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2015-10-25 at 7:10 AM UTC in An Introduction to HyperspaceMan does not live without myth. As the traditional morality plays lose their power to rule men's minds, lively new myths are composed to replace the dead. If the modern priests of science refuse to address the problems of the human soul, the modern poets of science-fiction will use the ken and cant of science to answer spiritual needs for intangible ideals. Mentor and Merlin are reincarnated as Obi Wan Kenobi and Yoda; as the last of the Jedi Knights of a Round Table on some planetary Camelot, Luke Skywalker draws a laser Excalibur from the Stone to wield The Force on a cosmic odyssey. After running for centuries at Olympus, followed by a century of full houses at Dodge City, the spiritual epics are now playing in hyperspace.
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2015-10-25 at 7:08 AM UTC in An Introduction to HyperspaceWHERE IS HYPERSPACE?
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HOW DO WE GET THERE FROM HERE?
THE Ancients imagined a timeless space beyond human comprehension that they called Heaven, Hades, Valhalla, Gehenna, Limbo, Elysian Fields, Happy Hunting Grounds, each in his own language. The mysterious supernal and infernal regions were populated with gods and goddesses, devils and demons, angels and fairies, ghosts and goblins, chimerae of every conception. On an Olympian stage, the immortal spirits acted out the universal human drama in myths teaching the meanings of life and death, good and evil, morality and nemesis, until the advent of modern science brought discredit to intangible realities.
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2015-10-21 at 10:06 PM UTC in Smartest person on the forum(Because intellect can be determined democratically)
I actually forgot to include you because you hardly ever post, if you must know however i'd say you're above averagely intelligent but otherwise not remarkable. But that's just my honest opinion not even trying to be a dick.
That's an opinion I would agree with.
Since you never replied in that thread, I will take this as an opportunity to ask if you ever looked at that information and changed your opinion on UPB. -
2015-10-21 at 9:24 PM UTC in Smartest person on the forum(Because intellect can be determined democratically)Sophie didn't include me because he still thinks UPB isn't bullshit.
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2015-10-18 at 9:17 PM UTC in From Beyond by H.P. Lovecraft[SIZE=12px][FONT=courier new]Horrible beyond conception was the change which had taken place in my best friend, Crawford Tillinghast. I had not seen him since that day, two months and a half before, when he told me toward what goal his physical and metaphysical researches were leading; when he had answered my awed and almost frightened remonstrances by driving me from his laboratory and his house in a burst of fanatical rage. I had known that he now remained mostly shut in the attic laboratory with that accursed electrical machine, eating little and excluding even the servants, but I had not thought that a brief period of ten weeks could so alter and disfigure any human creature. It is not pleasant to see a stout man suddenly grown thin, and it is even worse when the baggy skin becomes yellowed or grayed, the eyes sunken, circled, and uncannily glowing, the forehead veined and corrugated, and the hands tremulous and twitching. And if added to this there be a repellent unkemptness, a wild disorder of dress, a bushiness of dark hair white at the roots, and an unchecked growth of white beard on a face once clean-shaven, the cumulative effect is quite shocking. But such was the aspect of Crawford Tilllinghast on the night his half coherent message brought me to his door after my weeks of exile; such was the specter that trembled as it admitted me, candle in hand, and glanced furtively over its shoulder as if fearful of unseen things in the ancient, lonely house set back from Benevolent Street. [/FONT][/SIZE] [SIZE=12px][FONT=courier new]That Crawford Tilinghast should ever have studied science and philosophy was a mistake. These things should be left to the frigid and impersonal investigator for they offer two equally tragic alternatives to the man of feeling and action; despair, if he fail in his quest, and terrors unutterable and unimaginable if he succeed. Tillinghast had once been the prey of failure, solitary and melancholy; but now I knew, with nauseating fears of my own, that he was the prey of success. I had indeed warned him ten weeks before, when he burst forth with his tale of what he felt himself about to discover. He had been flushed and excited then, talking in a high and unnatural, though always pedantic, voice. [/FONT][/SIZE]
