little_Socrates

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Posts by little_Socrates

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  754

  Theists, why does God allow suffering..

  by The Quiet One in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  ..specifically, the suffering of animals.

  you can talk about free will/sin/people choosing to not listen to god etc to explain human suffering being allowed.. but how can you love a god that allows animals, that haven't sinned or chosen to not have anything to do with god, to have their short lives ended in often long, drawn out, painful ways.

  i could list stories i've read that would probably make you feel ill, but i'm not looking to shock anyone or start an emotional debate.

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  little_Socrates

  I think there is a fundamental misunderstanding that neither side is addressing...

  Atheists think that if there is an all loving and all powerful God he must prevent suffering. This idea suffers from confirmation bias just as badly as many statements and beliefs Theists make.

  Can you prove to me that perfect love must eliminate all suffering... and not only that must do it right this minute? Maybe love and suffering are compatible in some way that we can not fully understand here in our temporal existence.

  To say suffering is bad and love is good is to simply just confirm how it feels to experience it. However your feelings on the subject don't create a moral absolute on the subject. Sometimes good things feel bad and bad things feel good. We can't go by how things feel when it comes to judging them.
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  34

  camping information.

  by James Brown in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  my wife and i are planning on taking a year off and taking a jeep and a camper through all the 48 contiguous states and alaska and some of canada.. living in florida, i have always had guns and a concealed carry permit.

  but researching for our upcoming retirement vacation, it seems to me that i might not be able to legally carry firearms on my upcoming expedition.. it seems every state has different laws and licenses.

  what does a camper from florida do when he goes to new york or california?

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  little_Socrates

  Something to consider....

  Many places have license plate scanners. They will know you have a concealed carry permit. Some places they will pull you over and mess with you just because of the permit. Be careful.
  
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  75

  Guns. Well said Mr President, if only your countrymen had the same courage to consider changing course.

  by nicolaou in

  1. social
  2. current

  ive had to make statements like this too many times.

  communities like this have had to endure tragedies like this too many times.

  once again, communities [were harmed] because someone who wanted to inflict harm had no problem getting their hands on a gun.. lets be clear: at some point, we as a country will have to reckon with the fact that this type of mass violence does not happen in other advanced countries.

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  little_Socrates

  TD you make a GREAT point!

  The entire purpose of the constitution is to limit the power of government. You could consider every one of the bill of rights or any provision in the constitution as being anti federal government.
  
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  75

  Guns. Well said Mr President, if only your countrymen had the same courage to consider changing course.

  by nicolaou in

  1. social
  2. current

  ive had to make statements like this too many times.

  communities like this have had to endure tragedies like this too many times.

  once again, communities [were harmed] because someone who wanted to inflict harm had no problem getting their hands on a gun.. lets be clear: at some point, we as a country will have to reckon with the fact that this type of mass violence does not happen in other advanced countries.

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  little_Socrates

  "Any thoughts on why the crime rate was so high 30-40 years ago?

  Didn't people have enough guns to deter the crime?"

  I am not specifically arguing that the proliferation of guns has decreased crime. That would be very difficult to argue with the statistics. What I AM arguing is that as guns have become more available crime has NOT gone up and that is very easy to show with statistics. Gun opponents want to claim more guns always = more crime but it is not backed up by the research.
  
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  75

  Guns. Well said Mr President, if only your countrymen had the same courage to consider changing course.

  by nicolaou in

  1. social
  2. current

  ive had to make statements like this too many times.

  communities like this have had to endure tragedies like this too many times.

  once again, communities [were harmed] because someone who wanted to inflict harm had no problem getting their hands on a gun.. lets be clear: at some point, we as a country will have to reckon with the fact that this type of mass violence does not happen in other advanced countries.

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  little_Socrates

  Some theories on why crime rates are going down...

  http://www.theatlantic.com/features/archive/2015/02/the-many-causes-of-americas-decline-in-crime/385364/

  Check out this chart but make sure and click "per capita", yes our total number of reported crimes is high but the rate is very low.

  http://www.nationmaster.com/country-info/stats/Crime/Total-crimes-per-1000

  The USA is not even top 10 in murder rates...

  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/10/worlds-highest-murder-rates_n_5125188.html

  Also please consider that none of these normalize for urban vs rural. They are just gross statistics.
  
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  75

  Guns. Well said Mr President, if only your countrymen had the same courage to consider changing course.

  by nicolaou in

  1. social
  2. current

  ive had to make statements like this too many times.

  communities like this have had to endure tragedies like this too many times.

  once again, communities [were harmed] because someone who wanted to inflict harm had no problem getting their hands on a gun.. lets be clear: at some point, we as a country will have to reckon with the fact that this type of mass violence does not happen in other advanced countries.

