thaibeachlovers

Perhaps I'm missing out on something because I give no thought whatsoever to people like Hawkings that may be geniuses in their field, but make no difference to my life in any way, shape or form. I have enough going on in my head without such as him and Nietzsche inhabiting it as well. I may well be, but I got by for over 70 years not knowing and I guess I'll get by whatever number of years I have left not knowing as well. Sorry if that is disappointing to you, but my heroes did things like winning the Battle of Britain, or exploring Antarctica, and my authors wrote things like Lord of the Rings, or Sherlock Holmes. BTW I suspect I'm not the only one on the planet that thinks like me on that either. So, to answer your question, I don't think anything about them at all as sources of information, though I do feel sorry for Hawkings being afflicted like that. That's because I'm familiar with such situations on a personal level. I spent a fraught day looking after an unfortunate man in a similar situation. Not something to wish on anyone. Of Nietzsche, I know nothing beyond the name.

That's the problem with religion which doesn't have much in common with the God I believe in. They tell people that they have a book which they can use to communicate with God and get God to help them, as long as they believe in that book, which IMO is a nonsense. God created the universe, and God doesn't need a book to communicate with anyone. Want to find God, just look inside yourself. Don't need men in funny hats to act as an intermediary. Want to live a good life, listen to your conscience. Don't need a book to tell what is right or wrong.

Can you, in anyway, logic or reasons, justify the oppression, collective punishment, illegal settlements, settler violence against the legal land owners, incarceration without trial for years, violence against Palestinian prisoners, and many other crimes against humanity that Palestinians have been subject to by israelis for decades? Can you, in anyway, logic or reasons, justify blowing up over 7,000 children that took no part in October 7? Can you, in anyway, logic or reasons, justify the many crimes against humanity taking place in Gaza by israelis against Palestinians? Depriving a population of food, shelter and medical supplies is a crime against humanity, and bombing hospitals or schools and killing medical staff and journalists are crimes against humanity. One can understand a fight for a "just cause" but to dehumanise and degrade millions of Palestinians out of revenge and hatred?...

You could very well be correct, but lets not ignore the pot boilers going on in Africa, and a few other ignored situations as well ( israeli oppression of the Palestinians was mainly ignored before October 7 ).

He's hardly going to agree that he's committing genocide, is he? IMO the idea that Hamas, whatever it wants to do, is capable of killing all israelis, is a nonsense, and should not be given any credence at all by any rational person. IMO it's just an excuse they trot out to justify blowing thousands of children to bits.

Probably takes years of experience on an advanced aircraft to become proficient and I doubt they have years left. Wonder if they also trained up all the tech support to maintain the planes. That's storemen, mechanics, fitters, avionics, communications, air frame, weapons, defense systems etc etc etc. They also need a whole heap of spares- they won't be finding the right part down at Jim's reconditioned plane spares shop. Wonder if they need specific US missiles to fit, or will ex soviet missiles do the job with a bit of hammering in the right spot? I hope they ain't going to put Ukrainian badges on US support personnel and send them to Ukraine.

Makes me wonder if they got orders from on high to get sports people, or they are just <deleted>s? I wonder how many seriously rich people, the 1%, get targeted, or are they too special to be investigated? We know they pay people to keep them from paying their fair share What sort of person wants to do a job where people hate them? Beats me.

Great discussion, but I have things to do and I haven't been doing them because I've been on here, so it's good night from me.

I'll have to bow to your superior knowledge. As said I never read a word he wrote. All I know is that some people think he knows stuff.

The one typing this.

Likewise, though Sanders of the River was my real hero, not forgetting Alan Quartermain of course.

The one I live in.

That's not going to change. We are an awful species IMO. The things we are capable of are just evil. Even I was capable of going to Vietnam and killing boys that just wanted to drive out an invader, and I was on my way when our part in it ended. It wasn't till much later I realised just how evil war is. Thanks anyway, but I'll have to struggle on without any hearts.

