₦airaland Forum

And that's disappointing how? The pyramids were an aside, a mere example in a post that argues that progress is more 'cyclical' than linear. That they haven't solved the pyramid puzzle only buttresses the fact that generations past weren't comprised of dummies who couldn't tell the difference between scientific puzzles and the supernatural, and that modern man is not 'smarter' than they merely because he's the most recent in the progression.

Scientists are still unable to determine how life started on earth.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/16/science/16orig.html?pagewanted=1&em

LOL!
Hater. Leaver her alone. Shebi she is adopting. You'd rather the boy rot in some establishment orphanage where he's merely processed and not loved, abi?
Agbaya.

Madonna's finally allowed to adopt a second child from Malawi. Higher court overturned the judgement of the lower court that denied her her child. The woman started a charity, Raising Mlawi, that feeds and educates some of the country's over one million orphans. Her first Malawi baby's already grown and looks so cute.

"Is there a world of spirit behind matter?"
I'm reading the Isaac Heysinger article. Fascinating.

Online links about pyramids? I read the explanations in a book months ago, or was it a documentary? I think it's a book. It went on about aquaducts and how this swelled and how the cement went this way, and how this and that constricted. I couldn't digest the technical details but I thought, So they've unravelled this thing?Took them long enough. But perhaps it's the author's own conjecture presented as 'fact'. Some silly writers sometimes do that.Look it up online, If they have unravelled it, it'll definitely be there.

jagunlabi:
The supernatural is a phenomenon that we humans have no understanding of at the moment.But the minute we have a good understanding of such a phenomenon or event,it becomes either science or technology.
And since our understanding of the world around us is getting broader and broader by the hour,it is only a matter of time before what used to be a supernatural event becomes a mere event with a scientific explanation.

List a few things that people viewed as supernatural 100-200 years ago, that have now been labelled 'science' or 'technology'.Scientific puzzles are just that, the supernatural is another, and I don't think anyone can confuse the two. Scientists are still trying to figure out how the brain works; they want to figure out the whys of of planets with frozen subterreanean oceans,they want to conduct stem cell research, they want to clone extinct species like the Tasmanian tiger, given the laws of physics dolphins should not be able to engage in the aquabatics they perform, but they do, and  scientists don't know why: But not many people confuse scientific puzzles and unknown natural phenomena with the supernatural.

Even thousands of years ago, many people did not. In modern times there are the ignorant and those who are not. It was so in antiquity as well. People tend to think civiliztions get 'smarter' as they progress or something, that 'progress' is as linear as time, when it is no such thing. Every epoch had its scientific breakthroughs and its geniuses, and none is 'greater' or 'better' than the other. Egyptians built pyramids that took centuries for modern scientists to unravel; I think they just did so recently. Thinkers like Aristotle and Plato are still unmatched in modern times for clarity and genius, and all modern science is built on the foundations earlier epochs laid down. You know the difference between scientific puzzles and the supernatural. Most people, down history, have had little trouble telling the difference.     

toneyb=topic=280962.msg4032470#msg4032470 date=1245087372:
What evidence do we have for any of these particular propositions?

You are perfectly right in wanting proof, you are absolutely justified to want evidence for belief. It is only fair; what God would demand something so patently unreasonable as belief in him without proof? Believe in what, thin air? Other people's say-so? No one can ask that of anyone. You will find virtually no one in the Bible who believed in God without any evidence that He existed: If they were not interacting directly with Him they were witnesses to his power, or they were wielding that power on his behalf.
If we have a brain and faculties for reasoning it is meant to be used. You cannot be blamed for using yours, for wanting proof.

The problem is, you want other people to give you this proof.
Let's say a man lives in the desert near an oasis, like his father and his father before him, so the desert is all he knows. Suppose strangers were to visit his village, and tell him there is something called an 'ocean'. They describe it as a body of water bigger than the entire desert. You're not stupid. You're naturally incredulous. Such a thing sounds impossible,becuase you've never seen it. You ask for proof. They can only describe what they have experienced of the ocean, but to you, those are just words, because you don't share their brain and their memories and you don't inhabit their life; so you cannot know what they have seen of the ocean, however hard they describe it to you. So you decide, there is no ocean.It's too fantastic.They have to be making it up.And yet these tales pour in, from people who have experienced the ocean.

