This is definitely a popular opinion. My concern about this mindset is that the Bible says that Jesus claimed to be God and His disciples and thousands of early Christians died martyrs deaths believing the same. So, either everyone around Him were skilled liars as well as Jesus Himself (He claimed He was from God) or they were telling the truth.
I strongly believe people today will never fully understand the motivations of people from mere centuries ago, let along 2000+ years. We know so much more about the human mind, about sciences, about ideologies, etc.. We just know orders of magnitude more now than we did then. I have a feeling that many folks acted like Jesus did, or that many of his followers acted absolutely normal for the time.
Truth and lies are relative terms when people just don't know. Facts haven't been uncovered yet - what people knew then was the known universe to them, and it was extremely limited.
Seems pretty evil if they convinced a bunch of people, including themselves to die for a lie. I believe they were telling the truth and I try my best to follow His instruction because that assures me that my soul is saved to the best of my knowledge.
I personally don't believe it was as simple as a lie or truth. Their concepts of known and truth were not nearly as developed as ours.
Past civilizations believed that we traveled around the universe in an Ether. People used to have quite a few explanations for where thunder and lightning come from. Were they wrong? Yes.
But were they lying? Absolutely not!
I don't necessarily believe the Bible in that I don't and really can't accept it as "truth" for it is a just a collection of stories written by men who understood the World during that era. It's very similar to why we don't read/learn from math books written before the "New Math" came out. Posted: May 24th, 2013 @ 2:52PM
I believe Jesus lived. I believe he was a great person, someone who was so incredibly selfless that he could draw crowds. He was able to stay fairly consistent ethically and morally.
However, I believe he was also human, that he had his faults, his weaknesses. That he felt fear, anger, jealousy and other negative emotions.
I also believe the folks who wrote about Jesus so many years after were trying to write meaningful stories first while documenting facts second. They turned a real person into the fictional character we know of today. Posted: May 23rd, 2013 @ 12:18PM
Really? What a endearing comment to someone else`s pain.
I think it's more of an indicator of how thunderously moronic false flag proclamations are.
However, I do hope that you're doing all right, that any friends and family you have in OK are also safe and sound. Quite an spectacular disaster. It's absolutely terrifying to watch some of the video clips.. and I'm sitting on my ass behind a computer monitor. Posted: May 22nd, 2013 @ 5:48PM
It's funny reading those Sally Mae comments. People seem to blame it for their student loan problems, ignoring the fact that they voluntarily chose to take on that debt.
While I can't just dismiss all blame to those people, the employees that these students spoke with in order to setup their student loans should have been smarter when advising them.
If I walked into a loan office with a specific value/interest in my mind and then the employee I speak with actually tells me that I qualify for and could loan more for less interest or something, depending on my research/knowledge on the matter I may take them up on that offer.
I mean, I understand they are salespeople, but they're also supposed to be professionals in their field - they shouldn't give bad advice on something they're supposed to know quite a bit about.
Again, people ultimately have the last say because they need to put their signatures down. However, I can't put all the blame on them due to terrible advice by people paid to know better. Posted: May 22nd, 2013 @ 5:08PM
in a recent interview pretty much admitted 911 was an inside job
And for conspiracy theory crack-pots, "pretty much" === "proven fact"
Keep grasping at air! Sooner or later you'll grasp something solid.
And re: Jason Collins, big respect! There are plenty of kids out there that love basketball and know they're gay. Way to provide them with the hope that they don't have to hide their true self in order to live their dreams.
EDITED: 2013-04-30 06:36:09 Posted: April 29th, 2013 @ 12:40PM
Go ahead and attack the taxpayers and make excuses for those not pulling their weight.
Hate to nitpick but... well, I don't really know how to end that sentence.
Every citizen is a taxpayer, but not all of them owe money to the Govment. You saying that the non-taxpayers (which is illegal) are not pulling their weight, or are you saying that those who do not owe taxes are not pulling their weight?
Because I think one of those generalizations is fairly undeserved.
edit: I'm an idiot because someone who skips doing their taxes is probably not pulling their own weight.
EDITED: 2013-04-29 10:09:47 Posted: April 28th, 2013 @ 1:38PM
yes not all muslims are bad, but to argue that a majority of the ones outside of the 'western world' would not pick osama bin laden over the USA is silly.
I'll cede that Middle Easterners may view Osama as more favorable than the US, but I don't think that automatically makes them all jihadists part of some global plan. My opinion is that a relative minority of them would actually pick up weapons and leave their families to go through the effort of finding and eradicating American citizens.
Of course, I have little to nothing to back that up. I think it's just human nature to celebrate and live it up when there's a party going on. Posted: April 24th, 2013 @ 10:19AM
i have a very hard time believing that removing radicalized bad actors from their positions to influence is likely to cause more trouble than it solves.
