OT: New time zones?

We're poor because we won't buy their gas.

Oh dear, look at the cost of petrol and food and electricity and gas.

Allodoxaphobia snipped-for-privacy@example.net wrote

There is no god, just an endless variety of crutches for pathetically inadequate 'minds'

Whether or not God exists, it doesn't seem to ever DO anything (believers' delusions don't count).

Why do you capitalise someone you know doesn't exist? I always write god, since it is not a name of a person and therefore not a proper noun, just a description, like "car".

That's what surprises me about believers. Millions die of disease and all they can say is he works in mysterious ways. If he did exist, he certainly isn't worthy of worship. Anyway Stephen Fry puts it better than me:

Yes, once I could record everything more easily than setting a timer on a VCR, spooling a tape to the right place, and setting another timer on the satellite box, I did that too.

Only seems to be a real problem for the weird folk who watch sport. "Partick Thistle lost" immediately gives you.... bad example, they always lose.

You don't understand bigot. That implies I only don't care for people different to me.

I'm simply saying caring for 7 billion people is outwith the realms of common sense. You need to pick a handful to look after.

It must make you cry every time you watch the news and one person you never heard of dies.

"god" is a common noun like you described. "God" is a proper noun, a specific being (even one that's just in someone's imagination). Capitalizing Harry Potter doesn't make him real either. I responded that way because the text I was responding to seemed directed toward a specific entity (so capitalization was correct).

Right. I've always considered the NEED for worship to be a personality defect.

This belief seems to be a childhood infection that gets to people early and limits intellectual development. I didn't have a very good childhood, but at least I was protected from THAT.

Thanks for the link. I'm going to watch this.

Then there was "VCR PLus+", which claimed to make it easier. It made it harder. Once set up it would replace some simple, meaningful numbers (channel, start time, end time) with a long apparently meaningless number (and long meaningless numbers are hard to remember).

Harry Potter is a character in a book, he is therefore real in the story. But believers think god actually exists. He does not, therefore he is not a proper noun. However there is such a thing as "a god", someone who exerts great power. It's more appropriate to say "god" because it's a fictitious being that followers believe in and worship and fight for. God does not exist, but the belief of a god does.

Remember when you were 6 and there were things like monsters under the bed, the tooth fairy, santa claus? Reality was too difficult to understand so you invented things. Believers never got past that stage.

You don't have to be protected, I know plenty folk with very religious upbringings who saw right through the bullshit and never believed a word. It's a matter of your own intelligence.

It sums up all that is wrong with religion.

We in the UK called it "VideoPlus+", I never liked there being two pluses. It's like PIN number. It was very easy, you type in a 10 digit number from the magazine instead of having to type in the start and the end and the channel. Less to type in, no mistakes. And why would you want to remember it? If you transfer money to my bank, would you rather I gave you my name, my bank's address, all sort of details? Or just the account number?

With some it is more that they don't like the idea that there is no purpose to life, that when you die, that's it. Hard do claim that that is a personality defect.

That doesn't explain those that start to believe in some god later.

In what sense ?

I didn't either. There are a lot of things like that, including "AC current".

You don't remember things long enough to enter them on the remote?

Explain "AC voltage".

Yes, with no difficulty at all. Remembering 10 digits is easier than the start time, end time, and channel.

Nope, dope, just less effort to enter.

When you had to enter the channel number, date and time manually there was a good chance that you would get the date wrong, especially if the programme started at midnight or just after, or the time wrong when converting from the 12 to 24 hour clock. A single number is easier - in the UK it was *up to* 9 digits for 5 minute intervals; fewer at peak times I think. If you got the number wrong it would either be invalid or give values which were obviously wrong.

The conversion algorithm was encoded into the VideoPlus chip, which, perhaps surprisingly, was kept mostly secret. Apparently it was only hacked in the US where programmes start on 30 minute intervals.

There are stories about God too. Mostly not very good stories.

OK. The definition of "God" is too incoherent to refer to any real thing.

I never believed in those things. I did have an imaginary friend once, but never thought he had any existence in the outside world.

I remember reading about the stages of moral development. Believers get stuck in the middle stage (essentially giving in to bullies, whether real or not) rather than the real thing.

I used to think that my (lack of belief in God) was all intellectual. Maybe I was strong enough that way. It didn't hurt that my parents weren't pushy about religion.

My first contact (as far as I remember) with religion was at the age of

1. I wasn't worried about it then, since it was years before I got the idea that anyone could take it seriously. I didn't have any problem recognizing fantasy.

BTW, I did misunderstand one of their strange words. AT age 8, I had a dream about living in a "holy" place (in a cave), and was afraid to move since I could fall in one of those holes.

What does this have to do with WORSHIP?

Does this actually happen?

The infection protects itself by blocking your ability to notice it. You don't try to get well because yo don't know you're sick.

I find it much easier to remember things that are familiar and meaningful.

One particular TV show might be on at:

If instead you look at the code number:

Which doesn't obviously tell you anything about the show (the info. must be there, just encoded in a non-obvious way). THAT is not memorable.

BTW, when I picked that example, I tried to find something suitable for both American and British situations.