wdiaz03

I lived communism for little over a decade. My mother was never into it or religion so we got to see how they didn't work first hand. We managed to immigrate to the US thanks to family we had in the States. I didn't want anything to do with politics. Then, things got rolling, back in college when I met a good friend at a part time job. Really smart guy and I was just sailing along not paying attention to much. But This guy was reading books and making sense. I started reading about evolution from books he would lend me "selfish gene" "The ancestors tale" etc. Then he started lending me books on economics. "Economics in one lesson" and things started to click. Everything we do revolves around economics. and Austrian Economics seemed to make the most sense. We started to download all the lectures we could from Mises.org. I remember taking trip to Vegas and listening to hours and hours of this stuff. Ron Paul was being talked about at Mises as the lone ranger from Texas and when he ran for president we where excited. He lost. By this time I started to get into Philosophy "Ayn Rand" made the most sense. My friend was not sold on Rand. We also read Peter Schiff Ron Paul was back on the news and nothing happens again. By this time I'm listening to Peter Shiff radio show. and I bump into Stef on youtube and from hearing my friend mention his name as people making a difference. He was interested on Stef political views. When I started listening to Stef and he seemed to pickup where Rand left off, I was sold, the circle felt complete. My friend is still stuck in the political loop and we don't see eye to eye as far as Stef but I will forever be grateful to have come across him so many years ago.

That's nice, Where the frames square? like a picture frame?

So its possible then, All I needed to hear! thanks

I don't buy it. Where is the money for paying ranchers coming from? government? And what is stopping ranchers to allow their sick or dying cattle to just get killed by wolfs so they can get paid? This whole primitivism comes across like a fantasy to me. Anyone that has read Peter Shiff's "How an Economy Grows and why it Crashes" can see how in a H&G society without savings all that is created is consumed, how the entire day must be spent looking for food or shelter. Where any mishap could be the last because there's nothing stored for a rainy day. It is a cruel zero-sum game. Animals are not better off either, with primitive tools most of the animals being hunted could escape just with injuries that would either kill them slowly later or they have to suffer until they nurse themselves back to health. I could be wrong, but if someone has doubts spending a few months in the wilderness without any modern aids should clear things up. specially if they would want to do this for the rest of their lives and while dragging women and children along. They can bring a few friends too. After all the more hands the better, but the greater the likelihood of someone getting injured and becoming a liability to the group.

This makes me feel a lot better now. I trust your god to punish dictators like Fidel Castro in Cuba, I'm sure that after 50 years of ruling that country to the ground he will not be allowed to live past 100 years old or something. Yeeee It seems like a person who dies is being punished and if the person is still alive "still isn't granted the mercy of death" Which is it? god works in mysterious ways indeed.

This seems like a lot of opinions to me. "Vitamin deficiency in the West"? people are not Fat enough in the west? I don't think Low fat or no fat diets work at all, but that is just me. When does amending your ideas of beauty become a self fulfilling prophecy? Couldn't you be amending just to match your current state? Maybe this is an idea Fast Food restaurants should embrace, make "FAT IS FIT" T-shirts or something. OH and I paid $175 a year for a gym membership. It opens 24h and have one close to work and one close to home. For $3000 I expect a trainer to the the workout for me

Awwww, I'm sorry. I didn't know you were allowed to post incorrect statements to support your arguments and then get away with something like "not the topic". But if that's how you wanna play....

Awesome, Make the symbol look like a hot chick and the letters in 0.05 font and I'm in for a few. Kidding, It's great that you are making these available.

Just put it on strangers cars, By the time they notice the damage would have been done.

HAHAHA! Yeah! When compared with Somalia! are you serious? really? This is like claiming how great your child raising is because how obedient your child is but leaving out that you beat the child into submission.

How does that go again? I'm paraphrasing here. "You can only change people's minds using reason and evidence if they reached their conclusions using reason and evidence" - Stef

I don't think that the tax farmers care to lift their tax cattle out of poverty. It seems they only care to preserve the status quo and remain in power.

I'm glad that the money is not being coerced out of the taxpayers but is rather being donated, but other than This is like building a pyramid, It offers no benefits, is not an investment. Done for some pride for the human race, if they ever send people they'll likely be human sacrifice.

Nah! I'll just wait to the next study that says they are beneficial. “We believe that the case is closed -- supplementing the diet of well-nourished adults with (most) mineral or vitamin supplements has no clear benefit and might even be harmful,” Well nourished adults? duh! But seriously. I buy car insurance, It has done nothing for me in the many years I had it. I could give you half the money too and get a paper from you that will do just the same thing so far right? Lets say that Once-A-Day costs $17 for a 200ct bottle, that's over a 6 month supply. At 60 cents a week. How many people buy beer, coffee, ice cream, candy, Soda (maybe even you) at amounts way over 60 cents per week? I don't. What is that doing for them?

