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781  Economy / Speculation / Re: Wall Observer BTC/USD - Bitcoin price movement tracking & discussion on: August 21, 2017, 09:38:50 AM

I use Bitcoin Classic as a wallet (on a separate computer) It took ages to sync the blockchain though, days in fact.  

Electrum on an offline computer is pretty secure and you won't have to spend days syncing the blockchain.
782  Economy / Speculation / Re: Wall Observer BTC/USD - Bitcoin price movement tracking & discussion on: August 21, 2017, 09:35:20 AM
Ok then let me post this and I expect some of you to call me an idiot here but here goes.

I have paper wallets and my plan to get BCH is this...

1. Create new paper wallets and using bitcoin core wallet as a middle man I'll  transfer stash to new paper wallets.

2. Use a BCH software wallet and insert my old private keys (that are now empty)
(Which BCH wallet do I use? Is there more than one?)

3. When I want to trade them, send them to Kraken.

What am I missing?



Edit. Morning JJG!

Just did this myself.

That's looks good. Lots of options for sweeping paper wallets. Simplest for the low tech user is probably the bread wallet app with a smartphone. Electrum on a PC works very well too as long as you are confident the computer is secure.

I used Electron Cash (it's an Electrum clone) to load the BCH once I had moved the BTC to a new address. It went smoothly.


783  Economy / Speculation / Re: Wall Observer BTC/USD - Bitcoin price movement tracking & discussion on: August 21, 2017, 09:15:48 AM
Sold the last of my BCH.
Nice little 17% bump in my BTC holdings.

I am quite pleased  Grin
784  Other / Politics & Society / Re: Christianity and Genocidal Violence on: August 20, 2017, 12:20:36 AM
Sigh another post that entirely misunderstands reality.

If you want make ethical comparisons of the WWII combatants you simply need to look how each country treated its prisoners of war.

Total death rate for POWs in World War II

Percentage of POWs that Died

Soviet POWs held by Germans   57.5%
German POWs held by Yugoslavs   41.2%
German POWs held by Soviets   35.8%
American POWs held by Japanese   33.0%
German POWs held by Eastern Europeans   32.9%
British POWs held by Japanese   24.8%
German POWs held by Czechoslovaks   5.0%
British POWs held by Germans   3.5%
German POWs held by French   2.58%
German POWs held by Americans   0.15%
German POWs held by British   0.03%


785  Other / Politics & Society / Re: Christianity is Poison on: August 19, 2017, 07:17:52 AM
Why would anyone not want a God to exist?

That's easy... it's really a lot simpler than you might think

We've read the bible

That's it... simple wasn't it?

Atheists do not want the god of the bible to exist... because we've read the bible... and see what the bible says about that god... we understand that the god of the bible acts in evil ways... we do not want this god to exist because we would never follow such a god... it would be quite sad if the bible was true... quite sad indeed

It isn't that atheists hate god... atheists hate YOUR god... I would love for a god to exist, just not the god of the bible... because I've read the bible, and that is a shitty god

Moloch you may be suprised to know that I am actually sympathetic to your position as I was a strong agnostic for most of my adult life. I ended up that way in precisely the way you describe by reading the Old Testament and being turned off by the barbarism of those times. That combined with a very sceptical personality and exposure in my youth to a disproportionate number of inarticulate religious folks set me on a 20 year path of firm agnosticism. I viewed the religious as foolish holding quaint but outdated and untrue views.

It took me the better part of a quarter century before I gradually realized that the inarticulate bumpkins of my youth despite their lack of sophistication were more or less correct and it was I with my smug intellectual superiority that had adopted the untenable position.

I reached the conclusion not due to any great spiritual event or conversation but the application of logic and consequence. Below is the logic that pulled me away from agnosticism. Its essentially an essay divided into 5 parts. I recommend reading if for no other reason then to understand the logical basis of an opposing view.

Religion and Progress
The Nature of Freedom
The Beginning of Wisdom
Faith and Future
The More Rational Model
786  Other / Politics & Society / Re: Health and Religion on: August 19, 2017, 12:38:45 AM
A casually worded CBS News article depicts a horrifying reality.

