i liek u

I came to this conclusion about 20 years ago while I was playing with my GI Joes in my bedroom. I was nine years old.

Doubt that.

why? i have no reason to lie

Ah, just seeing if you've tuned out my posts, because you ignored my rebuttal to the whole determinism thing.

Oh well.

A rebuttal is founded on some sort of hard evidence. There was no factual information in your post. As you stated yourself in the post it's just your opinion. I rarely discuss opinions on such matters unless someone has extensive knowledge of philosophy.


Although your statement supports determinism because as you said it, "to a degree I agree with the fact that thoughts and actions are caused by previous events."

Such a statement leads to an argument discussing to what degree thoughts and actions are influenced by previous events. It could easily be shown that even the slightest amount of influence on a person's decisions due to previous events would prove that free will is absurd and determinism is real.

Becareful of what you say and how you say it. I recommend a few philosophy courses if you are in college or you intend to attain a college degree.

organized religion is different than faith in God.

Dude, I'm starting to not like you... Yellow_Flash_Colorz_PDT_21

A religion is a cult with a lot of followers.
The only difference is whether the government gives you a break on taxes.

Yeah, religion = cult if you want to give it a negative connotation. I could also say that religion = a group of people with similar beliefs organizing. That's the idea behind "organized religions" getting tax breaks: people should have to pay to express themselves with eachother.

Religion gets a bad wrap these days, but it can be a good thing. Religion can give you things that you can't find anywhere else, and that's important. It's all about what you need personally. Now, you shouldn't go around blaring your beliefs through a microphone or trying to press them on anybody else, because you don't know what they personally need.

Yes, and cult is a religion with less people. What is to say that Catholicism is right and Islamic ideas are wrong. And what about in ancient times when they used to sacrifice each other; what is to say that is wrong. If one is made up, then they all are. Though i must admit, the bible is great fiction.

while the bible may have lost some of it's facts through the ages and through translation, i do believe it is not a work of fiction. the documents that have been recovered and preserved that were written by different people and give the same accounts of the events that ocurred should let you know that it's not a work of fiction. the bible is a compilation of historical documents. it's hard to swallow for a lot of people, because everything happened at a time when people didn't record the events of their daily lives like we did during the revolutionary war, civil war, the world wars, and last week.

The bible that you only touch on Sundays is the director's cut.

kitten, that's pretty much what i was referring to. there's no way it's stayed true to it's original form throughout history and all the corruption and rulers that's existed (king james bible anyone??).

once the physicists that work on the LHC discover how to time travel we will have all the answers we seek ;)

Well yeah. In respect to perspective, nothing is wrong, it's just different. However, a common theme is intolerance due to ignorance.

a couple of my friends and i have been talking about all this stuff a lot, and it came up that thomas jefferson said that governments will have to be overthrown every few generations due to corruption and evil. i believe he's right; look at the history of the world. how many times have dynasties, rulers, and governments been overthrown throught the history of the world?

while this friend doesn't have the best grammar or punctuation, i believe he makes a good point, so i will copy/paste it to see what you all think...

"people don't change, human nature doesn't change, just the surroundings and the years change. thats why people like thomas jefferson and all the men that wrote the constitution knew what laws would protect us, because this shit has been going on ever since civilization began just about. theres always been people trying to control the country or the world, and those men knew that and tried to protect us from that. thats how i found my faith in the first place was by studying alot of this history. everybody thinks were so advanced from prior generations but as cliche as it sounds you can learn alot from history because history does repeat itself. its just a different time now and you can't just have an army and start taking over the world publicly like they did in the old days so they've found new methods, like controling economies and so on. same human nature just a different time."

Unfortunately, it was a lot easier to overthrow governments and leaders back in the day. Now that we live in a more 'civilized' world those who have attained power have an easier time retaining it by working together and not allowing each other's power to be compromised. Also, advancements in military technology make it damn near impossible to overthrow a modern day first-world country.

if the public unites in revolution there is no way we can lose. there's no way they can match our numbers. the only thing they could do it mass genocide, and that only kills off the numbers of people they would be trying to control. the problem is there are too many people who stand on the sidelines out of fear of pain, death, etc.

"i would rather die on my feet than live on my knees"

It's one thing to say it, it's another to actually live it.

The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist.

You can't fight what you can't see.

i will live it. i have guns and ammo, and so do my friends. i plan on using it if needed.

Are we saying there's something so wrong with our government that we need armed revolt? Sorry, I haven't been following the conversation so I'm sort of lost.