[SIZE=12px][FONT=courier new]"What do we know," he had said, "of the world and the universe about us? Our means of receiving impressions are absurdly few, and our notions of surrounding objects infinitely narrow. We see things only as we are constructed to see them, and can gain no idea of their absolute nature. With five feeble senses we pretend to comprehend the boundlessly complex cosmos, yet other beings with wider, stronger, or different range of senses might not only see very differently the things we see, but might see and study whole worlds of matter, energy, and life which lie close at hand yet can never be detected with the senses we have. I have always believed that such strange, inaccessible worlds exist at our very elbows, and now I believe I have found a way to break dawn the barriers. I am not joking. Within twenty-four hours that machine near the table will generate waves acting on unrecognized sense organs that exist in us as atrophied or rudimentary vestiges. Those waves will open up to us many vistas unknown to man and several unknown to anything we consider organic life. We shall see that at which dogs howl in the dark, and that at which cats prick up their ears after midnight. We shall see these things, and other things which no breathing creature has yet seen. We shall overleap time, space, and dimensions, and without bodily motion peer to the bottom of creation." [/FONT][/SIZE]
[SIZE=12px][FONT=courier new]When Tillinghast said these things I remonstrated, for I knew him well enough to be frightened rather than amused; but he was a fanatic, and drove me from the house. Now he was no less a fanatic, but his desire to speak had conquered his resentment, and he had written me imperatively in a hand I could scarcely recognize. As I entered the abode of the friend so suddenly metamorphosed to a shivering gargoyle, I became infected with the terror which seemed stalking in all the shadows. The words and beliefs expressed ten weeks before seemed bodied forth in the darkness beyond the small circle of candle light, and I sickened at the hollow, altered voice of my host. I wished the servants were about, and did not like it when he said they had all left three days previously. It seemed strange that old Gregory, at least, should desert his master without telling as tried a friend as I. It was he who had given me all the information I had of Tillinghast after I was repulsed in rage. [/FONT][/SIZE]
[SIZE=12px][FONT=courier new]Yet I soon subordinated all my fears to my growing curiosity and fascination. Just what Crawford Tillinghast now wished of me I could only guess, but that he had some stupendous secret or discovery to impart, I could not doubt. Before I had protested at his unnatural pryings into the unthinkable; now that he had evidently succeeded to some degree I almost shared his spirit, terrible though the cost of victory appeared. Up through the dark emptiness of the house I followed the bobbing candle in the hand of this shaking parody on man. The electricity seemed to be turned off, and when I asked my guide he said it was for a definite reason. [/FONT][/SIZE]
[SIZE=12px][FONT=courier new]"It would be too much... I would not dare," he continued to mutter. I especially noted his new habit of muttering, for it was not like him to talk to himself. We entered the laboratory in the attic, and I observed that detestable electrical machine, glowing with a sickly, sinister violet luminosity. It was connected with a powerful chemical battery, but seemed to be receiving no current; for I recalled that in its experimental stage it had sputtered and purred when in action. In reply to my question Tillinghast mumbled that this permanent glow was not electrical in any sense that I could understand. [/FONT][/SIZE]
[SIZE=12px][FONT=courier new]He now seated me near the machine, so that it was on my right, and turned a switch somewhere below the crowning cluster of glass bulbs. The usual sputtering began, turned to a whine, and terminated in a drone so soft as to suggest a return to silence. Meanwhile the luminosity increased, waned again, then assumed a pale, outrè colour or blend of colours which I could neither place nor describe. Tillinghast had been watching me, and noted my puzzled expression. [/FONT][/SIZE]
[SIZE=12px][FONT=courier new]"Do you know what that is?" he whispered, "That is ultra-violet." He chuckled oddly at my surprise. "You thought ultra-violet was invisible, and so it is - but you can see that and many other invisible things now. [/FONT][/SIZE]
[SIZE=12px][FONT=courier new]"Listen to me! The waves from that thing are waking a thousand sleeping senses in us; senses which we inherit from aeons of evolution from the state of detached electrons to the state of organic humanity. I have seen the truth, and I intend to show it to you. Do you wonder how it will seem? I will tell you." Here Trninghast seated himself directly opposite me, blowing out his candle and staring hideously into my eyes. "Your existing sense-organs - ears first, I think - will pick up many of the impressions, for they are closely connected with the dormant organs. Then there will be others. You have heard of the pineal gland? I laugh at the shallow endocrinologist, fellow-dupe and fellow-parvenu of the Freudian. That gland is the great sense organ of organs - I have found out. It is like sight in the end, and transmits visual pictures to the brain. If you are normal, that is the way you ought to get most of it... I mean get most of the evidence from beyond." [/FONT][/SIZE]