Quote
CBS News reported earlier this week that Iceland is leading the world in “eradicating Down syndrome births.” One might be forgiven for assuming that Iceland has developed an innovative treatment for the chromosomal disorder. It turns out Iceland’s solution is much simpler, and much more sinister: using prenatal testing and abortion to systematically exterminate children with Down syndrome. This isn’t progress; it’s eugenics.

Prenatal testing is optional in Iceland, but the government mandates that doctors notify women of that option. About 85 percent of expectant mothers undergo the test, and close to 100 percent of those women choose to abort if their child is diagnosed with Down syndrome. Just two children with Down syndrome are born in Iceland each year, often as the result of faulty testing.

The CBS article does little to accord this subject the moral gravity it deserves. “Other countries aren’t lagging too far behind in Down syndrome termination rates,” the authors note casually. CBS News’s tweet promoting the story read simply: “Iceland is on pace to virtually eliminate Down syndrome through abortion.”

But Iceland isn’t “eliminating Down syndrome” at all. It’s eliminating people. The callous tone of the piece makes selective abortion sound like a technological innovation rather than what it really is: the intentional targeting of “unfit” persons for total elimination.

What kind of culture does it require to foster such a mindset, to foster a society in which nearly every mother of a Down-syndrome child chooses to abort? Iceland is at the high end of the spectrum in this regard — and was one of the first countries to normalize widespread prenatal testing, in an effort to identify fetal abnormalities and eliminate them through abortion — but it is far from alone.

Ninety percent of women in the United Kingdom who receive a positive Down-syndrome diagnosis choose to abort. In the U.S., that percentage falls somewhere between 67 and 90, according to a recent meta-study of Down-syndrome termination rates over the last few decades. In Europe as a whole, somewhere around 92 percent of babies diagnosed with Down syndrome are aborted. This targeting of individuals with Down syndrome is borne out not just in astronomical abortion rates, but in a cultural attitude that often regards them as less than human.

In France, for example, the State Council banned from the airwaves a video featuring children with Down syndrome talking about their happy lives. The advertisement was meant to comfort mothers who received a prenatal diagnosis and assure them that their children would have beautiful, largely normal lives. The ad was forbidden by the French government because the smiles of the children would “disturb the conscience of women who had lawfully made different personal life choices” — in other words, because seeing them happy would upset women who had aborted their Down syndrome children.

Meanwhile, prenatal testing is praised nearly universally for its ability to give women a full array of “options” for their pregnancies, but many women report feeling pressured by their doctors — whether to be tested in the first place or to choose abortion if the test reveals Down syndrome or other abnormalities. It is taken for granted in the medical community that no woman would carry a Down-syndrome pregnancy to term.

This pressure reveals the pervasive belief that selective abortion is somehow an actual health-care solution. Instead of seeking real treatment for the ailments that plague people with Down syndrome, or even finding potential cures, we have settled for a false vision of progress that kills people with a disorder rather than treating them.

A counselor at an Iceland hospital sees the issue even more starkly. “We don’t look at abortion as a murder,” she said. “We look at it as a thing that we ended. We ended a possible life that may have had a huge complication . . . preventing suffering for the child and for the family. And I think that is more right than seeing it as a murder — that’s so black and white. Life isn’t black and white. Life is grey.”

It is in this supposed gray area that the desire to promote health and well-being morphs into the insidious view that people with Down syndrome are better off dead — and that we will be a more advanced society for having relieved them of the burden of a “limited” life. Too many people today believe it is preferable, and indeed more humane, to murder children rather than allow them to suffer. But what life doesn’t have suffering?

Jerome Lejeune, the French geneticist who discovered the chromosomal basis for Down syndrome, once offered this perspective: “It cannot be denied that the price of these diseases is high — in suffering for the individual and in burdens for society. Not to mention what parents suffer! But we can assign a value to that price: It is precisely what a society must pay to remain fully human.”

The title of the CBS piece asks, “What kind of society do you want to live in?” The article’s implicit response seems to be, “One dedicated to eliminating abnormality and suffering by any means necessary.” But no admirable society eradicates suffering by eradicating those who suffer. To achieve true moral progress, we must reject the killing of the vulnerable and condemn any backwards society that promotes such a regime as a solution.


