And a lot goes over your's. We're on a different level of comprehension. The difference is that I was once on your level, but you were never on mine.
One of is lost in a fantasy. One of us embraces fascism. One of us views the human as a sinful creature in need of salvation, and one of us wants to live life, freely, by their own effort, in their own name, for their own sake, pursuing their own happiness. I’ll let reality determine who is whom. Ayn Rand: “It is not in the nature of man—nor of any living entity—to start out by giving up, by spitting in one’s own face and damning existence; that requires a process of corruption, whose rapidity differs from man to man. Some give up at the first touch of pressure; some sell out; some run down by imperceptible degrees and lose their fire, never knowing when or how they lost it. Then all of these vanish in the vast swamp of their elders who tell them persistently that maturity consists of abandoning one’s mind; security, of abandoning one’s values; practicality, of losing self-esteem. Yet a few hold on and move on, knowing that that fire is not to be betrayed, learning how to give it shape, purpose and reality. But whatever their future, at the dawn of their lives, men seek a noble vision of man’s nature and of life’s potential.”—http://aynrandlexicon.com/lexicon/man-worship.html Wars will never end until humanity respects the Individual Rights of each human soul.
Irrelevant nonsense and noise. What rules the works is ideas. The prevalent cultural ideas of today are altruism, collectivism, subjectivism, and mysticism. The ideas I fight for are Selfishness, Individualism, Objectivism, and reality. The human being is a being of reason, and acts upon that which it holds to be true. To change world, appeal to reason not to emotion.
Now, that is the question, isn't it? I have asked myself and those I know, "Why in the world where man explores the universe with spaceships, computers, telescopes, and microscopes, are there those that still read horoscopes?" The answer I get mostly? For fun. To which I think: fun with the unreal is unreal fun. Fools.
I was responding to a poster who believed the only solution to survival is genocide and killing off people when it's not, and I used the example of the Byzantine Empire and how they were able to survive for a thousand years by paying tribute - And believe me they had a lot of barbarians at the gate.
Horoscopes? I was thinking of the many organized religions. You know, faith and dogma and theology and superstition and faith, and faith. You know, believing in stories that have no basis in facts or reality. You know, the Old White Guy sitting up in heaven rewarding some humans and punishing others. The groups with men in black robes?
Reason should always be used, and I would go even further and say a person's 'heartfelt reasoning' should be used. I think 'heartfelt reasoning' would be a correct translation of the Greek spiritual term 'nous', since the antonym of 'nous' would be a person's passions such as: Anger, hate, jealousy, revenge, envy, etc.
Is it extortion if people are suffering and hammering at the gates or is it compassion? Of course the barbarians had to be defeated first, before tribute was given.
You were attacking pagans, accusing them of "lust, barbarity, malice, harm, and cruelty", and attempting to blame them for the atrocities committed by the Nazi and Stalinist regimes. But when it comes to malice, harm, and cruelty, few religions can compare the horrors inflicted on the world by Christian empires. Indeed, the endless wars and imperialism of modern western civilization originated, not with pagans, but with predominately Christian societies.
You mean the "barbarians" had to be conquered by fire and sword? Because that's how the Roman empire, both east and west, came into existence, was through bloody conquest of the indigenous peoples. Thankfully, the freedom-loving barbarians won out in the end, and smashed into oblivion the decadent empire of Rome. Unfortunately, the same sickness that infected the Romans was passed on to the newly victorious barbarians, who began mimicking Roman ways by installing kings and emperors who proceeded to tax and bureaucratize their formerly free societies.
You asked a question and I gave you a penetrating answer. But instead of using that opportunity to think and discuss, you simply reverted to ostrich mode and stuck your head in the sand.
Actually I meant the Eastern Roman Empire not the Western one. The Byzantine Empire was established when the Emperor Constantine moved the capital from Rome to the Greek city of Byzantium on the Bosporus in 324. It survived until it was taken over by the Ottoman Turks in 1453. When it collapsed according to the historian Duran, it had more learned men, libraries and universities than all of Western Europe - even though it was way passed its heyday.
The Nazis were nationalists which is self love and self exaltation - and that's pagan. As for the Soviet Union, Lenin and the Bolsheviks were militant atheists and criminal as well. They killed and stole blatantly and got their just reward with Stalin who killed them and also the Nazi invaders. This doesn't mean that atheists and pagans are evil, but I do think societies need the constraints of Christian laws - which seem to be somewhat universal today.. Wars always existed between tribes. As for colonizing, it was not necessarily a bad thing since it brings about an exchange of ideas. Had the Greeks not colonized the Mediterranean and Black Sea, we wouldn't have had the Athens of Pericles - which gave the world just about everything that exists. Had the Frank crusaders and the Italian city states not colonized the Byzantine lands, the ancient Greek writings would not have become known, and there wouldn't have been an Italian Renaissance. And had Britain not colonized India, practices such as suttee would have continued. Also had Britain not colonized N. America, today we would not have had the brilliance of our Constitution. These things I mentioned are just the tip of the iceberg. You have to start looking at the positive side of things, and not just the negative. By the way when I say pagan, I'm thinking of the occult and witchcraft - which is prevalent in quite a few places.
The same one that gave us the Cold War and the war on drugs. A state of war promotes patriotism and a resulting lack of questioning the motives of the government.
They are more like police actions than shooting wars. Keeps the military industrial complex fed without too high a body count at least on our side.