The power outage you experienced lasted less than 2 days. That's not enough to exhaust supplies in supermarkets.
The scenario presented in TFA talks about a power outage that would take months to be repaired. And would happen everywhere at the same time. It's a very different situation. For example, I wonder - is there enough equipment to transport drinking water for everybody?
As it happens, I enjoy driving fast ( I do own a small car, mostly for performance reason). It gives me pleasure to do so and I get to my destination sooner. I will gladly pick up the tab for the extra gas, which ought to include a carbon-tax that properly gauges the true cost to the environment. Why people insist on forbidding me from taking part in a simple pleasure on my own dime is entirely beyond me.
Because the extra pollution you make affects everybody else. I know the extra carbon _you_ are responsible for is an insignificant amount on a global scale, but if many people think like you, it becomes a problem. It's similar to the issue of smoking in public places, but on a global scale.
If you had a task that had serious text processing, surely you would use C++ over Haskell or Lisp. On the other hand, if you needed to do AI, you would use Forth instead of Pascal. Graphics means using a well supported library, so Perl/Tk is the better choice than Java/Swing.
Hint to slashdot mods: all the examples are reversed.
I don't recognize national borders. I'm trying to live my life without considering them. Perhaps this union guy from IBM should try to live his life the same way.
You're part of a lucky few. For most people in the world it is hard even to pay a short visit to the USA, because we need a visa that isn't easy to get.
Let's just use regular logical reasoning here on slashdot. In this case, you may agree that my belief in a creator of the universe isn't that silly, and does no harm to anyone.
Note that this started when you wrote:
Also, it's not fair to compare this belief that an intelligent being created our universe (which can be neither proved nor disproved) to the belief that someone's dog is that creator (which can be easily disproved).
Am I to understand that you now wish to retract this claim, and agree that belief that an intelligent being created our universe is no more or less reasonable than the belief that someone's dog is that creator?
Because that's what your plea to stick to "regular logical reasoning" amounts to. Either the dog gets to claim supernatural powers just like the intelligent creator does, or neither of them do. Granting such powers to one and not the other just begs the question.
No, you're not following it.
Statement: It's not fair to compare this belief that an intelligent being created our universe (which can be neither proved nor disproved) to the belief that someone's dog is that creator (which can be easily disproved).
Proof that someone's dog is the creator of the universe (using regular logical reasoning), as posted by AC:
Creation implies causation, right?
Causation implies unidirectional time-dependence, right?
Unidirectional time-dependence implies, in turn, that there can be no reverse causation.
Causation also precludes (negatively implies) dependence, right?
Earth is a subset of this universe, right?
If I manage to prove that the Creator claimed-to-be, is dependant on a subset of this universe, I have managed to prove dependence and therefore have precluded creation, right?
Proof that the universe wasn't created by an intelligent being (using regular logical reasoning): no such proof exists.
Therefore, under regular logical reasoning, the statement holds.
So, unless you (or anyone) can disprove the intelligent creator hypothesis, it remains as reasonable as any other hypothesis that was neither proven, nor disproved. Like, for instance, string theory.
Sorry for the late reply.
You can't have it both ways.
If defenders of The One True God are allowed to resort to such shenanigans, defenders of The One True Dog are free to do so as well.
Which is it going to be?
Let's just use regular logical reasoning here on slashdot. In this case, you may agree that my belief in a creator of the universe isn't that silly, and does no harm to anyone.
So please stop picking on religion in general, and stick to criticizing specifically the things you don't like about it. You wouldn't say medicine is silly because homeopathy is, would you?
The entire point of the study is that religion doesn't give anyone better moral values, and gives worse moral values on average than its absence.
My point was that the study does not necessarily prove that religion gives worse moral values on average than its absence, because we can't study how the people from a religious society of today would act if most of them suddenly became atheists.
Maybe the causality in the correlation found by the study is not
religion -> poverty and worse moral values, but
poverty -> religion and worse moral values.
An atheistic ethical system is based on the idea that the individual acts in a certain way because that is the best way of constructing the society in which they wish to live. A theistic ethical system is based on the idea that you act in a certain way because a creator said so and that you will go to hell or reincarnate as a fish if you don't. Which do you think provides a more stable society?
I agree with you that an atheistic ethical system would be better.
But being religious doesn't exclude adopting an ethical system that isn't based on religion, like the one you describe. What is wrong with acting in some way both because you believe it is good for society and because you think it will please the creator?
On the other hand, getting rid of religion does not guarantee that the people will adopt any ethical system at all. I don't think the assholes that are now religious would become any better if they suddenly became atheists.
"Protozoa are small, and bacteria are small, but viruses are smaller than the both put together."