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If you could change one thing about the world and how it works, what would that thing be? I would make gravity about 0.3% stronger. I mean, it's good and all that, but just a little more would be nice. Sometimes things just feel too light, you know?

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Trump is known for saying you're fired! Romney is known for saying I like to fire people! Isn't that special? Capitalistic Soulmates? Maybe they should team up with "chainsaw Al" (Al Dunlap, former CEO and lover-of-firing who managed to bring Sunbeam back from bloated near-death to the glory of corruption-driven bankruptcy.) They could form a band called "Kill the Workers Before They Kill Us", or "MittDonAl's Corp". I envision lots of synthesizers and drum machines: saving the expense of paying a real drummer, who would...

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Describe the teachings of the Bible in one word? Strange.

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Are those who know more happier than those who aren't curious and don't care? About whatever. Knowledge is power..is it also happiness? There's an idea that is sort of cliche, but not without value: "information is not knowledge, knowledge is not wisdom". My opinion is that what distinguishes these "levels" of knowing is integration: knowledge is information that has been 'glued together' to some degree to form a model of some area. Wisdom is the next level up: when knowledge is integrated sufficiently, it becomes wisdom...

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Why does God demand, seek, or request that we worship Him? Religions which include this idea in their system are more likely to survive than those which do not. That's the best explanation for why so many religions include this idea: natural selection at the level of belief system. Memes.

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when was the last time you stopped in your tracks and felt that you were truly content with everything in your life? I wouldn't expect that to happen: I do "stop in my tracks" rather regularly (daily, actually) and take time to appreciate my life and reflect on things. But "truly content with everything" isn't something that I think is very realistic: life naturally produces problems, and that is never going to change or go away. The question that interests me is not whether I'm content with everything,...

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If God can prevent evil, then how do you explain the Star Wars prequels? God did prevent them from coming before the "middle three", so you should give him some credit. He allowed the series to open with the best one, slide steadily downhill from there, and die of its own bloated weight in a way which ensured the final 3 never got made. As in his guidance of evolution, sometimes God works in gradual ways.

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Why do people hate me? I try and try to please them, but.... you knpw what? this is exactly why I cut myself. :/ Really, that's just not what matters. What matters is why you're not too fond of yourself. That's the only approval that makes a difference -- seeking approval from others is a dead end... even if you get it, it is never enough to make up for your own insecurity. So treat this as a journey: your job is to reach a point in your life where you are providing your own basic emotional needs,...

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George Will, the Conservative columnist, says Donald Trump is a 'bloviating ignoramus'. Do you agree or dis? Why? I don't know Trump very well. But, I used to live in Baja California, and I know a fair amount about the real estate development on the coast down there that bears his name. He "licensed" his name to the developers, they pre-sold a bunch of units, the project collapsed from its own bloated ambitions smacking into the worldwide economic downturn. The customers who bought units did so on the...

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Should teachers be allowed to lead a school prayer in public schools? Why or why not? I think that would be OK in contexts where the students self-selected to participate, i.e. it wouldn't bother me if the school had, for example, an non-credit after-school prayer and Bible study on campus that students could attend freely with no consequences for not being interested. If schools were going to do that, I do think they should be fair and allow all religions do do the same, though.

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Are you a smart rich programmer who makes a lot of money and makes money with programming and are better than everyone else? Not just that, I'm smarter and richer than all the other programmers. Sometimes I let them kiss my ring.

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What will eventually replace religion? Religion is a two-edged sword: the negatives and the positives are so deeply intertwined that almost any argument on the topic empowers entrenched opponents armed with nearly unlimited evidence for their positions. While I do think that individuals can "rise above" religion and develop their own understanding of core issues like morality, meaning, and altruism, for the bulk of humanity I think...

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If I send my self and my sister an idea that ive had about a product, is it copy writen? Ideas about products are not subject to copyright law. You would only own a copyright on the specific text you had sent to your sister, not to the idea it represents. If you want exclusive ownership of a product idea, you need a patent -- that's an expensive and somewhat difficult thing to acquire. If you have that kind of money and commitment, you should stop talking to anyone about your...

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What's God's name? (It isn't "God;" because that describes WHAT s/he is, not WHO.) A true monotheist can take the position that God does not need a name: names are how we disambiguate between multiple things in the same "name space": i.e. if there is more than one atmosphere, you can't just say "the atmosphere", you have to identify the specific one you're talking about. But monotheism claims there is only one God, so really he wouldn't need a name and fiddling around...

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Can you name me a song that has very fast vocals? "One Week", by Barenaked Ladies: http://youtu.be/fC_q9KPczAg

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Thoughts on Eurovision 2012 ? A routine outpouring of glitter and synthesizers which demonstrates how little soul money can buy.

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What is the greatest intellectual pursuit? Understanding or wisdom. "Understanding" is a kind of mastery of knowledge in some area, where you move beyond merely parroting the books and are able to contribute significant new insight. "Wisdom" is having a unified synthesis which is stable and deals gracefully with the paradoxes that appear if something is viewed from multiple perspectives. A defining quality of both of these is that...

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Is the culture of a company dictated by those at the top or by those who actually do the work? How so? It's 'dictated' by the ideas which manage to survive and gain dominance. Where those ideas come from varies by organization, but certainly management owns that responsibility in any reasonable theoretical model. The cases where it comes from below tend to cluster in smaller companies, where individual workers are more likely to have a voice that carries.

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Politeness appears to be increasingly marginalised in today's society. Do you believe it possible to redress this imbalance? This is not something that captures my passion: as often as politeness makes the world a nicer place, it provides the illusion of interaction which contributes to a sleepy complacency that something worthwhile is going on. Frankly, I'd rather have a sharp-edged exchange that breaks open a new perspective than a polite exchange that lets me go on sleeping.

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Is the universe an open or a closed system? From a thermodynamics standpoint, as far as we know, it's a closed system in which entropy must increase. But we don't understand things well enough to say for sure -- if our universe is part of a 'multiverse', there may be some way in which information 'leaks' into our universe, making it an open system. Nobody really knows yet.

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I'm tired of feuds. Aren't you? From now on, I promise to be nice. And if I fail, feel free to stuff my pockets with stinky posies. :) No, I'm not tired of feuds. Without feuds, nobody would ever be dislodged from a prior level of ignorance to land in a higher level of ignorance.

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Complete the sentence: The secret to life is ________. The secret to life cannot be summarized or expressed as a sentence-completion. The nature of deep understanding is that it crumbles when sliced up into the linear pieces required by conceptual representation, explanation, and verbal expression. That's why those who know don't tell, and those who tell don't know.

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Jesus is coming soon, we hear our grandmother And until now Jesus dont come. How do you explain that to a sinner? Oh my, you've broken the unintelligibility barrier in our time.

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is american citizenship forced on foreign nationals children born on american soil. Or can they opt out . You can't be a foreign national if you're born on American soil. What would that even mean? You can of course surrender your U.S. citizenship, if some other country has granted you citizenship. It's not a good idea to have no citizenship at all.

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Shout out to all the old timers still here! Glen Blaylock is still here. My unofficial research suggests that he's the oldest old-timer still active.

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What would it take to stop you from believing in your current religion or philosophical belief system? Oh, I give it up and try different ones all the time: nothing is more boorish than a zealot for some belief system. I think next week I'm going to be a Rosicrucian. Haven't tried that yet.

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Jesus Christ isreal everything else is a lie. We really gotta schedule a time to work on your critical thinking skills.

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What is the difference between an artist and a scientist? The scientist's goal is to understand a reality that is presumed to pre-exist before he starts searching for its mechanisms. The artist's goal is to create a reality that cannot be found anywhere at the start of his efforts.

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God is not a human being. So why do people keep projecting THEIR Humanity into their God? God is an idea invented by the human mind, so of course it is a projection of our humanity... why would we cook up a 3-headed alien with bug eyes? Ick.

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How come when you say budda or muhammad or any other god people are cool with it but when you say Jesus Christ their face distorts?? Buddha was not a "god person", so you should leave that one out. Mohammed was supposedly a prophet, and he raises plenty of blood pressure around the world. In a culture dominated by Christians, it is natural that the anti-Christian sentiment would be stronger than the anti-other-religions sentiment. The 800 lb gorilla gets all the bananas.

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There is an unwanted speed limit sign on our property, how can I get it removed? Hit it with the car at double whatever number it says. That's called "using the Force".

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When's the last time you changed a baby's diaper? Oh, quite regularly I do that. But its not enough to just "change the diaper", one must really make an art form out of it: firstly, its important to understand that the baby is a tube -- food goes in one end, poop and pee come out the other. When the baby is upset, 90% of the time one or the other ends of the tube needs to be serviced. Diaper changing is "servicing the South end of the...

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What is the opposite of an artist? ʇsıʇɹɐ uɐ

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Who can explain the Trinity? Oh, no problem at all: God is complicated. Parts of him are actually Jesus, who sort of protrudes into the physical and historical realm and operates as if separate. Other parts of him are the holy spirit, who makes people handle snakes and talk gibberish during church -- and that doesn't count the sermon. The 3rd part is the father -- he's angry sometimes, and loving other times, and...

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How can I set my Windows 7 pc to always use internal IP 192.168.1.100? It sometimes does and sometimes grabs another one. What you're looking for is a static IP, not a dynamic one. To make that work smoothly, you need to either pick an address which your router isn't going to assign to another computer (which involves knowing the "DHCP pool range" of your router) or tell your router to associate your computer's MAC address with the desired IP address. You might be able to get away with just "hijacking" that IP...

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can my ex boyfriend use the rental property that he owns but our son and i live there rent free for the last 10 years, as child support? This is absolutely a question for a lawyer, not a bunch of amateurs on the Internet.

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When you were a kid, did your parents ever take you to something unsuitable for children? Oh yes -- but as I got older, I would sneak out of Sunday School and run over to the supermarket, where they had a good stock of comic books.

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Should Hitler have gone into motivational speaking? Whaddya' mean? He invented the genre and the core technology. And like those who followed in his shadow, he sometimes had trouble sorting out exactly what a 'motivated' person should use their motivation for.

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What's the deal with Dr. Quest and Race Bannon? In those days it just wasn't talked about, of course. Two guys spending a lot of time together, no women around, often on a boat. One's a doctor, wise in the ways of the body. The other is a hunk, with a dashing name like 'Race', and an admiration for intellectuals he knows he can't be like. Johnny was there, of course. But when was his bedtime? When you're out on adventures a lot, a boy...

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My sister's new boyfriend from university is visiting for the weekend. What is a really good practical joke I can do on him meanwhile? Leave a folded note in the hallway where your sister will find it, as if it had fallen out of his backpack. Make sure it suggests that you and the boyfriend had a past affair -- the note should tell him that it is definitely over and he shouldn't get any ideas. Then watch the storm of denial and accusations with glee. When things get really hot, wave your hand blithely and say "it was just...

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Do you ever worry about the condition of your soul? Having been over this topic six ways to Sunday for many, many years, it seems quite obvious to me that the idea of 'souls' was invented out of a confused matrix of misconceptions that are sort of the default malfunction of human thinking. I focus my attention on correcting malfunctions, not on worrying about the fate of the illusions they produce.

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Who are you Really? Really who are you? Please describe who you Really are. Sorry, there's nothing I can say which would be an adequate response to the question. And it's not because I'm confused or suffering from some sort of identity crisis. Rather, the problem is with the question itself: the question presumes a model of individuality in which there are characteristics or properties which define 'the self', but in fact all attempts to identify those characteristics...

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The NAACP now supports same-sex marriage. It's a matter of civil rights. They don't want to legalize prejudice. Is it civil rights to you? It's a good thing, although a bit late (where were they when the Mormons and Catholics were buying the CA referendum in 2008?) Still, that's how progress happens in social systems: little by little, one group or individual after another wakes up and realizes the folly of their previous bigotry.

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If Xeroxing a book is not illegal, why should downloading a movie or a song be? Xeroxing a whole book is illegal -- small fragments can be copied for non-commercial uses, but that's it. To understand copyright law, you have to start by imagining yourself as the author, artist, or publisher.

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Would you rather be alive or free? I would say that those are basically synonyms.

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Hey, I wanna tell my parents that I'm gay, but I just don't know how, I need help When you say "I don't know how", can we presume that you really mean "I'm afraid to tell them?" One thing that helps sort this kind of stuff out is to focus on talking straight: you do know how, you are just afraid of the reaction and/or consequences. Nothing wrong with being afraid, just be straight about it (no pun intended): "I'm scared". Now, what exactly are you afraid of?

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Can you envision a world without governments? Sure -- just take Somalia and multiply it by 100,000. Hang on... don't hit the button until I'm done refueling my spaceship :)

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Is it scary going through customs in america??? I am going there and I am so worried about the interrogation part :( It can be intimidating, yes. But like most scary things, the best way to calm yourself is to have as much correct information as you can get. The US Customs and Border Patrol officers are trained to be vigilant, they're not trying to be anybody's friend. But they're generally not a hostile or militant bunch either, just professional. They are looking for certain things which suggest a...

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Are Birthers really that dumb or are Modern American Conservatives just so desperate that they make up anything to smear Obama with? Yeah, I saw that article too. I think the bottom line on these things is always the tunnelvision which comes from having your ego wrapped around your politics: the birthers have done that, as have so many -- every perception, every piece of information is interpreted through a filter which has a very rigid bias, and that filter is directly connected with their sense of identity. No light can...

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What's it like in a parallel universe? There is nothing whatsoever that is perpendicular -- everything lines up. At first, that's disorienting, because people try to turn right or left and find that it doesn't work. But after a while, when you see everyone going in the same direction, you just want to fit in.

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This woman I like, told me she has a boyfriend- how should I act around her now? You're being too timid. Nobody can tell you what you ought to do, but that mode of operating and thinking will produce nothing of interest either way.

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Many folks think 'balance' is best. When isn't it? I'm suspicious of most "X is best" philosophies. Each one has the potential to produce tunnel-vision. I prefer to treat all ideas as tools: something one uses and tries to develop skill and understanding about. With a full toolbox, and a mind that is not imprisoned by any fixed philosophical framework, the possibilities of life expand richly, and there's nothing to defend.

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The emerging theme as an alternative to the 2012 doom is the Conscience shift. Who shares in this sentiment? Huh?

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How could an adult believe in an imaginary God after reading the book of fairy tales in the Bible? I'm an atheist... so in theory we're on the same side. But your question "dumbs down" the topic to such an extreme degree that I have to take exception to it. It's not clear whether you're just being condescending and thick as a tactic, or whether you truly have no understanding whatsoever about the dynamics of religious belief. If the problem is the former, I suggest you cut it out....

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Detachment is more empowering than attachment -Agree or disagree ? They're two different tools: Detachment allows you to see the whole. When you are attached, a "cognitive tunnel" forms that distorts and restricts perception -- that focus limits your ability to see things that might be relevant but aren't in the tunnel. Attachment is focus: by concentrating your attention and efforts on one thing, you increase your effectiveness dealing with that thing. ...

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Every thing else on the planet evolves and all the man made things are victims of Entropy. True False? "Victims of entropy" is a bit misleading: life itself, while evolving, is nevertheless participating in the overall increase in entropy. Entropy is a one-way arrow. Life has the distinctive property of being able to reduce entropy in limited contexts in exchange for a larger increase in the larger context. You could say that's what it means to "be alive". Since man does not make living...

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Can anyone, and please know what you're saying,give me a basic list of instructions to be able to understand politics in a larger scale? Ok, here's the most important things to know: We used to live in caves. In those days, there was no government. Whoever could swing the biggest rock into the head of the other guy was in charge, and got to mate with the most women. Then, someone invented the gods -- fancy stories about how it all works behind the scenes, and somebody got the idea to put on a funny hat so they would look...

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Science tell us, that without the sun, plant life wouldn't exist. If plant life didn't exist, animals would have nothing to eat. So... then they would eat us? Scary.

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Wouldn't it be wonderful news, to learn that snipers had shot/killed the funeral picketers from the Westboro Baptist Church? Sorry, I'm still a fan of free speech and free thought. It is true that this allows all sorts of ridiculous things to be said, but I trust that in the marketplace of ideas, the truly shitty ones will sell for very low prices.

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How can I have an estimated IQ of 112 yet have graduated with a 3.94 in Electrical Engineering? IQ is too coarse a measurement for most useful applications -- the mind is not a simple gauge which goes from 0 to 200, it's a complex set of subsystems with a wide variety of different levels of ability in different areas. For example, my wife is very intelligent: her verbal skills and logical processing are far more refined than average. But, her ability to do mental spatial manipulation is...

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Elvis, Rolling Stones or The Beatles? Which do you prefer? Beatles: 100 points Stones: 85 points Elvis: 11 points, 3 of them for hair. This guy just never did anything for me.

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Java method calculations problems. The best place to post this kind of question is www.stackoverflow.com -- Answerbag is a general-purpose QA site, and while there are programmers here who can help you, this site does not have the intensity of focus or depth of help available on a programming site. Next topic: don't post your homework. In most sites, if you post a problem that is obviously homework and throw up a general...

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How Can I Ask A Girl To Sex With Me Or Turn Her On? Drop the caps. Chicks hate oversized under-delivery.

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Henry Ford paid his workers a lot so they could buy his cars ... Mathematically, does that work? I suspect that if we could get a complete "brain dump" of his decision-making about worker pay, we might find that there was more to it than this popular story. Were they really paid more than the average factory worker? What other ideas did Ford have about worker pay? Might he have been of the opinion that a stable and healthy work force had positive business effects that were hard to...

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Is there a psychological term or name for people who have to have the last word? Ex-wife.

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15 and pregnant? (PLEASE READ DESCRIPTION.) Yep, it sounds like you might be pregnant. That's a tough situation. What's your plan?

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Do radical Christians not understand that THEIR OWN SAVIOR was tortured and killed in an act of mob violence fueled by religious zealots? Zealots rarely see themselves as zealots. Typically its framed as "we are standing up for what is right, because nobody else will", or because God wills it. The moment you look in the mirror and see a zealot, you're cured.

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Can you explain what happens when you pop a balloon with a sharp object? Yes -- The loud bang causes the cat to jump off the stove quickly. In her haste, she knocks off the pan of boiling water, which spills onto the floor. The recently-applied caulk sealing the hole in the floor submits to the hot water, which drips down to the bedroom below, where a terrorist is delicately assembling the parts of a bomb. Scalded by the hot water, he reflexively drops the...

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Is it easier to talk AT or listen AT someone reather than having a discussion? Is that how the world is anymore? I think that true discussion has always been difficult. When we look at history and think that it was better back then, we see a distorted world -- the stuff that got written down was the exceptional, not the ordinary. Out on the street in Roman times, if you disagreed or bucked the conventional views, you got spanked. Think about what is involved in having an in-depth conversation: both...

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What does it mean to be created in the 'image of God'? It means we're all invisible and undetectable, self-contradictory and prone to outbursts of vengeful behavior, and love nothing more than to be worshiped but can't find a suitably devoted following.

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Does anyone believe that "deja vu" moments have anything to do with quantum mechanics or the quantum theory? Yes, some people believe all sorts of things, and it's fashionable in New Age circles these days to mis-characterize Quantum Mechanics as supporting those pet ideas. It's an abuse of science, and a misunderstanding of QM.

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Just how dangerous is Idealistic Thinking? I don't think idealistic thinking in and of itself is dangerous. What's dangerous is unearned certainty about those ideas. Religions and philosophies (both of which embody idealism) abound. Typically what happens is that some small set of ideas become the core of a framework, and then everything else is reinterpreted in the context of that framework, producing an alternate reality. Because...

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Is Obama a peacenik?? Uh... you mean like how he shut down the Iraq and Afghanistan wars so thoroughly and quickly upon taking office in 2008?

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im a female toilet, and i love it! is it weird that my boyfriend takes me everywere with him to use me, and lets his friends use me to? Somewhere in this big, wide world there's someone who wants to hear about this. But not here.

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Should children be forced to do things they don't want to do in the name of 'education'? Can we assume you have never had children? Their judgment is poor, their impulse control is poor, their understanding of the world is poor, their attention span is limited, their interest in developing their potential is erratic and often dominated by fantasy-thinking. "Force" is kind of a strong word... we try to persuade, inspire, and bribe. If all else fails, sometimes force is needed...

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If USA decided to sell one of its States to help pay off the national debt -which State do you think should be sold? Well, Mississippi comes to mind: backward, overweight, uneducated, and poor. On the other hand, New York would surely draw a better price, and we could shed useless drains like the Knicks and parasites like the Yankees. Still, the one that edges out both of those has to be Florida ("the Chad State"). Everybody is already old, it's too hot and humid to visit, and sticking out in the water...

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How do atheists get 'forgiven' of their sins? The concept of 'sin' is distinctly religious, so that doesn't quite apply. Also, atheists have a wide variety of ethical belief systems, so there's no general answer to the question even if we grant that 'sin' is meaningful outside of the whole mythological cosmic struggle described by religion. In general, though, a sane ethical system does involve understanding that sometimes one does the...

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How do you manage your money? I'm very much a "God first" person: when I get paid, I throw it all up in the air and he takes whatever he wants. If there's anything left, I spend it on booze and women.

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Will you be happier to know if someone worse than Adolf Hitler was aborted before it can create trouble for the world than what Hitler did? Sure. The trouble is you don't know it's Hitler until its too late to abort. That's why God created cruise missiles.

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If there is only one true religion why do so many people of different faiths have such strong testimonies that what they believe is true? Religions are a mixture of superstition and folk wisdom. The latter is like a tree -- it provides the structure and the value. The former is like a parasitic vine wrapped around the tree: it survives only because the tree bears all the weight. So they're all "true" in the sense that the folk wisdom portion is worth understanding, and they're all "false" in the sense that they contain heavy...

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Why do libs always take the side of clemency and leniency for violent criminals over justice for their innocent victims? Why do you always take the most extreme view of any topic you find? I can assure you that plenty of liberals do not do what you're claiming.

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I have a floor model stereo with a record player that does not work, how do i replace it? By purchasing an iPod and using the old cabinet to store your collection of Coca-Cola bottle caps from the 60's.

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What is the meaning to Life, the Universe, and Everything? Reality has no meaning. Meaning is a part of reality, not the other way around. Meaning is content, reality is the container. Therefore, it is impossible for reality to have meaning, in much the same way that it is impossible for a bag which holds oranges to be an orange itself. Further, meaning is something that depends on thinking minds: it's conceptual, and requires an environment...

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Can a person have their own opinions when everything we have learnt & believed comes from the influence of that which surrounds us? It's not true that "everything we have learnt and believed comes from the influence of that which surrounds us". It is true that we all have experiences, and are influenced by those experiences. But we also synthesize and abstract from those experiences in ways that are unpredictable, as well as contributing our own new content in creative efforts. So yes, people can definitely have their...

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How can I become more comfortable complimenting people I care about in person? What do you think the discomfort is about?

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Why do I get something when I don't want/need it and then when I do want/need it then it's nowhere to be found? I think you should go to the interviews -- an interview is a long way from being offered a job, it's good to get more options to choose from in planning your future and interviewing is itself a skill that improves with practice. Whether or not you take one of those jobs if offered is another matter: nobody can tell you what to do with your future. We know nothing about your career field, etc....

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Do you think Romney's out-of-touchness with ordinary folks can ever be cured or is it going to stalk him eternally? Does/should he care? I'm not sure how much it matters that the President be in touch with ordinary folk. I think the most important thing is how they make decisions -- i.e. what sort of things get considered or rejected, how thorough the process is, and how appropriate are the weights they give to different aspects of a problem. So a big part of that is their value system: what really matters? I don't have to...

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Agree Or Disagree? Don't discuss your problems with anyone - 80% just don't care about them, 20% will be happy that you are having them. There's something to that, but it's too simplistic. People are not wooden sticks painted red or green -- sometimes you can get their attention and care, sometimes you can't. They care about some kinds of problems but not others. If I had to formulate an aphorism here, I'd say "notice whether or not the person you're talking to cares before you invest a lot of effort talking about something".

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I see many Cons ranting on about Ted Nugent's right to free speech being limited by "libs". How is that exactly? He's got a little cat scratch fever. It sometimes resembles Tourettes' symptoms.

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Is everything everything actually? It's entirely a semantic matter, depending on the definition of "everything". So if you own the dictionary (or at least your own version of it), you get to decide! :)

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Just who the hell is in charge here? I have a gut feeling this website is out in CA. So why don't they pay any attention to what goes on? Answerbag headquarters is in Santa Monica, CA. They don't pay attention because the whole range of possible weirdnesses that can happen on AB has happened so many times that any sane person would have no choice but to tune out the drama to save their own sanity.

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"If you love someone, let them go. If they come back they're yours forever, if they don't return, they weren't yours to begin with." Well, it's sort of silly, romantic, and cliche. The version I prefer is "If you love something, set it free. If it doesn't come back, hunt it down and show no mercy whatsoever". A little spicier.

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Planned parenthood..access to birth control...abortion. That's what the good old GOP focuses on. What about jobs? What about the economy? Simple: more babies equals more low-wage workers, who are an essential resource for large impersonal multinational corporations. By supplying them with more babies, they can churn out even more cheap goods that can then be purchased by the rich to provide profits for the corporations, who in turn can hire more babies. This is called the "cycle of goodness" (or just "the cycle", to insiders....

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Is a "spiritual atheist" a contradiction in terms since atheists do not believe in spirits/ souls? Much depends on what one means by "spiritual". If you've limited the definition to "belief in magical things", then yes, it makes no sense for someone who rejects the magical idea of God to accept other magical ideas. But "spiritual" can cover other territory as well, such as concerns about meaning and values and personal development toward maturity. That's how I used to use the word when...

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Many steretypes are way off the mark and untrue. However are there any which are true often enough to make them valid? Which and why? A topic fraught with complexity. A "stereotype" is a category -- an abstract definition into which we sort people. The category is generally meaningful in some way, and often does have some kind of validity in terms of being observed in the real world. The two primary mistakes in this area are: a) Mis-categorizing someone by spurious association. So not all Chinese people drive badly,...

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Do you think Christian fundamentalists tend to be well intentioned but misguided by their evangelical leaders? Yeah, misguided -- excluding the ones who are actively and awaredly con men (and con-women?) of course. Humans are a storytelling species: it's a side effect of the big brain. Other animals don't seem to have narratives filled with meaning, but we do. But many of our stories don't really hold together well unless they have a central thematic element, so we invented God for that. It makes...

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Angelina Jolie is getting married to Brad Pitt. What color dress should she wear to match his Blue eyes? Angelina who?

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Why do some people type "I should of done it" but at the same time they never type "I of done it"? Does that seem logical to you? Well clearly the people saying this haven't thought deeply about what they're saying. So, if you're asking "why don't people think very deeply?", I guess that could be a fairly long discussion. Or we could just stipulate that humanity is a generally fairly dim species, despite having invented the automatic toaster, which is kind of cool.

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Is it legal for an employee to ask another employee how much money they are a making per hour? There's definitely no law against this. Employers do try to discourage people from discovering the pay of others, because that ignorance helps them to preserve a more powerful position in rate negotiations. But there's no way you'd see a law forbidding this in a modern democracy.

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What is it like to live near a cemetery? Just like living in one, except nobody brings you flowers.

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What is Jesus' full name? Out here in So. Cal., it's Hey-Zeus Creese-tow.

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What's the difference between a principle, a rule and a standard? A principle provides abstract, general guidance -- something to help one make a judgment call. A rule provides conditional instructions or criteria, typically specific: "If this, then do that". A standard provides a reference for comparison: "X is to be compared to standard B for assessing its qualities of Q".

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Why didn't the bible lose all credibility when slavery was abolished? Well I've heard some pretty elaborate arguments from believers which attempt to justify the slavery endorsed in the Bible -- either by claiming that it wasn't really like slavery, or by explaining that the economy of those days required it, etc. Naturally, I don't agree, but I imagine the believers at that time managed to wrap themselves around different interpretations: the abolitionists...

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If you hate being controlled to such an extent that you have "an attitude" towards others, are you letting your EMOTIONS control you? Well yes, that's what I call "avoiding domination", which is just the flip side of trying to dominate people. A metaphor is "the engine and the wheels": domination is a forward gear, in which someone else is providing the motivation and you (the clutch!) are passing it through to the wheels (your life) by letting them control you. Avoiding domination is a reverse gear, in which someone...

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"Hi! How may I help you?" Well, it's kind of old-fashioned, but I really would benefit from just having all your cash and negotiable securities.

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Do you think there should be a symbol for 'not a thing' like there is a symbol for 'nothing'? If it's not a thing, then it cannot be defined. If it can't be defined, it's not clear what you would do with a symbol for it -- what system of symbolic transformations or models would need a symbol for "that which cannot be defined"? I think we're getting into the too-abstract-to-be-useful territory here. Symbols are tools, as are symbolic systems. Their existence and structure should be...

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Hollywood what are you thinking? A remake of My Fair Lady, Dirty Dancing? what are you thinking (if at all)? Hollywood is business. Like all businesses, they want to make money and they have learned that it is more reliable to mine existing audiences than to find new ones. The miracle isn't that Hollywood cranks out commercially-tuned crap, it's that anything good every comes out of that mindset.

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im am gay and a fine body can any guys send pics or post naked pics through here plzzz Sorry, wrong web site. We just talk here.

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Do you pay too much for Satellite or Cable? Is it worth the price? I have a digital TV, but no cable, no satellite, and no antenna. Everything we watch comes from Netflix, BBC iPlayer, or PBS online. Last time I had digital cable, they charged about $75/month. Definitely not worth it to me.

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Are there financial consultants that will help you manage, or budget, without having a hidden agenda of your investing in their "whatever"? Sure, but like lawyers they will charge by the hour (or really, the 1/10th of an hour, yes?). So don't sit around talking about your golf game unless you're aware the meter is running.

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Which religion has caused the most shame, blame, and guilt? Do you have any proof of this? The usually cited candidates are Catholicism and Judaism, but I've never heard of anyone trying to quantify this characteristic scientifically.

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What seems to take longer than it really does? "It's a Small World" (the song) The moments after the time when you realize that you're going to sneeze all over everyone in the meeting but can't do anything about it because you're pouring coffee with both hands. The time that someone walks around the office shaking hands and saying goodbye after s/he has been laid off.

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Why do I crave blood? You probably don't crave blood. You crave attention and a sense of specialness, and for whatever reason you've fixated on this "vampire identity" as a way to get that. It's pretty common for adolescents to fall for that kind of thinking. Don't worry, you'll grow out of it.

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How do you say. "Mom, your cooking sucks" to your mom-in-law without hurting her feelings? - "Can you make me some of your vegetable soup? I need to clean out my drain." - "I wouldn't trade your meals for anything. Or at least, nobody seems willing to trade." - "You're the Picasso of dinner -- it's so fascinating to see all those parts of food randomly stuck together" - "Whenever I'm feeling down, I think of your spaghetti last year, and realize I don't have it so bad right now"

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How did dinosaurs have sex?...T-Rex was all tail behind the waist, so "doggie style" is out of the question. Brontosaurs' are even worse. They were the Chuck Norris of evolution -- they could impregnate a female just by making eye contact. Appendix: do you know why T.Rex is so angry? Always growling and snapping at everyone? It's the little short arms -- think about it -- can't hug anybody, no love, depression, frustration. Such a shame. People underestimate the importance of long arms.

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Someone recently asked a question about victimless crime and I asked for an example. I got none. Can you give me one? The usual crimes cited are things like prostitution and recreational drug use: both of these have "peripheral" consequences, of course, but technically there's no victim because it is adults participating freely of their own choice.

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Is god just anthropomorphised nature? I think that God is a "unifying concept" in most believer's models of reality: sort of the glue which ties all the pieces together and gives them a context and meaning. Without that, reality seems to be a bunch of disconnected separate domains that don't make sense. To me, the error in this is that the "disconnected separate domains" is actually an illusion caused by the way we think about...