Are you justified in not believing, because you haven't seen the ocean?Yes. Does the ocean exist, whether you belive it does or not? YES. Should you disregard the claims of those who have seen it, thousand and thousands of people?Perhaps, but it would be wiser not to.

So what should you do?
Tony, when you say you're sad or happy or hungry,another human being can appreciate what you say, mentally, but can they feel what you feel, can they experience that joy or hunger or sadness with you?NO. You're an individual, and you alone inhabit your life and you alone feel your feelings. All we know is what you say. But if I were to feel hungry or sad, then I would know what you're talking about; the words you've been saying, 'hungry', 'sad', would become real to me too.

What should you do, living in the desert, with people describing an ocean, people you do not share a brain with, and so whose experiences, the proof that you want, cannot be shared?
           
You get up, and you go and look for for youself, Tony. You take a trip, and you point your own eyeballs at that ocean.

You are right in wanting proof.
But you are directing your inquiries at the wrong agency.
It is not up to anyone to prove the existence of God to you.
It is up to you to seek the truth for yourself, and it is up to God to prove his own existence to you. He says He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. I have found this to be true.It is up to you to ask God to prove to you, incontrovertibly, that he exists, and to 'seek' or bother him tirelessly until he does. When he does reveal himself; and you know for a fact he is living, you'll know how unreasonable a request it is when someone scoffingly asks you to prove that he exists.

JeSoul:
Yeah that's right nuthin escapes the watchful eye of Max. Talking 'bout the original? did you see TS?

I meant the original. It was sublime. I see 2 to 3 movies a week, and there are so many, so I haven't seen TS. This week it's Angels and Demons, and Push starring the delicious Djmon Hounsou and Dakota Fanning.

iice:
[color=#9900ff]The steward of Gondor (Boromir and Faramir's dad) [/color]

Why am I not surprised? Knew you had every line and every face in that movie memorized you LOTR freak.

Japan, China, Australia, India. Why no reports of UFO sightings in Africa? One can't argue backwoods technology; that they have been observed but merely haven't been communicated to the world. Africa may not patent much,technologically, but we do import. And we do have a vibrant media. Why aren't sightings reported in Africa and other places veddy veddy third world,I wonder? People have eyeballs there too.

Interesting articles and reports. I was asking if you think there's life elsewhere in the universe, and why you think so. If you do, do you find the thought incompatible with Christian doctrine, which is silent on the subject? The Bible appears to mention only that which has direct commerce with Israel or Israelites. It doesn't say other sentient beings weren't created by God.

I've been reading a little on the subject, from Carl Sagan's optimistic enthusiasm for SETI to the FERMI paradox, as well as a host of reasons why intelligent life may exist elsewhere but remain undetectable by us: we may be too far apart in space and time,we haven't been searching long enough to find anything;  space probes and radio transmissions were only invented in the 20th century, an impossibly insignificant amount of time on a cosmological scale, they may not want to be detected; time after time when two civilizations meet, problems ensue as one seeks to dominate the other, they may not be a technologically-advanced civilization; they may be far too alien for us to interact with or understand in any way and vice versa, etc.

Some people think they're 'already among us', but do not want to be detected. Precious little evidence for that.       

Pastor AIO:
I meant to say that there are Other intelligent species on earth. They don't necessarily have to be extra terrestrial.

I don't get your meaning. 

I don't mean the humanoid or reptilian 'aliens' of popular culture. I mean intelligent life in places other than earth, in whatever form.

They are. Some have been explained, some are famous hoaxes, but some are genuine,unexplainable mysteries. And you can't dissociate UFOs from aliens. 80% of Americans believe there are aliens, and that there's some sort of Govt cover-up or something.

It's possible. But if they were describing flying saucers and alien abduction, shouldn't others soon 'get' what they were talking about? Shouldn't there be reports from other places, whatever the moniker employed? "Flying saucer spotted in Burma", "African village residents report flashing lights in the sky" "Oba in AIO's village abducted by aliens". But I haven't heard of locals in other places describing UFOs. Besides, what are they?

