The reality is I have in fact studied this a great deal, not a single shread of evidence exists. There is no record of anyone by the name of Jesus until well after the Roman razing of Israel in 70 AD. There are no records of any of the supernatural events described in the bible. We have hundreds of imperial execution writs in the province of Judea but none describing ANY religious figures who were peaceful.
Finally, the greatest source of evidence is Livy himself, one of the finest historians to ever live. He wrote some 170 books, on this history of Rome up until his death in ~20AD. We only have 35 of those works, each about 300 pages. Some are from that later period close to his death.
There is no mention of anything special going on in Israel like described in your bible.
Oh well, I guess folks like you who want to closed-mindedly cling to your belief system just can't be convinced by facts.:)
By all means, share those facts with me. I am open to new information. What concerns me more than proving Jesus Christ exists however is showing some evidence that someone, outside of Judea witnessed all the supernatural bullshit mentioned in the bible. Even if some document is found mentioning Jesus Christ Superstar, if it isn't sufficiently detached from the region, or if it describes him as no different than the countless other cult leaders of the day, its useless.
Remember, the world's first Monotheistic religion is Zorastrianism which was quite popular in the middle easy for the millenia before Jesus was supposedly born. Many, Many people pretented to be a god incarnate, just like Jesus.
Anyway, extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof. Get busy!
Particularly in this time of uncertainty and rampant terrorism, I appreciate a person who is willing to stand in harm's way to defend his fellow citizens .
So, not afraid are we?
I am sure your God will be rejoicing at the coming bloodshed.
I am sure he realizes quite fully that the Infidel has no right to exist, let alone in the Promised Land. The coming slaughter shall be a sacrifice! Tribute to the glory of god!
Speak for yourselves. I am a Marine, which makes me more than human, less than God.;)
What is with military freaks posting on slashdot lately. Dude, you are as blind to the truth as any other Christian. I got news for you, the military serves the same purpose as religion, to keep people content as slaves and to maintain the social order. Schools were created to make you WANT the very life of taking orders you now live. That is not life. Free men don't take orders from anyway, supernatural or otherwise.
You'll know everything, be everything, probably a lot of other stuff we can't fathom.
What you don't realize is that is not fun. That is fun for someone who watches TV all day want wants to be in the TV program. Life is about the struggle, constant improvement, striving to make each day better than the last. Human life is incompatible with infinite existence, and would lose its meaning otherwise.
The alternative promises screaming and gnashing of teeth, true boredom, fear, an eternity of front row seats at an NSync concert.... *shudder*.
You obviously have had a hard time creating your own meaning in life. Its easy to understand. Schools were created to train people to crave the direction of leaders and to feel empty without someone telling them what to do. You joined the military to avoid this reality you abhor. A free man would not give a fuck about that shit, and realize his life is very short, there are a lot of books to read, many paintings to paint, and songs to be performed. Boredom never existed until the first batch of schooled nitwits were released in the world. Boredom is what a slave feels when he is not being told what to do.
I'm just pointing out that you pretty much jumped down Anomoly's throat because he's found meaning in something.
Thats not meaning. Thats an insult. Life is not meant to worship. Thats was Roman emperors wanted. That is a life for slaves.
That... well that's pathetic.
I find nothing pathetic about trying to open the eyes of someone blinded by deceit. That is a human life out there, wasting a way not much greater than an animal. Instead of kidding myself that a warrior caste is necessary to protect the people, I try to give mindless drones their lives back. Maybe I don't always succeed, but I sure as hell try. Thats life.
Anyway, have fun slaughtering the innocent citizens of Iraq.
Good, I have a long night ahead of me and this is a great diversion.
On what do you base your assertion that if there is a God he cares not for me?
You claim there is a God. You claim the purpose of your life is to worship said God. Ergo, God created you to worship him.
Perhaps your God did create humans to worship him, but I find such a life repulsive and would consider such a God the essence of evil.
It is more logical to assume that you believe God created us in his own likeness. No human, save the most pathetic sociopaths, would ever demand worship from anyone. IF your original assertions were correct, your God did not create you in his likeness.
On what do you base your assertion that my God is a fiction?
Because you cannot prove that he exists.
Because you cannot prove to me that your God is more the real God than Buddha, Muhammed, Shiva, Zeus, or any of the other fictional divinities.
What evidence would be sufficient to prove to you that there is a God and that He loves you?
First of all, I don't want God's love or anyone elses love thank you. That is a distortion of the word love. Perhaps it is love like you love chocolate. To love is to esteem. It is not a bandage for the wound of life.
Firstly, I will tell your right now it is impossible to prove that your God exists. By whatever definition you throw at me as proof, I will easily be able to apply it to any multitude of other Gods.
But a good place to start would be some demonstration of power which is beyond our comprehension. That would be a good start.
I'm wondering...what has God done to you to make you so angry with Him?
I am angry with no one. I am angry with the choices made by people like you. I value human life, and think this world is perfect. I believe much of the suffering of mankind is due to short sighted, narrow thinking by people like yourself. Rather than strive to create heaven on earth, you desire a fantasy world. Rather than trusting your instincts you abhor them. Rather than using your human talents to create something of value, you worry about petty love.
The saddest part is you do not realize your Christianity was created by a dying empire as a tool to enslave its people. It destroyed a thriving culture and replaced it with one founded in misery, ignorance, and suffering for over a thousand years.
There is another way, another way of life. The reality is many people far more brilliant than myself have been writing about this subject for hundreds of years before your Jesus Christ was even born. It is impossible for me to qualify their wisdom in a slashdot post. So, if you are truly interested in testing your faith and expanding your views on human existence, check out these books below. Hopefully, you should have at least heard of these authors.
