Walsingham

I read that the Iranians send him a sort of deathmas greeting card every year just to remind him it's still extant. I think the archbishop of Canterbury should call down a fatwah on one of their guys heads. Actually, of course I don't. They do have the lamest excuse though "Oh, I'm sorry the system won't let us rescind that. Only the Ayatollah can do it and he's dead." Makes them sound like BT customer services.

Pid, you have privileges denied because you have a cute cat avatar. Assuming that is a cat, of course. Now I look hard at it, it could be a boot fungus.

GOLD

I'm no Christian theologian, but I know a few. Apart from you people, of course. They typically argue that our propensity to sin is part and parcel of free will. The gift of free will is part of what makes us special. Everything else in creation is a dumb mook. Or was I not listening properly?

Damn I was going to say Vice City. I don't think in any other game taht I have failed to complete a mission because I was laughing so hard I was crying. "...Most times I just run away. That way you instil fear in your opponent. They never know when you will descend from the rafters LIKE A BAT!"

I was going to say the exact same thing. You must be a genius.

Depends, who was funnier, you or the other guy? Well, I was naked.

Oh absolutely! :0 I'm known far and wide as an apologist for extremist Islam! Frankly I did feel there was something in my earlier comment. While you know I hold each man accountable, at the same time I accept the principle that we should accept the results of our actions. If I stand up at a Spurs Match at the Arsenal end and start singing I may get hit by a bottle. The guy who threw it should not have done so. But equally am I not partly responsible? I knew it would happen, after all.

Tale, you never EVER let me get away with crap. So you certainly belong somewhere in there. Possibly under 1.

I just stopped for a mooment to admire the erudite qualities of the forum's membership. ...Anyway... Thanks for the link, Pidesco. However, judging by the comments, that book simply reinforces my initial reason for having religion in science. It fosters a good attitude. In answer to your more recent post I thought I had already answered it. Logic and evolutionary theory (which I try to support) does indeed say that our heredity benefits from having friends and living in generaly honest societies. However, it does not mean that is ALWAYS true for the individual. When you or I stand in a position of unchecked power, and have the unfettered option to commit something 'bad' the only reason not to is because we feel accountable to a non-real entity. In my case this miniature giant space hamster.

1. Is it possible to have serious, workable internet romances that doesn't lead to have gay sex with a boy pretending to be a girl? > Of course it is. It is certainly improbable, since: - You don't really know what they look like - You only 'meet' them when you are feeling like it. - You are not responsible for them If you made a point of contradicting these things and still liked them then you'd be fine. I've had some damn fine friends via the internet. 2. Who wants to see a really ugly picture? > Why in the name of the Holy Order of the Wilful St Cretinous would I want to do that? 3. Why is it we internet geeks spend way too much time on asanine forums such as Obsidian, Bethesda, *raaavpuling.com*, Badjojo, Ford.com, TelevisionWithoutPity, BIO, or mlb.com., or any other place (for bonus points, name the 3 of those that i actually visit - Obsidian is a freebee choice, HAHA!)? > Because we are able to be who we are in our heads, not how our ape ancestors made us look. A man or woman being judged by their expressed thoughts. 4/5. I can't go into this for obvious reasons. What I will say is that it was recently the anniversary of the appearance of Onur the Courageous. Make of that what you will, anyone who remembers the most awesome thread in forum history.

*singing* No-one knows what it's like to be a dustbin... In Shaftesbury, selling SPAAAAAM....

So... involuntary spasm -> perversion -> anime. yup seems pretty sensible to me.

So you don't have any time for the notion that people with very little tend to value pride more than others? It's a very serious thing for some people.

I was going to say that it seemed bloody odd to go stirring up the yeast.

It wasn't nature that was hitting you. Dammit! Someone get that bullwhip away from her.

Maybe I'm a splinter of your mind and you don't even know it. But seriously, what gave him that idea, I don't even have my Spider avatar anymore. Well, I hope that if you are a splinter of my mind you are loyal to the motherland to the extent of trying to destroy self with booze.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6766569.stm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Satanic_V...ption:_Timeline HM Liz has just recently knighted Salman Rushdie. It seems this has annoyed people abroad who feel this is the British Government insulting Islam. My own feeing is that 1. Salman Rushdie exercised his democratic right to free speech in a country which guaranteed him that right in 1988. 2. The Ayatollah Khomeini picked on this poor hapless fool to whip up a storm of controversy in 1989 to cement his hold on power after admitting to a humiliating peace with Iraq in 1988. 3. Rushdie's status in the Uk has been borne solely from his reasonably brave reaction to that death threat. 4. Rushdie's knighthood is recognition of his status in the UK. I see no reason why aa man who stands up to extremist intimidation should not be honoured. However, I do think the Palace dropped the ball slightly by letting this go through at such a delicate time in negotiations with Iran. Thoughts?