Thanks for explaining, I can see the universal principle applying to earthlings, but I don't see why it should apply to a superbeing. Keep in mind that killing to an earthling is different than to a superbeing. What you see as termination of life to a superbeing is something entirely different. What if what the superbeing does looks to us like killing. I completely understand that a human cannot claim killing is wrong and not apply that rule to him/herself. I don't see why a superbeing can't excuse itself from that rule. Again It could be that I'm slow.

I agree with all this but we are not talking about god being detectable. I'm talking about how strong the argument "god is bad for killing people" or "god does not practice what he preaches" How is humans applying these laws just to robots different that god applying this laws just to humans? What if humans not killing each other is just his opinion? it seems universal just within the petri dish.Thanks for entertaining these thoughts.

Yes, I agree, Its a matter of definition, else religion would not be as popular as it is, right? If I believe 2 is special and 2=3, then no matter how much you argue than 2+2 is not 5, I can still claim than 2+2=5. Because everything that I know to be true and holy point to 2=3. That's why I think claiming actions of a god to be good/bad is irrelevant because by definition god is put outside the context of those actions as they would apply to humans.

I see no best case scenario on this one. Until I see some plans for terraforming prior to human missions this is a one way ticket to a suicide mission.

Am I? I'm an atheist, I'm merely arguing that I have not seen compelling evidence that one can use the "thou shall not kill" as proof against how good/bad god is. Either we can find the answer together or If not, I say we stick to what we have good arguments for. I'm willing to hear good arguments on the matter. If we where living in a petri dish right know, would the creator be outside our reality? Again one could argue that god is outside morality and logic, because he programmed those just for his creation. Obviously he being a perfect being could have created a perfect world full of perfect beings, but his creation seems imperfect ot us. who knows what hes intentions were. Just like Asimov 3 laws of robotics only apply to the robots humans create, but not to humans themselves.

I did address it, There's a rule not allowing people to kill. so it cannot be a "good" because you will be somehow interfering with god's plan for those people and also you will be breaking that rule. god is an exception to everything. so why not go a step further and allow him to kill people here and there. Don't shift from god to political authorities, no political authority can claim they unleashed a great flood. I'm strictly talking to acts of god here. it seems clear that god created these rules just for humans. "Honor thy mother and thy father" well god has no mother or father. "adultery, steal, lie, shall not covet neighbor's wife, possessions " clearly applicable just to humans "thou shall not kill" well he clearly kills so again when he kills is different than when we kill. True, you and me might do things different, but we don't know why this god chose to do things this way, maybe we are learning a valuable lesson with the suffering. Life in itself is a constant struggle, let me also remind you that if you are to put our lives (~100 years or so) in god's petri dish called earth in relation to eternal bliss in heaven even if you suffered intense pain all your life, compared to eternity it will feel like removing a splinter, a blink of an eye.

Why does this seem to me like a huge financial black-hole? "No new major developments or inventions are needed to make the mission plan a reality. Each stage of Mars One mission plan employs existing, validated and available technology." Except for a stable monetary system and a free market economy. With the current unstable economy and some unpredictable climate event on mars, this will turn south quickly if people ever live there.. but I'll be surprised if they manage to even start with the first mission but that's just me.

Well, you already been told "thou shall not kill". By doing this you might be interfering with god's plan. Therefore only god would kill, unless he needs help, like in the case of Jesus, Where Judas had the others had to be part of the script of Jesus death.

Can't one argue that god killing people is a good thing for those people? If god levels a city killing everyone, didn't he just give those people a one way ticket to eternal bliss in heaven? Thinking that god killing people is evil is to apply atheist believes to religion.

If I understand the OP correctly people can eat animals and plans but just enough to survive. A little raping of mother nature is OK but you can't get carried away. When does a little raping become too much its still a gray area. Apparently "no" means "yes" then "no" or something along those lines. I do agree that H&G will not support the number of humans in the planet today so there will be a little thinning of the herd if you will. But this might be OK to a primitivist because the amount of humans alive today is artificial it seems.

And playing the "don't worry about it and hope for the best" is like saying lets jump in the river now and worry about alligators once they start biting. You talk about food like it is just going to grow out of the ground everywhere. Plants will grow, but not all plants are edible. Mass starvation will not exist in a Hunter gatherer society because some people might starve here and there (mostly children) and there will not be that many people land can sustain anyways. How many people can H&G support? just take a look and the size of their groups. It takes agriculture to have all children survive and increase the population. I'm gonna guess second opinions and reviews of the doctor.But don't ignore new diseases a H&G society will have to deal with. Don't you think it is stressful not knowing where your next meal will come from? that your life depends on not getting hurt while chasing animals or being hurt by one? You won't have a god or spirits to give you a false sense of security. Well you will have the same, people getting punctures on their feet, falling from trees, and being hurt while hunting. Eating properly? maybe if you find the right foods but other animals will be after some of the same foods humans will be. See above for stress comment. Most of this stuff is government created, if a free market will solve it then why run to privitivism? I would feel bad for the guy but I only have enough for myself remember? Because I only consume enough to survive? anything I give him puts me and my family in danger. wow, You really need to be a little more humble here. You are jumping to conclusions here and that does not help your case at all.