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Atheists, were you brought up in atheistic homes? Or did you experience some epiphany that brought you to atheism? As a child and a teen I was the sort of Christian that Christians raise by power of early indoctrination: not a lot of questions encouraged, not a lot of questions allowed. As an older teen I developed doubts, and lived for years as a doubter. Then as an adult I had a brief 2-3 year "revival" of belief -- but by that time I was too good at critical thinking and too steeped in a plurality...

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I'm racist, what do you think of me? I think that your self-concept is too limiting.

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Deep AB disappointment.. thoughts on departure? The moderation has always been inconsistent in quality, and it's a regular complaint over the 6+ years that I've been here. Partly that has to do with the sheer volume of items to be reviewed, partly with the relative inexperience of the moderators (it's mostly a part-time, low-paid job), and partly with the subjective nature of such standards. I deal with this by ignoring it all. If I want...

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My patent, a double sided hacksaw blade dated 1990. Now companies from China are now selling it in the US and online,is there any recourse? In theory, if someone is infringing your patent in a country that honors patent laws, you can sue them to protect your patent. In practice, it's expensive and may or may not be worth the time and expense. Definitely you should be talking to a patent attorney rather than us, though. -------- REVISION: Patents are valid for 17 years. Seems like yours has expired, yes?

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What is the wieght of one kilogram at the Earth's surface? Last time I checked, it was 1.00000 kilograms.

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Do you believe in a soul? It depends on what is meant by the word. If you're referring to something which outlives the body, then no. Clearly there are all sorts of problems with such ideas, starting with how this thing could be sustained in the absence of any brain and what it might be made out of. If you're talking about an abstract individual unifying concept, which serves as a sort of container for personality...

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Remember when diesel was dirt cheap fuel? What happened? The stuff is far less refined...why so $$$??? I suspect that it has to do with the variations in refinement capacity in the supply chain: refineries are big, expensive operations that don't get built very often. If they shift towards gas production in anticipation of greater demand, sacrificing diesel production, and then later diesel demand goes up more than expected, this could burp the cost of diesel relative to gas.

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tried to connect with a girl that he met while hanging with his homeboy for 12 hours a day, he looked her up on FB of course I can't help thinking that there's a question in here somewhere.

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Is all knowledge useful? No, lots of knowledge is not useful because it isn't relevant to any of our goals.

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Why are so many iexplorer.exe popping up in my Task Manager, When I close them more reopen. Why and hwo can I fix this? You probably have some malware infection. Disconnect your computer from the Internet, get yourself a virus scanner, and get that machine cleaned up before it infects others.

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Often missing the point is the point. Acknowledging it means dealing with it. Missing it lets you go off on your own tangent. Clever? Avoidance and suppression are two of the ego's primary survival tools. These are extensions of the more primitive abilities evolution provided to block out cold or pain and go to a happy place. That they aren't the most useful tools for effective and honest participation in the world is a relatively recent insight. Not everybody has that yet.

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Why do so many people on the internet think that religion is so important that it needs to be a dividing line in defining human beings? I guess we've discussed this topic a lot already, but I thought of a better way to express my view about it: the kind of self-definition you're talking about should be called "the theatrical self". By 'theatrical', I don't mean necessarily filled with drama, but rather "concocted for the audience, including the internal audience". The self which is defined by belief systems and...

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If Texas (or multiple Southern states) unilaterally seceded, would you favor armed force to keep it/them in the Union? Sometimes one can be a little too united, I guess.

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There are folks who jump on Question threads and only ever leave unkind/insulting/nasty behind. What is it they expect to gain from it? It isn't about gaining something, it's more like a kind of Tourette's Syndrome which massages the ego. "Here's who I am -- brusque, politically incorrect, uncaring -- take it or leave it!" These continual announcements help them re-locate themselves when they're feeling a bit lost.

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Will The Buffet Rule Really Make Things Fair? Why Are The Rich Rich And The Poor Poor? No, of course that one change will not make things fair. It might reduce the inequity a bit. But the real problem is that the rich have bought the tax code they like, and if it changes they will just re-buy it. This is endemic to our system (and all systems throughout history): big money distorts governance. What we really need is to explore new ways of structuring government which have...

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Are brick and mortar stores becoming obsolete? Not "obsolete", but they have to adapt like any business affected by the Internet. The question is always going to be "what is the value-added by the physical store?" Physical stores still offer some benefits: - You can try on clothes or physically handle the thing you're considering - You can get immediate purchases (less travel time) - You get out of the house - Browsing is sometimes...

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Why is it that when humans die of old age they have used up a neglible percentage of their brain capacity, what does this infer? Where is your data for this claim?

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Which religious group most closely follow the Bible's teachings rather than man's? "... rather than man's"? Since the Bible was written by men, the distinction seems irrelevant. It's all just people telling other people what to do, only some of them are dead.

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The White House confirms; Obama paid a lower tax rate than his secretary. I doubt he is the first, So loop holes at work or what? That's not a loophole, it's a gaping gash: capital gains taxes are lower than earned-income taxes because the wealthy have disproportionate influence in the government and most of their income is capital gains -- they've bought the tax code they like. Now its the law, and Obama is just doing what everybody does: minimize taxes. The real question is how do we insulate the tax code (and the...

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has anyone time traveled if so send me a message please thank you Um... you know that time travel is impossible, yes? Please give us a clue that you understand that so we can return to having fun about the question.

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Not to bash a bush, but wth is wrong with people who can't pronounce "nuclear?" Is it stupidity? ignorance? speech impedement? I don't know who started with the "new-queue-lure" pronunciation, but now it has enough momentum that someone could argue it is acceptable -- i.e. a significant percentage of the population say it this way, and despite a lack of apparent phonetic justification it is arguably now "a word" by sheer force of popularity. I think it's good to let it stay, as it alerts us that the speaker isn't very...

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Deadbeats! Unbelievably wealthy Corporations/Individuals who squiggle out of paying their fair share of taxes. How many in your country? Technically this group does more than "squiggle", they buy the tax code that best suits them -- indirectly and covertly, of course. The notion of 'fair' doesn't even enter into consideration, it's just raw self-interest doing whatever is necessary and possible to minimize taxation. To me, this is just sort of the law of the jungle about wealth -- the question is how we can organize a...

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Is there really any point to live in the world? The point is to "use up" as much of your potential as you can: live fully, love a lot, recognize your life as a unique opportunity with a limited extent and behave accordingly. Entropy is turning everything to goo gradually. Life is about counteracting that temporarily in a glorious frenzy of localized creativity. It doesn't change the long-term outcome, but it's still beautiful to see. ...

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These days, is there any point to "commiting to memory" something that can be Googled? Yeah, competition. There's an entire "memory championship" with lots of people memorizing decks of cards and names and faces, etc. Some truly incredible feats are done for this: http://www.usamemorychampionship.com/

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Is the reason that no records of Jesus exist that Pilate felt embarrased to his superiors he was bullied into the execution by the locals? It's reasonable to suppose that in those days, with so many religious zealots of various kinds running around and making wild claims, it just wasn't noteworthy that one was executed. I think a better question is why there are no records of Herod executing all the young baby boys 30+ years earlier (or at any time, for that matter). Surely that would have made a ripple in history that could...

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Obama says "Legalization is not the answer". Whats your answer to the War on Drugs? I don't think you have to legalize drugs to get this solved -- just weaken the penalties and start focusing on abuse as a disease instead of a crime. The extraordinary measures we take to prevent the distribution of drugs don't really work, and they feed extreme criminality by driving up the prices to very attractive levels. Most of this problem is really about poverty and lack of education,...

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No one is listening until you fart." ... and no one is breathing consciously until then, either.

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Name a fear so crippling, it changed the course of your life. How? Have you overcome it since then? Again, how? When I was 7 years old, I had a chemistry set, and imagined I would become a chemist. Then one morning my mother asked me to light the oven for biscuits -- a routine request. In those days, our oven was the old kind that did not have a self-igniter: you had to turn on the gas, and then light a match under the burner by reaching inside the oven broiler. Being 8, I got distracted in between...

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Is the Constitution a living, breathing document? If so, where are it's lungs? Metaphor, mister. Metaphor. Not... to... be... taken... literally. On the other hand, love is a battlefield, and there are no atheists in foxholes. So lovers are all theists.

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Do you have a boring story to share with the online community? Oh my, yes. Once upon a time, there was a bookkeeper named Herb. He wore gray, lived in a gray house, and drove a gray car. He had no wife or family, and had been a bookkeeper for 23 years. In his spare time, he collected matchsticks and toothpicks, and had a somewhat impressive collection. A shy man, not particularly attractive, he rarely spoke to others at work, and many did not know...

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Who looks "Pretty In Pink"? Guys, are you confident enough to wear pink. Brings out femininity in women, IMHO. In pink, I look like a mouse that washed up on a shore of a bleach-filled sea. In other colors, I just look like a mouse who should be thrown in a bleach-filled sea. So I stay away from pink.

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Did you know that the average IQ of right-wing Republicans is 15 points below the average American IQ? Presumably you're going to post your source, yes?

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Since hydrogen and oxygen are in the air, Can we harvest the components from the air to make water? A water generator? Hydrogen is not available in significant quantities in a free form in air. So one would have to take some other gas out of the air (water vapor is the obvious candidate) and break it down to get the hydrogen, then combine it with oxygen. Needless to say, this is not a very effective way to yield anything useful.

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Is there a belief in miracles in the Buddhist religion? Did the Buddha or any of his followers ever (allegedly) perform miracles? The Buddha made a point to emphasize that he was an ordinary man with no Godlike qualities. It is not clear whether or not he believed in anything supernatural, as he treated such topics as irrelevant to the core of his message. I've not heard of any substantive claims that he performed any miracles or claimed to do that, although some lines of Buddhism do treat the Buddha as a supernatural...

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Hi, reviewing for an exam about the muscular system. Can anyone tell me about the Lateral rectus? I need origin, insertion and action? The lateral rectus is colloquially known as "your side butt". It's where you get screwed by corporations, politicians, and mechanics in small towns far from home. Insertion and action should now be pretty obvious: origin comes from "lack of shrewd self-protection".

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Where do you turn when you get stuck on a coding problem while developing a website? By far the best site for programming help is StackOverflow (www.stackoverflow.com). I've been writing code for nearly 30 years, and have been in lots and lots of help-the-newbie conversations. For reasons I cannot completely explain, StackOverflow has become the home base of most of the best discussions online between programmers.

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Name something more useless than Randy. - Ten milligrams of dynamite - A bucket of depleted AAA cells - The letter Q, without its U - A politician claiming to be "a Washington outsider" - The long lists of safety warnings in the owner's manual for a toaster.

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How can I look inside a store on the internet? Can we just assume you're autistic and move on with our lives?

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Why is a butterfly called a butterfly? Dunno. But one of the few enduring memories I have of childhood is that my aunt had a toaster cover -- a little knitted thing with flowers and a butterfly -- and this phrase had been stitched into it: "Hot toast makes the butter fly". So I gotta think there's a connection, she was a very direct person.

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Is "compatibility" in a romantic relationship an overrated concept? No, compatibility is very important. But I think there is "naive compatibility" and "mature compatibility". The former is the sort of romantic and idealistic images people have of their ideal partner. But that isn't compatibility, it's just idealism. Compatible partners will often rub each other the wrong way in certain areas -- hopefully, for the better. A good partner should help you...

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North Korea launched their rocket but apparently it failed. Lol? Indeed. And according to an article I saw, North Korea's malnutrition problem has been so chronic and deep that 1/3 of the children are considered stunted because of insufficient nutrition. They had to lower the minimum height for military service to 4' 9", because the children turning into young men have grown so little on so little food. I guess the good news is that, if they open up to...

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Is the need to declare one's Christianity all the time indicative of insecurity? I don't think that's it: to me, the best way to view this is in light of the evolution of belief systems -- religions which are aggressively spreading themselves tend to survive better than those which are more laid back. So as the centuries go by, the ones which don't either reproduce vigorously or proselytize vigorously or gain converts by conquest have died out, leaving only those which...

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Why did God tell Santorum, Cain, Bachmann, and Perry to run for president ? He used to go to the horse races, but then he decided that it was cruel to the animals. He needed creatures he couldn't feel sympathy for.

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How can India have so many slums, yet so many IT professionals? Um... somewhere that's explained in a textbook, yes? Something about "not everyone in the country has the same skill set", I think.

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Obama Attacks Women By Claiming That Being A Housewife and Raising 5 Kids Is NOT A Job. Obama caters only to feminists, disrespects others. Ms. Romney wasn't really a housewife, was she? You could probably turn some of her servants into First Lady, I suppose...

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I have recently been hired for a online company called instant ship. A Scam or Legitimate? Is the question It does not sound legitimate: a legitimate business will always try to minimize costs. The most efficient way to do this job is for them to have someone check the box at the source: not only would that be faster, it would shave the intermediate shipping cost. So they're incurring additional delay and cost (and calling themselves "instant ship"!), and for what reason? What do they say if...

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Can the internet be turned off? If so, where is the switch, and who controls it? It can be turned off, but only by the coordinated effort of many countries and organizations.

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Is the whole world on a first name basis with no one Mr. Ms. or Mrs. anymore? The New York Times still refers to pretty much any adult named in a story as "Mr. So-and-so" or "Ms. So-andso". It does seem a bit of antiquated pinkie-in-the-air clinging to the past, but I can understand why some people still prefer that. We shall see. All things change with time.

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Do you believe prayer is power? Why or why not? There is no evidence that prayer has any effect beyond the psychology of the subject doing the praying. But, that is still an effect, and may be used as an argument to support the practice.

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George Bush says he wishes "The Bush Tax Cuts" didn't bear his name. Let's do what he wants. What shall we rename them? Any suggestions? The King George Endowment for The American Royal Family.

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Here is a paper, a pen, a cup of coffee and meditative music,you feel no psychological stress,you are fully awake. Write down a sentence. You've posted under Zen, so I feel obliged to disabuse you of some common Zen-related fallacies: - Nobody doing serious Zen meditation would bring a pen, paper, coffee and music. You sit there quietly, typically facing the wall, with no distractions organized. - "No psychological stress" is neither a precondition or a requirement of Zen meditation. Psychological stress is just another...

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I love my cousin and she rejected me when i said love you. read the following description and tell me what she means? Almost heaven, West Virginia?

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If the oppressed have no recourse through the law, are they entitled to use violence to obtain justice? The question is too general to provide an absolute answer: it depends on the details of the situation. Certainly there have been times in history when the deck was so severely stacked against some group that violence was the only way to shake up the established order. On the other hand, lots of examples exist where people failed to exhaust peaceful solutions before they picked up their guns....

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Gingrich admitted that his campaign is 4-1/2 million in debt. Whom does he expect to pay that off and why? Presumably he, like all politicians, still has some influence to sell.

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Do aeroplanes have wifi onboard? Generally no. The problem is twofold: you would need to somehow get the FAA to certify wifi transmissions for use in-flight -- these are the same people who want you to turn off your Gameboy, right? The other problem is just getting Internet service in flight in the first place, which is trickier than it sounds. Airlines which have provided Internet service have generally found it does...

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Which is the correct term, Moslems or Muslims? There's no "official" way to spell Arabic words in English -- all translations are approximations of sounds that don't really map to the English language unambiguously. That's why there's no absolute right way to spell Koran or Kaddafi. Or Muslim.

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Thomas Kinkade dies. Mike Wallace dies. Thomas Kinkade was interviewed on 60 minutes. Coincidence? Things always come in threes: now I'm glad I never watch the show.

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Rising oil prices: Innovative ways to save fuel? Any bright ideas? Retrofit all cars and roads with intelligence -- you'll have to have the government buy them all to do this. Once there is centralized ownership and common interfaces, then the entire transportation for routine things can be automated and streamlined. Much more efficient: when you want to go to the store, a car passing nearby diverts, picks you up (you sit next to 3 strangers) and drops you...

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Why does India produce so many mystics? The culture is saturated with the ideas which make that a viable occupation. Systems of ideas work together to produce what would otherwise be inexplicable islands of strangeness in a society.

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What if Lady Gaga laid an Easter egg on your face? That behavior would not surprise me. I wear full body armor when she's nearby.

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Does a guy regret not having kids? I am 4yrs older than him, I have 2 kids and he has none. I think it varies widely, particularly by age. Some guys don't get the urge until pretty late. I think for most, they aren't really thinking "I would love to have kids". Rather, it happens, and then they start to connect with the whole baby-and-toddler process when it becomes an ineradicable part of their life -- when you don't have any choice, the sensible person learns to love.

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What can be done to improve/ amplify a weak cell phone signal? Stand on your toes and hold it as high as you can: like any radio device, getting altitude helps to reduce the number of obstacles. Of course, it can be tough to talk on the phone like that, so have your ears and mouth lengthened, too.

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Men kissing men ! is it exciting? Doesn't do anything for me. I support their right to do it, and my right to switch the channel.

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Why do the abused become abusers? Did they not learn from their abuse? No, the reason they don't learn that lesson is because they're busy learning a more fundamental lesson: the model of how to be a parent or adult. A young child cannot make the mature assessments of a parent's behavior and conclude "this is not the way to be a parent". Their experiences are internalized as a model of how a parent behaves, how to get a child to behave, etc., even if later...

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I've seen fire and I've seen rain. What about you? If you multiply James Taylor's philosophical depth by the number of chords he knows, and divide by the fatigue produced by that nasal self-conscious wheeze of a voice, you get the number 2. I don't know what comes next in the equation, but I don't like the number 2.

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Are you going to see "Titanic 3D"? Hmm... it sort of sucked in 2D, so I'm wondering if another dimension of suckage will make it somehow less suckful? It's hard to say. I'm leaning toward not seeing it.

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How much do you trust your memory? Usually by the time I end a sentence, I forgot why it started. Sometimes this renders my victims so confused they mistake it for brilliance.

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Does it make sense that the Earth is 4.5 billion years old and we are only 200,000 years old? Nevermind that, what was he doing in the 198,000 years before Jesus was born? Why did it take that long to decide that the Old Testament rules weren't really getting the job done, and the plan needed a retrofit? Do we have to wait another 198,000 years to find out that plan B was also sub-optimal? I gotta know, because there's only so much of this noise I can take.

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Who is your role model at the moment? Oh my -- I haven't had a role model in so many years I forgot what it feels like. Is it squishy?

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I feel so left out sometimes...what do I do? see description You're living inside your head, instead of out in the world with the rest of us. That is, indeed, not a good thing. The evidence is in the self-involved and overly self-critical chatter going on endlessly: your mind is trying to find a way to identify you, and is having trouble grabbing on to anything solid, so it spins around in circles trying to answer the question "who am I, anyway?" ...

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Is it safe to say that those who do not worship God, worship science? No, that's a fallacy. To not worship God does not necessarily mean that you worship something else -- the problem with the logic is that it assumes a human must worship something, and further assumes that science and God are the only possible choices. Neither of these assumptions are correct.

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If a door to door salesperson put a gun in their mouth would you buy from them just to prevent suicide, or would you call their bluff? I call that "natural selection". No point in arguing with evolution.

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Do you agree with racist Fmr. DC Mayor and friend of Obama Marion Barry "We've got to do something about these Asians coming in"? You mean Marion "Cokehead" Barry? You should be lauding him for being able to form a sentence at this stage of his deterioration.

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Which is more powerful, science or magic Magic is infinitely more powerful in the magical world than science. Trouble is, nobody has ever been to the magical world. So that's a problem.

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Are judges activists when they decide against politicians and following the will of the people when they agree? When liberals don't like a law-nullifying decision, it's called "judicial activism". When conservatives don't like a law-nullifying decision, it's called "judicial activism". Hey! We finally found something that both kinds of radicals can agree on!

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What's wrong with picking and choosing? Not sure what "package" you're referring to, so I'll guess. :) To me, its valuable to have the skill of "nondiscriminating acceptance" -- not that this ought to be ones fundamental orientation to all of life like an ideal way of being, but rather a capacity or ability that is developed. To be able to "just see" things as they are, without adding the weight of personal likes and dislikes or...

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My fiance is illegal,we are going to get married soon.He was brought here at 16 and has been here for 5 years. How will this affect my life? Marriage in the US does not confer the right to remain in the country. Each immigrant must be admitted by a visa of a well-defined type, and each visa has its requirements. A K1 visa (for married couples) expects that the parties married outside of the US and focuses on proving that the marriage is legitimate. If the foreign party is in the country illegally, they cannot obtain a visa, they...

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McCain says Romney should chose Palin as a VP. Good or bad idea? Why or why not? Good for Obama, at least.

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Richard Dawkins asks: "Is Religion Child Abuse?" I'm not a fan of religion, but it's too big a stretch to call routine religious indoctrination "child abuse". Child abuse already has a reasonable common meaning, and that gets diluted by stretching to something so indirect and vague. I do think it is better for a child to be taught critical thinking rather than to have the parent's answers spoon-fed as fact. There are many aspects to...

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Opinions please, 18 year old girl getting breast enlargement and taking part in documentary, will I be judged? "Not every girl gets surgery for vanity reasons". Ok, I hear the words, but I don't understand. What other reasons would there be for having artificial non-functional gel packs surgically installed in your breasts? Of course you will be judged. I wouldn't let that be a deciding factor, but it seems odd that you're so anxious to avoid the notion that vanity is operating. What else would...

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Did the war on women start with Clinton's serial affairs or in the 2008 election with Governor Palin and in 2011 with Michelle Bachmann? Uh... you want attacks in politics to stop? I think maybe you got off at the wrong planet. As for the "war on women", I suppose it started when The Bible decided to blame Eve for biting the apple. Or maybe it was when the first caveman decided that he was big enough to force the first cavewoman to do his laundry. Dunno, but it's been around for a while.

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Obama threatening and intimidating the Supreme Court. Why not just disband it, cancel the election, & declare himself dictator? Now here's a case where you actually have a point: it's rather inappropriate, in my opinion, for Obama to be trying to send a manipulative 'pressure' message to the court -- aside from falling into the "not your job" and risking accusations of hypocrisy ("we like judicial activism when its our issue"), it's not good strategy because such things can, at best, have no effect. The risk is that...

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How did you meet your partner?. We met on a dating site. www.getting2knowu.co.uk We met on a Q&A site: www.answerbag.com

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what the fuck is all this shit? It's you, trying to figure out if saying 'fuck' and 'shit' will shock anybody. It won't, and they won't be impressed with the depth of your contribution either.

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Did cavewomen really looked like Raquel Welch in "One Million BC"? Dunno, but I almost have the hypervator fixed on my time machine. I'll check it out. If I don't come back, the answer is "yes".

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my step brother is a perv & I can't stop him. I hurt him before & I'm very uncomfortable with this whole situation. Tell everyone: your parents, his parents, teachers, friends, the police. Don't keep secrets. Keep a log of dates and times and very specific "what happened" descriptions. Don't get wildly emotional, stick to the facts. Tell him to his face, in no uncertain terms, that his behavior is unacceptable, unwelcome, and that you will stop at nothing to protect your boundaries. Don't be a doormat.

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In terms of an epistemological framework is religion the old method and science the new? Yes -- human culture evolves: it learns from experience. We've learned that our imaginations and psychological processes are vulnerable to various distorting influences, and that relying on authorities to tell us about reality is of questionable value. The errors of the past led to development of more disciplined and reliable methods for establishing truth, sometimes we call these "critical...

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What would you say to me if our plane was about to hit a mountain in 30 seconds time "Ok, it was me who killed JFK!" "I always wanted an aerial burial" "There is a non-zero probability that all of the particles in the aircraft will pass between the particles in the mountain and we will fly out the other side. I realize this is remote, but it should still comfort everyone aboard to know that we are not totally, absolutely, and completely screwed." "Stewardess!!?? How come...

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Is belief faith? Both of these words have multiple meanings, with significant overlap. My approach to such things is to avoid trying to put a word into a straitjacket and say "it always means X", but rather to accept that human language is generally ambiguous and requires the development of skill and effort to communicate effectively. If someone uses these words in context, I can usually tell what they...

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If you're a Supreme Court Justice, how do you RULE on a law that you're NOT gonna read. I don't think they need to read the law at all to rule on it. The judges need to listen to the relevant arguments on both sides carefully, they do not need to immerse themselves in the minutae of information that isn't on point to the contested issue.

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What happens if someone ostensibly speaks on your behalf without your permission and says things that are not true? What do you do? They find a horse head in their bed :)

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Lobbyi$t$s do much "good" for politician$ and the companie$ who pay them. Politician$ become lobbyi$t$. Isn't that conflict of intere$t? Despite the many merits of modern democratic governance, humanity has yet to figure out how to prevent the rich from buying the government they want. It remains the major unsolved problem of political science.

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Are facts truth? Yes, facts are truth, in that they fit within the overall meaning of 'truth'. They're not the whole story, though: facts are "isolated bits of truth", i.e. atomic elements in the chemistry of truth.

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How can I get the courage to kill myself I just don't want to be here no more I want to die just don't have the courage to do it Why do you want to kill yourself?

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Sometimes I like doing this, because I think it is fun. Then I see the gruesome reality of how politics reams out every little hole. I thought if I read your question twice, I would get the hidden meaning. No luck.

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Do scientologists study scientists? Scientologists study their wallets, trying to figure out how to pay for the next level of enlightenment.

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Is truth the be all and end all? How can we be certain that anything we know is true? Is there anything more important than truth? "More important than truth" implies that truth might be an alternative to some other good that is a sort of "peer", like two weights on a see-saw. I don't think it works that way -- truth is complementary to other goods, they fit together into a whole. It's not like you can choose one and discard the others and have it all work out. They don't get separated like that. As for being...

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Explain this Atheist group's behavior please You haven't posted any detailed information, so any answers you get to this question will be pure speculation. There's no information about the atheist's motives or explanation. Nobody -- including you -- are justified in drawing much in the way of conclusions without those details.

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April Fools Joke: Obamacare-defending Solicitor General getting laughed at by Supreme Court justices. Funny? Your question implies that the judges are mocking his argument, but if one actually listens to the link you've posted, that isn't what's going on. They're getting a giggle about his slip-of-the-tongue, in which he fails to distinguish between "the tax" and "the tax penalty". It's funny, because of the gyrations that Obamacare supporters have made in defining whether the individual mandate...

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Does knowledge dissolve superstition? Maybe. Sometimes. But as our modern world shows us, one should not underestimate the persistence of superstition. When bad ideas join hands to keep good ideas down, they can "accomplish" a lot.

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Do you think religious faith makes death easier to bear? It seems reasonable to think so. Of course, it's pretty tough to interview the dead and do a controlled study of their relative reports about the experience. But in general, anxiety tends to exaggerate pain, and so something that reduces the anxiety associated with death seems likely to reduce the pain as well. Then there's the question of "fear of death", which is a slightly different...

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I do not believe in astrology. Do you believe there is "anything" to astrology? Why or why not? The problem with astrology -- and lots of other "magical thinking" worldviews -- is that it violates the most basic principle of reality: cause and effect. There is no reasonable explanation for the mechanism whereby the position of the stars relative to the Earth could have any of the effects attributed to them by astrologers. In addition, astrological forecasts have been extensively...

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im not working now and want to take out my retirement fund , If you have an IRA or 401k and want to withdraw the funds, it will be treated as regular income. Also, it is subject to a 10% penalty: i.e. if you withdraw $50,000, then $5,000 will go to the penalty, and the entire $50,000 gets added to your gross income. I don't know the impact on your other concerns. You should talk to a financial advisor and do thorough research first.

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The words you use convey specific messages. So you choose them thoughtfully. How often do people respond to something you did not say? Very frequently. Interpretation can be difficult when the subject matter is not trivial, so it is understandable that people will "read in" meanings which are not there. I try (like most people, I think) to anticipate how my statements will be interpreted, and use that to refine the message, but its hard, when you're thinking about what you want to say, to also factor in all the possible ways...

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Al Sharpton is calling for riots. Are you gonna join? The question here claims that Sharpton "called for riots", which is clearly false. It does not say that he "made some ambiguous but potentially inflammatory statements", which would have been supportable. In other words, More2Be is lying again. Not that this is news to anybody.

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why do so many people believe in god, if there has never been ay evidence of his existence? The human mind is a model-making machine: it attempts to create a model of reality which allows comprehension, prediction, and prescription for action. Initially, this is about survival -- i.e. a map of where resources and threats are located, etc. But with the big brain of humans, which has more abstraction capacity than is really needed to survive, all sorts of new thoughts become...

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how can i control my jealousy? First, you need to understand what is going on. This is a self-esteem issue -- you doubt your value, you doubt your attractiveness and ability to engage him. That has nothing to do with him or her, it's all about you. Your mind has produced a particular concept of who you are -- a set of ideas that tell it what sort of person you are in detail. Your mind uses that concept to make...

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What is reality? In your own words That which does not disappear when you stop believing in it.

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Can you only and always be you or can you sometimes be non-you? How? Is it you or non-you right now? Why? Its a topic fraught with confusion and superstition. Here's my take on it: In an absolute sense, there is no "you": there's no entity inside your body somewhere which represents the "you" who is the subject of the phrase "your body". There's a body, and a mind, and consciousness, and memory, and psychological structures and so forth -- all of those things exist, but there's no specific...

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What should you do if your boyfriend is more emotional then you are ? Wonder when I turned gay.

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FOX Geraldo Rivera blames "hoodie"/FOX quits selling them. Coincidence? Would a white kid wearing FOX hoodie be suspicious to you? Geraldo Rivera has always been a news clown, struggling to be taken seriously. It's never been hard to see why: he goes for shock and extremism, and makes no pretense of caring about balance or being particular about facts. Presumably he got into this habit because it made money, and now it's hard to break.

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Do you think it's wrong for the American people to pay for Dick Cheney's heart transplant? The American people are so shocked to find that he had a heart in the first place they forgot to notice the hospital bill.

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I am very in love with a very devoted mormon girl. But I am not a mormon and I dont want to be. What should I do I just want to be with her. Why do you have to do anything? If you love her, and you tell her that, it's up to her to decide whether or not it is a problem, not you. As long as you're willing to let her have her religion, then that's all you can do. If she decides she can't be with a non-Mormon, you'll just have to live with her decision. That's what religion does to people sometimes.

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Can you explain to me how can I gain 1.5 lb in one morning if I have only eaten 1 banana & a cup of coffee? The weight doesn't add up! Unless you're using a high-precision scale under controlled conditions, you don't really know if you have gained weight. Typical consumer scales are cheap and use springs, and they're subject to high variations based on temperature changes, etc. Only a multiple-weight average over sustained periods is going to be meaningful.

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Shouldn't they have waited till everybody born in the 20th century is dead before they brought in the smoking ban and other ridiculous fascist new laws? What smoking ban and other new laws are you referring to?

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Do you think its wrong to indoctrinate children into religions before the age of 18? If no why? I don't think that "indoctrination" is appropriate for anything beyond teaching very young children the most basic things -- i.e. keeping them from running out into the street, etc. Once we're dealing with cognitive development and worldview issues, I would much rather teach a child critical thinking and research skills than to pressure them to adopt my worldview. Those skills will be...

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Experts say you should do this at least once a year, but I'm betting you don't. What is it... Verify that your spouse has not been replaced by a Stepford clone.

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Hey! have you heard we have a new homegrown terriorest group in the us. It is called the REPUBLICAN party led by MCCONNELL,BOHNER,CANTOR. This is a silly view. And you misspelled "terrorist".

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Do Atheists owe Christianity gratitude for occupying regions that will have Islam and Sharia law trying to fill a cup already full? "Gratitude"? I'm not sure why I would be grateful to an abstraction -- I generally focus my gratitude on individuals, but I can't find any individuals who are responsible for Christianity's occupation of territory in the world. I think clearly there is a 'displacement' effect: if a region is predominantly Christian, that reduces the spread of Islam, but the same would be true if the region...

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Can someone give me advice on how to stop being so awesome? You have to first believe in your mediocrity. It can be tough, but I've been down this road and offer the following guidance to the novice: - Imagine that sometimes you're wrong about something. Visualize it in as much detail as possible: the shame, the feeling of discontinuity, the thoughts "Oh no, I must be wrong", etc. Practice every day, put something on your refrigerator that says...

