Pirates eye

For sure, there could be one person with 1.1 and 10 people with 0.99, but the average will still be 1.0

“Half our students are below average!” kinda vibes - KDR necessarily means that for every person with 1.5, there is someone with a 0.67, that’s just how the math works. If I’m anywhere near 1.0, I’m happy.

Thanks for the explanation!

I’m out of the loop, anywhere I can read more about what’s going on?

Can confirm, tastes good. This was in Papua New Guinea, the dog was donated to a function to be eaten because it kept killing people’s chickens.

What’s funny is some tribes will eat dog and not cat, others eat cat and not dog, and they both think the other is weird for their choice.

I’m sorry we can’t find at least some common ground on this - clearly we both feel strongly about our positions, and I respect that. Thanks for taking the time to discuss anyway.

you’re the only person that can come to self realize

But you just made that determination for me? I’m confused, am I supposed to make my own decisions, or listen to others?

This doesn’t answer the question though - how can anyone know or decide for others that they are not brainwashed? I trust you’ve come to your own conclusion, as I’ve come to my own. It’s a poor excuse to call anything contrary to what I believe as being brainwashed unilaterally.

Thanks!

lol Not a bot account, but you’re right, opposing views feeds on the failures of the other, it’s sad both ways. Sorry if I’ve been commenting too much!

As a follow on, I’ll give a little more from my experience.

Where I grew up (child to expat parents in a very third world country), church is holistic - that is, we care for more than just people’s spiritual state. Church organizations run the large majority of healthcare and education, and no one else will. We could get into the weeds about the value of the services provided, but the reality is it’s between that or nothing.

The schools teach everyone, and the clinics treat everyone, not just Christians. This I believe is (just one) example of what being a Christian is about - loving others unconditionally. Anything that’s contrary to loving others unconditionally is contrary to being a Christian. That doesn’t mean anyone (least of all me) is perfect at doing this, it’s not a yes/no distinction on “being a good Christian”. What matters is where someone’s heart is. But at the same time, if someone’s heart is right, there should be outward signs of this.

For example, not trying to deep-fry people…

Again, I’m curious. Personally, I have not found my loyalty as a Christian to be forced, it’s of my own will. How can I ever prove (to myself or others) that it’s of my own free will, and not being brainwashed? This applies to anything: religion, politics, sports, school affiliation, nationality.

I agree, one of the failings of Christian culture (in many/most countries) is a false sense of superiority (edit: to clarify, there should not be a sense of superiority). It causes all too much hurt, and shields those who claim Christianity but do evil.

I believe this is especially pronounced in religious settings, but it’s true for any power imbalance (family, church, school, government, work, etc). The thing is that any violence, abuse, and hate that come from Christians is so contrary to what we say we believe, it is that much worse - it undoes any of the (nonreligious, materially helpful) good that the Church does.

So all (mainstream) religion is a cult apart from size.

At risk of taking the bait, I’m curious of other’s experiences - is it all religion that’s a cult, or Christianity alone? If so, is there a divide between Catholic/Protestant?

I’m biased (a Christian myself), but the Christians I know are not violent, probably because they’re at least half-decent human beings who at least try to practice what they say they believe (which doesn’t include deepfry oil).

I know a handful of nuts, some claim to be Christian, some don’t. Of the ones that claim to be Christian, none I know actually seem to live anything close to what they spout off. As a general trend in my circles, they’re the loudest about their faith, the most political/patriotic (either side, but usually right leaning), and most likely to force their beliefs on others. The ones that don’t claim to be Christians are pretty similar, just less hypocritical (opinionated, but not religious).

The issue is that anyone can claim to be a Christian, and as a Christian it’s not for me to judge and say if they really are genuine or not.

All that to say, this is a great example of not living out a good Christian faith, at all.

One of my college professors was involved in the development program for ~4 years, and said it was (one of?) the most stressful experiences of his life.

Major General Craig Olson, he (and his wife) are some of the most caring people I’ve met, I’m sure the weight of managing a program like that was a lot to bear. Looks like he left the program shortly after the March 2006 accident. He presented on some of the engineering challenges they faced and solved in the program (especially failure modes), but my memory is hazy.

Not an aeronautical engineer, but that’s how all helicopters work in general, they change rotor pitch with constant angular velocity.

You always know politicians are crooked, but this is just staggeringly incompetent.