Messages

1

Off-Topic Discussion / RIP Greece's economy

« on: 2 July 2015, 05:36:40 AM »

They finally defaulted. On the fifth the Greek people get to vote either A) Stay in the euro and become the bitches of the "troika" as those banking bodies slowly suck the soul out of Greece in austerity measures or B) leave the euro, face years of uncertainty and most likely crippling inflation with the introduction of a new independent currency.

I'm no financial analyst but everything I read points to this initially being a problem with Greece, which the troika compounded by not letting the Greeks spend money on making jobs. Stuff Ir ead points to Greece's insane 26% unemployment (60% amongst youths!) as being largely from forced austerity policy.

I think this points to a larger issue- big banks trying to dictate financial policy in the world. I'd trust a banker to create economic policy as much as I'd trust a mechanic to manage national road infrastructure.

Anyway the vote is sort of a hard choice. There won't be jobs and social spending won't exist, but the banks will work. Leaving the euro means the government can spend money to make jobs, but they don't have money, so they will print more, means inflation will be nasty until the economy starts to pick up. I don't envy the Greeks, 26% unemployment is just insane.

2

Off-Topic Discussion / Re: Fallout 4

« on: 5 June 2015, 01:23:50 AM »

Seen that trailer, it does look great. Hopefully it's a little more mature and challenging than Fallout 3, more like Fallout: New Vegas. A hardcore mode with hunger, sleep etc makes the game better and fits the setting. That said my pants are bulging in anticipation.

Right now Skyrim is getting a bit old, but ESO just released as free to play. Also since FO4 is coming this year I can't see an Elder Scrolls 6 game being out earlier than 2016 (prob will be 2016). Bethesda won't compete with themselves, and they likely use the same artists/coders, so would be transitioning staff from FO4 to ES6 now that FO4 almost done.

Dishonoured was a really fun game, but only if you played it as stealth. It would have been more fun without the silly black and white morality system though.

3

Off-Topic Discussion / Windows 10, free

« on: 2 June 2015, 07:21:05 AM »

Yep. Microsoft is giving Windows 10 for free, for anyone that has windows 7 or 8. This is free for private users and only for one year from release.

Works as a free upgrade through Windows update. Apparently it won't wipe your hard drive, if you don't feel like reformatting.

Going by what seems the tradition of every second Windows version sucking, and Windows 8 sucking hard, this is likely to be a good version.

Comes with Cortana (Windows version of Siri).

This free upgrade will even work for pirated versions of eligible Windows versions.

So thoughts?

4

Off-Topic Discussion / Re: witcher 3

« on: 29 May 2015, 07:46:18 AM »

Another update.

Still playing and still having fun. Must complete gwent deck!

Also they aren't lying when they say this game is big. It's fuckin' huge. 72 hours on steam, I've still got 2 large areas and a small area I haven't even visited yet. There's still heaps to do in the areas I have been.

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Off-Topic Discussion / Re: dont go see mad max its

« on: 27 May 2015, 01:16:36 AM »

Explain? Or are you one of those people that say a movie is shit because everyone else likes it?

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Off-Topic Discussion / Re: witcher 3

« on: 27 May 2015, 01:15:49 AM »

If you play on normal or easy then combat is a mindless button mash. If you play on hard (like me) or hardest setting combat is hard. I mean I am bad at combat, I button mash, but I get hurt for it. If you just spam attacks enemies will dodge and counter. If you time it right and are good (not like me) you can probably get through most fights without getting hit.

There is dodge-rolls (you move far but is slow to finish), dodge (fast but you don't move far, useful though), parry, counter, parry-counter if you are good.

Potions are also in, but they work as "charges", you get a few swigs per rest, instead of having to constantly craft them. It feels much better really. Weapon oils can give you a damage boost against certain enemies, and on harder difficulties it's probably best to use them.

But as I said before, it's hard to do fast chained moves. Doing a dodge-roll and casting a knockback out of it is annoying, since you have to finish the roll animation before you can cast. Learning to do a normal roll then a spell would help there though lol

Now I am off to practice some tyromancy.

I'll tyromancy your face (not with cheese though)

Well then it wouldn't be tyromancy would it.

7

Off-Topic Discussion / Re: Never Forget- Past Year

« on: 27 May 2015, 01:14:37 AM »

Never forget? NEVER FORGET? You should never forget this, and only this:


Plus, I dont understand what you're trying to say - as usual.

