[quote="unriggable"]
Science is about finding out the truth and establishing it as fact. Atheists worship evolution like other facts and how much everybody else worships those facts; to say science is a religion is to say the knowledge that water is liquid is also a religion, among other things ...

Black Belt in Tai Kwon Do - 4 1/2 years
White Belt in Wado-Ryu Karate-Do - 1 year

I study Karate and it's varients not to beat people up or even for self-defense. A shotgun would be much cheaper, easier to learn, and a more effective weapon if all I wanted was to stay safe. Though I just moved ...

Four games because I'm cheap

I'm totally with everyone who finds it difficult to round up enough people to make a real life Risk game interesting. However, the interpersonal wheeling and dealing one can have in real life is what makes it interesting. Risk can be played like poker, in that one can win through diplomacy, bluffing ...

Economic Left/Right: -9.12
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -3.08

Holy shit I'm far-left!

Funny thing is, when I first discovered this site about 5-6 years ago I was almost as far right as I am now left, though I still favored socially liberal ideas. I've been consistently moving further ...

Wind, hydropower, even biodiesel are indirect forms of solar energy. The sun is instrumenal in making air currents, in causing evaporation and the rain that fills dams, and in growing soybeans for biodiesel. We could probably extract energy most efficiently if we directly harnessed solar energy ...

Saint Nicholas was a Turkish Christian who is most famous for his incredible acts of selfless generosity. He was said to drop gold coins down the chimneys of the poor, because he was too humble to accept recognition for his deed (obviously, he failed in that regard). For whatever reason, Saint ...

Buddha would win, hand's down. Heck, any of the boddhisatvas would win against any mere god. The Buddha knows all the Gods but is unbound by the laws of the universe which bind even them. Buddha can do anything that any God can do and survive anything they tried against him, because things like time ...

Everyone can be classified into one of three categories:

1. Those who feel a need to classify others.

2. Those who don't feel a need to classify others.

3. Those who defy or otherwise undermine another's classifications or the idea of classification.

I usually like to consider myself of ...

Looks are nice and all, but enough people look decent (i.e. f*ckable) that something else is needed to distinguish them. Brains are okay, but you don't need intelleegent konversation from a significant other, other friends can satisfy that need just as easily and without the attendant drama ...

This is a difficult question. First of all, "evil" can be subjective. No tyrant would consider himself evil, nor would those favored by him, but one's enemies are almost always evil. Very, very few people have the strength of will required to critically analyse themselves and those close to them. I ...

On the case linked to by the original poster, I think there's such a thing as a greater good and lesser evil thing going on. Oscar Ayala-Cornejo broke a relatively minor law (falsely identifying himself as American) in order to preserve greater laws and social stability (keeping dangerous illegal ...