I personal opinion is that typically a sleeper cell is loosely (if at all) connected to such a influential player. The cell operates almost completely independently, and if they are eliminated, the leaders can point to it as an example of the US trying to crush Freedom Fighters. Posted: April 22nd, 2013 @ 12:51PM
We've been becoming complacent again, and everyone is losing sight of the real threat. I'd much rather everyone realize these Islamic (extremist) pigs have declared war on us and our culture and there will never be peace until we exterminate each and every one of them.
Hmm, that may be true, and personally, I wish we could rid ourselves of all extremists (to a degree). They don't think rationally and are clouded by whatever ideology they subscribe to.
I guess I'm using my own personal fear and memory of the last week to hope that there aren't others belonging to a group as dedicated as these two scumbags. I don't want anyone else in this country to go through that horror in their home state/city.
But even if it does come out that they were part of a small sleeper cell, what the hell can this country do about that? Depending on the methods for hunting down the other 10, we could easily end up producing 20 more. Posted: April 22nd, 2013 @ 8:20AM
Islam and western free societies can not co-exist. Even leftists know this, but don`t want to admit it. Regardless of where you are on the political spectrum, one the Islamists take over, the only spectrum they will care about is if you are Muslim or not -- and if you are not, you may live as a lower class citizen to the global caliphate, you may convert and follow Shariah, or you may be beheaded should you continue to share your faith, or lack thereof, with others.
Your prejudices aren't indicative of reality. I have Muslim friends who are completely rational and normal, and I have Christian friends that you just can not talk to about certain subjects because they refuse to even try to understand certain opinions. That's a ridiculous generalization to make.
And Charkoth, given that the attack happened one week ago today, I gotta remain skeptical to why - especially since we managed to capture one of the suspects alive. I frankly hope that you're wrong, I hope this was more isolated than not, but until some more facts come out or the trial begins, I'm hoping there isn't some small sleeper cell they're a part of.
However, I could totally see the elder son learning how to make such an IED on a trip to Chechnya. Although I still refuse to believe you can't find it on the Internet.
You can find anything on the Internet if you really want to. Hopefully they never knew about incognito mode so they're browser history is still intact. Posted: April 22nd, 2013 @ 6:45AM
I applaud the residents officers of Boston and the surrounding towns for their patience and dignity.
I love my Massachusetts, I love Boston. I've been living in Brooklyn for 4+ years and yet every time I cross that border on I-84 from CT to MA., I always have a sense that I'm back at home. Of course, like any other city or culture, or the humans that make it up, they have faults. Typically when Boston is brought up outside of sports, it's discussing its not-so-proud racial history.
But to have so much support: Other sports athletes, other cities, other citizens, other countries providing support was almost overwhelming. I know I don't currently live there, but going to work in NYC and having Cops and other people see me in my Sox hat and saying "Go Boston" while I hoped that my friends and family were safe back at home will stay with me forever.
And now people talking about how awesome the BPD was, how classy it was to see citizens applauding them for a job well done.. I can't be more proud of the results. They took the perp into custody alive. I can't begin to explain how awesome that is.
I cried when it originally happened and I cried when they caught the suspect. I didn't feel shame, only pride and humanity.
I for one am much happier with bored police who spend most of their time eating donuts, drinking coffee, and writing me tickets than police armed with automatic weapons who are searching my neighborhood for terrorists.
Wholeheartedly agree.
And to those that believe that a 24 hour lockdown period with various searches was somewhat indicative of the Constitution being torn apart really need to step back and realize that the black and white world they live in is only populated with the same stubborn people that are holding this country and society as a whole back.
Maybe you can all hitch a ride in RRP's shaggin' wagon while he leaves our United "Police States" of America. Posted: April 21st, 2013 @ 10:49AM
look scrub enjoy having your butthole fingered by 8 dollar an hour tsa agents the next time yo go to buy a slurpee on the corner market. i bet you will enjoy it.
Go back to the pathetic hole you crawled out of instead of continuing to leech off the Country that asserts you the right to believe almost any batshit insane theory infowars can come up with.
If you don't like how things operate while being too lazy to appropriately change things, then you're welcome to leave and never come back. Your cowardice and willful ignorance don't deserve the voice you have in this country.
I got nothing against Islam other than the fact it is wrong like other non-Christian religions (As my religion clearly states), but I've always prefaced my pejorative with "Islamic Extremists" so as not to impugn those who follow the more traditional form of the religion.
It was nice to see that. I take back my emotion-fueled rantings in regards to my accusations. I'll try to be more careful and ensure I don't misinterpret portions of your posts.
As far as motives - I'm wondering if this 19 year old was just gravely misled by his older brother. I could absolutely see him crying in some hole somewhere. His older brother had no qualms in dying for the cause - this kid seems to have squirreled himself somewhere deep.
I just hope they find him alive. Posted: April 19th, 2013 @ 1:02PM