Although that's an incredible tragedy there are other things to 'never forget' too. But stil, 9/11 changed the world for many like me because thanks to that I have been called a terrorist by classmates, idiots on the street and I face more security at airports. However, even though this has opened a door for much safer air travel it has also opened a door of discrimination and ignorance against me.

There is no evidence it has opened the door to much safer air travel. The TSA still to this day has zero cases of stopping a terrorist with their screening procedures.

Regardless, doggy was kidding and all muslims are terrorists, so don't try to act like you aren't.

Totally agree with Ako. TSA are just angry people that make flying more annoying. Since their screening procedures are basically public, all a terrorist has to do is look up those screening procedures to find the gaps in it.


And for my previous post I should add this so it makes sense:

9/11 was a tragedy, but it was only an American tragedy. Slavery is an ongoing, global tragedy happening right now, on a vastly bigger scale. 9/11 isn't the only tragedy to care about.

9/11 happened not because of Islam, but because of Islamic extremists. Extremism is the true problem (i.e. the "why"). The US seems intent on not learning why, at least some of the population. That is why Lividup sees trouble. Discrimination like that is basically the soft end of the extremism scale or w/e. Is also why the US refuses to call Christian terrorists that blow up abortion clinics or shoot cops as terrorists. They are afraid it will smear their religion, because they are not in the habit of differentiating normal vs extreme.

If they continue to attack the religion, and not the cause of the actual violence (extremism) they will just become as extreme as the ones they hate. That is why learning the "why" is important. Not all the US of course, just Fox News and the right wing, nut job clown brigade.

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Off-Topic Discussion / Re: Never Forget- Past Year

« on: 26 May 2015, 11:41:56 AM »

Never forget? NEVER FORGET? You should never forget this, and only this:


Plus, I dont understand what you're trying to say - as usual.

This was a tragedy, I remember watching it on TV and seeing the 2nd plane hit. However that has already happened. Right now There are over 100,000 people in concentration camps in North Korea. Right now there is about 30 million people that are slaves worldwide, as sex slaves, forced brides, as child soldiers, as cheap labour, or making products cheap for western companies.

Talking about the past is fine, but learning WHY things happened is the important part. If you don't know why bad things happened then it's useless information.

WAT

cheese

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Off-Topic Discussion / Re: Never Forget- Past Year

« on: 26 May 2015, 12:38:24 AM »

Never forget? NEVER FORGET? You should never forget this, and only this:


Plus, I dont understand what you're trying to say - as usual.

This was a tragedy, I remember watching it on TV and seeing the 2nd plane hit. However that has already happened. Right now There are over 100,000 people in concentration camps in North Korea. Right now there is about 30 million people that are slaves worldwide, as sex slaves, forced brides, as child soldiers, as cheap labour, or making products cheap for western companies.

Talking about the past is fine, but learning WHY things happened is the important part. If you don't know why bad things happened then it's useless information.

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Off-Topic Discussion / Re: Plz say happy birthday to Ako-Fine

« on: 26 May 2015, 12:23:00 AM »

I'll club a baby seal so we can feast on this occasion!

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Off-Topic Discussion / Re: witcher 3

« on: 26 May 2015, 12:15:24 AM »

If you play on normal or easy then combat is a mindless button mash. If you play on hard (like me) or hardest setting combat is hard. I mean I am bad at combat, I button mash, but I get hurt for it. If you just spam attacks enemies will dodge and counter. If you time it right and are good (not like me) you can probably get through most fights without getting hit.

There is dodge-rolls (you move far but is slow to finish), dodge (fast but you don't move far, useful though), parry, counter, parry-counter if you are good.

Potions are also in, but they work as "charges", you get a few swigs per rest, instead of having to constantly craft them. It feels much better really. Weapon oils can give you a damage boost against certain enemies, and on harder difficulties it's probably best to use them.

But as I said before, it's hard to do fast chained moves. Doing a dodge-roll and casting a knockback out of it is annoying, since you have to finish the roll animation before you can cast. Learning to do a normal roll then a spell would help there though lol

Now I am off to practice some tyromancy.

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Off-Topic Discussion / Re: witcher 3

« on: 25 May 2015, 04:06:26 AM »

You're playing it on console or a pc? i heard that they've downgraded the graphics and it's not what it look like before.

