BruceVC

Something else I have to add is the absolutely inspiring and powerful victory speech by Obama and the important concession speech by Romney. In South Africa I have been listening to peoples comments on the way to work, we are really envious and in awe of the level of maturity to the various speeches and how they resonate with people across the political spectrum. Most of our politicians just aren't on that level yet, we have work to do and the USA sets an important precedent for how politicians can conduct themselves in public.

Posted in wrong place

Honestly Guard Dog from an outsiders perspective and someone who travels to the USA for work regularly its not that hard to understand the Democrat victory. For me its about Republicans don't represent all the demographics of the USA, they are a "white male party" for many I see the extreme views of the Tea Party as anathema to anyone with a progressive view of the future of USA Never underestimate the power of the Middle Class and I question if Romney views ever resonated deeply with them Comments like the "47%" gaff did irreparable damage to the Romney campaign, for many this showed he wasn't a President for all Americans. Even if he tried to clarify these comments Republican's will need to make some serious systemic changes to there political machinery going forward to address there failures.

I see that Colorado has now also legalized Marijuana for recreational purposes, this election is producing more and more amazing results. This is a good victory for the war on drugs as this will reduce the influence of the Drug Cartels. Nice one Colorado

That was hilarious

Holy Smoke that is interesting, this is really a progressive move if these states pass this legislation. I salute their efforts

, now those types of self-improvements I can understand perfectly

I agree, nice one Mr. Ermac

Thanks for the tips guys

It seems like Obama has won another 4 years, yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay CNN has called a Democrat victory, we just need the results for Ohio to confirm this.

Hope you enjoy it. Remember it has it's own forum section Yes I'll be posting there as well

"did the blonde seem high" , thats funny

Thats the same as me, I have never played a game twice. For me even though there may be nuances with the story, or different character plots, end of the day you know how the game ends. So I battle getting excited once I know the ending.

Hi All I have read some of the positive reviews around AP, last week I downloaded it from Steam and will be playing it this week. I just wanted to say hi to the AP community. I'll post my comments around the game as I progress

I have just finished Risen 2 so I'll be starting on Alpha Protocol this week

Sorry I'm confused. People have the right to express their opinion unless their a celebrity? No he's not saying celebrities can't express a political opinion. He is against celebrities using there fame and status to influence people. A decision to vote shouldn't be decided on what your favorite actor thinks but rather who you believe is the correct candidate, and sadly some people will be influenced by what celebrities think so there vote isn't based on objective opinion.

I am interested in what you mean by ways that God has revealed himself to you in certain ways. Can you elaborate , or are they personal and difficult to explain?

I am planning on staying awake from 1 am tomorrow to watch the Election live on CNN. Its really interesting to see the commentary and the electoral map of the USA as you see each state going red or blue

Let us assume that there is such a thing as a God, an Absolute. As such, God cannot be defined by a single manifestation somewhere in the material world, as that would mean that God has been defined somewhere, someplace and at that very moment, he ceases to be God. An Absolute encompasses everything. Yes, even nothing. All predicates of logic disappear when you are talking about an Absolute as it is everywhere, in all times and outside of all times. When a religion talks about God it talks in images and representations, it does not use clear terms as to what it is. That's why for example in Christianity we have, the Holly Father, Son and the Holly Spirit. These are representations of the Absolute Object, the Absolute Subject and the Absolute Relation between them. Furthermore, because the people who had such revelations had very limited understanding, and as William James states, the spiritual experience varies for every person experiencing it because they interpret it with their knowledge, they found the most optimal ways to put them into word. Believe you me, trying to explain something beyond your comprehension which is everything at the same time is no easy task. Now what we really need is to have a clear terminology for these things, something that a philosopher called Georg Hegel has accomplished, though because he is incredibly difficult to understand, he has fallen into obscurity and most modern philosophers look by and down on him. At any rate - yes, there is proof, attained with reasoning that there is such a thing as a God or rather an Absolute, but it is not exactly what religions make it out to be, MAINLY because they show it through unclear images and representations - not through terms and reasoning, which is why in recent years atheism has become popular, because there are just too many gaps and non-reasonable things in a given belief system and it makes one wonder. I must say though, that whoever reads the Bible and takes everything within it at face value is seriously making a huge mistake. But even when it finally is explained and all is revealed, you will still need some faith in order to understand. Actually you need faith to even begin to attempt to understand. Because understanding the Absolute is only accomplished at a spiritual level, though you can certainly see the absolute's otherness, you can not begin to understand it itself if you continuously grind in its otherness. You make some interesting points, I can believe in a higher power or rather some Absolute but our interpretation and definition of it is still wrong then. Almost all religions have predefined rules and views of what you need to say or do in order to follow this Absolute. And this I don't prescribe to. Don't get me wrong I try to follow the Christian lifestyle, values like love your fellow mankind and don't commit murder because I believe that most of it represents a good and wholesome lifestyle. But I don't follow it for religious belief reasons.

