Profile for Drew
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Displayed name | Drew |
| Member number | 4233 |
| Title | By Committee |
| Postcount | 2242 |
| Homepage | |
| Registered | Saturday, April 10 2004 07:00 |
Recent posts
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| Author | Recent posts |
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| Message Board in General | |
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By Committee
Member # 4233
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written Monday, July 23 2007 06:03
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Acceptance is the first step on the road to recovery. Congratulations! Posts: 2242 | Registered: Saturday, April 10 2004 07:00 |
| Social Degradation and Religious Decay (Split from "Life on Europa") in General | |
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By Committee
Member # 4233
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written Monday, July 23 2007 05:59
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Do you deny that information about everything these days is much, much more readily and immediately available than ever before, live and in color? 24-7 news is pervasive. And let's not discount the very medium through which we are communicating. So many awful things come to light now because they can. I think this is a good thing, because better transparency = more accountability and more honesty. Your response to public schools in a more sexually permissive culture was to withdraw your children for home schooling. That seems to be for the sake of sheltering your kids, or "sparing" them through ignorance. EDIT: Admittedly, you also said "or teach them differently" - what did you mean by that? [ Monday, July 23, 2007 06:01: Message edited by: Drew ] Posts: 2242 | Registered: Saturday, April 10 2004 07:00 |
| Sci Fi Spidweb. in General | |
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By Committee
Member # 4233
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written Monday, July 23 2007 04:45
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No worries. We were just Iffy-baiting. Posts: 2242 | Registered: Saturday, April 10 2004 07:00 |
| Social Degradation and Religious Decay (Split from "Life on Europa") in General | |
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By Committee
Member # 4233
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written Monday, July 23 2007 04:30
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Hmm. Doesn't it just seem more likely that in this age of increased information, we're all much more aware of all the bad things that are happening than we were before? Because bad things have always happened. Your response though seems to be: bunker down! Withdraw from society! Stick your head in the sand! It's safe there! Ignorance is bliss! Posts: 2242 | Registered: Saturday, April 10 2004 07:00 |
| Harry Potter *WITH SPOILERS* in General | |
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By Committee
Member # 4233
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written Saturday, July 21 2007 14:59
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Only perhaps if the original thread's title adjusted to indicate that there were spoilers. Seriously, dude, I didn't appreciate the "Fred is the only Weasley to die" remark! :( Posts: 2242 | Registered: Saturday, April 10 2004 07:00 |
| Harry Potter *WITH SPOILERS* in General | |
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By Committee
Member # 4233
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written Saturday, July 21 2007 14:32
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I'm starting this thread because the last Harry Potter thread, started prior to release of the book, actually contained some not entirely irrelevant spoilers, which can effect one's read of the book. As such, I would suggest that anyone wanting to discuss outcomes within the story, or particular aspects of how Rowling crafted book or the entire series in light of this last book do so here (this means you, Aran, with your references to who survives). Cheers! Posts: 2242 | Registered: Saturday, April 10 2004 07:00 |
| Harry Potter in General | |
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By Committee
Member # 4233
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written Saturday, July 21 2007 14:05
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I finished it at about noon today, and then have been asleep for the last six hours. :) That said, while I think it may not have been the most creative - it was very "Return of the Jedi" in feel - it was certainly very enjoyable, and I think she acquitted herself pretty well. Don't know how the heck they're going to crame most of that into a movie. Posts: 2242 | Registered: Saturday, April 10 2004 07:00 |
| Sci Fi Spidweb. in General | |
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Member # 4233
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written Friday, July 20 2007 16:30
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That's in keeping with the recent trend in cinema. First LotR, next the Chronicles of Narnia, and now The Dark Is Rising and The Golden Compass - are there any they haven't mined yet? Posts: 2242 | Registered: Saturday, April 10 2004 07:00 |
| Sci Fi Spidweb. in General | |
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Member # 4233
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written Friday, July 20 2007 11:59
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...or enter "define: naif" in the Google search window. Posts: 2242 | Registered: Saturday, April 10 2004 07:00 |
| Sci Fi Spidweb. in General | |
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Member # 4233
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written Friday, July 20 2007 11:24
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Well, I think it goes without saying that everyone posting here has some geeky qualities. Whether we're nerdy or not probably requires further analysis, though I agree it's less of a perjorative. In your case, Iffy, I think we definitely have grounds to consider you a naif. [ Friday, July 20, 2007 11:29: Message edited by: Drew ] Posts: 2242 | Registered: Saturday, April 10 2004 07:00 |
