I took a break from my regular writing and research today and got rid of some stuff in my head. This is either trash or treasure. You decide. Have fun.

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The purpose of militaries is to kill human beings. Thus, it is logical to rid the planet of all militaries in order to fight the war on war. It is even more logical to strike first at the commanders of militaries - politicians.

When a country declares war on another country, young men that have no quarrel with each other are forced to fight, as if they are mortal enemies. It would be better for the young men to kill their own commanders and political leaders, rather than killing young men in other countries that could very well be their friends.

Religion has never been responsible for the death of even one human being. Religion is an abstraction and does not physically exist, yet even those uncomfortable with abstractions cling to it, as if they understand what they believe. If people understood religion, then they would understand all religions. There is no excuse for only making an attempt to understanding your own religion - you should make an effort to understand all of them.

Terrorists are people that have an extremely limited education. It is within those limits that their thoughts are forced to travel. If you had been taught just a few things in your entire life and were forced to repeat them endlessly, would you also be a terrorist?

You can take a young mind and turn it into an illogical, thoughtless, killing machine. What’s sad and unfortunate is that the young minds are unaware it is happening. Is it right to hold brainwashed terrorists responsible for their actions? Under different conditions, they would have grown up to be normal men.

We all know that if you snooze, you lose. However, if you don’t recuperate, you’re more likely to vituperate.

Women scrutinize all men equally. That is, we are all lazy and dishonest until we provide evidence to the contrary.

Times change. People don’t. We are just as wild as the first day we jumped out of the trees.

Evolution is not harmful, yet some people disagree with it. If it can’t hurt you, then what are you so worried about?

God created the universe in 6 days. He bought a universe creating kit from His local hobby shop. The only problem was that He didn’t follow the instructions, which makes sense, since we also have trouble following instructions.

You can travel backwards in time. But will space cooperate with you? In other words, you should at least be careful enough to go back to a place where space exists.

You can also travel forwards in time. But will anything be there? In other words, you should at least be considerate enough to allow space to expand sufficiently, so that there will be something to go to.

Privacy is what happens when you think no one is watching.

Abortion has killed less people than militaries. Yet we never hear stories of people bombing military bases.

Criminals are people that have violated laws. The animal kingdom has no laws, and thus, no criminals. Who’s superior?

Beliefs are powerful enough to make a man fly an airplane into a building. We have identified particles that mediate the forces of nature, which are known as bosons. We have also identified particles of matter, which are known as quarks and leptons. However, no one has identified the particles responsible for abstract objects, in which beliefs exist. It may so happen that no such particles exist and are merely abstractions themselves, which would indicate that beliefs are not real. This is analogous to using numbers; they are not real but have enormous consequences.

Xenophobia should not exist. There is only one species of human.

It is not illegal to breathe oxygen.

Wisdom is a possible result of experience and knowledge. One could argue that animals have wisdom, such as lions, since they attack small and weak prey whenever possible. In other words, lions have good enough judgment to attack prey that will probably not hurt them. They have some knowledge of self preservation, an understanding of what is right.

In some sense, we have achieved an equivalency of sorts with the insects. Now we can do many of the things they have been able to do for hundreds of millions of years. Insects did not have to use their minds to gain these abilities - they are inherent properties. It took us humans some 100,000 years to finally gain the ability of flight, for instance.

Racism is real but race is not. To say that all whites are the same and all blacks are the same, is to say all tigers and zebras are the same, because they have stripes.    

In the United States, it is illegal to drive without car insurance. Yet it is legal to be a citizen without health insurance. Are cars more important than humans?

A license is required to operate an automobile, which involves passing a written exam and a driving test.
In other words, the government wants only qualified drivers on the road. However, anyone is allowed to have sex and produce children. What’s wrong? Parents don’t need to be qualified, but drivers do? Am I missing something?

Women are neither stupid nor inferior. They rule the planet; they always have. As an example, women do not ask men for marriage.

It’s ok to show someone get shot or stabbed numerous times, but not ok to show a couple engaged in sexual intercourse. Yet it is legal to have sex.

Pluto used to be a planet. Now it is not a planet. The Earth used to be flat. Now it is not flat. Facts change. Get used to it.