Bertrand Russell is perhaps the best source of information written in a modern context. His great work on this subject is available here.
Friedrich Nietzsche didn't really discuss religion in quite the way your average Christian believes. I personally consider him to be amongst the most brilliant of men in human history. Everything he wrote makes for exhilerating reading. Human, All Too Human: A Book for Free Spirits should be the first book you read after Russell. It can be tough at times, but it will open your eyes to the real world, as well as show you what it is to be free. The best part is it lets you truly understand the soul of an artist, and see why religion is not a part of their life. Beyond Good and Evil: Prelude to a Philosophy for the Future is a little more challenging. In it Nietzsche attempts to show the reader how the collapse of religious belief is going to lead to nihilism. Contrary to popular belief, Nietzsche was not in fact a nihilist. He was desperately attempting to find a solution to the problem of nihilism or the "sickness of modernity" as he called it. Reading this book will really help you understand much of the 20th century, as well as help you understand why religion is not the solution. It is in fact, the root cause.
Finally, one of Nietzsche's more serious works is The Geneology of Morals. This book helps you explain the history of many of the moral terms you use on a daily basis. love, hate, good, bad. Very eye opening. Some people recommend this as the first Nietzsche book. It lacks the poetry of the other two books I have mentioned.
Aristotle, the inspiration of St. Thomas Aquinas, wrote the great work Nichomachean Ethics. This is a great work which attempts to answer the question, in the dialectical terms preferred by Christians since they discoverd this book, What is happiness? Despite this book having been published nearly 2400 years ago, it will expand your vision beyond your life of worship.
Of course, all I can do is tell you to read Plato. It really was Socrates who started it all. I recommend you read all 32 dialogues. No one has bother copying these dialogues because there is no need. They really are perfect. You will never be able to consider yourself a learned man unless you read them.
Plato's independent book however is The Republic. Here, is the infamous and perfect Allegory of the Cave, where you will see how easy it is to live in a dreamworld.
Reading these works will help you see the truth. I leave it with you. Reading these books above will change your life in ways you cannot even imagine right now. Every day you delay brings you closer to death, so make haste.
they can distract you from the discomfort and uneasiness of life
Maybe you should spend some time enjoying life. If you truly believe life is uneasy and uncomfortable, you need to examine what it truly means to be alive. Otherwise, just pull the trigger and get it over with. Honestly, some of us don't care that you are depressed.
I was made to worship God and enjoy His presence.
That is your function in life? To be a play thing for some supernatural creature whose existence you cannot prove? No wonder your life is so empty. You are shell of man, eager for a master, but you are such a pathetic wretch you need to invent one. You honestly believe that if there is a god, he is as lonely and hopeless as you are. A rather self centered outlook on life. I got news for you, if there is a god, he doesn't give a fuck about you.
Here in this life I'm limited by my humanness
It is not a limitation, it is a definition. You are human. End of story. Learn to deal with it and stop whining like a baby.
I will be unencumbered to relate to God the way that my heart desires.
I think you desire too much.
The alternative to heaven is to be separated from everything that even promises to salve that ache
We have something here called opium. Not only will it kill your desire for everything, it will numb whatever aches you might have. You would probably live a happier life as a junkie. Look into it. Maybe get some morphine from a doctor.
I guess the question is - why would you not want to go to heaven?
Simple, it will get damn boring. It sounds more like mental masturbation to me. Looks like you are paralized by fear. You are afraid to live, you are afraid of the world. You just want to sit and suck on someone's tit instead of living life the life your god has given you. You fall back on some fictional deity that gives your worthless life some meaning. You are afraid to face the challenge of life and instead dream of some blissful reality where you sit there all day doing nothing at all.
Those cars look really cool but I think they are overpriced. I mean, especially since the MINI Cooper is in the same price range and it seats two and can handle highway travel.
Perhaps most people drive alone most of the time. But for me, I would like to have at least one extra seat for a chick or something. Don't need four, but I definitely need two.
Your specs for the IBM and the Seagate are incorrect, btw.
Yet you can't seem to point out how they are incorrect. The fallacy of your argument is that.. oh wait. You have no argument. Just an unsupported conclusion.
We have been hearing these bullshit SCSI reviews for ages. We didn't need some poster telling us SCSI drivers are 30% faster than regular ATA drivers, especially when this entire discussion should be about the Western Digital Serial ATA drive with a 10,000 RPM spindle speed.
Any fucking moron on the face of the earth knows SCSI drivers are faster than ATA drivers. We didn't need some karma whore posting a link to a story everyone already knows as well as for drives completely irrelevant to the discussion. Sarcasm is warranted in response to fools like that.
Re:It is impossible to prove an unrestricted negat
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I'm sure you know this, but I'll say it anyway: Simply because something is not falsifiable does not mean it is incorrect or correct.
The problem is we have people who look at things as being absolutes. This is perhaps one of the greatest reasons quantum mechanics has such a difficult time in the scientific community. Science is about probability, not laws, and not absolutes. The purpose of science is to determine what is most likely true, given current understanding and knowledge.
What is correct is that which is more likely to be true. What is incorrect is that which has little evidence in its favor.
Until this simple fact becomes standard operating procedure, there science will remain stagnant and we will be stuck with imperfect "laws" like E=mc^2.
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Yes, and the whole point of proving a scientific theory wrong is to prove that it leads to a contradiction. If there is no way to demonstrate that the theory could be disproven, then it is not a scientific theory.
Ok, well by all means, please share with us a scientific theory which leads to a contradiction. This cannot be a contradiction based on language semantics, like the round circle.
