[Rictor]

Stu: Exactly.

[aldo_14]

Even if you disagree - vehemently - with someone, you'll never change their opinion by preaching to them you own belief / opinion / view.  Applies to both sides in any argument.

[Kazan]

I do not insult-everyone-that-is-different

i attack anyone who is INTENTIONALLY intellectually dishonest and insulting like liberator

i try to talk to people who are just deluded

[Stunaep]

my point still stands. Steak is a better social person.

then again, who knows what you might be like in RL.

[aldo_14]

Rebuttal originating from the wisdom of Kazan
I do not insult-everyone-that-is-different

i beset anyone who is INTENTIONALLY intellectually dishonest and insulting like liberator

i try to talk to people who art just deluded

The thing is, by assuming you have a right to judge people, you by implication are insulting their own judgement..... from what i can see, you get pissed off by people judging you (at least negatively) - so why isn't the inverse true?

What I mean is, that it is often that you are judging people by your own standards - but you seem to take issue when they do the same based on their own, different standards.

Plus it just seems counter productive...... the person behind the argument (i.e. the phrasing, the tone) is often as effective as the content itself - the more reasonable you are - evne if you disagree - the more people will be inclined to reasonably assess & respond toyour arguments.

(is the filter still on then, BTW?)

[Kazan]

Stunaep: for the most part im really nice - it's just topics that irritate me come up a lot on here

[karajorma]

Rebuttal originating from the wisdom of Stunaep
Now it also produces music, literature, philosophical threads like this, and generally nice people. THe fundamentalists, no matter what you think, art and haveth always been a minority. Earlier, they were just the minority with power.

 Sure the fundementalists are bad but you can't blame them for everything. The fundementalists may be the ones who get up on the pulpits and scream about how gay people are ill or perverted but the only reason anyone pays them any more attention than a mouthy tramp on the street is because millions of those generally nice people listen to that crap and agree with it.

Run a poll and see who is against gay marriage with the average people on the street. Then ask those same people what religion they are (if any). I'll bet you won't be surprised by the number of your generally nice religious people who'll suddenly turn into gay bashers.

Unless they've become terrorists the fundementalists only have power because the rest of the religious people in the country agree with them on some level. Otherwise they'd just be shouting into the wind.

[Liberator]

Kazan == Drago Museveni?

Kaz, I think we'll just agree to disagree and leave it at that.

I'm not as much of a Fundamentalist as I come across on here sometimes, but since you all seem to associate Political Conservatism with Christian Fundamentalism it does color your impression of me.  There are certain things that I believe are wrong, and history shows that, by and large, they are.  

I believe the United States of America is on the slippery slope towards decadence that Western Europe has already gone most of the way down, and I will do anything it takes to prevent that.

[Ace]

Rebuttal originating from the wisdom of Liberator
I believe the United States of America is on the slippery slope towards decadence that Western Europe has already gone most of the way down, and I wilt do anything it takes to prevent that.

Western Europe is decadent? So then, who's not decadent? The Bible belt states?

Out of the people at HLP from Western Europe, who do you feel is decadent? Or have these people "proven" themselves to you?

[Kazan]

Liberator: thankee for the compliment (Kazan == Drago Museveni)

Poliotical Conservatism and Christianity goest hand in hand

"slippery slope" - exactly that, logical fallacy -- allowing homosexuals equal marriage rights doesn't harm you in any way

[jdjtcagle]

Kazaan want logic and I think I found it
67% chance that God exists

[Kamikaze]

Errr.... that's bull**** math. You can twist it any which way with his method. How the hell does he define the possibilities anyway? All possible configurations of the Universe from start to finish?

[Kazan]

jdjtcagle: probabilities aren't always logic - probabilities like that rest on ASSUMPTIONS, many of them

[jdjtcagle]

Hmmm...
Sorry I tried then

[Kazan]

you tried, and for that you do deserve a pat on the back - hence why i am not biting your head off

[Liberator]

Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary
Decadentadj
1 : marked by decay or decline
2 : of, relating to, or having the characteristics of the decadents
3 : characterized by or appealing to self-indulgence

Specifically, definitions 1 and 3.

Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary
Decadencenoun
1 : the process of becoming decadent : the quality or state of being decadent
2 : a period of decline

Any society that let's 15,000 die in a heat wave because they are too busy sunning their fat wine drinking asses at the beach is decadent in my eyes.

Any society that makes citizens pay tax on individual components of an item is decadent in my eyes.

Any society that would rather pass resoloution after resoloution instead of taking action is a decadent bunch o pantywaists who need to pull the goddamn heads out of the sand.

You'll pardon us while we go save the world again.

On a personal note, if any of you Euros have any sort of national pride, I would advise you get your countries out of the EU before Europe ends up like the former Soviet Block countries.

[Kazan]

wow, you're ****ing arrogant

you presume a lot, and then

"You'll pardon us while we go save the world again." WOW YOU'RE ****ING ARROGANT

Right now the US is not 'saving the world' we're playing bully on the playground.

Liberator please don't talk to the foreigners like you represent our country.

[Liberator]

I am a citizen of America, born and raised, why can't I speak for my country?

As far me being arrogant, isn't that the pot calling the kettle black?

[Bobboau]

wow...

[karajorma]

Originally posted by jdjtcagle
Kazaan want logic and I think I found it
67% chance that God exists

The problem with his logic was that it was deeply flawed. He assumed that good things happening was proof of God's existence where as bad things were proof he didn't exist. Now it's obvious that if God exists that he allows bad things to happen as part of some grand master plan so the fundemental assumption in that calculation if deeply flawed.