Indeed. He had the "it" factor in spades. I still have a publicity picture of him and Andress on the beach after she walks out of the sea dressed in "that" bikini in Dr No, and his raw sexuality jumps off the page ( and I don't like men in that way at all- so it's impressive that I can feel it ). The movie itself was rubbish, but he made Bond famous. Those that came after are but pale shadows of his greatness.

He's still touring. I thought he'd gone to join the band in the sky already so I was surprised when they advertised his new tour.

It's always a disappointment to meet our heroes. No one can measure up to imagination. There's a porn star or two that I'd like to "meet", but they probably don't actually do in real life what they are paid loadsacash to do on a movie set. If one looks into how a porn movie is made it's nothing like the end result.

no confirmed and proven detection. That's just not true. I've dozens if not hundreds of examples that God exists, but one has to be open to the evidence. If one starts from a conviction that God doesn't exist, one isn't going to see the evidence as such.

I actually believe that everything can be explained objectively. Science can't prove anything subjective today eg the existence of God, not because God doesn't exist but because science is currently too primitive to be able to do so. In other words, our science is pants and expecting it to prove or disprove God is a nonsense- it's just not capable of doing so. In about a million years it might be able to, but it's unlikely to be by human scientists- we are well on the path to extinction already, IMO.

Some of us KNOW that God exists. The problem for those that don't is that there is no way to disprove God. God being subjective means that no scientific evidence exists, at least for the crude and primitive science that currently exists, which might prove or disprove God's existence. It's perhaps easier to prove that the devil exists- one only has to look into the blackness of some people's souls to know that evil is real, ergo the devil is real, at least in my opinion, and if the devil exists, ergo God exists. It's puzzling to me that so many are adamant that God does not exist. What is it, that makes them so anti? Did they dislike Sunday School, did they have nuns or monks for teachers? Believing in a creator doesn't harm anyone unless they want to be bad, and fear hell. While religion has indeed been and is used for evil purposes, that's on people, not God.

I've always been intrigued at why people have such reverence for people that wrote a book, as though the book was important, when surely it is the ideas that the book contain that are of importance? Isn't that why people think the Bible is important because they think it was written by God itself, and not by mere men. Personally I have no respect for any of the great authors, not because they were wrong, but because I never read them, and their ideas have no part of my life. IMO if what they wrote was actually important to me I'd know about what they wrote. When I was at school my reading was Lord of the Rings and Rider Haggard, not some esoteric tome by some scholar. Later I graduated to The Executioner ( excellent thriller series ), and Dune etc. I'm not putting anyone down for reading that sort of book, but I just never had any incentive to do so. I guess I was always a doer and not a reader. Now of course, the curse of the screen leaves little time for reading and if I do, it's going to be a Reacher thriller, not Nietzsche.

It's just a book. Was WW2 started by Hitler's book, or by bad people? The men in funny hats that run religion are just using it to control people.

Starting with Adam and Eve as their children must have committed incest to propogate the species and the reason for the ban on incest is that it makes defective babies. However that might explain why humans are such a defective species. Noah saved the animals 2 by 2- same thing, and when they landed didn't his sons marry the locals that apparently survived without an ark? Bible is chocka with such tales , which is why to me it's just another history book at best and fables at worst

Reminds me of the time I was on a military exercise and an M113 ( armoured personnel carrier ) loaded with pyrotechnics caught fire. Made a real mess of the interior, the engine was destroyed and the surrounding grass caught fire and melted the track wheels. The reason it caught fire- the grass had caught fire and they were driving the vehicle over the grass to put it out ( that works if the vehicle is not full of explosives ). It might not have been a problem except the commander forgot about the cam nets hanging down the side that caught fire and took the flames right inside the vehicle through the open hatch. Some mothers do have them!

an idiot that litters.

My Thai wife owned her car, but I never allowed her to drive with me in the car in town, she was so bad I was seriously terrified when she drove in traffic- once was once too many times. I only allowed her to drive on empty rural roads late at night when returning from the village. She bought one with a manual box, but kept trying to put it into reverse instead of 5th.