[SIZE=12px][FONT=courier new]I looked about the immense attic room with the sloping south wall, dimly lit by rays which the every day eye cannot see. The far corners were all shadows and the whole place took on a hazy unreality which obscured its nature and invited the imagination to symbolism and phantasm. During the interval that Tillinghast was long silent I fancied myself in some vast incredible temple of long-dead gods; some vague edifice of innumerable black stone columns reaching up from a floor of damp slabs to a cloudy height beyond the range of my vision. The picture was very vivid for a while, but gradually gave way to a more horrible conception; that of utter, absolute solitude in infinite, sightless, soundless space. There seemed to be a void, and nothing more, and I felt a childish fear which prompted me to draw from my hip pocket the revolver I carried after dark since the night I was held up in East Providence. Then from the farthermost regions of remoteness, the sound softly glided into existence. It was infinitely faint, subtly vibrant, and unmistakably musical, but held a quality of surpassing wildness which made its impact feel like a delicate torture of my whole body. I felt sensations like those one feels when accidentally scratching ground glass. Simultaneously there developed something like a cold draught, which apparently swept past me from the direction of the distant sound. As I waited breathlessly I perceived that both sound and wind were increasing; the effect being to give me an odd notion of myself as tied to a pair of rails in the path of a gigantic approaching locomotive. I began to speak to Tillinghast, and as I did so all the unusual impressions abruptly vanished. I saw only the man, the glowing machines, and the dim apartment. Tillinghast was grinning repulsively at the revolver which I had almost unconsciously drawn, but from his expression I was sure he had seen and heard as much as I, if not a great deal more. I whispered what I had experienced and he bade me to remain as quiet and receptive as possible. [/FONT][/SIZE]
[SIZE=12px][FONT=courier new]"Don't move," he cautioned, "for in these rays we are able to be seen as well as to see. I told you the servants left, but I didn't tell you how. It was that thick-witted house-keeper - she turned on the lights downstairs after I had warned her not to, and the wires picked up sympathetic vibrations. It must have been frightful - I could hear the screams up here in spite of all I was seeing and hearing from another direction, and later it was rather awful to find those empty heaps of clothes around the house. Mrs. Updike's clothes were close to the front hall switch - that's how I know she did it. It got them all. But so long as we don't move we're fairly safe. Remember we're dealing with a hideous world in which we are practically helpless... Keep still!" [/FONT][/SIZE]
[SIZE=12px][FONT=courier new]The combined shock of the revelation and of the abrupt command gave me a kind of paralysis, and in my terror my mind again opened to the impressions coming from what Tillinghast called "beyond." I was now in a vortex of sound and motion, with confused pictures before my eyes. I saw the blurred outlines of the room, but from some point in space there seemed to be pouring a seething column of unrecognizable shapes or clouds, penetrating the solid roof at a point ahead and to the right of me. Then I glimpsed the temple - like effect again, but this time the pillars reached up into an aerial ocean of light, which sent down one blinding beam along the path of the cloudy column I had seen before. After that the scene was almost wholly kaleidoscopic, and in the jumble of sights, sounds, and unidentified sense-impressions I felt that I was about to dissolve or in some way lose the solid form. One definite flash I shall always remember. I seemed for an instant to behold a patch of strange night sky filled with shining, revolving spheres, and as it receded I saw that the glowing suns formed a constellation or galaxy of settled shape; this shape being the distorted face of Crawford Tillinghast. At another time I felt the huge animate things brushing past me and occasionally walking or drifting through my supposedly solid body, and thought I saw Tillinghast look at them as though his better trained senses could catch them visually. I recalled what he had said of the pineal gland, and wondered what he saw with this preternatural eye. [/FONT][/SIZE]
[SIZE=12px][FONT=courier new]Suddenly I myself became possessed of a kind of augmented sight. Over and above the luminous and shadowy chaos arose a picture which, though vague, held the elements of consistency and permanence. It was indeed somewhat familiar, for the unusual part was superimposed upon the usual terrestrial scene much as a cinema view may be thrown upon the painted curtain of a theater. I saw the attic laboratory, the electrical machine, and the unsightly form of Tillinghast opposite me; but of all the space unoccupied by familiar objects not one particle was vacant. Indescribable shapes both alive and otherwise were mixed in disgusting disarray, and close to every known thing were whole worlds of alien, unknown entities. It likewise seemed that all the known things entered into the composition of other unknown things and vice versa. Foremost among the living objects were inky, jellyfish monstrosities which flabbily quivered in harmony with the vibrations from the machine. They were present in loathsome profusion, and I saw to my horror that they overlapped; that they were semi-fluid and capable of passing through one another and through what we know as solids. These things were never still, but seemed ever floating about with some malignant purpose. Sometimes they appeared to devour one another, the attacker launching itself at its victim and instantaneously obliterating the latter from sight. Shudderingly I felt that I knew what had obliterated the unfortunate servants, and could not exclude the thing from my mind as I strove to observe other properties of the newly visible world that lies unseen around us. But Tillinghast had been watching me and was speaking. [/FONT][/SIZE]