The Patriot Act is a violation of what my father fought for in Korea and Vietnam, and what I stood for while in the military.
Bullshit. The military is nothing more than a gigantic make work program, to keep nitwits from causing trouble. We have wars to make people content with bad economic times and to make people accept a temporary command economy. I won't even get into the supposed economic benefits of redirecting wealth to irrelevant industries to produce war related shit we don't need. Every single war of the 20th century was simply a tool of social control, nothing more.
You and your father were nothing more than willing participants in a gigantic scheme akin to prison, except the illusion of freedom is maintained.
Violation of my rights isn't conservative, its facism
I have got news for you, standing armies, forced schooling, government directed industry, those are all the tools of every fascist regime.
It all goes back to Germany. After Napolean's defeat of the Prussian army in 1807, a huge transformation took place. You see, Germany's primary source of revenue back then was renting their huge mercenary army. Remember the British sending the Hessian soldiers to America? To see the world's foremost professional army defeated by Napolean's peasant army was unbelievable.
When Germany regained their independence, their entire society was transformed into a military machine. Prior to this, forced schooling didn't exist anywhere in the world outside of caste schools in India and to a lesser extent in China. Children were ripped from the families, and drilled in the mindless art of discipline all in order to make them better soldiers. Eventually, the entire society conformed to a hierarchical military system.
Perhaps you aren't aware of the huge influx of German immigrants from 1830-1880. There wasn't a place for the independent farmer of tradesman in that military machine, so they left and came to the US. Thats why, they just wanted to be left alone. This is also why the trades died far more quickly in Germany than the US. While in the US, fathers taught their sons their art, in Germany that pretty muched ceased by 1880. Thus, shit modern architecture can be quite ancient there.
Anyway, the legacy of this is our own military society. Every company is structured like a military. The classic bussinessmen's suit is a copy of late 19th century military style. Classroom schools are the same size as typical military units. Discipline is the goal, rather than education. There is a reason schools make people stupid and passive. Soldiers are not particularlly good at taking orders when they have the ability to question them.
Anyway, look into. You have been duped into believing you are free, but you have been spending your entire life doing what you were trained to do: Take orders, and do so willingly.
This was of course, how Athens conducted their democratic government at its peak. Just like jurors were selected at random, so to were leaders.
It is also something we will probably never have here, until we have a true, outright revolution.
It is impossible to prove an unrestricted negative
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Writing about Karl Popper, he points out that there are only two kinds of scientific theories: those that are demonstrably false, and those that are not yet demonstrably false.
In fact the exact OPPOSITE is true. You can never prove an unrestricted negative.
Some things are inherently impossible, like a married bachelor, or round square. Only contradictions are truly false.
One of the cool things about VirtualPC instead of VMWare is it comes with IBM PC-DOS, so you can play dos games right out of the box.
I used VMWare for a while, and just got VirtualPC. It really is so much better. All versions of OS/2 install perfectly, DOS games run flawlessly. Sound Blaster support is pretty well emulated.
It wasn't more than a week after MS bought it and it started getting flooded with spam.
Bullshit. I don't even remember when Microsoft purchased hotmail. What I do know is spam did not become a serious problem until the last 1.5 years. Spam has always existed, going back for 8 years. But around summer of 2001, I would get 50+ spams a day, so much that I would have to check my email constantly less I go over my limit. It was never like that, even the first two years of MS's ownership of the company.
Six years ago ATI started to fumble with their Rage chips, but for all the rest of the 90's ATI was the shit. Matrox took the crown there with their Millenium, but the Mach64 was the gold standard of video card quality.
Crap. If you steal something, it's a crime, regardless of whether anyone saw you. Ever heard of forensic evidence? If you drive at 100mph on an empty road, you're still speeding.
We are not talking about whether or not something is immoral, or if it is wrong. We are talking about whether or not you can be arrested and convicted in a court of law for committing a crime for which there is no witness. The reality is you cannot. One of the reasons in the US it is crime for possessing stolen property is for this reason. The witness doesn't witness you stealing the property, merely owning it. However, proving that property is stolen is another matter.
This is where the term fungible comes into play. Go grab a dictionary, preferably Black's Law Dictionary to see what I mean.
Its funny you mention speeding. You obviously have never gotten a speeding ticket in the US. You have about a 75% chance the officer isuing the citation will not show up in court, and thus your case is dismissed. Everyone knows this one without even going to law school.
The punishment is irrelevant. The fact is if you ride without a ticket you are breaking the rules, and are liable for whatever punishment is set for that offence. If they are harsh in Aus then that's one thing, but the burden of proof and presumption of innocence remains.
It is quite relavent. There is a difference between consequences in general, and the full force of the elected government. This whole thread started because in australia they JAIL you for not having a ticket. In the US, you are not allowed to ride the train without a ticket. Its private property. This is also why our tickets have small contracts written on the back. Without the ticket, they don't have to do shit for you so they ask you to leave their property. It would be a different story if you were forging tickets, but there is no crime per se for riding a train without a ticket. Not a single state has a criminal code outlawing such behavior.
Having lived in an "authoritatian nation" I can say that I've never been stopped by instore security, or had to check my bag anywhere except the US. In the UK, I just go shopping, no hassle. Same in Aus. In the US? It's like security overload - you've got bag check, searches on exit (try CompUSA in San Fran - every bag gets searched), RF tags, photo ID to use a credit card (!!) the works. Way more than anything here.
Clothing stores in London I have been too require you to check bags just like the ones in New York. ComPUSA is an extreme example, and they have gotten a lot of shit for it. You can still tell them to fuck off, they can't arrest. Interestingly,I know this because I used to work at one when I was in high school. The original poster suggested you can be arrested for this Australia. I wouldn't know. But it definitely doesn't happen here.
