Rid

There is a difference between Atheism and prejudice. Atheism, as you pointed out, "is commonly defined as the positive belief that deities do not exist, or as the deliberate rejection of theism." That has nothing to do with religion being wrong. Saying religion is "wrong" is prejudice. Not believing that God exists is Atheism. You pointed that one out yourself.So, by your own admission of the definition of Atheism, I'm not lacking any tolerance at all, except towards prejudice.Sorry for my vagueness with the definition of racism.

I'll admit, that I did overreact. I won't take back what I said, however, as prejudice is prejudice, and believe organized religion is wrong is prejudice towards organized religion, just as believing that being a different skin colour is wrong is racism.

I did no name calling. I was highly insulted by what you said, and I stand by what I said. Whether what you say is true or not, and I doubt it to be so, due to your viewpoint, your opinions are similar to those of a racist towards someone of a different skin colour. A racist is entitled to their opinion, does that make them any less a racist? You are entitled to your opinion, but that doesn't make you any less prejudiced towards religion.

I am VERY insulted by your obvious ignorance. You are a person who hates religion merely for the sake of hating it. I'm sorry, but you are no better than a racist. A single person may have beliefs, but when many people share those beliefs, it becomes religion, and when this religion creates institutions of worship and learning, it becomes organized. Your ignorant and prejudiced idea that organized religion is merely a control tool is unfounded. Many people share in the beliefs that Christianity has. Certain groups disagree on certain parts, and that is why there are different sects of Christianity. It is the same with Judaism and Islam. Different sects due to slightly different beliefs. I am reform Jewish. I have not finished reading the Torah, and will likely not for some time. Does this make me any less Jewish? No, it does not. My father was born Jewish, and under Reform Judaism, this makes me Jewish. I believe in a great deal of biblical history, though I do not go to synagogue every week. How I follow my religion is up to me, not some ignoramus like you. The dictionary comparison works quite well, as your argument is flawed. What requirement do I have to read the entire Torah to discuss it? I have discussed it, which is where most of my information came about from it. These discussions were with people who had read and finished reading the Torah, so obviously the information I gained was accurate. These bibles to a religion are history and guidelines. The history is the history of one's people. The guidelines are how to live your daily life. More religious people view these guidelines as rules that must be followed. I'm sorry to point this out, but you two have shown classical ignorance towards what religion is, much as a racist shows ignorance towards people of a different skin colour. You may have your beliefs, but unless you have an understanding of what religion is, which you don't, do not insult us.

I'm not saying its easy, I'm saying its doable.

I'm in Canada. I buy concentrated frozen, usually, and mix it myself. Lately I've been buying 100% pure orange juice with pulp. I hate watered down crap.

I would have to disagree with this statement. I would agree that "right and wrong" may appear to be relative, based mainly upon an individual's point of view, but this is like saying that "normal" is relative. The definition of normal is: conforming with or constituting a norm or standard or level or type or social norm; not abnormal; "serve wine at normal room temperature"; "normal diplomatic relations"; "normal working hours"; "normal word order"; "normal curiosity"; "the normal course of events". While my daily actions may be normal in relation to myself, they may not be normal in relation to society, and therefore are not normal. The same goes for right and wrong. While what is right to myself may not be right to society, and therefore is not right. One of the major things that societies world wide have in common is the dislike for crime, such as murder and theft. Certain societies see different things as crimes, but true crime, like theft and murder, seem to be disliked near world wide, and therefore should naturally be considered evil, as our societies do. Something such as the rape of a woman in most societies today is also considered evil, but it was not always so in many places, and in some areas of the world it still is not considered so. So by your logic, since this act does not seem evil to certain societies, it is not evil in that area. A sort of "beauty in the eyes of the beholder" phenomenon. However, just because a small society sees it as normal, does that make it right for them to do it? How do those women feel about it, and do the men of that society truly have a right to force themselves upon a woman? In our society it is deemed morally wrong, again invoking your logic that good and evil are relative. The reason that I would say, however, that your logic is incorrect is by simple fact that societies that view such acts as evil are also very advanced in culture and technology. It would seem that the cultures that unite behind near absolute, slightly relative values of good and evil, the ones where equal rights are extended to all, no matter the race, religion, gender, or age, are the cultures that expand and grow, becoming powerful and desired. Would it not make sense then, that these cultures, now nations, are proof that there is right and wrong?

