Does anyone have any experience learning ancient languages? I'm NEET currently and was interested in learning cuneiform/sumerian script, any recommended reading? I can't find anything online
I remember taking a latin course a couple years ago, I had a lot of fun with that
Though of course cuneiform is a whole nother can of worms
>>1346023
Why tho
Actual cuneiform script is tough as shit because each word is a unique logogram, kinda like Chinese, depending on how far back you go. It'll take ages to learn. As far as the language itself, if you know any Semitic languages (Arabic, Hebrew) you might have a tiny leg up on the Akkadian cuneiform. Otherwise, you're stuck with Sumerian, a language isolate.
For a language a little closer to home, I recommend you look into Old Persian, vaguely related to English. They took cuneiform and turned it into an alphabet.
Let's face the facts; this "Jesus of Nazareth" person probably never existed. It's a nice myth though
>>1346021
tips fedora
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josephus_on_Jesus#Testimonium_Flavianum
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tacitus_on_Christ
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/godlessindixie/2014/09/04/an-atheists-defense-of-the-historicity-of-jesus/
>"He certainly existed, as virtually every competent scholar of antiquity, Christian or non-Christian, agrees"
- Bart Ehrman
>"There are those who argue that Jesus is a figment of the Church’s imagination, that there never was a Jesus at all. I have to say that I do not know any respectable critical scholar who says that any more.
- Michael Grant
>"In recent years, 'no serious scholar has ventured to postulate the non historicity of Jesus' or at any rate very few, and they have not succeeded in disposing of the much stronger, indeed very abundant, evidence to the contrary.
- Richard Burridge
Actually he was real and the evidence is strongly supporting the fact that he was black
>War in Vietnam
>Get up close and personal with your enemy
>build camaraderie with your brothers in arms
>never a question of why you're fighting
>War in Iraq
>launch missiles at the enemy from 200 miles away
>constant deployment rotations, no continuity of forces
>can't even figure out where the WMDs are
Has...
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>War in Vietnam
>it aint me starts playing
>the war with widespread drug use, war crimes and fragging was better than the war with a professional military significantly less massacred civilians because muh rose glasses
>>1345937
>the United States of America
>dignity
Why did the US, following the Munich Massacre, give financial and intelligence aid to the PLO/Black September and deny this relationship to Israel? I don't believe the explanation that they were simply trying to get the PLO/BS to leave US interests alone. The US is an Israeli puppet, so was this just Israel's way of wreaking revenge on us Europeans indirectly?
>>1345919
>implying the Munich Massacre happened
>>1345919
That is an Ape in the picture and not a Monkey. Stop mislabeling different primates you shitlord.
>>1345919
Funny thing is that the US is a puppet to anybody with enough money to bribe off the politicians.
Unfortunately there are enough rich jews who support Isreal to give Isreal a sort of "favored country" status.
>he thinks the Catholic Church isn't Christian
>he thinks it's literally the Antichrist
>he thinks the Pope as any real degree of political authority that any country on earth recognizes whatsoever
>he thinks Jesuits are psychic wizard assassins even though even Catholics make jokes about Jesuits being the "worst" of the Church's male Religious Orders
>he thinks anyone would by this lunatic shit, Catholic...
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>>1345866
>mainline Protestants
The kind with gay marriage and female ordination?
No surprise they're cozy with Catholics
>>1345866
>YEC
wat
>>1345951
>gay marriage and female ordination
>No surprise they're cozy with Catholics
>I'm not self-aware enough to realize Catholics will never allow either of those things
Post avant-garde flags
>>1345817
I'm not sure if it qualifies as avant-garde, but I don't think I've seen a national flag like the Free Territory's flag.
Magnitogorsk, Russia
Why is this allowed?
>>1345737
Because wounded people are easy to manipulate
>>1345737
Plebs buy laptops that come pre-loaded with all sorts of shit.
The question is, why haven't you uninstalled it?
>>1345741
My dads work computer is fucking boss mate. I can't justify dumping 5k+ into a rig like he can, and I aint fucking with his software.
Bumping with a true dictator.
>A group of senators were sent to tell Cincinnatus that he had been nominated dictator. According to Livy, the senators found Cincinnatus while he was plowing on his farm. Cincinnatus cried out "Is everything all right?" They said to Cincinnatus that they hoped "it might turn out well for both him...
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the reason communism never works is because it never relies on a direct, uniform, universal redistribution of wealth, i.e. a basic income.
If you want communism to work, you've got to set your government up like a co-op. A quarter of your paycheck goes to maintaining the business, a quarter gets taken and payed in dividends or profit sharing, the rest goes in your pocket.
Communists would always rather spend your share of your communities resources for you than redistribute them to you directly.
There are maybe a dozen instances where this has been...
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>>1345640
so long as the price of land ownership remains outside the reach of all but the wealthiest citizens, you will always be dependant on your landlord.
It doesn't matter how much you get paid, because they can always raise the rent accordingly.
Basically, they are always going to want at LEAST half. The government is going to take half of THAT, and whatever is left over after food and groceries, all that is left is a fucking pittance.
You're still all basically peasants who have been living...
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>>1345640
further, basic income should never be a flat amount, it should be based on the percentage of tax revenue taken in by the government.
If the government takes half, it should give you back a quarter. Everyone should get taxed at the same percentage and get paid the same amount of welfare.
I was raised Christian and truly believed until I turned 16. Ever since then when a "why are you not religious, anon" Conversation comes up I ask the same question.
How can you truly believe hell exist and still pretend you're a compassionate person?
I see stuff like #prayfororlando being posted by people who go to church and learn from a book that teaches gay people will burn in hell forever.