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Won't it be intriguing to watch Obama backpedal on the side he's taken in the Trevon Martin case as more evidence becomes known? Wouldn't it be intriguing to see any of your bizarre ideas be validated by evidence of any kind?

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Tomorrow Dieter and I celebrate our 55 year marriage. Would you like to join us? Party is ready to go, snacks are ready and the bar is open. Wow, congratulations! You've been married longer than I've been breathing -- I hope your respiration has hit a rhythm! :)

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Honest Question: What rights do gay people NOT have in America? (Besides marriage in some states). Gay marriage is the main sticking point in terms of legal rights. As for "discrimination will never end", there is no way that anybody can be certain. Many types of discrimination have effectively ended throughout history, so I don't see how you can claim that discrimination against gays will never end. We don't know. However, having the law solidly on the side of freedom and justice for...

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what are some things not to do on a first date? Say "that blouse makes you look a little pudgy". Recite all of the first 256 bytes in the MS-DOS executable header by function. Pretend you can't hear or see anything except your iPhone. Try to sell her to the waitress. Suggest that "we should make a fetus immediately!" Say "lets skip the silly games. I know you're using me and I'm using you, so lets get right to it." Admit that you...

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I need answers quick, please, what would be the best way to sell ideas to people, to help them learn and grow rich? Wait... aren't you supposed to be the idea vendor? Why are you asking us??

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Do you think 3 1/2 lbs can make a difference? Why or why not? It depends on whether the needle is going into your butt or your arm -- but, I prefer smaller ones.

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My dog keeps peeing on my bed, she is a year old now and just started this new "trick". How can I get it to stop? Dogs are nature's way of ensuring that everything gets peed on, chewed up, and slobbered about. You're asking how to make the ocean less wet.

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77% of men polled say they believe they'll someday do this. What is it? Have a threesome with Shakira and that chick on Friends. It's just amazing how many guys think this is likely.

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If there isn't a God, why is there good in the world? I disagree with pretty much everybody on this topic: The theists are wrong, there is no God and good does not depend on God. The constructionists are wrong, "good" is not just an arbitrary word that has no meaning except what we give it. The nihilists are wrong, there is a difference between good and bad and a reasonable basis for establishing the difference. The solipsists are wrong, it...

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How is garbage dealt with in apartment buildings? In all the apartments I've had (in CA), you took your trash down to common bins -- usually large box types. Once a week the trash haulers take the whole bin and dump it or haul it. In one large apartment complex, the bins were right behind the patio of one apartment, so that family got to listen to the constant dumping of trash -- and more of interest, they got to *smell* it all 24/7. I...

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what is my dad's brother who has a granddaughter, to me? Your father's brother is your uncle. Whether or not he has a granddaughter is irrelevant to the relationship between you and he.

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Why don't people understand it's natural for a man to be older in a relationship? Or is this site just full of bitter old women? Who defines "natural"?

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He sets schedules, gives very specific instructions in the bedroom, he's ruthless, i have known no other gay relationship. Is this normal? No, you're probably dealing with someone who has a compulsion to control others. Dumping him seems like a good idea.

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how can I keep-out my wife's father mother and sister from her life It sounds like you want a slave rather than a wife. In most of the better countries, that's illegal.

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If you do, why do you want to be widely respected? What do you want to be widely respected for? There was a time when I cared about being respected, now that's mostly gone. I care about being understood rather frequently: I don't like being misinterpreted. But beyond that, mere respect doesn't get a lot of respect from me anymore. I think I have reached "crusty old man" status: say what you mean, and to Hell with who likes it or what they think of you. That doesn't mean that I...

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Every time i seem to get motivated enough to do something, i realize that life is so short and we all die so what is the point? I suspect that you're barking up the wrong tree entirely in your relationship with life. You get to live once, as far as we can tell. That's it. When you die, you die, and that's it too -- there is no afterlife, that's just people trying to massage their fear of being insignificant and transient. So here you are, with your one life, and the clock is ticking. It doesn't mean anything on...

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Why AB users so all stupid? I don't think you're raising the average IQ here, so perhaps silence would be most fitting.

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Am I in the wrong if Im an Atheist, and I believe that everything has scientific proof, but I believe in the paranormal and fortune telling? The paranormal (including fortune-telling) has pretty much the same problems as God: lack of evidence and lack of causal coherence. Lack of evidence is simple: while there are lots of anecdotes about the paranormal, there is not a single solitary experiment that reliable returns evidence that any of these phenomena are real. Lack of causal coherence is more subtle: a scientific / naturalist...

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Are you 50+ years old? If so, what advice do you have for those of us who are younger than you? - Take care of your teeth. You can't use anybody else's. - About the time that you start to know everything, you'll find that you're too old to do anything with the knowledge. This is the fundamental paradox which prevents anyone from saving the world. If you like irony, you've found the right planet. - There are two aspects of life: this moment, and your story about it all. All the...

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My cat just jumped up onto a tower of boxes which came tumbling down, narrowly avoiding the wreckage by dashing away. Have I lost its trust? Only time will tell. If it continues to use you as its primary food and shelter source, you probably have not escaped its clutches. On the other hand, it could decide that you have failed as its human and must be replaced, in which case you're free -- and you have a tower of boxes to thank!

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Who would you entrust your burdens to? Why? First I would need some volunteers to take them! There seems o be a shortage.

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Sometimes I Question Whether There Is Really A God..And I'm Supposed To Be Christian. Is This Bad? How Do I Overcome This? This is called "critical thinking". Religions generally try to discourage people from thinking for themselves or questioning basic principles of the faith, because that helps the religion to survive. There's nothing to overcome here: it is good to ask questions, and to recognize your own doubts.

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Wiil str8 guy be friends with gay guy I predict that he won't. Lets ask him.

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Do you think God shut down The Crystal Cathedral? Yeah, it was a bit positive-thinky for his tastes. He likes a more understated approach, with fewer plastic angels and less glitter.

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Have humans evolved into NEEDING to wipe their bottoms after a bowel movement? Animals seem to do just fine without "TP"...why can't we? Animals have a little auto-wipe flap which works sort of like the metal arc in an ice cream scoop: it sweeps over the affected area and pulls any "flash" into an adjacent pouch, where it is re-absorbed and re-excreted in a large volume movement. Humans messed with evolution by getting too fancy: when we invented toilet paper, these flaps began to evolve out of the population, being vestigial....

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What does Chuck Norris have for breakfast? He doesn't. Food is for sissies -- real men just suck it up.

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Why is there always a price to pay for everything in life? I don't know that it's true. Sounds very abstract. I think there are plenty of ways in which life is not a zero-sum game: there are upward spirals and downward spirals. If you have an upward spiral, the good stuff brings more good stuff, and there isn't really some offsetting cost which zeroes things out. I guess that's the definition of mastery, perhaps: the ability to, with modest...

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If you thought you were going to be hanged, would you have a metal tube inserted into your windpipe to stop the noose from strangling you? On the list of very strange things that I might do to prevent very strange events, this ranks #124.

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What keeps gazillionaires like Paul McCartney and Mick Jagger working? Anybody who loves their work is likely to keep going regardless of whether or not they get paid. Self-expression is one of the most fundamental sources of satisfaction for humans. It's why there are so many starving artists and musicians.

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How does Santa get through Border Security so fast? He threatens to put the border patrol on the "naughty" list. Yes, it's an abuse of power. Don't mess with the fat man.

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Im so convinced that there is no GOD that i can say this... It's fine, ethically. From a taste, philosophical insight, or creativity standpoint, you're not raising the bar here.

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WHY DO WE NEED SOCIAL SKILLS? I don't agree that you have them, so your claim to not want them rings hollow.

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I've noticed quite a few questions implicitly criticizing Mormons and their church. Why the need to single out this religion for ridicule? There's a difference between criticism and ridicule, yes? I think it's perfectly legitimate to criticize Mormonism or any other religion. Mormons do tend to get singled out for special attention, mainly because they are seen as a cult by most evangelical and "mainstream" forms of Christianity. It's kind of an interesting feature of human psychology that people are more threatened by...

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Are we all particulars of a whole? Yes, but there are a lot of naive and/or dangerous ways to map this abstract view onto specifics. It's a rather longish topic. The short-form caveat is that the idea is better expressed in "negative form": "there are no boundaries in reality". Boundaries -- that which separates one thing from another, the individual from others, etc., are artificial constructs of thought and language....

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I believe in One God, But I believe there are other Angels/Deities/Invisible Forces/Jinn. While I do believe in God I very much feel I need to be closer to him (As in a certain type of religion, where I can worship and converse with like-minded people) I Why? Why do you believe in any of this stuff? Why do you feel the need to be closer to "him"? Precisely put: what exactly do you feel is missing in yourself that gives you an itch to scratch in this manner?

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Heard the name 'tracy cox' sex therapist. Do you know of any other examples of nominative determinism? I also know an optician mr glass. The town I used to live in had a Dr. Brokeback, a chiropractor.

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Why won't the media touch BHO ? A task force to look into high oil prices ? Every time there's an oil price shock, a certain segment of the population starts jumping up and down screaming "conspiracy!!". Then, prices settle down a bit, or even drop precipitously for a while, and we never hear anybody screaming about a counter-conspiracy. It's an odd asymmetry of reaction.

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For a long time ive been having a hard time believing in reality, how do we know this is all real or if its just lies ? I suspect that your question points to a kind of "being lost in the desert" with regard to your own identity. Consider that "reality" and "self" are like complementary pieces of a puzzle which complete each other. If you don't know what reality is, you don't know who you are, and vice-versa. The value of that idea is that, instead of wasting your time trying to get a firm handle on what...

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Is it possible for someone to have no beliefs? It depends on what you mean by "beliefs", which is a word that affords a variety of definitions. I believe that my car is still parked outside -- that's a "common probability" belief: it would be unusual for it to go missing, so I'm probably right to believe this. I believe that the Big Bang probably accounts adequately as the medium-term governing explanation of the cosmos -- that's a...

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What is the name of the ocean that surrounded Pangaea? The Gigantic Ocean. (Ok, I made that up. Sorry)

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I must confess ______________ . 1. All of my parts stick together without any effort on my part. 2. I once sang the Carpenter's "Close to You" in the shower when nobody was around. 3. I think babies are cute. Except the ugly ones. 4. When I was 8, I only pretended to have met Flipper personally. Nobody ever found out.

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Do you ever get tired of customer service centers that are located over seas and ran by people who can barely speak English? Sure, but this is the reality of a competitive world: services move to the most efficient provider when they can. Americans will not work for those same wages, so the work goes overseas. I cannot get my panties in a twist about this: that person is feeding his or her family as best they can. It's easy to forget that we're talking about human beings on the other end of the phone.

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Men: do you think women have lost what it means to be a woman? It sounds like you have some fixed concept about what it "means to be a woman". I say that concept is as much a prison as it is a resource. Such patterns and stereotypes are perhaps helpful for guiding someone who is completely lost and does not know where to start, but at some point each individual needs to step away from the trodden path if they are going to find out who they are. ...

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Are you eating my chickens? Just their young. Did you need them? Sorry!

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In the context of eternity even a thousand years is a short time, so how long are you going to be in purgatory for your sins? Boy, when I reflect on the fact that there are people who are actually frightened by these superstitions, I thank my lucky stars not to be among them. Oh, the stress!

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I need an app creator. I do not want to pay a rich programmer/developer/designer. Where can I get an app making program? In very limited contexts, there are programming programs -- programs which write code for very specific purposes. These are generally called "code generators". They are always narrowly targeted at highly specialized problems because it is so difficult to produce a general-purpose code generator that it exceeds our technical ability, at this time. Artificial intelligence would have to...

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Who and what would someone who is in love with the "REAL YOU" be in love with? In other words, who is the "real you"? It's a great question, and tough to answer. I think that its helpful to get honed in on the word "authentic". Lets just say that there is authenticity, and inauthenticity, both in human relationships and in ones' dealings with themselves. Authentic suggests that pretense is avoided or purged, and further that personal responsibility is valued. Authenticity is recognizing when your motives...

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How many chickens do YOU think is slaughtered in the world each day? Try not to seek any assistance please. OK? I sought assistance with my legal matters -- am I disqualified at chicken-slaughter guessing?

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Can you name a mythical river? The River of Sin that runs through the world; The River of Prosperity that was supposed to accompany the information revolution; The River of Change that each politician always promises, until we see that each change is just like the changes before it.

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Who do your lips praise willingly? Why? Shakira. Why? Must anyone ask? The problem is -- she don't praise back. Whaaaaa!

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Is challenging God ever right? If so, when? I don't know anybody who has tried it, so I can't say. How would you go about doing it, are you supposed to send a letter or take him to small claims court? I can't even find his address.

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Do you believe Obama when he says, “I’m going to keep doing everything I can to help you save money on gas." ? No, I don't think he will do everything possible: he'll do everything which doesn't violate other policies that he thinks are important. Just like any President. As for "forcing you into a Volt", how is anybody doing that to you? Let's not play victim here: the vast majority of gas costs derive from market forces that are either outside of government control, or only slightly and indirectly...

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I can get a connection using Google's DNS and OpenDNS settings. The problem is, I don't get internet access. Thank you. Your question doesn't make sense (and isn't a question, btw). If you can "get a connection" to either of these services, you do indeed have Internet access. So what exactly is failing? What are your symptoms, specifically? What have you tried to do to correct things?

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What to say at Catholic confession? I suggest that you just tell the priest how you feel. Most of them -- despite the child molesters -- are decent and probably more understanding than you give them credit for. (I'm an atheist, this is not a promotion of the church). The confessional is supposed to be a place where you can tell the truth. You don't have to believe the whole mythology for that to be a sensible idea.

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Why would a genuinely good person go to hell? You think that's paradoxical? How about this: you're supposed to accept Jesus as your savior to go to heaven, right? Everybody else goes to hell. Including, quite possibly, your spouse, your children, your parents, your friends, and the guy who saved your life that time you were drowning in the public pool. So there you are, in heaven, listening to that same dang harp tune over and over...

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Should I tell the emergency room that I have meth in my system? I am here for a toothache but in afraid to tell them. You should be a lot more afraid of the meth than you are of the emergency room staff.

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what would you do if you saw hannah montana running in her bare feet from a wolf Five bucks on the wolf, and "why can't that girl afford shoes?"

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When Was the Last Time You Felt That You Reached The End of Your Rope? I have a rope??

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Why does HISTORY seem to begin only a few thousand years ago but humans with the same capacity have been around for 100,000? Because the artifacts which can be analyzed and dated (written materials, cave drawings, pottery, etc) becoming increasingly rare as one goes back in time. However, the oldest known traces of human intelligence date back at least 40,000 years, and the modern estimate for the age of the human species is over 200,000 years. You can't have "history" without having sufficient story details...

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Where did the universe come from? If you answer the big bang, where did that come from? Please try to give me a very extensive answer. Nobody knows where the Big Bang came from: it's one of the big questions in cosmology, which has only recently become a respectable science in its own right. There are mountains of evidence that the Big Bang occurred in more-or-less the conventionally described manner: a huge amount of data would stop making sense if you took away that theory. But none of that answers the "what happened...

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Why is it no one wants to accept responsibility for themselves? Is it really that scarey? I like the fact that you're asking a question in-depth that shows considerable thought. But, I think your treatise oversimplifies the situation, and suffers a bit of excess "pattern recognition enthusiasm" -- i.e. you see a pattern, the light goes on, and there's a declaration of "that explains it all!". But that doesn't explain it all, and the pattern is not universal. Still, your question...

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If we fired all of the US congress this week, would anyone notice? It's not like they've been doing anything... Then who would pass those crucial resolutions declaring things like National Paper Clip Week?

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When did the programmers take over? Just a few seconds before you noticed. You're quick!

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What's the worst thing to say right after the priest says "I now pronounce you husband and wife"? Thanks! Hey, did I ever tell you your sister is really hot? Is she really a nun or what?

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Why do ppl always/almost always put their spouses before their parents? Because your parents can't make you sleep on the couch anymore.

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There is a very young person, a girl, who is not even 15 and can compose and play pieces on the piano. Do you think she is a star kid? Not necessarily. It depends on the quality of her talent relative to the 100,000 other young pianist-composers in the world.

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Ron Paul: abolish both the CIA & FBI but his largest donor is their biggest supplier. Is there something fishy here? Ron Paul -- and libertarianism in general -- is selling the kind of simplistic snake oil which appeals to those who want easy solutions to complex problems. These solutions work great until you actually try them. When it turns out that you can't do open heart surgery with a hammer and pliers, everybody goes away with their tail between their legs. But as long as you don't actually get...

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If you made a disaster movie what would the threat to the world be? A cell phone plan so complicated that it makes the President's head explode, igniting world chaos as each faction blames the other. There's also something in there about a flaming weasel -- not sure how it fits, but it's just something most disaster movies lack.

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When was the last time you said "I'm sorry?" I start every sentence to my wife that way. It's like my "get out of jail free" card, redeeming whatever terrible thing might come after.

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What is the worst thing a man can say to his wife after he has seen her new haircut? Wanna borrow my helmet?

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Today I got a 2% raise, lower than inflation. What should I do? Well in the short term, you can of course talk to your employer and argue that your value to the company justifies a greater sum. If you think like an advertiser, and put a positive spin on it without being angry or bitter, you may have a decent chance of changing things. In the longer term, it's good to be proactive career-wise: what are you doing to increase your market value -- new...

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Faith is your trust/belief in a deity and religion is mans way of twisting a diety's "requirements", right? Or is it? Religion, to me, is any set of ideas which purport to explain "the big questions" in supernatural terms. So that would include ideas as simple as "God created the universe" or "God is love", as well as much more expansive systems which explain that you shouldn't mix the fibers of your clothing for fear of angering God. It also includes "New Age" ideas like the notion that the universe has...

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Does anyone know of people that can make me rich and have a good life? I've got this one figured out: I'm going to clone myself 199 times. Statistically, there's an excellent chance that one of us will end up in the 1%. The rest of the me's will even out the carbon footprint by committing suicide.

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HOW CAN i GET OVER WITH MY BF WHEN SHE GOT PREGNANT WITH OTHER GIRL? I'm going to attempt to interpret your question, in a heroic feat of grammatical generosity: you're asking "How can I get over a relationship with my boyfriend in which I was hurt because he got another girl pregnant?" Since you've posted in "Should I break up?", I would guess that the answer is probably "yes" -- if he got another girl pregnant while you were together, his commitment to you is...

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Did RAINBOWS exist before Noah and the Flood ? Of course. This happens because sunlight reflects off of the back side of water droplets in the air and gets refracted at different angles for different wavelengths. It is completely dictated by the laws of physics, and it has happened as long as there has been light and sun.

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We can't even manage to be civil to one another let alone kind or loving. As a species, are we a success or a failure? Why? I agree with ImAlec -- statistically, humanity has been getting *more* civil, not *less* over the centuries. We're growing up, it's just a messy process and it is easy to pick a particular slice of the pie and declare that it is all sour. But overall, we're making progress -- with serious challenges facing us still. I have a slightly irrational faith in humanity: ultimately, we love...

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Do theoretical physicists have any evidence for their theories? Why should we believe anything they say? You shouldn't believe what they say -- and a good theoretical physicist will warn you about that. Until validated empirically, a new explanation is just informed speculation.

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If a miracle happens and the Republican party gets elected -would that help prove that God exists as an example of divine intervention? I don't think that would be a miracle -- at the moment it looks like a long-shot, but if the economy takes a serious downturn it's much more likely.

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Are you surprised that some people can still say they believe in the Bible with a straight face? "Surprise" would suggest that I find it unusual or incomprehensible -- neither are true for me. It's quite common to hear people say that, and I think I understand why they say it. I don't agree, of course, and I enjoy debating the more intelligent and informed believers. The dull-witted ones are boring, which I'm sure is true for atheists as well.

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How can having different perspectives in a group strengthen the team? Most complex activities or problems cannot be understood fully from a single perspective. You have to "walk around the problem" and look at it from different angles in order to appreciate the relationships and structure of the elements. But, it is difficult for one person to do that thoroughly: individuals tend to see things through a habitual set of values and prejudices which form a...

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Libs: Other than typical name-calling, what do I get in return for paying Obama's bailout of your dumb choice to over-mortgage yourself? I don't think you're in a position to complain about name-calling, being one of the worst offenders in Answerbag history yourself. In any case, is it really Obama's bail-out? If the majority of Congress approves it, who owns it?

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Are we becoming prisoners of technology? I don't think people become "prisoners" of technology. Certainly we are "dependents", and have been for centuries: our life in many ways depends on the inventions of humanity. To become a prison, you need walls of some kind: something which meaningfully limits your options. Aside from real prisons and political tyranny, the most common prison is human preoccupation -- being so focused on...

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Is intuition just an illusion? You'd have to define the word more precisely -- I'm sure that what some people mean by it, at least sometimes, is an illusion. When I use it, I usually refer to the mind's ability to process information without conscious intent and make educated guesses or inferences from inputs that often have not been consciously acknowledged. There's tons of evidence for this, it has been studied...

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Fuck eurotrashland ! God Bless the State of Israel ! Ok, you got yourself a slogan. Now you just need a point.

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Do some people deserve to die? Wouldn't the world be better without some people? Yes, of course. Trouble is -- there's a lot of different candidate lists. We need a committee to sort it out.

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After Santorum's loss in Michigan and Arizona he is now supposedly going to 'reach out to women'! Isn't it a little late? Does that mean he's going to let them wear shoes in the kitchen?

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Did the Japanese designer of the twin towers have an explanation of how they collapsed so easily? It sounds like the question confuses the architectural design with the structural design a bit. The architect was Japanese (Minoru Yakasaki), but the architect is not directly responsible for the structural elements that failed -- that honor goes to Worthington, Skilling, Helle & Jackson, an American engineering company that came up with the "tubular" structural concepts. Tons has been...

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There are TWO types of political parties. One seeks converts. One seeks heretics. Which one do YOU belong to? Which one is best? No, I don't agree with that at all. All parties seek converts and declare heretical their opposition. The common denominator of political parties is groupthink: trying to get masses of humans to think and act in lock-step.

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Look in the King James Bible at Psalm 83:18. It tells you that GOD's name is JEHOVAH! I bet this is a statement of compelling interest to some people, and you've shown that with your imaginative use of CAPS. For many of us, it hardly matters what you call something which does not exist.

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Pretend: you are a great singer about to sing infront of a huge audience, what song are you about to sing? How Great I Art

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Why do employers only ask for the last four digits of your social security number? It is true that 4 digits is not enough to uniquely identify a worker -- but it is enough to help error-check a document or correlate information in the case of ambiguity. When you're dealing with large numbers of people, often records get confused, misplaced, incorrectly entered, etc. This semi-unique identifier helps to sort out those cases. It also is information that is relatively...

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Could anyone say that one can kill one's own soul? Define "soul" first. Then lets see if it can be killed -- or if it exists in the first place.

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My disgustingly poor treatment by the NHS in the UK has made me hate this country, has anyone else had a similar experience Do you hate the NHS as much as the LDS? Or more?

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If I find a sock of mine with a hole in it, I darn (mend) it. If you don't do the same what action, if any, do you take? I consider the hole to be a dimensional transport portal and try to climb through into the echosphere, where I expect all my dreams come true. If that doesn't happen, I toss it, on the theory that it's probably just an ordinary sock.

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Name an occupation that requires silence and sneakiness. Going into the baby's bedroom and closing the window without waking them up.

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"But of the tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil, thou shalt not eat of it..." Do you think this was sound advice? Well presumably it's a metaphor for what the ancients thought separated man from animal, yes? Animals can't do evil -- even when they kill, they're just abiding by their nature. Only men could do evil because they could consider the consequences of their actions in an abstract way and choose. The only way to "not bite the apple" is to lack the cognitive processing power needed for this...

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What is the worst thing you can say to your spouse after they had lost their job? (Humor please! = ) Guess this is a bad day to tell you that the house burned down? I don't think that I can connect emotionally with the unemployed. Don't cry, we can set up a lemonade stand out front or start collecting soda cans. I'm sure Timmy's cancer treatment can wait until the coal mine reopens.

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Why is it considered unreasonable to educate Islam that Koran books, while containing contents holy to them, is still just a book? Of course it's just a book. But you can't "educate" Muslims about that, because you don't have enough of their trust to make your point -- they will not listen to you. Islam considers the Koran to be holy, and that's it on that. This is what religion does: it removes the common-sense interpretation of reality and substitutes its own, with alternate explanations for everything -- including...

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Santorum: Obama 'A Snob' For Wanting Everyone To Go To College or Trade School. Agree/Disagree? Why? We live in a very competitive world, which just keeps getting more so. Anybody who doesn't recognize this has their head in the sand. Because the low-skilled jobs are mostly things which can be relocated to the lowest-cost supplier, and because most of the other jobs require education, it is fairly good advice to recommend raising the level of education for most of the American population...

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Who says the universe has no purpose? Making things increasingly more complicated so to make things simpler is no purpose? I say, that's who. If you find someone with more authority on the topic, bring 'em around and we'll debate the matter.

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Do you think it is the end? I mean, like THE END? Yes, it is absolutely the end. Also it is absolutely the beginning. Look, it just happened again! Damn, it's quick!

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Do you believe in ANY sort of God? If Not,do you think you might still pray if you were in a life -threatening situation? thoughts? I very much doubt there is any form of God. I've been in life-threatening situations, and haven't prayed about them. God supposedly created the universe and everything in it. That suggests a tremendous amount of power, which should leave an indelible mark. But in fact, we see no such marks. If he wants to talk to me, it should be a piece of cake -- he doesn't need to do it through...

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If you don't think outside the box aren't you following in others' footsteps? Isn't independent thought outside the fences, not in? To get less abstract, "what is the box?" I think that we're talking about two kinds of boxes: a) pre-existing concepts b) habitual thought patterns. An example of a pre-existing concept could be "everything that goes up must come down". If you believe this in a naive and unquestioned way, that's thinking "inside the box" -- not really questioning or understanding the topic. Habitual...

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According to Proverbs 13:24, whoever doesn't beat their children hates them. Do you love your children enough to physically abuse them? The wisdom of the Bible is a bit spotty: there's some good stuff and some not-so-good stuff. It's always wise to consider that these are folks who did not know that the Earth revolved around the Sun, or how to kill germs with alcohol. To take their advice in too many areas is to give them too much credit.

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A guy I REALLY like and am daying just told me he was head over heals for me via text. What do you think I should I say back!?? "Great! Lets make a fetus!" or "I'm playing hard to get, please repeat." or "If you break my heart, I will let my scorpions loose in your room" or "Hello, my name is Angela. I'll be your next victim."

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Well, it's that time again...who wants to suffer through another depressing poem of mine? Probably you've heard this plenty already, but just in case: Heartache hurts, obviously. I do not want to minimize your pain. But ultimately, you have a choice about how you relate to the matter, and that choice is crucial to your future. In short, either what happened will define your identity in ways which rob your future of possibilities, or you will treat it as a learning experience...

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Dream: I had sex with Satan, looked like a man, knew it was Satan, had his baby, wanted more sex, he took me with him, were going to have Dreams don't mean anything, they're just the mind's random imaginative activity. You might as well look for meaning in the shapes of clouds.

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Are the self-righteous ever right or only certain? What makes a person righteous,not deluded? Is righteous admirable? Can you describe it? There's a big difference between being right (as in, holding a correct view of something) and being self-righteous. The key difference is whether or not one is using that viewpoint to define their ego. Examples: (Just right): "The moon is not made out of green cheese" (Self-righteous): "I spend my life trying to straighten out these idiots who think the moon is made out of green cheese....

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Do you ever feel like your cat is into books more than you are? ;-) I don't think she reads at all. Books are a cat's way of making a human sit still so the cat can have a warm, stable bed.

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Term limits... Would THAT solve the problem?? I think it WOULD! I don't think term limits are the solution, because I don't think that long terms are necessarily the problem. I think there are several problems that join hands to make the current mess: 1. Money: this is the big one. Politicians have to fund campaigns, those campaigns are expensive, and thus they are vulnerable to what can only be called 'bribes' by large donors. Those large donors...

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Does anyone think that gal in the Progressive Insurance ad is hot? Not. Makes me reach for my can of Mace.

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Any good advice for guys who can't make any progress with women? The #1 nearly universal rule about women is that they like self-confidence. Not just any confidence, though -- confidence which is not wildly misplaced or blaring egotism. Sadly for guys who make no progress, this is not easy to fake: either you like yourself and feel comfortable in the world, or you don't, and the latter doesn't do well at pretending to be the former. So the best advice I...

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What language do you speak when you are angry? The ancient Chinese dialect of Yuck Fu.

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If a billionaire gives a billion dollars to get his boy elected to office are you impressed or distressed? Why? In America, Big Money has either taken over, or is in the process of doing so. I can't decide which, but I'm reasonably sure that it's bad for the country. Just as shouting fire in a theater should not be protected free speech, buying a massive PR spin machine to control the government (or worse, just buying up legislators with campaign contributions) should not be protected. The Supreme...

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Is the house you are living in now your "death house" meaning, do you think you will die there?last house to live in? Possibly, but I've always felt that "death house" misses some of the charm, so I call it Hasnt Manor.

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No rational person would burn a holy book of any religion. Fanatics do it any way and there is always he** to pay. Why do they? I agree that decisions to burn the Koran in Islamic countries represent pretty poor judgment. But we still should keep this in perspective: we're comparing the stupidity of burning the Koran to the stupidity of being so aggressively committed to the sanctity of a book that you would kill someone who didn't treat it as you believe it deserves. The former are stupid, the latter are crazy.

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As a student, what questions did Hitler often ask his teachers in school? "Do jous haf any Juz in ze attick!??"

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I don't own the clothes I'm wearing, and the road goes on forever ________________________ I've got one more silver dollar.

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What do you think of President Obama's plan to tax US companies on profits made in foreign countries? I would not dream of forming an opinion about this unless I had studied the details thoroughly first. I do wish that approach were more common. But I would like to point out an error in your post: it is not true that "entry level class in economics..." teaches that all costs are immediately passed on to customers. That's not consistent with economic theory. The costs will either be born...

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Do you think civility in society is breaking down? Well maybe: certainly if we're talking about "old school decency and manners", because anything traditional is under assault in our fast-changing world. On the other hand, a lot of what passed for decency in the past was in large part suppressive and dishonest: when people are being polite to each other, what are they *not* saying? What is the cumulative cost of that failure to...

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How do you propose to change the world? I don't really sense my ability to do that. But if the opportunity presents itself, the button I would push is the one that gets people to some quality time reflecting each day -- i.e. sitting quietly, without distractions or entertainment, not trying to figure things out or solve their problems or get lost in memories or fantasies, but simply reflecting on what they've seen and done and...

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The Universe we live in is unimaginably vast, mysterious and complex. How could it be possible for something to come out of nothingness? The question is based on a fallacious certainty: we don't really know what "nothingness" is, but it is clear that our common sense ideas about it are wrong -- and those are the ideas you've used as the basis for your question. Therefore the rest of the position is flawed.

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It seems like the Koran burning has found a soft spot amongst the Taliban. If we threaten to burn more Korans could we end this stupid war? All religions have their superstitions and absolutist inanities. If you're living in an asylum and want to stay safe, make sure you read the 'diagnosis' part of the charts.

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How lab software can be installed in server? Could you be less specific?

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Does speaking on a mobile phone through a hands-free device increase your risk of an accident more than talking to someone in the car? Yes, definitely. When there is another person in the car that person serves as a second set of eyes and ears, which helps to compensate for the distraction of the conversation. Also, all of your attention stays "here and now", and it takes less effort to understand someone live than on the phone. Finally, there's a psychological difference which is particularly important when something...

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remember what the doorman said? You mean the dormouse?

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What does the world need? Almost 6 years on Answerbag, and I'm surprised to realize that I've never seen anybody post this question before! Wow... So I've seen 28 other answers, including some good stuff. But when people say that the world needs more peace or love or truth (which I agree with), the thing that glares out at me is the question "yeah, but how you gonna get that stuff?" It might be true that we need...

