Law, shma, so what? How does a North Carolina law affect a business located in Washington state? Can North Carolina go to court in Washington and thereby force Amazon to pay tax to North Carolina? Can they do this in federal court in North Carolina?
What difference does that make? Does that negate to the words of Jesus? Do you really think that government officials are in any different from the rest of us? Jesus here he was not talking about a government official, but to a successful farmer. At least the farmer was successful in his own eyes and by the world's standard, but apparently not in God's eyes. God calls such a person a fool. In my estimation, there is nothing more serious than to be called a fool by God. It is LOVE for money that is the root of all evil, not money per se.
Simple, in that world they have super intelligent robots.
(...Any civilization is going to require people to do the shit jobs too...)
See above.
(...But what about the guy that cleans the captain's toilet?...)
Same answer
In ages past people had slaves to do the jobs you mentioned and much more. Presumably in that civilization as depicted in Star Trek, technology is far enough advanced to have all work done by machines. That is also why a recurring science-fiction theme is that the machines rise up against their masters and try to rebel. That is the biggest problem I see with a Star Trek type civilization, to guard against a rebellion of the machines. Unlike human slaves, which have a mind and will of their own, machines can be designed to be well... machines who always without fail do what they're told.
....They could have lived the ideal life with no worry and invested properly....
There is more to life than money and in the end people are not satisfied with the abundance of possessions. Jesus Christ tells us in Luke 12:15 "And He said to them, Watch and keep yourselves from covetousness. For a man's life is not in the abundance of the things which he possesses." and then Jesus continued:
"And He spoke a parable to them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully. 17 And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room in which to store my fruits? 18 And he said, I will do this. I will pull down my barns and build bigger ones, and I will store all my fruits and my goods there. 19 And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years. Take your ease, eat drink and be merry. 20 But God said to him, Fool! This night your soul shall be required of you, then whose shall be those things which you have prepared? 21 So is he who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God. 22 And He said to His disciples, Therefore I say to you, Be not anxious as to your life, what you shall eat; nor for the body, what you shall put on. 23 Life is more than food, and the body is more than clothing."
Neither Bill Gates and Warren Buffett can take anything out of this world. Like everybody else they came in naked and leave again in the same way. I do not know much about Warren Buffett, but at least Bill Gates is trying to do some good in this world with some of his money.
I always wonder how are a business in the state of Washington can be forced by the state of North Carolina to pay taxes to that state if they are not actually in the state.
The universality of faith itself is what I was talking about. There is no way to prove God or disprove him. The Bible tells us: Hebrews 11:6 "But without faith it is impossible to please Him , for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him."
You have to read the book of Revelation with all the rest of the Bible. It is one book although it has been penned by 40 different authors over many centuries. If you would do this, you would learn that at the end of history as we have known it there will be one final war where ALL the armies of the whole world would be gathered against Jerusalem. The purpose of the world is to attempt to thwart the return of Jesus Christ in glory and awesome power. At that time we are told the Jews will recognize their Messiah and lament for the one whom they have pierced and then worship him.
In the end, only those who reject Jesus Christ knowingly will go to hell. On the cross, Jesus prayed (Luke 23:34) "Father forgive them for they know not what they're doing."The only way a human being can go to hell is over God's dead body, the dead body of Jesus Christ who died so you may not go to hell unless you reject him. Only if you reject Jesus Christ specifically through unbelief, will you go to hell. God has made it very hard for sinners to go to hell.
.... Even if we did know all 3 started with 3 brothers...
Long before there was DNA science, scientists have known about the three major divisions of humanity. This is just another confirmation of the biblical story being accurate. There are many things in the Bible and many things in the natural world that occur in groups of three. Why are there not more than three distinct groups genetically? Why are there not less?
...Did you assert that a flood is required to form fossils?...
In order to have a fossil, a living organism to be fossilized has to die quickly, and then be prevented from decaying. Normally, organisms decay rather than make fossils. To prevent decay, all microorganisms have to be killed quickly. Please suggest a mechanism by which this can take place all over the world, other than by a sudden catastrophe. Fossilization also cannot take place in the absence of water. Because the Bible tells us that the fountains of the great deep broke open, it is very likely that some of this water was scaldingly hot, thereby killing the organism to be fossilized as well as all microorganisms which would prevent fossilization.