Yeah, mickey dee's, the US's great contribution to world cusine. You're really missing out you know, London has some of the best places to eat in the world outside Paris (don't just take my word for it, check out a michelin guide some time). But if you prefer a mc cholestrol burger, then go for it.
It was a joke.
HOWEVER, I still stand by the assertion that food in London is pathetic. I have had horrible horrible food there, worse than anywhere in the world. It has improved somewhat in the last decade, but there are still some awful places out there. London has a few nice restaurants I am sure, but outside of those ones which cater to business executives and the rich, most suck. Besides, its an international joke. I can't believe you are defending this. You mention michelin... The appointment of a brit to head that company is a joke. Ask any frenchman... They will all tell you food in the UK sucks.
Lets not forget the bullshit like charging extra for bread, or water, or any of those other scams.
We already have both. All defendants are entitled to trial by jury and personal cross-examination of all witnesses. UK food standards rules are amongst the tightest in the world, far more so than the US as it happens.
Tell that to you average beef consumer. Mad cow disease?
Granted, I don't think US food standards are high enough. But it was a joke. British food sucks. Deal with it. Open a restaurant. God knows I have wanted to. You could probably make a fortune.
I'm assuming you mean you need to show a ticket. That sounds fair to me - if you don't have a ticket you are guilty. The rule is "if you ride the train, you must have a ticket" - there is no room for vagueness there, you either have or have not. It's the same everywhere else I've been in the world (including NYC, although their controls are easier to get around as they don't have tickets as such).
As a frequent user of both the Metro-north railroad and MTA subways, I can say with absolutely certainty that you WILL NOT be jailed under any circumstances for not having a ticket. Having forgotten my monthly pass on numerous occasions, conductors let it slide. Never once have I been forced off a train. For certain folks, I have seen them escorted off the train for not having a ticket.
as you mention, they don't have tickets in the subway. If you jump over the turnstile, you can be arrested. In that case, there is a witness to the crime you have committed. In the US, you have a right to face a witness against you for all crimes. No witness, no crime. Unlike the UK or australia.
Also, when you leave any store in australia with bags that you entered with, often you must surrender them for a hand search to prove that you did not steal anything
Again it's similar in NYC - many shops there require you to hand over your bags for "safe keeping" before you can enter. Who knows what will happen while you are gone - did you get
Sheesh. Did you not READ the original post there? Maybe after living in an authoritarian nation you don't see the critical difference here. Not surprising. Not ALL stores require you to check your bags, but they give notice to this BEFORE hand. As I live in the city you use as your example, I can tell you with absolute certainty that I do not shop at those stores. Especially after work, I am not going to leave a $2000 laptop with untold hours of work with some flunky.
No matter WHAT happens, a shop owner in New York would NEVER be able to force you to surrender a bag after the fact. Perhaps they can tell you that you cannot enter the store unless you surrender your bag, but afterwards? Nope. Not only would they get a prominant "fuck off" but the average new york shopper, but they would be slapped with a libel suit if they called the police.
Again, this goes back to our constitution. You have a right to a witness against you. No witness, no crime. Even if store personnel see you steal something, they don't search you. They detain you, and call the police. The police search you.
I'd stop & think before assuming your country is so much better (or more "just") than any other.
Australia is about as close as a civilized nation can be to an oppressive regime. The UK sucks. If not for the reason their food is so unbelievably awful. Every time I go to London I eat in McDonald's or a Turkish restaurant because everything else is on par with hog food.
Anyway, the US is a better country. Not only because we have great protection of individual rights in the face of an oppressive government regime, but we are more civilized as well. Until the UK or australia enact laws protecting their citizen's right to confront a witness against them upon accusation of a crime AND enact legislation mandating minimum standards for food quality they will forever be on the edge of human civilization.
Also the London Underground: Slow, ancient POS! Praise the lord jesus christ for the MTA!!!
Nor the NexGen Nx586, which had 256K on chip cache two years before the Pentium Pro.
They have the K5 on there, which was AMD's bastardization of the Nx586 after they acquired NexGen.
NexGen was the first company to reverse engineer an Intel processor and produce a compatible version. They had some really fine people at that company, and it was their design work which brough us the AMD K6 and Athlon processors. Its unfortunate they don't get a lot of credit. No one seems to remember how terrible AMD used to be. Their acquisition of NexGen was one last ditch effor to do something other make 386 and 486 processors.
I think this is true of all of New England. I have an arial photo of my home town in Connecticut from the turn of the century, and it was all cleared farmland. Now, its completely covered with forest. You can still go through the woods in the back of my parent's house and see the stone fences erected to designate property. (and to actually do something with all the rock in the soil)
I will freely admit this isn't "old growth" forest, but the forest comes back a lot faster than folks in the logging industry or the evironmental movement care to admit. Weird.
I actually think New England looked better when the area was cleared of trees. The hills just don't seem to be there with all those trees...
Lets not forget Ray Gwinn's SIO driver for OS/2 with fossil emulation for DOS apps.
Many of us began the battle against microsoft because we ran a BBS but only had one or two computers. If it wasn't for Ray, running a BBS on OS/2 would have been near impossible.
Slashdot Mirror
Please share with us this so called evidence.
:)
The reality is I have in fact studied this a great deal, not a single shread of evidence exists. There is no record of anyone by the name of Jesus until well after the Roman razing of Israel in 70 AD. There are no records of any of the supernatural events described in the bible. We have hundreds of imperial execution writs in the province of Judea but none describing ANY religious figures who were peaceful.
