Jun 15 2012: There are no other alternatives since the question has only two answers. Is there a god or not.
Science has made hundrets of contributions. There are many theological and philosophical texts that deal with the question about the dichotomy of beeing a theist or not.
Biology can exmplain why we belief in a god and history can explain how religion has developed, but the abstract question "is there a god or not" can never be answered since the definition of a god makes the clain nonfalsifiable and every rational statement has to be falisifiable.
Jun 3 2012: "When is the day going to come when I can treat an over eater like a smoker?
"Put down that cheeseburger, look at yourself!"
Here is a problem in my opinion. The question is what you want to achieve. Do you want to achieve that the obese people get less fat or do you want to be able to mock them? When confronting a person with a problem in a negative way you usually get a negative reaction, which is fine if you want to argue with a person, but is not good if you want to convince someone to do something.
People are extremly influenced by advertisements and they are especially receptive when lacking education about this subject. In my opinion one important step would be to increase the level of education in school in addition to banning fast food products from schools.
Jun 3 2012: Hello,
First I have to apologize for my bad english :)
The reason why Germany does not want Euro Bonds is because of the current economic situation, which is very good. If a country has a very good economy it can sell bonds for a very low interest rate. In fact currently we are selling our bonds for 0 percent interest. Greece for example has to pay a very high interest of up to 7 percent. If you would establish Euro Bonds every country would have to pay the same interest rate (lets assume it will be 4 percent). This means that the strong countries would subsidise the weaker countries because they waive their advantage of getting money for very low interst rates.
Since there is only a common currency but no common fiscal politics by the European Union Germany fears that Greece will use the advantage not to reform their state but to keep going on with making a lot of debt to sustain their economy.
Germans are very sceptical towards the Greeks because it turned out that their financial data they had to show when joining the European Union was fake. Not a very nice starting point. In addition to that they used the benefits of the European Union (getting money cheaper) not to reform their economy but to increase their standard of living while still having a very weak economy. That is why a lot of Germans don't want Euro Bonds.
(This is not neccecerialy my own opinion about Greece but it wanted to explain how the majority of Germans think)
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A comment on Conversation: About Theism-Atheism: why is it assumed that these two "Poles" cover the whole question? What about the alternatives.?
Science has made hundrets of contributions. There are many theological and philosophical texts that deal with the question about the dichotomy of beeing a theist or not.
Biology can exmplain why we belief in a god and history can explain how religion has developed, but the abstract question "is there a god or not" can never be answered since the definition of a god makes the clain nonfalsifiable and every rational statement has to be falisifiable.
A comment on Conversation: Should caring for child who is medically considered 'obese' be claimed as child abuse?
"Put down that cheeseburger, look at yourself!"
Here is a problem in my opinion. The question is what you want to achieve. Do you want to achieve that the obese people get less fat or do you want to be able to mock them? When confronting a person with a problem in a negative way you usually get a negative reaction, which is fine if you want to argue with a person, but is not good if you want to convince someone to do something.
People are extremly influenced by advertisements and they are especially receptive when lacking education about this subject. In my opinion one important step would be to increase the level of education in school in addition to banning fast food products from schools.
A comment on Conversation: Why is Germany against the lauching of Euro Bonds?
First I have to apologize for my bad english :)
The reason why Germany does not want Euro Bonds is because of the current economic situation, which is very good. If a country has a very good economy it can sell bonds for a very low interest rate. In fact currently we are selling our bonds for 0 percent interest. Greece for example has to pay a very high interest of up to 7 percent. If you would establish Euro Bonds every country would have to pay the same interest rate (lets assume it will be 4 percent). This means that the strong countries would subsidise the weaker countries because they waive their advantage of getting money for very low interst rates.
Since there is only a common currency but no common fiscal politics by the European Union Germany fears that Greece will use the advantage not to reform their state but to keep going on with making a lot of debt to sustain their economy.
Germans are very sceptical towards the Greeks because it turned out that their financial data they had to show when joining the European Union was fake. Not a very nice starting point. In addition to that they used the benefits of the European Union (getting money cheaper) not to reform their economy but to increase their standard of living while still having a very weak economy. That is why a lot of Germans don't want Euro Bonds.
(This is not neccecerialy my own opinion about Greece but it wanted to explain how the majority of Germans think)