...But is faith a get out of jail free card? Does a man who lives free of sin but rejects religion go to -insert postmortem unpleasant locale here...
It is free in the sense that it was paid for by someone else, by Jesus Christ on the cross. He took our punishment and so well yes, all those who believe in him get an out of jail free card. Nobody has ever lived free of sin, but we all have come short of God's perfect requirements.
It is best summed up by the well-known Bible verse of John 3:16. If you have a mountain of debt, impossibly large, and someone pays it for you, it is not free to that person, but it is free to you. That in essence is the gospel, the good news, that someone, the son of God himself took the punishment that we all so richly deserve upon himself. The only condition on this forgiveness is to simply accept this by belief, by faith. That sounds like the easy way out, but if you read the story of the crucifixion and try to imagine what Jesus went through, you get the idea that it was not easy for him, but he did it out of love. Nobody will go to hell for the sins they have done, but they who do not believe and accept the person of Jesus Christ and what he has done.
It is only after this initial step of faith, not in order to achieve salvation, but because salvation has been accomplished, Christians are obligated to pay attention and live according to the words of Jesus Christ. In any case, I am not talking about religion, but a loving, living a relationship with a person, the person of Jesus Christ.
... In fact show me any book of the old testament....
Right after Adam and Eve sinned, God said that from the seed of the woman, singular Seed that is, would come to crush the serpents head. (Gen 3:15) Most biblical scholars take this to be a prophecy of the Messiah who would come. There are many prophecies in the Old Testament concerning one who would come to bear our sins.
In the end though all this has to be believed just as most things in life have to be believed. In order to have a judgment there has to be a standard. If my life does not come to the standard of Jesus Christ I deserve to be condemned. It is only by grace, through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ that anyone can be saved.
God has chosen the universal vehicle of faith to determine who's acceptable and who will be rejected. There is no other criterion that God could have chosen that is more universally applicable than that of faith. He did not choose any physical or mental characteristics but only whether a person believes or does not believe. Nobody, including you will go to hell for all the nasty things you have done or spoken, but for the simple fact that you reject Jesus Christ and his offer of salvation by disbelieving. I suggest that you give the Bible, especially the New Testament a careful reading and then believe what you read. Your eternal destiny depends on it.
The source of the water of the flood is far deeper than any super-volcano which is limited to the crust of the earth. However, there is enough water in the mantle to fill the ocean several times over. Also, even today's ocean would cover the earth over a mile deep, if the earth were perfectly flat. If you desire to read more about this,look here:
...the Jesus you think you know is more or less a later reconstruction...
The Jesus I know is is within me by the presence of the Holy Spirit of God. There is an invisible world, beyond our senses, which is only open to people of faith. People who do not believe will not experience any of this. It is normal to say show me and I will believe, but God says believe and I will show you. I believed as it is written and God did show me.
Jesus never prophesied that he would return in the lifetime of any of his followers, but made it very clear that he would return unexpectedly without warning. If you had studied the Bible as I have, you have known this.
...lots of facts that indeed have been demonstrated utterly false...
The fact is that there is not one square inch on the surface of earth that has not been underwater at some point. It is also a fact that fossils were found nearly everywhere and fossils cannot form without a) water b) quickly. Any slow process only results in decay that does not make a fossil. A catastrophic worldwide flood provides both the water and the quick burial to prevent decay. It says that the fountains of the great broke open. this means that the water may have been hot as well, thereby contributing to the sterilization of living matter so that fossils could form.
Of course you do know what you are talking about because you were there at that time and throughout history to watch the development of the human race.
...Even so, the bible doesn't mention anything about the degree of genetic similarity...
The Bible does mention specifically that these were brothers, the sons of the same father. As such they would have similar but not identical genetic codes. Scientists find this to be true in the three branches of humanity today.
