Your Most Controversial Opinions!

Phat, this is what I was objecting to in your post This is no mention of IF or even an implied IF there. Just so you know, atheists in general reject god(s) (rightly imho) not just religions. In fact, even though I am an atheist, I still see that not all religious teachings are bad or harmful.

*starts a slow clap*Maybe that's the very thing that makes you foolish-- placing so much stock in 'higher levels' of learning, which only serves to benefit temporal functions.

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Faith is not a pathetic sentiment, but robust, vigorous confidence built on the fact that God is holy love. You cannot see Him just now, you cannot fully understand what He's doing, but you know that you know Him." -Oswald Chambers

quote:

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In a word: YES

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According to what data?

Did you like the first X-Men Movie and Toy Story 2?

I guess my controversial opinion is that I really don't like cats. I was much more offended by the suggestion that cats are smarter than humans than by the the suggestion that we were incompetent pack animals.Also, on the subject of never having heard "Stairway to Heaven," I played a game in which I had to get my brother to say Stairway to Heaven without being allowed to use words. I'd only heard snippets of it, and I'm a terrible singer, but I tried to hum it for him. He was completely at a loss, so I was sure I must have the wrong tune.The next day, I suddenly remembered what tune I was mistakenly humming. It was "Highway to Hell" by AC/DC, which I had heard repeatedly many years ago while I was in college.Oops. I guess you can't be much further off than that.

I heard a news report on FM 94.3 out of Jackson, MS (can't remember the call letters) the other day about a person who falsely filed for benefits after Hurricane Katrina. The person received $4400 in benefits. The sentence was 40 years in prison and 1/2 million dollars in fines. Another received $5600 the same way and received 50 years and $1.5 million in fines.???????????????????They wouldn't get those kind of sentences if they'd committed armed robbery of the FEMA offices. What in the world?Ok, an internet search found me this site which says that these are just maximum sentences.Nonetheless...this web page says that who bribed government officials with $2 million and got $8.6 million in contracts also faces 40 years, with a maximum fine of $750,000. This is an equivalent crime to getting $4,400 in false govt. benefits???

Ok, looks like most of these folks are getting 2 or 3 years probation and a couple thousand dollars of restitution.I'm really not understanding why they're not having to pay everything in restitution. Kind of like that guy I mentioned in my last post who got 8.6 million in contracts but only has to pay 3.6 million in restitution plus a 750,000 fine.

All adult consensual activity ought to be legalized. Every adult individual ought to have the right to put anything in their own body that they wish to. Every adult individual ought to have the right to do anything they wish with any other individual(s) so long as those others agree to participate. The only caveat that occurs to me at this moment relates to capacity. There may be some individuals who lack the capacity to make such decisions for themselves and they ought to have protection under the law from those who would abuse them.Nobody is in a better position to make such decisions for me than I am, and I'm certainly not in a better position to tell anyone else how they should run their lives.Edited by subbie, : Added subtitle

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Those who would sacrifice an essential liberty for a temporary security will lose both, and deserve neither. -- Benjamin Franklin

I think Lord of the Rings is badly written, overall.I think DC Comics should grow some balls and actually kill Superman for good. Same for Marvel and Wolverine.I think rappers should be forced to take music lessons, at gunpoint if necessary.I think any politician that is caught lying should be forced to spend at least (a) two weeks cleaning cesspits, or (b) two hours with a skilled dominatrix and a camcorder. Hopefully either action will teach them the error of their ways.There, I've said it and I'm glad.

