This is one I've incited arguments with (mostly women):
Would you rather win a $100 million lottery and never fall in love or fall in love and be poor?
The cliche answer is always "fall in love and be poor" because choosing the money is shallow/selfish. However, I say that answer is distustingly selfish itself. Think of how many thousands of lives you could improve with the $100 million. Think about the childrens centers you could help develop, the hungry you could feed, the shelter you could provide, etc. etc. etc. Parents, grandparents, other family members living paycheck to paychek? Not anymore they aren't. The local family that can't afford to pay for their kid's surgery? You can change that. But, nah......screw all of that because choosing the money is shallow. :whistling:
Quote:This is one I've incited arguments with (mostly women):
Would you rather win a $100 million lottery and never fall in love or fall in love and be poor?
The cliche answer is always "fall in love and be poor" because choosing the money is shallow/selfish. However, I say that answer is distustingly selfish itself. Think of how many thousands of lives you could improve with the $100 million. Think about the childrens centers you could help develop, the hungry you could feed, the shelter you could provide, etc. etc. etc. Parents, grandparents, other family members living paycheck to paychek? Not anymore they aren't. The local family that can't afford to pay for their kid's surgery? You can change that. But, nah......screw all of that because choosing the money is shallow. :whistling:
Love is fleeting, but an annuity lasts forever!
I have a good one:
What is "War"?
Quote:This is one I've incited arguments with (mostly women):
Would you rather win a $100 million lottery and never fall in love or fall in love and be poor?
The cliche answer is always "fall in love and be poor" because choosing the money is shallow/selfish. However, I say that answer is distustingly selfish itself. Think of how many thousands of lives you could improve with the $100 million. Think about the childrens centers you could help develop, the hungry you could feed, the shelter you could provide, etc. etc. etc. Parents, grandparents, other family members living paycheck to paychek? Not anymore they aren't. The local family that can't afford to pay for their kid's surgery? You can change that. But, nah......screw all of that because choosing the money is shallow. :whistling:
Once again, it depends on a person's values.
I fell in love and married my spouse a few decades ago. Together we went from being "poor" to the middle class, raised 3 children and now have one grandchild. I don't believe that I would ever trade that life experience for money.
Your assumption assumes that a person acquiring sudden wealth would be charitable and do great things with his/her sudden fortune. They would "give" and "solve problems and struggles" of those close to them. What if said person decides to blow money on extravagant vacations, buys a yacht and simply "parties" his/her fortune away? Or what if they used funds to start a business that ends up turning into an "evil" corporation that earns them yet, more money?
A lot of people dream of "hitting the lotto", but yet so many that actually "win" it end up right back where they were.
I don't have to worry about it since I very rarely buy lottery tickets. In more times than not, a lottery "winner" ends up being more of a "loser".
Quote:I have a good one:
What is "War"?
A pretty good band from the '70's.
Quote:A pretty good band from the '70's.
More importantly, what is it good for?
Quote:This is one I've incited arguments with (mostly women):
Would you rather win a $100 million lottery and never fall in love or fall in love and be poor?
The cliche answer is always "fall in love and be poor" because choosing the money is shallow/selfish. However, I say that answer is distustingly selfish itself. Think of how many thousands of lives you could improve with the $100 million. Think about the childrens centers you could help develop, the hungry you could feed, the shelter you could provide, etc. etc. etc. Parents, grandparents, other family members living paycheck to paychek? Not anymore they aren't. The local family that can't afford to pay for their kid's surgery? You can change that. But, nah......screw all of that because choosing the money is shallow. :whistling:
Take the money. If you never fall in love, you won't know what you're missing anyway.
Quote:Take the money. If you never fall in love, you won't know what you're missing anyway.
Money can't buy happiness, but I'd rather cry in my Bentley.
Quote:Say it again!
Yeah!
Bum Bum Bum
Bum Bum
BLATTTTTTTTTTTTT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Here's an interesting question that I have been pondering.
Is there anything that happens without a cause? Is anything literally spontaneous? Is everything that happens caused by something that happened before? Like billiard balls on a billiard table. Action, reaction. Ad infinitum. One thing causes another.
Now, assume your answer is, nothing happens that wasn't caused by something else. What does this say about free will? It says that free will is an illusion.
Causal Determinism
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/determinism-causal/
"Causal determinism is, roughly speaking, the idea that every event is necessitated by antecedent events and conditions together with the laws of nature. The idea is ancient, but first became subject to clarification and mathematical analysis in the eighteenth century. Determinism is deeply connected with our understanding of the physical sciences and their explanatory ambitions, on the one hand, and with our views about human free action on the other. In both of these general areas there is no agreement over whether determinism is true (or even whether it can be known true or false), and what the import for human agency would be in either case."
Here's another definition from the same article:
"Causal determinism: The
world is
governed by (or is
under the sway of) determinism if and only if, given a specified
way things are at a time t, the way things go
thereafter is fixed as a matter of
natural law."
So the underlying question is, if you believe in causal determinism, that everything that happens has a cause, is a person truly responsible for his or her own actions? If everything you do is caused by a combination of your own experience, your genetics, and your environment, then you cannot be blamed for your own mistakes and you cannot be given credit for your achievements. It was all determined at the time of the big bang. It's predestined.
Please discuss.
Quote:Please discuss.
Sure, right after I recover all the pieces of my blown mind.
Quote:Here's an interesting question that I have been pondering.
Is there anything that happens without a cause? Is anything literally spontaneous? Is everything that happens caused by something that happened before? Like billiard balls on a billiard table. Action, reaction. Ad infinitum. One thing causes another.
