Are You Religious?

First topic message reminder :

I am agnostic. I feel you can never prove god.

doomjedi wrote: You probably meant Nature

We are all from nature

doomjedi wrote:Everything is changing...and evolving...Earth, humans...even rocks. This is a law.
Nothing will be the way it is forever.. You seem to talk about human nature. What is human nature?

Greed, envy, hatred ... change?
Love, friendship, kindness .. change?

doomjedi wrote:You can clearly see human progress by looking at the "Old Testament" vs. "New Testament"....or "New Testament" vs. a book like "Conversations with God"....we are clearly evolving and went a long way.

But the world has not become better. Sad but true. I think it is because life not change a people. But in this can see hope.

doomjedi wrote:..USA had a few bombs and hurried to use them on Japan....now much more countries have much more powerful bombs - and yet no massive wars. Now imagine Hitler or Stalin to have such bombs.

Nuclear bombs against Japan may have been revenge .. and here we must remember Pearl Harbor + show of force.
Hitler or Stalin? Most likely, too, began to throw "stones". By the way how many people died in the bombing of Dresden, 13 - February 15, 1945? This is not the question. No need to answer. It is better not to talk about politics.

doomjedi wrote:..Well, not too much victory at the end..

The saga (the plot of the film) repeated phrase - always two Sith. The two went to war against the Jedi crowd. This is the beginning of victory
.
Skipping further details ...
.
By the end of the film epic "Star Wars" killed all the Jedi. There is only one .. Is not this a victory?

But this is an one interpretation. In a good film is have two versions, or even three meanings.

Akuul wrote:
Greed, envy, hatred ... change?
Love, friendship, kindness .. change?

Hate doesn't change - we change.
We transform it within us to a more advanced versions of those.
All those emotions, (emotion - energy in motion), even the most negative ones - contain power, which we can use, to build and not to destroy, it's a distorted versions of love, love made limited, selectable. Energy is energy, and each has a evolutionary, psychological, physiological and social purpose we must be aware of, till it's replaced by a higher-level emotion/feeling that does the same with lesser cost. It's an inner conflict that is brought external, we can only hate things in others we hate in ourselves etc. It's 2 sides inside of you you must get aware of and create cooperation of, rather than conflict. Welcome to the world of Duality.

Especially when a person lives in "Here and Now" even the negative emotions become tools used shortly and in proportion, without "storage".
But overall emotions then become feelings when you stop blocking your feelings or fighting the emotions... Emotion is a blocked feeling (you didn't want to accept or allow to feel and express), bursting. It's like river versus a swamp.

But the world has not become better. Sad but true. I think it is because life not change a people. But in this can see hope.

What world do you see? Do you see and know all of the World? You think you know World just by listening to the "always negative" news, radio and newspapers?
Good doesn't sell.
Try to get to know the world personally, not though media filters....you might discover something else. It's not about the world, it's about us, focusing on the negative, loving the dramatic news etc, looking for drama in life to get out of boredom of so-called "good".
OR - you can read sites like this (like I do), one example of many such sites:

http://gooodnews.ru/

Suddenly you'll discover all different world, what happens on it that is really important and meaningful, different people....different news....those happened parallel to all those "negative" bunch of things the media was focusing on...
What we focus on - we make bigger and stronger....we increase it...

World has become better, in sooo many ways....overall there are more people with more levels of Enlightment, with more active chakras, with more love....sure there are many victims of modern media brainwash.....
You can't imagine the number of good deeds happening every day, even in your town, even on your street.
Yet the "media brainwash" are servicing the ones in Power...it wants to scare people of other people, of the street, of life...just like a health insurance sellers... and then we need the ones in Power to save and protect us...from "awful us"...otherwise - why we need them?
They want us to cry for help.... if the world isn't that scary - we won't support all those military expenses.... Also selecting a group of "public enemies" always get people not to think of the real reason for bad things in their lifes.....
Etc etc etc.....

