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Except, reality isn't deterministic. Anyone with a rudimentary knowledge of quantum physics knows this. Regardless of the universe's actual inner workings, a person (in this case, the Tibetan monk) can have whatever beliefs he wants. I'm positing that the monk believes in a deterministic universe. In any case, it's perfectly possible to argue that there's a deterministic framework hidden behind quantum mechanics. It's pure speculation, of course, and it's not my own opinion, but it's a valid way of seeing things. No, it's not. The universe is quite clearly probabilistic. ok.

My Collector's Edition has been dispatched!

Except, reality isn't deterministic. Anyone with a rudimentary knowledge of quantum physics knows this. Regardless of the universe's actual inner workings, a person (in this case, the Tibetan monk) can have whatever beliefs he wants. I'm positing that the monk believes in a deterministic universe. In any case, it's perfectly possible to argue that there's a deterministic framework hidden behind quantum mechanics. It's pure speculation, of course, and it's not my own opinion, but it's a valid way of seeing things.

Way off-topic posts do not increase you post count.

I want to see that experiment. I don't think that's possible. Also I don't understand the first sentence of the article, there's no either/or between time being a dimension and being "the numerical order of material change".

There is no way for one person to determine whether his own self-awareness is true or false. So there is no other choice but to accept your self-awareness as true.

Philosophically speaking, I'd interpret the monk's statement as a way of tackling free will within a deterministic worldview. My "translation": Reality is deterministic, but the illusion of human free will is a necessary one in order to function as a self aware entity.

I'd need to read the original article but, it seems to me they are arguing over semantics. That time is the order of events seems to me tautological and, in any case, doesn't go against the notion of time as a 4th dimension.

Indeed it does.

Um, in what way was his statement silly? His statement: "Also, Einstein thought gravity was a constant, which is complete hogwash. Mass is just a variable as everything else." First, his statement implies that the modern possibility of gravity not being constant is due to the variability of mass. This is not true and does not make sense. Secondly, even considering the hypothesis of the gravitational constant depending on the particles involved, it's still a theory that hasn't been experimentally verified and so, as such, does not turn the notion of the gravitational constant being, well, constant, into "complete hogwash."

Hold the facepalm, bro. There are plenty of people way more educated than me who are thinking along the same lines, for instance I'm sorry but your original statement is still very silly.

"but he also plays hopscotch."

Science isn't faith based.

I'm not really into the whole revenge aspect of this. I am relieved. I wish there was a better way to deal with a truly disturbed and violent individual like this, but I think most of those ways are unrealistic. For example, the best way for this situation to be resolved is for the millions of Muslims in this world to stand up against people like Osama Bin Laden who pervert the message of Islam. But unfortunately there is still too much divisiveness even among the moderates in the Muslim community. Bin Laden, while at least partially responsible for many acts of terrorism was not a lone serial killer. He was part of a large, organized group of violent people with huge chips on their shoulders regarding western civilization. Eliminating Bin Laden achieved nothing in terms of curbing future terrorist attacks. The Muslim Brotherhood is a huge organization with millions poured into their coffers regularly that isn't going to be stopped by killing any specific individual. Your average Muslims are being routinely stepped on by the US backed and completely corrupt Saudi royal family while, concurrently, fundamentalist Muslim schools (AKA terrorist schooling and recruitment centers) are being bankrolled by the same royals in order to keep the Wahhabis from rebelling. Not exactly a recipe to stop terrorism. All killing Bin Laden did was give a boost to the current US administration popularity at home, and make most Americans a bit happier.

I didn't, Nepenthe did and Raithe screwed up the quote. Edit: Fixed it.

Just to really throw some fuel on the bonfire then.. I could say that one of the few good things to come out of 9/11 was that a whole heap of Americans suddenly stopped giving money to the IRA. They kept giving money to the Wahhabis and the Muslim Brotherhood, though.

This sort of discussions on righteous revenge always make me wonder who, here, professes to be a Christian or subscribes to Christian values.

The categories are more than a bit arguable, and they weren't consistent in applying them. Shoddy work if you ask me.

Considering Reinhart is much older than the rest of the characters, how does he fit into the whole orphans collected by Odo thing?

Like a puppet on a string. Muhahaha!

Go post that on my facebook, you ninny.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euthanasia_Coaster I am now more in favour of euthanasia.

Isn't that the first glimpse of 4 player co-op?

What a ****ty and uninspiring name for such a game mode. I hope you are just borrowing that 'term' from someone else and didn't coin it yourself, because if you did you should be shot. It was called that in Chrono Trigger, the game that popularized the mode. I can see you're being all cheery today.

I'm gonna go and agree with Volourn.