The biggest reason why I believe the Bible is true, is a highly personal experience that I do not think is appropriate to share on this public forum. However, it has never been demonstrated to me that any of the FACTS stated in the Bible, be they a scientific or historical are wrong. The Bible itself is a book composed of 66 books written by 40 authors over a period of 1500+ years, yet it is a unified message of a person, the person of Jesus Christ. From Genesis to Revelation it details how God is dealing with the one problem that all humans have in common, namely the problem of sin. The biblical definition of sin could be called "missing the target". The target of course is to live a life within the perfect will of God as Jesus Christ did. He was the only human who ever lived a perfect life and never did anything wrong in thought and deed. Because of that, through his death and resurrection he has imparted his life to me, so that now God sees him when he looks at me.
This life from God which is available only through Jesus Christ can be had for the asking by anyone who believes. It is as simple as that. There are many things that all human beings cannot do, but if anyone can believe, even a small child. So can you, but only if you WANT to. Ultimately, it is a matter of your will.
All of the scientists that study this field of study and others as well, make the assumption that it is valid to extrapolate present day processes linearly into the past. The fact of the matter is that few things in nature are linear. Another assumption that is made is that the constants of nature, such as atomic clocks used to measure time are invariant over large periods of time. Again the one thing that does constant about nature is change.
...The suprise is at the degree of genomic similarity...
This is no surprise for someone like me who believes that the Bible is true. These three people that restart the human race came from one set of parents and therefore should have most of their genes in common. It is only logical that the three brothers Shem. Japheth and Ham would share most of the genetic code of their father and pass it on to succeeding generations along with certain individual variations that we still see today. What is so strange about that?
...There's still that bigger inbreeding problem....
You are making an assumption here, namely that the genetic pool of humanity was then the way it looks today. It is interesting that there are exactly 3 people groups and not four or five for some of that number. It is not at all impossible that all people on Earth today descended from the three sons of Noah. This is a very simple theory and as far as theories go, the simpler ones are more likely correct. Of course, this theory has unthinkable implications for those who believe that the Bible is nothing more than a bunch of myths and falsehoods. People who do not wish to believe in the Bible and the God of the Bible will go to great lengths to come up with other, usually more complicated explanations for this data.
...with competing products has fewer features, and is more expensive...
Anybody who can do this deserves all the money they can get from all of the supposed suckers who buy Apple products. All the other companies who sell all these fantastic products, especially Windows computers are losing money or maybe barely making a profit. A company who can sell you the sizzle and keep the steak must be doing something right. After all, most businesses I know are there to make a profit and Apple is pretty profitable these days.
...of course Apple are using a different benchmark...
Benchmarks can be twisted the way they user of such benchmark may choose. All the Mac computers can also use Windows via boot camp and they consistently kept less battery life went so doing. Could it be that Windows power management cannot know exactly what is inside the computer? Could it be that Apple has special power management hardware which Windows knows nothing about, but Apple can incorporate special software for in OSX? Could it be that Apple can tailor their power management exactly to their computer, whereas Windows can only address the average laptop?
...what is still far from 4 hours I get with the same workload under Mac OS X....
That is easy to explain. Apple designs the hardware and the software together as a unit. They are able to do the power management exactly to the hardware they have in the machine. Neither Windows or Linux are able to know exactly what kind of power management system for manufacturer designed into the machine.
...Apple lies about battery life just like everyone else...
I get about three and a half hours of battery life on my Macbook pro surfing the web with wireless turned on. Manufacturing a product and producing an integrated hardware and software design are two entirely different things. Asus along with all the other manufacturers of machines that get Windows installed on them, make only half of the computer and cannot possibly integrate the software including power management the way Apple does. It is the design, not the manufacturing that makes the difference.
...Perhaps Apple is using a different benchmark...
Perhaps Apple computers are able to manage power better because Apple is the only computer maker that engineers their hardware and software together and is thus able to optimize battery life.
You got it wrong, I am not trivializing an involuntary servitude to another person or organization but merely stating that there are other forms of slavery. Alcohol and drug abuse are another form of slavery, as is any other compulsory activity not necessary for life itself. A person who does not have enough money saved up to last a few months without an income is a slave to their present job.
Slashdot Mirror
...Don't forget that this law...
Law, shma, so what? How does a North Carolina law affect a business located in Washington state? Can North Carolina go to court in Washington and thereby force Amazon to pay tax to North Carolina? Can they do this in federal court in North Carolina?