[SIZE=12px][FONT=courier new]"You see them? You see them? You see the things that float and flop about you and through you every moment of your life? You see the creatures that form what men call the pure air and the blue sky? Have I not succeeded in breaking down the barrier; have I not shown you worlds that no other living men have seen?" I heard his scream through the horrible chaos, and looked at the wild face thrust so offensively close to mine. His eyes were pits of flame, and they glared at me with what I now saw was overwhelming hatred. The machine droned detestably. [/FONT][/SIZE]
[SIZE=12px][FONT=courier new]"You think those floundering things wiped out the servants? Fool, they are harmless! But the servants are gone, aren't they? You tried to stop me; you discouraged me when I needed every drop of encouragement I could get; you were afraid of the cosmic truth, you damned coward, but now I've got you! What swept up the servants? What made them scream so loud?... Don't know, eh! You'll know soon enough. Look at me - listen to what I say - do you suppose there are really any such things as time and magnitude? Do you fancy there are such things as form or matter? I tell you, I have struck depths that your little brain can't picture. I have seen beyond the bounds of infinity and drawn down demons from the stars... I have harnessed the shadows that stride from world to world to sow death and madness... Space belongs to me, do you hear? Things are hunting me now - the things that devour and dissolve - but I know how to elude them. It is you they will get, as they got the servants... Stirring, dear sir? I told you it was dangerous to move, I have saved you so far by telling you to keep still - saved you to see more sights and to listen to me. If you had moved, they would have been at you long ago. Don't worry, they won't hurt you. They didn't hurt the servants - it was the seeing that made the poor devils scream so. My pets are not pretty, for they come out of places where aesthetic standards are - very different. Disintegration is quite painless, I assure you -- but I want you to see them. I almost saw them, but I knew how to stop. You are curious? I always knew you were no scientist. Trembling, eh. Trembling with anxiety to see the ultimate things I have discovered. Why don't you move, then? Tired? Well, don't worry, my friend, for they are coming... Look, look, curse you, look... it's just over your left shoulder..." [/FONT][/SIZE]
[SIZE=12px][FONT=courier new]What remains to be told is very brief, and may be familiar to you from the newspaper accounts. The police heard a shot in the old Tillinghast house and found us there - Tillinghast dead and me unconscious. They arrested me because the revolver was in my hand, but released me in three hours, after they found it was apoplexy which had finished Tillinghast and saw that my shot had been directed at the noxious machine which now lay hopelessly shattered on the laboratory floor. I did not tell very much of what I had seen, for I feared the coroner would be skeptical; but from the evasive outline I did give, the doctor told me that I had undoubtedly been hypnotized by the vindictive and homicidal madman. [/FONT][/SIZE]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=4][SIZE=12px][FONT=courier new]I wish I could believe that doctor. It would help my shaky nerves if I could dismiss what I now have to think of the air and the sky about and above me. I never feel alone or comfortable, and a hideous sense of pursuit sometimes comes chillingly on me when I am weary. What prevents me from believing the doctor is one simple fact - that the police never found the bodies of those servants whom they say Crawford Tillinghast murdered.[/FONT][/SIZE] [/SIZE][/FONT]
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2015-10-18 at 8:22 PM UTC in Why Americans Won't Choose Freedom By Jacob G. Hornberger
[SIZE=12px][FONT=courier new]All across the land there is an unusual stirring among the American populace. The American people are sensing that something is severely wrong in our nation. They see the ever- increasing taxation, regulation, bureaucracies, and police intrusions. And they are gradually discovering that, despite their right to vote, they have no effective control over any of this. Yet, despite this unease on the eve of America's third century of existence, the American people refuse to choose the only possible solution to America's woes: freedom--freedom through the constitutional elimination of the welfare state/planned economy way of life. Why this refusal to choose freedom? One answer lies in the fact that many Americans do not even realize that they are unfree. Having served the required twelve-year sentence in public schools, most Americans believe that income taxation, subsidies, welfare, protectionism, minimum-wage laws, and all of the other aspects of the welfare state/planned economy way of life constitute freedom. But what about those who have discovered the