Yes, this did really well in Maoist China, Stalinist Russia, Khmer Rouge Cambodia, and North Korea (as well as Romania, GDR, Cuba, Vietnam, Albania…..)
Umm, you can't blame that on non religion.
However, all over the world nasty/evil things were have been done in the name of various religions.
No not at all. At the end of the day, people still need a reason to live and be good. Atheism hasn't provided it. Modern atheism is more extreme and dogmatic than modern Christianity. Its one fierce dogma just shouting out the others.
If you need a sky daddy so you don't slit your wrists or do bad things, then you need serious help.
Atheists have no "dogma" other than there is no god and religion should not be forced on others. Everyone is an atheist when it comes to other people's religion.
It's been leaked by a former employee of the game maker, that there is a 2nd game coming out.
I can't find any info on a release date though.
TRUE, there are a lot of religious websites out there. HOWEVER, they aren't telling anyone anything new, except maybe through "apologetics" (mental gymnastics to make things seem to be what they are not).
The only "new" stuff on religion comes from the atheist and skeptic sites.
It is believing "just in case".
If you gain, you gain all; if you lose, you lose nothing.
Pascal's Wager is all about; all things being equal, you should believe just in case you are wrong.
It's the same logic kids use for Santa and the Easter Bunny.
Believing in god, just in case, is extremely dishonest.
Why would the car accident be God's fault? Do you think there are not any gay Christians?
ur correct.. the cause/effect is personal action and not by religion .. this has nothing to do with God..
I didn't say religion, as that is simply a belief structure.
HOWEVER, many believers claim that everything is either caused by god or demons. Nothing is anyones fault, because everything is out of their control.
"I didn't beat you, a demon did it through me." "I didn't bomb that abortion clinic, god did it through me."
Government and religious body exemptions are quite common.
The UK routinely puts in clauses at the start that they have no obligation to obey or enforce the law.
I'm not sure nonprofits are automatically exempt, unless they can show a religious reason.
Why would the car accident be God's fault? Do you think there are not any gay Christians?
To believers, everything is either god's plan or some demon did it.
We just watched a show about believers being cured of illnesses. They didn't credit the medical profession or modern medicine. Nope, god cured them.
The existence of gay christians does not prove anything other than they themselves exist.
Does this come out thick or soupy? I love thick chili.
Also, the best bit of beef is "plate". I use it whenever I make soups and stews.
Why do you think the ordinance is wrong?
It's about the terrorist attack on the French magazine, which left 12 dead.
I think atheists are too self-centered. It is all about them.
Of course it's all about themselves. Unlike believers, they don't have god or gods to worship and carry on about.
If I get into a car accident, it was either the other person's fault or mine, not gods or demons that caused it.
I never said 62 was high for retirement, it's just not exceedigly low as you putted it (specially for people that started working at 14 tops)
I started working at 7yo doing a paper route and haven't stopped working since. What age should the government give me my state pension?
Lot's of Americans get jobs while in school, but their retirement age is 5 years later than yours.
I'm 47 now and I'll be retiring at 71.
NOTE: My comments are based on before the bailouts.
I've seen reference to Greece having some people retire at 53, but the average retirement age of 57. This was at the same time that the UK and Germany rose their retirement ages to 67. There is no way the Greek government could keep this up without fiddling the books.
Then you have the grey economies where most things were bought and sold illegally without paying taxes on them. Sales tax, VAT and other taxes are extremely important to governments. As an example, income tax in the UK only covers the welfare bill and nothing more. So every other source of tax is desperately needed.
Then there's the civil service who get paid as if they work a 15 to 18 month year, plus other outrageous work related benefits. In the UK, a similar thing was happening with the civil service, but the global economic crash helped fix some of that. Civil servants are still making about 17% more than people doing the same job in the private sector. That's down from 38% to 47% more.
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As I said previously, I only really knew about Greece since it was a major news topic here.
23% tax on food is extremely high. In the UK (and the US) most food is tax free or severely reduced taxes. Luxury foods being the obvious exceptions.
Only certain places in the UK, like London have congestion charges. It varies by place, but some places charge everyone except mass transit, taxis and electric cars, while others charge everyone except mass transit. Some places exempt employees of local firms.
Also, car insurance is a weird thing. It can be extremely high depending on where you live, your age and your job.
who do not know how easy they had it./quote]
I don't see that as offensive. I see that as absolutely correct.
Notice that it is past tense, not present tense. He's referring to before the bailouts.
We already talked about this; ie the gray economies where people didn't pay taxes on goods and services, extremely early retirements, etc, etc.
Possibly. I do remember other events though and i could mention them but out of respect to my fellow German users, i won't.
In this forum, i prefer to see the brighter aspects of communication with other people.
I refuse to use norticblue's slimy tactics.
I don't see him being "slimy" but wanting to create discussions/debate.
We need good (emotionless) debates going on here to liven up the forums.
I'm not against bailing others out, but I want you and other in those bailed out countries to understand that bailing you out hasn't been easy on us, when you complain about the bailout. On various forums, I've seen people in the bailed out countries getting nasty toward the people in the countries that bailed them out. THIS IS COMPLETELY WRONG.