The saga (the plot of the film) repeated phrase - always two Sith. The two went to war against the Jedi crowd. This is the beginning of victory

Yes, Sith are always two - (well, not always, after Jedi took over) Master and Apprentice... and what they did is indeed inpressive.
But you forget that BEFORE that was a big was of Jedi and Sith....in much bigger numbers from both sides...and Jedi won, putting surviving Sith underground.
But this is EU, I guess.
Anyway - it's hard to see the ending of the saga as the Victory of the Sith.

By the end of the film epic "Star Wars" killed all the Jedi. There is only one .. Is not this a victory?

How is that a victory? Sith seek power, this is the main purpose and goals of the Dark Side. And they lose all Power at the end, and all of the Sith.
Also Anakin created a new balance within himself of Dark and Light sides. Force has 2 sides...and Anakin prophecy was to bring balance to the Force.
He had to fall, come out and create a new Balance of Light and Dark side within himself.
When Jedi were in power, the Force was unbalanced, as only Light Side dominated....total rejection and lack of use for the Dark Side is what brough Jedi order to fall (as there is alot of power in the Dark Side), to the hands of the Sith...and the Force was unbalanced again, this why Sith fell.
Anakin is the first Jedi to have both sides within him, the first one to come out of the Dark Side to a new balance of those 2 sides of his nature, of the nature of the Force...every Jedi had those in, but unbalanced...they blocked the Dark Side...Anakin brought himself and the Force to balance, just like the prophecy, misunderstood by Yoda and the Jedi.
The overall message is there is not good or bad, there is Balance...

Akuul wrote:
Nuclear bombs against Japan may have been revenge .. and here we must remember Pearl Harbor + show of force.
Hitler or Stalin? Most likely, too, began to throw "stones". By the way how many people died in the bombing of Dresden, 13 - February 15, 1945? This is not the question. No need to answer. It is better not to talk about politics.

You both have so many topics discussed over the month that I couldn't possibly respond to all of them. So forgive me when I don't always respond.

Akuul wrote:By the way how many people died in the bombing of Dresden, 13 - February 15, 1945? This is not the question. No need to answer.

I hope that I'm not offending you if I ask if you have any family, relatives, or neighbors who fought in Dresden. Is there something that I'm not understanding from this conversation?

You're both from Russia. I'm kind of confused if you are grandsons who have had grandparents, other relatives, and neighbors oppressed by Hitler and Stalin.

You think that nuclear bombs against Japan were revenge? The atomic bomb would have ended the war months or years earlier and saved 100,000s or millions of lives. An American man who fought in the Korean War told me that Japan was so certain that they would win that they even began printing money for America. They thought that they would conquer America. He told me that Japan and Germany had an agreement where Japan would get the western United States for the lumber and Germany would get the eastern United States. Creepy!

I had a white, non-Japanese uncle. I called him my uncle, but he was my aunt's boyfriend of 8 or 9 years. He was a senior that died of cancer in about 2003. One of you mentioned Pearl Harbor and I think that he lived on the Hawaiian islands during Pearl Harbor.

The Hiroshima bomb (August 6, 1945) was uranium. The Nagasaki bomb (August 9, 1945) was plutonium. I thought that plutonium is more toxic than uranium and that's partly why Hiroshima was rebuilt. I think that Nagasaki might be radioactive for 10,000 to 16,000 years because I've heard that Chernobyl will be radioactive for 10,000 to 16,000 years. My aunt and uncle traveled the world. My uncle from Hawaii went to the Nagasaki remains in the 1960s. The bomb exploded in mid-air above a certain church. The heat partially melted down a bronze cross.

A block and a half from where I live there was a gigantic cannon on the front yard. I asked about it when I was little. A non-Japanese person named such-and-such used it to fight Hirohito. The cannon is no longer there. Maybe he moved, died, or went to a nursing home.

I think that Iran is developing nuclear weapons. The dictator apparently wants Shariah (Islamic Law) and no freedom of the press, speech, or religion. I was reading an issue of The American National Geographic about North Korea when Kim Jong-Ill was still alive. I would say that Kim Jong-Ill was another Hitler and National Geographic included that he has concentration camps and that 5 million Koreans died from hunger or concentration camps. Kim Jong-Ill had nuclear materials and wanted atomic bombs.