truth? Are there not many of these who still will not choose freedom? Unfortunately, the answer is yes. Although recognizing the basic immorality of the welfare state/planned economy way of life, many freedom devotees have chosen to devote their efforts to reforming it rather than eliminating it. Why? Why do they insist on defending a way of life which they concede is immoral as well as a deprivation of the freedom which they value so highly? Let us examine some of the reasons why these individuals who know better won't choose freedom. One reason is the tremendous fear which most Americans have of their own government. The agency of government which Americans fear most, of course, is the Internal Revenue Service, the tax-collecting arm of the United States government. A mere letter of inquiry from the IRS is enough to cause Americans to go into a cold sweat. Not that this fear is unjustified. Every American knows that the agents of the IRS have virtually unlimited power to extract, from the pockets of the citizenry, what they consider to be the "rightful" amount owed to the political authorities. As Professor Ebeling, FFF's vice- president of academic affairs, once put it on a radio talk show in which we were jointly participating, "If you want to know the ways and means of the IRS, simply study the operations of the KGB." But the IRS is not the only agency which inspires great fear in the American citizenry. I have a friend who is the executive vice-president of a major American bank. He told me that most bank presidents, although considered by others (and themselves) to be "high-powered" individuals, will quiver and quake like an autumn leaf when confronted by a banking regulator. In fact, the mere mention of an impending visit by banking regulators will send most bankers into the same fearful frenzy experienced by an elementary school student who is being sent to the principal's office. Why? What is it that causes a grown-up to have such a paralyzing fear of another grown-up? What causes American adults to cower like little children in the face of a bureaucrat? The answer lies in the strong and powerful government, in both domestic and foreign affairs, which Americans of this century have brought into existence. For a strong government will almost always result in a weak citizenry. And a weak and terrified citizenry can rarely be relied upon to resist tyranny by their own government. Instead, they will spend their time "flexing their muscles" vicariously through the "toughness" shown by their government, usually in foreign affairs. A second reason: Too many freedom devotees have lost hope that freedom can actually be achieved. And so, having convinced themselves that slavery in America is inevitable, they devote their efforts to "working within the system" rather than to replacing the system with freedom. A good example of this involves those church officials who have dedicated themselves to getting prayer into public schools. Few people will deny the tremendous accomplishment of the Founding Fathers when they separated church and state through the First Amendment. They realized that religious zealots with political power are among the most dangerous forces to which a society can ever be exposed. And so, the Founding Fathers fought for and achieved a way of life in which the majority could not impose, through the coercive power of government, religious doctrines on the rest of the populace. But, as every American knows, it is an entirely different situation with secular education. Here, as in the olden days with religion, children are required to be sent to governmentally approved institutions to learn governmentally approved doctrines with religious doctrine, by virtue of the First Amendment, being the only exception. What is the reaction of many church leaders to religion being excepted from the teachings in public schools? Having accepted the legitimacy or inevitability of state involvement in the field of education, they wish to empower the state authorities to teach religious doctrine, in addition to secular doctrine, to the nation's youth. In other words, instead of trying to place education on the same level as religion . . . instead of fighting for freedom of education as our Founding Fathers fought for freedom of religion . . . instead of calling for a separation of school and state as our American ancestors did with church and state . . . instead of rendering to God both religion and education . . . present-day ministers of God, having "thrown in the towel" with respect to educational liberty, now wish to render to Caesar not only education but, through prayer in government schools, religion as well. A third reason why many freedom devotees won't choose freedom: they continue to operate under the delusion that the welfare state/planned economy can be made to work. In fact, an examination of much of the literature that emanates from various American freedom think-tanks is absorbed with correcting the "waste, fraud, and abuse" of the system rather than replacing the system itself with freedom. Their solution is always the same: "The system needs reform." An example is found in the November 2, 1990, issue of The Backgrounder, a newsletter of The Heritage Foundation, a renowned, conservative think-tank based in Washington, D.C. Referring to the budget crisis last fall, Scott A. Hodge, a member of