Agustino

The Soviet Union never fell. They relinquished some territories temporarily and opened themselves to foreign investment and trade in order to modernis...

Yes there is. The percentage is that you set the terms, and just like the casino, when you set the terms, you generally win.

Oh yeah, and Britain and France gave up power peacefully... because that's just what you do when you hold the reigns of power, you freely give them aw...

Yes, but the problem with this approach is that the enemies of the West don't play by these rules. Therefore the West is at a disadvantage.

Who needs that? Politics is a bloody arena, where things are taken by force, whether that force is controlling the masses (Ghandi) or controlling the ...

There's nothing to clarify, you're just not reading what I'm saying charitably, and misinterpreting things. It doesn't follow from everything you have...

This IS optimistic. Yes, the present is gloomy, but the future is golden. That's how it is for the religious. Present circumstances matter less than f...

You're being purposefully obnoxious.

Don't be purposefully obnoxious. It's not that you have everything (you don't), but rather that everything that you have has been given by the world.

Yes, I prefer strong leaders to weak leaders. Do you expect me to prefer Crooked? Crooked can't even get her own life straight, much less a country.

No, this is the part you didn't quote.

Trends represent average (the status quo). Optimists want to be better than average. Therefore optimists are always ahead of trends (or seek to be). T...

This is the wrong understanding. The world owes you nothing because it has already given you everything.

You should read my full reply, not quote only a small segment of it.

This is not true. In Communist times you were given a job, and you had to work it, whether you liked it or not. You had no freedom to move in society....

So what? I still don't care about the trends. My purpose is to maximise my health - I don't care if the trends are that everyone else is getting sick....

The more interesting question is how do you get in power, and how do you consolidate that power. Once you are in power, and you've consolidated the po...

False. Disapproving of Putin is not a problem. Protests, etc. are another matter though. Yes, because Putin is making Russia strong again. The Russian...

For a country to develop at a very quick rate it must encourage entrepreneurship, and let the economy run freely and openly. Russia isn't doing this. ...

Yes, they are equally stupid. However, even the pessimistic philosophy is often framed in terms of the individual, not in terms of the direction of ma...

This is a stupid way to think about things. The present is better than the past IF you don't live in Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq, etc. Pessimism and opti...

I'm not sure. I was reading God Behaving Badly and it explains that the traditional understanding of that passage is that it refers to Jesus crushing ...

>:O >:O >:O It may sometimes be a pain in the anoos, but stop complaining about it for God's sake! >:O

Yes, I can agree with this.

Common give me a break. There aren't just two black and white choices, there's a million possible choices in life. Say my wife asks me to shave my bea...

First I doubt they'd be happy. But even if they were, then yes, their happiness is a good thing, what's not a good thing is their actions, clearly. I ...

Every good thing can also be used for evil. What's your point?

Isn't Benkei from the Netherlands?

Goodnight!

No, I never said that. There's also some mental health problems associated with religious people (fear of hell and similar obsessions being one of the...

And it's not rocket science. If you think an amazing future awaits you after death, you'll feel more confident and stronger in life. If you think deat...

Nope... You're not reading it. Read it. Did you miss this line? Yes, but the big religious groups are at the top. Look at Evangelicals for example. It...

:-} Perhaps you also forget the Parable of the Talents.

I don't care about countries, the question is about people. And religious people tend to be happier than the non-religious. For example, I doubt that ...

You seem to be quite deluded about the benefits of religion, and instead buy into the gullibility and naivety message. It's a way to justify sadness a...

Yes, one of them was Robin Williams, look what happened to him. http://www.jstor.org/stable/20447531?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents http://www.dailymail...

And is that a problem? Churches should be businesses in order to keep up with the economy and have sufficient resources to have an impact on people's ...

Indeed. His merit is that he reaches to millions of people with a distilled version of the Bible that most can understand and relate to. People like h...

Yes, and I've told you that if you reach millions of people (not by accident), then it's not unlikely that you're a multimillionaire. Why? Because it ...

No, you definitely don't reach millions of people by accident, regardless of what you do. Whatever you're doing, you must be doing something significa...

Don't be silly Baden. If you reached millions of people and sold millions of copies of your books, you'd be a millionaire several times over too. It's...

I agree, this is a very important point.

I've read a few reviews and introductions to Matt Ridley's book and it's in a totally different market than Joel Osteen, so it's like comparing apples...

Everyone has exactly the same choices, I don't see why you have anymore choices than the next door person. Right, but other people make similar choice...

Why do you reckon they'd feel anxiety at that? Most people as far as I'm aware know that they are separate and distinct from others, so what? No they ...

Yes, but you are capable of educating yourself, studying and learning. Not many people are capable to be so self-motivated. You may be scared, but the...

Okay but not everyone is destined to be an independent and free spirit. Some people like the structure that can be provided by, for example, a fixed, ...

What's wrong? Philosophers aren't the only people on Earth. We need people who can communicate effectively to the multitudes as well, otherwise the me...

It's actually the first time I turned on this guy, and it's not bad >:O . Why wouldn't this guy deserve the money, he's encouraging a lot of people to...

Why are you telling me, I never took drugs, and I don't drink >:O