Here is the video banned by the French government because the smiles of the children would “disturb the conscience of women who had lawfully made different personal life choices”. I am not familiar with the laws of France. If you are French it may be illegal for you to watch it.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Ju-q4OnBtNU
787  Other / Politics & Society / Re: Christianity is Poison on: August 18, 2017, 11:55:54 PM
Why We Should Be Compassionate Toward Atheists
http://www.ncregister.com/blog/johnclark/why-we-should-be-compassionate-toward-atheists
Quote from: John Clark
Atheism is gaining converts every day, and we have a rather daunting job of evangelizing those who would rather God did not exist.

Dr. Thomas Nagel, professor of philosophy at New York University, wrote in his 1997 book, The Last Word:

Quote
I want atheism to be true and am made uneasy by the fact that some of the most intelligent and well-formed people I know are religious believers.  It isn’t just that I don’t believe in God and, naturally, hope that I’m right in my belief.  It’s that I hope there is no God!  I don’t want there to be a God; I don’t want the universe to be like that.

Whether or not Dr. Nagel intended to speak for anyone other than himself, I suspect his sentiments are shared by many atheists who not only don’t believe there is a God, but “don’t want there to be a God.”  

From the standpoint of Christianity, this prompts this question: Why would anyone not want a loving God to exist?  This is a question that all apologists—indeed, all Christians who seek to evangelize atheists—must ask and attempt to answer.  Because if we don’t know the answer to that question, we can have all the other answers to all the other questions, and it won’t matter.  For instance, we can talk about the inexplicable characteristics of the Shroud of Turin, the tilma of Guadalupe, the sun dancing at Fatima, the incorruptibles, and the Eucharistic miracle in Lanciano, but we may not have addressed the real issue for those who wish atheism to be true.    

There may be lots of reasons for atheism’s recent prevalence, but it is clear that the rise in atheism has taken place alongside the fall of the family.  Is there a connection between the two?  In his book Faith of the Fatherless: The Psychology of Atheism, psychologist Dr. Paul Vitz answers in the affirmative.  

Specifically, Vitz argues that a father often exerts a powerful influence on his child’s concept of God.  (Since his original book was published in 1999, other studies have provided support for this point.)  Dr. Vitz takes a biographical tour of modern atheists and discovers a relatively consistent thread: “Looking back at our thirteen major historical rejecters of a personal God, we find a weak, dead, or abusive father in every case.”  Of course, it is not true, nor is Vitz making the case, that every atheist had a bad father—or that the mere absence of a father must propel one to atheism.  It would also be a fallacy to claim that each atheist’s fundamental reason for embracing atheism is his paternal relationship.  But to Vitz’s point (and consistent with the findings of other studies), it is legitimate to argue that some persons may be predisposed to atheism because of their family circumstances.

In his book, Jesus of Nazareth, Pope Benedict XVI makes an interesting point along the same lines, alluding to the connection between fatherhood and faith.  Pointing out that the “Our Father” is a great prayer of consolation, insofar as it recognizes and professes God as our Father with Whom we have a personal relationship, Pope Benedict XVI notes that consolation is not experienced by everyone:

Quote
It is true, of course, that contemporary men and women have difficulty experiencing the great consolation of the word father immediately, since the experience of the father is in many cases either completely absent or is obscured by inadequate examples of fatherhood.”  

As Pope Benedict suggests, the idea of God as a father can be a painful reminder that their own father did not, could not, or would not love them. Thus, the idea of spending fifteen minutes, much less eternity, with a “father” is remarkably unpleasant.  

Where does that leave those who are sincerely and charitably trying to convey God’s love to those who are so desperate to disbelieve?  Perhaps it starts by recognizing that they are hurt, and what we should do is act with compassion instead of trying to win a debate with them.  If you convince someone that their best hope is to spend eternity with a Being they equate with someone who has been abusive to them, you have done them no favors.  You may do well to first explain to them who God is, and what God’s love means to you.