Suicide is for people that are too lazy to live. Homicide is for people that are too lazy to talk.   

In Saudi Arabia, women are whipped if they are raped. The lesson to be learned from this is - don’t go to Saudi Arabia. You might also get a hand cut off if someone steals from you.

Ninety-nine percent of mammals do not form lasting male-female bonds. It’s no wonder that spouses can become mortal enemies.

THANK YOU.

I'm so dismayed about how so many people actually BLAME religion for humanity's shortcomings. I fear that's the Anti-Christ's work at hand.

Religion is prescribed Path to God; there are certain tenants that all followers of God must adhere to, but there are tenants that individuals need to practice only for themselves; it's both a cpmbination of collective and individual "rituals," for lack of a better word.

True, and I'm tired of trying to prove them wrong. Too much work for so little reward. Cost > Benefit.

Last thing I ever said to my previous girlfriend, when she confronted me because someone else told her (lied to her) that I was schmoozing with someone else, was "If I ever cheat on you, it's only because I think it's you...I really can't tell the difference between you and the next woman, you're all the same."

So tired of trying to console jealous girlfriends.

Concrete Jungle, man. In humanity's attempt to civilize itself, it has actually worked against itself even more, and natural selection, survival of the fittest is even more brutal, now that we have some many people packed closely together.

It is my belief that humans naturally do not like being crowded; it heightens the fear of competition.

Animals live lives dictated solely by necessity, survival, and if they're capable of it, desire.

Morality belongs to humanity alone. You're never going to see an animal performing an act of self-sacrifice; a dog may drag his owner from a burning building, but it may only be because of self-interest. You're not going to let the hand that feeds you go up in a puff of smoke.

When Fido licks your face, I don't think he's so much showing love as he's interested in seeing how you'd taste.

And that's why she's your previous girlfriend. Wow.

You should apply to Hot Topic's cynical t-shirt division!

Yup. Like I said, so tired of dealing with suspicious, jealous girlfriends. If you don't trust me, I can't trust you. It's all about principal, man.

Yeah, man! I'm like, totally emo, or something... It's like, I can't pick up a knife without cutting myself, and I'm totally not even aware I'm doing it! It's that bad, it's like, my mind's subconsciously decided that my discontinued survival would be more beneficial than if I continued living! [/sarcasm]

...

It's so disappointing that you're not interested in discussing anything else I've said, just what I have to say about women, as if they're like, the most important entities in the world.

The whole idea of "ideas can be dangerous" plays into this.

The whole idea of having insurance on cars actually does include the importance of life. Healthcare after a crash isn't free...

The ability to screw is a god-given right, driving a car is not.

Actually, God forbids sex in more instances than not.

You're also forgetting that, when a couple conceives a child that they weren't intent on having, they're taking another person's life into their own hands: the child's. When you conceive, you assume responsibility, but most people don't want that responsibility, which is why they shouldn't have sex.

"I'm going to f--- no matter what" is a damn irresponsible philosophy.

That may be true, but at the same time we're given free will.

My response was regarding your display of general insensitivity, not its direction toward a woman. The fact that you would prefer not to diffuse jealousy of the person you supposedly cared about, but instead insult them, is what I took issue with. I would've had the same response if you had said the same to a male.

As for your sarcasm, it seems you can dish it out but you sure can't detect it.

As for the rest of your points, I didn't take issue with them. I didn't necessarily agree with them, but I feel no inclination to protest them.

So you're saying that Blacks and Whites are entirely different species altogether?

God can go f--- himself... if he actually exists, and there is no evidence he does.

And just so you know, his silly technical argument about how "religion has never killed anyone" is the same as "Nazism has never killed anyone"---the abstraction itself has no physical capacity to inflict harm, it is what people do with it that is at issue, and people with minds corrupted by Nazism, just as those minds corrupted by religion, have killed----and the latter has led to more bloodshed than the former.

I like to counter sarcasm WITH sarcasm.

These are my personal picks for some of the dumbest garbage I've ever read.  Your "deep thinking" lacks any real deep thought.

This.

OK, I'm confused - I was trying to be funny/sarcastic above (I obviously failed) but you countered with biblical fact? It's not like we come out of the womb with a car like we do with genitals. I could have been clearer but this is what I was aiming to explain... not that we have the right to have a 247 freak fest.

