Wait and see. One of the reasons so many politicians are robotic (ha! @notarobot) is because of soundbites and things taken out of context.

I mean, look at Trump and his joke about asking Russia to find Hillary's emails. I watched more than just the one sentence. It was clearly a joke. Poor taste. Unpresidential. Ill advised. But a joke.

And now it is touted as possible treason. Silliness.

There might be some relaxed honest speech in there, thought to be private, that people are going to make out to be Horrendous and Horrible. Instead of just being someone thinking they could be honest in private.

You watch for it. Remember what I am saying and if I am more prophetic than you. "Unguarded" can sink a political career. But if a politician never allowed to EVER have privacy to be unguarded?

The death of democracy.

I'm impressed Unlike @newtboy, I don't automatically assume you're lying and feel compelled to do a bit more reading myself before discussing it further.

It's been a long time since I studied it at Uni, and even then we never studied the entire Koran (a one semester course would not have been sufficient for that).

There is, of course, some disagreement about what the hadiths say. The one that immediately springs to mind is "Seek knowledge even as far as China", and I'll quote the former prime minister of Malaysia here:{quote}A hadith says: “Seek knowledge even as far as China.” It was pointed out by detractors that this was just a saying of the Prophet and it was not a command from God. When they disagreed with a particular hadith, they were quick to discredit it and refused to acknowledge it as a source of Islamic teaching. But if they subscribed to it, then they would not cease to highlight it repeatedly, even if it’s authenticity is doubted. Surely seeking knowledge in China does not mean Islamic knowledge. During the Prophet’s period, China was also known to have deep knowledge in such fields as medicine, literature and paper, explosives and many others.{quote}

Certainly the early muslims were very keen on acquiring knowledge, and did indeed travel as far as China to do so (and brought the art of paper making back with them).

I think I had a lot of these on 3 1/2' floppy disks for my Prophet 2000, from way before CDs. It's mothballed in my garage, I never learned to play the synth. :-(
Where's the James Brown effects?

*Promote the horde of fraudulent rage prophets.

This is precisely why a large part of me actually wants Trump to win.

We're way too complacent. There has been a slow, steady, gradual decline that has lulled us into apathy -- even though the state of politics and "democracy" in the US (and arguably globally as a result) is absolutely pathetic and appalling at this point.

It is looking more and more likely that the general election will be Trump vs Clinton.

First of all, that alone demonstrates just how fucked we are. Our final two choices are likely to be the two people with the highest negative opinion numbers out of all the candidates. The cream didn't rise to the top, and instead the two biggest turds managed to avoid being flushed. South Park seems oddly prophetic; we have really ended up with turd sandwich vs. giant douche. I just can't tell which is which.

Second, I notice that a LOT of people (including "establishment" Republicans) are scared shitless by the prospect of a Trump presidency. In a Trump vs Clinton election, they say that they would easily prefer to vote for Clinton -- perhaps couched with the "lesser of two evils" descriptor, but still vote for Clinton.

I agree with the idea that Clinton is the lesser of those two evils. But that, in combination with our current level of apathy, makes me MORE afraid of a Clinton presidency than a Trump one. Clinton is a slick, dirty politician. People think they are going to dodge the Trump bullet by voting for her, but she is the archetype of what got us into this situation. She tells people only what she thinks they want to hear, while doing exactly what her donors (megacorporations) want her to do whenever the camera isn't on. A Clinton presidency will keep the masses just placated enough to NOT boil over.

Meanwhile, Trump seems like enough of a perfect storm that he could actually screw things up bad enough to make the masses stand up and take notice. Maybe that kind of slap in the face is what we need.

Clinton presidency: "Fuck it."
Trump presidency: "I'm mad as hell, and I'm not gonna take it anymore!"


In a hypothetical scenario where the general election was Trump vs Sanders, it would be much harder for me to be "pro" Trump. Because Sanders seems like maybe he's got the right mindset to change things for the better the *right* way. On the other hand, I kinda felt the same way about Obama. So, even in a Trump vs Sanders scenario, a big part of me would be "hoping" for Trump to win. Because *something* has got to snap us out of our apathy.

