JensenZ

Let's try it your way: Everybody knows that in difficult times, more people turn to religion. That's an invariable fact. I'm surprised you didn't know that.

You should have a baseline comparison of the not super-smart general population to show that the increase in atheists is related to intelligence or not. You're suggesting that atheist = super-smart. The survey will probably mimmick the general population, making it a worthless comparison. You might want to conduct an IQ test of all the people in the survey to determine their smartness.

You're doing it again. "as everybody knows", to add to your previous "it's a well-known fact" and "invariably"...and another new one "but of course, we know their true position". Talk about arrogance. Speak for yourself and not for me and everyone else, please. Just because you think it does not make it a universal truth. Also, neither do your limited surveys that you presented here. Surveys or polls can be biased to prove a desired point of view. No, everybody doesn't know. There is a huge difference between an atheist and an agnostic. An atheist has made up their mind - there is no God - they are certain. An agnostic doesn't know if there is one or not and it cannot be proven either way. They are in doubt.

I don't suppose you considered the survey dates, did you? 1914 - the start of WW1 1933 - Great depression, the rise of Hitler, Persecution of the Jews started in 1933. Usually religion takes a back seat when the world political scene is more settled. That's when arrogant scientists start kicking religion to the curb. In fact, if you surveyed the general population, you'll likely get very similar numbers. Perhaps you could find a survey of the general population to compare results.

Well, Einstein considered himself Agnostic, meaning, as you explained, he didn't know, but was rather annoyed when people labelled him incorrectly as atheist... However, the OP has been rather antagnostic to non-atheists, and that is the problem. He is suggesting that smart people cannot be religious, and taking it further, that only smart people are atheists. Apart from that, he is making false statements and suggesting they are fact. When proven wrong, he ignores the evidence.

Your personal opinion is duly noted. I don't need a personal opinion on this because the list of famous scientists who were Christians is long and many were responsible for ground breaking scientific discoveries. In fact if you scrubbed some names off the list, we probably wouldn't be sitting in our homes using computers.

You could help out and mention which banks don't require insurance payments, because many banks in Pattaya do, and all the ones I've been to. (Bangkok & Kasikorn). Personally I don't think 2500 baht for some insurance is a big problem and shopping around to save it would be a waste of time... but for the people who don't want to pay it, help them out.

The purpose of my reply was to prove that you are wrong in saying that all scientists are atheists and provided a very long list of Christian scientists over many centuries including scientists still living. You said, (quote): "It is a well known fact that ALL scientists are atheists". In this debate it is irrelevant what the scientist you are quoting has to say about religion as I will gladly concede that many scientists are indeed atheists. Anyway, let's hear what one of the greatest scientific minds of the 20th century had to say about God and religion: For Einstein, "science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind."[44][45] He told William Hermanns in an interview that "God is a mystery. But a comprehensible mystery. I have nothing but awe when I observe the laws of nature. There are not laws without a lawgiver, but how does this lawgiver look?... Einstein devised a theology for the cosmic religion, wherein the rational discovery of the secrets of nature is a religious act.[45] His religion and his philosophy were integral parts of the same package as his scientific discoveries.[45] Einstein stated, "I am not an Atheist."[9] According to Prince Hubertus, Einstein said, "In view of such harmony in the cosmos which I, with my limited human mind, am able to recognize, there are yet people who say there is no God. But what really makes me angry is that they quote me for the support of such views."[27] Accordingly a religious person is devout in the sense that he has no doubt of the significance of those super-personal objects and goals which neither require nor are capable of rational foundation ... In this sense religion is the age-old endeavor of mankind to become clearly and completely conscious of these values and goals and constantly to strengthen and extend their effect. If one conceives of religion and science according to these definitions then a conflict between them appears impossible. For science can only ascertain what is, but not what should be...[38] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_and_philosophical_views_of_Albert_Einstein#:~:text=Einstein said people can call,god is a childlike one.

"a well known fact". "Almost INVARIABLY". Who told you this? You have been mislead by some dishonest atheists. They want you believe this, but it's nonsense. You can't prove something just by calling it a "well known fact" and not backing it up. It's easier to prove you wrong than you proving yourself right because... The list of religious scientists is long. Have a read of this long list of famous and/or well known Christian scientists. It's well researched with 463 references, so that should keep you busy for awhile. We are fortunate to have people to do exhaustive research on this to dispell the stereotype of all scientists being atheists. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Christians_in_science_and_technology This list only covers Christian scientists. If you we include other religions, the list would grow much longer.