Edit:

Agreed, but I added to your sentiment.

Welcome to the STC Jodo hour.

I completely disagree with that statement. However, if you changed "animal" to "typical human being", it would probably hold more water albeit in a metaphorical sense.

"This"?

Being contemplative can be fun.

He was agreeing with you.

I think this has to do with protecting other people from harm (whether physical or financial).  If one wants to harm him or herself (whether by action or inaction), that is their right.

This too!

Even better, thank you.

NO, I was responding with sarcasm to Virtual Boot's post, not yours. I responded to yours in all seriousness.

Actually, it seems that we like to dissuade people from and punish them for trying to commit suicide, and often so, we like to throw those people into mental institutions, whereby we only increase their desire to discontinue their existence. I think you'd hardly agree that we're afforded the right to end our own lives.

But if you said that we ought to afford a person such a right, I wouldn't be opposed to it, but there'd still be certain moral and legal complications.

NO. Sorry for the caps, but I have to explain this one.

   Tigers and zebras are striped. Tigers are not zebras. Thus, just because they both have stripes does not mean they are the same. Likewise, just because certain people have very dark skin (blacks) does not mean they are all the same. Furthermore, all whites are not the same.

   My point is that you can't group people together by visual characteristics. It would be like saying all Asians with epicanthic folds are the same. Or all Europeans with aquiline noses are the same.

   Blacks and whites are the same species. So are the Eskimos, Asians, Brazilians, etc. We're all the same species.

   If you want to get picky, a 'race' is a way to separate people by visual characteristics. But don't get fooled and think they are all the same. That's what I'm trying to say. A racist is someone that believes that 'race' is more than an abstraction. I want to admit that I don't feel confident about my definition of 'racist'. In other words, this is an incipient idea. It is not yet well-formed.

Kirin Lemon, don't be a critic. If you really find my thoughts garbage, then counter them. Come up with something better.

Okay, I get what you're saying. And of course I agree that you can't generalize by skin-color or whatever, but race is a FACT, it is not something you can deny or even debate. It's THERE, man.
I'm not saying one is better than the other or that they're all the same, but the physical differences are there, and that's what makes a race, is it not?

To say Race is not real is like saying species aren't real either.

The problem with race is that it is not backed up by genetics. Species are.

    Race does exist in the same sense numbers exist. They are abstractions that have real world consequences. The number representing the weight of your body does not exist, but you can use it. In some cases, the number can negatively or positively affect mood, if one were to dwell on such a thing.

     What if we did not have eyes?

     Then we would still segregate humans into races, using cues that are not visual. Race is a visual effect. Pay attention to the word effect. Like in movies, you know, special effects. We know they are not real, but can be fooled nevertheless.

Indeed.  I remember seeing a program once in which it turned out that a white person had the most in common genetically with a black person.  It was a shocker for them both considering that the people in the group had been asked beforehand to choose another among the group whom they thought would be closest to them in that regard.  Obviously the white guy had picked another white guy and the black guy had picked another black guy.

If we all were only capable of perceiving each other through words like we do here on this forum, then race issues would not exist (though issues over difference of opinion certainly would, as evidenced by some of the criticisms directed towards Jodo Kast).  The problem is that physical differences create fear of the unknown.  The natural human response to fear is aggression.  That response can be physical or psychological.  This truth is applicable beyond race.  For example, the issue of a man beating up a woman can be attributed to fear as well.  Physical differences in terms of gender can create anxiety just the same as physical differences in terms of race can.  Same goes for differences in weight, height, etc.  Things like prejudice are not based on anything substantive and yet the consequences can be very real.

If we saw each other physically, I'm sure that we'd all *even if only subsconsciously* introduce a new set of variables into our assessments of each other.  For now the only variables that matter are our thoughts.  In some ways that works better than socializing with someone in physical reality (I say some ways because there are good things and bad things about both), which is no doubt why the internet has become an escape for so many people over the years.  Only time can overcome the walls erected by fear, and for some people that is too much to ask.  I suspect that we humans may never be able to overcome our instinctive biases, but as long we possess the ability to learn and grow, then perhaps there's hope.