Finally, the greatest source of evidence is Livy himself, one of the finest historians to ever live. He wrote some 170 books, on this history of Rome up until his death in ~20AD. We only have 35 of those works, each about 300 pages. Some are from that later period close to his death.
There is no mention of anything special going on in Israel like described in your bible.
Oh well, I guess folks like you who want to closed-mindedly cling to your belief system just can't be convinced by facts.
By all means, share those facts with me. I am open to new information. What concerns me more than proving Jesus Christ exists however is showing some evidence that someone, outside of Judea witnessed all the supernatural bullshit mentioned in the bible. Even if some document is found mentioning Jesus Christ Superstar, if it isn't sufficiently detached from the region, or if it describes him as no different than the countless other cult leaders of the day, its useless.
Remember, the world's first Monotheistic religion is Zorastrianism which was quite popular in the middle easy for the millenia before Jesus was supposedly born. Many, Many people pretented to be a god incarnate, just like Jesus.
Anyway, extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof. Get busy!
Particularly in this time of uncertainty and rampant terrorism, I appreciate a person who is willing to stand in harm's way to defend his fellow citizens .
So, not afraid are we?
I am sure your God will be rejoicing at the coming bloodshed.
I am sure he realizes quite fully that the Infidel has no right to exist, let alone in the Promised Land. The coming slaughter shall be a sacrifice! Tribute to the glory of god!
Speak for yourselves. I am a Marine, which makes me more than human, less than God. ;)
What is with military freaks posting on slashdot lately. Dude, you are as blind to the truth as any other Christian. I got news for you, the military serves the same purpose as religion, to keep people content as slaves and to maintain the social order. Schools were created to make you WANT the very life of taking orders you now live.
That is not life. Free men don't take orders from anyway, supernatural or otherwise.
You'll know everything, be everything, probably a lot of other stuff we can't fathom.
What you don't realize is that is not fun. That is fun for someone who watches TV all day want wants to be in the TV program. Life is about the struggle, constant improvement, striving to make each day better than the last. Human life is incompatible with infinite existence, and would lose its meaning otherwise.
The alternative promises screaming and gnashing of teeth, true boredom, fear, an eternity of front row seats at an NSync concert.... *shudder*.
You obviously have had a hard time creating your own meaning in life. Its easy to understand. Schools were created to train people to crave the direction of leaders and to feel empty without someone telling them what to do. You joined the military to avoid this reality you abhor. A free man would not give a fuck about that shit, and realize his life is very short, there are a lot of books to read, many paintings to paint, and songs to be performed. Boredom never existed until the first batch of schooled nitwits were released in the world. Boredom is what a slave feels when he is not being told what to do.
I'm just pointing out that you pretty much jumped down Anomoly's throat because he's found meaning in something.
Thats not meaning. Thats an insult. Life is not meant to worship. Thats was Roman emperors wanted. That is a life for slaves.
That... well that's pathetic.
I find nothing pathetic about trying to open the eyes of someone blinded by deceit. That is a human life out there, wasting a way not much greater than an animal. Instead of kidding myself that a warrior caste is necessary to protect the people, I try to give mindless drones their lives back. Maybe I don't always succeed, but I sure as hell try. Thats life.
Anyway, have fun slaughtering the innocent citizens of Iraq.
I'll play along with you in this for a bit.
Good, I have a long night ahead of me and this is a great diversion.
On what do you base your assertion that if there is a God he cares not for me?
You claim there is a God. You claim the purpose of your life is to worship said God. Ergo, God created you to worship him.
Perhaps your God did create humans to worship him, but I find such a life repulsive and would consider such a God the essence of evil.
It is more logical to assume that you believe God created us in his own likeness. No human, save the most pathetic sociopaths, would ever demand worship from anyone. IF your original assertions were correct, your God did not create you in his likeness.
On what do you base your assertion that my God is a fiction?
Because you cannot prove that he exists.
Because you cannot prove to me that your God is more the real God than Buddha, Muhammed, Shiva, Zeus, or any of the other fictional divinities.
What evidence would be sufficient to prove to you that there is a God and that He loves you?
First of all, I don't want God's love or anyone elses love thank you. That is a distortion of the word love. Perhaps it is love like you love chocolate. To love is to esteem. It is not a bandage for the wound of life.
Firstly, I will tell your right now it is impossible to prove that your God exists. By whatever definition you throw at me as proof, I will easily be able to apply it to any multitude of other Gods.
But a good place to start would be some demonstration of power which is beyond our comprehension. That would be a good start.
I'm wondering...what has God done to you to make you so angry with Him?
I am angry with no one. I am angry with the choices made by people like you. I value human life, and think this world is perfect. I believe much of the suffering of mankind is due to short sighted, narrow thinking by people like yourself. Rather than strive to create heaven on earth, you desire a fantasy world. Rather than trusting your instincts you abhor them. Rather than using your human talents to create something of value, you worry about petty love.
The saddest part is you do not realize your Christianity was created by a dying empire as a tool to enslave its people. It destroyed a thriving culture and replaced it with one founded in misery, ignorance, and suffering for over a thousand years.
There is another way, another way of life. The reality is many people far more brilliant than myself have been writing about this subject for hundreds of years before your Jesus Christ was even born. It is impossible for me to qualify their wisdom in a slashdot post. So, if you are truly interested in testing your faith and expanding your views on human existence, check out these books below. Hopefully, you should have at least heard of these authors.
Bertrand Russell is perhaps the best source of information written in a modern context. His great work on this subject is available here.
