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Old 10-06-2005, 12:40 AM
MaxPower MaxPower is offline
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Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: The Land of Chocolate
Posts: 1,323
Default Re: I\'ve been Thinking

[ QUOTE ]
Pusuit of Freedom - Defined by the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Life, Liberty, Pursuit of Happiness. Happiness being defined by the individual and the pursuit thereof give equal protection provided it does not infringe on the rights of others to pursue their brand of happiness.

Is that sufficient nonsense?

Now, I can understand your point about the dangerous road. I agree it is a dangerous road. I can see why someone would be loathe to travel that road, knowing that human history is litered with corpses created by those who have. But, this may be a necessary road, one that is forced on us.

The danger is that if we do not take it, we may be incapable of action in the face of a threat to our very existance.

X

[/ QUOTE ]

If I wanted to find out what defines a human being, I might ask a biologist. I don't think think the yearning for freedom will the differentiating feature of our species. I think the onus is on you to prove that it is. There seems to be many examples in our own culture of people who are very willing to curb their own freedom in order to be safer or to satisfy some religious goal.

Here is one example of where I think you are going wrong. There are Asian cultures where collective goals take precedence over individual goals. Surely individual freedoms are often given up when collective goals are pursued. Since individual freedom isn't their primary desire, would you say that the Japanese are sub-human?

If you were fighting a war against them, it would be conveinent for us to lie to ourselves and consider them sub-human. That makes it a lot easier to kill them.

When you try to define what it means to be human, you come up with an answer that proves that you embody the human spirit and that Muslims are sub-human. What a suprise! Its good thing you didn't come up with something that proved that you were the sub-human. I have reason to be skeptical of any belief system that proves that we are superior, especially when we come up with that belief system ourselves.

You can't possibly be objective when trying to answer this question. Since you haven't lived in every culture, you can't possibly understand the universal desires of human beings.

You have come up with a very self-serving belief system, that very conveniently justifies any actions we might take against muslims.

I am all in favor of killing and defeating anyone who would bring harm to the US or threaten our security, but I don't have to presume that I am superior to justify it. My justification is this - it is us or them, I want us to win out of pure self interest. Even if I presumed that my enemy is morally superior to me, I still want to be the winner.
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