.... How many preachers drive Cadillacs ....
What difference does that make? Does that negate to the words of Jesus? Do you really think that government officials are in any different from the rest of us? Jesus here he was not talking about a government official, but to a successful farmer. At least the farmer was successful in his own eyes and by the world's standard, but apparently not in God's eyes. God calls such a person a fool. In my estimation, there is nothing more serious than to be called a fool by God. It is LOVE for money that is the root of all evil, not money per se.
...Who's going to build it for me? ....
Simple, in that world they have super intelligent robots.
(...Any civilization is going to require people to do the shit jobs too...)
See above.
(...But what about the guy that cleans the captain's toilet?...)
Same answer
In ages past people had slaves to do the jobs you mentioned and much more. Presumably in that civilization as depicted in Star Trek, technology is far enough advanced to have all work done by machines. That is also why a recurring science-fiction theme is that the machines rise up against their masters and try to rebel. That is the biggest problem I see with a Star Trek type civilization, to guard against a rebellion of the machines. Unlike human slaves, which have a mind and will of their own, machines can be designed to be well... machines who always without fail do what they're told.
....They could have lived the ideal life with no worry and invested properly....
There is more to life than money and in the end people are not satisfied with the abundance of possessions. Jesus Christ tells us in Luke 12:15 "And He said to them, Watch and keep yourselves from covetousness. For a man's life is not in the abundance of the things which he possesses." and then Jesus continued:
"And He spoke a parable to them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully. 17 And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room in which to store my fruits? 18 And he said, I will do this. I will pull down my barns and build bigger ones, and I will store all my fruits and my goods there. 19 And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years. Take your ease, eat drink and be merry. 20 But God said to him, Fool! This night your soul shall be required of you, then whose shall be those things which you have prepared? 21 So is he who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.
22 And He said to His disciples, Therefore I say to you, Be not anxious as to your life, what you shall eat; nor for the body, what you shall put on. 23 Life is more than food, and the body is more than clothing."
Neither Bill Gates and Warren Buffett can take anything out of this world. Like everybody else they came in naked and leave again in the same way. I do not know much about Warren Buffett, but at least Bill Gates is trying to do some good in this world with some of his money.
... I think Amazon should or shouldn't pay tax ...
I always wonder how are a business in the state of Washington can be forced by the state of North Carolina to pay taxes to that state if they are not actually in the state.
....Doesn't seem very universal to me....
The universality of faith itself is what I was talking about. There is no way to prove God or disprove him. The Bible tells us: Hebrews 11:6 "But without faith it is impossible to please Him , for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him."
You have to read the book of Revelation with all the rest of the Bible. It is one book although it has been penned by 40 different authors over many centuries. If you would do this, you would learn that at the end of history as we have known it there will be one final war where ALL the armies of the whole world would be gathered against Jerusalem. The purpose of the world is to attempt to thwart the return of Jesus Christ in glory and awesome power. At that time we are told the Jews will recognize their Messiah and lament for the one whom they have pierced and then worship him.
In the end, only those who reject Jesus Christ knowingly will go to hell. On the cross, Jesus prayed (Luke 23:34) "Father forgive them for they know not what they're doing."The only way a human being can go to hell is over God's dead body, the dead body of Jesus Christ who died so you may not go to hell unless you reject him. Only if you reject Jesus Christ specifically through unbelief, will you go to hell. God has made it very hard for sinners to go to hell.
.... Even if we did know all 3 started with 3 brothers...
Long before there was DNA science, scientists have known about the three major divisions of humanity. This is just another confirmation of the biblical story being accurate. There are many things in the Bible and many things in the natural world that occur in groups of three. Why are there not more than three distinct groups genetically? Why are there not less?
...Did you assert that a flood is required to form fossils?...
In order to have a fossil, a living organism to be fossilized has to die quickly, and then be prevented from decaying. Normally, organisms decay rather than make fossils. To prevent decay, all microorganisms have to be killed quickly. Please suggest a mechanism by which this can take place all over the world, other than by a sudden catastrophe. Fossilization also cannot take place in the absence of water. Because the Bible tells us that the fountains of the great deep broke open, it is very likely that some of this water was scaldingly hot, thereby killing the organism to be fossilized as well as all microorganisms which would prevent fossilization.