The Heritage staff, writes, "Members of Congress did not have the courage to cut one dollar of waste, pork, fraud, or unnecessary spending from the fiscal 1991 budget." Mr. Hodge follows up with, "There is no need for Congress to dismantle the `social safety net'. . ." Mr. Hodge's argument, then, is that the welfare state-- socialism--not only should be kept intact but also that it is capable of being made to operate efficiently. The utopian dream is that if we just elect "better" people to public office . . . if politicians will just do the "right" thing . . . if people will just give up the "waste" which they have been receiving, it is possible to reform and refine the system so that all of us can live happily ever after in socialist heaven. This illusion--this pipe-dream--that holds so many freedom devotees in its grip is one of the major obstacles to the achievement of freedom. But unfortunately, not only in America. In the Soviet Union, the attitude is exactly the same. If the politicians and bureaucrats will only do the "right" thing, the Soviet officials argue, the socialist system can be kept intact and made to work "correctly." Another reason that freedom devotees are inhibited from choosing freedom: They believe that by doing so, they will not have intellectual "respectability" among their fellow Americans. Although privately acknowledging the fundamental evil and immorality of the welfare state/planned economy way of life, they believe that calling for its elimination is too "extreme." Therefore, they maintain their "respectability" (or so they think) by advocating the continuation of the evil and immorality and, even more shameful, by wrapping their arguments in freedom rhetoric. It is not difficult, then, to see the stark contrast between the American Founding Fathers and our present-day freedom devotees. Our ancestors refused to permit the terrible, psychological destructiveness of fear to control their actions. Faced with one of the most powerful monarchs in history, and his equally powerful regulatory and tax- collecting minions, they nevertheless chose to pledge their lives, fortunes, and sacred honor in the defense of freedom-- even though it meant fighting their own government and their fellow British citizens. Devoted to principle, rather than expediency, they had no desire to reform the mercantilist economic system of their own government; recognizing the evil and immorality of such a system, they strived to eliminate it. And knowing that the pursuit of right was more important than popular acceptance, they stood their ground for the whole world to see! It is that spirit of liberty which moved our American ancestors that is so desperately needed in our time. And when it finally grips the hearts and minds of the American people, which I am certain it will, freedom at last will be chosen. Mr. Hornberger is founder and president of The Future of Freedom Foundation, P.O. Box 9752, Denver, CO 80209. ------------------------------------------------------------ From the March 1991 issue of FREEDOM DAILY, Copyright (c) 1991, The Future of Freedom Foundation, PO Box 9752, Denver, Colorado 80209, 303-777-3588. Permission granted to reprint; please give appropriate credit and send one copy of reprinted material to the Foundation. [/FONT][/SIZE] -
2015-10-15 at 3:56 PM UTC in Can there be nothing/non-existence alongside existence?
Nothing is a thing, so yes.
No it's not.Well what's between those particles? Nothing.
There may be nothing between those particles, but those particles exist. Therefore it is incorrect to claim "nothing exists". -
2015-10-14 at 9:44 PM UTC in A random list of 100 TOTSE usernames, and one question.
Is ate still alive?
He's on the Mothership, headed to the Next Level. -
2015-10-12 at 7:24 AM UTC in Can there be nothing/non-existence alongside existence?If nothing existed right now you couldn't ask yourself that question and this little exchange could not have happened.
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2015-10-01 at 7:19 PM UTC in Morality and LawSophie, even though you're probably ignoring this thread and won't read this, imagine how this thread looked to everyone else.
Imagine if I posted the OP and someone replied saying that laws should be based on the bible. Imagine I asked them to explain their position and they just posted a link to the bible. Imagine I called the bible bullshit, and this person asked me to explain how the bible is bullshit.
That's exactly what you did in this thread. LOL -
2015-09-29 at 3:39 PM UTC in Morality and LawHas Sophie had a chance to "adjust" his position yet? Ready to explain how basing laws on UPB would be better or different than the current system?
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2015-09-27 at 5 PM UTC in The Universe and You
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2015-09-27 at 2:45 PM UTC in What sort of mental retardation causes white people to think they're black?
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2015-09-26 at 11:18 PM UTC in The Universe and You
Not only are we in the universe, the universe is in us. I don't know of any deeper spiritual feeling than what that brings upon me.
- Neil deGrasse Tyson -
2015-09-26 at 10:48 PM UTC in Morality and Law
Thread summary:
I asked the forum if laws that enforce moral beliefs serve any significant purpose in modern times.
