Man thing, you're in for it when you ask where God came from. Because, it turns out, He's always been here. Well, golly, I guess I'll just stop trying to figure stuff out and let others just tell me what to think.
If you want to talk morality, maybe you should read some Nietzsche. And I can tell you that my morals are just fine without an invisible superhero friend in the sky.
They would not be surprised.
TiVo just needs to add optional sound output to the fast-forward features. I bet you could watch a show at the first FF level. Hell, that's how I watch Showtime soft-core porn right now...
We probably won't get to see them; I think she's just posing for Holding Your Own Boobs Magazine.
Superman is Kryptonian. He's a different species. He's not a member of any human "race". We're lucky he's even bilaterally symetrical.