788  Economy / Speculation / Re: Wall Observer BTC/USD - Bitcoin price movement tracking & discussion on: August 18, 2017, 02:11:05 PM
Jews!

For those interested in why r0ach position on this issue lacks insight and is ultimately foolish I would refer you to our prior debate on this topic.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1082909.msg19727955#msg19727955

As this is the Wall Observer thread not the "It's all the Jews fault" thread I will refrain from copying those prior arguments here.
789  Economy / Speculation / Re: Wall Observer BTC/USD - Bitcoin price movement tracking & discussion on: August 17, 2017, 05:47:49 PM
Whoever thinks bitcoin can't be destroyed with ease when it's network traffic isn't even obfuscated should take a look at the case of The Daily Stormer, who big corporations have essentially censored it from the internet in a time span of two days:

https://blog.cloudflare.com/why-we-terminated-daily-stormer/

https://www.rferl.org/a/u-s-neo-nazi-website-russian-domain-daily-stormer/28680409.html

First they came for the nazis, but I didn't speak out, because I was not a nazi.


It also highlights why Bitcoin is so important. Imagine if the jews had bitcoin during WWII.

I actually agree with you on this one r0ach. Although I very much disagree with their views they should have the right to express them.

The original version of your quote by the way was written by Martin Niemöller (1892–1984) who was a prominent Protestant pastor and an outspoken public foe of Adolf Hitler.  He spent the last seven years of Nazi rule in concentration camps.

Fundamentally, there is very little difference between a race collectivist who seeks the extermination of all lesser races by the master race, and a class collectivist who seeks the liquidation of all bourgeoisie and aristocratic classes by the proletarian class.

For those interested in this topic I recommend the following blog.

Deadly Junk Science
http://www.scifiwright.com/2017/06/last-crusade-deadly-junk-science/
790  Other / Politics & Society / Re: Health and Religion on: August 17, 2017, 01:57:57 AM
Defector: Christianity Thrives in North Korea as Citizens ‘No Longer Respect’ Kim Jong-Un
http://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2017/08/16/defector-christianity-thrives-north-korea-citizens-no-longer-respect-kim-jong-un/

Quote from: Edwin Mora
Christianity is spreading in North Korea as fewer citizens in the hermit state consider dictator Kim Jong-Un a god, the Telegraph has learned from an anonymous defector.
Using figures found in the latest International Religious Freedom Report authored by the U.S. State Department, Breitbart News has determined that the Christian population in North Korea has increased dramatically—at least five-fold—from about 37,000 known practicing Christians in 2012 to between 200,000 and 400,000 now.

The State Department, which gleaned the Christian population figures from data maintained by the United Nations and the Cornerstone Ministries International (CMI), acknowledged the number of Christians in North Korea may be higher.

State learned from CMI that an estimated “10-45 percent” of people imprisoned in North Koreans detention camps are Christians.

“An estimated 80,000 to 120,000 political prisoners, some imprisoned for religious reasons, were believed to be held in the political prison camp system in remote areas under horrific conditions,” points out State in its report. “CSW [Christian Solidarity Worldwide] said a policy of guilt by association was often applied in cases of detentions of Christians, meaning that the relatives of Christians were also detained regardless of their beliefs.”

An unnamed North Korean defector confirmed the significant increase in North Korea’s Christian population.

“In the past, the people were told to worship the Kim family as their god, but many North Koreans no longer respect Kim Jong-Un”, the defector, now a member of the Seoul-based Worldwide Coalition to Stop Genocide in North Korea, told the Telegraph. “That means they are looking for something else to sustain their faith.”

“In some places, that has led to the emergence of shamans, but the Christian church is also growing and deepening its roots there”, he also said, adding, “Even though people know they could be sent to prison—or worse—they are still choosing to worship, and that means that more cracks are appearing in the regime and the system.”

North Koreans who practice any form of religion can face jail, torture, or even execution in the communist country, reveals the International Religious Freedom Report for 2016.

“The government continued to deal harshly with those who engaged in almost any religious practices through executions, torture, beatings, and arrests,” stresses the report.

