This board is in dire need of intelligent discussion.

Rather than start off with a topic that may not go over very well, I'll start us off with the vague question of: what topics do you like to discuss?

I'm a classic geek, so things like mythology and religion always get me wound up. Of course media such as movies, music and books are always a good place to go.

So what topics are you into? Perhaps we can get some discourse going (that isn't related to "Naruto", "Naruto" or "how much Naruto rocks").

Politics, philosophy, popular science, (classical) mythology, film/TV, books, current affairs... I'm open to most things, if I know anything about them, I guess.

Why not? It would be a definite improvement...

I think the point of this thread, though, is to get people to mention the topics they'd prefer to be talking about, and see if some conversation naturally follows from that. It should work, if enough people do it, and is far easier than it would have been for the OP to have picked one specific topic, which could have garnered little to no interest. So, I like the idea, and hope it works out.

Aye, that was the plan. Could've picked any old thing to start rambling about, but seeing as I don't know any of you folks and this is a "General" discussion board, I didn't have anything to really go by.

I used to love discussing politics, but somewhere along the line (I believe after 9-11) I just got too disgusted with the whole sordid affair and gave up on it. Philosophy is good, though it's been given a poor connotation inside my mind because of all the pretentious assholes who try to discuss it. Though if I find the right person, it's good.

So along those lines, what're everybody's personal political/philosophical/religious beliefs or mottos?

Too personal? Too bad.

I'm too drunk to post anything of substance right now, so I'll get back to you soon! But, philosophically, I have a lot of time for David Bohm (see his book, Wholeness and the Implicate Order - I've reviewed it on my page here. It may sound a bit of a cliche, but it really did change my outlook on 'the way things are', for want of a better phrase). Used to be rather fond of Nietzsche, but, other than his views on Christianty and socialism (I'm not against either, in principle), he's of less interest to me now. Politically, I guess you could say I'm liberal, although I have my authoritarian moments, and, finally, I'd consider myself 'spiritual' (vaguely), but certainly not religious.

Spiritual views: religion is for the weak minded and is responsible for 99% of the worlds wars (the other 1% has been started by soccer matches)

Political views: assassination of Bush and company would be the only bit of good news I could imagine these days :)

Social views: Venezuela is on the right track to how society should be governed. Power the the people, not to the rich greedy corporations.

Technological views: I hate DRM and anything Apple or Microsoft ( Linux too - they're just a bunch of stuck up techno-geeks that think 'command prompt' should make a comeback) - I say give us an OS as easy and sexy as Vista without any of all that prompting, DRM, and phone-home crap, and i'd be one happy camper.

philosophical views: work sucks

I'd say most of the 'religiously-motivated' wars we have seen have had other, more mundane motivations (i.e. territory/resource acquisitation and political motivations). My main problems with religion are how it has been used as a form of social control, and I can't see the sense in taking something so fanciful at face value, despite having no empirical evidence whatsoever for believing it to be the case. Some might respond something like 'it wouldn't be faith otherise', to which I would only say that 'faith' is intellectually lazy.

I think faith is a nicer word for fear and that's all I'm saying on the matter.

Prelude, sometimes you really make me laugh.

And Twist, you'll have to keep posting on this thread to keep it afloat. I started a thread asking what people like to talk about too some time ago and I think it disappeared pretty quickly just like all the other threads that make sense. I didn't 'attend' to it though...

As for what I like to discuss? Anything that's not gibberish basically but also the topics I discuss a lot these days majority of individuals wouldn't like to participate in or understand anyway so I'd rather just read the interesting threads. Mind you, this is the first time in a while I've actually posted on here because I never see interesting threads that much anymore and I refuse to go sifting through the dribble. I don't have the time or the energy (well that's the nicer way of putting it).

I think that's my participation quota for the month!

Richard, calling religion a form of 'social control' - i love that concept. It makes perfect sense. I think it's also a way appease people's guilt. We're destroying another country, killing their way of life, causing pain and chaos. But it's ok, because we believe in Jesus and they do not, so perhaps God knows what's best. And the war is a complete clusterf**k, but all we can do is pray and hope everything works out to God's divine plan. Why take action when God knows everything and fixes everything?

Midnight, when world is going to hell in a handbasket, sometimes all we can is laugh. Hence why i love 'Daily Show with Jon Stewart' and 'Colbert Report'.

"Prelude, sometimes you really make me laugh"

Yep, but can't really argue with his 'philosophical views', and I'm envious of those who can.

Since I'm Christian and a conservative, I'll stay away from religion and politics.
I would like to say I'm with Prelude on DRM.
I'm a total technology geek and think DRM only hurts the average users cause hackers like me will get around any DRM if we need to but if a user find out that their media wouldn't work on thing device their going to be pissed and have no idea how to get it to work, which pisses me off cause I'm the guy they come to "fix" it.
But on the Windows/Apple/Linux thing, I'm for Linux but I'm forced to use Windows cause I like to game.

