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Bryan
OK, now I see what you mean by "faith" in your original example. One can believe that all persons, no matter how despicable, are worthy of respect. Or one can have faith that, despite evidence to the contrary, there are no people that fall below the line dividing those worthy of respect and those not.
Rod
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Two peasants look up as Arthur and his faithful servant "ride" past.
PEASANT 1 (to PEASANT 2): Who d'you think that was?
PEASANT 2: He's the King.
PEASANT 1: How d'you know?
PEASANT 2: He hasn't got sh*t all over him.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Beautiful maiden leaning from a castle tower, screaming: "Succour!"
Knight errant, riding to the rescue: " I guess I am."
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maverick's jibe
I would love to still believe in this cherubic ideal, but history teaches me otherise. Whenever mankind has moved into a new territory, s/he has always exported all of the current problems too. Jazzo mentioned recently the curious dichotomy of the USA as a 'religious' yet intolerant state in some respects - how much more curious when you consider the impetus behind the drive to that particular new frontier all those generations ago. Can we do better in a vacuum? Hmmm... "This is ground control to Major Tom... the papers want to know whose shirts you wear!"
Edit:BTW, which flag, symbol of nationalism and ownership, now flys on the moon?
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Dear Dr. Bill- I worry a bit about over population-- but more about the modern plagues-- AIDS-- is destroying Africa and other countries-- and BSE (mad cow)-- I think, having followed it for 20 years now-- has the power to devistate most of europe-- It took almost 10 year from the time they started feeded MBM (modified bone meal) feed to cow for the symtoms to develop-- and 10 more years for it to be confirmed in humans.. and all the while the same practices went on. even when the brits stop using the meal for there own cattle feed- they continued to export it to other countries.. almost 30 year ago, i was in england when the "secret bombing of Cambodia" where made public and i was embarrassed to be american.. Now days, i suspect many of the english are embarrassed by what their goverment did re: MBM. I think i worry more about the destructive diseased that are now spread world wide- before we even identify them!
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Dear of troy: The present alarming growth in the population of the world is related to advances in science, medical being only part of it. All of the losses from disease merely postpone the day when over population catastrophe will arrive. The brutal measures of population control the Chinese have been forced to adopt will have to be employed world wide. How wonderful it would be to have a mass emigration to another planet.But I see no way of its being possible.
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Dr. Bill comments: How wonderful it would be to have a mass emigration to another planet. But I see no way of its being possible.
Nor do the proponents of science fiction. No one seems to envision our ever having the ability to transport people off this world at a rate that even begins to match the rate at which we are overpopulating it. The answer can only lie in our stemming the latter.
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The answer can only lie...
Soooo.. maybe we should be proud of Mad Thatcher Disease, eh Helen?
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mav opines that perhaps we should be proud of Mad Thatcher Disease.
We can do it purty or we can do it ugly.
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journeyman
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journeyman
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Faldage opines: No one [even scifi proponents] seems to envision our ever having the ability to transport people off this world at a rate that even begins to match the rate at which we are overpopulating it. The answer can only lie in our stemming the latter.
If I may differ over a pedantic point. :o Heinlein in his work "Tunnel in the Sky" pictures an extradimensional portal that millions of people at a time can be herded through to another destination. In this small (from a popularity and size standpoint) novel, the Chinese do exactly that.
Now, I can't see it being done *today*. The logistics problems would be enormous, even if you didn't make any provision for the people on the other side. OTOH, any society that had such technology might be able to do something about the logistics problem.
For the future as I see it (and Heinlein too; he did "Tunnel" as a "what if" alternative to the flavor of his other books) is that space travel spells doom for the humans left on Earth. All the really adventurous types leave, aggravating by orders of magnitude the "marching morons" problem.
Cheers,
Bryan
Cheers,
Bryan
You are only wretched and unworthy if you choose to be.
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