| Happy Birthday.... in General | |
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Member # 4233
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written Friday, July 20 2007 08:08
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quote:How saucy you've become lately, Aran, who's all of 20 years. :P Posts: 2242 | Registered: Saturday, April 10 2004 07:00 |
| Social Degradation and Religious Decay (Split from "Life on Europa") in General | |
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Member # 4233
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written Friday, July 20 2007 04:13
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Is there really a meaningful distinction between "ethical" and "moral"? Posts: 2242 | Registered: Saturday, April 10 2004 07:00 |
| Final Fantasy in General | |
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Member # 4233
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written Thursday, July 19 2007 10:23
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...or maybe you should just find better things to do with your time than level-grind to 99 - I did. "It's Yiazmat" - geez, it's like you wrote the game or something. :P Posts: 2242 | Registered: Saturday, April 10 2004 07:00 |
| Final Fantasy in General | |
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Member # 4233
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written Thursday, July 19 2007 08:41
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Have fun completing it. I actually stuck it out long enough to get Tournesol, but I ended up throwing in the towel after the first three hours of taking down Yazmat - it just wasn't worth it, though I'm as vulnerable to getting sucked into the grind as anyone. Posts: 2242 | Registered: Saturday, April 10 2004 07:00 |
| Social Degradation and Religious Decay (Split from "Life on Europa") in General | |
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By Committee
Member # 4233
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written Thursday, July 19 2007 07:11
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quote:Quoted for truth of the matter asserted. I'm out. Posts: 2242 | Registered: Saturday, April 10 2004 07:00 |
| Social Degradation and Religious Decay (Split from "Life on Europa") in General | |
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Member # 4233
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written Thursday, July 19 2007 06:42
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Or that Christianity necessarily has it right, or Islam, or Hinduism, etc. Posts: 2242 | Registered: Saturday, April 10 2004 07:00 |
| Social Degradation and Religious Decay (Split from "Life on Europa") in General | |
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By Committee
Member # 4233
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written Thursday, July 19 2007 06:19
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Are we talking about the whole world? You seem to be most concerned with a decline in morality and cultural decay within the U.S., is that not so? Well, I think the fact that per capita income in real dollars (that is to say, adjusted for inflation) has increased significantly over the past fifty years pretty well illustrates my point. I'm not going to waste my time dredging up figures for the rest of the world or the 50 years prior to that report just to satisfy your obtuseness (though they exist in both cases), as unwilling as you may be to believe that things got better after the Great Depression, or that fewer people proportionately in the world are starving these days, which I think represents a pretty significant increase in the quality of life. My point in discussing Zimbabwe was to demonstrate how behavior depended more on financial wherewithal than any moral decline. Also, it's pretty apparent that the current state of the Zimbabwan economy is not representative of the world norm. Every time we pin you down, you change the frame of the debate. Dodge, dip, duck, dive, and dodge all you want, it doesn't change the fact that your assertions are pretty baseless. Not all assertions are equal. Some are more credible than others. EDIT: We do have a word for self-preservation, but that's the point where morality starts: when we agree to assign "not being murdered" the value of "good," and "being murdered" the value of "bad." [ Thursday, July 19, 2007 06:30: Message edited by: Drew ] Posts: 2242 | Registered: Saturday, April 10 2004 07:00 |
| Social Degradation and Religious Decay (Split from "Life on Europa") in General | |
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Member # 4233
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written Thursday, July 19 2007 04:26
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quote:One of many reports from the U.S. Census. You really are being obtuse. quote:This assertion is completely backwards. You are judging other moral codes by what you assume is the correct moral code, which conveniently is your own moral code. If there is an absolute moral code, there doesn't seem to be any evidence that anyone knows what it is, because the world has never been at peace. The world is an inherently amoral place. Not a "bad" place, but just without morals. Morals are only useful to the extent that they help make life better, or to put it in Hobbes' terms, less "nasty, brutish and short." I think what you're describing as "absolute morality" really is just a representation of about 20,000 years of distilled anecdotal human experience. While this might be useful for comparison, it is hardly necessary for forming a judgment. [ Thursday, July 19, 2007 04:47: Message edited by: Drew ] Posts: 2242 | Registered: Saturday, April 10 2004 07:00 |
| Social Degradation and Religious Decay (Split from "Life on Europa") in General | |
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By Committee