I have a bumper sticker joke for my American friends:
If you can read this, thank a teacher.
If you can read this - IN ENGLISH - thank a soldier.

stathmk wrote:
I hope that I'm not offending you if I ask if you have any family, relatives, or neighbors who fought in Dresden. Is there something that I'm not understanding from this conversation?

Well, both of my Grandfathers fought in WWII...but I don't know anything specific about Dresden. My Grandfather has Medal of Honour, medal for Warsaw, for taking Berlin, for Stalingrad......can post pics

You're both from Russia.

I'm actually from Ukraine, but yes - it's "former USSR" for you

I'm kind of confused if you are grandsons who have had grandparents, other relatives, and neighbors oppressed by Hitler and Stalin.

Donnow about Stalin...but many relatives were killed in the Holocaust, especially from father's side.
Still, this conversation is far from personal for me.

The atomic bomb would have ended the war months or years earlier and saved 100,000s or millions of lives.

Wars should be fought against soldiers, and not by weapons of "blind" mass destruction of civilian population, children and women....like in Japan.
The "price" is our morals, our ethics. So better longer war - but that focuses on soldiers only.
Also Ecology-wise - this makes large areas toxic and radioactive for a long time. So don't count only people killed directly from the blast.

doomjedi wrote:Well, both of my Grandfathers fought in WWII...but I don't know anything specific about Dresden. My Grandfather has Medal of Honour, medal for Warsaw, for taking Berlin, for Stalingrad......can post pics

Yes, I'd like to see pics of those medals.

doomjedi wrote:I'm actually from Ukraine, but yes - it's "former USSR" for you

Ukraine? I thought that you had a president, chancellor, or prime minister that somebody tried to assassinate by putting poison in his drink. He developed splotches on his face from it.

doomjedi wrote:Donnow about Stalin...but many relatives were killed in the Holocaust, especially from father's side.
Still, this conversation is far from personal for me.

I only personally know 3 people in Indiana who were in the concentration camps. My Dad knows somebody. My friend had aunts in the concentration camps. The Baltic Slobodon Milosevich and the North Korean Kim Jong Ill had concentration camps. Some people like Milosevich and the North Korean dictator are just evil.

doomjedi wrote:

stathmk wrote:The atomic bomb would have ended the war months or years earlier and saved 100,000s or millions of lives.

Wars should be fought against soldiers, and not by weapons of "blind" mass destruction of civilian population, children and women....like in Japan.
The "price" is our morals, our ethics. So better longer war - but that focuses on soldiers only.
Also Ecology-wise - this makes large areas toxic and radioactive for a long time. So don't count only people killed directly from the blast.

I thought that there was an atomic bomb testing treaty or resolution that nobody could test atomic bombs from 1993 or 1994 onward. There were atomic bomb tests in Nevada until 1992, I believe. I've heard that Britain used to do atomic bomb tests in the Australian outback. India and Pakistan did underground atomic bomb tests. Nobody should fight an atomic war over land because the atomic bomb would contaminate the land that they are fighting over.

I've heard that the peace sign originally was made in Britain as protests against atomic weapons.

If it makes you feel better, I've heard that 10% of the energy in America generated during Ronald Reagan's presidential years came from dismantled nuclear weapons sent to nuclear power plants. If it makes you feel better, the 3 nuclear power plant reactors disrupted from last years' Japanese earthquake are shut down to my understanding.

You're probably eating dinner in your time zone. Take your time to respond. Or you can forget to respond because I probably won't be offended.

stathmk wrote:Yes, I'd like to see pics of those medals.

Upper raw, from left to right: "For Defending of Stalingrad", "For Freeing Warsaw", "For Courage" (Russian "Medal of Honor", the most important medal of all), "For Taking Berlin".

Ukraine? I thought that you had a president, chancellor, or prime minister that somebody tried to assassinate by putting poison in his drink. He developed splotches on his face from it.

I don't live there for 22 years now, so...yes....but I wasn't there to see this happen. It was much more boring in my days

And this is just from one of the Grandpas.
The other had even higher medal "Alexander Nevski" medal - given for preparing operation that changed the course of war. This was given only to the highest ranking officials.

