₦airaland Forum

anton:
[SNIP]
Bet. (I just know you guys watch BET)(heck, you too nferyn)

Actually Anton, I don't. We don't have BET over here in Belgium (and nowhere in Europe, as far as I know). The cultural imperialism of the good old US of A does not reach that far (yet)
The fact that you think I do could be an indication of how American your point of view is (even though you'd probably hate to admit it)

goodguy:
@kismat, why waste your time looking for faults which aren't even there? Face your religion and let's face ours. The most important thing is that we serve God in truth and in spirit.

goodguy, you make my day here (and I'm not joking), a Christian that does not need to go proselitising, live and let live. Maybe the world is really becoming a better place

I was there when my son was born. The most intense moment in my life. The joy you feel when you can wash your baby for the first time
Unfortunately, I couldn't be there for my daughter as my wife underwent a section.

I would advise all men to be there if at all possible.

cushman:
Real men don't cry.real men don't ask for directions

Real men do cry, but they certainly don't ask for directions. An excellent sense of spatial navigation is about the only attribute where we're far superior to women that evolution left us men. Let us practice that wonderful ability

@ mingiix
You could start with pointing out the flaws in the definition of when life starts. From that definition, we could identify whether or not that is a good indicator on whether or not an abortion is justified. Are you of the position that when life starts, terminating it is unacceptable in all cases, or does that only apply to human life? If so, how do you define human life and where do you draw boundaries on what kind of human life should be protected?

You have not substantiated anything yet, only stated an opinion.
I cannot see the relevancy of your comment about methamorphosis of the house-fly to the discussion at hand, what's the point of this comment?
Concerning the ability to feel pain, that is only an indicator of sentience, not a defining characteristic. The lack of neural pathways that can process pain most definitely is.

If you say

Most abortions are criminal albeit socially acceptable

then you need to do more than make that statement to have it carry any weight. Why exactly is that so?

When you say

from the above you see that humans change laws to suit their own selfish reasons. Howver, true morals never change.

you are again not substantiating your statement. A historical reference to some outdated standards proves very little. Frenology and racial eugenics used to be [i]respectable [/i]sciences as well. Hell, even today Freud is widely praised by a substantial number of psycho therapists.

I really don't understand how you can say that true morals never change. What is the origin of morality? What makes some morals true and others not? Why don't they change, what is their source? And what selfish reasons are you talking about here?

And one thing else. References to your medical background do not impress me at all. They are just an appeal to authority. I will definitely listen and respect the knowledge you bring regarding medical subjects, but that does not give you the authority to use your status as expert on domains your are not an expert in (unless of course you substantiate your expertise). You are yet to show that your statements show any expertise regarding ethics or the socio-economical context regarding abortion.

Definitely Lord of The Rings. You should read the book too, way better than the films.

If you think [i]enlightened [/i]countries even exist, think again. You've got nutcases everywhere.

@ Kenya
I don't think you can extrapollate a specific practice of the predominantly white existing power structure in the US and assume it eurocentric, i.e. coming from European cultural practices. There is quite a large difference in cultural values between the US and Europe and even within Europe, the differences on how the relationship between parents and children should be is quite big.


I personally - and I hope I'm not offending anyone too much here - consider the dominant culture of the US as a sort of ugly immature stepchild of European culture. The lack of historical perspective (which can go very far), the sense of uniqueness and mental isolation, the insensitivity to people and cultures with another frame of reference and the inability to reflect on its ugly past and learn lessons from it is offensive to me.

Now I'm certainly not saying that all is well and dandy here in Europe, but the cultural climate over here has matured considerable, especially after the trauma of WW2 and the establishment of the EU. Unfortunately this climate is only prevalent in the reasonably well off, educated parts of the population. A majority of the population is too much occupied with day to day living/survival to even bother with these kind of things.

What I find quite peculiar is that extremist right wing talking heads are much more mainstream in the US than in Europe. We don't have our versions of Coulter, Robertson and the like.

Hope I didn't derail this thread too much.