Member # 4233
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written Wednesday, July 18 2007 16:03
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Well, to the extent that the aim of utilitarianism is to maximize happiness, absolutely. Pareto efficiency - w00t! Never thought we'd be bringing Bentham into it. [ Wednesday, July 18, 2007 16:04: Message edited by: Drew ] Posts: 2242 | Registered: Saturday, April 10 2004 07:00 |
| Harry Potter in General | |
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By Committee
Member # 4233
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written Wednesday, July 18 2007 10:37
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Aran is so hawt. Posts: 2242 | Registered: Saturday, April 10 2004 07:00 |
| Social Degradation and Religious Decay (Split from "Life on Europa") in General | |
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By Committee
Member # 4233
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written Wednesday, July 18 2007 10:29
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Atheism doesn't claim any moral code. Rather, atheists assert that morality is a human construction. I don't understand how this is at all useful to the discussion though. While I'm willing to agree that assertive atheism is just as much of a belief as theism, this doesn't address where most of the contentions in this thread come from, which is rather that there is no proof to establish the existence of god(s) either way. Posts: 2242 | Registered: Saturday, April 10 2004 07:00 |
| Social Degradation and Religious Decay (Split from "Life on Europa") in General | |
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Member # 4233
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written Wednesday, July 18 2007 10:07
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quote:Italicized for emphasis. EDIT: In fact, I could make the argument that societal decay comes not from any decline in religion at all so much as the fact that people these days are generally better off financially, and that any "moral behavior" on their part before had more to do with a lack of resources than a loss of the church. Consider that AIDS transmission is down in Zimbabwe because men no longer have the resources to keep mistresses. Similarly, people living hand-to-mouth don't have the leisure time or money to "sin." I don't think you can argue that the quality of life, as a whole, isn't vastly better than it ever has been, unless you're just being obtuse for the sake of being obtuse. [ Wednesday, July 18, 2007 10:22: Message edited by: Drew ] Posts: 2242 | Registered: Saturday, April 10 2004 07:00 |
| Social Degradation and Religious Decay (Split from "Life on Europa") in General | |
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Member # 4233
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written Wednesday, July 18 2007 09:55
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"Biblical values" is a pretty valueless designation though, is it not? Were I to compare statistics on things such as incidences of teen pregnancy and domestic violence between, say, New England versus the "Bible Belt" where all those mega churches are, I'm pretty certain I'd find more in the latter than the former, "godless" though New England may be. I imagine your response would be that those people in the Bible Belt aren't really living by Biblical values. My response to that is: then almost no one is as you define them, and no one ever has. Frozen Feet, I think nationalism, though similar, is still pretty distinct from religion. Atheism for example doesn't have any sort of priesthood, nor does it conduct services to affirm among its members that there's no god. To the extent that it is an organized movement in the U.S., it pretty much exists for the sole purpose of maintaining separation of church and state as articulated in Jefferson's letter to the Danbury Baptists. [ Wednesday, July 18, 2007 10:05: Message edited by: Drew ] Posts: 2242 | Registered: Saturday, April 10 2004 07:00 |
| Harry Potter in General | |
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Member # 4233
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written Wednesday, July 18 2007 09:40
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I'll be getting my copy at midnight on Friday, too. I just hope that she doesn't kill Harry off. Posts: 2242 | Registered: Saturday, April 10 2004 07:00 |
| Social Degradation and Religious Decay (Split from "Life on Europa") in General | |
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By Committee
Member # 4233
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written Wednesday, July 18 2007 05:05
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It's still not really a compelling argument, at least for those of us living in the age of reason and science. Asserting that the evidence that he's aware of is sufficient proof of the Bible's veracity is like me asserting that I can diagnose cancer based on what I've learned watching medical dramas. I am nothing close to a medical scholar, and everyone would rightly believe that I am absolutely unqualified to make any such claims. Similarly, I am fairly certain that Stillness is in no position to make a similar claim about the veracity of the Bible. Why do I assert this? Because I spent a lion's share of my time in undergrad studying classical languages so that I could learn more about the Bible (and this was while I was still a believer), and the sum of that experience is that there are far, far too many historical unknowns for the text to be vetted to the extent that Stillness claims. In other words, I learned enough to know that what I didn't know and couldn't confirm was substantial. Based on my experience, Stillness' assertions suggest to me that he has barely scratched the surface of the history behind what the Bible purports, and additionally is disinclined to, because he has no desire for his faith to be shaken. [ Wednesday, July 18, 2007 05:08: Message edited by: Drew ] Posts: 2242 | Registered: Saturday, April 10 2004 07:00 |