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Which has the greater mass, 1.204 x 1024 molecules of molecular hydrogen or 1.204 x 1024 molecules of water? Each molecule of water has more mass than each molecule of hydrogen, therefore the water is more massive.

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Santorum would be a great president for those who share his beliefs..not so much for others. Where is he on us? Are we sinners/unworthy? Well clearly we're going to Hell and that experience might as well start now. Call it a sneak preview. :) Seriously, though -- that America is taking Santorum seriously is a sign of just how desperate and divided the country is: historically, religious extremists have not made much of a splash on the national level in politics. Now we're in a situation much like Egypt, which has to...

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Why do so many religious people claim Adolf Hitler was an atheist? His true religion was egomania.

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Have you ever been to Riverside, CA? Oh yes... the glamour, the stars, the bright lights and vast golf courses and row upon row of Mercedes at the glittering malls! What a city!

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why Islam religion is spreading so strongly around the world ? I think if someone manages to dig up good data, they'll find that it's all about reproduction rates: it's not that non-believers are converting to Islam in massive numbers, its that Islamic cultures produce more children per-capita.

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If you have a day in which you feel nothing you do matters, what do you do with your time? Does the feeling pass? How? It's been a long time since I had that feeling! :) But basically, this is something that I deal with by "facing the mirror". It is my job to make my life worthwhile, and to make my actions align with my values, and to change something if it seems like it's not working or not valuable. As long as I keep that in mind, the temptation to become passive or think in victim-like ways does not...

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What is meant by "psychic rewards"? It means there's a reward for anyone who can prove the existence of psychic powers. It goes unclaimed decade after decade.

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Do you find the purpose in life is more about discovering who you are or creating who you want to be? No, I reject any notion of purpose which is "discovered" or treated as an external framework which one is supposed to follow. Purpose is invented: the rules of life make this opportunity available to those who take responsibility for themselves and life. Life does not impose a purpose or pre-determine one, it's just that if one takes responsibility at a sufficient level, it becomes natural...

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Is there a difference between a Bartender and a Mixologist? The bartender is self-taught, the mixologist has a Ph.D. in getting people drunk.

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Why do some people think that having several gods is "irrational"? Because it's philosophically messy: any theory or philosophy benefits from "coherence" or unity -- in any area, you want all of your related ideas to fit together into a schema which has a harmonic quality to it: everything in its place, all working as a whole. The idea of a single God is much neater and more cohesive than having a bunch of Gods for all sorts of things -- that has greater...

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To me, ____________________ is a spiritual experience. Reminding my 2 year old of his memories. A bit of explanation: for some reason, this child just loves to reminisce. We'll be in a restaurant, and he'll be distracted and fussy and refusing to eat his dinner. Then, mom or I will remember the Golden Rule of getting him to cooperate. It goes like this: Daddy: "Do you remember when..." (Child's head spins suddenly toward daddy, fully...

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Does everything need to make sense? Yes. Only don't pretend things make sense when they don't. Back up and try again.

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A person is the sum total of thoughts/deeds. If someone is capable of thinking it, is he/she capable of doing it? Including murder? I don't think so. I can think all sorts of thoughts that I could not or would not do. I can imagine pushing the nuclear button to clear space for my megapark, but I wouldn't do it. I also don't think that "a person is the sum total of thoughts/deeds" is a valid way to define a human being.

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Big software companies make viruses and worms to sell their anti-virus programs.Is this a conspiracy?Or truth? No, I don't think that's true. There's enough real malware to justify their business model, there's no extra money to be made by covertly cooking up malware, and doing so would be extremely risky -- employees sometimes talk to the media.

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What is the matter with your life that you can't manage to fix? I don't think it works that way. The fixing *is* my life, not some sort of barrier to living.

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Do stand-alone principles exist or only those that pertain to one's own self-interest? Is principle flexible or immutable? We're talking about ethics, yes? I think we can agree that gravity stands independent of human thought, but ethics is a trickier topic. To me, it's obvious that different cultures at different times and places all manage to cook up some common-sounding ethical principles. That suggests that there is something which transcends individuality and culture, which guides the development of these...

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Finding the cause of a problem is essential to fixing it. The auto mechanic has to find the problem in order to repair it properly, right? Well, understanding certainly helps. Sometimes we stumble onto solutions which work without really understanding why they work, and that's OK too -- but there's no real mastery or new competence in such cases. Obviously it is better to really know what is going on, then you can better predict what will work.

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Seriously, why can't gay people get married? why can my loving friends,who have loved, argued piss and crazied for 30 years get married? Because humanity as a whole is not very refined in their understanding of morality, and therefore commonly confuses cultural norms with moral principles. "Traditional marriage" is a cultural norm, not a moral foundation. When you don't know the difference, and just fear change in general, you gather up the villagers and hand out torches and pitchforks. The assault on the monster's castle...

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Is America bought and payed for? For the most part, yes: if you're a wealthy individual or corporation, you take your agenda to Washington and indirectly buy the policy you need. These folks don't control everything, only the things they care about. But that's still a lot. "One person, one vote" is a romantic illusion.

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Do you think that we are experiencing a financial decline in our country like the ancient Romans?, or do you think it is different? It's different: labor and capital now move freely around the world to the most efficient suppliers. That means that, for the most part, American and European labor is overpriced relative to the emerging markets. Given the freedom to move production to cheaper sources, corporations will do that and it's hard to blame them. However, the economy is not a zero-sum game: higher-skilled...

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What Would this Country (USA) Look Like if we All Were Forced to Live By Rick Santorum's Vision of "...how things are supposed to be."? We'd all drive horseless carriages, because God gave man dominion over animals but not over petroleum distillates. Every family would have 19 kids and counting, as God hates wasted sperm. The secular-humanist-atheist-communist sympathizers would be identified and branded on the forehead for the life-sucking dogs that they are, forced into hard labor under loudspeakers of therapeutic hymns...

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What moron decided on curly braces {} for C-ish languages!? That would be Dennis Ritchie and Brian Kernighan back in the early 1970's. They were kind of hoping you'd gotten over the upset by now.

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Do you ever feel bad for a banana or whatever that grows and gets eaten and never gets to be anything but a banana or whatever? Like, man, that just makes me wanna cry my way back to the womb. You struck a nerve, and I think you know it. Awesome.

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Do you need a haircut right now? No, I can wait 5 minutes: go ahead and finish your question.

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Do you know that Buddha ( more than 500 years before Christ) and Christ's teaching are very similar ? have you studied comparisons? Well, no, it's just not true. Buddha's fundamental and most useful teaching was that the power of self-observation reveals the absence of a substantive self, and from that derives all sorts of other insights and the resolution of the human condition. Jesus taught that he was the direct son of an as-yet-undemonstrated God, and that by a complex alchemy of theological contortions, one could be...

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Do you tend to exaggerate things alot? I have never, ever, ever exaggerated even one tiny little itsy bitsy teeny weeny bit.

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Do we have to be tolerant enough to accept dangerous and harmful idiocy, idiologies ? It depends on what you mean by "tolerant": certainly we must tolerant all sorts of dangerous nonsense as *ideas* and viewpoints, the alternatives just do not work and aren't conducive to a culture which values freedom and trusts that the best will rise to the top. That's very different than tolerating dangerous or harmful *behavior* based on those ideas. Naturally we can and do define...

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Do you believe there are any moral absolutes? Why or why not? I wouldn't say "moral absolutes", I would say "moral principles". There are principles that can be derived from our experience of living, which one can legitimately classify as transcendent to individual and circumstance. Those principles, when understood, guide moral judgments in particular situations. They don't tell you what to do, but they provide the templates which can be applied to...

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Why are so many raving about illegal immigrants when we ourselves are illegal immigrants? "Illegal" is a funny word. It means "in violation of the law", but we often think it means "immoral". The phenomenon you're talking about -- where people "rave" about illegal immigrants -- is interesting. Indeed, it does sound as if they're seething in righteous anger about immoral behavior. But it's pretty hard to classify this as immoral: if you're not a citizen of the U.S. bound by...

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My boyfriend bought me a v day gift yesterday and then didnt wish me a happy v day today by call or text. What do u think about that? I'm guessing that his education regarding the maintenance of a woman is just beginning.

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Shall we tax ourselves out of a recession? In theory, yes: by shifting the balance of capital and cash flows to the right spots, it is possible to "tax ourselves out of a recession". The question is whether we understand the system well enough to know where, how, and when to move the money. It is a problem of such complexity that it pretty much defies analysis, and certainly the simplistic economic theories applied by politicians and...

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Did you know rats cannot be sick? Rats can definitely be sick. Making them sick is one of the primary ways we test drugs.

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When you put balloons up on the wall at a party, do you put two small round ones with a long sausage shaped one in between? No, but I used to be fascinated with hand farts -- then I noticed that my voice was getting deeper and I was getting hair in strange places. Scary stuff, and also pretty much the end of having this sort of fun, for me.

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In real life are there many serial killers like Dexter who kill only bad guys and into things like blood splatter analysis for good guys? Um, no. Serial killer=bad. That's just TV.

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Can someone be certain of "The Uncertainty Principle"?Regarding that the principle is correct , then you must be uncertain of it and it... Uncertainty is the only thing we're certain about, and even that is in doubt. But, at least we have a principle!

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19 kids and 2 miscarriages. Do you think God wants Michelle Duggar to have more kids at age 45?. I dunno. Certainly their lifestyle is unusual, but the kids seem well-adjusted and they seem to have the resources for such a huge brood. I can't imagine doing that with my life, but I don't really see the harm either. I just wish they'd come up with a name that doesn't start with 'J'.

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Chicago: The most corrupt city in the nation. What else would you expect from the place that gave rise to Obama? Obama is also personally responsible for raining out the Red Sox game last July. Those darn democrat!

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So it's Valentine's Day and I'm slow cooking a leg of lamb in the crock pot for my lady. What are you doing? Wondering where is my Betsy, my beloved lamb.

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What if you were to decide to be happy, no matter what else was happening? I would say that it doesn't quite work that way. You have to *understand* what allows happiness and what causes suffering, and ongoingly make choices which favor the former and minimize the latter. Otherwise, it's like standing in front of a machine that you know nothing about and ordering it to make pizza. You'll likely go hungry.

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in the bible it says god created the earth and the heavenS is it possible heavens are acutely other planets and he himself lives there? It is very unlikely that he exists, let alone lives on other planets. If I might offer an unsolicited bit of advice: its time to start paying attention in science class.

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I think homeless people should join the military, what do you think? As a taxpaying citizen, I would prefer to have a military service made up of competent and professional people with skills and good judgment. I'm not saying that all homeless people lack that, but it's not the best recruiting pool.

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Do you really think the USA is not a terrorist pushing and shoving, invading sovreign countries? A "bully" perhaps, not a "terrorist". Terrorism suggests targeting innocents intentionally, as well as a lack of substantial power which forces one to use hit-and-run tactics, hide out, etc. By contrast, the U.S. military is massive and well marked, and does not normally target civilians. The "bully" label applies because when you're that much bigger than others, the tendency to make light...

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Why don't conservatives want to help the poor? In every pile of shit, there is a kernel of truth struggling to get out. The kernel of truth is that an environment which demands that people rise to meet a challenge (such as feeding themselves and their families) tends to produce a higher level of competence than one which treats people as helpless and enables them to continue faltering. This is essentially the attitude of a parent who...

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Is Bill Moyers a liberal shill? People who are intelligent and thoughtful often turn out to be liberals if you listen long enough. There's a simple reason: there are only so many ways you can say "go back to the past! go back to the past!", so the conservatives all tend to sound alike. By contrast, liberals are interested in the development of new approaches and ideas, and there are an unlimited number of those....

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I needed to use regular drywall primer for my unpainted walls and I used enamel undercoat primer & sealer. Will this start to peel off? I don't think so. The question is whether your finish coat(s) will stick. Chances are decent, but you should see what the paint mfg says.

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How would you best summarize your basic reaction to the "Twilight" series in a brief sentence? I've always liked to watch the sunset and then take a slow walk back home. It's nice.

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What was Jesus (Christ) like in his rebellious years? He hung out around the pool hall, drinking grape juice and asking strangers if they wanted to be saved. When they rejected his offer and walked away, sometimes he would shout after them "my Dad can send your Dad to Hell!"

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Do you beleive the Pyramids of Giza was made by gods? Yes, of course. I also believe that Peter Pan killed Captain Hook for the love of Tinkerbelle and that every time you step on a crack you break your mother's back.

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Smoking is hazardous to smokers and non smokers. Why isn't it banned if it's so deadly to everyone. I think i know, what do u think. I think smoking is disgusting and the tobacco industry is an ethical cesspool. BUT, I'm a big fan of freedom, and I while I think it is legitimate for the society to decide to ban some activities for the benefit of all, that hammer should be used very sparingly and only in cases where the harm to the innocent is severe. In the case of tobacco, I just don't think it meets that standard:...

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She's lied about being pregnant twice & about her cousin beating her ( her blackeye wasnt waterproof) . She's 16 HELP?! I assume this is your daughter? At 16, there's a limit to what you can do perhaps. I would try to get her to a therapist. If she doesn't want to go you should try to find some sort of motivation or persuasive argument... it's useless to force someone into therapy. Basically this is a bid for attention: this kid has low self-esteem, feels ignored or unwanted or unloved or something along...

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Should anyone who applies to join the police, army or government be rejected as the sort of people we don't want in those positions? Yes, I would never join a club that would have someone like me as a member.

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Is serving/servicing wealth the quickest way to become wealthy yourself? Are there better ways,surer ways or is that the only way? Why? If I were an authority on how to become wealthy, I would buy Answerbag and fix the dang status queries.

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"Stay quiet/Look presidentia/Don't answer questions". Is this a winning strategy for a presidential wannabe? Does silence work for you? Well it's true that taking as few positions as possible minimizes your wind resistance with public opinion -- nothing much for people to get mad about. If your goal is simply to win (rather than to make a difference), it's not a bad strategy.

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Have you ever been travelling on a train when it was being held up by Mexican bandits? No, but I've been stopped more than once by the Mexican army while traveling on back roads, and had that queasy feeling that comes from wondering if these guys are really the army when approaching the checkpoint.

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how can anyone experience anything when they are outside time and space? They can't.

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What happened to your soul? When I realized that I was making up the whole notion, it disappeared. Like Tinkerbelle, it only exists if you believe in it. "Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, does not go away." - Philip K. Dick

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If you get away with cheating you have the advantage. Everything has a price. What price do cheaters pay? Is it enough to balance things? I don't think there's any cosmic enforcement of ethical principles -- evildoers really do get away with evil much of the time, and good is often not rewarded. Religion tries to tell us otherwise, but those stories come apart rapidly when wetted with reason. The real cost for our ethical failures is measured in being: you cannot be yourself fully, and have the benefits that come from that,...

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Saw the movie "Defending Your Life" on TV. If you had to defend yours would you do it or hire the best lawyer you could afford? Why? I think I'd go for the pity defense right away. When it's 4th and 103, you punt.

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How can i completely open my third eye? right now it tingles and how can i see auras better? I can see my aura if i concentrate. There's no such thing as a "third eye" or "auras". This is all pure superstition, and the best thing you can do is give that stuff up.

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Why cann't I forgive myself and forgive my x when I really should do that to be able to move on? Any advise will be welcomed. The reason you can't let go of it is because the relationship is telling you who you are -- it's saying things you don't want to hear: i.e. that you're a victim, or that you're weak, or that you're stupid. When you have voices in your head saying such things, you are very likely to have an internal conflict that may seem impossible to resolve. Because he took advantage of you, and you went a...

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Don't you want to dump Obama and start another 20-year economic expansion just like happened under Reagan-Bush? Since you set yourself up for a spanking on this one, you can't blame others for the result.

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What purpose were we created for? Sorry, that's not how it works. That we exist is a given, there's no evidence we were created. If somebody wants a purpose -- which is a good thing to have -- they are responsible for creating it themselves. If you don't do that, then you have no purpose. It's a very personal phenomena.

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Feeling very depressed about being long term single. How can I feel better? I realize that this is probably not the kind of answer you're looking for, so apologies in advance. But I think it's the only truly "comprehensive" answer for your suffering, so I offer it anyway. The real problem is not that you're not in a relationship with another person, the problem is that you're not in a relationship with *yourself*. The ultimate source of happiness in life is being...

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My money is not enough. How to find the extra money? Sorry: a lot of low-skilled jobs have moved to places like China and India, and those jobs are not coming back. A large segment of the population in the West is probably going to be unemployed for a long time, until the global conditions equalize somewhat and it becomes less profitable to move labor overseas. Even then, a skills upgrade will probably be required to achieve income stability...

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What fuels pessimism? Lack of self-understanding and personal responsibility: when your happiness depends on what happens externally, it is always fragile.

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What was there before the 'big bang'? Nobody knows. There are various hypotheses, including the notion that the question is invalid (i.e. if time began at the Big Bang, the word "before" would be meaningless and the question void). One possibility that's intriguing is that our universe is like a bubble in an unlimited sea of such bubbles: they "pop" into existence from a multidimensional matrix that we don't yet understand,...

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Do you see more and more people who seem to "spiritually bankrupt?" Can this be a good thing if so? I don't know if anyone has a way to measure this, so that we could say whether or not people are more "spiritually bankrupt" than in the past. My suspicion is that it's sort of a steady hum in life, and that individual perceptions vary based on perspective. Another bit of this topic is that often you have to go bankrupt before you can move on and grow. The kinds of spirituality that are...

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Atheists, on your death bed would you pray to God, just in case, or would you remain an atheist to the very end? I really doubt it. I hope to be clear-headed enough to appreciate my final moments of life, to reflect on the good and the bad, and see it all for the whole that it is. May those left behind grow wiser and do the same, and perhaps someday the world will escape the prison of superstitions.

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Have you ever thought that you could not be here if the other sperm got there first? I WAS the other sperm. I feel sorry for the dude who got bumped, but hey... that's life. No whining.

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soil analysis and mapping the information to a geographical information system database what kind client server configuration do need. The question is a bit vague. If the soil analysis data is located in a central database, and if the other GIS information is slow-changing, I would probably recommend putting the bulk of the GIS data locally on the client machine, and have the soil analysis layers constructed dynamically from queries against the database. Other possibilities exist, but you have to provide a lot more...

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HOW TO PICK AN ONLINE REPUTATION MANAGEMENT COMPANY? Start by picking one that doesn't spam people.

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Why do you religionists beat up on Atheists??? You SAY we beat up on you, but we don't. REAL atheists don't care what you believe? MrJosh is right (http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/11797485): atheists are not a monolithic block who all think alike and act alike. Atheism is a huge, abstract category which includes anybody who doesn't think that gods exist. Within that space, there are a myriad of other viewpoints and behavior patterns and attitudes. The same is true, to a somewhat lesser degree, of believers: while it is...

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Conservatives: Do you believe in the cycle of poverty? Certainly it exists, especially in America: the poor have poorer schools and neighborhoods, that influences child development and increases the difficulty of escaping poverty for a child, raising the chances that they will live in poor neighborhoods as adults and be poor themselves. The most obvious "choke point" for this cycle is education: as long as poor neighborhoods have poor schools...

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Does too much money tend to subvert or enhance Democracy? How? Well I think without question that political donations and other forms of patronage distort the "1 person 1 vote" principle. Obviously not all votes are created equal when anybody with a big wallet can sidle up to a representative and make friends.

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Why do Obama's classmates at Columbia not remember him? I stumbled onto this with 10 seconds of Googling. Of course I can't vouch for all of the details, but it wasn't hard to find: http://www.factcheck.org/2010/02/obama-at-columbia-university/

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At well over $100 per carton (nyc), is it time to start rolling your own? Would you really save much? I suspect the taxes on unrolled tobacco are enough to serve as an equalizer. The real savings come from quitting the destructive behavior, of course :) Presumably you got that letter from the surgeon general?

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How do you teach your heart its not a crime to fall in love again? By developing a richer understanding of what is controlling your emotions and behavior. Your actual decisions (and mine) are mostly determined by the mind's attempt to navigate a course between two kinds of markers in the water: "repellent personas" and "attractive personas". A repellent persona is an image or fleeting idea of the person(s) you don't want to be. Attractive personas are the...

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Do you find the labeling "conservative" & "liberal" to be adequate? Is a mixed person like me a "misfit?" I think that perhaps the #1 cognitive error permeating human culture is "excessive generalization". The power to simplify something by reducing it to sweeping abstractions is a double-edged sword: it helps us organize our knowledge and understand the world, but it also introduces lots of distortion. If one is not alert to this distortion, or fails to take it into account, the results are...

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Should US based global companies have an obligation to American workers or shareholders ? Can they co-exist ? Should government intervene ? I think it would be nice if corporations had a conscience. I just don't think it's a realistic expectation. As abstract entities, driven by the collective self-interest of shareholders and executives, there's no way to realistically change the way corporations think so that they'll alter their course to help the little guy. Only regulation can make that happen. This is a difficult...

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Is there a fundamentalist atheist? or an othodox type of atheism? Perhaps the spirit of fundamentalism when framed in atheism is "I can prove there's no possibility of God". The concept can't get much more adamant than that.

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Do you have an 18-24 month old?..see description I have a 27-month-old. For at least the last 9 months, he has usually had a long nap most afternoons: 1.5 - 3 hours. He gets up around 8 AM and goes to bed often after 9 PM. He is incredibly cute. I realize that's not relevant.

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Do you pray/wish for things to be easier...or for you to be stronger? I don't pray. In my view, there's nobody to pray to -- it's talking to yourself. I do talk to myself, of course, and at its best that conversation is about personal responsibility: it's about uprooting the places where I have let myself off the hook for the results I have in my life. The notion that I would look outside of myself for miraculous help -- either to be stronger or to have God...

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How does God View divorcing? There is no evidence that gods exist, so it's not rational to speculate about their views.

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Is mathematics based on faith in logic? That's bending the word "faith" too far, in my opinion. Faith refers to trusting something without evidence, or on scant evidence. There is overwhelming evidence that math works, in that it allows us to make predictions which are demonstrated to be true. It's utility is well established. By contrast, there's really no evidence at all that something like religious faith is either justified...

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Libs: Just what is it that makes you so universally "entitled" to other people's money? Dishonest question #1,302. Only 500 more to go to set a new Answerbag Jackass record!

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What did people argue about on the internet before religion became the fashion? The very first argument on the Internet was about whether or not TCP or IP were more important. The pro-TCP camp were initially more forgiving, reassembling their opponent's arguments into neat streams of contiguous ideas, while the pro-IP camp was widely regarded as fragmented and abrupt. But as time went by, these two groups realized how interconnected they were, and how neither could...

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Why is it when Americans talk about Canada they seem to have a dumb smirk on there face or think there better? Something funny about Canada? Canada's like one of those boxes in the garage that you can't throw out: it might be useful someday, although you can't immediately see anything that you need there. So you hang on to it, and scold yourself for being sentimental.

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Is an agenda behind Atheism not so much freedom from religion but freedom from moral/ethical restraints if not one and the same? Uh, no. But, you've seen all of the responses to this question already -- many times. You either didn't read them, didn't understand them, or immediately re-interpreted them in light of the pre-existing commitment you have to an entrenched and superstitious world view. So the real question is "why are you bothering to ask?" You know you won't listen to the answers or engage honestly with...

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How can I get old AB members to return so I can add them to my friends list? If you love something, set it free. If it doesn't come back to you, hunt it down and kill it.

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I still feel guilty for not wanting to be a Christian anymore at times. How can I make it so that I never feel this way again? I don't think that's a terribly good goal to have -- trying to not have a particular feeling ever again. What matters in the long run is how well you understand your own psychological machinery, as well as the quality of your "management" of that psychology. Things like guilt are mechanistic reactions rooted in beliefs: the idea is to understand those beliefs and those reactions, and allow...

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Why do people say the world is overcrowded when there are 3 square miles of land per person? Not all land is created equal. Land which has sufficient resources (water, arable earth, reasonable climate) is not equally distributed around the planet, and political forces distort the availability of the land. In addition, we are now very much dependent on the complex technical and industrial infrastructure we've created, and that is not distributed equally. So the world is overcrowded...

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what is terminal server error in windows 2003 server services pack 2 and how can we rectify this problem Kindly request you all to help me. 1. That is not nearly enough detail for anyone to help you. 2. www.serverfault.com is a much better site for this kind of question. The first thing they will tell you is #1 above.

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When would you not blame somebody for lying? Why? When lying is the right choice in the situation. My canonical example is lying to the Gestapo at the door about whether you have hidden Jews in the attic. To know when it is right or wrong to lie, you have to have a solid understanding of moral values so you don't get confused by absolutism.

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Is asking your wife for permission to stay in the marraige while you keep a mistress a mark of character? I don't care how many marriages or affairs someone has had, it has little to do with their governing savvy. What is hilarious is the level of sanctimony and hypocrisy from guys like Newt as he lectures the rest of the country on morality and "upholds" marriage by opposing gay marriage. Obviously he's a big fan of marriage, as he's done it 3 times. He should share that privilege with others,...

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Can a convicted felon vacation in Mexico? Mexico is not terribly picky about who stops by. Convicted felons fit right in, they have to fight off their new friends with automatic weapons.

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They say that someone has the security codes to Norton security,and will hack trhu Tuesday.are u worried? This is an old version of the Symantec corporate product, not Norton anti-virus. The Symantec code was originally purchased from Intel many years ago -- it's bug ridden and convoluted, and its hard to imagine a worse punishment for a programmer than having someone drop that junk on their doorstep with a request that they analyze it. So any hacker who decides that he wants to attack old...

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What do you miss about the 80s? Nothing much. If I had a delete button that could put 10 more years on my life, the 80's would be the first thing to go. The music stank, the politics stank, John Lennon was shot, and it seemed like the world just got stuck in a culture loop. It's the Delete Me Decade.

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MPAA responds: Sites participating in blackout day-"irresponsible" & calls the blackouts "abuse of power" Do you agree? Their sense of humor persists. Weak on irony detection, though.

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Whatever happened to Cybil Shepherd? She looked all over the house for her new fuzzy socks, and couldn't find them. Turns out they were in the laundry. Solved!

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(R)Santorum believes contraception is pubic enemy No.1 even for married people.Do you agree? Why or why not? I say lets find the most superstitious and backward save-the-rich-while- thumping-the-Bible sanctimonious jackass we can find and put him in charge of making sure that corporate rights are protected and the 1% get wealthier. Its time we ended the divisive debates over whether or not the poor and middle class should just up and die to get out of Jesus' way. Oh, and make them reproduce like...

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Is Wal-Mart the Golden Child of capitalism? I think it's reasonable to argue that Wal-Mart represents a preview of what we can expect from unrestrained free markets, in which government abdicates any role in maintaining standards, imposing rules and regulations. A purely free-market entity pursues efficiency ruthlessly, squeezing out all other values. It has no qualms about stepping on anybody who gets in its way. A world composed...

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Did technology play a significant role in the 2007 subprime meltdown and the subsequent global financial crisis and recession? Yes, in the sense that all of the key enablers for the modern world set the stage where something like this could happen -- it would not have happened in the 1800's because the technical infrastructure was not in place to permit that kind of commoditization and high-speed international trade of abstract financial instruments. But technology didn't cause the meltdown: that was simple greed,...

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If prayer really does work, why are you still allowed to pray for Olympic athletes? Perhaps I'm missing the point of the question, but in general believers don't claim that there is some limit on what you can pray for, yes?

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Why are unconstitutional laws allowed to become laws in the first place? Because the conclusion that it is unconstitutional only happens in court, and the case only gets to court when someone with legal standing challenges the law. So the law has to exist first in order to be challenged. It's just the way the system works. It could have been designed differently, but this is how it was designed.

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im beggining to question god how did he come to be It's quite simple, really. Your parents told you that he existed, and you believed everything your parents told you. They most likely got that idea from their parents, and so forth... back in time until we come to some ancestor who either invented the idea or adopted it from someone else who had either invented or inherited it. That's how all gods come into existence: we make them up.

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"I dont hire young or attractive women because it distracts my guys from doing their job." Your thoughts on this comment. It does seem like someone with that attitude has inadequate management skills -- it is true that problems can arise, but its better to solve those problems by establishing policy and supervising well, rather than setting up a hiring discrimination policy (which is illegal, so presumably it would be a secret policy).

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Do you believe in mind over matter? Oh, no. Reality is full of all sorts of constraints: I cannot fly by flapping my arms, no matter how strong I might be. I think any other approach is magical thinking: the stuff of daydreams from people who don't have any demands on themselves to produce tangible results. If you have to make something happen, you don't have the luxury of indulging in fantasies of unlimited power -- you have...

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For atheist that were former Christians. How long did it take you to see the truth? How long until the fear of being wrong left you? I was raised by a Baptist preacher, and all of my extended family were believers. I had various spurts of Christianity, but even long after I decided it wasn't true, I still had that lingering superstition that maybe they weren't entirely wrong. But as the years go by, and I learned more and more about how many things that I was taught were completely false, and learned more about how...

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Why is auto correct so horrible? An axiom in software design is that a "helpful" feature which guesses the user's input must be right 90% of the time to be an aid rather than an annoyance. Auto-correct in MS Office just doesn't get it right often enough.

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Is the poor neighborhood in your city the result of the people who live there, or the result of government POLICY? There's a mix of forces which produce the geographic stratification by income. In general, people who are wealthier can move to the more desirable areas, and that lowers the economic state of the place they left behind: less tax revenue, less spending in the local economy, less demand for housing. As time goes by, poor areas tend to become poorer. One aspect where government matters is...

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Why do white people say 'fo' sho shawty' all the time I have been spared the pleasure of hearing even one person say that. Maybe I'm hangin in the wrong 'hood?

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Whose career has died that you wish was revived? I miss gas station attendants. It used to be so different -- they would pump your gas and check your oil and tire pressure and maybe even chat about the weather. In the 73-74 oil embargo, they started to disappear, and gas stations started becoming "self serve" -- something nobody had ever seen before. Nobody knew how to work the pumps, we all had to learn! You get gas on your hands, and...

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Understanding Atheism... is it better that life has a higher meaning, and a higher purpose, or that, this is it, to life.... Atheism doesn't specify anything about the meaning of life, or introduce any concepts like "higher purpose" or meaning. It sounds like you're asking about humanism, which is a non-theistic philosophy that does address those questions. Atheism isn't really the right topic, as atheism just means absence of belief in God. As for higher meanings and purposes, my own view is that all talk of...

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Scientist work 7 days to create ways to deny The 7 days of Creations is this evidence we can't change God Precedent? Your Tourette's is acting up again, Andy. Breathe deep, and get someone else to review your questions before you post them, and there's a good chance you'll come up with something that makes sense. Remember, we're all rooting for you!

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Is it ok to force, those who do not want to accept it), homosexual marriage and lifestyle on people? Ministers should not be forced to marry gays. Employers *should* be forced to hire based on qualifications, and *must* ignore aspects of a person's life which are irrelevant to the job, including sexual orientation. Honestly, you're talking like a bigot. Homosexuality does not hurt you in the least, gay marriage does nothing to harm you. So stop whining, and respect others' rights.

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Do you think 15 year olds are children? If I'm paying for their movie tickets, yes. If I'm expecting them to get a job, no.

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Logic is used in saying, this or that, is right logically, but, is logic ever wrong, in any way? Logic -- as in formal, procedural rules for deriving implied truths from given truths -- is a mathematical discipline. As long as the input to the matrix of deductions is "clean" (i.e. devoid of ambiguity and other forms of trouble), the conclusions are reliable and provable. But this is not what most humans are talking about when they claim that some conclusion is logical or illogical....

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Who has been active on AB the longest? and how long? years, months? I started in Sept. 2006. When I got here, ImAlec, Glenn Blaylock, LynfromNM, and a few others were already active -- and they still are. Of those, Glenn seems to be the oldest, he started Aug 2004: http://www.answerbag.com/profile/7779 Probably if you ask him, he may remember someone who was here when he started who is still active.

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do you think a married man would spend a night once a month with his single brother or do you think he is spending that night with a lady Nobody knows. Certainly it's possible that he's having an affair, it seems a bit strange to spend the night with your brother once a month (can't they just have lunch?). But weirder things have happened. You'd need to provide more information for us to guess any better than "maybe"...

