Sounds like we're f*cked. I totally believe think this era will be regarded as the Age of Stupid. The fact that this was added to the "Controversy" channel confirms it.

DAMN Some of these kids are WAY smarter and media savvy than I was at their age. This stupid world we live in ruined them!

So according to Rand, every generation must reinvent the wheel and nothing can be built or learned from the past?

Foolishness.

Traditions are the sum total of what has worked for generations. Many so-called "new" ideas offered to replace traditional ones are found wanting.

Rand didn't live long enough to witness this Age of Stupidity, where a "new" idea is expected to get a free pass just because it is "new".

Little twits got caught breaking the rules and should have left it at that. Stopped watching after 2 minutes because they started whatever came after.

If you were allowed to be on the wall, there'd be at least a ladder there. I mean holy crap, the city has a free skate park for them. A DECENT one, not a glorified basketball court, and they have to push it.

Besides, standing up for yourself when you're that age is stupid, shine the cop on, apologize to Andy Griffith there, and hell, you might have been back on the ramps tomorrow, but NOOOOOO, had to stand up to the Man... *shakes head*


***He should sue for being trespassed by the cop though. Can't go around trespassing people, even if you have a badge. OMFG learn English.






****I GUESS I SHOULD HAVE BEEN MORE OBVIOUS WITH THE SARCASM?? Philistines.

...with God, everything is permitted. Why? Because God provides a small number of very general rules. Everything else is fair game. And then you realize God didn't provide an interpretation of how and when to apply those few rules, so now everything becomes fair game!

With God, everything is doable, but there are consequences. Once again, atheists are choosing the parts of religion(s) they don't like and using them as walls to push against and build strength. You're trying to play the game with half a basketball.

Way to try and wrest your beliefs on the rest of the (sane) world.

The monsters of history were mostly atheists or believed they were God(s). That's fact. Now, once again, a disclaimer: there are good atheists and bad religionists.

Without belief in a higher power there is no "devil" to emulate. You fail at basic categorical logic since your devil is himself a higher power (an angel).

Semantics. You knew what was meant by "devil" in this context: someone who is out for themselves alone at the cost of all others.

Atheists are atheist about all gods and "higher beings", whatever you call them. They thus can't emulate them per se, but only emulate the characteristic behaviors ascribed to those entities by religious morons like you. Those behaviors are human, they are universal: they existed before religion and even before language, and they will unfortunately continue to exist for a long time.

And, per your uncreative insults, it's obvious that being an atheist lends no one automatic wisdom.

Since you have it All figured out, let me ask, since the limits of your behavior are defined only by getting caught or the fear of same, why aren't you out murdering people and taking their wallets when you need money? Why don't you kick children who are in your way? After all, since you're not a kid you can't be easily kicked back. Why don't you cut lines and jump subway turnstiles? Eat food off the shelves as you walk through the supermarket? After all, rules and laws are just made up by other people, as long as they can't or won't stop you (or don't see you) you're free!

To be an atheist is to believe that Hitler and Mother Teresa are now both equally dust and nothingness.

Let's see here... "for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return." (Gen 3:19) Oh, I guess you didn't read that? It's kind of near the beginning though.

That's referencing the mortal body, not the eternal soul. Genesis in this case, is not a new brand of Axe Body Spray or Phil Collins's old gig.

As for me I think Hitler, by showing us the darkest side of humanity and uniting the rest of the world against him has done a much better service to the world than the prayers of Mother Teresa or anyone else ever did. And if you really read history, you would know the Spanish Inquisition was more like Nazi Germany than anything else in recorded time.

So Hitler was just a "bad example" while Mother Teresa cannot serve as even a good example?

More people died under atheist-led regimes than in all the religious wars of history. The peaceful "philosophy" beyond-all-gods is swimming in an ocean of blood.

If people were capable of crystalline reasoning and not tricked by their own hearts, there would be no need to acknowledge a Higher Power.

This could be true if a higher, benevolent power spoke directly to us all at the same time. But as it is now, the representatives of that higher power are human and thus are bound to be "tricked by their own hearts" and incapable of crystalline reasoning.

You're building a straw man. I'm not telling anyone to believe any particular way, except to suggest that in this Age of Stupidity, one's own judgment and values may not be the wisest, and certainly not at all times. Atheism, in that way, has no room for growth. If you're a mote in a pointless universe, then what? You've narrowly defined who the representatives of God might be and also Who or What God is. You've made the God-concept in your own image so you can knock God down. I freely admit my words don't prove there's a God, but yours don't disprove either.

What they say is bound to be tainted by "humanity" even if they received a message from higher up (this is even truer if you think all lay people can be representatives of the higher power, like the protestant churches). Thus, whether or not there is really a higher being is a moot point. What matters is that some people truly believe in this illogical bullshit, for better or (mostly) for worse.

FAITH IS NOT LOGICAL. That's why it's faith. People who have only their own hearts to follow are angered when told they're tricked--constantly--by their own emotions. Religion addresses the forest of emotions. Logic addresses the acorn of reason.

What I said here is probably beyond your comprehension, but I thought it would do some good to someone (starting with me).

Since I've been an atheist, I've heard all this before. Atheism doesn't lead nowhere because there's nowhere to go, but because it can only accept Nowhere as the final destination.

This is the problem with religious freaks. They don't even know their own Bible. Hypocrites every one of them, IMHO.

Do you really believe only religion is hypocritical while atheism is "honest"?

In the words of one of my favorite movies, quantumushroom: "You have been weighed, you have been measured, and you have been found wanting."

Well then here's your movie quote reply, "I'm not even supposed to be here today."

I prefer clarity to agreement. Good evening.