Citing a 2014 report of the United Nations Commission of Inquiry (COI) on the Human Rights Situation of North Korea, State reports that the communist country considers Christianity a serious threat.

Christianity “challenged the official cult of personality and provided a platform for social and political organization and interaction outside of the government,” notes State. “The report concluded Christians faced persecution, violence, and heavy punishment if they practiced their religion outside the state-controlled churches.”

Although the North Korean constitution provides protection for the right to freedom of religious beliefs, the communist nation denies its people the right to freedom of thought and religion.

In North Korea, “there was an almost complete denial by the government of the right to freedom of thought, conscience, and religion, and, in many instances, violations of human rights committed by the government constituted crimes against humanity,” notes the State report, which covers about 200 foreign jurisdictions, criticizing American allies and foes alike for their religious freedoms shortcomings.
791  Other / Politics & Society / Re: Why can't religious people spell words correctly? on: August 15, 2017, 02:51:59 AM
Here is another winner topic from a christian who can't spell:

Jesus Christ is comming back here (note: could have been worse... cumming)
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2088766.0

Quote
Repeant and surrender yourself to Jesus Christ because He is comming...

The author of that post is clearly not a native English speaker. His early posts are written in Filipino. English spelling is difficult for foreigners to master.

There are words used to describe native speakers who ridicule foreigners struggling to master a foreign tongue. I won't repeat those words here however deserved they may be.
792  Other / Politics & Society / Re: Atheism brougth us nothing good! on: August 13, 2017, 03:46:08 PM
While it is true that there is no definitive atheistic worldview, all atheists share the same fundamental beliefs as core to their personal worldviews. While some want to state that atheism is simply a disbelief in the existence of a god, there really is more to it. Every expression of atheism necessitates at least three additional affirmations:

1. The universe is purely material. It is strictly natural, and there is no such thing as the supernatural (e.g., gods or spiritual forces).

2. The universe is scientific. It is observable, knowable and governed strictly by the laws of physics.

3. The universe is impersonal. It does not a have consciousness or a will, nor is it guided by a consciousness or a will.

Denial of any one of those three affirmations will strike a mortal blow to atheism. Anything and everything that happens in such a universe is meaningless. A tree falls. A young girl is rescued from sexual slavery. A dog barks. A man is killed for not espousing the national religion. These are all actions that can be known and explained but never given any meaning or value.

A good atheist — that is, a consistent atheist — recognizes this dilemma. His only reasonable conclusion is to reject objective meaning and morality. Thus, calling him “good” in the moral sense is nonsensical. There is no morally good atheist, because there really is no objective morality. At best, morality is the mass delusion shared by humanity, protecting us from the cold sting of despair.

Why do christians think they know so much about atheists? (not that it should be difficult to understand a lack of belief... but you just don't get it)

You realize agnostics are also atheists... right? (so much for your "3 additional affirmations")

As for your point about atheists not being good, I object

Atheists are the only "good" people... Atheists are good people because they want society to be a better place for everyone... Atheists realize the benefit of being good over evil... Atheists are good because they love humanity


bcnaranjo I am quoting your text in it's entirety because it truly strikes to the heart of the matter. In my experience very few atheists are willing to examine the logical and metaphysical underpinnings of their world view and its consequences.  

I would, however, argue that your points #1 and #3 are the more important ones. Belief that the universe is scientific is not incompatible with a belief in God.

Moloch you once again refuse to engage in any deeper analysis of your views. Belief in God changes how we live our lives not only because of the belief but also as a consequence of what logically follows. bcnaranjo explains these well and I recommend you reread what he wrote.

No one is saying that there are not many good atheists. However without God there is no objective good at all. This is a conclusion that a rational atheist will reach if he is willing to follow his beliefs to their logical conclusions.
793  Other / Politics & Society / Re: When will Religions die? on: August 13, 2017, 06:37:35 AM
"When the sun rises in the west and sets in the east, When the seas go dry and mountains blow in the wind like leaves." - George R.R. Martin


Chinese missionaries flow into SE Asia and the Middle East
https://www.ft.com/content/69a41f7e-6b96-11e7-bfeb-33fe0c5b7eaa
Quote from: Tom Hancock
Plan to send 20,000 evangelicals to SE Asia and Mideast creates dilemma for Beijing

At a Sunday service in an underground church in Beijing, worshippers clap their hands and vow to spread their Christian faith in China, and beyond.