Playing PC, can't complain about graphics. Maybe they are downgraded, but it looks good enough, looks great even. Unless you want to give me $600 for an awesome video card to really test it out lol



Also just learnt a new word playing this, which I am sure the fine gentlemen of this forum will appreciate.

Tyromancy- Divining by the coagulation of cheese.

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Off-Topic Discussion / Re: witcher 3

« on: 24 May 2015, 01:23:18 AM »

Ok played some more.

A recent patch has fixed some FPS issues for me, so that's good. Still think combat is clunky.

The ambience in this game is amazing though. Definitely turn the music off. Like it might be clear and sunny. Suddenly the wind picks up and you see clouds slowly track across the sky. You hear the rustling of the leaves and you *see* the trees bend in the wind. Sometimes it will get dark and then the rain will start. Then there is simple things like hearing insect and bird calls, seeing small flocks of I guess sparrows or something flit about. In towns you hear the people gossip, the clang of the smith's hammer, the grunts of soldiers training. The world feels vastly more alive than Skyrim's. The voice acting is also very good, better than earlier Witcher games, characters have good facial expressions too.

Also there is almost no loading screens. If you want to enter a house, you open the door and walk inside, no loading. This game isn't about dungeons, though there are some. Nearly all are part of the environment though, to enter a cave you walk inside, no loading. Because content isn't in dungeons, like in Skyrim, riding around the world feels like you are actually exploring. You see bandits camped out, or army deserters, sometimes traders or peasants in distress, sometimes monster dens. Plus finding areas gets you recipes you need for crafting gear.

Combat is well, hard to describe. Skyrim combat was direct and fairly simple. This game is more technical. Usually it's just spam attacking, timing a dodge or two. Bosses can be difficult though. As you level you get better gear, which makes combat a lot easier. Trying to use the crossbow or cast signs (aka spells) quickly can be difficult and annoying. Another issue is movement- Geralt can't pivot, to change direction he takes a step in that direction. This can make lining up to loot a difficult container or climbing ladders frustrating.

14

Off-Topic Discussion / witcher 3

« on: 20 May 2015, 01:48:53 AM »

Played this for a few hours now and it seems quite good, here is my initial thoughts.

Good

• Heralt's beard grows in real time.
• World looks and feels full. Skyrim felt empty. Forest vegetation was sparse (though it was so you could have good visability). Here forests are thick with trees and shrubs. You can use your "witcher senses" to listen for threats.
• Voice acting is quite good
• You can hold shift on it's own and you will follow roads, whether on horseback, or walking. Just need to turn. Very well done.
• Geralt's beard actually grows in real time, like you see the beard get longer as the days pass.
• The world itself looks beautiful

Bad

• You step to turn, means turning can be clunky
• Combat feels a little clunky
• You can't zoom in on Geralt's beard and admire it's manliness up close

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Off-Topic Discussion / Re: meanwhile in Australia

« on: 3 May 2015, 06:19:51 AM »

Imagine a country with killer spiders (recluse and latrodectus), killer snakes (coral, rattlesnakes, cottonmouth, copperhead, and a few others) tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes, blizzards and pretty much every other fucking possible natural "fuck you I want you to die" occurrences. Factor in cartel influence, mafia influence, uber corrupt government, terrible economy, the ire of half of the known world who want to kill you, thousands of street gangs of foreign and domestic origins, the worst racial tensions in the world, sharia exclusion zones, and pretty much every fucking else you can imagine. That is good old 'Merica.

So the war on drugs is going well then?

Of course Australia has the irukandji jellyfish, who's venom is so painful one of the actual effects of the venom is the feeling you know you are going to die (even if not). A mammal that lays eggs, who's venom is so painful it makes you wish you had died. And the only octopus in the world known to be venomous to man, that can kill you before you realise you are dying. Sea snails that can kill you just about as fast. Various deadly sharks up to and including the great white shark, if there are no sharks it's probably because the huge crocodiles ate them (true stuff). Efficient public healthcare, a functional and mostly incorrupt government, one of the highest minimum wages in the world, one of the better countries for income inequality (it's low-ish), no distinct difference between public and private education (besides price), extremely secular government, efficient and fair police that are held accountable, negligible accidental gun deaths...

oh wait yeah Australia is pretty awesome

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Off-Topic Discussion / Re: meanwhile in Australia

« on: 29 April 2015, 11:23:07 AM »

Clips taken from a late morning news show. This is live too.