Friedrich Nietzsche didn't really discuss religion in quite the way your average Christian believes. I personally consider him to be amongst the most brilliant of men in human history. Everything he wrote makes for exhilerating reading. Human, All Too Human: A Book for Free Spirits should be the first book you read after Russell. It can be tough at times, but it will open your eyes to the real world, as well as show you what it is to be free. The best part is it lets you truly understand the soul of an artist, and see why religion is not a part of their life.
Beyond Good and Evil: Prelude to a Philosophy for the Future is a little more challenging. In it Nietzsche attempts to show the reader how the collapse of religious belief is going to lead to nihilism. Contrary to popular belief, Nietzsche was not in fact a nihilist. He was desperately attempting to find a solution to the problem of nihilism or the "sickness of modernity" as he called it. Reading this book will really help you understand much of the 20th century, as well as help you understand why religion is not the solution. It is in fact, the root cause.
Finally, one of Nietzsche's more serious works is The Geneology of Morals. This book helps you explain the history of many of the moral terms you use on a daily basis. love, hate, good, bad. Very eye opening. Some people recommend this as the first Nietzsche book. It lacks the poetry of the other two books I have mentioned.
Aristotle, the inspiration of St. Thomas Aquinas, wrote the great work Nichomachean Ethics. This is a great work which attempts to answer the question, in the dialectical terms preferred by Christians since they discoverd this book, What is happiness? Despite this book having been published nearly 2400 years ago, it will expand your vision beyond your life of worship.
Of course, all I can do is tell you to read Plato. It really was Socrates who started it all. I recommend you read all 32 dialogues. No one has bother copying these dialogues because there is no need. They really are perfect. You will never be able to consider yourself a learned man unless you read them.
Plato's independent book however is The Republic. Here, is the infamous and perfect Allegory of the Cave, where you will see how easy it is to live in a dreamworld.
Reading these works will help you see the truth. I leave it with you. Reading these books above will change your life in ways you cannot even imagine right now. Every day you delay brings you closer to death, so make haste.
they can distract you from the discomfort and uneasiness of life
Maybe you should spend some time enjoying life. If you truly believe life is uneasy and uncomfortable, you need to examine what it truly means to be alive. Otherwise, just pull the trigger and get it over with. Honestly, some of us don't care that you are depressed.
I was made to worship God and enjoy His presence.
That is your function in life? To be a play thing for some supernatural creature whose existence you cannot prove? No wonder your life is so empty. You are shell of man, eager for a master, but you are such a pathetic wretch you need to invent one. You honestly believe that if there is a god, he is as lonely and hopeless as you are. A rather self centered outlook on life. I got news for you, if there is a god, he doesn't give a fuck about you.
Here in this life I'm limited by my humanness
It is not a limitation, it is a definition. You are human. End of story. Learn to deal with it and stop whining like a baby.
I will be unencumbered to relate to God the way that my heart desires.
I think you desire too much.
The alternative to heaven is to be separated from everything that even promises to salve that ache
We have something here called opium. Not only will it kill your desire for everything, it will numb whatever aches you might have. You would probably live a happier life as a junkie. Look into it. Maybe get some morphine from a doctor.
I guess the question is - why would you not want to go to heaven?
Simple, it will get damn boring. It sounds more like mental masturbation to me. Looks like you are paralized by fear. You are afraid to live, you are afraid of the world. You just want to sit and suck on someone's tit instead of living life the life your god has given you. You fall back on some fictional deity that gives your worthless life some meaning. You are afraid to face the challenge of life and instead dream of some blissful reality where you sit there all day doing nothing at all.
Its pathetic.
Your current approach of "how much can I get away with and still go to heaven" doesn't work now, and won't work for the rest of your life.
Why would someone like you ever want to go to heaven? What would you do there? Just chill with your old man for all eternity?
Sounds like a real blast.
Those cars look really cool but I think they are overpriced. I mean, especially since the MINI Cooper is in the same price range and it seats two and can handle highway travel.
Perhaps most people drive alone most of the time. But for me, I would like to have at least one extra seat for a chick or something. Don't need four, but I definitely need two.
transparant aluminum.
You mean like in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home?
Ahh yes, how BMW's are the greatest aspiration of our nihilistic African American residents of the urban ghettos.
Rather sad if you ask me.
Actually, I just drink old bottles of Coca-Cola and Vin Mariani from before the Harrison Narcotic act of 1914 was passed by those fascist scumbags.
Vin Mariani especially, has aged quite well over the last century.
Sarcasm, the last refuge of the weak-minded.
Your specs for the IBM and the Seagate are incorrect, btw.
Yet you can't seem to point out how they are incorrect. The fallacy of your argument is that.. oh wait. You have no argument. Just an unsupported conclusion.
We have been hearing these bullshit SCSI reviews for ages. We didn't need some poster telling us SCSI drivers are 30% faster than regular ATA drivers, especially when this entire discussion should be about the Western Digital Serial ATA drive with a 10,000 RPM spindle speed.
Any fucking moron on the face of the earth knows SCSI drivers are faster than ATA drivers. We didn't need some karma whore posting a link to a story everyone already knows as well as for drives completely irrelevant to the discussion. Sarcasm is warranted in response to fools like that.
I'm sure you know this, but I'll say it anyway: Simply because something is not falsifiable does not mean it is incorrect or correct.
The problem is we have people who look at things as being absolutes. This is perhaps one of the greatest reasons quantum mechanics has such a difficult time in the scientific community. Science is about probability, not laws, and not absolutes. The purpose of science is to determine what is most likely true, given current understanding and knowledge.
What is correct is that which is more likely to be true. What is incorrect is that which has little evidence in its favor.
Until this simple fact becomes standard operating procedure, there science will remain stagnant and we will be stuck with imperfect "laws" like E=mc^2.