“Use me as an instrument, Lord, send me out in the world,” they sing. “I will go make you known. Lord send me.”

A Protestant revival in China has swelled the church’s membership to tens of thousands, and its ambitions are no longer limited to the country

Beijing’s Zion church is one of dozens in the country to have sent missionaries overseas, as evangelical Christians follow their country’s huge infrastructure push into Southeast Asia and the Middle East, creating a dilemma for the officially atheist Communist party.

There are about 1,000 Chinese missionaries outside the country, compared with virtually none a decade ago, according to churches and academics.Church leaders hope to increase their number to 20,000 by the end of the next decade.

Those leaders say missionary activity is a natural extension of China’s Protestant movement, which has grown rapidly in recent decades and now numbers about 100m.

“When a country develops religion to a certain level it will engage in missionary activity. This is very normal,” says Cui Qian, pastor of the Wanbang Missionary Church in Shanghai.

Mr Cui’s church has 20 missionaries overseas, mostly in Southeast Asia and the Middle East. They work as Chinese teachers or at state-owned enterprises, and learn local languages, says the pastor, who recently visited a missionary couple in Lebanon.

Nearly all Chinese missionaries are from “underground” churches independent of China’s state-controlled Protestant association, which for decades have been subject to Communist party crackdowns.

That experience makes them ideal for low-profile activities in countries including North Korea, Mr Cui says. “It’s Chinese-style missionary work. We don’t build churches and we don’t need much organizational structure. We survived the Cultural Revolution. So we have experience”.
...
Chinese churches’ most ambitious plan is “Mission China 2030”, which aims to send 20,000 faithful overseas by the end of next decade. The number, calculated in part on an estimate of the number of foreign missionaries who died in China, was affirmed at a meeting of 1,000 Chinese church representatives in South Korea last summer.
794  Other / Politics & Society / Re: Health and Religion on: August 13, 2017, 06:24:10 AM
thx for longread Cool
iam not atheist but im not religion man and it was interesting

This thread was helpful for those who are religion centered and wants to know more about the outside things of the religion. although we could see that many are believers of religion but still we can conclude that not all people are not believing in it including me.

I am happy to see people have found this thread worthwhile. You are very welcome.
795  Other / Politics & Society / Re: Health and Religion on: August 13, 2017, 06:17:36 AM
Chinese missionaries flow into SE Asia and the Middle East
https://www.ft.com/content/69a41f7e-6b96-11e7-bfeb-33fe0c5b7eaa
Quote from: Tom Hancock
Plan to send 20,000 evangelicals to SE Asia and Mideast creates dilemma for Beijing

At a Sunday service in an underground church in Beijing, worshippers clap their hands and vow to spread their Christian faith in China, and beyond.

“Use me as an instrument, Lord, send me out in the world,” they sing. “I will go make you known. Lord send me.”

A Protestant revival in China has swelled the church’s membership to tens of thousands, and its ambitions are no longer limited to the country

Beijing’s Zion church is one of dozens in the country to have sent missionaries overseas, as evangelical Christians follow their country’s huge infrastructure push into Southeast Asia and the Middle East, creating a dilemma for the officially atheist Communist party.

There are about 1,000 Chinese missionaries outside the country, compared with virtually none a decade ago, according to churches and academics.Church leaders hope to increase their number to 20,000 by the end of the next decade.

Those leaders say missionary activity is a natural extension of China’s Protestant movement, which has grown rapidly in recent decades and now numbers about 100m.

“When a country develops religion to a certain level it will engage in missionary activity. This is very normal,” says Cui Qian, pastor of the Wanbang Missionary Church in Shanghai.

Mr Cui’s church has 20 missionaries overseas, mostly in Southeast Asia and the Middle East. They work as Chinese teachers or at state-owned enterprises, and learn local languages, says the pastor, who recently visited a missionary couple in Lebanon.