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Off-Topic Discussion / Re: Favourite Models?

« on: 27 April 2015, 01:02:41 AM »

best model

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Off-Topic Discussion / Re: DO NOT WATCH THIS IF YOU ARE UNDER 18

« on: 15 April 2015, 01:39:58 AM »

NSFW but wanted to share because everyone of age should see it

Like I've seen youtube poop before, but I don't know what this is. Is it youtube poop? Is it some more esoteric and obscure category of youtube poop? It's like someone got really high on bath salts, physically removed their own brain, smoked lots of pot and then made a video of the first thought that went into their head when they saw an apple.

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Off-Topic Discussion / Re: Need help on this level

« on: 15 April 2015, 01:33:17 AM »

Never heard of or seen that shit before, so it must be bad.

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Off-Topic Discussion / meanwhile in Australia

« on: 5 April 2015, 01:20:29 PM »

some idiot vs ant nest


I know those ants, used to call them tracker ants because when you pissed them off they poured out of the nest and followed you :S


spiders? check.


more spiders


snakes? check. manly moustache? check.


snakes in the toilet? check.
http://imgur.com/gallery/0N4Wu

crocodiles? check


crocodile vs helicopter


snake vs spider

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Off-Topic Discussion / RIP Leonard Nimoy (aka Spock)

« on: 28 February 2015, 06:13:54 AM »

Damn, huge loss to the world. Seemed like a great, smart person.

RIP Leonard Nimoy, 1931-2015

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Off-Topic Discussion / Re: In light of the killing in Paris over a fucking cartoon of Muhammad (NSFW)

« on: 11 February 2015, 12:12:10 PM »

I had a long reply but I came to a really good point, so here:

Removing religion won't stop wars, it won't stop hate crimes, it won't stop torture, it won't stop discrimination, it won't stop rape, it won't stop slavery, it won't stop social isolation.

I believe in attacking the cause, not the reason. Someone will kill a cartoonist for the reason it offends his religion. The cause is access to lethal weapons, thinking it's all right to kill, lack of tolerance of others' views. Removing religion won't stop hate killing. Making it hard to get weapons, giving a solid education that promotes critical thinking, having strong social leadership that promotes community, respect and tolerance (whether through religion, sport, debate, a productive work environment, etc).

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Off-Topic Discussion / Re: In light of the killing in Paris over a fucking cartoon of Muhammad (NSFW)

« on: 10 February 2015, 01:26:04 AM »

SirStrawman

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Off-Topic Discussion / Re: Might be inviting other jackets

« on: 10 February 2015, 01:05:03 AM »

Can I be Aussiejacket666?

That's a 999, but it's upside down. Also the jacket is poisonous like everything here.

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Off-Topic Discussion / Re: In light of the killing in Paris over a fucking cartoon of Muhammad (NSFW)

« on: 10 February 2015, 01:03:39 AM »

Religion isn't real. it is a thing made up by humans. I just can't see why you place it above other things created by humans. Bad people use religion (and politics, and ethics, and economics...) as a tool for selfish reasons.

Here I will answer your question.

Name one single good thing a religious person would do that an irreligious person wouldn't.

There isn't any thing. Just like there isn't any bad thing an irreligious person would do that a religion one wouldn't. There are many bad and good things people do, for many reasons. Religion is just one reason, it just happens to be a common one.

Religion is a tool. Some people use that tool for a purpose in life. Some people use that tool for meaning in life. Some people use that tool for a sense of community. Some people use that tool as an excuse to kill. Don't hate the tool, the tool itself isn't good or bad. Love the people that use it in a bad way, that they might see there is no need to hate. Sometimes to do this you need to accept their religion, because you can't love someone without accepting who they are. Of course you don't need to like them, love here just means to treat with dignity and respect. If you hate, that only leads to more hate. It's the reason the Middle East is bad, so many generations of hate.

There are flaws with religion. Those don't rise from religion itself, but rise because humans created religion. We are flawed and everything we create gets flawed. To be a better person is to try and rise above those flaws. It is my view you don't see this, that you hate religion when the true evil is the people that corrupt it.

God doesn't tell terrorists to kill, bad or misguided people say God does.


