[Oblivion437]

Originally posted by Chewbacca: I changed my mind.

Shall we delete all our posts in the previous, nonsensical act of arguing over nothing? I should, it would save the forum some bandwidth.

I don't believe in invisible men in the sky. Prove that faith doesnt do a human mind good. Show me the money.

Faith can do good, bad and nothing. Like many things, there's a number of variables on how it's brought about in the person and then how it's applied that affect each situation. Like I said, faith in something bigger won't keep someone from raiding your house. We have historical examples of faith being a BAD thing. The middle ages being the most prolific and often quoted example. Then there's all those cult suicides and murders (like the Solar Temple) which were motivated by faith... Then there's all the good faith does like mission hospitals, instilling a sense of the societal in early man. However there's more bad, and then the good, and so on and so forth.

My dirty work? Hmmm. If some jackass gets his balls bit by one of the dogs, its not my fault. Being well trained means they won't randomly attack someone. If they follow their instinct to protect me, the lady, or the home, it's not like I put them up to it, now is it? And while my hypothetical attacker is busy with several hundred pounds of angry dog, I'm free to choose my course of action. Since the particular path of pacifistism I practice includes martial arts disipline, I know my hypothetical attacker will be far more scared than me, and that I have the advantage in self-control and expirience.

How does your dog, in principle at least, killing or seriously injure the attacker vary from you doing it yourself? You do understand that you're legally held responsible for the dog's behavior, right? Having an enforcer do the dirty work, that is, violently restraining him, freeing up your options so what you do is not in direct contravention of your morality, is highly hypocritical. I wish I could get a decent enforcer and have him do all the work. You also admit that you employ martial arts, defensive or no, it's resistance. Sorry man, you don't qualify for pacifism. Ghandi did, but you don't.

As far as false pretensde of higher morality, what makes you think I have those? Where did I say my morality was better or worst than anyone elses. Certainly any honest person's, pacifists or not, morality is better than a low-down murdering thief.

You have the pretense of thinking that you are, or were at some point a pacifist, when you in fact never were anything of the sort. You get to keep going on thinking you're better than everyone else who actually defended themselves through the force of arms, but you're not. No, a person's morality isn't always better than another's. At least the Low-down murdering thief's morals are intellectually consistent. Not so for most of the people they'll rob. Are they wrong, are they doing something that I too disagree with? Yes they are. Their morals are practically anti-moral. Read wiseguy for a picture perfect description of the sort of person I'm talking about. At least they're not going to play a morality card under hypocritical pretenses, like the Soccer moms do to their children, or children right back to their parents. That's something you learn growing up. You learn how to be hypocritical, how to lie and how to be decent for your own purposes. We learn all these things, but if our parents do right, the gaps are filled with the right reasons to do things.

Basicially your just slinging insluts where you can, particularly at anyone who doesn't see the world through the same narrow slit you do.

I'm not slinging insults. If I were, the banned words would have been in the post at least half a dozen times. I have this bad habit of slinging around obscenities when I get angry at someone. You haven't made me angry, I just wonder about your thinking. Also, I don't see the world through some narrow slit. I think in rather grand and panoramic terms about life, death and everything in between. As I sit here, I wonder if some other schmuck in the universe is doing the same thing I am, or if I could be spending my time better on studying something.

You don't know me and can only pretend to judge me.

Am I really judging you, or your arguments? Your point of contention was hypocritical. If I were judging you I would say something like,
"I damn thee sinner! I cast thee into hell for all eternity!" However I'm not one to believe in God and I'm also not one to cast such final judgement on others. I'm just peeling apart the arguments like oranges.

BTW How many armed attackers have you threatened, shot, or killed?

I happen to have the luxury of living in a rural community, where the varmints are the most dangerous things... Not many armed attacks for miles and miles. I happen to be quietly nonsocial, and I thusly can avoid those problems. I avoid a problem so I don't have to employ a solution, but I've already selected the one that suits me the most.