btw consider that Jesus Christ himself - according to the Bible - was basically murdered because his opinions which he claimed as Truth differed so much from the status quo upheld by the ruling elite. Basically, all he did was talk about the possibility that they were wrong which earned him the title of Blasphemer. And this is just a threat to the existing power-structure and the existing Jewish identity. Which is why they killed him. His death signifies that human beings will kill each other over something as innocuous as opinions, and even correct opinions, humans will kill each other for threatening their dependencies and cultural mores and nothing more. You could be absolutely right, but if they don't "like" what you are saying, you could be brutally maimed or killed. Jesus, however, emphasized the importance of Truth over violence.
Killing is caused by conflicts and threats to self-esteem. I.e. one person is an atheist and sees something that presumes to be evidence of some religious story and that is significant threat enough to their identity for them to react with hostility or at the very least, lack of consideration, compassion or a genuine willingness to understand or accept facts.
Of course the same works in reverse, which is why Giordanno Bruno and so many others were burned at the stake for claims that threatened the authority of the church, and therefor the Christian identity.
That is, the real evil in the world is your own mind and it's distorted views and selfish motives. Thus evil can be committed by Christians, Communists, or anyone else.
I always interpreted these sayings as metaphor "the earth shook" means essentially that people for a great distance were shocked, amazed or in awe over the events.
I find no compelling evidence to believe this cross of Christian origins. The cross as a symbol is older than history. It was used by the Egyptians and formed the base of the Ankh symbol - which one may argue is the original Christian Cross.
I plowed through hundreds of different crosses Christian and otherwise and could not find any that are identical to this one. This cross is equisdistant in all directions and each arm of the cross terminates at an inverted semicircle. I found no such crosses in my searches.
A traditional Celtic/Irish cross does not look like that either. It is typically a cross with beveled edges, bowed ends and set inside of a complete circle with a lot of pretzels.
As expected [Kasser and collegues (1995)], more materialistic teenagers had lower well-being and community adjustment, as well as greeater risk for psychopathology.
I was just going to say the same with a big air of superiority and be like thinking I'm all cool and stuff. Then I saw these comments and realized that I'm just an average everyday normal guy.
So, it kind of does look like it was a pet project that the researchers identified with, and the $17 billion (big scary number) is a rationalization after the initial impulse that was then carried out under the pretext of altruism, when in fact it was probably just curiosity and personal identification with the pet-peeves of condiment use.
Apparently the "Bagged Salad & Dressing" market (UK data) reached $10 billion in 2011 and was expected to grow as consumers become more health conscious. 38.6% of $10 billion is greater than 9.8% of $17 billion. Maybe they should have been working on a way to keep salad fresh longer.
"What do you think? Was this guy a jerk or a hero?"
That's a false dichotomy Alex. Both of these people could be regular every day people, neither jerks nor heros, but whose paths crossed in unfortunate circumstances.
For all we know the kid just got out of an all-day Chuck-E-Cheese's birthday bash and is hyped up on sweets, greasy foods, and the constant adoration and praise of his age-mates and parents. The effect of this may be enough to temporarily blind the kid to any concern for others within a cloud of false confidence.
The man, for all we know, may have just left his physicians office wherein he was notified of a dramatically deteriorating medical condition, and wanted to enjoy a quiet and peaceful viewing of Titanic 3D before his terminal illness finally robs him of his senses.
Both people having legitimate reasons for their mental states, simply cross paths under inoportune circumstances. I mean it's entirely plausible that this kid is typically very considerate, and that this man is also. Most conflicts wind up being a tango of two, but frequently either party tries blame the other.
He kept that short. Interestingly, Einstein identified with Spinoza's God, which is the superior spirit who manifests itself in nature. This is interesting because Spinoza was a Jew and he reworked Judaism into Secularism. Read this Spinoza quote for example:
"My opinion concerning God differs widely from that which is ordinarily defended by modern Christians. For I hold that God is of all things the cause immanent, as the phrase is, not transient. I say that all things are in God and move in God, thus agreeing with Paul, and, perhaps, with all the ancient philosophers, though the phraseology may be different; I will even venture to affirm that I agree with all the ancient Hebrews, in so far as one may judge from their traditions, though these are in many ways corrupted. " - Letter 21 (73) to Henry Oldenburg , November (1675)
So Spinoza thinks that he is in agreement with "Paul (aka Saul) "and, perhaps with all the ancient philosophers." His viewpoint was not therefor any different from Judaism or Christianity, rather he believed that these philosophies had been corrupted from within.