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If I weren't an atheist, I'd convert to ...........................?! I'm only a fraction of an inch from becoming a ranting, dancing-is-sin, Jesus-wants-us-to-kill-all-the-Muslims fundamentalist. The only thing holding me back from this complete reversal of mindset is that God doesn't answer my prayers to be a billionaire. As soon as that happens, we'll be good.

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Is it a good thing to fight the monotony of "everyday" Life, or should one just "let it happen?" So lets get some vocabulary organized for this, ok? Vitality: the quality of aliveness and energy which someone brings to activities. Automaticity: the quality of operating by rote... mechanical, repetitive, devoid of spirit and energy. Vision: the ability to see possibilities for the future. Resignation: the belief that one is stuck with the limited options available and cannot improve...

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Why do some people develop an intolerance for the young when they started out there and should understand. Most of us are not very good at understanding the process of individual development: humans keep on growing and changing as they get older, long after they reach 18. If I were forced to justify some of the things I did at 23 or 27 or 35 even, I would hide under the pillow.

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Atheist: Do you agree that religion = hate? No, of course not. But religion does provide a very deep basis for division into us-vs-them, and that often metastasizes into hate and conflict. Most of the nastiest and bloodiest conflicts in history have a religious aspect to them. Even so, this isn't a natural feature of religion, it's a feature of ignorance.

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Would you consider me narcissistic, If I really like the way I look? Im not snobby just really pleased with myself and my success. Not narcissistic. A bit insecure perhaps, in that there's an undercurrent of needing approval from others about this. I don't think that's a problem, it's normal for young people to need reassurance, and that usually fades as one ages. Meanwhile, if you find things about yourself that you like, no problem.

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who of u knows "engineer is Terminator's " on AB here since the beginning? Well I like him. But his profile says he joined in 2007, so that certainly is not the beginning. I myself have been here since 2006, and I know a few others who date back further than that.

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Name something you couldn't care less about? I don't even care enough to name it.

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May I schedule a tour of the Answer Bag facility? Sure, here you go: http://maps.google.com/maps?q=1454+3rd+street+santa+monica&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hq=&hnear=0x80c2a4d02b03cfc1:0x4f859324ab3e4d87,1454+3rd+St,+Santa+Monica,+CA+90401&gl=us&ei=F3YIT7rFJIGoiAKTpfi3CQ&sa=X&oi=geocode_result&ct=title&resnum=1&ved=0CB4Q8gEwAA Its the little...

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Will the powers that be always be the powers that be? Is it always the same folks who control everything no matter who 'wins'? Why? The "why" is, I think, because the crude and fixed structures which we have for transferring power and influence are not flexible and robust enough to withstand the power of huge money waves. "Government by the people" is a great idea. Getting that implemented is much more difficult than we think -- like... an order of magnitude more difficult. Simply voting every 2 years for one of 2...

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Has the feminist movement's support of the notion 'men should NEVER hit women' actually increased violence? So if I'm allowed to hit someone a little bit, that will "vent the steam" and prevent me from hitting them really hard? No, I think that's not a very good theory. Violence begets more violence, and people are not steam kettles.

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Wouldn't a pyramid scheme only not be a scam if everyone knew what was going on? I agree that pyramid schemes exploit the difference in knowledge between the top and bottom of the pyramid: they're a money pump which works because the people at the bottom don't understand, but the people at the top do. I don't see what that has to do with liberals or economics, though. Seems to be unrelated thoughts all thrown together.

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I guess the GOP and Dems pay advisors to advise them. I think all the advisors are doing an incredibly lousy job. What do you think? No, I think plenty of advisors do a good job giving advice. The trouble is that advice isn't followed: the representatives must do what their financial backers say the must do: the advice is mainly useful for spin-doctoring the actual actions, which are pretty much a foregone conclusion dictated by the money. The art of politics in America is making the people think that their...

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2. Third party would guarantee the re-election of Obama – agree? It would make no difference at all: no matter which party wins, the true winners are always the big corporations and wealthy. The illusion that the government is responsive to the people is convenient for those who have real power: it keeps people from noticing them.

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Does quantum mechanics suggest that thoughts can directly affect the physical world? There's a bit of superstition running around -- particularly in the New Age and "spiritual" community -- that QM's emphasis on observation as an input to determining the outcome of quantum events means that somehow the observer (us) controls reality at a fundamental level. To these believers, it seems like QM has dropped the gift of mind-before-matter on them, and now they're free to invent...

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When I think Of America I think of______________(first thing comes to mind;-))? A formerly free place that was sold to corporations and the wealthy and forgot to issue a receipt.

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Here I sit cheering for Kansas State over Arkansas only because a man I loathe is an Arkansas fan. Doesn't speak highly of me does it? It tells you something about psychology. It's a mistake to take it personally, the correct approach is to observe the facts with a neutral mind: "Oh, I see. The brain makes an association between the loathed man and the school he likes, and lumps them both in the 'avoid' category". That's a useful bit of self-knowledge, and it doesn't apply just to you. If you take it personally and use...

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What's something that's always moving? The politician's mouth.

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Who will topple the Google Empire? Any company that can escape the IRS is immune to my influence: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-10-21/google-2-4-rate-shows-how-60-billion-u-s-revenue-lost-to-tax-loopholes.html

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Never underestimate the power of ________. An oft-repeated falsehood.

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Seems like conservatives not only want you to "get a job", but they want you to get the kind of job they want you to have? Presumably you want a job, and they want you to have a job, yes? So far, no problem. The only problem is there ain't no jobs, yes? Next time somebody tells you to get a job, tell them to create one.

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Why am I considered a bigot if I feel that Westerners don't know what a marriage is, with their 50% divorce? I must admit that I see no point whatsoever to your post. If you want to ignore Westerners, go right ahead. What this has to do with the divorce rate remains a mystery. We support your right to ignore us. Let us know if you need anything else.

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Obama fires soldiers to save money, but offers $102,900 annual salary for an "invitations coordinator"? That doesn't bother me nearly as much as the fact that we (the taxpayers) bailed out banks and brokerages for billions of dollars, and they took large parts of that money and stuck it in their executive's pockets as bonuses -- even to the traders who caused the 2008 meltdown. Why didn't Obama make a big fuss? Perhaps because Wall Street in large part financed his campaign. Not that the...

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What do you think of the ad aimed at Huntsman suggesting adopting outside the U.S. is un-American. What do you think of this? That suggests an interesting political strategy: "campaign" for your opponent by having a PAC promote his candidacy in ways which make him appear to be a bigot, an idiot, or dangerous. These semi-counterfeit promotions would be indistinguishable from the legitimate promotions, because PACs are basically allowed to do as they please and spend as they please. So while appearing to endorse the...

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Have you ever dreamt about an AB member? Even more than that. I married one of them.

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if god hardened the pharaoh's heart why did he get mad when pharoh didnt let moses' people go? If you want to wrap her around the axle, ask her why God decided to regulate slavery in the Old Testament instead of outlawing it. Is Abraham Lincoln more morally pure than the OT God? Would anyone at her church endorse slavery today?

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How could there ever have been nothing? There always had to be something before the Big Bang. We have no idea what came before the Big Bang, or even if the word "before" has any meaning in that context. We do know, however, that the common sense thinking about topics like this is inadequate to understand the truth -- our minds are shaped by our experiences with reality in 3 dimensions plus time, at ordinary scales and speeds. They just can't bend well to deal with the problems of...

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is it logical to believe in ghosts? It's not a matter of logic, it's a matter of evidence. The absence of reliable evidence for the existence of ghosts is the main problem.

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how do you end a relationship with someone that loves you and want to be with you. without hurting them as much ? Well of course its nice to be nice about it. But breakups are almost always painful, and there's a limit to what you can do about that. If you've decided that this person is not the one, its usually best not to screw around: tell them and get it over with. Their life is their own, and how they respond to the challenges of a breakup is their own process. You're not their therapist or parent...

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Sustainability: Is it possible? In theory I think it is probably possible, but very challenging -- and there is never going to be a fixed set of solutions, even if we invested the required energy and resources to achieve a sustainable lifestyle as a whole, it is something that would require constant attention. But we can't really even get to that part of the discussion seriously yet, because the bulk of humanity does not...

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Gingrich says blacks should demand paychecks not food aid.Is he against whites, oranges, browns, greens,purples? Are they chopped liver? I'm sure most blacks would prefer paychecks, as would most whites. Without a robust economy that creates an adequate number of jobs, that's a pipe dream for many.

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The key to success is________________? Do what works. Stop doing what fails.

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How can you compare today to 1983? Technology hadn't decimated jobs. China hadn't decimated jobs. Indeed, globalization is the key challenge that has faced America since the 1970's. Unfortunately, our response to it has largely been stupid: instead of focusing on ways to make the country as a whole more competitive (i.e. raising the skills of the workforce, focusing on the things we can do better than others), we've tended to think in isolationist terms. Ronald Reagan fooled everybody...

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can someone tell me why life is worth living? I will kill myself tomorrow at 5.00pm if none of you can Well, that is your choice. Nobody can tell you whether or not you should end your own life. It's up to you to decide. It's also up to you to make life work if you plan to stick around: once you get to a certain age, life changes -- it stops handing out the constant parental care and starts to expect things from you. If you step up and meet the challenges, life can be wonderful. If you...

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can a vegetarian and non vegetarian marry without having big marital problems despite diet differences? Why? My wife is vegetarian, I'm not. It's not a cause of any significant conflict, although sometimes it's inconvenient.

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If the proffessor on Gilligan's Island can make a radio out of a coconut, why cant he fix a hole in a boat? He's not that kind of a professor: he's a radio professor, not a boat professor.

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What should someone NEVER reach for during an acid trip? The red lever that says "Do not ever, ever, ever pull this lever!"

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Are we in a "Well, there's nobody else" presidential election? In recent decades, all significant presidential candidates have essentially been purchased by big business, I think. The incredible cost of mounting a campaign virtually guarantees that the only participants can be those who are implicitly selling influence or those with massive personal fortunes who can spend their own money. Nobody who gives away millions of dollars to a campaign really...

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What would you do if an AB user kept trying to convert you to Islam? What's the best way to tell him where he can stick it? Hmm... This does not bother me. I like arguing, I like challenging religious claims. If the believer is intelligent and socially competent, we may become "friends who argue about religion". If they're a jackass or idiot, they'll sense my opinion about that before we're done talking. Either way, its not a problem.

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Taxpaying loadbearing Americans, will you contact your county election board for an absentee ballot and vote early to oust Obama? The problem with America is not "big government" -- Ronald Reagan was wrong, and the constant hammering from the right to shrink government and taxes, on the basis of the belief that this will stimulate the economy and bring America back to a robust state, is simply not true. There is insufficient evidence for this belief system, it has been tried and proven wanting. Where did Reagan go...

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How do you shape a "future"? First, you have to deal with the past, which typically becomes a prison that limits the possibilities for the future. That gives you a bit of freedom in which you can invent, creating a set of ideas to serve as a pathway towards something envisioned. You have to follow it up with lots of correlated action, intermediate goals, and resolution of failures along the way.

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Would you buy a chicken that expires today? Every chicken I buy is pre-expired. If they were still flopping around, I would expect a discount.

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Why do you claim "nobody can predict the future?" I don't claim that. Within certain limits, some parts of the future in some domains can be predicted. Nobody has absolute or universal predictive powers, and most people are unconsciously caught in a web of their own predictions based on shaky correlations. Having a clear and well-grounded understanding of what can and cannot be predicted is quite useful.

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Have you made a donation to Wikipedia? It would be a shame to see it go considering the number of times it is use on AB. Actually, I have. Wikipedia is a wonderful resource that demonstrates a large part of the power of the Internet and open commons. The question of whether or not it is financially sustainable is still very open, of course.

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Why is it that not one lib can explain why they are "owed" all their "entitlements" instead of having a duty to earn their way? As so often happens when you post on politics, the topic has been oversimplified to a cartoonish degree. This is what dishonest people do when attempting to win an argument where they don't have a solid grip on the topic as a whole: "reframe it" into competing sound bytes that allows ridicule without actually exposing the weaknesses of their own presumptions. You truly excel at being a...

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How come when you compliment some people they take it as an insult? Surely it matters how the compliment is framed, yes? "For someone with a big butt, you are surprisingly graceful!" "It's rare that I hear such fine diction from a windbag" "You are soooo obedient! Good boy!"

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I've meditated for a month, why I can't feel a positive difference in me..? If you're trying to do mindfulness or awareness meditation, you're in a common beginner's state: searching for a result and comparing your experience to expectations. Your job is not to achieve some particular outcome, your job is to *observe* whatever occurs in your experience, as carefully as possible. Any notion that you're supposed to achieve something or produce some result or have...

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Did Elvis sucked? Only if Daffy ducked.

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What is the process of becoming born again? Some kind of BS right? My view is that this is primarily a psychological re-framing of identity: instead of thinking of oneself as an individual, isolated from others and reality, the believer's self-concept undergoes a basic shift, to a view that they are part of a larger whole (God). That does have far-reaching effects, even though I don't believe their God is real. Even lacking a real deity, since self-concept...

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How do you pronounce the name of N. Korea's new leader, "Kim Jong Un"? The proper pronunciation in English is "Next power-hungry despote." The final 'e' is silent.

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Asking guys: did you like the movie the notebook? I want to watch it with my boyfriend. I liked it. It was obviously a chick flick, but a man who doesn't need an explosion every 18 seconds is still capable of appreciating films like that.

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If the new Somalian kid in your town wants to take an AK-47 to school, aren't you being culturally insensitive to ask that he not? Uh, no. His right to freedom of expression ends where my child's nose begins. That axes both the AK-47 and the cigarettes.

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can anyone help me and how i can do this without making things harder for me? Do they know about each other? That's where I would start: communicate. Perhaps both of them would disappear if you did that, and that solves all 3 of your problems at once: a) girl A no longer a problem b) girl B no longer a problem c) No longer deceiving either one. If they know about each other, then that whole solution is irrelevant. But the basic approach is still worth...

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Do you believe in signs? See description No, there is no credible evidence that anything magical or miraculous is happening or has ever happened. Cause-and-effect rules the universe. These ideas always turn out to be the illusion of the believer when studied rigorously.

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In this world which distinguishes a "somebody" from a "nobody", where do YOU find yourself? I would reject both statements: nobody is a nobody or a somebody. All identities are mere concepts, regardless of how many people believe them. To *be* is not to be some particular thing, rather a "human being" is a container which holds an entire universe, including yourself and everybody else. Within that container, who are you? Perhaps someone different each day, even. It doesn't...

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How can I get the upperhand on the competition and get the edge I need to succeed? Redefine success as "total world domination". Then, even if you fall far short of your goal you will still have hundreds under your heel.

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What are you going to do about the broken-down piano? Chopsticks can be transposed into whatever key is working.

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Should veils be banned during oath of citizenship? No, I'm a big fan of freedom. I'm not quite sure why anyone would want to become a citizen of a country which was so control-oriented as to tell you what you can wear to your swearing ceremony. If I want to live in tyranny, all I have to do is let the defense of freedom languish.

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any suggestions for good spanish singers ? My favorites -- Mana: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44kityInDvM Julieta Venegas: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8rBC6GCUjg Juanes: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBX8Zz0boa0

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If you have a point of view are you at a disadvantage? Can those who believe in nothing out-argue you and win since they are detached? I would say it a bit differently: someone whose identity is not defined by their opinions has greater power in an argument, because they don't have their feet nailed to the floor defending some fixed position: they can move around and freely choose a new place to stand for their attack. You can't really participate in an argument without a point-of-view, there has to be something which focuses...

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True Love. Does it exist? Can it exist? Could it survive in our troubled world? No matter how chaotic or disjointed the world becomes, love will always be the power that joins people. It's timeless and it does not care about social systems or political events.

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Was it resonance that caused a huge bridge to collapse because vibrations all coincided in a perfect storm? How is that possible? Yes, it's resonance. Think of the bridge as a huge guitar string -- the wind causes it to vibrate, and because it has a single resonant frequency there is a particular rate that it favors, which means that the vibration can become stronger and stronger if the wind is powerful enough. The cure is to not have a single favored frequency, and that's a matter of designing the bridge with...

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Atheists: Do you wish there was legitimate evidence of a God? That would be fine, it would be nice to get the question resolved with finality.

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Who compared a lightening storm over a junkyard producing a fully functional jumbo jet to DNA being produced from a primordial soup? Someone who did not know much about chemistry or biology.

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I bet Mr. Bromide is enjoying his new job right now. He hasn't got any time for AB anymore, agree? Does he have a job? That would be news...

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I hate people. What can I do to feel differently? Do you hate me? Do you hate... your mother? The key to this topic is defining "people". If you really, truly hate every single individual on the planet, that's one thing. If you hate strangers, or "people" as an abstract idea, that's a very different thing. Probably what is going on in both cases is that your social development has gone awry, so you have difficulty connecting with others....

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Is it possible to shut the internet down for the whole world? What would happen to the world if it was shut down? There's no practical way to shut down the entire Internet -- it was designed to route around failures, so unless you took out a very large number of routers, the traffic would keep flowing. The weak point in the Internet is the Domain Name System (DNS): that's the system which converts human-readable names (like www.answerbag.com) to their machine-usable IP addresses. There are various ways...

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How can the universe be accelerating, when the Big Bang explosion should have only formed a constant expansion? Who says it should have only formed a constant expansion? That is not a complete viewpoint about the current state of cosmological theory.

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Science may try to explain them, but why does gravity, centrafugal force, corriolis effect, and marine topography combine to form tides? Are you suggesting that tides are somehow supernatural?

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Do you think good people are always good and bad people are always bad? Or do you think everybody is half and half? None of the above. It is a mistake to make such generalizations. There are individuals who can reasonably be classified as "mostly good" or "mostly evil", based on the cumulative assessment of their actions, but that's a dangerous idea to generalize with. Human beings are not pieces of fruit passing a quality test on a conveyor belt, the topic is much more complex than that. Many of our...

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How come when it comes to me? Satan always fails at his worthless attempts at finger pointing?Why?? I'd like to speak on behalf of humanity for a moment, and recommend professional help.

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Which do you identify with or relate to more...the Tea Party or the Occupy Movement and why? I think that most movements have valid points, as well as cherished illusions -- this applies to both the Tea Party and the OWS people. I'm not personally very interested in joining or identifying with any movement -- I think that the temptation to do so has its own dangers that we should all be cautious of: groupthink is a powerful drug that coats the mind with its preferred filter and...

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what was god thinking while sending u on earth? "Hope they don't kill this one too..."

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Who are the ones that support the gay rights? Democratics or republicans? In general, Democrats are more supportive of gay rights than Republicans, although there are plenty of individual variations.

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Is hedonism bad? It's not so much a matter of bad or good as it is a matter of effectiveness: pleasure-seeking tends to burn itself out, as the seeker becomes increasingly numb to the pleasure they're seeking, and increasingly dissatisfied with the results. Psychologically, we're just not set up to be able to sustain any experience produced by stimulation -- the mind becomes desensitized. In addition,...

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I LEARNED more about Jesus over the weekend.. He was a definately a LIBERAL. How come right wingers who love him, aren't? In the early 1980's, socially conservative Christians had little voice in government. The Republican party -- typically buttoned-down and heavily weighted with wealthy interests -- had trouble building large popular support. The Republicans and the evangelicals merged, more or less, into a single movement. The Republicans agreed to care about the social issues (homosexuality, "family...

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All religions teach tolerance but when members of any religion start getting to "hardcore" or extremist levels the tolerance vanishes why? Not all religions teach tolerance, and those that do often find it's harder than it sounds.

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is pregnancy a blessing or a curse? Both. Like so much of life's important things, it comes with two sides at the same time. Our job is to turn the curse into a challenge and the blessing into memories.

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Who is/was the cutest kid of all time? Mine, of course! (Note: use Ctrl+C / Ctrl+P to copy-and-paste)

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Why do people ask "how do I tell someone something"? Why don't they just come out and say it? Humans rarely just "come out and say it": there are all sorts of social concerns and cues that get factored in, often without thinking. But teenagers are often weak in the social-skills department, and so they flock here for guidance on how to communicate.

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How do you get anything you want, that is legal and within reason? Want less.

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Who are the name coiners? "Coalition of the Willing"/"Operation Desert Storm"/"Weapons of Mass Destruction".Who gets the credit/debit? When politicians get their mail-order training kits (www.powerfever.com/productId=be_a_politician), one of the largest modules is "Spin Doctoring and Framing", which focuses on how to wrap any ordinary piece of information into a sound byte which expresses, in bold and leaderly ways, everything the gullible public needs to know about some issue. Ideally, this "reframing" phrase should evoke...

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Answerbag, why don't you update your spell check dictionary to something that actually has all the words in English? Answerbag does not have a spell-checker. You are probably seeing the spell-checker built in to your web browser.

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What is cyber sex? Typing dirty.

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I have had it up to _______ with you Weyloony! I have had it up to my uvula. That's pretty high, although not as high as my sinuses, so keep going.

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Are there members at A B who dislike you? Excluding me, of course. I have always done a stellar job of attracting enemies. I'm sure they all have a valid point, but I just can't bring myself to change. Humility is just so... icky.

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What if this is the way it is supposed to be? What if things turn out the way they should? Would that be comforting to you if true? Why? There's no way things are supposed to be. That makes the problem pretty straightforward: humans have ideas of how things should be, and then there's the way it is. Until someone can appreciate things just as they are, there's a chronic churning sense of incompleteness about life -- a constant frustration associated with trying to change life to get it to be some way that it isn't. When...

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Sometimes when you delay doing something it takes care of itself and you didn't have to do anything. Isn't that good? Happen often to you? I never put anything on my TODO list unless I think it will take care of itself! :)

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My minds telling me that im not allowed to enjoy my life because what some people have thought of me in the past! As long as your life revolves around what other people think of you, you will be frustrated and unhappy. You have to learn that your life does not depend on their input.

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Are chickens afraid of anything? That would be ironic, huh?

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Is there one TRUE religion? Yes, the one true religion has never been formalized into a document or organization, and there is a reason why this is so -- it doesn't even have a name. Religions are attempts to unify: to unify humans with themselves, or with each other, or with nature and the universe as a whole. The word "religio" in Latin means "to bind together", as in making something whole from fragments. However,...

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I read there are 10000...(80 zeros) particles in the universe. Does this mean that we cannot count beyond that? No, it means there are that many particles in the universe. Add one to that, and you're still counting. If you want a number that makes that number look small, imagine the number of distinct *pairs* of particles -- i.e. each particle paired with all other particles. Count the pairs, if counting the particles left you feeling empty :)

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I literally have zero skills. What should I do? The normal careers for a person with that resume are politician or pundit. If neither of those appeal, I can talk to my uncle. He runs an adult bookstore, and they're always looking for someone to clean the private booths.

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I'm looking to go into the practice of Wicca. Anyone know a great site for beginners? Sorry, I don't. But given that, as far as I can tell, there isn't the slightest bit of evidence that these practices are grounded in reality, I do have to wonder why you would bother. If you want a shortcut to happiness, the straightest path is personal responsibility, not superstition.

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What is your general philosophy of life? Don't let the generals run everything.

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Why did the USA sit idly by during the Armenian Genocide? That inaction emboldened Hitler and perhaps made WWII inevitable. Historically, America's moral leadership has only surfaced on rare occasions -- mostly national interest motivates our foreign policy, and then leaders justify it with a veneer of moral logic. That helps to sell the adventure as "heroic", contributing to public support for doing whatever the politicians have decided to do. What's amazing is not that this is so, but that so many fall for it so...

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When setting and then achieving goals, what is the most important advice you could give someone? Most of the common-sense advice is good, i.e. exhortations about persistence, having realistic but challenging goals, etc. The one thing that I've learned which isn't often mentioned is this: keep making peace with where you are on the road. What that means is that while you are pursuing your goal, it's valuable to make ongoing and realistic assessments of your progress so far, and then...

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Should i care what people think even if the words are so cruel but wrong? It's not a question of how you should feel -- you don't really have much choice about how you feel, so slapping a "should not" label on it is kind of pointless. But, having those feelings *is* an indicator or gauge which measures your degree of personal autonomy. "Autonomy" refers to your ability to recognize yourself as whole and valid independently of changes in circumstances or the...

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Do you think it is right to employ less workers to boost labour productivity? Why? An employer should consider the living standards of his employees. There's no absolute rules about what is right or wrong, it's a question of balancing all the related factors and coming up with decisions that fit the situation well. What would be wrong is if the employer *only* cares about his bottom line. He does need to make a profit, and do his best to grow the business. But he also...

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where can i get full information about best weight loss product? www.spambait.com

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How can I achieve world domination? Take it. I'm done with the thing. Careful of the chemical spills and zealots.

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Is Islam a violent gutter religion of peace? I think that's overstating the case: almost any religion can be given a violent expression, and Islam is no exception. But religions can also be instruments of peace. Somewhat like a tool, religions can be used for good or evil. In the end what matters is the character and mindset of the believer, more than the content of the belief system.

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What is your precise definition of freedom? Is liberty invoked naturally as a self-governing apparatus of the human psyche? Freedom is a big word. Like lots of big words, it has many meanings -- a big bucket where a variety of ideas go when someone needs to store them somewhere. There are 2 kinds of freedom that interest me most: political freedom and "internal" psychological freedom. These are really two distinct things, as they can exist independently of each other -- you can be a free citizen, but...

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Girlfriend sent naked pictures to other men. Should I leave here? Yes.

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Which represents your religious beliefs? I practice amoeba-worship, as they were among our earliest ancestors and therefore hold the wisdom of the ages. I like to sit there and watch them squirm around under the microscope, thinking their little amoeba thoughts and I like to imagine that they're issuing little blessings to me. Sometimes, when I don't get my way, I take the slide out of the microscope and put it in the microwave....

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Scientists say Shroud of Turin likely authentic. What? The synopsis of the article seems to be "some people think it's Jesus, some don't, but either way it proves nothing with regard to the big questions about him."

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Do you believe things happen for a reason? On what basis do you maintain your position? It depends on whether you mean "for a purpose" or "because of causes". There's a big difference between these different meanings of "for a reason". Everything happens because something caused it to happen, so in that sense the answer is an unqualified "yes". But many things happen for no particular purpose: purpose implies intent, the intent of a conscious actor who is trying to accomplish...

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How is Jesus gonna deal with all the Athiests when he returns? I don't think we have much to worry about.

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Do you consider hating Christians a form of bigotry? Hate in general is something that tends to weaken the hater. Christians are pretty much like anybody else: some good and bad mixed together. While I disagree with them about religion, there's nothing to hate.

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My mom wants to adopt a child from Haiti. How do i tell her its a bad idea without being racist? How do you know that it's a bad idea? What if it's a great idea?

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Are you all for a revolution, or would you rather be conservative? The whole idea of democracy in that regard is that revolutions become unnecessary: how can the people revolt against themselves? We can just throw the bums out and elect a new bunch of bums from our midst. What would be remarkable is if we could find some non-bums who wanted the job.

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Is humility a good thing? People day its a virtue. I think it's good to have a realistic assessment of your own abilities and contributions. That's different than what most people mean by 'humility', which seems a sort of artificial self-discounting intended to serve some religious or quasi-religious model. Not a big fan of that sort of thing.

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Do you think Kim Jong Il's son will be as big of a d*cktator as his father? Well that sure is the $64 question, eh? It's not hard to imagine an internal power struggle in the vacuum which leaves the country even worse off than before, but with someone else in charge. What a place not to visit!

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In astrology, aspects are referred to as one particular phase in cyclic relationships. Would the full moon mark/influence observed moods? To my knowledge, there is no credible evidence that anything involving astrology is valid. All of the studies I've heard about end up debunking all claims. So parsing the details of this belief system is not an activity that interests me.

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What is your idea of a simple life? To have only one operating system installed on my laptop. :)

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Is it just WRONG for a man to sing Oops I Did It Again at karaoke Yes, but only because it's wrong for anyone to sing that.

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What do you think is the biggest threat to America, Big Business or Big Government, or? Neither. The biggest problem we face is Big Groupthink.

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Why do I exist? That's for you to decide. Let us know when you're ready to express it.

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Why is it that only one view of homosexuality is accepted here? There is only one acceptable view of homosexuality, and it's given to us by the fact that we value personal responsibility, fairness, equality, and freedom. If you believe in those values, there is only one possible way to come down on this issue: tolerance of those who are different from most of us. So the view that homosexuality is wrong or evil is simply bigoted nonsense, end of story. ...

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Why should parents lie about Santa....why not just tell them it's really just Jesus's birthday or tell them you buy the presents? A) The child's mind is not the adult's mind. It is not damaged by the sweet and harmless illusions of childhood. B) There is not even evidence that God exists, let alone proof. C) Time to go watch "Miracle on 34th Street" again.

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The Church does not breed morality, culture does. (Explain) There's plenty of evidence that the basis for morality is wired into our DNA by evolution: we see, for example, that there are other big-brained mammals who exhibit a concern for fairness and compassion, two of the key ingredients for moral thinking. We have the bigger brains, so we've refined the topic more, but its there in nature: we sense the pain of others and respond, we recognize right...

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When scripture is weighed thoroughly, Old and New Testament. Is there any conclusive evidence that Jesus pre existed as an Archangel? If you took all the scriptural interpretations in the world and put them end to end, they would stretch all the way from the Earth to Neptune and back again 40243 times. Searching the entire length of this mess, you still would not find any fundamental truths worth keeping.

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Would unconditional love want to be loved back? I don't see it that way. Unconditional love is something which transcends "me vs. you" and the whole realm of love "transactions", in which there's an expectation of give and take. To love unconditionally is to recognize yourself in the other, exactly as they are, without expecting something from them. It includes an appreciation of their limitations, including their potential inability...

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if you were falling in the air from the empire state building what 3 things would you want? 1- A parachute 2- A billion dollars in bearer bonds 3- A pistol. The parachute is to stop the fall safely. The billion dollars is just a nice round number. The pistol is because you don't walk around New York with a billion dollars in bearer bonds and no plan.

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Does reincarnation not serve as consolation for death? What are your views of the afterlife? There's no mystery here whatsoever: we know, with damn near absolute certainty, that human consciousness, memory, will, personality, and emotions are completely dependent upon a properly functioning brain. Any one of these can be destabilized or disabled with appropriate brain manipulation or damage. The mind (and "soul", if there were such a thing) are what the brain does. When the brain...

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Will you pray for a meteor to wipe out any jurisdiction that allows gay marriage? No, but I'll pray for a judge to overturn bigoted laws cooked up by ignorant, superstitious religious wingnuts.

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how big is your penis? be honest and under the age of 20 I'll be happy to be under the age of 20. Would you like to take my extra 30+ years?

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Will you continue to practice deception with Santa Claus at Christmas? Do you think this deception is considered correct? As your therapist, I'm going to prescribe watching "Miracle on 34th Street". Pay attention, there will be a quiz.

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Who will cry for the programmers who program themselves out of a job? It never happens. That's the naive notion of the non-programmer: that you would write the program and be done with it. But it never ends, there are always bugs to fix and new features to add and reorganizing it to make it more efficient. Software is never "done", that's what makes it soft. Further, programmers make work for other programmers: the 90% who are incompetent generate tons of...

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I love to be strong. How do I get rid of the feeling that I have been victimised? Everybody loves to be strong, and nobody likes to feel victimized. So at least you have lots of company. Nobody is going to feel strong all the time, and everybody gets victimized sometimes. So you have a lot in common with others in that way as well. The only problem here is that you're trying to always have it one way: life does not serve up a steady diet of any one thing, and if you...

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If an evolutionist could reason with a creationist -would there be any creationists? Logic and reason are only part of the problem. Creationists do have a logic of their own, it's not devoid of reasoning. The problem is that creationism mandates the conclusion and "steers" interpretation of the evidence and distortions of the reasoning to that conclusion. This is, of course, upside-down from a scientific standpoint. In science, you're not allowed to form conclusions and...