(pic from the internet, as I don't have it here with me)



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Order_of_Alexander_Nevsky

doomjedi wrote:Donnow about Stalin...

http://www.victimsofcommunism.org/

Thomas wrote:

doomjedi wrote:Donnow about Stalin...

http://www.victimsofcommunism.org/

Thomas, you clearly misunderstood me

Thanks for posting the medals. I might remember the name Alexander Nevsky for about 2 days because I’m not familiar with him and he’s less famous here. I had forgotten to mention that part of the reason why I was thinking about war is because today is Memorial Day in America. It’s in honor of troops that have died.

My Dad’s friend in Russia mailed us some former Soviet coins printed from before the fall of communism because they are now devalued and I’m a coin collector. I believe that the CCCP on the coins was Cyrillic for The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.

I’ve got about 14 things on my list of things to do that I need to get done this week. I might even have an interview for a second job. I’m going to a wedding on Saturday. If I don’t remember to respond to you quickly, I’m not intending to be mean.

stathmk wrote:Thanks for posting the medals.

You're welcome

I believe that the CCCP on the coins was Cyrillic for The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.

Yep

stathmk wrote:..if you have any family, relatives, or neighbors who fought in Dresden?

No

stathmk wrote:You think that nuclear bombs against Japan were revenge?

I wrote - Nuclear bombs against Japan may have been revenge .. and here we must remember Pearl Harbor + show of force.. show of force = demonstration of military force
The need for the nuclear bombing of Japan, a controversial issue. There have always been opponents and supporters of the operation.

stathmk wrote:I think that Iran is developing nuclear weapons.

About Iraq, saying that there are chemical weapons, but found nothing.
About Libya said that the country will democracy but today there is a civil war where one side of the Al-Qaeda gang.
But it's a long conversation ..

doomjedi wrote:Welcome to the world of Duality.

The duality of human nature, the subject of many books.
Have you made ​​a discovery?
Once again - the world has not changed, people have not changed.
Good and evil in the world so much as how much and in the past.
But it is in the best case. In the worst case we can take into account the modern wars.

doomjedi wrote:Try to get to know the world personally.. you can read sites like this (like I do), one example of many such sites: http://gooodnews.ru/

Web sites? Enough to communicate with people.
I talked with the artists, poets, collectors, engineers, ordinary workers and others. I've had conversations with Christians, Buddhists, Muslims, representatives Hare Krishna Movement and others.
Comparing experience with ancient books shows that the - the basic human desire to remain the same.
Of course there are other opinions. And someone may idealize the people, of the state.
In the past, too, were the people who dreamed of idealized future ... Thomas More, Tommaso Campanella, Francis Bacon, Louis-Sebastien Mercier and others .. Novels of Utopia good read before bedtime.

doomjedi wrote:But you forget that BEFORE ..

Read carefully - The saga (the plot of the film) repeated phrase - always two Sith.
That is, I spoken only about the film - Episode I, II, III, IV, V, VI
At the same time the word "always" means "always."

doomjedi wrote:How is that a victory? ..

You take your time as a Jedi .. carefully read the.. But this is an one interpretation. In a good film is have two versions, or even three meanings.

Akuul wrote:
Once again - the world has not changed, people have not changed.
Good and evil in the world so much as how much and in the past.

I don't see we'll get to a point of agreeing here.
The world is so big that with selective viewing you can find "proves" for any claim of human nature, from the best to the worse.
But my view is something close to "Power vs. Force" by David Hawkins.
It puts some numbers to this..."measurements" of "Good vs. Evil"....that claim different results.

doomjedi wrote:..I don't see we'll get to a point of agreeing here..

In most cases, really hard to find agreement. Although there are exceptions. In 2010, I wrote «if we talk about "Wolfenstein-3D" is me, so far, attracting mods with military-themed spy». But game "Batman vs. Bane" has changed my opinion.

P.S. That's how fast the time runs .. It seems only yesterday was but half years have passed ..

I'd glad to hear that mod of ours expanded your modding taste
It's all depends on how it's done really....there are crappy "spy themed" mods, and there are good Batman TC....so it's all about how much love you put into it.