Posts by ScottY

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  • Hard News: For Good Friday,

    Not till Sunday, young man, or Jebus will beat you.

    And I thought owning a copy of "The God Delusion" would be the thing that set him off.

    The ways of our Lord are indeed a mystery.

    West • Since Feb 2009 • 794 posts Report

  • Hard News: For Good Friday,

    I'll just use boring old links next time. I'm clearly incompetent. And I don't even have a deity to blame for my ineptitude.

    Maybe I'll just go off and gorge on easter eggs.

    West • Since Feb 2009 • 794 posts Report

  • Hard News: For Good Friday,

    Crap my embed didn't work.I give up...

    West • Since Feb 2009 • 794 posts Report

  • Hard News: For Good Friday,

    I'd rather listen to this.

    <object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/_aIhh9nFYv4&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0&color1=0x3a3a3a&color2=0x999999"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/_aIhh9nFYv4&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0&color1=0x3a3a3a&color2=0x999999" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object>

    West • Since Feb 2009 • 794 posts Report

  • Hard News: For Good Friday,

    The belief in any form of supernatural power is what makes it not religious. You're describing an extreme ideology. Many religions are sometimes expressed as extreme ideologies but they're jsut a subset.

    I'm not sure it's clear where to draw the line between extreme ideology and religion. They usually have the same features. The deification of Mao, for example, is textbook god-worship.

    Anyway, the point I had been making (and which other made more eloquently) was that religious or quasi-religious hatred lurks behind most wars.

    On the fact v theory debate, secondary school isn't the best place to teach why things happen, because the explanations are often so complex so as to be beyond the comprehension of most NCEA students. Facts are important, because science is a body of knowledge establshed by reference to observable facts.

    So Intelligent Design doesn't belong in science classes, because there is no body of reliable evidence to prove it exists.

    West • Since Feb 2009 • 794 posts Report

  • Hard News: For Good Friday,

    The Jews were a convenient scape-goat for Hitler, and if he hadn't had them he would've found something else - like the homosexuals, or the Gypsies.

    It strikes me as a bit disingenuous to suggest religion isn't responsible for what Hitler did to the Jews. Yes, he could have focused his persecution entirely on other groups, but antisemitism was so widespread in Europe that Jews were an easy target.

    Vietnam and Korea, both about Communism, though I guess if you really stretched that out it's kind of religious.

    Kind of? What part of fanatic Maoism during the 50s and 60s wasn't religious in nature? i.e. the cult of personality, the little red book, the irrational hatred of class enemies, etc etc.

    Iran-Iraq War? Land and power, because Saddam sure as hell didn't give a fig about religion.

    And the Ayatollah didn't either? I think you'll find religion had a major role in that war.

    Religion just defined the teams, and if it hadn't been religion then there would still have been ethnicity, or some other way of picking the sides.

    Religion doesn't get off that lightly. You'll find that almost every other way to "pick the sides" has a religious element to it. In some cases the only thing that defines "ethnicity" is religious practice.

    Anyway, I'm done and I feel much better now.

    West • Since Feb 2009 • 794 posts Report

  • Discussion: Regarding Auckland,

    Let's hope our Super City doesn't become like Super Rugby.

    i.e. the bigger it gets the less super it becomes.

    We need someone to clean up this town and put a stop to waste, extravagance and endless consultation. How about this man?

    West • Since Feb 2009 • 794 posts Report

  • Field Theory: It's a new season,

    to willingly bout

    Split infinitive?

    Just winding you up :)

    West • Since Feb 2009 • 794 posts Report

  • Hard News: The Cullen investment,

    Why does everyone assume Banks will win? Why not someone like Len Brown or Bob Harvey? They're popular mayors and don't attract the same degree of antipathy as Banks.

    West • Since Feb 2009 • 794 posts Report

  • Hard News: The Cullen investment,

    I don't want John Banks full stop. I saw him on Close Up tonight and he was doing this mumble-fuck about lifting New Zealand into the top half of the OECD - the National Party mantra from the last election - and he sounded like a little PR robot.

    I saw him on Campbell Live tonight and he was just spouting pre-rehearsed drivel about how he was going to make a difference to the people of New Zealand. Never mind that the man's clearly a meglomaniac - he looked like he was reading (badly) from an autocue.

    I suspect/hope Banks has little support in large sections of the Auckland region, such as Manukau and the West.

    Let's have a new rule with this supercity: anyone who is or has ever been a talkback radio host is banned from standing.

    West • Since Feb 2009 • 794 posts Report

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