The same people who are horrified at seeing ww2 camps worship a being that created a camp that makes those look like amateur hour.
I ask these people do they think I'm a decent person (yes) , but they get really uncomfortable when I then ask if I deserve to burn alive forever.
So my question to yall religious people out there. How do you personally merge modern values (compassion for strangers) with religious scripture?
>>1345537
This is a very presumptive thread. For one, not all religions have a hell. Two, even in Christianity and Islam, people bend the holy books to fit their own doctrines. There are plenty of pastors that think being gay is a-okay and there are a scarce amount of imams that believe the same thing.
Fucking summerfags.
>Can religious people be good?
Obnoxiously so.
I see stuff like #prayfororlando being posted by people who go to church and learn from a book that teaches gay people will burn in hell forever.
Its easier for people to be angry at faggots than to teach them how to be men. Fags are taught by society that wanting to fuck other men in the ass means they should acts like whiny little bitches. The homosex on out, k, and fit are pretty cool.
>The same people who are horrified at seeing ww2 camps worship a being that created a camp that makes those look like amateur hour.
giving two fucks about one group of people killing another when you belong to niether group. Why the fuck do you care? are they your group? then fuck them. Your altruism is misplaced. altruism in animals is based on shared highly heritable traits - essentially an evolutionary tool to pass on the genes of your brothers and neighbors in order to pass on your own (since you share genes).
Your whole post is bait, but I bit.
>>1345537
Also, if they're praying for someone they believe is going to hell, that shows compassion.
As for the WW2 camps, don't forget there are a lot of people that also think the Jews deserved it or that the Jews really were responsible for WW1.
How is happiness achieved?
Can it be achieved?
>>1345437
Service to God
>>1345437
Happiness is a dynamic emotion
Chasing it leads to it changing and needing to be sought again
Be content in being nothing
>>1345446
has this worked for you?
be honest
Ever occur to anyone that with a few key select members and a little ingenuity that the majority of human history could be subtly modified over time, to the point where almost everything we think we know about it has been completely fabricated?
Basically think the "ministry of truth" from 1984 except its a secret society that has been around for thousands of years.
>>1345319
> Ever occur to anyone that with a few key select members and a little ingenuity that the majority of human history could be subtly modified over time, to the point where almost everything we think we know about it has been completely fabricated?
Yeah
>>1345319
I recommend to you the works of Anatoly Fomenko.
They call themselves the Post Office.
But I've already said too much.
Will there ever be a WW3? Will we live to see it?
>>1345284
We will be in a forever-war against Islam for quite a while.
Other than Muslims and Russia, large-scale war has basically been over for more than a decade.
Unless something drastically comes to change it, we'll be in a long trudging war with Islam for the foreseeable future.
BTW, this isn't alt-right shilling, all of what I'm saying is depressingly verifiable.
Hopefully we establish a permanent industrial foothold in space before it happens.
>>1345284
WWIII is a meme. The bigger nations are too strong and not willing to risk their entire nation. There is no purpose anymore. What we have no is what we will see for a while -
Quashing guerrilla fighters
and small skirmishes
There will not be an all out war between the most powerful nations because there is really no point to anymore. There is too much at stake.
Ultimately isn't happiness the Truth?
>>1345221
what is happiness?
>>1345221
happniess is the ultimate prize, but not the truth
>>1345221
I thought that was suffering
Why do ancient southeast asians use a lot stone in their architecture? Wouldn't it make sense to use wood since they live in the pacific belt?
...they almost certainly did, it is just that a lot of those structures didn't survive because wood doesn't last that long.
>>1345039
>Wouldn't it make sense to use wood since they live in the pacific belt?
Literally the opposite. They lived in a wet jungle prone to frequent flooding and typhoons.
Wood is a godawful building material in those conditions. It rots away entirely in a matter of a few years, while stone is forever. Wood is only good in cold, dry places like Northern Europe.
>>1345245
Nice try convincing idiots that.
Do you think humanity might have reached a low in terms of human motivation because we have enough resources to eliminate the need to fight for food every day but not enough (either resources or technology or political will) to eliminate boring work that doesn't have relevance to someone's goals or are too abstract to be fully appreciated?
What is the realistic end game in your opinion, as humanity eliminates lower order work (checkout operators, cleaning, because of robots etc.)? Mind uploading? space exploration? Complete genetic malleability?
My guess...
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>>1344994
Ah, I see you are approaching the final boss of history. Be not afraid. You are in good company.
The logical end-goal of technology as we understand it is the birth of an intelligence, or an equivalent of an intelligence, greater than its human creators. This could be conceived as a sci-fi machine-mind, or a "wet" biological mind sophisticated to the point of apparent god-like computations. Where, let us say, the AI takes its remaining constituency ought to be determined entirely by the people who...
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>>1344994
Animals strive for food and for sex, we have either in abundance in the developed world.
I doubt humans can find a higher meaning in this post-nihilistic society we call home.
The end result will be a slow death, no one has curiosity enough for space of those who wield power, and immersive VR will simply be a distraction like the arena fights of the Roman empire.
We don't care, we want fun and none of us has the drive to take humanity to a higher level. For fuck's sake, the low IQ...
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>>1345015
Why pro and anti kin selection? These are the broadest and fundamental social dynamics that weave in and out of societies throughout history. Anti-kin selection can be seen as a universalism, which benefits most from the heterogeneity of man under one constitutional banner of memes. Modern civilizations closing in on this are the Americans, where the social bonds of individual kultur are dissolved and their kinetic energy used to fuel the greater whole. Its opposite is kin-selection, a fundamentally nationalist idea...
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