Why do people in the Mid-West, South, @ SW hate on LA so much?

[nslander]

Why do we keep cutting checks to these theocratic ingrates?

[Matt Marcinkiewicz]

Originally Posted by rmissourimule

You are making a mountain out of a molehill.

I'm not in favor of abortions period. So call me backward if you wish. Women have birth control available and men should also do their best, if they were responsible, to avoid impregnating women. And I will concede that I believe human life does begin at conception.

If there is a problem here it is because parents do not properly rear their children or the children are abysmally uninformed about how pregnancies occur. If you want to make the case the California leads the nation in educating the children and having responsible parenting you would have a good case. I haven't looked at the data here or elsewhere. But 50 years ago when I was a youth I knew where babies came from. I didn't agree with abortion then and I don't agree with it now. And I certainly don't condone the murder of babies born outside the womb as evidenced by that Philadelphia doctor.

As to the atheist business, that is a red herring of no consequence except to cloud the issues. What a person believes regarding religion is their own business. I don't stick my head in anyone's religious beliefs and know very few people that I am around who do either.

Now if you want to make an argument about how "singularity" created the universe go at it. I'm just not cool with the idea that all of this came out of nothingness. I may change my mind in the future at such time that it is proven fact. You might want to reread what Einstein said about the matter.

Albert Einstein: Quotes on God, Religion, Theology

Did you read what Einstein said about the matter? I don't think you're endorsing what you think you're endorsing. I think Einstein was much like Darwin in that he/they struggled to come to terms with the implications of his/their own revolution(s). Einstein also tended to like to use the term "god" metaphorically and/or poetically, which can be misconstrued by those who'd appropriate certain quotations of his for their own agendas. Imagine if Carl Sagan (an atheist) had chosen to express his awe at the wonders of the universe (which I myself don't find inherently wondrous, at all) in religious language...I think that is what Einstein indulged in, for his part. I could also imagine Richard Dawkins, who writes quite well and certainly has some poetic sensibilities, employing religious metaphor as he describes what for him is wondrous accounts of natural history/speciation/whatever else he's explaining at any given time (although the delight he consistently takes in proverbially "unweaving the rainbow" could just as easily be replaced by a different emotion, like regret for when it remained an object of mystery. He seems slow to acknowledge that he's fortunate to have the emotions that he does, for he could've just as easily become overwhelmed by a sense of "loss of innocence" so to speak).

My religious primary care physician, knowing I'm atheist, has on more than one occasion subjected me to a recitation of Einstein's quote "science without religion is lame; religion without science is blind." I generally like the guy and do not feel motivated to seek out a new doctor, so I kinda feign an inability to retort, and I half-shrug and say nothing. I don't bother objecting, "yeah, but Einstein also said 'The word god is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses, the Bible a collection of honourable, but still primitive legends which are nevertheless pretty childish. No interpretation no matter how subtle can (for me) change this.'" Doesn't seem tactful given my motives (and the doc for his part offers his quote as gently as it could be offered...all things considered, this is a "good" person, IMO).

Nothingness, as the term is understood colloquially, is an impossible concept in terms of physics. And physics has yet to let us down (and never will except insofar as it remains beyond our understanding). No one knows or has ever known about ultimate cosmological origins, but if an infinity of quantum states doesn't exist, then I myself would be curious to know the mechanism by which that seemingly necessary "infinity" is avoided. "Before" (there is no word that actually applies) time and space existed, I think that whatever existed would be literally incomprehensible to the human mind. Must necessarily be beyond logical comprehension, or imagination. The greatest failing of [human interpretation of] the multiverse model is that said model kind of encourages speculation about what other universes could be like. All such speculation is futile. We can't imagine what it's like to live in a different part of our own country; how can we fathom...well, actually that rhetorical device doesn't even do enough. Any other universe is unfathomable. Nothing more can be said. The above rhetoric ('we can't imagine...') could work if applied to increasingly exotic places in our own planet/solar system/galaxy/universe, but in a "realm" (for lack of a better word, or any word) where time and space don't exist, it is logically impossible to say anything.

Signed, current borderline Midwesterner (Buffalo, NY), future Angelean

[Count David]

Wow, this thread was entertaining.

Why do we have to have "Why hate LA", or "Why I hate LA" threads? Isn't the weather nice, and aren't there burritos everywhere?

If you are interested in engaging in further off-topic socio-political, mildly philosophical discussions, the Politics and Other Controversies forum is ------------------------->THATTA WAY!