Messages

Ooh, what a sex-appeal booster!

I imagine flying over a group of chicks with this one...

Neat!

And they can't tell you're looking down their shirts with binoculars!

http://www.skypup.net/index2.htm

Plans are still available for the Skypup.  If building it isn't your thing, (which it really wasn't mine,) you can get yourself one of those power chutes.  They're pretty costly, though, and that sucks.  But I've ridden in one, and they are sweet, with very little need for room to take off or land.  Best of all, no pilot's license required!  (For either Skypup or the power chute.)

Ever since I was a kid looking up at the fluffy summer clouds, I've wanted the ability of flight.  It's pretty intense when you're actually jealous of birds.

This evening, I lifted up off the earth and sailed over my house, my neighbors' houses, and over the surrounding landscape. 

As much as I wish I could say I just suddenly found this power of flight within myself spontaneously and out of wishful thinking, I can't.  Instead, I made this flight in the ultralight aircraft that I and my father built together about a year ago.  I had been doing practice hops along the runway at the airport and stuff, and this evening I was finally able to take off from home.  (Thanks to a big nearby field and a needed take-off distance of very little.)

So, anyway, there's no feeling like the feeling of the wind hitting you in the face as you're sailing above the ground in a personal flying machine. 

Here's a video on YouTube of what a Skypup (not ours) looks like: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIcAqU7Ry4Q&mode=related&search=

It rocks.  Seriously. 

What baffles me is... None of my full sisters or brothers have become like my father... the only person who is like him is the only sibling who has never even met him. Which makes me think that, perhaps we all had the potential to be exactly like my father... all the personality traits and everything... but because we experienced what a monster he was, we learned to be completely different... wait, does that make sense??

I think there really is something to that.  I know a brother and sister whose dad is very temperamental, (not physical, though,) and when he flies off the handle, he really flies off the handle.  A very short temper indeed, and yet, they are not like him at all.  (Okay, well the sister is somewhat.)  I've known them since we were all little kids, and they always seemed to have some understanding that behaving like they're dad just wasn't the way to be.  I think that is a case of the kids actually being more mature than the parent.  Their mother is also totally laid back, so that's a balancing influence.

One thing I know is that I'm hardly anything like my dad, and take after my mom a lot more in terms of personality, behavior, and a predisposition to anxiety.

A lot of that, like the disposition to anxiety, is genetic.  BUT, let's say I had been given to the wrong parents at birth or something... then I would still have the genetic tendency to worrying, but I might've learned different behavior to deal with it.  Though I wasn't switched at birth, (as it is quite obvious we're related,) my ways of dealing with anxiety are quite different than hers.  We've learned different behaviors due to different life events.

She was raised by an verbally and phsyically abusive father, and that certainly impacted her a lot from the earliest years.  I was raised in a very normal home, which was void of verbal or phsyical abuse.  My mom has had to struggle to overcome the way she was raised, and to not be like her parents, but she's managed very well.  And because I wasn't raised like she was, it's probably been easier for me to cope with stress than it was for her.

This is why I believe that just because we may be genetically predisposed to something, doesn't mean we are resigned to it.  We can train ourselves to change our behavior and responses to things, despite our environment.

Well, is that behavior hardwired genetically, or is it learned?

Vict0r, I'm not 14. I have a son who likes using these forums that sometimes posts. He made that 2010: World of Chaos game. He's 14 now, but was 13 when making that game. Just clearing that up for you.

Oh yes, I was doing voice work for that game.  How does your son feel about all these issues?

Which one of you actually created the account on this forum?  What is your interest in adventure games, have you made any? 

Just curious.   

Steel Drummer,

I have a question for you...


When Adam and Eve ate the apple, why did that automatically curse the entire human race with sin?  Why didn't the rest of us ever get a chance at the tree of knowledge of good and evil?  Why did God even put the tree there to begin with?  He knew that they'd sin.  That's sort of like entrapment, is it not?

This is what sealed it for me.  I decided for myself that, if God is real, and he is the way the Bible says he is, I want nothing to do with him.  If the mistakes of two humans is all it takes for him to curse the entire race to sin, I want nothing to do with him.

I thought the window scene was hilarious!  The way he gets up all relaxed and swings the shutters open, and there's a horde of people out there looking at him naked, and they don't even care!

The funniest scenes are, of course, Pilate talking about his friend Biggus Dickus, and the scene at the colloseum with the People's Front of Judea, where Eric Idle confesses he wants to have babies.  

"But you can't 'ave babies!"

"Don't you oppress me!"

"I'm not oppressing you Stan, you 'avn't got a womb!  Where's the fetus gonna gestate?  You gonna keep it in a box?!"

LOL  

I'm sure many, many folks around here have seen this hilarious gem of a film.  With all the banter going back and fourth about religion and god lately, I was reminded of it.

For anybody who hasn't seen it but has been in on the recent debates of god and religion, I HIGHLY recommend this 1979 film.  If you have an open mind, it really shows why many ex-Christians and skeptics feel the way they do about religion.  If anything, the Life of Brian shows many of the absurdities of organized religion, and the people who follow it without thinking.

I first heard about the film from my dad.  He explained that he "tried to watch it," but it was just too blasphemous and sacreligous.  He called it, "a mockery of the life of Christ."

Now, I wasn't sure where he was coming from when I finally saw it for the first time a few weeks ago.   Jesus appears only in one scene, and the rest of the movie is about a man born in the stable NEXT to Jesus, who is mistaken for the messiah. 