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  little_Socrates

  Nicolaou, you have really dig through the statistics...
  

  I reached that opinion after looking at lots of research. You have to really dig into how the studies are done to understand what they say. You also have to understand that crime is reported differently in different places. So that also makes it hard to compare. I will try to find some article for you if you want to but this is what I know for certain...

  Yes our gun homicide rates are higher than most countries... but our over all murder rate isn't that much greater. If you don't consider gun murders our crime rates are lower than most first world countries.

  Then you have to consider also that most gun murders happen in certain specific metropolitan areas. If you eliminate the top 5-10 crime ridden metropolitan areas we are extremely safe. America is really divided into two states... those that live in big cities and those that live in the country. You only hear news from the big cites. You never hear how quiet the vast majority of small cities are.

  I will see if I can get some research for you guys.
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  75

  Guns. Well said Mr President, if only your countrymen had the same courage to consider changing course.

  by nicolaou in

  1. social
  2. current

  ive had to make statements like this too many times.

  communities like this have had to endure tragedies like this too many times.

  once again, communities [were harmed] because someone who wanted to inflict harm had no problem getting their hands on a gun.. lets be clear: at some point, we as a country will have to reckon with the fact that this type of mass violence does not happen in other advanced countries.

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  little_Socrates

  Bonsai.... yes we occasionally do have high profile cases like this. Just know that the vast majority of Americans in the vast majority of America are VERY safe. Our overall crime rates compare well with any other developed nation. If you don't live in the inner city and are not associated with gangs... You are safer in the USA than you would be in most of the rest of the world. As a matter of fact our crime rate has dropped in half over the last 30-40 years.
  
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  75

  Guns. Well said Mr President, if only your countrymen had the same courage to consider changing course.

  by nicolaou in

  1. social
  2. current

  ive had to make statements like this too many times.

  communities like this have had to endure tragedies like this too many times.

  once again, communities [were harmed] because someone who wanted to inflict harm had no problem getting their hands on a gun.. lets be clear: at some point, we as a country will have to reckon with the fact that this type of mass violence does not happen in other advanced countries.

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  little_Socrates

  Done4good... first off you might have personal feelings about the case. But the reach of government was check in the Bundy Ranch episode in Nevada. Had Bundy and his supporters not been armed, the government would have confiscated all of his property. Maybe you believe that would have been a good thing... that is fine. But he stood up for what he thought was his rights and he won!
  

  As to other governments.... First of all the United States has the longest continuous serving democratic government in the world. Other governments might not be at the state in their development that they need to be strongly checked by the people.

  How can you look at ANY government and not realize that they ALL have a tendency towards tyranny if the people don't strongly stand up for their rights. The natural action of government is to consolidate power. Power seeks power. It will happen every time.

  What made George Washington so special, is not that he won the revolutionary war, it is that he gave up power when his term was done. That is an unnatural thing to do and we should be forever grateful. In the normal course of action government never gives up power.
  
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  75

  Guns. Well said Mr President, if only your countrymen had the same courage to consider changing course.

  by nicolaou in

  1. social
  2. current

  ive had to make statements like this too many times.

  communities like this have had to endure tragedies like this too many times.

  once again, communities [were harmed] because someone who wanted to inflict harm had no problem getting their hands on a gun.. lets be clear: at some point, we as a country will have to reckon with the fact that this type of mass violence does not happen in other advanced countries.

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  little_Socrates

  "It doesn’t happen in other places with this type of freqeuency"

  
  

  In my life, I have seen the proliferation of guns greatly increase, but yet at the same time the murder rate has dropped by 50%. So while mass murders maybe more common in the USA than other countries murder in general is becoming much less common. We are on the right track.

  Yes I know that he added "this type of frequency" but only to appear to be intellectually honest. I think believes this is a strictly American problem when it isn't.
  
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  75

  Guns. Well said Mr President, if only your countrymen had the same courage to consider changing course.

  by nicolaou in

  1. social
  2. current

  ive had to make statements like this too many times.

  communities like this have had to endure tragedies like this too many times.

  once again, communities [were harmed] because someone who wanted to inflict harm had no problem getting their hands on a gun.. lets be clear: at some point, we as a country will have to reckon with the fact that this type of mass violence does not happen in other advanced countries.

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  little_Socrates

  Done4Good

  YES someone that understands the second amendment! Yes it was an anti government thing, and I think that is good and important! A major component is to take power from the state and give it to the people.

  When the people fear the government there is tyranny, when the government fears the people... there is freedom.