All nations of the world should formally recognize the right of Taiwan's people to decide their own destiny. They have earned that right.Ashley Judd should do more nude scenes.Governments should not recognize marriage at all. Governments can establish 'domestic partnerships' to ensure certain rights for consenting adults: mutual property ownership, estate rights, tax filing, child guardianship. All contracts of 'marriage' and understandings of its 'sanctity' are then left to private citizens to work out according to their beliefs.Bison is better than beef.The biggest danger to citizens of a democracy is neither the party on the left or the party on the right. It is partisanship itself.Dates should be written in descending order so that they lead naturally into hours, minutes and seconds as needed:
-- 2006 December 1 Friday 09:00
-- 2006.12.01 09:00:23
The long form provides an elegant alternation of text and numbers with no commas. The short form allows for easy chronological sorting.If women ran the world we would have fewer wars, but more assassinations.Before anyone can register to vote they should pass a simple standard test. It would test voters' knowledge of the jobs they elect candidates to do.It's past time America adopted the metric system.Robert Heinlein's novella The Star Beast should be made into a movie. Give it to Spielberg or Pixar.It's past time European countries cared about human rights outside their neighborhood. When it's Bosnia, they care. When it's China, they don't.Contrary to popular belief, Jim Carrey is not funny.It's past time Russia buried Lenin.Someone should make a movie epic of Wagner's Ring of the Nibelungs.All high school students can use courses in logic and personal finance.People need to think about sex less and do it more.Let's count years from Apollo 11. That makes 1969 the new Year 0.Evangelicals should get rid of their verbal tic of placing 'just' before every first-person verb: 'We just wanna praise God,' 'We just wan to share the good news.' It doesn't sound self-effacing. It sounds like a symptom.When China becomes a democracy the US should present it with a gift: a Goddess of Democracy statue for Tiananmen Square. France made a similar gesture once. It would be great to see America pay it forward.Dozens of actresses could have won an Oscar with a script like Erin Brokovich.Michael Moore and Ann Coulter should marry. You know they want to.Death penalty for people who fake cynicism to camouflage total naivete.Lifelong imprisonment with no parole for people who:
1. say 'my two cents' on message boards
2. want to 'end world poverty' while objecting to 'our jobs going overseas'
3. use passive tense in office memos ('A meeting was held and it was decided that...')
4. uSe rAnDoM caPs
5. say 'evil' whenever someone else says 'Microsoft' or 'Wal-Mart'Drop the Pledge of Allegience in American schools. If kids need something to recite, teach them the Bill of Rights.Let's put real jazz in elevators.Plenty of good things happen in the world. People rarely consider the disasters that were avoided, the wars that went unfought, and the lives that might have been lost but were not. It's worth considering.Galaxy Quest is the best Star Trek movie ever made.___Edited by Archer Opterix, : Italics, mostly.

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ArcherAll species are transitional.

The more I study and think about the Bible, the more I see that it's interpretation may actually be one way that the damned are separated from the rewarded. Just not in the way some think.Those who take the Bible as some kind of absolute science textbook would be the same people who would, under other circumstances, take Mao's little red book, or Khaddafi's little green book, as gospel. It is simply a function of those who desire to return to the preschool state of ignorance and dependence.The blind following of the unquestionable leader is the cause of most of life's miseries and history's bloodshed. Why would a God desire the eternal company of nothing but boring sycophants who need their diapers changed? As a parent, I know I wouldn't.Therefore, those who read into religion such "virtues" as unthinking obedience to temporal translators, which results in religious warfare, persecution of the innocent, rampant curable diseases, starvation, and a host of other ills would be judged lacking compared to those who actively, rather than passively, seek God through the works of God, which is also known in some circles as the study of nature or science.The really telling part of "not getting it" is the irony of unexamined obiedience coupled with assertions of absolute judgment of others, a role in the second part being one which in the more mature is reserved for the deity.For the fundamentalist, heaven is a place where everyone dresses alike, thinks alike, and worships the deity with unthinking slogans, songs and recitation of dogma. Hell is reserved for those "outside the fold" AKA anyone different. This version of heaven has already appeared on Earth. It was during the late 1960's in China and it was called the Cultural Revolution. Most survivors disagreed with the heaven description, preferring the term "hell on Earth."So I believe the heaven that fundamentalists seek is actually hell. One's reaction to the Bible is one way of determining the cut, but it goes in a different direction than expected.