I like concentrated juice. Its cheaper.

Yes, in some cases. But I've yet to see juice that is 100% fruit juice from a no name brand other than a few store brands. I've also found that no name brand meats tend to be very poor quality, and more water than actual meat.

Even if they can get a computer to fully imitate a human brain, its going to require huge computers to do it properly due to the complexity and the mass amounts of information the brain can store. Don't forget, we don't just store vast amounts of information in our brain, but the ability to reason, which is going to be extremely hard for a computer to correctly imitate.

Maybe not practical at this time, but in an emergency situation, they'd figure out how to destroy the asteroid, whether that meant an advanced nuclear weapon, or a really big magnet.

It usually depends for me. I never have a specific amount of time where I am working. Guess I'd say about 1-2 hours per day is working, though it will be rather more quite soon.

All the good too you where you live. Where I am, and most places I have been, no name is often the last thing on the shelf.I've also read some of the ingredients of no name products... In some cases, I would rather pay the extra couple of bucks.

And having taken an advertising course, I can see how you don't understand the mass advertising either. As an example to help you understand, I'll use the example that was given to me.I can't remember the name, it was a few years back, but a new wine company had gone on to the market, and had nuzzled their way in. For the first few years, they did not do any advertising. The first time they advertised was a simple one page advertisement in a magazine. Their sales made a massive 70% jump within one month.The reason people go buy from big stores such as Walmart, Welworths, and others is because of the money put into advertising. Compare the price of a no name brand product to a well known product that is made almost exactly the same. Huge price difference. The reason for the price difference is mainly in advertising, yet more people are buying the well known product. Why? Because the advertising creates trust in the product. People know how it is illegal to falsely advertise, so they trust advertisements and are quite often willing to pay more for a similar product.There are other things involved in advertising, such as strategic advertising and subliminal messages. The fact that companies advertise is the reason people go to them. Companies do no spend money lightly. When they advertise, they have not just payed for the advertisement to be placed, but they pay to make sure that the advertisement will attract attention. If places like Welworths or Walmart were to stop advertising, you would be surprised at how quickly their sales would fall. After all, how would you know when the next big sale is on, or the next price drop is on, or what's new in the store? People don't want to go to the store to find out what is there, they want the information sent to them, and thus a business that advertises will receive more customers, but must also cover the cost of that advertising in their price.

Bill Gates is a part of that 2% that provides over 50% of the tax dollars of the USA. He also donates millions of dollars to charity every year.Poor people aren't driven poorer by rich people. Poor people quite often drive themselves poor by purchasing things they do not need. As you have pointed out, better quality bread at an Asian baker is cheap, so since it is so cheap, it would make sense for poorer people to purchase bread there, would it not? Yet how many actually do?Just because a store sells things quick doesn't mean that it makes huge profits. Think about this, coming from a person who is just now beginning his own small business: The company needs to pay (in no particular order) investors, cashiers, customer support, accounting, management, lawyers, cleaning crews, overnight stock crews, shipping and handling, taxes, benefits, rent, penalties, water bills, electricity bills, huge phone bills, advertising and more. Don't forget that the employees you see are only a small part of what goes on behind the scenes. Advertising to get your attention will often cost in the hundreds of thousands to just make an attempt at getting your attention for 30 seconds. If you were to see a commercial for Walmart on a single channel ten times in one day, that may very well have cost Walmert as much as $10 million just to get your attention for 5 measly minutes of a day. What you see isn't always what is. How do you know what the profit margin, after all those expenses, really is? Did you know that many oil and gas companies, after all expenses, make only a few percentage points of profit out of their revenues? Compare that to a coffee company, who's product costs you what seems to be very little, while in reality their profit margin is often as high as 3000% after all expenses.