Nearly all Chinese missionaries are from “underground” churches independent of China’s state-controlled Protestant association, which for decades have been subject to Communist party crackdowns.

That experience makes them ideal for low-profile activities in countries including North Korea, Mr Cui says. “It’s Chinese-style missionary work. We don’t build churches and we don’t need much organizational structure. We survived the Cultural Revolution. So we have experience”.
...
Chinese churches’ most ambitious plan is “Mission China 2030”, which aims to send 20,000 faithful overseas by the end of next decade. The number, calculated in part on an estimate of the number of foreign missionaries who died in China, was affirmed at a meeting of 1,000 Chinese church representatives in South Korea last summer.
796  Other / Politics & Society / Re: Health and Religion on: August 13, 2017, 04:55:22 AM
Church attendance may lower suicide risk in women
http://www.pikecountycourier.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20170812/NEWS01/170819999/0/sports/Church-attendance-may-lower-suicide-risk-in-women
Quote from: The Pike Country Courier
Women who attend religious services at least once a week may have a lower risk of suicide than those who never attend services, according to a study led by researchers at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

Tyler VanderWeele, professor of epidemiology, and coauthors analyzed health data from 89,708 women participating in the Nurses’ Health Study from 1996 through June 2010. Most of the women were white and Catholic or Protestant.

Compared with women who never attended religious services, women who attended once per week or more had a five times lower risk of committing suicide during the study period, the researchers found.

The authors noted that their study used observational data and did not account for factors such as impulsivity or feelings of hopelessness. In addition, the findings may not be generalizable to other populations.

Suicide is among the 10 leading causes of death in the United States. The major world religions have traditions prohibiting suicide.

“Our results do not imply that health care providers should prescribe attendance at religious services,” they wrote. “However, for patients who are already religious, service attendance might be encouraged as a form of meaningful social participation. Religion and spirituality may be an underappreciated resource that psychiatrists and clinicians could explore with their patients, as appropriate.”
797  Other / Politics & Society / Re: Atheism made me an Extremist on: August 12, 2017, 08:32:32 PM

Wow interesting
       

 Cheesy
798  Other / Politics & Society / Re: Atheism made me an Extremist on: August 12, 2017, 08:01:45 PM

Plate tectonics doesn't exist. At least not in any way we understand.


Color me an extreme septic of the youtube theory above BADecker. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence and I see zero evidence here. One can make a model of an expanding globe and break the original surface into whatever shape or design one wishes filling the expanding surface area with water. Where would the extra mass come from. Why would we not see such an expansion today and instead see continental movement in line with continental drift mechanics?

NASA Research Confirms it’s a Small World, After All
https://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/earth20110816.html
Quote
Now a new NASA study, published recently in Geophysical Research Letters, has essentially laid those speculations to rest. Using a cadre of space measurement tools and a new data calculation technique, the team detected no statistically significant expansion of the solid Earth.

Australia on the move: how GPS keeps up with a continent in constant motion
http://theconversation.com/australia-on-the-move-how-gps-keeps-up-with-a-continent-in-constant-motion-71883
Quote
The Australian continent, perched on the planet’s fastest moving tectonic plate, is drifting at about seven centimetres a year to the northeast. This is taking features marked on our maps out of line with the global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) such as GPS.
799  Other / Politics & Society / Re: Health and Religion on: August 12, 2017, 06:21:43 PM
Euthanasia is becoming a major cause of death in the Netherlands. Seems it may only be a matter of time now before it becomes a full blown industry complete with target numbers and quotas.


Euthanasia responsible for 4.5 per cent of deaths in the Netherlands

http://catholicherald.co.uk/news/2017/08/03/euthanasia-responsible-for-4-5-per-cent-of-deaths-in-the-netherlands/
Quote from: Associated Press
Euthanasia has become a common way to die in the Netherlands, accounting for 4.5 percent of deaths, according to researchers who say requests are increasing from people who are not terminally ill.
...
 People must be “suffering unbearably” with no hope of relief — but their condition does not have to be fatal.
...
“These are old people who may have health problems, but none of them are life-threatening. They’re old, they can’t get around, their friends are dead and their children don’t visit anymore,” he said. “This kind of trend cries out for a discussion. Do we think their lives are still worthwhile?”

