Now featuring an administration panel and proper user management things. Also, some extra tweaks here and there. Opinionated is still very basic, but it’s quite usable.
Download
- Source (zip) — 29.9KB (updated 2007-12-27)
Monthly archive: December, 2007
Opinionated is a very simple content submission and rating system.
This is the latest version of Opinionated, my hyper-basic democratic idea sharing and ranking web application. I believe this version adds minor cosmetic tweaks and the ‘change password’ feature (yes, it’s that basic). I could add more features like moderation but I feel that would go against the spirit of free democratic discourse (although perhaps it could use an “exile user” feature). The code’s there, so if anyone did want such a feature they should be able to add it themselves (or ask me nicely to do it).
Download
- Source (zip) — 25.8KB
Opinionated is a very simple content submission and rating system.
The third part in what is apparently an ongoing series. Don’t worry, this one is short.
First, let’s accept that free will is worth all the suffering it has caused (or, all the suffering that has occurred that would not have occurred if it weren’t be for free will), and so it really is the best gift from an all-loving god. Despite this free will thing, God—once again, the God of Christianity—has no problem indirectly influencing people through the Bible (and the people he spoke to in the Bible). The Bible tells us everything we need to do and believe and accept to be deemed worthy by God and so ascend to Heaven (we’re assuming it’s true, of course). Our all-loving god both gives us free will and nudges us in the direction he wants, helping us live the proper life. That sounds fair, right?
I don’t think so. We’ve established he wants the best for us and that he’s prepared to influence us (without breaking free will and forcing us to do his bidding). So, why is this influence confined to some events recorded in a book of, as I said in an earlier piece, doubtful veracity (some of the events would have been quite impressive, but all the evidence we have are the writings), some miracles, and some personal revelations. No magic billboards or words etched in the moon or sky-writing pelicans or anything particularly compelling. In fact, the opposite is the case—we get compelling scientific evidence against the truth of God’s word (with regards to creation).
To put it simply: has God really done enough (noting that he is all-loving) to stop us from ruining our lives and suffering eternal damnation? Surely not.
Following on from my original post.
God is omniscient and all-powerful, but he’s nice and gives us free will (nevermind that this is impossible). This the greatest gift of all, surely, because he’s willing to have us endure great suffering for it (see my first post). Yet, if we don’t do what he wants and follow his instructions (written in a book of doubtful veracity, in the case of Christianity, which is the religion whose concepts I am mostly focusing on) we’ll go to hell for eternity.
He must have known that is what would happen (omniscient). I don’t know about the inner workings of the God Company, but I imagine he even does the damning personally. His creations do something wrong on Earth (often in a minor way*) and, in exchange for a maximum of around 100 years of ’sin’ (going against his wishes, even though those wishes are unclear and he personally gave us the ability to do so), we suffer greatly (one might even say infinitely) for an infinite number of years? That hardly sounds like the masterplan of an all-loving god.
* Like not remembering the Sabbath. What’s the deal with that anyway? Why does God so desire our worship? Also, a related tangent: even with free will—even with ‘true’ free will (the impossible, incompatible-with-omniscience kind)—God created us and so should be responsible for our actions. Even if he couldn’t have guessed that we’d hurt others and exploit our free will for our own gain, he would have noticed that was the case and would have been able to remove our free will or replace the free-willed humans with non-free-willed humans (you can’t argue that he wouldn’t do that, because he’s killed off vast numbers for less convincing reasons before; see the Great Flood of Noah**). Everything seems to come down to the fact that our all-powerful, all-knowing God created us, wasn’t pleased with much of his creation (isn’t this his failure?), and so makes a great many people (his people) suffer.
** The LORD sez:
I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, from man to animals to creeping things and to birds of the sky; for I am sorry that I have made them.
Uh, apology accepted? Our all-loving God didn’t just wipe out mankind, though—he also killed almost all of the animals too, which is just pointless violence. I didn’t know animals could be evil; even if they could, Noah didn’t specifically seek out “pure” animals, so the whole slaughter was totally pointless.
(All of this is pointing towards the conclusion that God isn’t all-loving, isn’t all-powerful, isn’t all-seeing, or isn’t at all, i.e. God isn’t who religion says he is.)
WARNING SIGNS is mysterious.
WARNING SIGNS is mysterious.
WARNING SIGNS is mysterious.
Advance Australia Fair, our national anthem, is not a bad one—it doesn’t mention God or war at all, for example. However, the second verse is rarely used, which is a shame. So, I propose taking the best bits of each verse and making the super-anthem:
Beneath our radiant Southern Cross
We’ll toil with hearts and hands
To make this Commonwealth of ours
Renowned of all the lands
Our land abounds in nature’s gifts
Of beauty rich and rare
In history’s page, let every stage
Advance Australia Fair.
With courage let us all combine,
Advance Australia Fair.
This version:
- Does away with the antiquated notions of us being young and girtness
- Keeps the nature’s gifts part, because our plains aren’t completely boundless
- Gets rid of the self-referential line about singing the anthem (and the word ’strains’, which I certainly didn’t understand until I looked it up) and replaces it with the line that usually follows the ‘boundless plains’ couplet
and replaces it with easily the best part of the entire song
WARNING SIGNS is mysterious.