Mechanical baby pacifier? Lol. I meant to say metaphysical baby pacifier.

We're using a 100% of our brain? Really? It isn't just Barry Gordon's opinion? Thank you for that.
What do you think about UFOs though? Maybe I'm taking this in another direction, but what are they? And why, lol, are they a uniquely European and American phenomenon? You'd think they'd show up everywhere, instead of places where belief in them is prevalent.

Yeh. Walter Bishop gets on my nerves. And his son should be something more than someone who hovers in the background and makes faces when Walter makes a faux pas. You know 'Walter' was in LOTR, right? Place his face and role in LOTR. He was good too.

Saw Terminator. James Cameron directing, his wife Linda Hamilton as Sarah Connor, and baaaad Arnie as T101. Man, this thing is 25 years old? It's the best of the franchise by far. Great score.Terminator 3 I can never watch with a straight face. Electric storm rages and a female killing machine appears from a war-ravaged future with perfect hair, flawless make-up and kick-ass red lipstick. Her hair stylist from the future didn't forget tp add highlights to her hair too. Terminator 1st is perfect jare.

Saw Phoebe Buffay ( Lisa Kudrow) in a movie with Val Kilmer. Some biopic of a legendary porn star.She played his ex-wife. Hair dyed brunnette and using the f word a lot.

Watching FRINGE on DVD. Haven't time to rearrange my schedule around Network serials and can't keep recording, so I just wait till the season's over and get the DVD. First couple of episodes were fine. Several episodes boring; merely sensational shlock that didn't add a thing to the plot. It went on in this vein for a while and I got fed up. But it picks up from the middle, where the guy teleports from prison, where the manuscript comes into play, and now I see where the story's headed and I'm hooked. PHYSICS! The physical universe, parallel universes, mind over matter, virtual reality; I'm drooling with pleasure. J.J Abrams knows what works for me.

Walter Bishop gets on my nerves though. And his son and the FBI agent aren't interesting yet.

Lol
Thou art crazy, man.

The brain's involved in the 'supernatural', of course. It might be 'extrasensory', but it still has to be processed by the biological being undergoing the experience. I still don't get how we 'evolved' a brain we use only 10% of. Why didn't the human species evolve just the percentage it uses? If it isn't using a whopping 90% why did that part 'evolve' into being along with the brain parts we do use?

There isn't really a supernatural; there are merely poorly understood relationships. There are parts of the brain somehow equipped to interact with and deal with the 'spiritual' and 'otherworldly'. Something the brain parts controlling eyesight, hearing, taste, smell etc can't really do, because it's not its function. If we were functioning at 100% brain capacity, the 'supernatural' would be completely natural, the senses that interact with it fully understood.

But just because we don't understand how parts of the brain work doesn't mean those brain parts aren't working, can't be stimulated by drugs or 'something else', or that we aren't using them, unaware. I doubt the part of the brain that's stimulated when a New Age adept like Shirley Maclaine separates her spirit from her body is the part that is stimulated when she's looking at something or drinking beer. It's not the part that is stimulated when a Christian is communicating with God and receiving visual information in return. So complaing you can't discern the spiritual empirically is as absurd as complaing you can't see with your tongue. Different functions, different stimulus.

While reading accounts of thousands of people worldwide who have experienced clinical death, it's impossible to not notice their memories of this world are fully iintact when they're in the other world. One has to wonder: since they have left their physical bodies behind, including the brain, what's the repository for their knowledge and memories? Does the spirit have a brain that is fused with our biological brains? I have read accounts of people who described how 'they' stood to one side in hospital emergency rooms, unseen, and watched doctors battle to save their lives. They all reported a complete lack of concern for the body or world they had left behind, and no desire to return to it. We know this only in the cases where the doctors actually succeed in restoring life, of course.

Nothing 'supernatural' about the spiritual. It's just poorly understood.

iice:
[color=#9900ff]Don't worry you will be interested in that material when confirmation on the directors are completed Depp and Burton are a match made in hollywood [/color]

Yeah. Depp described working with Burton as 'coming home'. Still. Depp as a vampire. A dark, intense, smouldering creature with knowing eyes and perfect hair sinking his teeth in flesh and sucking blood. DEPP. How are you going to withstand the sensory overload,the rush, the gigiantic,unnatural,undiluted, otherworldly pleasure Depp as a vampire will dump in your system? Will you survive that movie?