I don't see how it's a "mockery" of Christ.  But then again, he's a fundamentalist Christian, and exhibited a knee-jerk reaction to the film.

Anyway, I'm not making this thread to be yet another continuation of the ongoing religion/god/sexuality debate.  I want to only talk about the movie here.  Anybody else seen it? 

While we're at it, everybody check out the Skeptics Annotated Bible, if you haven't already:  http://skepticsannotatedbible.com/

I personally don't care how the universe came to be, and I think that if there is a God, then he doesn't really care about us praising him overly (because if he wanted praise, you'd think that he'd make a few announcements, don't you?).
So in conclusion, i think that the unvierse was caused by something, and to all you OTT creationists:
who says God couldn't cause Big Bang and/or evolution?
and it is said that the big bang was caused by the collision of two elements. where did THEY come from?

Well if there was a God, he wouldn't waste His time flaunting His power by showing that He exists. It's kind of like CJ. He's just... there

Well, SORT of like CJ.  CJ has a better disposition, and I really, really mean that.  I mean, God is all "worship me and be my friend," (since when do your friends want you to WORSHIP them?  Friendships should be equal.)  And then, if you don't worship him and be his "friend," then he damns you to Hell, and treats you like crap before you get there.

I'm just going to ignore Meowster and Andail's posts.

That resolve probably won't last too long...

I'm really surprised, to be honest, that this debate could survive so long and be so strong that it actually crossed two threads.  A crossover hit!

"Disgustingly perverted" brain?  A little harsh, don't you think?

Penn and Teller are so awesome.  I love Bullshit!  (The show, not the actual thing.)

I thought that episode about infant circumcision was very well done, and I agree wholeheartedly.

Yes, nice, keep feeding the troll. The troll will tell you what his dad thinks. Discuss with a bigotted idiot by proxy, it's great.

I have no problem with gays getting married at all. What else would you like to know, Tuomas?

I would like to know why you posted this with such an attitude while I hoped we could keep this polite and really benefit from all this, everyone of us.

I did this in hopes of helping the thread keep on the much more interesting original topic than having it become 'discuss with Yodaman's dad' again.

I don't get the 'yodaman's dad' references going around...   

On topic:  I really don't get the whole gay controversy thing.  I couldn't possibly care less about whether or not somebody is attracted to males or females, what they do behind close doors, or if they wanna get married.  Aren't there more important issues for our governments to deal with?

Oh dear.  It's happening all over again.

I remember one time a long time ago when I was basically saying all the same things Steel Drummer is saying now when somebody made a thread about a Leisure Suit Larry style game with homosexuality as the main theme.

I was saying terrible things that I regret now.  

Well, that's how I've grown, but not how you have to grow.  Mainly, I'm just saying that you need to learn to learn a little more about the other side before you jump into debates on the internet.

So, anyway, on with the upbringing stories.

(Which means we shouldn't discuss our religious differences here anymore.  I don't need/want a god, bible and savior.  I'm happy with my life as a whole.  I respect your beliefs and rights to have them, and I'm sorry if I ever sounded like I was condeming your beliefs.)

The best way to get this to move on, Steel Drummer, is to take the advice that was given to your several pages back to stop posting in this thread regarding others' arguments until you've done the research and grown a little bit.   

Thanks you two, I hope we hear more stories instead of trying to pick apart the feces of a child for the duration of this thread.

Well put!


There are times when I resent the way I was raised in a church and with the teachings that we're right, they're wrong.  But I think it has ultimately done me some good in teaching me to think for myself and take control.

I can't help but feel that my atheism has drawn lines in the sand between me and everybody I know.  (Except for a few who think like I do.)  Nobody really shuns me, but I know that they view me differently now, as not one of them, and as somebody who is in desperate need of saving.  

And what must they think of my dreams to move to California and be a film score composer!  Such worldy evils!

All in all, I'm in kind of a scary place where I'm going to be own my own sooner than later, and I'm leaving behind everything I was taught that was for my own safety and happiness, as in being told that if I'm ever scared or confused I should just talk to Jesus and he'll guide me through whatever is going on.  Now I actually have to work things out logically in my head instead of breathing prayers.  It's all good, though.  

Steel Drummer,

I know exactly how you feel right now.  You're totally surrounded here by people who don't share your views, and you're trying to defend what you believe is the absolute truth.  (Note the word "believe")

We all have different beliefs.  The difference between you and me is that I don't think you're fundamentally wrong for what you BELIEVE and that you're going to go to some place of eternal punishment and damnation.

I remember trying to "witness" to people on these boards back when I still believed in God and Jesus, and all it did was stir up debate, which is not always a bad thing.  Though I know it upset me far more than it upset anybody else, because I was a fundamentalist Christian, and fundamentalists Christians are put into position, by the very nature of their religion, where it's all or nothing.  I would encourage anybody who has an all or nothing attitude towards ANY idea, philosophy, religion, whatever, to think it through really objectively, and see if there's any holes in the logic anywhere.

I was raised to think independently about everything else EXCEPT religion.  I knew HOW to think for myself, I just never dared to apply that same logic and power of mind to my religion, because it was where I had staked everything, including "eternal life."

I was very defensive because I was afraid of finding those holes, and finding that I was wrong.  But now, I can admit that I was wrong, and I've grown as a person because of it.  (Note:  I said that I was wrong, not you.)

And I could very well be wrong now.  Because we cannot prove the existence of God, a creator, or intelligent life beyond us.  Nor can we disprove it, so I say, to each his own.