Philosophy debate of Religion, and Science

[Wan]

Here's something I was pondering yesterday. Not sure what to make of it, but I thought it might be worth mentioning here.

If humans are basically good, then why is there so much unfairness in government and corporations? Of course, this is only a reasonable argument should you agree with the premise that there is, in fact, a lot of unfairness in those spheres. If it's true that people are essentially good at heart, as Anne Frank remarkably wrote, I would expect everyone should be more likely to help each other, rather than take advantage of one another. But it seems to me there's a bit of both happening in the world today.

The core philosophy behind conservatism; i.e. "big government" is that people are essentially bad and need to be controlled. But if people are bad, and government and other institutions are run by people, then what? It seems far more likely to me that either A) people can be good, evil or neutral, based on some undetermined factor, or B) "good" and "evil" are not conflicting forces in the Star Wars sense, but merely concepts that others associate with their actions. People do what seems reasonable to them, and others label these actions as good or evil.

The bottom line of the 28 pages this thread has caused can be summed up by a very powerful quote

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajIRxdeCRZM

Anyone can try to bs it, you're going to fail.

[marthwmaster]

The bottom line of the 28 pages this thread has caused can be summed up by a very powerful quote

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajIRxdeCRZM

This video is nearly seven minutes long; hardly a "bottom line." Or is there a specific quote you liked from it?

[Wan]

The bottom line of the 28 pages this thread has caused can be summed up by a very powerful quote

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajIRxdeCRZM

This video is nearly seven minutes long; hardly a "bottom line." Or is there a specific quote you liked from it?

That people become what they think about most of the time.

[marthwmaster]

This video is nearly seven minutes long; hardly a "bottom line." Or is there a specific quote you liked from it?

That people become what they think about most of the time.

A lot of people are going to undergo sex-change operations if that's true. :)

[zaseo]

Hm I got a question. Scientifically is marijuana good, or bad for the health if controlled? Should it be legal? (not just in CA) Well we know it is bad if people keep using it, but they say it can be healthy if people controls themselves. Discuss.

I think it should be illegal everywhere. Think of society if it was legal everywhere. I bet half of the teens would be high due to the fact that they couldn't control themselves. Some use it for medical reasons, but why not find another more efficient way of dealing with med problems?

[Smitts]

Hm I got a question. Scientifically is marijuana good, or bad for the health if controlled? Should it be legal? (not just in CA) Well we know it is bad if people keep using it, but they say it can be healthy if people controls themselves. Discuss.

I think it should be illegal everywhere. Think of society if it was legal everywhere. I bet half of the teens would be high due to the fact that they couldn't control themselves. Some use it for medical reasons, but why not find another more efficient way of dealing with med problems?

I doubt breathing in the smoke of a burning plant would hardly be good for your lungs. Even if people
"control" themselves.

Fumes are fumes.

[_Tri-edge_]

Marijuana, to a certain degree, depending on the quantity of the dosage and how the dosage is given, is actually quite healty in the medical sense, yet it's how people's treatmeant of it, use of it, and distribution of it that has given it such a distasteful reputation, much like sex, a once natural act set between two lovers, now turned into an everday thing in the entertainment department, and criminal world, because we couldn't put limits on how much we wanted it, and how often we needed it, which is possibly the reason why marriage came into existence in the first place, to restrict such events from spiraling out of control. Unfortunately, look how that's turned out.

[zaseo]

It seems we shall be in gridlock for the next two years. The republicans have gain the majority, but not the super majority. If Obama want a bill to pass then the republicans shall vote against it. If the republicans want a bill to pass then Obama would just veto it. Nothing shall get done unless both can agree, and we know that shall not happen. It is more troublesome because the Tea Party gained ground in the mid terms.

[Azure Knight]

It seems we shall be in gridlock for the next two years. The republicans have gain the majority, but not the super majority. If Obama want a bill to pass then the republicans shall vote against it. If the republicans want a bill to pass then Obama would just veto it. Nothing shall get done unless both can agree, and we know that shall not happen. It is more troublesome because the Tea Party gained ground in the mid terms.

You do know the Democrats still have the Senate, right?

[Keyaki]

It seems we shall be in gridlock for the next two years. The republicans have gain the majority, but not the super majority. If Obama want a bill to pass then the republicans shall vote against it. If the republicans want a bill to pass then Obama would just veto it. Nothing shall get done unless both can agree, and we know that shall not happen. It is more troublesome because the Tea Party gained ground in the mid terms.

You do know the Democrats still have the Senate, right?

Exactly, there are exactly 50 Democrats in the Senate seats to the 46 Republicans, it'll be tough to get anything passed but we can hope majority rule plays a part during this round.