I'm 'offended' by the word 'offensive'. There is no easier, quicker way to prove you're too lazy or stupid to actually discuss and analyze a difficult subject matter than saying 'You can't do that, it's offensive!'
Joking about controversial or simply horrible things may not be emotionally safe for everyone involved but you can not watch Luis CK and expect he won't bring up stuff like rape. That's some risky stuff, sure. It's very easy to become cruel or sadistic with this but if you look not just at the intent but also the perspective of the comedian, it'll become clear that it is surprisingly empathic. Not only does Luis show empathy for the perpetrator but also goes further and analyzes the motives.
Comedy is a tool to analyze and understand subject matters. It takes intelligence and brutal honesty to make jokes as successfully as Luis does, especially when discussing issues like pedophilia.
That's why I laugh about CK's rape jokes but get angry when a guy stands on a stage and just says 'Wouldn't it be funny if somebody raped you?' to a female heckler. One explores a topic and tries to understand it, the other is just being a cruel asshole.
There's a reason laughter isn't a common sound in churches. Good humor often deconstructs what we tend to understand as unqestioned, common knowledge. It reduces kings to mere humans, prophets to popular madmen and gods to fairytale characters. 'Offensive' is the word you use when you're not pious enough to shout 'blasphemy'.

I watched a second interview where she is more subdued, guarding her apartment from the car. She couldn't believe she was Youtube famous. That sincere quality of wonderment only an unrequited ham can give, right before the praise of personality goes to one's head.

So, set fire to your houses if you think it's that easy to start a meme of your own personality, but it will show through and you will NOT be internet famous like Michelle Dobyne -- because her performance isn't a contrivance but rather a genuine glimpse into a range of social interaction you're incapable of.

However, if after the video of your contrived assholery goes viral, you have even an iota of the charisma required to draw a mass audience, you won't likely be remembered quite in the same way as Michelle.

Warning to the false memetic prophets -- when the simulation ends, we will know all. Someone's gonna go Chief Petty Officer Tyrol on someone's ass guaranteed.

When a holy book includes an unusual punishment for something, and that punishment is carried out, and when asked afterwards why they did it they point at the book, it seems dishonest to discount the book as ever being a possible inspiration.

When someone decides to smite the neck of an infidel for drawing a picture of the prophet, how can that be construed as something other than a religious grievance? It's a religious punishment for a religious transgression.

The reformations and toning down of the BS in the other monotheisms came following massive popular pressure. I'm hoping for more pressure against these insanities.

Sometime after the Jewish people rebuild their temple, a man will enter into it and claim to be God. This is what the bible refers to as the "abomination of desolation". Jesus said that when this happens, great tribulation will come upon the Earth, such as has never been before, nor ever shall be afterwards. The man is called the man of sin, and the Antichrist, who will rule the whole world.

There will be another man, described as having horns like those of a lamb, but he speaks like a dragon. He will perform great signs, even calling fire down from heaven in the sight of men, and he operates in the authority of the Antichrist, and will cause the whole world to worship him. This man is called the false prophet.

During this time, Christianity will be persecuted worldwide as the Antichrist tries to exterminate the church. The thousands of Christians being martyred in the middle east every year is just a foreshadowing of what is to come for Christians in the last days.

Getting High with a Hallucinogenic Toad Prophet has been added as a related post - related requested by newtboy on that post.

If God doesn't give you any revelation of His existence then the scripture is broken and you would have an excuse when you stand before Him. I would be the first to say that this is unfair. However, we're all human beings and I know that people willfully reject God. Not only from my own personal experience, but the bible itself is littered with accounts of people who know better and fall into rebellion against God.

God has made the truth of these things so clear to me, and I believe He is faithful to do the same for you. If God sent Jesus to die on the cross for you and me, He is faithful to let us how we should respond to that.