...But is faith a get out of jail free card? Does a man who lives free of sin but rejects religion go to -insert postmortem unpleasant locale here...
It is free in the sense that it was paid for by someone else, by Jesus Christ on the cross. He took our punishment and so well yes, all those who believe in him get an out of jail free card. Nobody has ever lived free of sin, but we all have come short of God's perfect requirements.
It is best summed up by the well-known Bible verse of John 3:16. If you have a mountain of debt, impossibly large, and someone pays it for you, it is not free to that person, but it is free to you. That in essence is the gospel, the good news, that someone, the son of God himself took the punishment that we all so richly deserve upon himself. The only condition on this forgiveness is to simply accept this by belief, by faith. That sounds like the easy way out, but if you read the story of the crucifixion and try to imagine what Jesus went through, you get the idea that it was not easy for him, but he did it out of love. Nobody will go to hell for the sins they have done, but they who do not believe and accept the person of Jesus Christ and what he has done.
It is only after this initial step of faith, not in order to achieve salvation, but because salvation has been accomplished, Christians are obligated to pay attention and live according to the words of Jesus Christ. In any case, I am not talking about religion, but a loving, living a relationship with a person, the person of Jesus Christ.
... In fact show me any book of the old testament....
Right after Adam and Eve sinned, God said that from the seed of the woman, singular Seed that is, would come to crush the serpents head. (Gen 3 :15) Most biblical scholars take this to be a prophecy of the Messiah who would come. There are many prophecies in the Old Testament concerning one who would come to bear our sins.
In the end though all this has to be believed just as most things in life have to be believed. In order to have a judgment there has to be a standard. If my life does not come to the standard of Jesus Christ I deserve to be condemned. It is only by grace, through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ that anyone can be saved.
God has chosen the universal vehicle of faith to determine who's acceptable and who will be rejected. There is no other criterion that God could have chosen that is more universally applicable than that of faith. He did not choose any physical or mental characteristics but only whether a person believes or does not believe. Nobody, including you will go to hell for all the nasty things you have done or spoken, but for the simple fact that you reject Jesus Christ and his offer of salvation by disbelieving. I suggest that you give the Bible, especially the New Testament a careful reading and then believe what you read. Your eternal destiny depends on it.
...Once you get supervolcanoes involved....
The source of the water of the flood is far deeper than any super-volcano which is limited to the crust of the earth. However, there is enough water in the mantle to fill the ocean several times over. Also, even today's ocean would cover the earth over a mile deep, if the earth were perfectly flat. If you desire to read more about this,look here:
http://biblicalgeology.net/Answer/Where-did-all-the-water-come-from.html
...the Jesus you think you know is more or less a later reconstruction...
The Jesus I know is is within me by the presence of the Holy Spirit of God. There is an invisible world, beyond our senses, which is only open to people of faith. People who do not believe will not experience any of this. It is normal to say show me and I will believe, but God says believe and I will show you. I believed as it is written and God did show me.
Jesus never prophesied that he would return in the lifetime of any of his followers, but made it very clear that he would return unexpectedly without warning. If you had studied the Bible as I have, you have known this.
...lots of facts that indeed have been demonstrated utterly false...
The fact is that there is not one square inch on the surface of earth that has not been underwater at some point. It is also a fact that fossils were found nearly everywhere and fossils cannot form without a) water b) quickly. Any slow process only results in decay that does not make a fossil. A catastrophic worldwide flood provides both the water and the quick burial to prevent decay. It says that the fountains of the great broke open. this means that the water may have been hot as well, thereby contributing to the sterilization of living matter so that fossils could form.
...you don't know what you're talking about...
Of course you do know what you are talking about because you were there at that time and throughout history to watch the development of the human race.
...Even so, the bible doesn't mention anything about the degree of genetic similarity...
The Bible does mention specifically that these were brothers, the sons of the same father. As such they would have similar but not identical genetic codes. Scientists find this to be true in the three branches of humanity today.
...I genuinely want to know...
