Jul 15 2012: Cynical and incomplete. In order for a society to function civilly, action must be taken in a civil manner. Voting is currently the best facilitator of civil actions humans possess. While I agree that the current system in the U.S. is flawed in many regards and needs change, complete revolution is unnecessary, unintelligent, and unlikely to succeed. Some laws are flawed. The best way to deal with those laws is not to break them, but rather to support coalition and activism against that law. In other words, vote.
Nov 5 2011: The only person who has the right to censor information is that same consumer, and only the information that they are getting. Control your own content, don't be arrogant enough to try to control someone else's.
Nov 5 2011: He talked about the classic con in which the thieves use oxytocin to scam the store clerk. Morality is simply the way in which we guide our actions; different morals can produce a situation in which one person does something morally right for them, but morally wrong for another. Don't assume the world must operate according to your beliefs.
Oct 27 2011: Personally, I've always noticed the strongest tendency of religion is to be most active in putting down whatever would bring the largest number of people happiness in the shortest amount of time.
However, in today's world, marriage is a legal institution, not a religious one. Because of that, it is a matter of state. Church and state need to be separate, and religions should ,therefore, have absolutely no influence on whether gays can marry or not.
Oct 27 2011: Yes, a liberal democratic structure is applicable to most cultural identities. The problem is that people hate change. Cultures have to get somewhere on their own. Cultural evolution can only be accelerated by others, not brought immediately to a final stage.
Oct 27 2011: I feel there is a third way to inform morality that should take place over generalized concepts: experience.
For as much as we hear in childhood about "don't judge others until you walk a mile in their shoes," "treat others how you want to be treated" etc., it's hard to understand why we don't apply any of that to the adult world. Morals that are based on experiencing being treated poorly by someone with a lack of moral sense are well informed and generally worth listening to.
As for things that one would rather not ever experience, experience can also inform those morals. If you wouldn't ever want it to happen to you, it's probably morally wrong. If it's similar to an experience that was negative and you have a moral opposition to someone else experiencing what you did, it's probably morally wrong.
Oct 27 2011: I'm going to take this the other way. I feel that categorizing yourself according to certain understood characteristics is a rationally driven way of thinking that fits in with a scientific, modern paradigm. In your way of viewing things, Isaac, you say that people identify themselves by their connections to other, well understood concepts and ideas such as religion. This is much the same as elements are recognized by consistent properties and characteristics. I think the way you, and most people besides you, view yourself through a very non-religious lenses that is logical and very human in nature. You just identify yourself using religion as a characteristic that others can understand and grasp. In other words, your "theist paradigm" for people is just rational thought for classifying others that starts at a logical endpoint, your self identification, rather than a starting point, characteristics that describe you.
Oct 27 2011: I've started a conversation on education within HS, but frankly career experience is a primary factor. I intend to take a year after high school to do several internships in fields that I am interested in to see if I have a true passion in any one of them before I go to college and decide on classes that are expensive and vastly time consuming. College is (sadly) just too expensive today to go to for the sake of finding a passion. It's for pursuing in the most efficient way possible whatever specific field you have chosen.
Oct 27 2011: A good nurse is the one who listens to the doctor and doesn't try to do more than they are trained to do. Frankly, bedside manner, comforting, and emotional skill are very secondary in my opinion. The nurses who are best at their job are the ones with the best skill sets that don't try to do a doctor's job, not he ones that can convince you they have the best skill sets or make you think that they are equal to doctors in training or expertise.
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A comment on Conversation: Who has the right to censor the internet? What checks and balances need to be considered to insure this power is not abused?
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However, in today's world, marriage is a legal institution, not a religious one. Because of that, it is a matter of state. Church and state need to be separate, and religions should ,therefore, have absolutely no influence on whether gays can marry or not.
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For as much as we hear in childhood about "don't judge others until you walk a mile in their shoes," "treat others how you want to be treated" etc., it's hard to understand why we don't apply any of that to the adult world. Morals that are based on experiencing being treated poorly by someone with a lack of moral sense are well informed and generally worth listening to.
As for things that one would rather not ever experience, experience can also inform those morals. If you wouldn't ever want it to happen to you, it's probably morally wrong. If it's similar to an experience that was negative and you have a moral opposition to someone else experiencing what you did, it's probably morally wrong.
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