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Do you agree that there are winners and losers in life? I'm an identifier of false generalizations.

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What philosophy do you try to apply to your day to day life? All the things that really work are subtle forms of love.

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How can I express my contempt for those around me in a meaningful way? You just need a quiver of quips, for dispensation at eye-rolling moments, e.g.: - "I suspect your mothership doesn't miss you." - "Is there any way I could persuade you to go elsewhere?" - "It's not that I don't care about what you're saying, its.... well, yes, that is it" - "We've shared a special moment together while you talked, but I think it was more special for you than for me....

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With the probability of liquid water and LIFE in the cosmos being on billions of planets is it a wonder we have not found one but Earth? Well no, it's not. We are only able to make adequate measurements for an extremely tiny fraction of those planets. Naturally we know little about them, and can only speculate and investigate.

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whats something you might have in common with me Every human has more in common with every other human than any other kind of thing. Our differences are trivial compared to our similarities, but the mind tends to focus on differences because that's how it makes sense of the world.

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Is it best sometimes to say nothing at all Oh yes. Every man who lands a woman learns this, or suffers greatly.

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Are the little people lazy, unproductive, without direction, etc. while the big guys are focused, create jobs, motivated to help, etc.? I think that oversimplifies the topic by an order of magnitude, which basically means that the question can't be answered in the frame it provides.

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Wondering? If you were to instead of breaking the sound barer, hold it right at the breaking point. Would it open to another demention? No, all that will happen for something moving at the speed of sound is that it will keep pushing a compressed "wave" of sound in front of it, causing a loud boom for stationary listeners on the ground. If we could open another dimension so easily, we would have done it long ago! :)

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Is "The National Organization for Marriage endorses Newt Gingrich" one of the funniest headlines you ever heard? Why/why not? What's the problem? He obviously believes in the sanctity of marriage a lot to have gone through it 3 times.

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On what Bibical scripture do non anointed Jehovah Witnesses base their claim to be Christians? Notwithstanding that I don't believe any of the supernatural views of any religion, the JWs I've met have been among the most decent and down-to-Earth of believers. By contrast, it seems like half the evangelical Christians are suffering from serious psychological disturbances. So if ye shall know them by their fruit, this is not the group I would throw the most tomatoes at. Besides, the...

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Is it a tragedy that the person who invented beer, never got to enjoy pizza with it? I never thought about it before. But that's a good point, it's like they saw the first half of a double-header, or only dated one of the Doublemint twins, or tried to get just one wrong to make a right. It seems so wrong. Hey! There's the other wrong!

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Are we capable of "choosing" what and how to feel or is it just a matter of will and inner strength to gain control on our actions? Not directly: you can consciously suppress feelings to some degree, but mostly they're a product of thoughts which arise without control, and unconscious processing by the "emotional brain". You can indirectly affect emotions in various ways, such as trying to steer your thoughts in other directions, or getting up and doing something different, or -- most usefully -- by carefully observing...

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I get depressed easily because I dwell on my mistakes any advice? Please no bad judgment just honest advice :D THanks I recommend learning self-observation: that's the ability to notice your thoughts without getting all tangled up in them. What most people do when they get upset is try to "solve" the upset, to make the bad thoughts and feelings go away. This leaves them forever reacting to their reactions, rather than understanding them and finding resolution. You have to learn how to just stand there...

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Can we please stop acting like U2 is a good band? Well I like them. It took many years for me to get to that point.

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What do you call a homeless conservative? Batter for the other team.

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Has a mentally handicapped person ever tried to insult you by saying that you were mentally handicapped? You've just described 35.3% of my interactions with people on Answerbag.

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In your opinion, what is the source of genuine self-esteem? Does it exist? And, what part does it play in a person's life? I think that the "standard" psychological explanations have merit, i.e. when a person is true to their values, has a warm and nurturing childhood environment, etc.... all of that stuff is worth considering in this discussion. But where my brain always gets stuck is with the word "genuine": to me, it seems obvious that self-esteem or self-image always has a kind of "limited truth" quality to...

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Any reason, code or otherwise, that the pipe from the end of a p-trap to the drain pipe in the wall cannot be installed at a downward angle? I assume you mean that the p-trap is above the drain? Certainly that's not a problem, everybody wants the water to flow down. If you mean that the drain is above the outlet of the p-trap, that is surely a problem if it's above the upper bend in the p-trap, as it would eliminate the value of having a trap in the first place. If the drain is between the upper bend and the lower bend, I don't...

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Is it not so much that Atheists are bad people but that their values cannot be trusted since based on the "NOTHING" in which they believe? I don't really see the distinction. A believer's values are based on somebody else's writings, how can we trust that either? And in what way does this even factor into general decisions about trusting someone? Presumably you trust someone because they seem trustworthy, you don't perform elaborate analyses of their views about religion, yes?

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What kind of question wakes you up? Dang! Why can't one bladder last one night??

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Pro-Choice people: Should a conjoined twin have the right to separate from their twin even if they know it would kill the twin? You've made too broad a generalization: not every pro-choice view is identical. I don't know if this has been studied rigorously, but I've encountered a wide variety of different variations of the viewpoint. I think your "complete control over their body" statement is probably a minority perspective. My basis for supporting a limited right to abortion is that we should balance the rights of...

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Love versus logic, which destructs the other? I would not frame these as natural opponents.

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Conservative talk-show host Michael Savage has offered Gingrich $1 million to drop out of the presidential race. What should Newt do? Presumably its some sort of rhetorical prank, but there should probably be some kind of hubris award for openly trying to influence a presidential election with a bribe.

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When they stood on THEIR side of the line, and saw a help wanted sign on OUR side, did they break in, or were they invited? Well I don't think there's any question about the break-in, if you're talking about illegal immigration. It's also true that we don't try as hard as we could to keep the door locked, and that once inside, people have a lot of freedom to move around. But, on the other hand a significant effort is made to prevent illegal immigration, it's just not the full-scale effort many would like to...

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We talk across time with one another on AB. An Aussie friend told me that he is 19 hours in the future from California. Isn't that amazing? Yeah, and if you take off in a plane from Taiwan and fly east to Los Angeles, you can arrive before you left! I love time travel, I always manage to pick up some lovely period piece from the past for my mantel. :)

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i just turned 18 and my girlfriend is 15 about to turn 16 and she is pregnant with my baby i shouldnt get in trouble should i? in louisiana Possibly you could. In Louisiana, the age of consent is 17, which means that it is technically "statutory rape" to have sex between an adult and someone under 17. Will this be enforced? Possibly not, an awful lot of teenage sex does not turn into a statutory rape case. While its understandable that you would be worried about this, probably the much more pressing issue is what you're going...

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Why is it socially acceptable to be black and strive toward advancement of your race, yet not okay to be white and do the same exact thing? Yes, it is a double-standard, but it's a *dependent* double-standard -- it depends on the pre-existing opposite double standard. That is, its a compensation for discrimination which exists in white-dominated culture. There would be no need for a 'black empowerment' movement if they had not first been disempowered. So that just doesn't apply to whites in our culture. Not everything in...

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Somewhat that exist cannot consist of nothing. So what is God made off? Quarks,electrons,neutrinos? Is Allah made of the same stuff as God? Just to play anti-Devil's advocate for a moment, lets suppose that God exists. Let us further suppose that all the world's religions got it wrong, so we can dispense with any pre-existing explanations of how all this stuff works. So here's the idea: God exists rather like the projector in a movie theatre: the projector never actually shows up on the screen, but without the projector...

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What is the main difference between AGNOSTICISM and ATHEISM? An agnostic is what a non-believer calls himself until the believers convince him to get as far away as possible. That's where atheists come from.

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With all the evidence of Life being behind life, does God need to provide more evidence of His existence, are there grounds for doubt really Silly question: under what conceivable circumstances would a rational person leap directly from "there is life" to "there is Life behind life" (whatever that means). This is entirely religious hogwash -- there is no evidence of "life behind life". Complexity does not compel a conclusion of intelligence, and even if you somehow established that intelligence was involved (which is completely...

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If scientists are open and honest enough to call it 'the theory of evolution' why are theists and religions not open or honest enough to call their's 'the theory of god'? Well, in fairness to the theists, most are not claiming that they have a scientific approach to truth which gives them their belief. It's a completely different epistemology, in which authority is granted to scripture or preachers simply by choosing to do so, and then trusting that the aesthetic just "feels right" or accords with some inner sense of truth. The whole notion of "revealed...

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Since even amongst those believing in God, many will be condemned, what does John 4:23, 24, really mean? Are Trinity, Eternal Torment, true? The quality of any religious statement is inversely proportional to the amount of threatening it does.

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Short sales promise to go through and then don't. Are they a scam like loan modifications and designed-to-fail mortgages? Well the banks have very little incentive to do a short sale -- to approve a short sale is to realize a loss. While it's on the books as a weak asset, they can sort of look the other way and pretend that it is worth more than it is, hoping the market comes back. A short sale forces the end of hope and goes straight to the bottom line. Once in a while, a short sale is approved because the...

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What Would My 69 Year Old Girlfriend Want For Christmas? To be 18 again.

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When all doubts about the existence of God Almighty are finally removed, it will be too late, why do you wait? Well, every once in a while I have a doubt... that maybe God really does exist. But then the other part of my brain pipes up and reminds me that there is not a single, solitary shred of credible evidence to support this, while there are mountains and mountains of evidence to demonstrate that human beings make up lots of fanciful stuff. So far, rationality is still winning the argument. But...

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Is the US Declaration of Independence illegal? Illegal, like any revolution. If the revolution succeeds, it is granted legitimacy ex-post facto by the new government, reinterpreting history in the light of success.

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Where's the exit? On the flip side of the entrance to the next thing.

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Who believes that seeing newborn babies in a dream means death ? Dreams don't mean anything at all, except perhaps that the contents of your subconscious is trying to express itself in some way that cannot be interpreted reliably.

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Should I call her or let it go? Please help, i like this girl! Yes, give up. If she was really interested she would be indicating that with prompt and encouraging responses. She's being polite but distant, that's all you need to know.

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How long can you stay still? On quite a few occasions, I've sat very still for the better part of several days in a row (in Zen practice). This sounds boring, but is actually quite nice.

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is it true that if you dream about someone that means that they miss you? No, that would be superstition. Your dreams have no effect whatsoever on the outside world, nor do they predict anything or mean anything except perhaps indications of the contents of your own mind.

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How did the internet function before computers were invented? Just like now -- the tubes all connected and everything flowed through the tubes. But, at the end of each tube was a pen or pencil, and you had to move it around to see the "screen". Sometimes tubes would end in a typewriter or lithograph, too. It was an extremely crude system, and good riddance!

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Oklahoma police arrested a woman trying to make methamphetamine inside a Tulsa Walmart on Thursday. Why would she do that? Meth has been known to affect judgment adversely.

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What is the most inappropriate response to "I love you"? Dang. Now I feel bad about taking the last parachute. See 'ya!

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According to Chaos Theory if the exact position and movement of every particle in the universe where known then the infinite future would.. According to quantum mechanics, it is impossible to know the exact position and momentum of any particle, let alone the entire universe -- not even in theory. It's not a failing of our technology, it's wired into the essential nature of the quantum realm. So everything that comes after "if we knew all of that..." is meaningless. All that we can predict are probabilities for a particular...

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What position in the Angel hierarchy was Satan when he was created? It seems one third of the Angels were under his control. This is mythology piled on top of mythology. No amount of theological arguing has ever revealed the slightest shred of useful truth about life.

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Is that all there is to life? In general, my view is that nobody makes progress understanding the meaning of life until they first confront its inherent meaninglessness. Once you can face down that empty void without flinching, a new possibility can appear -- the possibility of taking responsibility for making your own life meaningful. When that happens, suddenly everything that happened before swims into sharp focus....

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Is the Tea Party the Let's Get The N Word Out Of The White House Party? I don't think it is fair to accuse the Tea Party generally of racism. I'm sure there are racists there, but I'm not aware of any evidence that allows one to generalize regarding this over the vast bulk of the members and sympathizers. It is clear that the Tea Party does not like Obama or his politics. That does not equal being racist.

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Is anyone else really getting sick of the liberal vs. conservative war going on? I can understand why many would be sick of it. I'm not, because it provides an ongoing stream of input for my ongoing fascination with the human mind. The particular thing which interests me is the way in which people form their identity and then reinforce it, and political or religious zeal is almost always about that very issue, under the hood. Inside our brains, multiple perspectives are...

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Each side says the same thing about the other side. Nothing differentiates them but party label. Same fast food. Where are the chefs? Internally, the human mind is always arguing with itself. There are different "voices" going on competing for conscious attention, different centers of the brain firing off about different concerns. When people think about politics, of course this same thing happens -- liberals have conservative-sounding voices, and conservatives have liberal-sounding voices. But those who consistently...

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Is it wetter on the water than it is when it rains? Yes, about 8% wetter. Just enough to make it slippery.

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Which of Santa's reindeer would make the best eating? Blitzen sounds savory. The sort of thing one would pile fried onions on. Mmmmm!

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It's almost 2012 and we still don't have marketable jet packs. Have we humans lost sight of what's really important? YOU don't have a marketable jet pack. Speak for yourself!

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California school district allows students to recite the Pledge of Allegiance in both English and Spanish. Should this be allowed? Well, it does say "with liberty and justice for all". It would be ironic if you weren't allowed to recite it in a different language.

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How will you save the world? I already saved it by fending off the Arkonian mothership with my sarcasm beam. Don't thank me, just throw money.

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why does my 84 mercedes 300d keep running after i kill it You need a bigger gun.

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WHat is something easier said than done? Voting for only the honest candidates.

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Is the internet really a series of tubes? Yes, that is completely correct. Here's a more detailed survey of the topic: When you type, you're pressing on the finger tubes. They're are 102 of them. If it's a wireless keyboard, the presses are pushed through invisible ether tubes to your computer, which contains thousands and thousands of tubes all intertwined like Bee Gees fans trying to play Twister while dancing disco. Your...

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If I said I could change the world, and vanquish all religion, would you give me a million dollars? Bah! If I had a million dollars, I'd start my own religion and parlay it into a billion!

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My ego hides everything and people dont even know how miserable I really am! =(((((((( PLEASE READ DESCRIPTION Sometimes I say that a human being is a 3-layer cake. The upper layer is all pretense, although we don't like that word so we sometimes use "public presentation" or "public image" instead. So firstly, you're in good company. The world is full of pretenders just like you. No problem. The second layer is the "nasty stuff": the things about ourselves that we have trouble accepting -- the...

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I am going to have a 1.0 gpa this semester I feel really stupid and feel like I should just drop out and kill myself Have you really put in the effort? Learning takes work. If you have put in lots of effort, and it's just not working, and tutoring isn't helping, then it might be that you are not going to get very far in the educational system. That is not the end of life, and it is no reason to kill yourself -- plenty of people have satisfying lives without a college degree. You have to decide for...

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What do you think a cow is thinking when its being milked? ... ok, that's 7 tugs, plus 4 on the other one, carry the one...

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Are you more likely to donate money to Wikipedia because an attractive woman with large breasts asks you to? Not sure. Not enough "information" on this one.

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According to theists i'm an atheist, a heathen, a gentile, evil, lacking, lost, going to hell, a sinner, an infidel, are they wrong?. Aye, matie. They be wrong. You're just a mediocre punctuator, but otherwise a decent sort.

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I am 22 and It's hard for me to live in the moment even though i have read some books about living in the moment.Any suggestions? You don't have to worry about living in the moment, because the moment is impossible to escape: quick -- go to the future, and then come back! I'll wait. How did it go? If you're like most people, nothing happened. You stayed here-and-now, yes? So, stop worrying about being in the moment. It's not a good way to approach the topic. The topic is "being present and aware". To...

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Why do people not realize that the Japanese internment camps were necessary at the time? No, they were not necessary. End of story -- it was caution taken to an extreme, an injustice done to people who did nothing to deserve it. It was, in fact, un-American -- contrary to American values. Anybody can justify anything on the basis of security. It takes good judgment to know when you've gone too far -- and courage not to do so.

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Who has more power: web developers/programmers, McDonald's worker, call center worker, or homeless person? The fast food worker is the only one who gives me what I want. Such power!

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Why is bisexuality only accepted by heterosexual men and heterosexual women in the heterosexual community? On what are you basing the premise of your question?

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In the book "Richard M. Nixon's Rhetorical Strategies in His Public Statements on Watergate", what nine strategies does Nixon use? 1. Lie 2. Lie 3. Lie 4. Lie 5. Lie 6. Lie 7. Lie 8. Lie 9. Mislead.

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Do you base a person's trustworthiness merely on his/her belief in God or on their moral character? I don't think that any correlation has been shown between belief in God and levels of trustworthiness. I would be interested in any study which showed that.

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Voter I.D. Your cuppa tea or a travesty? Pros and cons from those of you who have an opinion please? It's not clear to me that a problem has been identified and validated. We shouldn't spend money on solutions unless it is clear that we have a problem. If someone can show that there is a pattern of significant election fraud arising from weaknesses in voter identification, I would favor changes to the system.

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When does plagiarism take place? Between 3:03 AM and 5:13 AM Central Standard Time on Tuesdays. Be there!

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Did we invent evolution? This is a variation of a debate that has raged in philosophy for millenia: is mathematics invented or discovered? Granting first that the evidence for evolution is compelling and no longer subject to reasonable doubt, the question then boils down to the meaning of the word "evolution" and the relationship between the creative act of invention and the more passive act of discovery. Darwin...

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Do you concur with B. Hussein Obama's opinion that unemployment payments create more jobs than a reliable energy source? I haven't followed this story. Based just on the quote in the blog cited, I think it's a questionable -- extending the payroll tax cut and unemployment insurance might not create many jobs, but it is reasonable to expect that it would help reduce additional job cuts and maintain the level of economic activity, at the price of more debt. Presumably a new pipeline would create jobs for...

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this is a queuing problem. i need the answer A.S.A.P :( stackoverflow.com is much better for questions like this, which require a bunch of work on the part of the answerer(s).

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The media can legally distort or falsify the news in the United States. Do you find this disturbing? I don't find it disturbing. It is my job as a citizen to listen with a skeptical ear. Can you imagine the lawsuits if everybody could sue a public information source if the source got something wrong or distorted? All the same kinds of arguments which happen in the politics section on AB would be relived in the courtroom day after day, and nothing else would get done. Lawyers would be...

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Conservatives: Do Liberals have any good ideas? In my view, these labels are a bad idea -- liberal, conservative. They're abused abstractions. When an abstraction gets abused, it stops growing normally and starts huddling in its crib, refusing to play nice with other abstractions. It goes into developmental arrest. America seems to be turning into two vast voting blocks, each self-righteous and overconfident in its perfection, each...

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Do you watch Dexter?? Dexter rocks.

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What do you think the afterlife is going to be like? All available evidence indicates that what we think of as "self" and consciousness are completely dependent on very specific regions of the brain. There's just no reason whatsoever to imagine that anything resembling consciousness or identity can survive the death of the brain. I call superstition.

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Could you be in a relationship with a person that swings both ways? When I hang my mate upside down on the big bedroom hook, I expect them to swing side to side. I'm a big believer in Newton's laws of motion.

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Who's this God fella? Well we can't be positive, but we're pretty sure humans made him up. Just the fact that they have long detailed accounts of what he's like, but can't actually produce anything that he obviously did, leaves one to think it might just all be made up. Humans are especially good at making things up, they're not so good at telling what's real from what's unreal.

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God, or Satan? My Little Pony or Santa Claus?

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Has anyone else seen this yet ? "Your friends on Answerbag haven't submitted any new questions in the past week." Answerbag is notorious for database queries that don't work right. This has been the case for years, although the particular message you're talking about is a new wrinkle.

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how do i commet suicide with out pain and it not counting as murder via hell? There's no hell. It sounds like you're already in a self-created one, though. What seems to be the problem?

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Mouse and Keyboard ONLY work in BIOS. Not working in OS (Windows XP) Plug in a different mouse (USB) temporarily, then use System Restore to return your computer to the state it was in before the virus warning occurred: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/306084

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Is a belief in an imaginary explanation for the reasons behind everything a self defence mechanism to stop analysis paralysis in the face of the enormity of the conclusions of reality? I'd have to hear an explanation with more details to consider that. If you're talking about the human invention of gods and religions, I think that the standard explanations are adequate: religions fill the gaps in our understanding and provide a structure to derive personal meaning which does not require taking personal responsibility for that meaning. They also provide an easy-entry...

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How do you argue against this? The usual explanation is that God gave people free will (and selfishness, presumably) and so they're not "faulty", they're just vulnerable to making sinful choices. They make those choices, and get the consequences, which he also set up as a sort of IQ or character test. The "why" of all this varies, but some say its because he wanted company, others because he wanted them to praise him. To...

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ALL RELIGIONS ARE WRONG - GOD has not yet been revealed - we have been left alone to figure things out for ourselves - thoughts ? I think that all religions are partly right and partly wrong -- they're a mixture of folk wisdom, social club, and mythology. It's a mistake to reject them as useless, and it's a mistake to take any one of them at face value. However, I agree that God has not been revealed. I don't think he exists, there's nothing in evidence to suggest it. If he's waiting to reveal himself, one wonders...

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What did people breathe before air was invented? Pre-air man was a slimy sort, slithering around in the mud in the shallows of lakes and streams, drawing oxygen by inhaling the tiny Oxyfish that were abundant in those days. It was messy. You wouldn't wanna shake his hand, lets just say.

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when you lose all hope in life and you dont see a point in living how do you find a reason to go on? This really only happens to me when I lose any sense of myself. Normally, just being myself is sufficiently satisfying, I don't have to have something special going on or some compelling story to tie the drama of my life together. Just daily life is good enough. But sometimes I lose that, and feel fragmented and confused, and that's when I'm likely to feel despairing or upset. I find that,...

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What is Arby's "Roast Beef" made from? The same stuff they made Grant's tomb out of.

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Engineers: How did you make it through college? Ive lost my motivation to study, any pointers? Imagine having a boring, unsatisfying job... Now imagine that you got that job because you didn't finish your degree, giving up from boredom or fatigue at a young age. Now imagine that it's 3 PM on a typical weekday, just like every other weekday, and you're doing everything you can to stay alert putting lug nuts on yet another wheel, or whatever. All you ever think about is the weekend,...

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Christians: Are you aware, Statue of liberty, the olympic torch run and columbia ent are all Honoring Satan? If you were a puppy, someone would have pity and take you home. But you'd still have to live out in the shed so your wildly scattered droppings can be cleaned up efficiently.

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Christians: Are you aware, Statue of liberty, the olympic torch run and columbia ent are all Honoring Satan? I think you just became the new Ambassador to Kookiedom.

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The Unknowable cannot be known because ___________________ ? Um... because it's unknowable? Is this a trick question?

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People complain about the economy and not having money. Should they spend $100+ on their mobile device plans? If a person is having trouble making ends meet, and is simultaneously spending a lot on their mobile plan, and can't justify that cost in some way that connects with their budget, then that would be poor money management.

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Who's this Arab? Sheikh Al Chevy bin-Chase. He's the 15th son of the king of Slobby Arabia.

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I donated BLOOD every 12 weeks, for 2 years. now i refuse to help because the NHS never helps me when i need it -wrong or right? You're not donating blood to the NHS, you're donating it to your fellow citizens. Don't blame the delivery boy.

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Atheist: are you not doing the will of your Father? (the best liars confess to nothing & deny everything) I'll get out my shears and collect wool from you if you come any closer. Baaaaaa!

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What is Marky Mark's greatest contribution? He burns and burns, but is never consumed.

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I've noticed alot of athiests roaming around, has the anti Christ spread so far? There is no anti-Christ, that's just a story Christianity tells to try to get the flock to huddle together against a common enemy. Most religions do some form of that. Atheists are just people who have noticed that there's no evidence for God's existence, and said to themselves "you know what? I'm not buying myths".

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Urine-powered cars, homes and personal electronic devices could be available in six months with new technology. Would you use it? This kind of invention pisses me off.

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How much do you think is fair for a college-age babysitter to ask hourly? We regularly pay $10-$12 an hour, being fairly picky about who is hired.

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What should be used to JUDGE my Christian beliefs, the Bible,accurately rendered, or fallacies of the professed 'Christian' denominations The trouble with your question -- and the mindset which gave rise to it -- is that it presumes you're simply a blank slate: reading the scripture and just drawing facts from it. But that never really happens: each person comes to everything with a load of interpretive context... all your preconceptions and biases and perceptual shortcomings. Your mind picks and chooses what it thinks is...

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Why don't other people care when my birthday is? Happy birthday!

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What is the meaning of shabby chic? "I have designer tastes and working class wallet"

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Obama lost me. The ONLY reason to vote for him, however, is the two/three Supreme Court appointments the next president will make. True? On the topic of politics, pretty much everybody seems to have distorted interpretations of everybody else. Obama is neither a demon nor an angel. American politics could really use some balanced minds, free from dogma and preset loyalties.

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Mary ___________ Mary da 1st womin u meet who cn spel

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My wife wants me to shave off my pubic hair. Should I? Maybe I'm old fashioned, but I think you should discuss that with your wife instead of a bunch of strangers on the Internet.

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What happened to the English language? Could the use of more and more slag by our youth contribute to the downgraded economy of today? What is slag? What does "downgraded economy" mean? "more and more" would be better expressed as "increasing amounts".

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here we go, again. i'm afraid i'm sixteen, and...pregnant. any advice for a (maybe) mom to be? What's done is done. If abortion is not an option for you, then you should start preparing for a future that involves lots of childcare concerns. Is he going to stick around and be a father? If so, he needs to start thinking about how he is going to support his family. You'll need medical care, a place to live, food, diapers, etc., it's going to be expensive. Is your family willing to...

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Where/when did cheating/lying to win begin? Politics perhaps? Elsewhere? Why do we tolerate it? When the first monkey realized that he could fool the other monkey into turning his back so the banana could be stolen. That was the Original Sin, and we monkeys have been playing monkey-do ever since.

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What would you need as proof in order to believe in God? I'm not that picky, don't go for proof. Just offer at least a few shreds of evidence, even if they're tattered and worn with abuse.

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Do you love yourself? Do you find it hard to love yourself? The key to this issue is understanding what is meant by "myself". Mostly when people have self-image issues, the real issue is that they have only one "kind" of self -- a concept. (Really, it's several concepts mushed together, but that's a technicality) A self-concept is not the same kind of thing as true self, not at all. Everybody has self-concepts, which means the same thing as...

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Need to know the name of a song & group from the late 60's early 70's . It has the words (changing , rearranging, and I don,t want die ) in the song. How can I get this answer? http://youtu.be/iE9TNG8IQNI

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What do you believe is the best feature of each of the worlds religions? I'm an atheist. Nevertheless, there's plenty of things to like about religions -- the older ones have had centuries to refine themselves, and they do provide a significant package of benefits for believers, including some psychological comfort, social connections, a sense of meaning and purpose, lower anxiety about death, and a moral framework which encourages the loosening of the ego's grip...

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What is the Reason for you sagging your pants? The idea is that it's a ghetto thing: you go to prison, where they issue pants that don't fit and no belt. You have to walk around holding up your pants, and when you get out you are so used to that way that you buy oversize pants that hang down and have to be held up. It proves that you're a tough guy, because you went to prison. It doesn't say whether or not you became the girlfriend of...

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explain the purpose of an organizational chart and what it accomplishes for a healthcare organization. It allows the bulk of the staff to see that they are at the bottom of the pyramid, with the big moneymakers sitting on their necks. This gives them the incentive needed to marry a rich patient and get the hell out of there as soon as possible, leaving an opening for a fresh and energetic young person who still thinks they're in it to help people.

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If you woke up in the middle of the night and found Barack Obama sitting at your kitchen table, your first reaction is to - We'd have a long and stimulating conversation. I would try to explain where I think he misunderstands what it means to be "a uniter", and why that won't work if you take sides in the conflict. I would also ask him to explain the persistent throwing of money and lives into Afghanistan, and want to know how the Solyndra fiasco got so messy. After the boring stuff, we'd talk about basketball.

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My father tortures me a lot and for no reason he tortures me? what should i do. What do you mean by "tortures"? Can you provide specific details of an incident?

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Ya got yer flipflopper and then you have someone who has a change of heart/mind sincerely. How do you tell the difference between them? I think our culture places undue emphasis on consistency in opinions, particularly among politicians. We think that someone should (apparently) make up their mind about every issue before they hit 18, and then keep those exact same views until they're dead -- if they want to run for office, anyway. This strikes me as incredibly naive, and perhaps even dangerous: an intelligent and observant...

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What is the one word that you think only you on answerbag might know the meaning?what's the meaning of it? Idempotence. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idempotence

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Gingrich had extramarital affair, Clinton raped at least 2 women.Why is Gingrichs non-crime worse than Clintons real crime? HasntBeen's Introductory Guide to Credibility Maintenance ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. If you're going to make a claim that sounds outlandish, have some very solid evidence. 2. Make sure that whatever point you're trying to make is somehow connected with the basis on which you're attempting to make it. 3. If you accidentally say something that...

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If life has a meaning, then what is the meaning of death? It means you better get busy living.

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Are Al Gore and his wifes utilities and household run strickly on Natural gas and or Solar, or Hydrogen? I don't know, but if you're suggesting that Al Gore's behavior somehow clarifies the reality or unreality of global warming, that would be "no". The science behind global warming, and the consensus of scientists that humans are heating up the planet in dangerous ways, has nothing whatsoever to do with Al Gore.

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How to down load microsoft word for free in my computer There's no legal way to do that. If you just want to read Word documents (and not create them), Microsoft does offer a free "Word reader" viewer application: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/891090

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I have a suggestion on how to keep a city crime free. Opinions? Even better: make people apply for going-out-of-the-house permits for everything -- shopping, going to work, visiting friends. Have lots of forms and bureaucracy that make it difficult to do anything, so that the only people outside their houses will be criminals. They can just be shot. Solved!

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Dawkins, "atheism cannot be proven to be true, and we cannot prove that there isn't a God"? He's demented? If you're suggesting that these statements are contradictory, I disagree: they are compatible. One cannot prove there is no God; the best you can say is that there's no evidence to support the idea. Evidence could exist, but not have been found, or it could be that God simply has no manifestation whatsoever which could serve as evidence, yet still exist. It seems unlikely, but accounting...

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isnt it sad that little girls fall head over heals whith that girly-boy Justin Beiber? Doesn't bother me a bit. What they eat don't make me fat.

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Do you lease your car? -I don't lease either one of my cars, but I hear its a mess. I have leased one vehicle. At the end of the lease, we had some excess miles (which is easy to do, as lease contracts are pretty restrictive about that), so we had to pay the leasing company for that, and of course had nothing left for all of our payments, but the payments were lower than they would otherwise have been. If that works for your situation, I don't think it's a terrible deal. ...

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How long does it take for a human brain to decompose? Decomposing is much easier than composing: just tear the sheets up, starting with horns section and then moving to the string instruments. Save the soloists for last, that's my philosophy. Technically, you can't do this with just the brain, the hands must be involved too. Don't know if that matters for your question.

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So the itsy bitsy spider went up the water spout. The rain came down and washed it out. What would've happened if the sun hadn't come out? I like to think that spider had a future up there somewhere -- I know its silly, and maybe I'm a dreamer, but every time I hear about what happened I just break down in tears -- it is so sad! They say that heaven is just what toast tastes like when its buttered properly, but I think for this little guy heaven would be living on the roof, with the shingles and the TV antenna and the shadows of...

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How can you tell whether or not someone is "the one" for you? In hindsight, knowing what I know now, I probably would have passed on most of the relationships I've had. I can see now that what I thought I was looking for was never attainable, and who I thought they were was always distorted. So, at my advanced age -- long past the time when the knowledge would have done me any good -- I think I understand what love is about, and how to know when the...

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Do you use Windows XP or Vista? Did you know clever web developer designers don't care about you? You don't like programmers, do you Bromide? They want to be your friends, but you keep pushing them away. You have to let them into your heart, Mister. Its the only way... open up and feel the love. Don't be afraid, just relax and we'll take care of everything. Don't mind that nurse with the needle, she's with us, just a friend. There! You should feel better in just a few seconds.