The biggest reason why I believe the Bible is true, is a highly personal experience that I do not think is appropriate to share on this public forum. However, it has never been demonstrated to me that any of the FACTS stated in the Bible, be they a scientific or historical are wrong. The Bible itself is a book composed of 66 books written by 40 authors over a period of 1500+ years, yet it is a unified message of a person, the person of Jesus Christ. From Genesis to Revelation it details how God is dealing with the one problem that all humans have in common, namely the problem of sin. The biblical definition of sin could be called "missing the target". The target of course is to live a life within the perfect will of God as Jesus Christ did. He was the only human who ever lived a perfect life and never did anything wrong in thought and deed. Because of that, through his death and resurrection he has imparted his life to me, so that now God sees him when he looks at me.
This life from God which is available only through Jesus Christ can be had for the asking by anyone who believes. It is as simple as that. There are many things that all human beings cannot do, but if anyone can believe, even a small child. So can you, but only if you WANT to. Ultimately, it is a matter of your will.
...geology, biology and paleontology...
All of the scientists that study this field of study and others as well, make the assumption that it is valid to extrapolate present day processes linearly into the past. The fact of the matter is that few things in nature are linear. Another assumption that is made is that the constants of nature, such as atomic clocks used to measure time are invariant over large periods of time. Again the one thing that does constant about nature is change.
...The suprise is at the degree of genomic similarity ...
This is no surprise for someone like me who believes that the Bible is true. These three people that restart the human race came from one set of parents and therefore should have most of their genes in common. It is only logical that the three brothers Shem. Japheth and Ham would share most of the genetic code of their father and pass it on to succeeding generations along with certain individual variations that we still see today. What is so strange about that?
...There's still that bigger inbreeding problem....
You are making an assumption here, namely that the genetic pool of humanity was then the way it looks today. It is interesting that there are exactly 3 people groups and not four or five for some of that number. It is not at all impossible that all people on Earth today descended from the three sons of Noah. This is a very simple theory and as far as theories go, the simpler ones are more likely correct. Of course, this theory has unthinkable implications for those who believe that the Bible is nothing more than a bunch of myths and falsehoods. People who do not wish to believe in the Bible and the God of the Bible will go to great lengths to come up with other, usually more complicated explanations for this data.
...with competing products has fewer features, and is more expensive...
Anybody who can do this deserves all the money they can get from all of the supposed suckers who buy Apple products. All the other companies who sell all these fantastic products, especially Windows computers are losing money or maybe barely making a profit. A company who can sell you the sizzle and keep the steak must be doing something right. After all, most businesses I know are there to make a profit and Apple is pretty profitable these days.
...of course Apple are using a different benchmark...
Benchmarks can be twisted the way they user of such benchmark may choose. All the Mac computers can also use Windows via boot camp and they consistently kept less battery life went so doing. Could it be that Windows power management cannot know exactly what is inside the computer? Could it be that Apple has special power management hardware which Windows knows nothing about, but Apple can incorporate special software for in OSX? Could it be that Apple can tailor their power management exactly to their computer, whereas Windows can only address the average laptop?
...what is still far from 4 hours I get with the same workload under Mac OS X....
That is easy to explain. Apple designs the hardware and the software together as a unit. They are able to do the power management exactly to the hardware they have in the machine. Neither Windows or Linux are able to know exactly what kind of power management system for manufacturer designed into the machine.
...Apple lies about battery life just like everyone else...
I get about three and a half hours of battery life on my Macbook pro surfing the web with wireless turned on. Manufacturing a product and producing an integrated hardware and software design are two entirely different things. Asus along with all the other manufacturers of machines that get Windows installed on them, make only half of the computer and cannot possibly integrate the software including power management the way Apple does. It is the design, not the manufacturing that makes the difference.
...Perhaps Apple is using a different benchmark...
Perhaps Apple computers are able to manage power better because Apple is the only computer maker that engineers their hardware and software together and is thus able to optimize battery life.
...trivializing the actuality of slavery...
You got it wrong, I am not trivializing an involuntary servitude to another person or organization but merely stating that there are other forms of slavery. Alcohol and drug abuse are another form of slavery, as is any other compulsory activity not necessary for life itself. A person who does not have enough money saved up to last a few months without an income is a slave to their present job.