"The eternal wisdom of God ... has shown itself forth in all things, but chiefly in the mind of man, and most of all in Jesus Christ." - Letter 21 (73) to Henry Oldenburg , November (1675)
So Baruch Spinoza (Benedict de Spinoza) - commonly credited as a father of modern secularism - and Albert Einstein, where neither opposed to Judaism or Christianity but saw Spinoza's God as the purified interpretation of the philosophy of the Jews and Christians. They regarded worship of a Man-like God as a form of Idolatry.
"Men have not so clear a knowledge of God as they have of general notions, because they are unable to imagine God as they do bodies, and also because they have associated the name God with images of things that they are in the habit of seeing, as indeed they can hardly avoid doing, being, as they are, men, and continually affected by external bodies. ...Very many controversies have arisen from the fact, that men do not rightly explain their meaning, or do not rightly interpret the meaning of others." - Spinoza
Along the lines of Anselm's Ontological Argument, Spinoza argued that God was that from which all form originates, that within which it's form is sustained, and that unto which it terminates, equating "God" with the essential existence, primal force, etc.. and not any particular thing.
"Individual things are nothing but modifications of the attributes of God, or modes by which the attributes of God are expressed in a fixed and definite manner." - Spinoza
I'm showing this because there is a false dichotomy in popular culture regarding Secularism and the Abrahamic Faiths. Many do not realize that the naturalists share a viewpoint with certain interpretations of ancient philosophies. Within this perspective the Big Bang could not be the first cause of existence, and believing that it is would be similar in folly to believing that a Man-like God floating around on a nimbus cloud snapped his fingers and created existence. All of these things must already "exist" in order to the cause of anything, whereas existence itself does not, and cannot, by definition, have a prior cause. Any cause which might "exist" necessarily already has the quality of "existing" and therefor could not be the cause of existence itself. Existence = God.
But there are forms of prayer which do not amount to selfish pleas to an imaginary God. There is something called "Contemplative Prayer" which is also called "Contemplative Meditation" and is the primary format of "prayer" endorsed by the Trappists and probably very similar to the "Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola" and the Jesuits.
Sorry if this is slightly off-topic or wordy, but it amazes me, it's like the old argument about how people say "Tom-ate-oh" or "Tom-aht-oh".
Of course the same works in reverse, which is why Giordanno Bruno and so many others were burned at the stake for claims that threatened the authority of the church, and therefor the Christian identity.
That is, the real evil in the world is your own mind and it's distorted views and selfish motives. Thus evil can be committed by Christians, Communists, or anyone else.
I always interpreted these sayings as metaphor "the earth shook" means essentially that people for a great distance were shocked, amazed or in awe over the events.
I find no compelling evidence to believe this cross of Christian origins. The cross as a symbol is older than history. It was used by the Egyptians and formed the base of the Ankh symbol - which one may argue is the original Christian Cross.
I plowed through hundreds of different crosses Christian and otherwise and could not find any that are identical to this one. This cross is equisdistant in all directions and each arm of the cross terminates at an inverted semicircle. I found no such crosses in my searches.
A traditional Celtic/Irish cross does not look like that either. It is typically a cross with beveled edges, bowed ends and set inside of a complete circle with a lot of pretzels.
out of date: 34%
left over after cooking: 26%
left on plate: 20%
(Don't know about the other 20%)
Condiment/Herb offenders sorted by severity are:
Other sauces: 15.4%
Cook-in sauces: 12.2%
Herbs & Spices: 10.9%
Other condiment, spice, sauce, oil or herb: 10.2%
...
Mayonnaise / Salad cream: 4.6%
...
Ketchup: 2.9%
Proportion of the weight of food items purchased that is thrown away (mixed adult households)
Salad: 38.6%
Bakery: 23.9%
Vegetables: 14.7%
Confectionary: 11.1%
Meat and Fish: 10.4%
Condiments: 9.8%
Dried Food: 9.8%
...
Source: http://www.ns.is/ns/upload/files/pdf-skrar/matarskyrsla1.pdf
So, it kind of does look like it was a pet project that the researchers identified with, and the $17 billion (big scary number) is a rationalization after the initial impulse that was then carried out under the pretext of altruism, when in fact it was probably just curiosity and personal identification with the pet-peeves of condiment use.