Oh one bad thing motivated by atheism- creating a picture designed to offend a specific religious group in the name of free speech.

I agree with free speech, I just don't believe it gives the right to be an ass. Others can, but that is their belief.A belief can be used to justify good or bad things no?

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Off-Topic Discussion / Re: In light of the killing in Paris over a fucking cartoon of Muhammad (NSFW)

« on: 7 February 2015, 11:33:34 AM »

I do not respect those who murder innocent people over their religion. I refuse to fucking respect that. I have no problem offending them. The free speech of everyone is more important. I, in fact, think good people should oppose evil bullshit. I think good people should speak out against this crime and this way of thinking, the more the better.



Thank you for responding to things a little more specifically
I have some questions from earlier:

Why do you claim Scientology isn't a religion?

How can you possibly claim that the reason behind a mass murder is irrelevant?

Is it moral to kill innocent people to get into heaven?

Name one single good thing a religious person would do that an irreligious person wouldn't.

I agree speaking out is a good thing. But you can't just speak out or you end up like Fox "News": war war war, they are evil, bomb them all. If you want peace you have to accept differences. Love them, doesn't mean you have to like them. Show them you are not evil, that you accept their views, even if you can't believe in them. That picture promotes hate, it doesn't help. It makes you hate them, makes them hate you. It makes things worse. You could go to a Mosque and show that picture and be hated there for life. Or you could go to a Mosque and say you don't believe in religion, but want to understand why they believe in Allah and learn about their religion (doesn't mean believe) and you will become a wiser person and they will see that at least some people in society are good, regardless of their beliefs. I mean the rest of the post is debate, but that pic is just pure spite and hatefulness, that's why I take offence to it. You can justify it any way you like but there is no rational way you can say making a picture like that and using it will make the world a better place.

Scientology uses a few tricks. Firstly they use celebrities to market themselves (but it seems to kill the careers of those celebrities). Usually seems those celebrities are getting lots of money or other favours out of the deal too.
They require you to pay lots of money for the magic ghost scanning crap. This uses sunk cost fallacy. I mean you paid so much already you can't really quit right?
They use their IQ/personality tests to figure out the best way to brainwash you into feeling like you belong. They are extremely mentally abusing, far more than real religion.
No matter how big they get, I will only see them as a dangerous cult. I mean some religious communities may shun non-believers, but it's no where near what scientology forces. Plus they don't use faith. They present their story as pure fact.

The reason for mass murder is irrelevant in that there is only two reasons and both are really bad. First is mental illness, you go off the deep end and see killing a lot of people as the only solution. Mind needs to be really sick to get that far. The other is you don't see those you are killing as human (or force yourself not to). If you kill 20 NAZI dogs or 20 Filthy Jews or 20 homeless bums, you can only do it when you see them as not human. That religion or politics or self-righteousness were the labels used it irrelevant. If you teach people to be critical thinkers, accept others as human and respect them, the views that lead to someone killing 20 people can't really arise, regardless of religious belief.

No current major religion says to kill people to get into it's utopian afterlife. I mean you can find quotes that seem to say that but I bet any you find are taken out of context. A lot of war involving religion is politically motivated (misrepresenting religion to justify wars) or taking parts out of context and using those to motivate wars for "holy reasons". I mean the basic tenets of faith of nigh any religion say killing is wrong. Find some passage that explicitly says doing violence against or killing others will lead the perpetrators to utopian afterlife, then read the context of the passage.

Name a single bad thing only a religious person can do that an irreligious one can't?

I really think you are getting religion confused with religious fundamentalism. Is your (straw-man) neighbour a bad person because he is religious? Should you hate him because he is religious? Is it hypocritical to dislike religion but not dislike a person who follows that religion? Is it normal followers who are bad or just the leaders? Are all the leaders bad? Is it just the terrorists who say they did something for religion that are bad? If they follow the same religion as your neighbour are they both equally bad? Is your neighbour likely to do the same act because of the religion? Is someone that stops doing crime because they "found" religion now bad for a different reason? Are the reasons he stopped doing crime relevant, as long as he stops doing crime?

You see where I am getting at with these questions? Where do you draw the line that religion is bad? I mean if someone follows a religion and religion is bad, then that person must be bad. You can't just say religion is bad and not the people that follow it though, since there is no religion without people. So there must be some line that some religious people cross and become bad. Define that line for me.