Actually, most history (especially national history) here in Europe is very much propaganda (the victor gets to write history), although that is slowly starting to change. If you do not have a specific interest in history (and especially African history), you won't learn very much of the underlying social struggles peoples around the world had to face. Faces, names, dates and battles, lots of battles, that's what you get
Even internal history of the different European peoples is conveniently forgotten under the normalising blanket of the nation-state. Diversity was lost and everything got streamlined under the different national banners.

Anyway, because of the colonisation of Africa by European nations, the general level of understanding of African affairs may very well be a little higher (although that doesn't mean that it goes very much beyond the fact that Africa is not a country). The ignorance about what the colonisation actually meant is still very high. This is a chapter in their history book most European nations would rather forget, or at least minimise.

On the other hand, the awareness of the nature of their past oppression by European nations among many Africans (even the educated) is not always there either. When I see a documentary on Congo and some people there are asking the Belgians to come back, I get shivers down my spine.

Not in Belgium. Licences from Ghana, Togo & Benin are accepted though. The only advantage is that you won't have to pass a theoretical test anymore, only a (partial) practical test .

I like too many styles of music to mention. Rock, Pop, R&B, Funk, Reggae, Jazz, classical, ...

A few noteworthy artists:

Prince: nothing beats his balads (e.g. Another Lonely Christmas)
Zap Mama: a capella Congolese/Belgian, especially their first album Adventures in Afropea - was a big inspiration to Erykah Badu
Youssou N'Dour (wicked drums)
La Mystère des Voix Bulgares (a capella Bulgarian Ethnic Choir)
Miles Davis (Kind of Blue, Sketches of Spain - nothing has ever touched me deeper emotionally)
Beyoncé (kind of OK, but one song has got a really infectious groove: Work it Out)
Buena Vista Social Club
Kate Bush

prettyH:
What nonsense emotion? If you're interested in talking bout scientists and all that ..please be free to continue. I ain't interested in all that crap. Said what i want to, to whom i want to. The floor is open for u to talk bout all these science trash because it seems to be of great interest to u.

So please feel free..the thread is yours.

Says it all, doesn't it

Kenya:
My apologies if I stated spanking as abuse because i do not see it that way. That would be a very eurocentric way of doing things.
I think spanking becomes necessary and each parent has to decide when and how spanking takes place within their homes.

Why would this be eurocentric?

prettyH:
Come nferyn get off the topic.

If all else fails, appeal to emotion...
You cannot admit that you're wrong on something, can you?

Well, you already admitted that you prefer compliance to logic

prettyH:
@nferyn

what are scientific methods, aren't they physical means so what r u talking bout? If u had read the post whats my buz if scientists are atheists or not who cares.

Your postings are incoherent. What is your point in bringing this up. It's factually incorrect and it does not even support a point. Why bring this into the discussion in the first place?

goodguy:
Josboy4lif, there are witches in Europe and America too. Anyway, do u believe God exists?

Those so called witches in Europe and America are people practicing the reinvented nature religions of old Europe(which they call Wicca), before these were wiped out by the Catholic Church. It's kind of like the traditional religions in Africa, but then revamped and modernised. This has very little to do with what Africans describe as witches

prettyH:
See nfryn , i was replying a post..duhh

Doesn't mean you need to make incorrect statement. I've already seen too many slurs against scientists over here

prettyH:
See scientists believe in science and nothing more...in the physical and not the spiritual...but without the creation of the physical by the spiritual their belief is baseless.

This is not true. Scientist use the scientific method to study the natural world. Science does not deal with the supernatural. They are (as scientists) mute about the supernatural. There are plenty of scientists that are not atheist, probably even a majority.

As the ultimate creation (or the very existence) of the physical cannot possibly be studied by natural means, it is beyond the scope of science.

angela k:
I am not a catholic, but i love their belief of purgatory. It's more lenient compared to the strict Heaven or hell concept. It's nice to know that if you pray for the dead their souls could be accepted in Heaven.

They are actually planning to get rid of that. As they feel they can no longer maintain that non baptised infants don't go to heaven, purgatory is no longer necessary.

goodguy:
Nferyn, someone has a dream tonight while sleeping, the next morning (or few days later ), what the person sees in the dream becomes a reality. How do u or science explain that?