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Read not to contradict and confute, not to believe and take for granted, not to find talk and discourse, but to weigh and consider.
Sir Francis Bacon

Hi,I want to propose a "controversial" opinion that concerns the way that economies are run.I would like to distingish between unprofitable businesses, and inviable businesses.A business is profitable when it pays an annual dividend to its shareholders. A business is unprofitable when it fails to pay an annual dividend to its shareholders. But it is inviable only when it is unable to provide a living wage for its workers.There is a big difference between an unprofitable business and an inviable business. The unprofitable business is unable to persist because it cannot provide a share dividend for its shareholders. The inviable business, on the other hand, is unable to persist because it cannot provide a living wage for its workers.I would like to see businesses promote viability rather than profit.Profitable businesses get large subsidies from their governments. For example, the arms industry in the UK is the second-most subsidized industry, after agriculture. In the US, the arms industry is the most subsidized industry.I would like to see subsidies used for peaceful purposes.One example of this, is that I would like to see investment benefit worker-owned-and-operated factories. According to Argentinian research, such publically owned facilities are the best for the whole community. And, to be honest, it should not be very controversial for Any Rand suppporters either. (Pure capitalism, no massive accumulations of wealth - that's what Rand says, right?)Instead of funding arms trade fairs, and weapons research, I would like to see taxpayers money spent on peaceful scientific research, and I would like to see it spent on extending the availability of tertiary education and healthcare to all.Instead of purchasing landmines, I would especially like to see money spent on unprofitable businesses. Since money has long been spent on tax breaks for commercial arms dealers, I think it would now be well spent on small local businesses with peaceful products. I would like to see our money spent upon libraries and universitites, and biological research, and physics and chemistry research, and childcare and decent schools and a healthcare system that is open to everybody.That's my controversial idea.Mick

well, we'll be seeing each other there, but for different reasons. (I reject your God)My atheist god will put in you in hell, while your theistic god will put me there.(wait--can I put myself in hell? hmm, God must go and ponder this question, and I'll come back with the answer)

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actually, playing the oppostie isn't as far of as you can get. Now, had you been humming Parsely, Sage, Rosemary, and Thyme, that would be about as far off as you can get.There's a lady who's sure
All that glitters is gold
And she's buying the stairway to heavenWHen she gets there she knows
If the stores are all closed
With a word she can get what she came forAnd she's buying the stairway to heavenThere's a sign on the wall,
but she wants to make sure
cause you know sometimes words have two meaningsIn a tree by the brook
there's a songbird who sings
sometimes all of our thoughts are misgivenyou know . . . (live)There's a feeling I get,
when I look to the west
and my spirit is crying for leavingIn my thoughts I have seen
rings of smoke through the trees
and the voices of those who stand lookingthat's you . . .(live)And its whispered that soon
if we all call the tune
then the piper will lead us to reasonAnd a new day will dawn
for those who stand long
and the forests will echo in laughterremember laughter . . .(live)If there's a bustle in your hedgerow,
don't be alarmed now
it's just a srping clean for the may queenYes there are two paths you can go buy
but in the long run
there's still time to change the road you're onYour head is humming and it won't go
in case you don't know
the pipers calling you to join himDear lady can you hear the wind blow
and did you know
your stairway lies on the whispering wind(amazing solo)And as we wind on down the road
our shadows taller than our soul
there walks a lady we all know
you shines white light and wants to show
how everything still turns to gold
and if you listen very hard
the tune will come to you at last
when all is one and one is all
to be a rock and not to rollthat's what it is . . .(live)
and she's buying a stairway to heaven . . .Edited by kuresu, : I can't spell laughing.

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never mind, I can. the code calls for laugh, instead.

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oops.

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what about business that are "L.L.C" instead of "INC.".the difference is that LLC's are not on the stock market. REI is one such business. Granted, it's a co-op. My uncle's business is also not on the stock market.How do you determine their "profitablity"

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