EDIT: also bored with this, my last post. New topic thread after reply plox

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Off-Topic Discussion / Re: In light of the killing in Paris over a fucking cartoon of Muhammad (NSFW)

« on: 2 February 2015, 09:06:41 PM »

I find your post really disconnected and hard to follow, so I'll just hit a few of the random points.

Why does faith get a pass? What good does suspending critical thinking do? This illogical process of non-thinking should have no place in a solid education.
Religion can give people something to believe in -  so what? It can give people a way to meet others and a support community, yes. However, these benefits are not unique to religions, and can be achieved elsewhere, so why not cut out the whole believing in things without evidence part? People need support, but they don't need to be immersed in a random belief system that tells them lies about the real world. It isn't helpful.

I hate when people make blanket statements about a group too. It's a good thing me and airbo have not done so, so I don't understand why you're mentioning it rather than responding to one of our questions. Oh and, 9/11 was done by RELIGIOUSLY-INSPIRED terrorists. The reason behind something is important, I can't imagine why you think otherwise. Why does the reason not matter? How else do we solve a problem or gain an understanding without looking at the motives?

The interpretation of religion is all religion is. Religion corrupts the mind. It often systematically teaches people not to critically think. Religion does do more bad than good, because the good it does can be and is done irreligiously, but much of the bad it does is unique to religion. Cutting out religion means removing at least some of the bad from happening, yet the good things will still continue to happen because they never required religion. If it's all just human nature, then remember than humans are corruptible, so why not remove the silly ancient immoral books so people stop following their immoral teachings?

About the picture of the pedophile false prophet shitting into his own mouth: just because it offends muslims means nothing.
Oh you're offended? So fucking what!? You gonna kill me? Worthless brainwashed bullies get absolutely no leniency from me. Not a single millimeter. You have every right to be offended, but it ends there. You do not get to kill people, or even suggest they censor themselves just because you don't like what they said.


Could you please respond to some of the questions in these posts? I'd like a bit more discussion rather than just random disjointed tangents. Up to you, but you seem to have ideas you want to get out, so please respond. It's not much of a discussion or debate otherwise. I try to directly respond to what is typed here, but you seem to ignore most of what we say and just move on. It's frustrating. <3

I'm sorry, I am bad at writing eh... succinctly. I tend to waffle on and find it hard to stay on point. I numbered the above as follows. After much editing I ended with this.
1) why faith gets a pass
2) you say why religion corrupts the mind, this is my counter
3) countering point that religion allows more bad to happen
4) blanket statements I saw
5) on offensive pic

1)I guess religion is part faith, part dogma, part ideology. Faith I have no problem with. Faith is what the religion asks you to believe. I give faith a pass because it is harmless. Many people don't understand physics, so it is partly faith to believe in what the scientists say. The difference is scientists can explain the big bang theory or global warming or evolution, where belief in religion is purely faith.

1)Dogma I don't like. Dogma is what a religion says you are meant to do. Not eating pork, going to church on Sundays, women required to be covered in public, are all dogma. Dogma is itself neutral. If you want to not eat porn for your religion, so be it. When you judge others for it, then that is wrong. Dogma comes about from culture. People worship a certain way, certain animals are needed so can't be killed, many different things. over time they get baked into the religion. Then people take them too seriously and it causes trouble. I'd be happy if dogma was removed from religion. If you look at Tibetan Buddhism, you are supposed to be vegetarian. However they don't judge you if you eat meat. Part of Buddhism is giving up desire, so you can eat meat but it makes it harder to achieve Nirvana. Some Christians hate gays to the point of violence. It is true the bible says it is wrong, but the bible also says that only God can judge people. So Christians that hate on gays are following Dogma blindly, and not respecting their faith.

1)Ideology I hate. This is basically politics, and I hate politics. Ideology I see is like "how things are meant to be" or "the proper way of things". Sunni correctly interpret the Quran and other Muslims are wrong, Gaza strip is Jewish land and Palestinians there are invaders, Democracy is right and Communism is evil, Drugs are bad and drug users should be punished. All dogma that causes hate and division in the world. It isn't unique to religion, politics and social custom can also be a cause.

1)Faith is harmless so it gets a pass, dogma is mostly unneeded but as long as you don't judge others for it I don't mind, dogma does not get a pass.