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When I Love Someone, I Love Deeply; How about you? I think if it was really deep, there would be a specific person rather than "someone".

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Who can argue with this learned scholar? Fatwa Permits Mujahideen to Kidnap, Imprison, and Have Sexual Intercourse with Infidel Women. I looked over the story. My first concern is whether or not it's legitimate. It cites a fatwa from some guy who appears to be a member of the sharia council of some forum somewhere -- details are unspecified. So it's not clear if the originator has any real standing as a religious authority, and whether in fact this fatwa even exists.

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In your opinion, if a male homosexual marries a lesbian, is it worse than two homosexuals, or two lesbians getting married? And why? None of the above would bother me, and they shouldn't bother anybody else either. Freedom means that adults can do what they like as long as they close the blinds and shampoo the carpet afterward.

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How come love does not find everybody? You (and the people you're getting advice from) are talking about relationships as if they were the result of some sort of mythic Greek gods or astrological forces. Ideas like "love comes to everyone" and "if you keep looking, you will find" are just superstitions. There is no reason to believe that either of those are true -- who or what would be in charge of making them come true? Its...

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Why do Christians & Muslims think im evil because i dont believe and follow there religion? Don't listen to them. If they knew what they were talking about, they would be able to show you evidence which supports their beliefs. It's just "talking trash".

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If you're not "good at math", should you be shot since you're essentially useless to society and we only need so many janitors? I'm sensing a slight increase in your spunkiness tonight, Bromide. Is it true, or am I imagining things? Are you slightly more upbeat? I'm thinking about 7-8% more positive.

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If science can collapse anytime and proven wrong the way we know it today or tomorrow , can a man use it to fight the belief in a God, absolutely? Arguments like this one are always putting the cart before the horse: yes, science can be wrong about things... but it still does not get away with just making stuff up from nothing -- there is evidence, and there are conclusions based on that evidence. Either can turn out to be wrong, but that's completely different than believing something for which there is simply no evidence at all. In...

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Do you like Chinese Chicken? Yeah, but I don't understand a thing its says.

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If christians have churches, where do all the atheists hang out? They don't. One key characteristic of atheists is that they do not join hands and sing songs and march to the beat of some leader. That's also what makes them so much less dangerous than their opponents.

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Atheists: Would you consider converting to one of my 2 religions? My first is Pastafarianism - there could be a free feed in it for ya! :) I would never be a member of a religion that would have someone like me as a member. Their standards are too low.

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When did America lose its way? I'm not sure what that means. Did it have "a way"? If you mean a common purpose or goal, certainly there have been times when Americans had more of a shared sense of purpose or goal. However, it's not clear that the culture makes the most progress when all is harmony and sweetness. I think that it is entirely possible to make the case that turmoil is the time when creativity and...

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Krishnamurti once remarked that observing without evaluating is the highest form of human intelligence. Agreed/disagreed. No, he was overstating his case. Observing without evaluation is a critical skill which allows the mind to integrate what it knows in new ways -- finding connections which might otherwise be overlooked, etc. It allows one to "see the back of their own eyeballs", to some degree. But it's just a tool -- a practice with a particular value. It's not "the highest form of human intelligence",...

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Atheist: (Science is the work of the flesh) therefore how can we use the works of the flesh to deny the works of the spirit? Works of the flesh: the computer you're using to share your confused noodlings with us. Works of the spirit: the confused ideas that you bought from your preacher, hoping to understand reality without having to do the work of studying it carefully. Yours is a lazy worldview: just lay back, and let the preachers tell you how it is. Then, become a preacher yourself, with no more clue than the...

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Do you only care about winning? If so, why? Yes, I care about winning. Like all of Evolution's Creatures, I am endowed with a reptilian brain that is quick to see each situation as a possible competition for resources or females. This gets translated, due to social conditioning and other factors, into a more complex and subtle set of behaviors, some of which are in conflict with "higher" concepts about appropriate behavior or abstract...

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Why do some people assume that every new member here on AB is a troll? I have never heard anybody express the view that all new members are trolls. But if a new member asks something controversial, and has no history to review to put the question in context, it's understandable that people who object to the question may conclude he's a troll. Of course, some trolls on Answerbag have long histories and friend's lists. :)

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Christians: God is love with morals, why do some of you feel as long it's love involved homosexuality is okay? The liars are the people who came up with the idea that homosexuality is an abomination, which in turn justifies the discrimination and abuse they have endured for centuries. You are promoting an evil idea, and you should be ashamed of yourself.

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Hi, I can't stop caring about what others thinks or gonna think about me? This really stops me from being myself and from having fun This is a pretty common problem, so at least you have company. :) A lack of self-confidence is really a lack of self-recognition -- you don't know who you are. That calls into question what it would mean to "be yourself"... there has to be some clear sense of self to be, yes? So when one does not recognize true self, there's a sort of void or emptiness, and the temptation is to try to get...

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Be patient__________ While I drain your bank account.

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55 car pile up here this morning. How does this happen? I suppose there's no point in saying "people should slow way down when visibility is near zero and there's black ice on the road?"

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Are you one with nature? I try to stay between .9 and 1.3, with a standard deviation of 0.1.

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Which is the best programming language for a programmer to learn in 2011? Sorry, as with every year, it depends on what you intend to do, what skills you already have, what demand there is in your area or field, etc. No one language will ever be "the best to learn" in general.

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Could Bromide have been right about programmers all along? Uh, yeah. $200k for an app that does almost nothing and does it wrong is a bit steep. I would have done it for $180k.

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Does the imperfect nature of communication mean that nobody will ever understand anyone else completely or accurately convey meaning? Well I think you can make the case that something is always lost in translation, sure. But if you get enough to function, at a minimum, and enough to satisfy the intentions of both parties to share something, that's pretty good.

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On this day 1955, Rosa Parks refused to sit in the back of the bus. Are we a more or less racially divided country now or then? I do think we've made a lot of progress since then. Much more to go, certainly -- but the a black president would have been completely unthinkable in 1955. Now we have a black president, and up until recently a viable black opponent for the next term. There are many more examples of progress, of course, but that's iconic.

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If the day ever arrives when you discover you have been wrong all along will you apologize for the life you led? If so, to whom? I think I owe some apologies to people, but it has nothing to do with whether or not God turns out to exist. My own sense of appropriateness is adequate to guide that sort of thing. As for my life overall, well it's like a lot of people: done some good, some not so good, and learned a lot. I'm satisfied that the most essential thing has been checked off already: a clear sense of what it...

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If we are all born atheists, then how come__________________________? Then how come we backslide into theism? Because theism solves a number of psychological and social problems for individuals -- at least, it appears to solve them if the solution is not challenged or studied in great detail. Indeed, it is the benefits of religion which give it its staying power. However, those very same benefits also produce its shortcomings -- the solutions religion provides...

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Can you make a word using the letters qwrtypsdfghjklzxcvbnm? I already did that last week. I used it in a sentence even, but the cop thought I was calling him a "qwertybottom", and wrote my speeding ticket for 95 MPH instead of 80 MPH. Thanks for your help.

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Which is more normal, being an atheist or a theist? If by "normal" you mean "that which conforms to social norms", then 'theist' is the answer, as most people believe in some sort of deity. If you mean "that which conforms with known facts", then 'atheist' wins, due to the superior correlation between atheism and facts. If you mean "which is healthier psychologically", the debate rages. I admit that theism may provide some psychological...

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Each of us has only as much control over lives as God is willing to grant. Agree or disagree? Disagree: the degree of control we have is mostly determined by the laws of nature, our personal strengths and weaknesses, and the degree to which we are willing to take responsibility for our lives. God has absolutely zero to do with it, as he most likely does not exist.

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Atheist: isn't it awkward to be taking a strong stand against a belief many of you believe are calling pure mythology? You're a complete idiot, Andy. Plus, you don't listen to anybody. You could learn a lot from others, if you tried just a wee bit.

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Why do people say that America lost the Vietnam War? It's obviously a conspiracy made to anger more civilians into joining the US army. The queue to be an Answerbag Troll is already pretty long. Can you come back next year? We'd like to accommodate people in the order they arrive.

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If you were brought up in the "church" as a child; have you continued to attend church as an adult - because you are a still a believer... I was raised in a very evangelical family -- my father was a Baptist preacher. As a teen I didn't think much about religion at all, but as an adult for a while I was a believer in God. After a while, that wore off and now I'm pretty solidly atheist. Looking back, I can see clearly how many flat-out falsehoods I was taught as a childhood, and how thoroughly I believed them to be true, and I...

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Is it ok to have some humor on answerbag? No, I don't think so. These are serious questions, by serious people, demanding serious consideration. Presented as evidence, some questions from tonight's home page: "Who wants to join my church of wrestling?" or "Why can't you be more like the neighbor's kid?" or "What do you do if a guy dressed up as Santa Claus pours a carton of milk on you everday?" When people have personal...

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Should religious persons humble themselves and realise that they at one time were an atheist and have the possibility of again being one? In my view, it is normal for people to go through different stages regarding religion as they develop. So no problem. I'm an atheist. I used to believe in God. Here's my view about theism now: it provides a kind of "shortcut" for people developmentally, at least for a while -- you can take up a religion, or some variation that suits your taste, and harvest the wisdom of others rapidly --...

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Who, in your opinion, is the Most Fascinating or Interesting Person of 2011? Are we allowed to pick ourselves?? :) OK, I have to admit that nobody in the public sphere has really caught my attention as being terribly interesting this year, so I'm going to choose my 2 year old son. He's fascinating, and adorable.

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I need advice. (see description) Stop kissing other people! What the heck is that all about? You have a child together. That's your first concern. This really does sound like 14-year-olds, on both sides. Both of you should grow up and take care of the child.

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Is a KY church's decision against taking interracial couples into the congregation Christian love? What do you think of their action? A tiny backwater church of family members with bigoted views... lets see, we'll sit them next to the Westboro folk on the bus to heaven, that way they can experience greater community unity and Christian love with people of their own kind.

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should i tell my parents im gay or hold off untill im out of the house? im scared to tell them but i really want to. In a case like this, I don't believe in telling someone what to do. These are personal decisions that nobody but you can make. But I can suggest some guidelines for how I try to make important decisions, you might find it helpful. Or not. First, my goal is "maximum awareness": I want to have an honest assessment of all of my existing beliefs and thoughts that are relevant to the topic --...

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Atheist: Was is not the bible who stated the universe is expanding? Actually, not a single person of note interpreted the Bible that way until AFTER scientists learned that the universe was expanding. In hindsight, given the clarity that science delivered, one can re-read the Bible and "see" all sorts of scientific facts in it. The trouble with that approach is that none of those scientific facts were learned directly by Bible readers... that almost...

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Are you sure you're who you think you are? I'll answer that when you define "who" and "you are" in unambiguous ways! :)

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Since everyone needs to take personal responsibility for their life, should we immediately disband the handout system? Who said that everyone needs to take personal responsibility for their life? If someone can make a rule like that, how can it be personal responsibility? Personal responsibility is something you give yourself like a gift. It's not a burden laid upon you from the outside world. It's a tool for being whole as a person, its not a punishment meted out by the authorities.

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how much would it cost to install a water outlet in a science laboratory room for high school? It depends very much on where the nearest water source is located. If you're lucky, and it's already available in the walls, it should not be terribly expensive -- they tear open the wall, install a tee in the pipe, mount the new valve, and repair the wall. If the nearest source is far away down the hall at the lavatories, you're talking a lot more construction.

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You have less than one month to shape up before Santa Comes to Town. Were you a good little guy/gal the prior 11 months? How so? Several years ago I discovered that Santa was financing this whole enterprise with MY credit card. At that point, I decided that being good was overrated.

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My 5 yr old boy is often talks about a baby sister. I dont like to have another baby. How to convince him? Awwww! That is very sweet. Sorry, I'm sure it gets annoying the 1,000th time, but the fact that he wants a sister just warms my heart. So why don't you want another baby? Maybe if you can explain it to us, you can explain it to him.

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How do you feel about WiFi? a new report says that WiFi changes a mans ability for reproduction and even changes his DNA. Scary? or Bunk? Probably bunk, but lets see the report.

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How can you prove that you caused 100% of your problems, "accidents", and failures? You didn't. That would be a wasted effort. If you're talking about personal responsibility, that's a different matter. To "take responsibility" for your past does not mean that you are claiming that you caused everything that happened. It's more subtle than that. To take responsibility means that I choose to take the perspective that I "own" all the events that occurred leading up to this...

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You have a choice between wrong and wronger. Do you vote for wrong or opt out from voting altogether? Why? No, I vote. But it is always an attempt to pick the lesser of N evils. It's like this: the car is rolling down the hill with no brakes. You can go left, crashing into the county fair where they're having a rodeo, or go right and crash into the day care center full of children. You gotta choose, so you decide you can do without rodeos.

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How bad are cigarettes potentially for my singing voice? And is the damage reversible? Smoking is such an extremely bad idea from so many different angles, why would someone who cares about their voice take the risk? If by "bi-polar answers", you mean that people have been telling you this is a stupid thing to be doing, I'm afraid that will be the bulk of the answers.

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Gingrich was accused of lying and using tax-deductible donations for his own use. GOP front runner? I always start from the presumption that politicians are lying crooked scumbags. Then, I can be pleasantly surprised if they do something good -- that's just a little cheap buzz I like. I quit sniffing glue, so I need something.

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What is a good Database software to use? Depends on what you're trying to do, what technical skills you have, and what operating system it is supposed to run on. The question as posted is too short on details to be answerable.

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Customer service. Why don't they just let you talk to a "representative"? Yeah, that's bad. But what about this: you call up, it asks you to put in your 64 digit account number, then the last 4 digits of your social security number, then routes you into branch 17 of the phone system, where you discover that none of the options apply. Thinking yourself clever, you hit 0 three times, but that doesn't work. Sitting in frustration, the system says "That is not a...

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How much does it cost for 100 square feet of carpet? (price range) Prices vary widely. Figure $1 to $5 per square foot. There's actually no upper limit, but if you're on a budget that's a range worth considering.

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Does it piss you off that society expects you to put on a happy face when you are miserable? I don't think I have that problem: who is society? I can't recall anybody telling me to put on a happy face.

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What is the SQL Server? How do I fix this error? SQL Express is a database program -- a half-witted stepchild of its daddy SQL Server. This is the kind of message you might get if you are using Visual Studio and it's app wizard to produce certain types of starter programs. Your program is dependent on something which expects SQL Server or SQL Express to be installed and configured a certain way. When that dependency can't be satisfied,...

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Who owns AB? Demand Media. A corporation. Answerbag's headquarters are in Santa Monica, CA, entered by a little inconspicuous door on a crowded street filled with retail shops.

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What's worse than death? - That funny feeling you get when you realize that you just pressed the red button that says "Do not ever press this button!" in big red letters. - Getting that girl of your dreams and discovering she's a guy. - The click of the latch behind you, as the werewolf pushes on the door you were sure was locked tightly.

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What sound does a mime artist make after he falls out of a fifth floor window? The sound of one clown splatting.

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Americans spend $19.3 million per hour for war. Is that how you want your tax dollars spent? Uh... no. That's not very smart money management.

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Which state would you kick out of the United States? I've never felt like Rhode Island is really pulling its weight. I hear they recently carpeted the whole thing for under $100. Seems like more of a mascot than a player.

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Have you ever eaten cottage cheese & green olives? No, and I've never hit myself on the head with a hammer either! I'd like to keep things that way :)

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Do animals have the capacity to enjoy life? For complex forms, maybe? but what about termites and amoeba? I think clearly the higher forms have the capacity for what we would call "enjoyment", and even bugs seem to experience something akin to 'pain'. I would think that at some point as one goes down the scale of sensitivity, you end up with nothing we would recognize as feeling. I can't imagine a bacterium feeling anything... they gots no brain.

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If all the airlines go bankrupt! Will the tea party condone government intervention to bail out big business? Most of them fly! Well I'm not a big Tea Party fan, but I don't think we have much to worry about: even if all current airlines went out of business, new ones would spring up to serve the existing demand for air travel.

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Buildings built over ancient Indian burial grounds are prone to haunting - why are Indians who were buried in groups so grumpy? Well, we did take their lands and slaughter them in big bunches and blame them for making the place seem like India when we first showed up. I guess I might be a bit put out if I were them.

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How many kingdoms will exist on Heaven for eternity beyond the plant and animal kingdoms? Uh... you do realize that the "plant and animal kingdoms" aren't really kingdoms literally, yes? It's just a figure of speech, you're not supposed to use it as the basis for castles in the clouds. It's like asking how many chips can fit on a shoulder: there's no actual "chip", it's just an expression.

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What is the great tribulation and when does it start? It's a fantasy of religious books. It doesn't ever start.

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What did your dad do for a living? My dad was a Baptist preacher and generally useless liar.

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Was today the last day of the rest of your life? It was the rest day of the last of my wives. Is that good enough? Well, I never rosed you a promise garden!

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Where did you get this idea that you're entitled to something in life? It was just laying there on the sidewalk, I figured nobody wanted it. Was that so wrong?

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What morals are absolute and not subjective? This topic just makes a mess everywhere it goes, like a drunken cheerleader with bird poop on her pom-poms. To me, the reason is simple: we don't distinguish between the *basis* for morality and moral *codes*. A "moral code" is a specific set of rules -- the do's and don'ts generated by authority figures to try to keep the flock from making trouble (or to try to establish power over the...

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You wake up tomorrow and all traces of religions have vanished from the earth and been wiped from peoples minds - effect? Within 15 minutes humans would be making up new ones: we're just not very good at facing the unknown and taking responsibility for our lives.

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What makes computers crap out on you after only 2 or 3 years? If you're running Windows, and surfing any old spot on the web, and downloading and installing everything that comes knocking, its virtually guaranteed that you will have to "repave" your computer periodically (reinstall operating system and applications). That doesn't mean the computer itself is failing, it means the operating system is getting even more polluted than the day it was burned...

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Do you let your Haters be your Motivators? Uh... I don't think so. If there are people who hate me, I'm not sure I would even notice.

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I've kissed another guy other than my boyfriend 2 years ago and never told him. Friends are forcing me to tell him. What do I do? So on the one hand, you have an ideal concept of how you should be in your relationship -- always telling the truth, no matter what. On the other hand, you have the notion that he won't be able to forgive you for what happened. And, on a 3rd hand (you have a lot of hands!), you have the idea that your friends can somehow force you to tell. Did I miss something? I find that the first step...

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In what way did Jesus Ransom pay for the Sins of Humanity? Why did he have to die so brutally? How can humans benefit from it? Well, the story goes that Eve ate the apple even though she wasn't otta sposed-to, and so all of humanity was cursed with sin, and so that was bad. Then it turns out that God decided he had an idea, so he turned himself into a person and showed up in a manger, and waited 30 years just hanging around, then decided to start telling people who he was. And of course, they kilt him, which is what...

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Where does the rule 'Don't apologize to anyone' apply? When you're surrounded by hungry brain-eating zombies, and have just popped new "D" cells into your plasma sword! Slice! Dice! Do not apologize!

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Is it rational to think that you come into existence in life, yet when life ends, you continue to exist, despite evidence to the contrary? Indeed all of our best observations yield the unmistakable conclusion that consciousness is dependent on the physical body for its existence. That is why the anesthesiologist sticks the needle into your butt or puts the mask over your mouth in order to make you unconscious: the drugs go into the body to turn off the mind. Those who claim that consciousness can somehow survive without the...

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Our Father who art in ___________ Who art in the back of my head, masquerading as something that is not part of me.

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Is choosing a religion a bit of a gamble? Not really. It is guaranteed that you will lose no matter what the dice say. That's not gambling, it's walking into the casino and tossing your wallet to the owner. Authentic being is incompatible with religion. To take up religion is to give up the most valuable prize you could possibly win: yourself.

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How to find fresh and new idea for my blog post? Sounds like you might have the cart before the horse -- you're trying to fill a blog, rather than trying to find a blog for your many ideas. If you're overflowing with things to say, a blog is a way to let them out. If you don't have anything to say, silence is entirely appropriate. To try to come up with something to say because you have the microphone turned on makes no sense. Turn off...

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Do you believe it's in the human nature to always want more? Not necessarily. It is quite possible to be satisfied. The "always wanting more" is, I think, a slightly dysfunctional state. Its the state of someone who, for whatever reason, does not recognize the sufficiency of what they have. There's really nothing quite as enjoyable as being satisfied: that sense of completeness and freedom from anxiety or craving. It's not like getting "more" is...

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I have been in a relationship with a lady for 13 years she seems to now care more about herself than her mate.I am trying not to give in. That's not enough detail for anybody to say anything useful. You also haven't asked a question.

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Is there crying in A B? No crying in baseball. There is crying in AB. It's not baseball. You may cry if: - Someone provides a snarky answer when you want serious; - An atheist disrespects your soapbox-about-some-obscure-point-of-scripture question; - A liberal points out a flaw in your conservative evidence or argument; - A conservative calls you a liberal; - The moderators purge one of your perfectly good questions about why you...

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Those who believe in absolute or objective morality: Can you please state some key elements of it plainly? Sorry, I'm not in your focus group. But I gots opinions about this: The quest for an absolute basis for morality is doomed: there's no way to come up with such a thing without making logical fallacies or going off into speculative "faith" based worldviews. But "objective" is a different matter: there's a difference between "objective" and "absolute". I say that authentic morality is based...

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If i co-signed a loan for my son, can i purchase the house and get his name off the loan? Do i have to do a purchase or refinance? If you can qualify for a loan on your own, and your son is willing to sell, you should be able to refinance. But because this isn't an ordinary transaction, you should start by calling whomever you want to use as the new lender and explaining the situation. They have plenty of incentive to help you work out the details.

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Will 2012 be a good year for Mr. Bromide? Oh my, yes! This will be his year! - He will open the January issue of Depression Monthly, and find samples for a new medication which makes even the most miserable day seem like Christmas with Shakira. - The boy scouts will show up and announce that they have to earn merit badges by painting his black walls back to their original Navajo white. - He'll check his bank account online, and...

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Anyone want to talk dirty? please im very horny There's mud outside the house. There's mud around the mouse. There's mud up high in the sky. It will all be mud by and by. There ya' go. Don't get anything on the carpet.

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Do you think the multiverse exists? Why or why not? Dunno. Certainly its possible. It seems like we may never get confirmation, except by inference -- i.e. if the math which unifies quantum mechanics and gravity points unambiguously to a multiverse, that might be as good as it gets. Dang.

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What did people eat before food was invented? Originally, people ate animals and plants. This caused trouble, because most animals did not come with any secret sauce -- they were stringy and cold and furry, it was disgusting. Pretty much everybody agreed about that. And plants were greenish and often tasted foul. Some of them made people sick. So one day, somebody (we don't know who it was, so we call him Ork) decided to invent food....

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One-world religion? Is it possible ever? In the absence of evidence, the human imagination rules the roost, and that means variety.

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Do you have to tear yourself down in order to build yourself up again? I think that's a clumsy way to talk about it. When people are stuck, it's almost always an identity issue: their concept of who they are has become frozen into a form that does not allow them to grow and move forward anymore. The sense of possibility for the future dries up, life becomes a struggle, and its natural that many come to the conclusion "there's something wrong with me". So "tear...

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Can God forgive you if you can't forgive yourself? Religions have worked out methods for resolving very deep guilt. This works by setting up the individual for a fundamental change in personal identity -- in a cathartic "surrender", you give up thinking that you can resolve your own crisis, and hand the problem over to God. "God" forgives you (the mechanism varies by religion), and you are innocent again. It works. However, it comes with a...

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i need some help with my future, opinions please? When someone says they have an incredible talent for writing, I expect them to not only punctuate well but to follow such a claim with some incredible writing. Instead, I'm hearing a self-indulgent bath of unabashed ego splashing out into a distorted worldview and making the whole thing wet. I think you should stay in school, get a more realistic assessment of your skills and talents from...

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Does it bother you if you find out a good friend believes in a god? Most people believe in gods. I'd really be narrowing my field of possible friends if that were a deal-breaker. Humans can generally function quite well while harboring all sorts of superstitions -- there's a lot of space in the brain for abstractions and fantasies and alternate models of reality, and it does not seem to interfere with the ability to hold down a job or change modes on the...

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Should demon's be allowed to accuse, and point the finger without hard detailed core facts, to back them up? Non-existent beings can do as they please. If it bothers you, you can shoot non-existent shells at them with your non-existent Howitzer. Really, though, it would be more fun if you just buy a Rubic's cube and try to make all sides the same color.

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Portable toilet stolen from construction site. Police have nothing to go on! Anyone seen it? Check the pawn shops: once the pervert is done with dinner, he'll want to get rid of the package.

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What is a good comeback when guys say "make me a sandwich"? "Ok, but you gotta lie down on the plate. And don't whine if I get mayo in your ears".

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omg it's 11:11! what does this mean???? 11:11 is the Mark of the Yeast. Don't let it get on you, or you'll rise like bread in the oven, hit your head on the ceiling, and be knocked senseless. Oh yeah -- and don't step on cracks. That's bad too.

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atheist if life was an equation atheist do you choose to believe x is 0 and is neither the beginning or a solution? This is the kind of utter nonsense we hear from believers all the time, although I think you may have set the nonsense-bar even higher than usual. One of the things that helps to reassure atheists that they're right is that so many believers seem so deeply confused about very basic things. You're doing your cause more harm than good by opening your mouth.

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Today is "Shop Small Businesses Day". Do you care? Is it a joke? Aren't most small businesses failures? No, the small businesses that are failures go out of business, and many have. The small businesses that succeed do so because their line of business does not scale efficiently. This is inherent in some settings or activities: e.g. a mom-and-pop store in a rural area doesn't have to worry about Wal*mart blowing them out because there isn't enough population to support a big-box. Or, a...

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Do you think the first human/s -in the theory of evolution- eventually came to believe a higher power created all of what is natural.... We are wired up by evolution to dislike unknowns: unknowns are potentially a threat -- surviving means eliminating unknowns. This predisposition to get rid of unknowns most likely applied itself to things that were of a more reflective nature as well: look at what happens on Answerbag: people ask questions, and even if they don't know the answer, folks will make something up. Living with...

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we have cancer and hiv awareness. What about SIN AWARENESS? The causes of cancer are fairly well known -- there are many kinds of cancer, and many different causes. It is absolutely certain that "sin" is not correlated with most of these cancer types. You need to get your facts straight and learn about something besides the Bible if you want anybody to take you seriously. At the moment, you sound like a raving lunatic. Tone it down a bit, and...

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Black Friday: What are they trying to say? The day they assume that black people will flock to Wal Mart? Seriously, is this racist? Can we assume you're joking?

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I LOVE the piano. Loads of people play including some famous blind people, some autistic, etc. Why can't everybody play? Why can't I? There are various aspects to playing the piano (or any instrument). It is the intersection of different skills working together. Practice refines those skills, music education expands understanding of how musical elements work together. Nobody just pops out of the womb and starts playing -- even those with natural talent and no lessons have to work at it to develop the mechanical fluidity...

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Other people are just corpses waiting to die. Why bother with them at all? Why bother asking the question, when you know that all of the answers will fit within a particular range of possibilities?

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I see so many flaws about myself, its almost like everything i have is flawed. how can i get better self esteem Most people will recommend some sort of positive thinking to correct this. I think that has very limited usefulness. The issue is mostly a matter of distorted thinking: nobody is perfect, and I'm sure you're no exception. But when your thinking is distorted in the negative direction, all you see are shortcomings and flaws -- it's a background theme to your thought patterns, rather than...

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Can you buy food on Amazon with food stamps? I don't want to leave the house. There's a bustling underground economy in food stamps in many ghetto areas, you can use them somewhat like currency. I'm sure you could trade some for cash (at a less-than-face-value rate) and then spring for that iPod. Trouble is you gotta get out still -- I'm not aware of any food stamp traders who make house calls to the suburbs.

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OK question...Is this a good plot line? I would say that's not quite yet "a plot". It's the setting: you've described the context in which the story takes place, which is fine, but the story needs to "do something". The story is the structure of events and their effects on the people involved, and you haven't really said anything about that except that there's a romance that might involve inter-species marriage. That needs more...

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How many questions have you asked on A.B. since you joined....?? Maybe 20 in 5 years. Not a big asker.

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Aren't some people just not good at anything? Someone has to be at the bottom of the food chain. Right? The bottom of the pyramid is much wider than the top, yes. Some people are largely useless -- but they can still learn skills in 99% of the cases, and do something useful. Whether or not the economy will support them at that level of competence is another matter. There is a "natural selection" going on economically, and it's not like there is some magical force which counteracts that to...

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Do you think love is overrated? with all the divorce, betrayals, lies & deceit, I think it is, no? Why? Love is not overrated, its just not as common as we like to think. There are lots of reasons why people get together and break apart, and most of them have nothing to do with love. If you've had a child, in particular -- and you're not one of those parents who abandons their offspring -- you know what I'm talking about. Under no circumstances, while there is breath in my body, will one of...

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It's Black Friday! Did you get pepper sprayed and trampled on? I went to Target around 8:30 AM for some groceries. I had decided in advance to skip the trip if the parking lot was full, but in fact there were few shoppers. I guess all the serious Black-fans were long gone by that late hour.

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Do you ever feel that no matter what you do you'll never be good enough? No, I don't often think like that. "Freedom" means, in one sense, being free from having your identity defined by external things -- that includes your own accomplishments, skills, or history. There's a kind of self which does not depend on anything, which is always whole and complete. That is the true home of each individual, and as far as one might drift or lose track of who they are,...

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If money isn't an accrate measure of a person's worth, then why are some professions paid more than others? The problem with this idea is that "worth" is too vague. Value needs to be relative to some context or purpose. My worth to my company for the purposes it is trying to accomplish is significant enough for them to pay me. My worth as a baseball pitcher isn't enough to get me signed on to the local amateur club. Then we have this notion of "intrinsic worth": i.e. is Mr. X worth more than Mr....

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Who is your celebrity crush? It's the other way around: Shakira is stalking me. I can sense it. She wants what she can't have, like a she-wolf or something. Sometimes I open the door late at night and turn on the porch light very quickly, to scare her away -- it always works, but then she comes back. Help!

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Isn´t this sad? Shoppers fighting with pepper spray over sale items in Walmart. Technically, this was one woman spraying shoppers with pepper spray, in an apparent attempt to gain a strategic advantage in video game buying. (Ironically, the games in that department are generally much more violent than a woman with pepper spray!) However, video taken at the scene shows that there was a chaotic situation building, and some people were complaining that the crowd was pushing...

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If you don't see it, does it exist? Lots of things exist that cannot be seen. But, as far as we know, everything that exists can be detected in some way, or can be conclusively inferred from things which are detectable. So that rules out things like gods, spirits, souls, angels, and sexy female plumbers.

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I would rather be descended from an ape than be a ____________________. I'd rather be descended from an ape than be stuck in that long line of 'begats' back to Adam.

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Some users have asked me leave. Do you want me to leave this site? They're on drugs. They don't appreciate you! I find your posts quite entertaining, at least some of the time. I think maybe you need professional help, but that's not my problem. You're an asset to the 'bag, your critics are wrong.

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Is there such a thing as an ugly kitten? Kittens just seem so cute that it seems impossible for them to be ugly... There are no ugly kittens, they've all been naturalselected outta here. But some of them turn very ugly on the inside when they grow up! Ugh.

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Pepper spray is the new toy du jour. A crazed shopper used pepper spray to make the crowd back off and give her room. Isn't that special? I saw that on the news. Good grief! That's some serious shopping. Of course it was at Wal*Mart... something about that store just gives me the creeps every time I go past.

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If some bizarre global event boosted all livestock's intelligence to human or near-human intelligence, would you stop eating them? "human or near-human intelligence" is not setting the bar very high. I guess I'd give them a trigonometry problem and then decide their dinner status.