I honestly don't know what my political views are. Like I mentioned before, I got so disgusted with the whole business of politics I've literally just lost all concept of the topic. It holds very little interest to me. I have my views of the world, but none on how it should be run, simply because everything has its flaws... of course there are the lessers of several evils, but in the end I'm not to sure how much I feel like backing up something I'm not totally for.

I despise the dogmatic side of religion. Like someone said earlier in the post (I don't feel like scrolling back) it's the reason for the majority of the world's wars. It's bloody maddening to humans, drives them to do things a sane person wouldn't. They become so obsessed that they'll shove their beliefs down another person's throat with anything from a pamphlet to a nuclear bomb. But... as a cultural study, I'm absolutely fascinated. Especially the occult. I practice tarot myself, though that can often be seen as much a psychological tool as any occultic or spiritual tool.

In relation to my occultic studies, my personal beliefs on the paranormal is that I believe [just about] anything can happen, but I'm only positively convinced of very, very few things.

My philosophical views are much like my political views, vague and almost nonexistant. The topic holds more interst for me than politics, but I still have my issues with it. Along with politics and religion, it seems way too obvious that humans are never going to figure out the big secret, so I usually end up saying, "What's the point in worrying?" I still like to discuss philosophical ideas and theories simply because they can be fascinating, and certain things, for smaller subjects (not the "What's it all about?" questions) can come up sounding positively accurate... but I have such a Carpe Diem look to life mixed with such crippling misanthropy, most of the time I see philosophy to be as much silly rambling as that of a religious fanatic's.

Also, to Koji, if you're gonna hang about topics like this, could you try for some proper grammar and actually say something rather than talk about how much you love to talk about things?

"...most of the time I see philosophy to be as much silly rambling as that of a religious fanatic's"

Couldn't disagree more. Unlike religion, philosophy isn't a dogmatic set of beliefs and, whilst religion often likes very concrete, definite answers, taken on faith alone, philosophy examines all claims and is more concerned with the process of inquiry itself. Unlike religion, logic - or reasoning - is a cornerstone of philosophy, as is a close examination of ethics, and the way we live. As Socrates said, an unexamined life is not worth living.

Oh I didn't mean the dogmatic nonsense of religion. I meant the putting theories to things. That's what religion is. "I don't understand why this is so... a god did it." Philosophy is much better about it, but a lot of times I hear these ideas and theories and just think, "What a load of rubbish, I'm going to get some cake."

But don't get me wrong. I actually think more on philosophy than I'd like. It's that sort of thing you feel is ridiculous, but you do it anyway. I wonder why, and how, and then wonder why I'm wondering why and then how my brain is capable of wondering why and I can't just accept things for as they are like the other animals.

I've got a split view on just about everything, and it causes both hilarity and frustration to ensue. It's like a bad sitcom inside my head.

"Oh I didn't mean the dogmatic nonsense of religion. I meant the putting theories to things. That's what religion is. "I don't understand why this is so... a god did it." Philosophy is much better about it, but a lot of times I hear these ideas and theories and just think, "What a load of rubbish, I'm going to get some cake.""

Religion and philosophy really aren't different ways of doing the same thing. Religion works to a dogmatic, self-serving purpose, whilst philosophy examines whether the reasoning behind a given thought or idea is actually valid, and isn't working to any one concrete answer. There's a *big* difference there. Also, philosophy and relgion do both work with theories, but of two very different kinds. Philosophy works with *genuine* theories; i.e. ones that can be worked through with logic, in the same way that scientific theories can be worked through using mathematics or logic, or empirical testing. So, philosophical theories are subject to rigorous scrutiny, and checking to see if the underlying reasoning is sound. Religion's 'theories', on the other hand, are only 'theories' in the sense of the word as used in common language - uneducated, unsubstantiated hunches. Religion's 'theories' certainly aren't open to the extensive scrutiny that *true* theories are, and are very narrow and blinkered as to what the 'answers' should be. I see nothing wrong with philosophy theorising about stuff, as it uses the *right* sort of theorising, and that's how we build up knowledge. Besides, in philosophy, as I've said, it's the process of inquiry that's the important thing - learn to practice philosophy propoerly, and you'll have excellent reasoning abilities. Philosophy and religion aren't really comparable, except, perhaps, in the *type* of ideas that can crop up in both. Other than that, direct comparisons between the two would, in most cases, be unfair.

^^
posting 'yeah' in a thread about this board needing inteliggent discussion.

I just one thing to say to that:

yup

doh! i misspelled 'intelligent' lol

i think i need some sleep