2)Political ideology corrupts the mind, not religion. Ideology demands the suspension of critical thinking or seeing reality. Often perpetrated by greedy and selfish people that do know how things are, so brainwash everyone they can into an ideology so they can profit from it. ISIS is doomed to failure because it is run by ideology. If at some point they succeed in making a caliphate, there will be so many people so involved in how it is, finding someone to lead it would be impossible. The backstabbing and conniving by everyone who thinks they have more right to lead because they know how it's meant to be "more" correctly. Until then the many leaders live like kings and send fools in to die, driving them crazy with blind faith in the ideology.

3)Cutting out religion won't stop any bad things from happening. You know why the US initially made Marijuana illegal? Racism. Mexicans smoked it and kept bringing it with them from Mexico. They made up that reefer madness crap and used so much propaganda on the drugs are bad bullshit just to justify being racist to Mexicans. No religion needed. Crack cocaine convictions in the US receive harsher penalties by federal law, due to it being a more dangerous drug. Heard of a study that says it isn't any different to normal cocaine besides how it's used. Real reason for this is racism. More blacks use crack cocaine than normal cocaine. No religion needed. Soviets and US almost started nuclear armageddon in the cold war, because of political ideology, not religion. I mean maybe religion is used as an excuse more, but only because it is so pervasive, not because it leads to badness itself.

4)

"Religion does do more bad than good..."

Blanket statement. Do you mean all religions all do more bad than good? Are Buddhists more bad than good?

4)

so people stop following their immoral teachings?

Blanket statement.

The 10 Commandments List, Short Form
You shall have no other gods before Me.
You shall not make idols.
You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain.
Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.
Honor your father and your mother.
You shall not murder.
You shall not commit adultery.
You shall not steal.
You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
You shall not covet.

4)Some are dogma true, but please enlighten me as to it's immorality.

5)As for that picture- why do you feel the need to be offensive? (Not targeted at anyone)
If you want to be more good, then surely just respecting others is a great way to do that. You know it will offend, so why? I don't mean censoring, I don't mean it WILL lead to violence. I mean that someone that truly wants to be good will see no merit in creating or posting or w/e someone that's only purpose is to offend.

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Off-Topic Discussion / Re: Fuck.

« on: 1 February 2015, 12:54:32 PM »

I heard about this. I think you have heard of the austerity measures in place in Greece right? Basically Euro bank people forced Greece to cut social security, welfare, etc to the people, I think drop taxes (to "encourage business"), and other changes meant to reduce debt, in return the Euro guys would keep the Greek government afloat.

Right now Greece has something like 33% unemployment and 55% of people living below the poverty line. To give you context- Australia currently has around 6% unemployment and people think that is too high. US is around 5.5% unemployment I think?

What this new government wants to do is roughly this: end Euro bank support. This means they plan to default (aka declare bankruptcy), raise taxes (especially on corporations and the rich), increase social spending (welfare and social assistance) and start spending money on infrastructure  projects to create jobs. Basically they plan to do what the people want, and the opposite of what the banks say will work.

Since Greek economy is already destroyed, bankruptcy will only have an impact on foreign debt loan rates and, in the short term, trade. Rich people will complain loudly but they will get over it.

I predict within 3 years the country will be on the up, and if they don't go too extreme to the left, Greece will be stable and healthy in 10 years. Short term, well it ain't going to be pretty, but change always rocks the boat.

29

Off-Topic Discussion / Re: The Wonderful Nature of the Die Creature

« on: 1 February 2015, 12:34:35 PM »

P.S. Jan is cool. She is a female, she also understands the sexiness of women while still being classy about it.

30

Off-Topic Discussion / Re: In light of the killing in Paris over a fucking cartoon of Muhammad (NSFW)

« on: 1 February 2015, 12:30:27 PM »

I don't give religion a pass, I give faith a pass. OK ideally everyone should be given a solid education, particularly critical thinking. However part of education is also social values, like respect for others, working hard, helping people in need (without putting yourself into a bad spot). Religion can give people something to believe in, it's a way to meet others and have a community that can support each other. It doesn't need to be religion, sports groups or like any club fill a similar niche. Just having someone to talk to is good. Now if someone gets a solid education and also chooses to believe in God, Allah, the Flying Spaghetti Monster or the idea of nothing after death, that is their choice.

