Buddhism: Karma. Your karmic debt increases the more you allow others to be good to you. The true Buddhist is willing to suffer very much for the sake of reaching zero karmic debt upon death (doesn't go into negatives, so it's very easy to gain debt) Only those with zero upon death will go to nirvana others will be reborn as some creature (goes as basic as bacterium).

mostly this is wrong. buddhhists do eschew wealth but have no problem in allowing others to do good deeds for them. Why would they have their alms bowls if they did?

also..they don't advocate suffering or deprivation. the buddha hisself, Siddarth Guatama, tried the deprivation thing when he travelled with the asthetic monks after he left his palace. He got so malnourished he almost starved and so found it wasnt the way. that there is a MIDDLE PATH between depriving and greed and opulence. THIS is what the Buddhists advise.

And the FOur Noble Truths say NOTHING about needing to suffer. Nor does the 8-fold Path.

last.....Buddhists dont believe in transmigration...thats coming back as a bug or an animal. that is the Hindus and the Buddha rejected that doctrine. they believe you only can return as a human. and one who DOES get released from Samsara (the endless cycle on Earth) and can get Nirvana, will sometimes still choose to stay behind and help others. they are called Bodhisatvas.

you should know more about this before claiming you know the religion. sounds to me like you have a lot of learning to do about Buddhism. i can help.

Well, yeah, JFK was killed in late 1963 and then little brother Bobby was gunned down in an L.A. hotel five years later in the Summer of 1968. Same year that MLK also went down.

But this is a good question by Jolie. I think the reason nobody thought about gun control was since it was such a different world, less people, less crime; no spate of mass shootings like we have had with Columbine and Virginia Tech and Orlando. America back then was still primarily and agrarian nation with a lot of farmers and hunters and ranchers. The country still had militias.

Times are very very different now, obviously, and I have little doubt that if the Founding Fathers were alive and were apprised of the gun violence we have endured over the past two decades or so that they would gladly re-write the 2nd Amendment in a New York second. Or should I say a Philadelphia second?

Degree is in Econ, and its a BA.

If I had a degree in women it would be a PhD! I swear I know everything there is to know about how their minds work. It's like a sixth sense.

when me and my wife first began dating she almost always paid because I was poor. My CrossFit gym was just getting off the ground and I had given my ex-wife a LOT of our old stuff, like the house and the Escalade.

My wife was and is a teacher and also has her own small biz on the side, so she was making good money. But we both knew my Gym would become successful in time so she had no problem with footing the bills for awhile.

Now we make about the same money and between us have a pretty good income.

I didn't watch the video, btw, because I don't think anybody can tell me anything I don't already know about dating and women and economics, since that is what my degree is in. But thanks.

I doubt anybody who would post that sort of pic is really in a relationship. Well, except for maybe with his right hand.

get a grip Betty. Pun intended.

Hillary Rodham Clinton will be the next POTUS.

I am not a huge fan but I like her better than Trumpy, and I really liked her husband. And I think the fact that ol' Slick Willie will be behind the scenes helping her with policy decisions is another big plus on her side of the ledger.

You know nothing of my Church except what your butt boy AintNow spewed. So you parrot him like his lapdog.

And the situations in France and here are totally different. France is dealing with Islamist extremists. Our mass shooting like Columbine and VA Tech and Aurora have nothing to do with that. But rather are due to legislation not being in place to prevent wackos like those shooters from getting their mitts on assault weapons in a legal manner.

Orlando didn't have anything to due with jihad either. Rather Mateen was a mentally unstable young man with a hatred of gays. Yes, Islam professes a hatred of them, as does YOUR religion. But Mateen was NOT a practicing Muslim. And he still would have hated gays in his psychotic manner without the existence or Islam.

Yes, this is my mentality. A Christian and a business owner and a man with an IQ probably twice yours who knows that the last thing our country needs right now is the legal ability for mentally unbalanced nuts to purchase automatic weapons. How you cannot agree with me on this is beyond me.

Let me ask you this: which of us do you think Jesus would agree with?

WWJD?

Yeah, right here, man.

I hold down a good job. I co-manage and co own a successful CrossFit gym. And I am a registered voter and a college grad an I think I'm usually as rational as the next guy, if not more so.

