Carl Green

Would the people that wanted to play need the books? Is the stuff available online these days? I'd love to play but have no books. Heck I'd even have to pick up a set of dice I guess.

Did you specifically ask if they "know" he's real and everything in the bible is "true", or are you making an assumption of their beliefs here?

The secret password is.... New England Clam Chowder (it's the red)

If you liked the time travel aspect, the movie mentioned in this thread (About Time) might also be of interest to ya.

Your best bet in handling all this is to make sure you're not assuming what anyone believes. It's best to hear what someone believes directly from them. So if you have a suspicion that someone might think it's just for you to burn in hell, make sure you ask them before acting on that suspicion in any way or attempting to determine how you feel about them.

Sounds good, I like surviving. What about my second question though? Do you believe securing 'absolute' individual freedom would be a good goal for an ideal society? (i.e., none of that "well ya gotta give up a little freedom for security" mumbo jumbo)

One of the most important sets of people that this should reach, is Buddhists. However, I think that because in the very beginning it states what Buddhists believe, I think many of them will stop watching at the very beginning because they disagree with Stefan about what Buddhism is. Maybe "Truth Abouts" that involve religion should include a prominent disclaimer in the beginning to counter this affect. Something along the lines of "you may disagree with what I will say about the beliefs of Buddhism, but please just stick around to learn of of some of the things the Dalai Lamas and individual Buddhists have actually done..."

An apology is just words, and words are only worth the breath used to speak 'em.

What would the goals of an ideal system, whatever it may be, ...be? Would keeping everyone from being forced to do anything be a good goal for an ideal system?

A human trait, or characteristic or call it what you will, that some people may (or may not) have is to assume a position of dominance. It seems to be conflated with masculinity which is understandable given that a lot of people that have the dominance aspect are also male, but not all masculine men have the dominating aspect. If feminists are anti-male, what can we call an anti-dominance 'movement'? I don't care if you're a male or female, just don't think you should be able to tell me what to do and we'll get along just fine.

Is metaphysics necessary for what?

Try and keep in mind that "feminism" didn't tell you anything. Individuals told you things that are relevant to "feminism". (unless you're already doing so and just using the shorter version of how to say it)

That's because when you were 8 there was no Color TV Only two systems combined? Why not 5! http://hyperkin.com/Retron5/

All you really have is your experiences. But that's the most stripped down, skeptical perception of reality, which I don't think many people share.

No. And she is not evil like st434u says. If you care about her, try and help her. The hard part is determining if the amount of effort required to help will be worth it. (this depends on how much you care about her) Merely talking with someone does not mean you approve of everything they've done in the past and are planning to do in the future.

The more you know about a person the better. And the better you'll be able to help them. Ignorance is bliss ...in the moment. (and even still that's a maybe) If she's referring to that saying, the only problem is, she's not ignorant of her past. She is very much aware of it so what she's achieving is avoidance, not ignorance (and not necessarily denial). And that's the likely root of her depression.

When someone says "I'm sorry" they might be meaning it in the sense that what you have just said brings them sorrow. Not necessarily that they feel they caused it and are apologizing.

Yes, but I wasn't suggesting you continue to do so. I'm only suggesting you don't expect anyone to act in any way. Only interact with them according to their actions. How you choose to, or choose not to, interact with anyone is your call.

Hi Max. I'm not in in New Zealand (yet) but I'm looking to expat. from the US as soon as possible (which is still a good few years out) and I was considering NZ as my most likely possibility so the more I know about it the better and I'd like to know as many people as possible there. Self-sustainability is one of my long term goals so permaculture is very interesting to me. Message me here or on skype if you wanna chat. my id is carl.h.bartelt (but make sure you mention something if you send me a contact request. i just delete any that don't say where they're from or whatever)

Something I thought of while reading through this is that "giving up" seems like there was an expectation in there somewhere. You've given up on him changing (or some other better word) to what you'd expect him to react with. Regardless of whether or not this is the case, you'd do well to remove expectations from things like this. Personally, I try to judge the virtue of others and interact with them accordingly. I guess in that sense, you'd not be giving up on your brother, but giving up on trying to change his mind about your parents. Don't give up on people, just interact with them according to how you perceive them.

If you're thinking you could benefit from therapy, but also that you might not be ready for it, what would you need to do to be ready for it?

Thanks for sharing this Lisa. It's making me seriously consider scrubbing my tub to give it a whirl.

The types of people that would hit their children, are the same types of people that don't like to be told what to do and will often become aggressive. As you've witnessed. So I think a different approach would have a better chance at success. The shame approach only works if the person cares about your opinion.

Hi Michael, It was a pleasure meeting you with this introduction, thanks for taking the time to write it up. I've seen (I think) the documentary you watched on water. It was really good. I too have had a good documentary affect me similarly to how you've explained. The big ones for me were one on US' strategies for privatizing the resources of developing countries for it's own gain, and soon after, some aspects of the zeitgeist movement docs. (the parts on religion, the federal reserve, and quantitative easing economics) Throughout my life I had considered myself an independent (in the political sense) and was very patriotic but always abhorred the actual practice of politics. I've since realized that my patriotism was merely the strong sense of fellowship with my neighbor which I thank Stefan for mostly. See ya around brother, Carl