It's April 1st

Revolution!

> Black_Wing wrote:

> hehe...you serious ??  Open an account w/a discount broker to start.  I would google "Discount broker" and find the one w/the lowest fee per trade. 

to start.

Lol.

What about E-Trade?

PP_ and BW seem to know their stuff about investing.

> avogadro wrote:

> @Justinian, well said; finally something where i dont have to disagree with you.

However, I am an empiricist atheist. I am also an evil sob and all of you know it. I just see the problem if everyone was like me, that would be bad!

> ☭ Fokker wrote:

> > coffeeking wrote:

> atheism and satanism were killed because they are " the most damaging or destructive religion in terms of its principles, the way it treats its members or the way it treats non-believers etc. "

so tough nuggets all you educated hippos!<
_____________________

Aside from the strange insistence that Atheism, which by definition is a lack of religion in the same way that Asexual is by definition without sex (A-theism, A-sexual), I find the insinuation that Atheism and Satanism are damaging and destructive, and ask for proof.

For most atheists, they are also empiricists. Empiricism is also how they justify their lack of faith, and it can be damaging to society. The reason is that you can not justify a satisfactory moral code from empirical means, because empirical means can not identify the outcome we should pursue, only the means to reach it. Religion is a way to guide and decide what ends are appropriate and valuable regardless of the selfish opportunities we might exploit, and without religion or some abstract justification, humans are left to their own devices with respect to deciding what end to pursue. In a strictly empiricist society, a ruthless free for all with respect to goal attainment is justified. Now, a society of empiricist atheists may conclude that they need regulation and then lay down rules, but every member remains perfectly justified in exploiting other members or groups in a strategic opportunity. The only reason they can justify adhering to the rules is because the conditions are such that there is a strategic reason for cooperating, and if the circumstances changed they are also justified in breaching the terms of that contract. Secondly, a mad man can also justify exterminating the human species, because it's what he wants and there is no way to empirically derive a value system to say that he's wrong.

Now this does not mean an empiricist atheist would be this way, nor does it mean all atheists are empiricists. But atheists tend to be empiricists, and empiricism poses a big problem for morality. This doesn't mean that if everyone adhered to empiricism that some people would not have unjustified values left from religion or be limited by their empathy or attachments, but it justifies any end simply because someone chose it - power, exterminate humanity, killing minorities etc. Now I doubt that most people would pursue ends like those. I think most would be consistent with their social nature, but in the end I don't think people can cope with such ends as being anything but wrong. They want a value system to say it's wrong, and they need religion to say it's wrong. Religion also has other uses too.

In my opinion, religion may be a bunch of bs. However, it serves a very pragmatic purpose. It says that some ends are wrong and some are good.

> avogadro wrote:

> myself of coarse

I know you're more narcissistic than I am, but I want a name of someone other than you!

> Decimus wrote:

> it was a joke.  though it's funny to notice that to defend turkey's quality, you say most of its population is caucasian

My point was that the Turks aren't the evil Asian invaders of Europe that you seemed to imply. However, they have adopted much of an Asian culture. The culture of the Turks has continued in Anatolia, even though their genetics haven't.

> Acolyte wrote:

> Free trade is free trade, period. No restrictions, no tariff, no customs, no taxes, no embargoes, no "Free Trade Agreements". Anything else isn't free trade.
What an ideal world you have there.

Iran, because everyone says they aren't.

Paul, hmm, interesting. So blacks just like hip hop, violence, and sex etc?

> avogadro wrote:

> because of the destruction of their culture and the continued oppression of their people.

So how is this different for the Jews and Asians?