So_crates

Or its cheaper to have a stopped clock than one that runs five minutes slow. The one that runs five minutes slow is right only a couple of times during the decade. However, the clock that's stopped is right twice a day. SoCrates

Sounds like The Tick: "And, isn't sanity really just a one-trick pony anyway? I mean all you get is one trick, rational thinking, but when you're good and crazy, oooh, oooh, oooh, the sky is the limit." SoCrates

I can see the polarity response is still working. Didn't he? I'm sure if you work at it, you'd find plenty of places Christ adjusted his message for the audience. Any parable is an example. Another the parable of Lazarus in hell (Luke 16:19-30)? According to TWI, we sleep when we die so there's no immediate heaven or hell. The explanation, Saint Vic gave for this parable was that it was adjusted for the audiences beliefs. Apparently they believed in hell. (That should be in Are The Dead Alive Now?) Further, read Paul in the church epistles, he tells you how he adjusted his speech to his audience (I Cor. 9:20-22): Now what does he mean when he was among a certain people, he became a certain people. I imagine he took on their manners and customs...and adjusted his speech so they would be most likely to recieve his message SoCrates

I can emphathise, Waysider. When I rejoined the minstry, during TWI2, that was my twig leaders's big thing: rewards. That's all he thought about was the rewards he would get. I agree with you, you should do the right thing, simply because you percieve it the right thing, not because you expect some extra heavenly bauble for doing it. SoCrates

Let's see: (source) SoCrates

In Bill and Ted's Exellent Adventure, they went backward in time to get Socrates, the Greek philosopher. [in Ancient Greece] Bill: Socrates. Hey, we know that name! Ted: Yeah! Hey, [hands Bill the book] Ted: look him up. Oh, it's under So-crates. So through the remainder of the movie they call Socrates So_Crates. SoCrates

It's from Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure. I was always a thinker, a questioner (some people have even said I think to much). One day at work, somebody had commented: "Oh, I forgot, we work with So_crates today." So I adapted it as my handle. The place holder is to convey the proper pronunciation. Truth be told, I'm actually more of an Aritotle (reasoning, logic) then a Socrates. SoCrates

I'm sure they'll give it lip service, but will they do it? SoCrates

Huh? I'll have a saviour with a side order of absolution and some triple thick ethics. Oh, and an apple pie (caution:filling is hot) for Adam and Eve. SoCrates

Within 2000 words of the original that we know of. The only way to know what was in the original would be to have the original. Which we don't. So there's no way of knowing how much has been added, taken out, or doctrinized. SoCrates

I can see where Waysider is coming from. Christianity's big selling point is eternal life. This is what fuels the Christian engine, if you will. Many of the atrocities done by Christians--the Spanish Inquisition, the Crusades, to name a few--have been done in the name of loving people and wanting them to have eternal life. So, what if that engine never existed? Would Christians continue loving their neighbor and preaching forgiveness? Remember both are tied to eternal life: We love because God so loved the world... We forgive because we remember how much God has forgiven us... Would they be as committed? Would Christiananity spread as far and as fast as it did? It's, however, an interesting thought experiment: pull the eternal life block out of the Jenga tower of Christianity. Does the whole tower collapse? SoCrates

Good point, Bolshevik. A major part of communication is knowing when to add your two cents and when to shut up. SoCrates

This is Lego art:

I always speak my mind, but I'm also aware 90% of communication is packaging your thoughts so your message will be considered. Again, the purpose of communication is its result. If your not gettting the results you want that means you need to adjust the communication. SoCrates

I think anybody who's in the know of world events knows the answer to that: The New World Order is actually a global socialist society. The irony of this great global society is that social justice will be instituted. What's ironic about that? If your making $30,000 a year your in the worlds top 7% of wage earners (source). So by global standards your wealthy. Now do you think they're going to let you keep all that wealth? How much in taxes do you think you'll have to pay to help those in less fortunate nations than yours? So how will we get to this wonder society? Presently Islamics, unions, and communist are teaming up to push us toward bring down capitalism and instill there version of a socialist society. Look at what's going on in the Middle East. Look up Caliphate (definition) then look up Islamic socialism (definition). The interesting thing is they're all united with one purpose in mind:destroy capitalism. Once capitalism is gone then one group thinks it can handle the other. Jokes on them: if that shake out occurs, the winner will be Islam. You seen something similar in Germany just before Hitler came to power: then the choice was between the working class and the Fatherland. As you seen, the Fatherland won. This time, should it get that far, the choice will be between the working class, an ideology, and Allah. The working class losing is a no-brainer. You think Marx can compete with Allah? SoCrates

I guess it depends on whether or not you believe in a multiverse (definition). If you believe in a multiverse you got it both right and wrong. SoCrates

But then, JJ, if your only nice to people because your afraid of somebody in red spandex stabbing will be stabbing you with a pitchfork in a place decorated in fire and brimstone, doesn't that cheapen the act of kindness? Your not doing it out of love, but out of fear. Further, doesn't that cheapen doing what's right? Your not doing it because its the right thing to do, you doing it because your afraid. SoCrates

As I stated in another thread, Ross McDonald described a human life as a bird flying in a lighted corridor, sandwitched between two dark corridors. We come from the unknown, we go to the unknown, the only thing we really know is now. SoCrates

Randomness, enthropy, and the chaos theory? Whenever life gets you down, Mrs. Brown, And things seem hard or tough, And people are stupid, obnoxious or daft, And you feel that you've had quite eno-o-o-o-o-ough... Just remember that you're standing on a planet that's evolving And revolving at nine hundred miles an hour, That's orbiting at nineteen miles a second, so it's reckoned, A sun that is the source of all our power. The sun and you and me and all the stars that we can see Are moving at a million miles a day In an outer spiral arm, at forty thousand miles an hour, Of the galaxy we call the "Milky Way". Our galaxy itself contains a hundred billion stars. It's a hundred thousand light years side to side. It bulges in the middle, sixteen thousand light years thick, But out by us, it's just three thousand light years wide. We're thirty thousand light years from galactic central point. We go 'round every two hundred million years, And our galaxy is only one of millions of billions In this amazing and expanding universe. The universe itself keeps on expanding and expanding In all of the directions it can whizz As fast as it can go, at the speed of light, you know, Twelve million miles a minute, and that's the fastest speed there is. So remember, when you're feeling very small and insecure, How amazingly unlikely is your birth, And pray that there's intelligent life somewhere up in space, 'Cause there's bugger all down here on Earth. SoCrates

How do you know the cat is pushing it out of the lake? Have you thought maybe he's rolling it backwards into the lake. SoCrates

Basically, Waysider is asking: What if this is as good as it gets? SoCrates

The picture was called "Redneck Mansion." Google it in the pictures section and you'll get a slew of them. SoCrates

Another example of David like believing matching itself against a Goliath---and landing flat on it face. SoCrates

to crack SoCrates