And I claim that had there been legislation in place that denied a person like Mateen from legally purchasing an assault rifle, there would be an excellent chance that Orlando would not have occurred. Therefore, dozens of lives being saved.

I also believe that for the Columbine, the Virginia Tech, and the Batman movie theater shootings. No way in hell that psychos like thise kids should have been able to so easily obtain weapons if that sort.

What aspect of this common sense do you not understand? Are you retarded or just brain-dead from wacking off to those Charlton Heston NRA commercials so much?

So you are advocating capitulation?

Or pacifism?

This I cannot abide.

News flash, Betty.....

The terrorist Muslims want us dead whether we speak out against them or not.

So I say not only should we speak out but lash out as well.

With extreme prejudice.

I tried to enlist after 9/11 so I could go hunt and kill me some Mooslim demons. But the army denied me because I had a past felony conviction.

We support our troops in other ways. Me and my band do a lot of benefit guys for vets. Seems a lot if vetts dig us! One guy told me he played our stuff on his iPod when he was over in the sandbox killing those murderous evil bastards. Says it got him fired up.

Always glad to help. I'm writing a song with that title about it!

We need to eradicate the ISIS like the shit covered hemorrhoids they are.

I am Demon Hunter.

And this is my song.

funny!

why not? those kernels popping in the oven would be hilarious and add some much needed comic relief to an other wise dour and depressing situation.

I could see it now: A great name for a Crematorium.......

Jiffy Pop Mortuary!

and then the ashes could be kept in one of those old fashioned cardboard red and white-striped cartons instead of those boring old urns.

This is a laughable debate. The King of all Straw Men.

You and Outlaw both need to learn that socialists are not necessarily liberals. The NAZI party was a State Socialist Party yes, but that Party was also fiercely nationalistic; depostic; advocated huge military build-up and spending, as well as war and aggression. His message to the people was only socialist in the way that he pretended his goal was to empower them, and get them from under the deadly constraints of the Treaty of Versailles from WWI.

All this is decidedly NOT liberal ethos. Not to mention his mass genocide of the Jews. This is as far from liberalism--which espouses the rights and personal freedoms of individuals--as one can possibly get.

worse, the true liberals who were unfortunate enough to find themselves living in Hitler-era Germany were imprisoned and killed. The artists; the minorities; the writers who questioned the Government, et al.

Be careful there, Betty. you are dangerously close to plagiarism.

That is a paraphrase of a famous Mark Twain quote. You need to give due credit.

...............................................................................

"Never argue with stupid people, they will drag you down to their level and then beat you with experience.”

― Mark Twain

I agree that in science circles Evolution is all but proven and is pretty much taken for granted. Even though I'm a Christian I don't buy the Genesis account. I believe in Evolution, but think that it is driven by God. Theistic Evolution.

As far as the whole 'stupid' claim. Before we can even discuss ot further we have to define intelligence. Nobody ever has, really, there are different opinions. It IS agreed upon that most of those so-called IQ tests are hopelessly culturally biased.

A great book was written on relative intelligence, and it asked if some of our lesser advanced 3rd world peoples might be the 1st World nations if they had the environmental advantages we do, like access too minerals and ores for manufacturing.

Book is called "Guns, Germs, and Steel" by Jared Diamond.

The author thinks the answer is yes, that if, say, African tribes had the geological goods we did, they would be a world power. I am not sure I agree with this, but its an interesting notion.

Seems you and I are the only ones who know what we are talking about on this thread, as well as on others where we disprove outlaw and his straw man liberal and progressive bashing. I'm beginning to wonder if any I f these boys can even define a Liberal.

Wrong. And how!!! See my post #516 to see why!

Liberals have historically been the non conformist and even radical party. Well, ideology I should say since there is no Liberal Party per se. The Civil Rights movements of the Sixties was a good example.

Like I said before, you gotta step up your weak game with me around. I aim to prove you wrong when you have us Progressives.

Here is a list of liberal Senators!!

http://freebeacon.com/politics/meet-the-ten-most-liberal-senators/

But if you live in a Capitalist society and conform than you a a political conformist and a capitalist. Right?