What I hate is when people make blanket statements about a group. A lot of the crazy nutjobs in the US hate Islam and Muslims because of 9/11. 9/11 was done by terrorists though. Also hating Islam means you'd have to hate Indonesia, largest Islamic population for any country. Of course that never enters their dumb heads. Racism, intolerance, etc all stem from A) growing up around openly hateful people B) ignorance. Also politics but that's another debate.

I think people get too hung up on the reason for things. Or they get an idea that things must be a certain way. So yeah looking at things, people are about half good, half bad. Sometimes more bad, sometimes more good but it averages out. Ideally we'd be more good, but selfishness is a survival trait just live altruism and sometimes it's needed to help you survive.

If you say religion does more harm than good I have to disagree. It might but that is because of the interpretation of the religion. But not only is it people that interpret it, but people that invented it. You can't hold it above people or above other reasons to justify bad behaviour. All bad behaviour stems from human nature. People have justified bad behaviour towards others for all kinds of dumb reasons. Religion is just one of them.

Some people get offended by mum jokes. Like they see it as really disrespectful and get angry to the point of violence. I think that sort of person needs to calm down a tad about it, at the same time I'm not going to keep saying mum jokes to them if it's going to piss them off. Pic in OP is worse, it only exists to offend Muslims. It's like saying a mum joke only because you know it will piss someone off, not because it's funny.

I think this post is probably the best I can describe what I'm getting at
Oh also:


This is so retarded, on multiple levels. Buddhism is an atheist religion for one...

31

Off-Topic Discussion / Re: In light of the killing in Paris over a fucking cartoon of Muhammad (NSFW)

« on: 26 January 2015, 11:39:13 AM »

Wilful murdering for any cause is wrong, so the reason isn't so important. I guess it has equal weight as any other reason, so singling out the religion reason as more wrong doesn't make sense.

It is significant if there is a mental issue involved, but that isn't what we are talking about.

Mass slaughter has reasons beyond religion. Genghis Khan, when building an army/empire slaughtered. I've read he massacred entire towns, men, women, children, horses even, piled their skulls up in town. Poured molten silver into the eyes and ears of a city ruler that opposed him. This wasn't a religious conquest.

The Spanish massacred the Aztecs for the sake of stealing their gold. The US colonists and native Indians massacred each other, as the colonists intended to just steal their land for themselves. US veterans were fired on for public demonstrations to get their due benefits for fighting for their country.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_events_named_massacres

Just reading through this, a lot of them mention religoin, but not many actually say religion was the cause. Often it's more a culture of hate as an excuse. A lot are about greed, or just massacring to get their own way.


Really though what I see is this. You hate on religion, post stuff guaranteed to offend someone. It is hate though. You worship Atheism as a religion. Violence is wrong. Don't say that the religion is wrong because some of the followers are violent. Some drunks are violent. Some people are just mean. Some people are racist. The reason doesn't matter, the violence and hate matters. If you don't want hate in the world, stop hating. You may not discriminate but someone growing up now will think it ok to discriminate against religious people because you now say religion is wrong. If you want the world to be a better place, be a better person.

I really dislike that you post shit like in the OP. Like you have freedom of speech, but does that include freedom to be an ass? You also seem to believe that critical thinking and faith are completely incompatible. A lot of conservative religious people are also scientists. They have faith their god(s) are real, but believe in the science they are doing too. I agree with critical thinking being important. It should be the #1 thing taught in schools. However it is human nature to follow the crowd, critical thinking is sometimes hard. The list of cognitive biases is large. So to get around this there is this thing we call "common sense". Common sense is in some part defined or encoded in religion. So when this gets twisted you get extremism. This is when those with critical thinking need to step up and lead. If you don't have the personal clout to be a great leader, just lead by example.

Right now you are saying religion is bad, using confirmation bias to support your belief, listening to like-minded people say religion is bad. It's as bad as the Christians in the US that think atheists are amoral people (google that figure for sadness). Yes I know religion causes evil, it's why I don't like religion. I don't hate it though, I am neutral to it. I accept some people are religious and expect them to accept me for not being religious. I also think there is a difference between ideology and religion, most religious wars are about ideology (who is right and wrong). The ideology needs to be shifted to fix the war, changing the religion won't fix it because the ideology will persist.

All that said, this is a fun debate and I hope their is no rustled jimmies. A good debate every now and then is engaging, gets you thinking and looking stuff up to learn more.