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My depression is coming back and everything is slowly coming apart Get counseling. Start a regular meditation routine. Do your school work. Get exercise. Eat well. Volunteer to help others. Do all of those things at the same time. No single one is "the answer" by itself, but I would be very surprised if the combined set of changes don't make your life significantly better.

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If someone breaks in should they be shot with a shotgun or a handgun? I prefer to talk them to death.

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I feel like I'm crabby all the time. Like I'm always mad about sommmmething. It bothers me, I don't wanna be a crabby person. The thoughts that are making you angry are just thoughts. The thought that you don't want to be a crabby person is just another thought. The kind of chronic mood you're talking about is what happens when your mind gets on a "tape loop" and keeps playing the same thoughts over and over again. The way out is to learn how to observe your thoughts without reacting, judging, or "solving"...

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Is flooding a divine sign or an ominous sign from God? No. It's a sign that there's too much water in one place.

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What are the lessons in life you want your kids to never forget? There is much suffering in the world. Don't forget about it, don't become numb, and don't let it get you down. Just appreciate what you have.

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I never heard a doctor say to eat CHICKEN SOUP. Did you? I'm trying to remember what drug company makes CHICKEN SOUP. Yes, I actually have had a doctor tell me that chicken soup was good for a cold. Apparently it's been studied. I have no further evidence, but I like chicken soup and that's good enough for me :)

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Atheists: With all respect, can you read this quote from instituting Thanksgiving, and find a reason why you should participate? Well actually I don't much care for Thanksgiving. I do think its important to be appreciative of life and others, but the religious tone of the day and the incessant bad behavior of my religious family over the years have left it with a fairly sour taste for me. But your basic premise seems to be flawed: why should an atheist care about the president's proclamation about the day? Atheists...

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I don't know how to connect to secured wireless networks. Help? You have to ask the person who owns that router. There's a reason they're password protected: the router-owner wants to keep out strangers or people without permission. So you have to find out who owns the router and ask for the password. In most cases, they'll say "say what?? Get your own damn Internet service!"

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Have you ever been "all out of sorts" and had no clue why? That would be me... Sure. Generally it's because my mind is so noisy on those occasions that I can't see the cause. That is... there is a cause, and at some level I'm aware of it, but the chatter of reactive thinking obscures the situation and makes it difficult to understand what is going on. So the solution for that is to sit quietly, upright, and do my best to just be aware of all of those thoughts, without...

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Are wrong answers better than no answers? Oh no. A wrong answer displaces the search for the right answer. Very bad, it is.

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Why is it so hard to find friends in your 20s who are interested in ideas rather than pop culture/gossip? Intelligent, aware, well-balanced people are rare in any age group. Humanity is just not very astute on average.

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I AM AN AMERICAN CITIZEN AND WOULD LIKE TO BRING A WOMEN FROM AFRICA TO MARRY AND MAKE HER A CITIZEN First, turn off your caps lock. There's nothing wrong with our ears, you don't need to shout. Next... do you know this woman, or are you talking about some abstract hypothetical woman? You have to know the woman. If you know the woman, you have to apply for a K2 or K3 visa with the USCIS. It is a fairly lengthy process which involves proving to the agency that your relationship is...

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Is the Super Committee having a Super Thanksgiving? Oh yeah. The democrats borrowed a turkey from the neighbors, and plan to borrow another one tomorrow to pay the first one back. The republicans won't let anybody eat until they go out and earn enough to pay their share of the meal first.

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Do many people accept religion due to groupthink? Well yes, certainly groupthink is a factor. But that alone doesn't explain the survival rate of religion in an ecosystem where there is competition from other ideas. I think its best to explore this from a natural-selection perspective: any set of related ideas is like an organism trying to survive in a changing environment. As with biological evolution, the evolution of belief systems...

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Do you think computer programmers wake up everyday thinking they're better than everyone else? Or is that only doctors? Don't hate on us. We're only trying to byte off a piece of the pi.

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When is confrontation not worth it at all? Why? For me, it's mostly when the confrontation isn't relevant to what I'm trying to do. This comes up a lot when I'm on the phone with some customer service department. Quite commonly, they've screwed something up, and then compounded the problem by having some boneheaded policy or procedure which prevents them from un-screwing it up efficiently, and made things worse by not having tracked any...

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In the REAL world, Christians run this country. In FOX News world, there's a war on Christmas and Christians are an endangered species. It is quite common that religions will imagine themselves persecuted, even when they're the dominant force in a culture. The reason for this is simple: having a common enemy (even an imaginary or exaggerated one) tends to sharpen the group identity and create unity. It's the same phenomenon that politicians try to exploit all the time by declaring abstract "wars" on everything: war on...

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My sister and I are 16yo twin girls and we have a question we have been masterbating with each other for awile we have bf now the prob Nevermind your virginity. Get an education!

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You know your life is pitiful when ______________________. - The aliens kidnap the rest of the family for experiments but leave you behind. - The used car salesman shoos you off the lot to keep up its appearance. - You forget your own birthday.

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Do you consider yourself part of "the 99%"? Why or why not? Naw. I'm part of the 1%... I'm just a little low on cash at the moment. Well, the last 10,000,000 moments.

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I found out my boyfriend watches porn, but is this weird porn? But is this type weird? It's most interesting to me that you're sure he would lie to you and persist if you objected. What sort of relationship do you have, that you're sure he would lie? Why would you be with someone whom you trust so little? It sounds to me like you should bail out of this "relationship" -- not because of his strange sexual interests, but just because it doesn't sound like there's much of the...

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Liberals: What government handout are you most thankful for? I'm a big fan of Big Highways, Big Police, Big Fire, Big Library, and Big Forest. Those handouts make me burp with pleasure.

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If God was able to put two of every kind of animal onto Noah's Ark, why didn't He care enough to spare all of the babies and young children? Wouldn't it have been a better idea to let righteous Noah raise all of the children in the ways of God? There is not a shred of credible evidence that the story is true, so its a bit like arguing about why My Little Pony isn't more of a thoroughbred.

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What anti-virus program is the best and why? None of them work where it matters -- the malware that's interesting these days is not detectable by the kind of signature-based analyzers used in any antivirus product. Like any static defense, a clever offense is always going to be smart enough to circumvent. This is the "dirty little secret" of the antivirus industry: they're selling a product which cannot protect from what really...

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I am 38 F I met a cop. Controlling, emotionally abusive. I cannot leave him. I am to physically attracted to him. Why can't I leave? Well you posted in the right category -- self esteem issues are right at the heart of this. Who are you? I don't mean your name or your age or gender. I mean what values are most important to you, what do you stand for? I'm guessing that you probably can't really answer that question: you haven't spent much time in your life grappling with the kinds of personal issues that would allow you...

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Obama pardoned a turkey. What about us? I pardon you. Now go, and watch out for the butcher knives.

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Do you believe the taming and domestication of religious faith is one of the unceasing chores of civilization? It's certainly proven necessary. I think there's still cause to hope that someday humanity as a whole will wake up from religious dreams and start taking the reins responsibly. No doubt this carriage needs some steering.

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What's the difference between 'subjective' and 'objective'? Objective is what subjective does when it wants results.

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How come homosexuals and sodomite's feel that they can inherit the kingdom of God.. 1 Cor 6:9,10,11,.. More to the point, who would want to belong to a kingdom consisting of bigots and ignorant thinkalikes?

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Who's going out shopping on Nigger (black) Friday? If you're going to be a troll, at least be interesting. ZZzzzzzz.

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Is There Any Such Thing As A RELATIONSHIP? Yes, of course. What would prompt such a question?

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Why does the press try to create outrage/sympathy over Islamic justice like victims of it wouldn't also cut our throats for Allah? That question makes no sense.

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can the soul be reborn? There is no credible evidence for the existence of "souls", so no.

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Is it self-contradictory to be intolerant of intolerance? It's an example of the kinds of paradox that can easily result when abstractions get disconnected from anything concrete, and then we start performing logic on them. Abstractions like "intolerance" are vast buckets which potentially cover all sorts of other ideas. If someone says "I'm against intolerance!", the statement is really quite vague because the size of the bucket is so large. If...

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President Obama just said "even when times are tough Americans look out for each other"! Do you agree or did he just tell a big big lie? I would characterize that as a "romantic oversimplification" rather than "a lie". When there is a disaster or immediately life-threatening event, people almost universally put aside their differences to respond: at the site of the plane crash, there's no talk about political alliances as people struggle to find the survivors and help each other lift sections of burning wings. The dramatic...

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6 degrees of separation now 4.74 with today's social media, do you think you are just 4 people away from someone famous? Yes, I think that just a small appreciation for the "fan out" effect of Internet-based relationships guarantees that 4.74 is going to shrink rapidly if it hasn't already. In cyberspace, I can "meet" far more people in a year than I would ever meet in meatspace, that increases the number of connections between me and others, and dramatically stretches the size of the network being traced in...

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Is fear really the mind-killer? I don't think so. In my view, the "mind-killer" is inattention. The challenge of taming a mind is all about taming attention: being able to focus on what matters, AND being able to "unfocus" to see the whole, and being able to switch between those modes as needed. If you had a magical thought-mapping machine and hooked it up to the average human's mind, it would trace out an incredibly...

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did you hear edward norton is dead? I wonder how many Tom Jones' die each day? Probably more than the number of Englebert Humperdinks, eh?

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Have you ever ended up wishing you had not been so quick to judge? If so, how often are you quick to judge now? I'm very quick to judge. But I don't get judgmental about that.

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Why don't more computers have built-in hardware random number generators? Even something as simple as an unconnected pin has entropy. Yes, there are available sources of entropy in modern computers. It's just easier to do things in software -- you don't have to worry about what specific hardware is available.

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What's the difference between stereo and mono? Mono is what happens when stereo gets tired of dualism.

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Pop musicians never mention specific places, ever. It is important they never do that, it is their genre or craft. Do you know why? Of course they do. Is this a riddle or something?

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Is the real reason we use the term "CERF THE NET" because of a gentleman called Vint Cerf who helped co-design the TCP/IP protocol suite? I don't think anybody used the phrase "surf the net" before the World Wide Web was developed. I used the Internet for e-mail and FTP and gopher and other TCP-riding protocols for years and never heard that term until web browsers showed up. So I don't think Vint Cerf had anything to do with the phrase.

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Do you view salvation as a gift? Why or why not? Ummm... salvation from what? This is the part that always spins my head around: first, convince people that they're lost and need saving. Then, offer them the "gift" of salvation. I always want to raise my hand and say "um... wait a minute! I didn't need saving until you started in with that whole thing about original sin!" Maybe some people really are lost, it's a big world, it happens....

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Have you ever felt bad for not feeling guilty about something? Hey! I think that deserves its own name -- that's Metaguilt™!

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Is anyone else sick of all the complaints against the president? Past presidents did the same things as this one does. The opposition always beats up on the President, that's a law of politics. Sometimes it's deserved, sometimes not so much. I think we have reached a point where nobody who really deserves the job would ruin their life by running for it, so it's just a matter of picking the lesser of N evils.

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Would you like to see high-speed rail in the US or do you prefer Greyhound? I would love to ride high-speed rail. I just don't want to pay for something that isn't cost-efficient.

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Why do you not believe in God? (Assuming you don't) I believe that you believe, so perhaps that will help you relax? No?

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Is this an appropriate response to someone who won't stop bothering you with their religion? Well it's an interesting story, so at least you got that out of it. I would not have handled it that way -- at least, not these days. I consider that believers are "perpetrator-victims" of something that transcends personality and individuality. The Borg (religion) has a sort of symbiotic/parasitic relationship with the believer, and the believer is indeed getting some benefits... in...

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when will the people make the House of Representatives and Senate do what the people want? Time to Vote many of them out? your thoughts? Well, these folks got there because we decided to vote the last bunch out. We're just confused now: we keep throwing the bums out, and new bums take their place!

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Is it a coincidence that God's oppressive views against homosexuals and women in the bible happened to match the views of men at the time? Well of course those ancient documents reflect the superstitions and prejudices of their time and place. No surprise there. As you've implied, the surprise is entirely in the endurance of these myths in modern times. We are a very, very superstitious lot.

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Who do you refuse to socialize with? Why? Supermodels. They keep calling, but I just hang up. Why don't they get lives??

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Why do you think, in an allegedly haunted place, some people see ghosts and others don't? "Some people are more superstitious than others" is the answer which accords with all reliable data. Of course, it could be that ghosts just don't ever want to be detected and prefer only to appear to those who believe -- sort of like God and kidnapper space aliens and honest politicians.

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Is Satan still the god of this world or is Jesus the God of this world? John 12:31 states now the prince of this world will be driven out? Superstition, superstition, superstition. When will the world outgrow this kind of nonsense?

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Can C++ load and unload assets at runtime from disk? Yes, nearly anything can be done in C++ if the system mode APIs are available. For things like dynamic loading of content, no problem. The problem is going to be that you're biting off a pretty complex language and application type with what appears to be very little skill in the area. C++ is like one of those dragons guarding the treasure: if you're good, it's worth the trip. But more...

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For Christmas, can I ask my family to donate to the shelter I will be living in? That's pretty funny! Strangely, I can't tell if you're serious, partly serious, or mostly pulling our legs. In fact, that's true most of the time. If it's humor, it's very dry. Sometimes the humor is obvious, sometimes not, but it's almost always black. The reason I'm going down this tunnel instead of providing the usual flippant answer is that, if indeed your life is as tough and...

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Gingrich & Cain both promised to defy Supreme Court decisions they don't like. Do you agree with their thinking? I don't see anything in the quote you posted which suggests that he would defy the court. "lead the charge to overturn" is not at all the same thing. I think DOMA is an insult to the constitution, but the question asked distorts the quote offered.

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Get attention...show someone "the error" of his/her ways...insult. That's why people attack others. What other noble reasons are there? Well if all you're doing is attacking the individual, I think that's something that needs a lot of justification: indeed there are people who need to be attacked, but it's more the exception than the rule. Usually, though, if we're talking about arguments, it's worth noting that lots of people consider that they are being attacked if you challenge their precious worldview. This is a profound...

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Do you subconsciously dislike the zealous "good guys" who always stand up for what's "right" Don't we all love a villain? Sure you love the villain. Until you're the victim. :)

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Going out on a date with a really attractive guy and I'm so nervous that we won't click..? What if he doesn't like me? I don't know if he'll like you or not, but I know that you're missing the whole point of your life: you have all of your attention on whether or not someone else will like you, and hardly any on whether you like yourself. That makes you a victim of other's whims -- a ping-pong ball bobbing around wildly on the ocean of external opinion. Even if you found a guy who loves you, it would never...

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I'am a complete loser and failure, i have no self-discipline and my life has no healthy structure. Should you accept advice from me ? You don't necessarily have to have your own life working in order to give good advice: strangely enough, it is almost always easier to see where someone else is screwing up -- and suggest sound changes -- than it is to see your own entanglement clearly. That's the blessings of distance.

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Are some sects of religions, and cults actually a form of mind control? I think "mind control" is a little strong, but something like that is going on in all religions. From a systems standpoint, it is much more useful to think of a religion as a sort of virtual organism whose body is comprised of the portions of the minds of the believers that it has influence over. To the degree that the religion tells someone what to think and how to feel and what to do, it is...

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If your career started to require computer programming as part as the skill set, what would you do? Well I don't have that problem, being a programmer already. But I will say that pretty much any job involves things you don't like (including programming). That's part of why they have to pay you to do it. I accept that in a take-the-good-with-the-bad attitude.

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Ten commandments in the courthouse? Most of the 10 Commandments are focused on a very specific system of religious ideas, rather than general ethical principles that everyone can agree on. As such, its presence in the court house definitely suggests an endorsement of a particular religion.

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If Jack gives Jill a flower, what would she say? "Nevermind that. Just go fetch me pail of water!"

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What has Quantum physics main contribution to science since it's development? Aside from the technological outgrowths, I think one of the key contributions has been that QM has disrupted what was previously considered common sense: the naive acceptance of the ideas about reality that we derive from personal experience. Reality, it turns out, is a heck of a lot weirder than we had previously imagined. This is good to know: we need to keep an open mind and pay attention....

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What would be a cool mutation to develop? I've always wanted a 2nd head. This one's used up.

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Why does the West think that in societies where divorce is discouraged, that women are oppressed when puts not? It's a question of autonomy and freedom: to what degree do individuals have the right to get divorced? To what degree does this "discouragement" of divorce take forms that are oppressive? There are plenty of things that might seem "bad" for social harmony which are nevertheless expressions of individual autonomy and freedom. In the West, individual freedom is valued more than it is in...

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Why do a lot of people apparently hate Nickelback? Is their music just seen as "too catchy", meaning not authentic enough or something? I don't hate them. It is true the music is catchy and features lots of "power hooks": rough-edged guitars and vocals and effects designed to say "we're cool and rough-edged". But that's part of the problem: it's a very calculated cool and rough, like the guy who spends an hour in front of the mirror getting his hair just that perfect flavor of "nonchalant" and then has to be careful all...

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do you think chuck norris could survive the zombie apocalypse What makes you think the Zombie Apocalypse would survive Chuck Norris?

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Do HATERS not only question a behavior but make sure the behavior is attached to whatever they HATE which is an unnecessary step? I dunno, I'm still waiting for someone to come up with a definition of "hater" which makes sense.

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In general are you pro cops or pro people? Why? I'm pro cops who are pro people.

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The right wing accuses the Democrats and Obama of being communists... What??? Are they having a bad trip, or are they stuck in the past? Well, there are only certain people on the right who do this, yes? Not every conservative is accusing Democrats and Obama of being communists. The problem with this kind of question is that the very way it is formed tends to sharpen the political divide -- it presupposes a vague "them" who all think the same way and are all dripping foam from the mouth as they memorize the contents of Fox...

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Why can't people with so called "mental illness" just stop using their "illness" as an excuse and go get a job? What would they do? We already have enough politicians.

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Whats some cute simple quotes to write on a hand? "I went to see Dr. Frankenstein and all I got was this stupid hand" "TO DO: - Buy notepad - Buy personal organizer - Buy hand soap" (On left and right hands, respectively): "Brake" "Gas"

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Cain: "We Need a Leader, not a Reader", Would you Like Both? The problem is that most people paying attention to the election campaign know more about the Libyan situation than Cain did -- it's not like he was being asked about some obscure event in the distant past, the Libyan revolution and the NATO support operations and Obama's role in that are still fresh in the public mind... but not in Cain's mind? So it calls into question -- did he pay...

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What is a non-religious person supposed to do when eating with people (or a person) who want to hold hands and say grace? I agree that it's disrespectful of the hosts to expect that anyone who comes into the home shares their religious views and wants to participate in their religious ritual. It says "we're somewhat out of touch with the situation". But then again, being out-of-touch is what religion is all about. So it should come as no surprise.

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How did my soul get placed in my body and did I exist before? There isn't the slightest reliable evidence for the idea that there is any such thing as a "soul". So, given that, what is the point of wondering where it came from? Where would something that does not exist come from? Human imagination. What else?

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n nsurnce slsprson erns a salary of 4200 pr mnth pls a cmmissin f 3% f sals. Hw mch mst da slsprson sell 2 hav a mnthly incm f at lest 4500 i cn c tht u r a mn of fw lttrs - i lik tht. so i dcided 2 b cum ur dciple, o savyr.

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Why does it still bother me what my coworker put me though? I gotta vote with Carla here. Put her on the phone too, I wanna give her a high-five. Audio style.

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What ever happened to a good old fashioned ass whoopin'? It's still around. Now it's called "my iPad is bigger than your iPad".

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Why are so many men becoming pussified these days? Pleeeaaasee don't say that! You're hurting our feelings!

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What was the very first question asked on AB? "What is the Meaning of Life?" holds that honor: http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/1

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WHY CAN'T WE BE TOLERANT OF ONE ANOTHER AND BELIEF SYSTEMS? Who isn't being tolerant of you? We've tolerated your aggressive beliefs for a long time now -- has anybody come to your house and beaten you up about it?

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Who has the power and who has authority here on Earth? The good or the evil? God or Satan? Neither. The laws of nature rule over us like a dominatrix with a whip and bright red lipstick. All we get to choose is what position we want.

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Gingrich: "Do What I Say, Not What I Do"? In algebra, there's this notion of "factoring out a common denominator" -- when you do that (i.e. divide all terms by 5 to simplify), you're left with only those parts which differ to deal with. That's how I feel about politicians: the common denominator is that they're almost always dishonest, hypocritical, opportunistic, and power-hungry. So if you factor that out of all candidates, it...

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Should I work hard and make lots of money yet sacrifice my morals or should I sell everything I own and travel around the world? I'm not too excited about "follow my dreams" as a guideline for life. Most dreams are fantasies that aren't really correlated with what a person needs to live a fulfilling life. But, if your job is forcing you to compromise your values, that is a real problem that can produce real suffering. I have quit jobs when I felt that what the company was doing was unethical. I highly recommend that...

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Would Jesus overturn tables at Starbucks if he was alive today? Only if they put foam in his no-foam double decaf low-fat latte with a touch of cinnamon but just a touch.

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Why do so many people think "agnostic" means undecided and not sure? I don't have a problem with your viewpoint, but pretty much any argument which depends on fixing the definitions of words that are ambiguous is overstrained. Both "agnostic" and "atheist" have a variety of meanings: it's not really like you can pin everyone down and insist that only your favorite definitions are the true ones, and therefore the rest of your argument must follow. On a related...

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If the question of free will makes sense -how does it make sense? Details... Free will exists. But, it's not the absolutist concept of the theological mind, nor is it the reduce-it-to-particles illusion of the physics mind. It's a meaningful term in the domain of human experience. Since this is also the domain of sound moral thinking, there really isn't a problem. Just as the rules of baseball are an artifice which make the game work, the rules of "free will and...

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John 17:21 says the True followers of Jesus would all be ONE. Churches teach that each person can belive slightyly differently. WHY??? The nice thing about oneness is that there are so many kinds to choose from.

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Do you beleive in things you cannot see? Like angels,aliens,ghosts,etc... I think the answer is mostly psychological: a kind of mixture of various tendencies that humans have -- we don't like uncertainty and unknown, we're prone to certain kinds of fallacies and erroneous thinking, and we like the "drama" of being part of some cosmic story (rather than being essentially dust in the far corner of the universe that just hasn't been swept up yet by cosmic forces). The...

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What normally drives you to act? Is it Faith; or is it Reason? Neither. Most of my actions are oriented around goals -- i.e. to provide for my family or achieve something at work, etc. While reason presumably participates in the decision-making process for the goals as well as the individual steps in the process, it's not the driving force which animates the activity: it's a guiding tool. Faith, on the other hand, doesn't get much respect from me. If...

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Why are many liberals into letting convicted murderers live but killing innocent babies? The problem with questions like this is really the problem with abstractions in general: one must be very careful not to throw things that are distinct into the same bucket. "Liberal" is a big bucket. What does it mean? What criteria would you use to determine if someone "is a liberal"? There are many different viewpoints that are often classified as liberal, and many different degrees of...

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I told my shrink that everyone hates me.He said I was being ridiculous - everyone hasn't met me yet. He's just being nice because you're paying him. Stop paying him and see what happens.

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Why do some people seem to think that it is acceptable to treat a porn star like he or she is a horrible person who must live in isolation? I don't think I've heard anybody express that particular idea as their position. But it is true that porn actors are stigmatized socially by a large segment of the population. A lot of this kind of thing I lay at the feet of human psychology: humans typically define their identity by oposition -- i.e. we outline "myself" by pushing against that-which-we-are-not. So I'm not like that jerk...

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Hawking claimed we were spontaneous creations.. read on Truth is, nobody knows if the phrase "before the Big Bang" is even meaningful. If spacetime started at that point, then the word "before" loses all definition when attempting to imagine, in a common-sense way, the progression of time "through" that point. However, that's not the end of the topic: there is a lot of work going on in cosmology these days, physicists trying to develop a deeper...

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Has anyone noticed we have a number of really hateful people on here all of a sudden? This is suppose to be fun... I'm curious about the "supposed to be fun" part. Where did you read that? I wasn't aware that we were supposed to be having a particular experience while using the site.

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Agree or disagree: we need a DISlike button! Answerbag used to have one. In fact, it went through several different generations -- people would "downrate" answers they didn't like. Many times the recipient got upset, and all sorts of social intrigue and whining went on about it for years. Finally they just took it off, and a lot of that noise stopped. Rarely does someone suggest it should come back, so I think the jury is done on this...

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If the "U.S. President" was gonna draft people to fight in a war overseas, shouldn't he draft inmates from prison first? A good soldier is not a killing machine: you want people with good judgment who can understand the unit's goals and the terms of engagement, who can distinguish friend from foe, will have the courage to fight under difficult or risky conditions, and who has the capacity to help as well as fight when that's what is called for by the situation. If most prisoners could do all that, they might...

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In your belief, can the United States as it is today, be defined as a Christian nation? The term is too vague to be answered. What does it mean? Does it mean that the nation was founded on principles drawn from Christian theology? In that case, it certainly is not a Christian nation. Does it mean that most of the population is Christian? The perhaps "yes" wins. Does it mean that Christianity influenced the culture in a dominant way? I think a "yes" goes there as well. On...

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Are there spirits alive and well out in the world which you can summon through your willpower or drug use that are benevolent or dangerous? There is no reliable evidence that anything like a 'spirit' exists, unless you're talking about the enthusiasm of cheerleaders.

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Do you have a zillion dollars I could borrow????LOL I'll lend you $1, and provide a zillion-to-1 stock tip. You provide the luck.

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So, where are all the free-thinkers that have liberated themselves from the mindless herd? I've met a fair number here. There's more where I work. It is my untested opinion that they will never exceed about 5% of the population at our current level of evolution -- that you need the combination of a high IQ and an unusually nutritive environment (or unusually strange journey through life) to produce "autonomy" -- a person who is resistant to being co-opted by groupthink in...

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Do you think man can live without God? We've made it about 200,000 years so far. I guess we can go a bit longer.

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Do you think English food is bland and boring in comparison to other foods from around the world? They are kind of famous for not being able to cook. My English wife and I have argued about this many times (I'm not too bright).

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Why is it so hard for people to accept Jesus into their hearts??? I haven't even accepted Santa Claus yet. It just seems kind of creepy to let people crawl inside you.

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Have we been marked by the beast yet? Goodnight! The beast of superstition has definitely made its mark, yes.

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Someone says "you shouldn't feel that way". I want to ask "how should I feel"? You feel what you feel..where does "should" fit in? "You shouldn't feel that way" is near the top of my Official Nonsense List. Indeed, feelings are a result of thoughts that one generally does not exercise conscious control over -- they "arise unbidden". The notion that your feelings are wrong and should be changed results from a lack of understanding of the process.

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Is it true that joys of love last for a moment, sorrows of love last for a lifetime? I haven't heard that one. But, I think this depends on the individual. If sorrows are so "sticky" as to last for a lifetime, someone is stuck and failing to move on. Both the joys and the sorrows are passing, for the healthy mind.

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Do You Have a "Number One Rule" in Life? If so, what's it? No matter where you go, here you are.

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Since God believes in karma, have you had misfortune in your life and wondered the reason for the bad occurrences? Some have good fortune. A. Demonstrate the existence of karma. B. Demonstrate the existence of God or gods. C. Formulate a question that doesn't presume either. These are your assignments for today. Show all your work, no credit will be given for leaps of faith or logic. Provide citations to evidence. 100% of your grade will depend on this test. Do your own work.

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When someone just WILL not shut up and you dont want to hurt their feelings, what do you do? I pull out the Megahusher: "Have you heard about Amway? Would you like to make some extra money for travel or to reach your dreams?"

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Is there a universal morality or "right and wrong"? Well I don't know about "universal": on the planet Zaton things may be different. But here on Earth, every culture throughout history has developed at least a common core set of social constraints which point to some framework that is planet-wide. We also observe some of those same constraints in animal communities, so it's not all species-specific either. One might argue about the specific...

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How many Neoconservatives does it take to change a light bulb? None: if God had meant the light bulb to change, he would have put it in the constitution.

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Did you just ignore me? No, I saw that you had already been ignored, so there was no point.

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Anyone ever actually read that stupid drivers handbook? I did, but I forgot it about 30 years before most of the drivers on the road were born. So, we're all on level playing field in that regard.

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What is it like to kill a Wooly Mammoth? Killing it is just like killing any mammoth: its a big job, and you want a beer afterward. What makes the wooly troublesome is getting the fur out of your teeth.

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Why was George W. Bush such a great president? I mean how can anyone be that amazing? His secret was being able to pretend to be dumb, while quietly reorganizing the world to be the paradise it is today. Sometimes we get confused, and we think that we'd be better off without extra wars and debt and government checking our underwear for bombs, but that's just because we're too stupid to appreciate brilliance and perfection. This is the best of all possible worlds, thanks to...

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What is the best way to atone for a lie you have owed up to? I don't know why one would "atone" for a lie. You atone for damage done, and a lie in and of itself does not necessarily produce damage. So this would be situational: you'd have to consider what damage was done, if any, and do what you can to resolve that damage.

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The NBA players union rejected the owners final offer and the 2011-2012 season is probably dead. Your thoughts? Glad I didn't spring for the cable TV this year!

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THE new atheists envision a world with no religion—no suicide bombers, no religious wars, and no televangelists fleecing their flocks. Does that vision appeal to you? I've never heard of "new atheists" -- how could not believing in God somehow become new? It's a pretty old idea. There's plenty of evidence for the trouble religion causes, so it is reasonable to infer that there would be less trouble without it. However, religion also does some good -- so who could make the calculation precisely? We can't. My intuition is that the quality of life for...

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Happy holidays. Now Obama is going to tax Christmas trees. What do you think of that? Remember the other day when I used the words "master of manipulation, distortion, and game-playing"? This is the kind of thing I meant.

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Am I wrong to NOT bother looking to get married if I don't feel there is a soul mate for me? You definitely should not get married if you haven't found someone that you definitely want to marry. Marriage is a huge pain in the butt, and what makes it worthwhile is the bond you have with that person. To take the huge pain in the butt, without having the bond, is the height of bad judgment.

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If religion ACTED like it talks, I wouldn't BE an atheist... But, religions HATE so much. Who, in their right mind, would belong to them? I don't think that's a good reason to be an atheist. Yes, humans get worked up about their religion (or lack of it) and often turn nasty. That's not really relevant to the evidence -- or lack of it.

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Atheism is _______________. What everyone is born as, until the indoctrination starts.

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could you personally pierce this animals neck with a sharp knife and tear at it while it squeals in pain, until it was finally dead ? If I had to kill a deer to feed my family, I would strive to make it as quick as possible. That does not sound very quick.

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How do you know that it is God's will when anything happens? Good question. As of today, there are 4 Republican candidates who all state that they are running for President because they heard the call of God. I wonder if God is just messing with them, or if he keeps forgetting that he already picked somebody.

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Is it easier to live the life as a theist or an atheist? I think theism is probably easier: having all the answers wrapped up for you neatly, having an instant (if homogenous) community of co-believers, having an identity you can just snap on like a raincoat -- pretty easy. I think that probably accounts for why belief gets picked up by so much of the population: it solves problems. By contrast, the atheist has to think for himself, make friends by...

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Are you Pro Choice or against abortion? Please explain your answer. Please consider the fact that a woman may have been raped. It depends. Lots of abortions are preventable, and occur because of poor judgment calls or lack of reasonable care on the part of the parents. I am certainly disapproving of that -- people need to take sex seriously and take appropriate precautions if they don't want children. It is much easier to make a baby than to unmake one. But, it is also true that one must balance the rights of the...

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President's Bachmann and/or Cain WILL torture. You heard it last night. Obama COULD have ended it forever. He didn't. Did Obama fail us? I think perhaps Obama was a bit hypnotized by a shallow concept of being "the unifier": someone who could bring Americans together around a shared vision. Trouble is, when he got into office, "unification" became "appeasement": trying to give everybody enough of what they wanted to make them all happy. But the right wasn't having it -- even though he moved far to the right relative to is...

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what will you do when Science proves there is a god? If that were to happen, I expect that I would probably go on as before. If he wants to talk to me, he knows where I am.

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