ThiefOfHearts:
I just hope I like it cos frankly Im over Holocaust theme movies

I know, right? Enough already.It's not like they were the only people Hitler-rized during WWII. The Soviets lost twenty million people, a tenth of its population, to that war, and they're not shoving the thing down our throats decades later. But you know, America controls the world's media and knows how to use it. Take Sept 11. It was a horrible thing, but come on; far, far worse has happened in other countries and is still happening, with casualties running into hundreds of thousands. But the American media succeeded in making Sep 11 the world's tragedy and not merely the American one it really is.

Sci fi/dark fantasy/adult erotica? You sef.

Seriously though, I didn't hear a thing about the Depp vampire movie. Not a single thing. Is it for real? I'm intrigued.

ThiefOfHearts:
Inglorious isnt out til August. only limited festivals are showing it

Are. Universal is releasing the thing to US theatres on August 21st, but it's had its World Premierre at Cannes and you'd be amazed at how many people have already seen it, how 'available' it is. Generating great buzz.

ThiefOfHearts:
although Maam you are just like them by using "Xtianity" and not "Christianity"

Abbreviation is now a sin?How very Catholic of you.

iice:
[color=#9900ff]You know there's a movie in the works where Johnny plays dracula? I don't know what will happen to me then

Depp as Dracula? Your wildest and most improbable dream coming true? You're done for.

I'm afraid I'm set in my ways and have been reading only the comics I grew up with: Batman, Legion of Superheroes, Green Lantern, Blue Devil, Teen Titans, etc. What are Heavy Metal comics?

You actually think that argument of yours makes sense? There are so many absurdities therein I don't even know how to begin to answer you.I'm tempted to call you a slowpoke again.
But I really shouldn't have done so the first time, and I'm sorry for that. You're entitled to your opinion, of course, as ridiculous as your stance is.

You and this Transformers 2 eh. Not so much mad about the True Blood theme as disgusted and weary of Hollywood's hollow dark side.

Yeah, Basterds is showing and already generating lotsa buzz. Brad Pitt's the lead, so, yay! But you know QT; it'll likely be a bloodfest. I gagged at the violence in Sin City and Kill Bill and still couldn't peel myself away, they were so good. QT does not know how to disappoint, so I'm doing a delayed gratification thing with Basterds.

And I suggested I care more about Saudi women than their own flesh and blood,where?

The world is flat now,silly. It's shrunk and more tightly hewn,and no country is truly 'sovereign' anymore; what each does reverberates and affects others in the short and long run. Given that some states in your own country have declared they owe greater allegiance to the Saudi Arabia govt than to Nigeria, I think you should be more circumspect about dismissing what happens there, hiding a 'they brought it on themselves' vengefulness behind 'reason'. Besides, it's a country's people that are sovereign,I think,and not its govt officials. And yes, the West can be cunning,and it's chilvary can sometimes be guided more by self-interest than anything else-why should it be any other way?- but at least they try. One evil does not another justify.

Not the theme song, for crying out loud; the theme visuals.
Of course you like. Don't imagine anyone here thinks you're human for a second, you bloodthirsty savage.
In your case, E.T did not phone home.

The post about children abused in Ireland is meant to do what?This isn't a 'my religion is better than yours' dispute;this is about the very real horrors women and children face under Islamic religious laws. Something that extends to your own backyard, as I hear some Nigerian governor has ordered the girls in non-Muslim schools in his state to start wearing veils. The Catholic church has a notorious child abuse record and seems to attract paedophiles and some very cruel people. But that makes the cruelties inherent in the practice of Sharia all right in what way?

And to the moronic, vengeful ass who recommends the world stay out if it and let 'them' do as they please with those women and girls, afterall it is 'their' religion; like any individual or group has the right to impose their religious beliefs on another, more power to your imbecilic elbow.I suppose you conducted a poll and found those women signed up to be stoned to death, hung or bartered to men old enough to be their grandfathers. You don't need to be a muslim woman to relate with those women, to realise they feel and think and eat and have the same thoughts you do; all you have to be is a human being. You stick your fat ass in front of a computer and dismiss a woman's looming death with a few keystrokes; that's the extent of your courage. If conditions were reversed and it were you or your sister facing needless death, you'd sing a different tune.
Asshole.