Sophie claims we should base laws on universally preferable behavior (UPB).
I ask Sophie to explain how that would be any better or different than the current system.
Sophie refuses to explain his position, instead posts a link to the UPB pdf.
I call UPB bullshit.
Sophie the UPB fanboy thinks I have an obligation to explain why it's bullshit.
I refuse to explain why it's bullshit until Sophie explains his own position.
Another member posts an article about why UPB is bullshit.
I cave and also post an article on why UPB is bullshit.
Sophie abandons thread.
LOL
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2015-09-26 at 5:05 AM UTC in Morality and LawSophie and littlenigglet are just members of the Stefan Molyneux fan club. Most people who aren't in the fan club don't buy into the bullshit.
Here's an article explaining why that is: http://www.fdrliberated.com/stefan-m...-story-part-1/Stefan Molyneux wrote a book. It was supposed to be his crowning achievement, THE definitive answer to “what is moral behavior?†The world’s first top-to-bottom system of philosophy, something philosophers have been unable to even attempt for the last 6,000 years. More important, it was suppose to establish Molyneux in the pantheon of thinkers he had studied in college. A position he might have established years earlier, if academia had not blindly rejected him. But all didn’t go according to plan. In fact, of all Molyneux enterprises, it might be said that UPB has had the*least*impact. Today, with his followers typically*unable to explain what UPB*is*(lol like Sophie earlier in this thread) even Molyneux is not able to respond in writing to inquiries on the subject. Recently, when someone asked for clarification on his forum, he gave the curt reply, “I have never seen a UPB discussion work out well on a Board, the concepts are too slippery for this format, and everyone always just ends up frustrated. I invite the OP to call into the Sunday show, 4pm EST, to ask these questions directly…†So what happened? How did the book that was intended to be the most clarifying writing on ethics in thousands of years become the book Molyneux himself can no longer write about with any clarity? This is the story.
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2015-09-25 at 9:49 PM UTC in Morality and LawTS;DR
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2015-09-25 at 7:23 PM UTC in Morality and Law
No faggot. Burden of proof is on you. Soph gave his reasons and posted more worthwhile philosophy in this thread than I have ever seen come from you. So how about you stop being such a little bitch and stop your bullshit about how "you have no obligation to make an actual argument against UPB" because you dont even know what UPB is. You refuse to look into the matter and because of that you have no idea what the theory actually consists of. So if you want to have a serious conversation its time for you to Open Your Mind and have an actual conversation that doesnt consist of "lol I belif dertermined. Lol moral relativism. Lol I have no obligation to study what I consider bullshit even though I dont understand it. Lol criminals dont make the decision to commit crime because there are factors out of their control in life".
People like you are what is destroying the cultivation of philosophical conversation because you dont know how to actually think philosophically. You only know how to support your current viewpoint.
You're the gayest little nigger faggot I've seen on these forums so far. Sophies "reasons" were nothing substantial, just his claim that UPB is better than the current system and his refusal to explain why he believes that. I have looked into UPB, and it is useless. If you don't agree with that then explain your position. If you don't want to do that why are you here? Get back to talking about how horrible your life turned out and how drunk you were last night. -
2015-09-25 at 3:51 PM UTC in Morality and Law
Strong language for a calm person bro.
Except you haven't provided an argument against UPB just: Something something moral relativism, personal opinions, something something doesn't work so it's meaningless. Furthermore if you call a rational proof , which is logically consistent bullshit. Well, then i don't know what to say. Open Your Mind bro <3
Strong language or not, you believing that Stefans bullshit is somehow better than the current system doesn't make me angry.
I have no obligation to make an actual arguement against UPB, seeing as you still haven't given us your position. You have refused to explain how UPB is better or different than the current system. You have refused to explain how it is useful. Therefore, I can only assume that you don't have an explanation. I am already familiar with UBP and it's simply useless bullshit. You've even admitted that it doesn't change anything, so it doesn't make sense why you would suggest that it is better than the current system in the first place. Unless you can explain why I'm wrong, you haven't given us any reason to take your position seriously.
Open your mind Sophie - Stefan is just talking bullshit. -
2015-09-25 at 2:49 PM UTC in Morality and Law
Lol you mad bro?
Why would I be? If anything, you should be mad that you swallowed Stefans UPB bullshit.