[zaseo]

I doubt it. They will just be pointing fingers at each other. If only they would just raise taxes on the average person that is stable (a little), and rich people. Also we should stop buying so much from China. Right now both of the parties are failing. The Tea Party sucks as well.

[Keyaki]

I doubt it. They will just be pointing fingers at each other. If only they would just raise taxes on the average person that is stable (a little), and rich people. Also we should stop buying so much from China. Right now both of the parties are failing. The Tea Party sucks as well.

1) You're pointing out the obvious right now.
2) We've tried raising the taxes and look what's happened, the people on the opposites sides who are against tax raises are bitching their asses off
3) #1

[HKS_Nismo]

You think we've postponed any possible progress after this year's 2010 elections, since the power flowing through the goverment has now basically been split? Will ANYTHING get passed? :/

[Keyaki]

Will ANYTHING get passed? :/

Not really. Everything will pretty much ended up dead-locked.

[zaseo]

This country needs to be reformed. Obama is petty much a Democratic Bush in my opinion. I wonder who shall be the next president because Obama likely won't get reelected with the hate coming towards him. These days we basically electing who shall do the least amount of damage.

[marthwmaster]

Obama is petty much a Democratic Bush in my opinion.

How so? Could you perhaps compare the presidential actions of Obama and Bush to demonstrate how you arrived at this opinion?

[Keyaki]

Obama is petty much a Democratic Bush in my opinion.

How so? Could you perhaps compare the presidential actions of Obama and Bush to demonstrate how you arrived at this opinion?

Yea really, kindly explain. Because I hardly understand how you compare Obama to a hill-billy

[zaseo]

Well their actions are vastly different in most areas, but they both fail. Bush gets us in debt, and Obama keeps us in debt. Obama can't fix everything that Bush did, but he made our debt problems worst. I don't think I need to go over Bush's failures. Obama isn't as bad, but his damage has been done. Healthcare = an epic failure.

Both have failed when it comes to security. We thought security after 9/11 doing Bush's terms was bad, but with Obama it gets even worse. They are letting the TSA strip searching common people for the countries sake. WTF? Little kids, and elderly commoners are getting searched to the extreme. When it comes down to it they both have different views, but ultimately fails. Bush fails in a Republican way, and Obama fails in a Democrat way. Both quickly lost popularity due to their failures.

I another question? Why do minorities vote Democrat? I'm guess they don't know much about politics because I'm sure most blacks were Republicans before the Civil Rights Movement. I'm not trying to be racist, but I would think that Baptist, and AMEs would vote right wing.

[Keyaki]

Well their actions are vastly different in most areas, but they both fail. Bush gets us in debt, and Obama keeps us in debt. Obama can't fix everything that Bush did, but he made our debt problems worst. I don't think I need to go over Bush's failures. Obama isn't as bad, but his damage has been done. Healthcare = an epic failure.

I agree that alot of are impatient of the supposed "change" Obama "promised" us, but at least we're seeing something that at least looks better than that red-neck we've had for 8 years.

Both have failed when it comes to security. We thought security after 9/11 doing Bush's terms was bad, but with Obama it gets even worse. They are letting the TSA strip searching common people for the countries sake. WTF? Little kids, and elderly commoners are getting searched to the extreme.

Okay, yea. But when you get elderly terrorist and little kids as young as 5 trained to be terrorist, you can't expect much from America than to be alittle bit too over-zealous.

Bush fails in a Republican way, and Obama fails in a Democrat way. Both quickly lost popularity due to their failures.

Okay them, go vote Independent. You'll probably be the only one.

I another question? Why do minorities vote Democrat? I'm guess they don't know much about politics because I'm sure most blacks were Republicans before the Civil Rights Movement. I'm not trying to be racist, but I would think that Baptist, and AMEs would vote right wing.

I'm sorry but that is just ignorance on the WORST level. Not all minorities vote Democrat and not all majorities vote Republican. And believe me there are still alot of black republicans, maybe not as much now since we have a black beaming icon on the throne but there are still alot. Same with Baptist, many that I've seen vote Democrat....for the wrong reason imo

[_Tri-edge_]

Although I do admit, a lot of people voted for the wrong reasons back in 2008.

I honestly have no idea why Americans are bashing Obama to the extreme about his performance. This was expected. Plus, the man told us that this decade long problem wasn't going to be solved overnight, or were people so caught up in the moment that we accomplished putting a black person in office as commander in chief, that those words flew over their head? You can't force a wound to heal at an extremely fast speed, so why do some of us think that everything was going to get fixed in two years? Every President in office has had their share of victories and defeats. Instead of basing my decisions by looking at attack campaigns and goals set by both sides, I simply place this in view when I vote. "Both of these people are fully capable of failing at some point, so which canidate's errors will do the least amount of damage in a four to eight year period?" It's a gamble, but that's just how I view politics these days.