Posts by Russell Brown

Last ←Newer Page 1 2 3 4 5 Older→ First

  • MySky strangeness?,

    Anyone else's MySky box been acting oddly lately? Ours has been briefly losing the ability to Live Pause (sometimes even after a hard restart), displaying a red light when it's not recording anything, not letting us view a programme we've recorded and just watched from the start again (we wanted to check who wrote this week's Outrageous Fortune episode). Probably some other stuff too.

    Has there been an over-the-air upgrade that's destabilised things?

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: The God Thing,

    Well, I'd be curious to know why Satanists are inherintly more risible than other religious groups.

    Perhaps it's the fact that Satanism is really a Christian heresy, and therefore contingent on that which it claims to abhor. That's pretty lame.

    Satanists are also just funny.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: The God Thing,

    Why don't we have a referendum on whether or not there is a god?

    Nah. Let's have a dumb self-selecting mail-in campaign. We'll ask if there's a God, everyone who believes in Him will write in to say yes, absolutely, and that'll settle it.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: Because I am weak,

    I suggest a test. Tell 70,000 people to make their way to Auckland's waterfront by a certain time. Once they are all there tell them to go home again. Sit back and watch the fun. Take careful note of all the people not from Auckland or from the Shore for whom Britomart is pretty but useless.

    Uh, yeah, welcome to Eden Park - tried getting there from any motorway? On the other hand, I imagine that you could close off Quay Street and make it a pedestrian boulevard any time you liked, with minimal disruption. There are already empty parking buildings at night, and Quay Street is wide enough for a dedicated bus and taxi lane on match days.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • Stink Bro,

    I love The Simpsons; I want to love the new series. But I can't. It has failed to produce any real laughs from me. Maybe all the good writers are busy working on the feature film...

    Not sure if it counts as "good writing", but I like the advance trailer of the Simpsons movie on the QuickTime site. Violent slapstick involving Homer. Yay.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: The God Thing,

    I believe there is a difference between knowledge and understanding. It is called direct experience. There is also a difference between the essence of spirituality (our oneness with the universe) and religion (the business of selling stories as truths).

    Nicely phrased.

    Years ago, I sat next to the bed where my deceased father was laid out and told him what I thought was going to happen to him: he was being accepted back into the body of the universe (or, more prosaically, his constituent atoms were to be recycled). If consciousness is a product of nature, it's not unreasonable to wonder if it exists in some basic form throughout nature.

    Apologies to hard non-believers in mind at all. Perhaps it was all that Jung I read as a lad. That or the LSD ...

    Anyway, I didn't have to invent anything outside nature to say this. And it seems more profound to me than the essentially selfish idea that I'm literally going to go to Heaven and find everyone I ever knew looking like they did the last time I saw them. Surely, if you're getting to Heaven, you can choose to spend eternity as your 20 year-old self, not the ailing grandmother. Otherwise Heaven would be full of geriatrics.

    You're right Michael, there would be some debate on the social cohesion question. I'd have been better to choose another advantage of religious behaviour: we seem to benefit from jumping around, singing, shouting and submerging ourselves in the whole sometimes, and from doing so as part of a community.

    Some people do this in church. Personally, the Windsor Castle, The Trip, Eden Park, Glastonbury and a number of other venues have served me quite well over the years.

    Now ... anyone want to have a crack at String Theory?

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: The God Thing,

    Satanism may be ridiculous but it is the only opportunity that IT engineers have to get sex, at least without having to dress up as furry animals.

    Hmmm. I guess naff sex is better than no sex at all ...

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: The God Thing,

    Oh, I should point out that there's one group: I think should be mercilessly mocked: Satanists.

    They're hilarious.

    Or am I being unfair?

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: Because I am weak,

    Lets for a moment assume that the Auckland waterfront stadium never happens, what will the waterfront site look like in twenty years time? My lazy $5 is on a carpark for used car imports.

    I tend to think the same thing. I've yet to see any movement on "opening up the waterfront", for all that it's been talked about, and I wonder if the only thing that's going to move Ports of Auckland from the precious territory is a firm shove.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: The God Thing,

    Right back at ya, mate. There are more things I find more annoying than being judged by atheists as being a heartbeat away from burning down the nearest library once I've massacred every infidel within reach.

    Ben does have a point there Craig, at least as regards the land Dawkins is touring at present. According to the excellent Pew surveys ...

    http://people-press.org/reports/display.php3?PageID=386

    ... nearly half of all Americans believe that anyone who does not believe in God cannot be a moral person. More than half expressed an unfavourable view of atheists as a class of people.

    Then of course there was George H.W. Bush's: "I don't know that atheists should be considered as citizens, nor should they be considered patriots. This is one nation under God."

    That all seems fairly bigoted to me.

    Personally, I try and respect people's choices and traditions where they have no untoward impact on me. I see the historical benefits of religion as a means of social cohesion, and I think spirituality has a use as a means of modeling nature. To stand in awe of the universe, and to ponder one's place in it, seems healthy to me.

    I'm aware of the immense comfort that many people derive from, to take one example, the practice of Roman Catholicism. I'll happily acknowledge that Dave Dobbyn's music has been way better since he found God. (I actually often find myself thinking that if all Christians were like Dobbo it would be a better world.)

    But I cannot for the life of me see how I could believe in a Biblical God. It doesn't make sense to me.

    I asked you this once before, and you didn't want to answer, but it is a sincere question: why do you believe what you do?

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

Last ←Newer Page 1 2268 2269 2270 2271 2272 2279 Older→ First