Sorry, not to say they don't DEEPLY respect nature but worship is the wrong word with in the correct intention of the framer. Most people are not cut out for Nirvana as is clearly indicated by the world we live in.

Greater vehicle, lesser vehicle, discuss. e.g. Tibetan Buddhism is awesome but contains VERY little Buddhism and a lot of Bon. Yes I've been there and Thailand too. As my Yoga teacher once said the Indians could only be aesthetic so long before they got bored and had to start draping flowers on things again. Just because followers think things does not effect the basic message. E.g. I have never met a Christian who behaved in anyway I think Jesus would approve of in any way. Just because Calvin wanted to have a get into Heaven card despite being rich does change the parable of Divas. Buddism is really simple, Don't want don't suffer. The rest, as I said is the stained glass windows for the illiterate peasants.

Well you're just completely wrong. Buddhism is simply a method for reliving pain by erasing desire. That's it. If I was grading a paper and that was your definition I would give you a F and ask you if you had bothered to do any reading at all and advise you that even religious studies requires something other than self involved navel gazing. I would also try to impress on you that just because some "followers" of a "religion" do something hat activity doesn't magically progress back upstream and change inviolate rules set down by the founder, as much as that may piss off the Pashtuns. .

What you are describing (with the choice thing) is somewhat closer to the Tao (but you're still not right) and so you may be confusing Buddhism with Zen which is a combination of the two. As to the nature worship you are just confusing the religion that was native to India before Buddhism which is called Hinduism or what you are talking about his more Tantra. Or you watch a lot Japanese movies and are thinking about Shino, so still totally wrong.

1st book great, 2nd book OK, 3rd book readable, 4th on... wait who the fuck is this character I forgot about 3 books ago, shit I really don't care anymore.

I have to call bullshit on what you think Buddhism is.

  1. Buddhists don't worship anything, when asked he said he knew nothing about god and or the afterlife, believe what you will.
  2. Buddhists are trying to relive pain.
      a. Life is pain
      b. Desire causes pain.
      c. to end pain end desire.
      d. don't be a dick

That's it. The rest is stain glass windows for the illiterate peasants. All Buddhists need, that and the middle path meaning split life and soul evenly and be realistic about the world we live in.

Actually Algae might. 250000 gallons of oil per acre in the lab. Plus hydrocarbons are awesome as previously noted by all. We have the infrastructures and engines already. You see any type of production gain efficiency as you reduce the size e.g. Von Numman machines. But most people fail to notice that we have billions of years of nanotechnology research already done for us that the ultimate self replicating solar device is already out there and kicking ass. You cannot beat primary producers in the ecosystem. The food web is all about the bottom of the pyramid.

As to getting people to act rationally good luck with that.

That's because of the availability heuristic and cognitive dissonance on your part. The real problem is with your mind not with PhDs. You have built yourself a self supporting bullshit machine that unrealistically weighs "facts" that support your preconceptions and discounts things that disagree with what you think. You saying that PhDs don't have to defend their ideas is the height of self incrimination. Do you have a PhD? I seriously doubt it.

In addition I see from your later posts that you bring up the whole "grant money" argument. This clearly identifies your as out of your mind. Just in case you missed the memo fossil fuel extraction is the MOST PROFITABLE endeavor in human history bar none. If you think that thousands of squabbling academics who's only ability to move up in their world is by gotcha and disproving each others ideas are going to magically join forces to create a false theory and data in order to what? Seriously what the fuck do they have to gain, grant money? What world do you live in? Grant money? The combined oil industry must make 100x all the academic grants in the US each quarter. You are so self deluded that is makes me wonder how you can operate a keyboard.

http://ctext.org/zhuangzi/tree-on-the-mountain

Zhuangzi was walking on a mountain, when he saw a great tree with huge branches and luxuriant foliage. A wood-cutter was resting by its side, but he would not touch it, and, when asked the reason, said, that it was of no use for anything, Zhuangzi then said to his disciples, 'This tree, because its wood is good for nothing, will succeed in living out its natural term of years.' Having left the mountain, the Master lodged in the house of an old friend, who was glad to see him, and ordered his waiting-lad to kill a goose and boil it. The lad said, 'One of our geese can cackle, and the other cannot - which of them shall I kill?' The host said, 'Kill the one that cannot cackle.'

Next day, his disciples asked Zhuangzi, saying, 'Yesterday the tree on the mountain (you said) would live out its years because of the uselessness of its wood, and now our host's goose has died because of its want of power (to cackle) - which of these conditions, Master, would you prefer to be in?' Zhuangzi laughed and said, '(If I said that) I would prefer to be in a position between being fit to be useful and wanting that fitness, that would seem to be the right position, but it would not be so, for it would not put me beyond being involved in trouble; whereas one who takes his seat on the Dao and its Attributes, and there finds his ease and enjoyment, is not exposed to such a contingency. He is above the reach both of praise and of detraction; now he (mounts aloft) like a dragon, now he (keeps beneath) like a snake; he is transformed with the (changing) character of the time, and is not willing to addict himself to any one thing; now in a high position and now in a low, he is in harmony with all his surroundings; he enjoys himself at ease with the Author of all things; he treats things as things, and is not a thing to them: where is his liability to be involved in trouble? This was the method of Shen Nong and Huang-Di. As to those who occupy themselves with the qualities of things, and with the teaching and practice of the human relations, it is not so with them. Union brings on separation; success, overthrow; sharp corners, the use of the file; honour, critical remarks; active exertion, failure; wisdom, scheming; inferiority, being despised: where is the possibility of unchangeableness in any of these conditions? Remember this, my disciples. Let your abode be here - in the Dao and its Attributes.'

My translation?

"If you want to live to be 200,000 years old, don't be anyone's bitch."

Really? If you have lost the hi-tech manufacturing complex how in the fuck are you going to make wafers? Anyway the pushed disease from Monsanto was far more interesting than another re-write of the ideas brought up in lets say Dune in the 1960's.

WTF "t" key why you leaving me hanging?