Do banks lose more money to robbery or to stolen pens?
While making a deposit at the bank the other day and realizing I didn’t have a pen in my pocket, I thought about stealing the pen on the deposit counter. This kind of little theft happens all the time, and we all do it. It’s like doing 51 in a 45 mph zone — we don’t really consider it wrong. So I thought, how much do banks spend in a year in replacing all the pens that all of us miscreants blithely walk away with? Is it more than banks lose to robberies?
Free Will and Forbidden Fruit
In my anthropology class last week, this question was raised: Why did God put the Tree with Forbidden Fruit in the Garden of Eden? The question was raised but not answered by either the theist or atheist contingent. I find this to be an important matter in understanding the bible, and i have rarely heard it explained. I venture this argument:
The bible has a convoluted relationship with the notion of man’s free will, but in this case is clear. Without God’s placing some kind of prohibition that could be broken, thereby generating disobedience, their could be no chance to demonstrate choice and free will. Essentially, just like any good scientist, God allowed for a negative outcome, knowing the results would be meaningless without the possibility. It would be like voting for president with only one name on the ballot.
I feel that this is a rarely articulated concept. Anyone heard it put this way before? Where did you hear it?
CNN.com: Some fear debut of powerful atom-smasher
Some fear debut of powerful atom-smasher — CNN.com
Let me take the minority view on this one. So… what if we do actually destroy the earth by building a machine of this power? Perhaps every intelligent species has had the technology to build such a thing without the corresponding ability to accurately model what it will do when they turn it on. Maybe we’re about there’s a cosmic corner that you just can’t peek around without taking a leap of ill-founded faith. There could be a point that all civilizations reach where they self-destruct because the laws of physics are bent too far by inexperienced hands, turning curious societies into a tragic stream of dead worlds. Maybe that’s why we’re “alone;” it’s because everyone else committed technocide.
I can’t wait for them to turn it on! I’ll throw a party!
Answer in your own words, > 200 words
Can voters be held account for their votes?
Could we vote for a criminal?
Are the voter’s responsible for the criminal’s actions?
What consequences are there for a population voting for a bad person?
Try not to break Godwin’s law.
http://www.nobeliefs.com/HitlerBible.htm