My standard of living has crashed due to the UK bailing out other countries and constantly having to help top up the Euro.
I understand and empathise with your points, you are completely right in what you are saying, let me just point where those worse reactions were coming from, imagine a country like portugal who was average and not at it's best when finland actually needed support some decades ago, we gave to them the support at our own cost (like you are doing now)… this time when we needed the first help they were the stronger opposition if you remenber, so it was coming from there too, and in the case of greece and germany it's the same, greece funded germany when it was broke, they never had to pay it back... so again conflict. Surely it did not became overly dramatic and was dealt with, again it's not a hate on the people but more on the institutions, in my particular case it's a clear see-how-this-idiots-don't-have-a-clue-about-what-they-are-doing specially the bank system... the country had to sold what actually gave it profit, to follow troika guidelines... that is no way to run or help a country in the long term. A bunch of shitty short term ways to get cash to pay up by empoverishment athat helped noone, surely it made people hate furthermore... if they actually managed instead of killing inner markets to make the jobs and companies stronger and more secure and destroy the grey economics and reduce the state fat, it all would change, surely a country like mine can't have what our politics get in salaries pensions and benefits neither the whole luxury car fleet and so on... did they cut that? NO THEY MULTIPLIED. Sorry we do get your point because we felt it also, but it's so frustating to have to basically wait to get most of our political class in jail.
I think most politicians should be sent to prison for treason, for what they have done to their individual countries. This also includes the money grubbing MEPs in the EU.
The Euro is a massive failure, which is harming the UK's economy and well being, as we have to keep bailing it out. I'm sure it's harming most other countries that have involvement in it.
In the UK, business rates (taxes simply for existing as a business) are strangling small mom and pop sized businesses. Major shopping areas are turning into ghost towns. Retail property owners find they are better off tax wise keeping their shops empty, than renting them out.
It's a great game. I had the PS3 version, then upgraded to the PS4 version when it came out.
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As I previously said, I don't really know much about Spain's situation. HOWEVER, Greece's situation has been well documented in UK news documentary shows (Panorama, Dispatches, etc).
The southern European countries that are having a hard time now had extremely early retirement ages. Even after severe reforms, they still retire 4 years earlier than the rest of Europe.
They also had grey economies through tax avoidance on goods and services.
Job related benefits were outrageous, compared to the rest of Europe.
Despite pretty decent economic growth (prior to the global economic meltdown), the national debt was skyrocketing. The year before the global economic meltdown, the Greek national debt was 105% of their GDP. Their GDP rose 4.3% but their national debt rose 7% up until the global economic meltdown.
Bailing out other countries has meant higher taxes and service cuts for the countries that had to do the bailing out, yet the countries that got bailed out are angry with those that saved them.
All of these things are direct benefits of the people of these countries. This is why you won't see much pity from the people in the rest of Europe.
I do understand your point let that be clear, but when you have an ageing population and you extend the reform age, it also means there will be no jobs for the youth, which means that there will be no people to pay those ageing people reforms… so do you understand how that snowball and backfires on some specific countries? (not greece case they were crazy)
This countries have issues with the ones bailing them out because in part it was their fault too, not those particular ones sometimes but the whole UE mess, and what some countries have said and refer to them as PIGS, EVEN THO these PIGS helped bail some of those countries out. If you are humiliated when you just helped someone that is humiliating you, how do you see that person? Also The rating agencies mess? Really, this crisis was a circus, everyone knew it was bound to happen, noone did a thing until it exploded, and that is the usual process in the UE.
BUT yeah you've got it right it was some of those countries fault too for allowing the grey economy, it would take a revolution, most likely not like Ukraine, but yes ...
I see lots of people simplefying this matter, it means that in some of these countries people are in the streets, because thereare no jobs, they lost their houses, they lost their medical care... so never simplefy what might be a tragedy for others.
How does a country fund it's state pension when people work as long as they are retired (based on average life expectancy)? That's unsustainable, to say the very least. The bailed out countries need to build their economies, not lower their retirement age to compensate.
I'm very anti EU, so you are preaching to the choir about them. HOWEVER, you can't lay all the blame on the EU. The grey economies had nothing to do with the EU.
I'm not against bailing others out, but I want you and other in those bailed out countries to understand that bailing you out hasn't been easy on us, when you complain about the bailout. On various forums, I've seen people in the bailed out countries getting nasty toward the people in the countries that bailed them out. THIS IS COMPLETELY WRONG.
My standard of living has crashed due to the UK bailing out other countries and constantly having to help top up the Euro.
What are you stating is true but that is for the old generation of greeks.
The current generation, the one I live, has to face the sins of the older generation in every conceivable way.
I am a nurse and our health system suffers from the lack of financial resources, we are working overtime which we are not paid. The stuff also suffers from the lack of personell. Weare paying our taxes, the low citizens that is, we are paying our bills. And let's not touch the subject of unemployment. Many of us have degrees and diplomas only to decorate the walls of our houses.
For this generation of greeks, a small amount of respect must be shown.
We are trying and i think it is pretty unfair to blame this generation for the sins of the old.
My comments weren't blaming your generation, but were to show why we are where we are.
The working generation(s) is the one that always has to suffer for the sins of the previous generations. No country is unique in this.