One can conform to ANY ideology, it does not have to be liberalism. In fact, I think liberals are usually more NON conformist. A good example would be the civil rights and the hippie movements of the 1960s. Those guys were as liberal--even radical--as you can get!

Yeah..the more I think about it you got it totally back-asswards here. Liberals are more usually the non-conformists. I think of the word "conformist" and I am thinking of right wing conservative dudes who love Reagan like my Dad.

Sorry to shoot the Holy Shit outta your argument, but I had to do it. It's a lame-o debate anyway. Something like outlaw would do.

Hey Betty!

Um, no, not necessarily would we be relegated to the status of mere pets if we created AI to serve and care for us.

I would rather look at it as just more tools and conveniences and creature comforts that we create to make our lives easier. AI in medicine such as diagnostic tools can also make us healthier and live longer and thus more powerful and even less pet-like.

I was cut by God's Razor.

I was a sinful atheist but was Saved by Her with a Vision so profound and Powerful that even an unbeliever (at the time) like me could not ignore it.

Occam's Razor (actually spelled Ockham after Sir William of Ockham, England) is a fancy way of saying, "Hey, the simplest explanation is usually the correct one, unless you know otherwise."

I try to use this credo in all my affairs. I have used it to discern which parts of the Bible are true and which are myth or allegory. Most of the Old Testament stories fall into the latter category. Most of the NT stories have a grain of truth, but some of have been embellished. If you ask for God to direct your thinking and for the Holy Spirit to be upon you when you read the bible, you can use that, plus The Razor in order to get the most from the bible and cull the Wheat from the Chaff.

God Bless.

actually this is very close to the doctrine we teach at Unity. All having to do with feeding your Eternal Soul with the Spirit from the Creator God, or the Infinite Mind. And this teaching is part of the New Thought movement, which the founder of Unity incorporated back at the turn of the 20th century. So thanks!!

Hey Betty!

Well I don't know if I would say we all have two different personalities but we all DO have a Dark Side. That usually resides in our subconscious. the great Psychiatrist Carl Jung who was a contemporary of Freud knew all about this and indeed it was one of his favorite subjects to talk and write about.

His theory was that if we deny the Dark Side, the Beast I think he called it, and do not acknowledge this, it will in time consume us and overtake us. I think he had a point here. It is why you see tings like the evangelical preacher caught in a motel room with an 8-ball of cocaine and a tranny hooker!

GodBless.

ps as part of my quest to hunt and kill Demons I have seen people who do not acknowledge their dark side and let it become a repository for Demonic Possession. When this happens thats when they call me in.

I love my Bible but admit I never much cared for the Book of Revelation.

No credibility at all, as John of Patmos was almost certainly hysterical and feverish when he wrote it. I also never understood much of it. A lot of it was written in code in case the Romans got ahold of it. Like the beast with seven heads? That is the city of Rome with its seven hills.

Still, very strange book. I'm not alone in not grasping it all. Most Christians don't! But they are not as honest as me so they don't like to admit it.😇

Oh okay. Thanks Betty. I get it now.

Still not funny, though.

But if Jesus did come back He would stand a good chance if getting tossed in a psych ward!

I looked at the picture, and I don't get it. Jesus in a van? Please explain the humor here. What am I missing?

I also don't belive Jesus is going to have a second coming. It don't work that way. Except perhaps in the sense of mankind having a spiritual awakening. There have been hundreds of predictions over the past two millennium on a date and time that Jesus would return. Hell, some thought it would happen last year with all those Blood Moons!

But no. Nothing. My guess is God changed His mind and decided to let us figure it out ourselves. With hell from the Holy Spirit. When I was saved and had my vision I thought for a minute when that curtain lit up the room like a fireball that it was the second coming. And that I was going to be cast down into Hell. Since up to them I was a terrible sinner and a God mocker.

But He Saved me. I think maybe any sort of second comings will be God showing Himself as He did to me. Jesus remains with us in Spirit, and His teachings live through the Scriptures. Not all of the quotes from Jesus in the Gospels are true, however. This is why we must pray to God and know Him better so we can sort the wheat from the chaff.