Zealot

Yet if somebody starts shooting at me or my buddy, or trying to blow us up, I have no hesitation in shooting back. Simply put, death is not the worst thing which can happen to you, especially if you are attempting to harm or destroy others' lives. I would rather protect life, but the boundaries of that domain blur in places, and sometimes humans are forced to make an awful choice. When I make them, the one suffering the ill consiquences is going to be the one who forced into existance the situation where I had to make that choice.

I'll pass on those rocks you could never tell whether the ore was there or not in... and fatigue. Fatigue was the worst! :wall:

Right-wing politics aren't evil. I've said time and time again I can accept and respect conservatives. I cannot and will not respect Republicans in their current state. I'm not convincing anyone of anything politically, just that the GOP is not interesting in governing. I was explicitly told on this very thread that the GOP just "has different ideas," when it's blatantly obvious that they're shutting down the government for political purposes. This isn't an argument for my ideology, but a plead for people to wake the [bleep] up to what the GOP is doing. I was told by several people that I was more or less crazy for believing the GOP was willing to shut down the government for politics. I have an even better idea... It's both the asses and the elephants. Let's get rid of both of them :wall: America is being controlled by those who only want power, and it spans our (admittedly narrow) political spectrum. We need a return to Democrats like JFK, and Republicans like MLK Jr. And mostly, we need to move to a point where politicians have spines, and are willing to admit when they are wrong, and fix the things that they break, and not break what's already working. Note that I'm not asking for perfection, but please, can we try for a little honesty and accountability?

1: There are some things which transcend logic, on which logic depends. Aristotle wrote a fair amount about what he called "Axioms" in various places (mostly Metaphysics. If you can explain to me the logic of Aristotle's axioms, then I will conceed that perhaps it is necessary for me to give a logical account of God's existance. If not then it is enough to say that His presence/absence is the fundamental fact about all reality (including logic). I would not ask for a proof that a predicate of a predicate of a thing is a predicate of the thing itself, or that the only valid answers to a yes/no question are in fact yes and no, or that a thing can not possess both a property and that property's inverse at the same time, in the same way. Yet show me the logic for any of these things. They are all essential for conducting logic... I think that when you try, you will find yourself arguing in circles, or forced to say simply that the axioms are true and there is little to be gained by arguing with somebody who denies them. 2: That's the problem! "Nothing exists" is the simplest possible Metaphysic (that is, explanation of everything that exists). I'm sure that you have heard of Occham's Razor, the metaphysical principle that "the simplest explanation is preferable." One of the things which can be derived from it is that when there is surprising complexity we should immediately start wondering why... That is actually the basis of what are today called the sciences. So, obviously the explanation that "nothing exists" does not actually reflect reality--why not? What prevents this state from prevailing? Christianity, by positing a fundamental reality that can not help but exist (God), can overcome this problem, how do you propose to do so? 3: So, basically you just want to insist that a model of reality does not have to include God? If so then we are in agreement. I just doubt that such a model is actually simpler in the way that real Metaphysicians use the word. You have to account for all natural forces and their relations with one another, some form of perpetual energy to feed the system, the system itself, our models of the system, and so on. Occahm's Razor indicates that such a model probably is less preferable to one which really only requires the existance of One Thing. 4: So sheer chance has become your god? Fair enough. However you refer to things which drive our lives and are beyond our control, that is what they are. You can have all the faith that they are out of God's hands you want, and in the end I have no objection to that. I will simply keep my faith that HE is fundamental reality. 6: That was never my intention. Honestly, provided God's existance, He wouldn't want you to be forced to believe in HIM. All the more I hope is to show you that faith in God is reasonable. As long as you recognize that you are building your models based on faith in the base premise (NOT GOD) and that I am building my models based on faith in the base premise (GOD), and that the truth of either of our models depends primarilly on which of the two possibilities really is the case, then I am completely happy.

Yeah. Wish I could say that, or get somebody to work for me so I could use a few sick days :rolleyes:

At the moment I have to agree. I'm just getting over a cold, and it seems like all I do lately is cough until I'm blue in the face. Gah! What's worse though is having to work through it.

I'm not buying boats, and I'm also not hoarding money for the sake of hoarding money. Both seem absurd to me. Instead I am making sure that my family is taken care of... saving money to meet unanticipated future needs... spending money to provide clean drinking water to African villages and provide livelyhoods to families in need... saving money to meet those future needs that I can forsee my own family having, such as childrens' educations, retirement, and costs of aging. Basically if I had a million dollars it would just mean a larger percentage going toward the later categories, and a smaller portion going toward the first one. I'd probably take my wife on a cruise to Alaska for a few weeks, but other than that there are more important ways to use the money.

That 2% is actually a demonstration of the reason why so many Americans are so in debt... No financial sense whatsoever. It probably didn't ever occure to him that even over the past few years there are still mutual funds which have held steady growth rates of 10-12% per anum. This is the real reason why the middle class is shrinking. :roll: Did it occur to you that this topic isn't about any of that? Did it occur to you that nerds would use a million dollars too?

That 2% is actually a demonstration of the reason why so many Americans are so in debt... No financial sense whatsoever. It probably didn't ever occure to him that even over the past few years there are still mutual funds which have held steady growth rates of 10-12% per anum. This is the real reason why the middle class is shrinking. :roll:

No. See, this is the crap they teach in American schools. (I'm guessing you second-heard this from someone, or Canadian schools follow with American propoganda XD) If any revolution changed the way Europeans thought it was the French. The American was just too far away for anyone but the English (just the politicans mind you) to give a damn. And yet... Would the French have had the same revolution if they had not seen the American Revolution first? No doubt, Louis and Marie would have met the same unpleasantries, but would it just be another Monarch who took their place or a true transformation in the way that the nation is governed?

And yet... your actions betray you. If you truely believed what you say, then I can not imagine you actually caring enough about the question to answer it. That's the problem with Nihilism. It's so, so easy to say the words, but nobody ever actually behaves as though they believe the words coming out of their mouths. That is the real test of an ideal: will people actually act as though it were true?

It's really just the distraction of it that is a problem. Anything which takes a soldier's mind out of the fight--even for a moment--can get him or her killed. Anything which gives a soldier reason to wonder about whether his trench-buddy really has his back--even if the wonder is baseless--will damage unit cohesion, and make the unit less effective. In the end, we'll make a way through because in the USAF, all branches are very good at adapting to new situations.

If you have time to do a quick gramar check, that will help a lot. There are places where your tenses don't match up, missing punctuation marks and such. It makes the whole work seem rough. If there's not time, this draft is a bit more clear. Honestly I doubt it will be better than a "C" though. Nonetheless, good luck.

Yep, and nothing is being aware of those reactions. Damn. I'm pretty sure that in the longest run, it will be shown that the dualist brain-mind model proves correct... Many Epistomologists already hold that view, though it is much more difficult for those pre-committed to a completely naturalistic ideology to accept. Simply put, if dualism is not correct, then everything really is meaningless and there is no good reason why we should have the ability to control nature as much as we manage.

Find yourself a motivated private seller. Estate sales for recently deceased old women tend to be good because cars from them tend to be well mantained, low milage, and you aren't paying the dealer's markup. Just make sure to have a mechanic go over the car and make sure it is really in good working order. You won't have a warrantee after all.