Has anyone seen Inglorious Basterds?

True Blood. True crap. Hated the theme.Disturbing. What does black Southern Baptist church practices got to do with vampirism? When's Hollywood going to stop demonizing Xtianity, stamping associations with scripture-crooning psychopaths and other things dark and damp and evil, on people's psyche?

While I liked the idea of vampires seeking integration and acceptance into mainstream American society, the series is hollow and juvenile, full of gratuitous sex and violence. I could only stand 20 minutes or so, so I don't know if it gets better.Don't care. I'd rather just stick with Dexter.

RIP David Carradine.

ThiefOfHearts:
Im not a fairweather lover
well when it comes to bale anyway

Bale wrapper. 

Oh I don't know. The vampire thing put me off - so juvenile- till I heard Alan Ball wrote it, and he's a pretty good writer. I just got its season 1 on DVD and will squeeze it between the good stuff, like Dexter, I'm pointing my eyeballs at.

vescucci:
The International is really one of the films I tried my darnest to watch. I wanted to see Julia Roberts in a 'serious' role and I couldn't get past the fifteen minutes of Clive's rubbish acting.

You might be mixing The International, Clive Owen and Naomi Watts, with Duplicity, Clive Owen and Julia Roberts.

@JS
Both are just so-so fare.I saw both because I like Owen, but much better movies are available.

na2day?:
it is funny how when it comes to asking for love naija women always claim old fashion but cooking they tell u they are 21st century girls. times have changed girl, a guy will use u whether he asked u 1st or u did. ur respect in a relationship is not built on the approach or request but what happens there after, how u conduct urself, boundaries u set. she will remain there until another sharp warri/ph/lagos girl will show up and steal his heart right from under her nose

You think asking a guy out in England is the same thing as asking a guy out in Naija,abi? You think the liberal attitudes in such countries have leached into all the countries iof the world? Nigerian attitudes towards stuff like that have remained pretty much the same. 'How liberal they are about dating depends on how much they've been exposed to Western attitudes, if they'd gotten educated or lived there. If the couple were neighbours in Soho I'd give her different advice. But they're not. You're importing a liberalism that only pretends to exist in Nigeria there. Still I don't know the guy personally and she does. If she can get away with it, tell him why not. But I wouldn't advise it. The reverse psychology thing might be a good idea. She still doesn't tell him outright and so avoids getting egg on her face. Even our European counterparts mostly don't just go blabbing their feelings to guys, but are often reasonably sure of success before they try,and if the guy isn't emotionally available to them they often say nothing at all. And those are in countries where a lot of the men have some emotional integrity.

I forgot to add
It's my Life- No Doubt
Secrets- Madonna

Ten is too small na. You shoulda make it top twenty jor.

One understands why anyone who's fallen victim or lost someone to robber's bullets would want them to burn burn burn. But the poeple who rush to set someone ablaze don't pretend they're interested in combating crime. It;s all about the thrill. How many armed robbers do unarmed Nigerians catch and burn? The jungle justice victims are usually unarmed, and are attacked and burned when someone shouts thief! No fact-finding is done to determine his guilt or innocence. Look at the earlier post about the guy who was simply buying a refill card and wanted his change. He was almost murdered, with no one asking him a thing; his guilt taken for granted. We all heard about the eleven year old boy burned to death in Lagos by a mob. I heard of a woman, a teacher, who was burned to death over a false alarm, the false alarm evident after she'd been burned to cinders. No fact finding; just grab and burn. They have no right to take people;s lives that way. It's beyond inhuman. No amount of guilty robbers burned can make up for one child or a single innocent human being burned alive. Perpertrators should be arrested and tried for murder. Let them prove how they knew the person they murdered was guilty, in court.

This might be a silly question, but does that mean regular police get pulled out of Lagos State?And the State Police won't be patterned after that hugely inefficient,backwoods failure of a police force? In what ways will his state police be different from regular police, monikers apart?