Now, assume your answer is, nothing happens that wasn't caused by something else. What does this say about free will? It says that free will is an illusion.
Causal Determinism
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/determinism-causal/
"Causal determinism is, roughly speaking, the idea that every event is necessitated by antecedent events and conditions together with the laws of nature. The idea is ancient, but first became subject to clarification and mathematical analysis in the eighteenth century. Determinism is deeply connected with our understanding of the physical sciences and their explanatory ambitions, on the one hand, and with our views about human free action on the other. In both of these general areas there is no agreement over whether determinism is true (or even whether it can be known true or false), and what the import for human agency would be in either case."
Here's another definition from the same article:
"Causal determinism: The world is governed by (or is under the sway of) determinism if and only if, given a specified way things are at a time t, the way things go thereafter is fixed as a matter of natural law."
So the underlying question is, if you believe in causal determinism, that everything that happens has a cause, is a person truly responsible for his or her own actions? If everything you do is caused by a combination of your own experience, your genetics, and your environment, then you cannot be blamed for your own mistakes and you cannot be given credit for your achievements. It was all determined at the time of the big bang. It's predestined.
Please discuss.
I have no idea what that was all about, so I don't know if I'm going totally off track - but one of my pet peeves is the saying: "everything happens for a reason". Who says? Why can't events be random?
As to your last part: are we getting into Calvinism, and are we allowed to go there?
I don't believe in predetermined dates or destineys. We make our own future in the way we react and handle each situation good or bad. In the end we all get what we deserve.
My take on The Real Marty's post is that it doesn't matter. To us, there is no difference between the two things. Say time was just another dimension. That means time is part of a matter and that there is no "before" or "after" because time exists at all at once. We will never see the world from that perspective. We don't even see 3 dimensions, we just figure out the third one exists. Predetermined is the same thing as "free will". If you thought about something, is this really "free will"? Or should you really be thinking about where that thought came from?
"Better to have lived as a Coward or to have died a Hero?".
I like that question. It's complicated and then again, it's not so much as complicated. It just depends on what you personally define each meaning to be and just how much stock you personally have invested in the world around you. Could I call a man a coward if he chose not to sacrifice himself because he had a family and children to take care of instead? And his single most important purpose in life is to assure he lives as long as possible to see that very same family he created live as long and as prosperous?
And as far as the person dying as a Hero. Again, back to the definition. Sometimes men or women can take one for the team or sacrifice themselves for the greater of good for more lives to live. However, what's more involved there? Were they grief stricken? Were they full of guilt? Had they let others before this particular situation arise die before because they refused to make that choice? Would their life truly matter in the long term and grand scheme of things? Do they have no one to love or love them in return? No family to care for or to live long enough to see grow and prosper?
It's all up to the individual and the definition of what you feel is tagged to being a Coward and being a Hero.
For me, personally, it would be strictly circumstantial and situational at best. Would I stick my neck out in a dire situation to save a few people? I don't know. I've never been placed in that type of situation. And it's easier said than done. And visce versa, would I buckle and fold under pressure? Tuck tail and run? I don't know.
Quote:Huh? I see 3 dimensions.
Unless you are super human, you don't really "see" 3 dimensions. If you really saw 3 dimensions you could see in front of everything and behind everything all at once. But just like a camera lens, we take 3 dimensional space and project it to a 2 dimensional plane. Then we take that information to determine depth. This is why we have two eyes (that detect two separate 2 dimensional images) and a brain. This is why it's possible for someone who loses sight in one eye to lose his depth perception.
A creature that fully saw 3 dimensions might believe he was moving within 4 dimensional space or higher. Just like in the movie Interstellar, at one point the main character is floating around in what I believe was 5 dimensional space. But, even so, it's still projected onto a 2 dimensional screen, and we are seeing 2 dimensions all the same.
Quote:I have a good one:
What is "War"?
"What is War?"
Depending on which side you're on, or, not on in most cases. It's a unique situation, a decree, an excuse or justification to storm the lands of a country you've deemed an enemy to your own. It's an excuse or justified reason to kill millions of people whether purposely or by accident. As the centuries have turned, it's grown further more complex than that. People have killed eachother over land, slavery, race, religion, and rights. Some people believe their is an evil force or group of people that have rigged the table on a global scale and dictate any side they want to see rise or fall with just a few small meetings and decisions made at a table somewhere.
For me, personally. It's a shame. Yet it's in our nature for us to destroy eachother over various reasons. It's a sad part of life that must be accepted. Preferrably at a young age. You can go back to ancient cultures all over our World. Doesn't matter if you're looking at the Ancient Mayans, Aztecs, and Incans of South America. Doesn't matter if you're looking at the ridiculous amounts of small wars and rebellions throughout the centuries in Europe and Asia. The territorial battles and guerilla warfare in modern South America and Africa. It just doesn't end. Even in our Country. In it's young history compared to the rest of the Countries in our World. We've seen and been involved in a pleothra of Wars.
It's just in our genetics to destroy eachother. Whether you believe God created mankind or Sciene and Biology allowed mankind to come into play overtime gradually. Whatever reason or belief. The creator of our genetics didn't seem to think it was a bad idea to leave that strain of violence, greed, and anger in our genetic make-up. For me, growing up. And at the age of 27. I've viewed "War" in three simple sentences now.
It's nothing but a bunch of old men talking and young men dying. A fight in which nobody truly wins and everybody loses a bit more of their own personal humanity. And something, or someone, is benefiting financially on an astronomical scale before, during, and post war activities.