Apparently the "Bagged Salad & Dressing" market (UK data) reached $10 billion in 2011 and was expected to grow as consumers become more health conscious. 38.6% of $10 billion is greater than 9.8% of $17 billion. Maybe they should have been working on a way to keep salad fresh longer.
I want to be a non-conformist like everyone else. Medium/Black
That's a false dichotomy Alex. Both of these people could be regular every day people, neither jerks nor heros, but whose paths crossed in unfortunate circumstances.
For all we know the kid just got out of an all-day Chuck-E-Cheese's birthday bash and is hyped up on sweets, greasy foods, and the constant adoration and praise of his age-mates and parents. The effect of this may be enough to temporarily blind the kid to any concern for others within a cloud of false confidence.
The man, for all we know, may have just left his physicians office wherein he was notified of a dramatically deteriorating medical condition, and wanted to enjoy a quiet and peaceful viewing of Titanic 3D before his terminal illness finally robs him of his senses.
Both people having legitimate reasons for their mental states, simply cross paths under inoportune circumstances. I mean it's entirely plausible that this kid is typically very considerate, and that this man is also. Most conflicts wind up being a tango of two, but frequently either party tries blame the other.
"My opinion concerning God differs widely from that which is ordinarily defended by modern Christians. For I hold that God is of all things the cause immanent, as the phrase is, not transient. I say that all things are in God and move in God, thus agreeing with Paul, and, perhaps, with all the ancient philosophers, though the phraseology may be different; I will even venture to affirm that I agree with all the ancient Hebrews, in so far as one may judge from their traditions, though these are in many ways corrupted. " - Letter 21 (73) to Henry Oldenburg , November (1675)
So Spinoza thinks that he is in agreement with "Paul (aka Saul) "and, perhaps with all the ancient philosophers." His viewpoint was not therefor any different from Judaism or Christianity, rather he believed that these philosophies had been corrupted from within.
"The eternal wisdom of God ... has shown itself forth in all things, but chiefly in the mind of man, and most of all in Jesus Christ." - Letter 21 (73) to Henry Oldenburg , November (1675)
So Baruch Spinoza (Benedict de Spinoza) - commonly credited as a father of modern secularism - and Albert Einstein, where neither opposed to Judaism or Christianity but saw Spinoza's God as the purified interpretation of the philosophy of the Jews and Christians. They regarded worship of a Man-like God as a form of Idolatry.
"Men have not so clear a knowledge of God as they have of general notions, because they are unable to imagine God as they do bodies, and also because they have associated the name God with images of things that they are in the habit of seeing, as indeed they can hardly avoid doing, being, as they are, men, and continually affected by external bodies. ...Very many controversies have arisen from the fact, that men do not rightly explain their meaning, or do not rightly interpret the meaning of others." - Spinoza
Along the lines of Anselm's Ontological Argument, Spinoza argued that God was that from which all form originates, that within which it's form is sustained, and that unto which it terminates, equating "God" with the essential existence, primal force, etc.. and not any particular thing.
"Individual things are nothing but modifications of the attributes of God, or modes by which the attributes of God are expressed in a fixed and definite manner." - Spinoza
I'm showing this because there is a false dichotomy in popular culture regarding Secularism and the Abrahamic Faiths. Many do not realize that the naturalists share a viewpoint with certain interpretations of ancient philosophies. Within this perspective the Big Bang could not be the first cause of existence, and believing that it is would be similar in folly to believing that a Man-like God floating around on a nimbus cloud snapped his fingers and created existence. All of these things must already "exist" in order to the cause of anything, whereas existence itself does not, and cannot, by definition, have a prior cause. Any cause which might "exist" necessarily already has the quality of "existing" and therefor could not be the cause of existence itself. Existence = God.
But there are forms of prayer which do not amount to selfish pleas to an imaginary God. There is something called "Contemplative Prayer" which is also called "Contemplative Meditation" and is the primary format of "prayer" endorsed by the Trappists and probably very similar to the "Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola" and the Jesuits.
Sorry if this is slightly off-topic or wordy, but it amazes me, it's like the old argument about how people say "Tom-ate-oh" or "Tom-aht-oh".
I see you got the photo of the skull next to the tamping iron. Great photo shows the drastic size difference between the two.