You know how on windows there's a '<' button? As I understand it this thing is suposed to be clicked, and then the menu to the right of it will expand. On MY PC it will do this, but only after three or four attempts, as it will expand then contract with lighning speed, not staying open. Oh, hey, wait. Cool! I turned off the language bar and the problem is now fixed.

I have had my life saved three times by the NHS for free! And had neurosurgery to correct a severed digit. Free I tells ya! However i'd be lying if I said it was always that good. Moore could have made a shocking film about the NHS. Maybe he should next. I recently re-watched a couple of films from the Pedro Almodovar collection. Talk to Her, and LIve Flesh. That's some messed up sexy filmage, right there.

I think interracial charisma should be lowered. It's just a fact of life that it's slightly harder to get on with peopel from very different backgrounds.

After extensive testing for ten seconds I deduce that there's no reason you shouldn't breathe in through your mouth and nose at the same time. However, this due to the opening in your moth being more than adequate for inhaling. Your lungs just don't produce enough suction to warrant air going in through your nose as well. Meta, that was exactly our feeling. It's nonsense of course, since you have sphincters internally that would stop this happening.

*buzzer* You're dragging the religion debate in here, then? My answer is the same. Political leadership that uses religion to replace the democratic mandate is obviously nothing better than a dictatorship. However, equally, a moral government requires a degree of intangible ever-present oversight that the people cannot provide. This is why they need some religious/mystical inspiration. And having friends who are Iranian, an having tracked the sitaution there as one of my top ten, I feel confident saying that there is a lot of unrest within Iran. nor are they being quietly restless. There are many groups and persons working against the ayatollahs. However, the greatest danger at present is not so much the ayatollahs, as the unelected and corrupt officials in the Revolutionary Guards and other paramilitary organisations. If the people move too fast against the ayatollahs (who are not uniformly bad) then they may miss the NEXT dictatorship, which would be military. My hope is that they will move sufficiently slowly to permit good ayatollahs to remain afloat, inducing change gradually. Do not forget that Iran, too is due for a humbling experience in Iraq. They believe they can do there what they have always done in Afghanistan. Keep it docile by proxy groups weakening the state. But a meltdown in Iraq will not leave them untouched.

Wow, some pretty good stuff, if I may say so. I disagree with Meta in saying we've got off track. We seem to be quite tightly focussed, but on different facets of the same question. Nor should we be alarmed by failing to form a unified view. Einstein himself had contradictory views on the matter, believing on the one hand in a mystical inspiration caused by religion, and on the other in a rigid empirical scientific methodology. "But science can only be created by those who are thoroughly imbued with the aspiration toward truth and understanding. This source of feeling, however, springs from the sphere of religion. To this there also belongs the faith in the possibility that the regulations valid for the world of existence are rational, that is, comprehensible to reason. I cannot conceive of a genuine scientist without that profound faith. The situation may be expressed by an image: science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind." (Albert Einstein, 1941) To respond to Cant and WITHTEETH, I have quite strong feelings. The selfish gene can tell me that my strategic imperative towards genetic survival is best served by a 'moral' outlook as a rule of thumb. Honesty, collaboration, courage etc. However, while it will tell me this is true for 95-99% of cases, it will remain mute on those most important occasions, when we can be absolutely certain that our actions will never be discovered, and we will never pay a price for our advancement or self-gratification. At such times, the only impediments can be regarded as on the one hand consistency, and on the other hand as this fragment of irrational belief, that we always stand before some higher witness. At the same time as I would not have a life of science without religion, I would equally fight against a life of religion without science. Incorporating, utilising, and wondering at scientific advance is more than just possible. It is a feature of many profoundly holy men and women. The only one I have any experience of personally is Archbishop Desmond Tutu. But I've also read some of the works of Krishnamurti, and he often references science.

A friend of mine, who knows I'm on ths forum, but not my user name, decided I was Fenghuang. Curiously unsettling.