How doctors want to harvest euthanasia patients' organs BEFORE they die
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3530935/How-doctors-want-harvest-euthanasia-patients-organs-die-Campaigners-warn-deeply-worrying-trend-donors-feel-pressured-end-lives-benefit-deaths.html
Quote from: Tom Rawstorne
A man lies on a hospital bed, conscious and fully aware of his surroundings. As family members look on, a doctor injects him with two drugs.

The first renders the patient unconscious, putting him in coma, the second, a muscle relaxant, stops his heart.

Time, now, is very much of the essence. A few minutes are allowed for the relatives’ final farewells before he is pronounced dead and a team of surgeons swings into action, removing his liver, kidneys and pancreas.

As each organ is extracted, it is immediately transferred to separate operating theatres where medics are on hand to transplant it into a patient who lies waiting.

Slick, fast-paced and brutally efficient — while it may sound like some sci-fi scene set in the future, in fact, this chain of events unfolded in a hospital in Holland earlier this year.

What, of course, makes it so extraordinary is that the man, who has not been identified, died at the hands of a doctor.

Having suffered a stroke he had decided that his quality of life was so poor that he wanted to end his life. In the Netherlands, he was able to do this because euthanasia has been legal since 2002.
...
An academic paper published last week by a Dutch medical researcher explores the possibility that, in future, doctors might be allowed to remove organs from euthanasia patients who are still alive.

What is being suggested is that the patient could be anaesthetised — but not killed — and their organs removed, including the heart and lungs. It would be the removal of the heart that would lead to death.
Medically, this would mean that organs for transplant — hearts and lungs in particular — were more likely to be viable.

The Dutch medical fraternity insists there are as yet no plans to go down this route, but even the discussion of such a possibility has prompted campaigners to warn of the dangers of a slippery slope.

‘The trend is deeply worrying,’ says anti-euthanasia campaigner Lord Carlile of Berriew, who warns that when patients are at their lowest ebb in the immediate aftermath of a serious illness — for example, a stroke — they could be susceptible to persuasion.

‘The pressure to agree to provide a transplantable heart, lung or liver might be huge,’ he says.

‘The evidence of protection of the vulnerable in Belgium and Holland is sketchy at best. The boundaries of euthanasia are pushed yet further back and the potential for doctors to “engineer” these events grows.


Without deity, all devolves to therapy; all therapy devolves to universal death
http://charltonteaching.blogspot.com/2017/06/without-deity-all-devolves-to-therapy.html?m=1
Quote from: Bruce Charlton
If deity is denied - or, nowadays, not so much 'denied' as ruled-out a priori on the basis of unexamined and unacknowledged metaphysical assumptions regarding the nature of reality...

Without deity then Life devolves to how we feel about life, currently; and therefore all possible problems devolve to therapy - because the solution to all possible problems is to change how we feel about them. Full stop - nothing more to be said.

And, changing how we feel about things is not innocuous; because it includes the possibility of Not-feeling. IN other worlds any and all problems can be solved temporarily by obliterating feelings; perhaps by obliterating awareness, obliterating The Self; maybe with drugs, surgery or some other technology...

Or we abolish feelings by death. Because without deity - death is the end of consciousness.

So all possible problems can permanently be solved by death...

Further, all problems can be prevented - by never being alive in the first place. Prevention of life.

So the therapeutic society is continually sliding down a slippery slope towards the idea of universal and permanent extinction of Life, as the one sure way of preventing suffering.

Death is the ultimate therapy for everything!


OR - if that sounds... wrong to you; then you might discover and reconsider your metaphysical assumptions which lead to that conclusion; then re-examine the possibility of deity?...
800  Other / Politics & Society / Re: Atheism made me an Extremist on: August 12, 2017, 05:44:14 PM

What is the origin of Earthquakes?

Plate tectonics. A natural phenomenon which can be studied understood and mitigated if mankind sustains the foundations that allow such progress to occur.

See:
Religion and Progress
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