I think it's clear that an infinite being suffering an infinite punishment is infinitely worse than a finite being suffering an infinite punishment. The finite being has a finite experience, eternally or not. Adding up everyone who ever lived, it is still only a finite experience of suffering, whereas the infinite being has an infinite experience of suffering. Qualitatively, an eternity of suffering of a number of finite beings does not equal even a moment of suffering of an infinite being. Whether you think that is debatable or or not, God the Father considered the sacrifice greater than the punishment, and that is what counts.

Jesus was doing what His Father wanted Him to do, which was to reconcile the human race to Himself, who are alienated from God and spiritually dead because of sin. As far as whether the sayings of Jesus are authentic, we have the manuscripts to prove that they were not made up over a period of centuries or even decades. We have around twenty five thousand manuscripts of the NT alone, which is about 24 thousand more manuscripts than any other ancient text. We have manuscript evidence even going back to the first century, and using all of the manuscripts there is a science called textual criticism that can reconstruct what was in the original manuscripts from that pool of evidence. The idea that the bible is patched together from centuries of retranslations and additions is demonstratably false.

Even if we didn't have any manuscripts, from the writings of the early church fathers alone we could reconstruct the entire bible except for 7 verses in the first 250 years. Even before that, we have the prophetic writings from the Old Testament which show that Jesus did exactly what He was prophesied to do. He did not speak anything different than what had been written thousands of years in advance. If you understand the bible as you a whole, you will see it is one story and it is all saying the same thing. The fact of its internal consistency, considering it was authored by 40 people over a period of 3000 years is another proof of its authenticity.

There are many reasons to believe Jesus is the Christ, but the biggest one is Gods personal revelation, which He is faithful to give to you. If you want to know whether Jesus is the Messiah, simply pray and ask. If He isn't, you've wasted a couple of minutes. If He is, you are avoiding an eternal consequence. God bless!

Gorillaman-'People who believe in different things than I do are sub human and should be killed.'

Do you feel the same about Christians, who's holy book endorses rape, torture, misogyny, and slavery, and commands Christians to follow strictly the example of their prophet who preached inclusion and tolerance, but also commands them to kill any infidel or those who worship Jesus differently than they interpret the 'proper way to worship', and to wage holy wars?
How do you unthinking animals go on the internet and write such nonsense? Religious people are fundamentally broken, they can't reason. Their brains are not alive in the same way thinking humans are.

What are these trifling issues with women in islam? Could they be the result of following a cult founded by a habitual rapist and misogynist and his holy book that endorses rape and misogyny, and commands muslims to follow strictly the example of their prophet, the rapist and misogynist?

Choose a better cause to defend. How do you think these animals can go on television to talk such nonsense? Muslims are fundamentally broken; they can't reason. They're not alive in the same way humans are alive.

Hi Engels,

I just wanted to address what is a common misconception about the teachings of Jesus Christ, which is that He taught the oneness of mankind, or that we could all achieve some kind of evolutionary process of consciousness expansion. This is simply false; Jesus Christ taught that He is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that there is no other way to reach God except through Him. He taught that we are all sinners, alienated from God, and that His suffering and death on the cross and resurrection from death was the universal atonement for our sins and the hope of all mankind, which we receive by putting our faith and trust in Him.

The popular culture has distorted our understanding of Jesus, but this distortion is easily remedied by studying the scriptures. A reading of the gospel of John, for instance, will show you that the Jesus you have heard about and the Jesus of the bible couldn't be more different. I would challenge you to do so and learn more about Jesus Christ of Nazareth, who He truly was and was not, and what He taught about Himself. It is a question He posed to His disciples:

Matthew 16:13 Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, "Who do people say that the Son of Man is?"
Matthew 16:14 And they said, "Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets."
Matthew 16:15 He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?"

Mohammad is the only prophet who drew a sword in name of his own religion. All other prophet were more about peace than violence, Moses ran away, Jesus was crucified. Mohammad led armies and was a general, all muslims know this historic fact.