Yes, and the whole point of proving a scientific theory wrong is to prove that it leads to a contradiction. If there is no way to demonstrate that the theory could be disproven, then it is not a scientific theory.
Ok, well by all means, please share with us a scientific theory which leads to a contradiction. This cannot be a contradiction based on language semantics, like the round circle.
The Patriot Act is a violation of what my father fought for in Korea and Vietnam, and what I stood for while in the military.
Bullshit. The military is nothing more than a gigantic make work program, to keep nitwits from causing trouble. We have wars to make people content with bad economic times and to make people accept a temporary command economy. I won't even get into the supposed economic benefits of redirecting wealth to irrelevant industries to produce war related shit we don't need. Every single war of the 20th century was simply a tool of social control, nothing more.
You and your father were nothing more than willing participants in a gigantic scheme akin to prison, except the illusion of freedom is maintained.
Violation of my rights isn't conservative, its facism
I have got news for you, standing armies, forced schooling, government directed industry, those are all the tools of every fascist regime.
It all goes back to Germany. After Napolean's defeat of the Prussian army in 1807, a huge transformation took place. You see, Germany's primary source of revenue back then was renting their huge mercenary army. Remember the British sending the Hessian soldiers to America? To see the world's foremost professional army defeated by Napolean's peasant army was unbelievable.
When Germany regained their independence, their entire society was transformed into a military machine. Prior to this, forced schooling didn't exist anywhere in the world outside of caste schools in India and to a lesser extent in China. Children were ripped from the families, and drilled in the mindless art of discipline all in order to make them better soldiers. Eventually, the entire society conformed to a hierarchical military system.
Perhaps you aren't aware of the huge influx of German immigrants from 1830-1880. There wasn't a place for the independent farmer of tradesman in that military machine, so they left and came to the US. Thats why, they just wanted to be left alone. This is also why the trades died far more quickly in Germany than the US. While in the US, fathers taught their sons their art, in Germany that pretty muched ceased by 1880. Thus, shit modern architecture can be quite ancient there.
Anyway, the legacy of this is our own military society. Every company is structured like a military. The classic bussinessmen's suit is a copy of late 19th century military style. Classroom schools are the same size as typical military units. Discipline is the goal, rather than education. There is a reason schools make people stupid and passive. Soldiers are not particularlly good at taking orders when they have the ability to question them.
Anyway, look into. You have been duped into believing you are free, but you have been spending your entire life doing what you were trained to do: Take orders, and do so willingly.
Heil Hitler!
This was of course, how Athens conducted their democratic government at its peak. Just like jurors were selected at random, so to were leaders.
It is also something we will probably never have here, until we have a true, outright revolution.
Writing about Karl Popper, he points out that there are only two kinds of scientific theories: those that are demonstrably false, and those that are not yet demonstrably false.
In fact the exact OPPOSITE is true. You can never prove an unrestricted negative.
Some things are inherently impossible, like a married bachelor, or round square. Only contradictions are truly false.
Anyway, here is a good discussion on the subject.
One of the cool things about VirtualPC instead of VMWare is it comes with IBM PC-DOS, so you can play dos games right out of the box.
I used VMWare for a while, and just got VirtualPC. It really is so much better. All versions of OS/2 install perfectly, DOS games run flawlessly. Sound Blaster support is pretty well emulated.
It wasn't more than a week after MS bought it and it started getting flooded with spam.
Bullshit. I don't even remember when Microsoft purchased hotmail. What I do know is spam did not become a serious problem until the last 1.5 years. Spam has always existed, going back for 8 years. But around summer of 2001, I would get 50+ spams a day, so much that I would have to check my email constantly less I go over my limit. It was never like that, even the first two years of MS's ownership of the company.
Six years ago ATI started to fumble with their Rage chips, but for all the rest of the 90's ATI was the shit. Matrox took the crown there with their Millenium, but the Mach64 was the gold standard of video card quality.
No witness, no crime
Crap. If you steal something, it's a crime, regardless of whether anyone saw you. Ever heard of forensic evidence? If you drive at 100mph on an empty road, you're still speeding.
We are not talking about whether or not something is immoral, or if it is wrong. We are talking about whether or not you can be arrested and convicted in a court of law for committing a crime for which there is no witness. The reality is you cannot. One of the reasons in the US it is crime for possessing stolen property is for this reason. The witness doesn't witness you stealing the property, merely owning it. However, proving that property is stolen is another matter.
This is where the term fungible comes into play. Go grab a dictionary, preferably Black's Law Dictionary to see what I mean.
Its funny you mention speeding. You obviously have never gotten a speeding ticket in the US. You have about a 75% chance the officer isuing the citation will not show up in court, and thus your case is dismissed. Everyone knows this one without even going to law school.
The punishment is irrelevant. The fact is if you ride without a ticket you are breaking the rules, and are liable for whatever punishment is set for that offence. If they are harsh in Aus then that's one thing, but the burden of proof and presumption of innocence remains.
It is quite relavent. There is a difference between consequences in general, and the full force of the elected government. This whole thread started because in australia they JAIL you for not having a ticket. In the US, you are not allowed to ride the train without a ticket. Its private property. This is also why our tickets have small contracts written on the back. Without the ticket, they don't have to do shit for you so they ask you to leave their property. It would be a different story if you were forging tickets, but there is no crime per se for riding a train without a ticket. Not a single state has a criminal code outlawing such behavior.
Having lived in an "authoritatian nation" I can say that I've never been stopped by instore security, or had to check my bag anywhere except the US. In the UK, I just go shopping, no hassle. Same in Aus. In the US? It's like security overload - you've got bag check, searches on exit (try CompUSA in San Fran - every bag gets searched), RF tags, photo ID to use a credit card (!!) the works. Way more than anything here.