This is not true at all at the branches I visited. The requirements were that we had a non-O visa and needed to pay the insurance. There was no suggestion that the insurance payment was a deal-sweetener. It was quite simple - pay it, open an account. Don't pay it - no account. The K-Bank was the main branch near the Jomtien Immigration office.

As I said, it was not optional, and that was at 2 different banks.

There is a compulsory insurance requirement. My (foreign) wife had to pay insurance when opening K-Bank accounts several years ago. An Aussie friend had to pay this in Pattaya last week. It was not an optional payment, for incentive. It was requested as necessary to open the accounts.

4,700 baht to open a Bangkok Bank account for over 65-years of age. 500 will be your deposit, 3,500 for compulsory insurance and 700 for the Debit card. Don't pay more than this because some agents charge more. For under 65, it's 1000 baht less as insurance will be 2500 baht.

I did an extension this month without a TM30. I assume they accepted my TM28 which is still stapled in the back of my passport. All I'm doing is relaying my own personal experience and not suggesting what people should or should not do. There was already a major clampdown on TM30s more than a few years ago (probably about 4-5 years ago) - it caused quite a stir on this forum. TM30 became a household name.

Retirement Extension/Jomtien. You can't extend out of country.

I've never had a completed TM30 form after more than 17 years in Thailand. When I last moved I submitted a TM28 form (change of address - I believe these forms no longer exist) which is still stapled in my passport from 6 years ago. No one has ever asked for one.

Perhaps true for street law, but the actual law makes no distinctions. The problem is finding an honest Thai lawyer who is willing to represent you in court. It's a slow and expensive process, but that's probably the case in most countries.

Is that not a photo of the actual protest today?

Yes, there is a reason. The Loft is a much better deal. But you can't draw conclusions of general rental prices available in Cozy Beach based on a single comparison. We're coming out of covid lockdowns that lasted years. Pattaya went dark for 2 years. The rental market has not yet recovered. What you paid over the last 13 years of little comparitive signficance.

Moving is simple. Getting a deposit back, usually 2 months rent, can be impossible. If you leave before your contract is up, they can keep your deposit. If a landlord keeps your deposit, there's nothing you can do. This is why I'm very careful who I rent from and avoid Thai landlords. It's also why I prefer renting from established real estate companies that handle the deposits and all the paperwork. If it was my problem, I would go to immigration, fill out the form, and when submitting it, tell the immigration officer that my landlord won't give me her ID and that you've asked her many times. That makes you the good guy as you're trying to follow the rules.

Yet, if you don't drink in bar, 400 baht is 8 litres of plain milk with change - a bigger deal.

It's good to know they have at least one fanboy on here. Maybe you're the volunteer I used to see working with the cops issuing tickets to foreigners. I believe he was German. They don't regularly patrol - that's nonsense. They focus on a few areas and you won't see police anywhere else. They DO need a new strategy.

I've been with CAT (now NT) for over 10 years. I've had fiber since they first rolled it out. I've never been offered an upgrade, despite at times my speed being well below the standard new subscriber speeds on offer. I've always had to go and ask (demand). I actually set up a calendar reminder to review their latest packages every 3 months just to keep up with what is being offered.

It's not all about speed. The part that most don't understand is the contention ratio of the service, ie. how many people are sharing the bandwidth. All the cheap packages from all the ISPs have a high contention ratio, so they can tend to be unreliable and vary in speed a lot. It really depends on what your neighbours are doing, so there's some luck involved. I have an old CAT (before the joined with TOT) business package, that has a lower contention ratio, but I'm only getting 1000/500. My beef with them is they don't look after their older customers and you have to demand more speed when you see what they offer new subscribers or you'll stay on the slower speeds forever. They like to dazzle new subsribers with cheap high speed packages that aren't usually as good as they look. Now that I see the cheap subscribers are getting 1000/1000, I'll have to go and demand more speed.

This gets old. At the detection of some crime, they crackdown, then when they stop cracking down, the crime starts up again. Why can't they just plan a year round crime prevention stategy instead of this ridiculous on and off again policing.