Thats a funny story But maybe the spider was just popping in to say hello? PS : I detest spiders and I am quite terrified by them

Thanks for the detailed response, I am not trying to attack any religion but I want to ask you some questions around the highlighted parts of your post. You mention that accepting Christianity can be partly about the weight of evidence But my question is a simple one, can you provide any evidence at all. Anything irrefutable that there is god. I haven't seen or known about anything that suggests there is a higher power, like lights in the sky or some kind of manifestation of an entity. When people ask for this the normal response is "you need to have faith to believe" so we go around in circles. And then if faith is holding onto things that your reason has accepted how can your reason accept something if there is no proof. I know you have pointed out that your reason can be irrational, like your anesthetic story, but that doesn't change the fact your reason is wrong. Aren't you then saying that faith based on reason can be inherently flawed? So for me that makes no sense for a person to be religious as once again it go's back to the point that there is no real proof.

I first read that as the TV turning on would be "silly, pointless and waste of peoples time". Rereading it, I suppose discussing whether it would always turn on was the exercise in futility Sometimes we need to take things at face value and believe we are right in order to progress. It may later turn out we were wrong, but we need some kind of starting point. I wonder if Newton would have foreseen the LHC when he got struck by that apple? You are right, I left out an important word that made the sentence make sense

No, my answers are based on philosophically explaining to you what faith is, you can take it or leave it. For some reason I can't edit my post, but anyway, here's some things for you prosper. Everything you do is based on your faith in something. You go to bed with the belief that you will wake up in the morning. You need faith in order to have purpose. Once again, I repeat faith is a product of the self-awareness. It is how humans function. It is part of existence, so the answer to your question "Why bother with faith" is because you cannot exist normally without it. It is lesson we can take from Descartes' "Cogito ergo sum". He was looking for proof that there's anything real, that something exists. He came to the realization, that he can doubt everything, even faith, even his own existence, even the fact that he is sitting in front of his fireplace. The one undoubtable thing is that you cannot doubt doubt itself, thus leading to the conclusion that there is something real. His doubt nearly drove him to madness, because he had lost faith that he exists, or that anything is real. Understand that faith is a function of the self-aware consciousness, you cannot function without it. Some people think they need faith, because they lack the will to do something, and having said faith gives them a certain motivation. Faith gives you the power to be able to overcome something, whatever it may be. In all actuality the only faith you need is faith in yourself, but that cannot happen, without you first understanding what and who you are. The description of the word faith has different meanings depending on the context. I thought this post was going to be more about religion and the fact that all religions require faith but there is no proof. This is one of the reasons I am not religious but more spiritual . People say " you must have faith to be religious" but from an analytical perspective this means there is no way to quantify any religion, you believe because you want to and you get told a certain message. This is something we can discuss as there would be many interesting opinions But if you want us to discuss faith around things like I assume my TV will turn on today that would be silly, pointless and waste of peoples time.

I can't give enough praise to how brilliant the books are, absolutely captivating. George R R Martin is a genius, the way you get to relate to so many characters displays some of his skill with the pen. I really encourage people to read the books.

I had an excellent week, I have come back from my trip to Vegas really invigorated and with new suggestions on how to be a better software consultant. Despite the long flight times the Symposium was well worth it. We had some excellent motivational speakers who discussed soft business skills and not just technical concepts. My favorite was John Care, http://www.linkedin.com/in/johncare Really dynamic and interesting public speaker, kept you captivated the whole time