There is a reasonable chance that this can happen. What more explaining does this need? I think nearly everybody went through this before one or more times. Think about it:
* how many times do you dream (as dreaming is the rearing of information in your brain for storage or dismissal, it will be tightly linked to something you did or thought about, associated with past memories)?
* how many times was that dream relevant to you (relating to something meaningfull in your life)?
* how many times did it predict something in the future?
* how precise was your memory of that dream and when remembering, did you unconsciencely dismiss the parts that were irrelevant to your present (formerly future) event
* how did the thoughts in your dream unconsciencely influence your behaviour so that the probability of the event happening increases?
Richard Dawkins has a chapter in [i]Unweaving the Rainbow [/i]that explains chance and probability in this context very well.

Ada1:
First and foremost Seun are you Nigerian, sometimes Academia is not such a good thing, because people start to make blind argumants. If there is a good supernatural force, then there is a bad supernatural force.

Well, he owns this forum. Does this answer your question?
One already has to asume that there is a good supernatural force to start with. There is no evidence for that.
Anyway, my opinion is probably irrelevant, because I'm not Nigerian.

Ada1:
I have taken all kinds of classes psychology, philosophy and so on, but I am still aware that there is witchcraft.

Have you? Could you explain how this leads you to this awareness?

Ada1:
I have a friend who her father has tried to use her for money, who people he quarrels with drop dead at an alarming rate, and top it up he used to be a pastor (+419).........but this man was just a false prophet and there are many of these people around. Everyday for the thief, one day for the owner God is punishing that manright now.

Could you give some more information on how this exactly happened?

Ada1:
Holyghost there are two options. (1) If you are a strong christian and you have faith, then you declare war on that person. Any time it is 12 midnight in Nigeria where ever you are on the continent you need to pray.pray like your life depends on it, if you are christian and you know what the bible says: then what are you waiting for that is your weapon. if you don't know your bible so well fire psalm 35x7 everyday on the person. (2) If you are not strong in your faith.just lie, tell every person that knows taht person half truths, or complete lies about questions they ask you concerning yourself. Don't stay away from the person, because some of those people can be daedly if you run from them.you have to understand that who ever is doing witchcraft for you.you are a lifestyle for them. they have nothing better to do, and their life revolves around you. So don't immediately take away their lifelyhood, instead the more you feed them wrong information the more they go about witching on the wrong facts.

On of the most famous quotes in sociology tells it all:
If people define situations as real, they are real in their consequences [W.I. Thomas]
The fact that people believe in it ensures that witchcraft exists, even though it does not have any factual basis.

prettyH:
i disagree o, because in the Bible


1+1=1

Now, is the Bible advocating bad maths?

disney:
[SNIP]
english is easy to teach or to change one.............eg, look at the chinese people , they can learn english, spanish people can speak english, korean too learn english, So it is really very easy for your babe to change in that she is a nigerian already speaking english.........wish u best of luck . just follow my advice.

Please do not forget that it is very difficult to unlearn bad grammar. Your brain is wired to learn the basics of the grammar of your language quickly and easily. Once that knowledge is firmly established, it is very difficult to break the existing neural pathways. The longer you wait, the less chance of success you'll have.

Bilspop:
I'm very glad this issue comes up. After my girlfriend, another thing that occupies my mind most is 'what is d cure for AIDS'. I read alot on HIV/AIDS to get a clud bt i seem helpless. Guys, don't lets leave d main to discuss the mini. Is it where d disease comes from that d cure is? I knw a little study of the origin will help. I'm on my personal project of the cure for HIV/AIDS. Though, no clue yet but im still shaking my brains. I want to make it an open project now. Lets make it a Nairaland project. Though, their's no funding for our research but we have some doctors and scientists here, lets task our brains and bring up ideas. Lets do it. I have a strong believe the cure is available. Lets go into research and experiments. Raise what you think here and lets delibrate. Ideas are like chikens, if you have one and rare it very well, you'll soon have a dozen. Also, anyone that wants to join this project, whatever religion u may be in, please pray for divine support and instructions. AIDS is real.

What is your research experience on the subject? I don't understand that you think that discussions on this forum can bring us any closer to a cure.