Clothing stores in London I have been too require you to check bags just like the ones in New York. ComPUSA is an extreme example, and they have gotten a lot of shit for it. You can still tell them to fuck off, they can't arrest. Interestingly,I know this because I used to work at one when I was in high school. The original poster suggested you can be arrested for this Australia. I wouldn't know. But it definitely doesn't happen here.
Yeah, mickey dee's, the US's great contribution to world cusine. You're really missing out you know, London has some of the best places to eat in the world outside Paris (don't just take my word for it, check out a michelin guide some time). But if you prefer a mc cholestrol burger, then go for it.
It was a joke.
HOWEVER, I still stand by the assertion that food in London is pathetic. I have had horrible horrible food there, worse than anywhere in the world. It has improved somewhat in the last decade, but there are still some awful places out there. London has a few nice restaurants I am sure, but outside of those ones which cater to business executives and the rich, most suck. Besides, its an international joke. I can't believe you are defending this. You mention michelin... The appointment of a brit to head that company is a joke. Ask any frenchman... They will all tell you food in the UK sucks.
Lets not forget the bullshit like charging extra for bread, or water, or any of those other scams.
We already have both. All defendants are entitled to trial by jury and personal cross-examination of all witnesses. UK food standards rules are amongst the tightest in the world, far more so than the US as it happens.
Tell that to you average beef consumer. Mad cow disease?
Granted, I don't think US food standards are high enough. But it was a joke. British food sucks. Deal with it. Open a restaurant. God knows I have wanted to. You could probably make a fortune.
I'm assuming you mean you need to show a ticket. That sounds fair to me - if you don't have a ticket you are guilty. The rule is "if you ride the train, you must have a ticket" - there is no room for vagueness there, you either have or have not. It's the same everywhere else I've been in the world (including NYC, although their controls are easier to get around as they don't have tickets as such).
As a frequent user of both the Metro-north railroad and MTA subways, I can say with absolutely certainty that you WILL NOT be jailed under any circumstances for not having a ticket. Having forgotten my monthly pass on numerous occasions, conductors let it slide. Never once have I been forced off a train. For certain folks, I have seen them escorted off the train for not having a ticket.
as you mention, they don't have tickets in the subway. If you jump over the turnstile, you can be arrested. In that case, there is a witness to the crime you have committed. In the US, you have a right to face a witness against you for all crimes. No witness, no crime. Unlike the UK or australia.
Also, when you leave any store in australia with bags that you entered with, often you must surrender them for a hand search to prove that you did not steal anything
Again it's similar in NYC - many shops there require you to hand over your bags for "safe keeping" before you can enter. Who knows what will happen while you are gone - did you get
Sheesh. Did you not READ the original post there? Maybe after living in an authoritarian nation you don't see the critical difference here. Not surprising. Not ALL stores require you to check your bags, but they give notice to this BEFORE hand. As I live in the city you use as your example, I can tell you with absolute certainty that I do not shop at those stores. Especially after work, I am not going to leave a $2000 laptop with untold hours of work with some flunky.
No matter WHAT happens, a shop owner in New York would NEVER be able to force you to surrender a bag after the fact. Perhaps they can tell you that you cannot enter the store unless you surrender your bag, but afterwards? Nope. Not only would they get a prominant "fuck off" but the average new york shopper, but they would be slapped with a libel suit if they called the police.
Again, this goes back to our constitution. You have a right to a witness against you. No witness, no crime. Even if store personnel see you steal something, they don't search you. They detain you, and call the police. The police search you.
I'd stop & think before assuming your country is so much better (or more "just") than any other.
Australia is about as close as a civilized nation can be to an oppressive regime. The UK sucks. If not for the reason their food is so unbelievably awful. Every time I go to London I eat in McDonald's or a Turkish restaurant because everything else is on par with hog food.
Anyway, the US is a better country. Not only because we have great protection of individual rights in the face of an oppressive government regime, but we are more civilized as well. Until the UK or australia enact laws protecting their citizen's right to confront a witness against them upon accusation of a crime AND enact legislation mandating minimum standards for food quality they will forever be on the edge of human civilization.
Also the London Underground: Slow, ancient POS! Praise the lord jesus christ for the MTA!!!
Nor the NexGen Nx586, which had 256K on chip cache two years before the Pentium Pro.
They have the K5 on there, which was AMD's bastardization of the Nx586 after they acquired NexGen.
NexGen was the first company to reverse engineer an Intel processor and produce a compatible version. They had some really fine people at that company, and it was their design work which brough us the AMD K6 and Athlon processors. Its unfortunate they don't get a lot of credit. No one seems to remember how terrible AMD used to be. Their acquisition of NexGen was one last ditch effor to do something other make 386 and 486 processors.
Just to let you know, its spelled Manhattan.
I think this is true of all of New England. I have an arial photo of my home town in Connecticut from the turn of the century, and it was all cleared farmland. Now, its completely covered with forest. You can still go through the woods in the back of my parent's house and see the stone fences erected to designate property. (and to actually do something with all the rock in the soil)
I will freely admit this isn't "old growth" forest, but the forest comes back a lot faster than folks in the logging industry or the evironmental movement care to admit. Weird.
I actually think New England looked better when the area was cleared of trees. The hills just don't seem to be there with all those trees...
Lets not forget Ray Gwinn's SIO driver for OS/2 with fossil emulation for DOS apps.
Many of us began the battle against microsoft because we ran a BBS but only had one or two computers. If it wasn't for Ray, running a BBS on OS/2 would have been near impossible.
SIO/VSIO... rest in peace.