Why are Hinduism and Buddhism so much more complex than other religions?
>>429398
because they care
Because they don't mince words about the suffering intrinsic to material existence and so their beliefs and methodologies are infinitely richer for it
Did you read Church Father, Aquinas or Christian mystics?
>I'm a solipsist
Is this autism: the philosophy?
>science is the only way to obtain knowledge
This is autism.
>>429394
Isn't it?
>>429371
Solipsism is the philosophy of the socially misadjusted and the depressed, if that's what you mean
I don't understand.
Was there something purely potential for something purely actual to actualize into whatever the actuality of the potential thing is?
is something potential actualzied and when it is actualized does it become closer to god?
is something potential when becoming actual becomes potential to its pre-actual state, and does that mean that removing the actuality would return it to its potential state (but this would be the new actual) thus removing the necessity of the other actual thing to actualize it?
>>429118
rationalism is a nihilism
>>429120
what's rationalism?
>>429122
nevermind i wikipedia'd it.
so what would be the opposite to the rational view? if something can't be comprehend through reason then can anything be comprehended at all?
I am surprised at how much atheists here misrepresent Christianity. It's obvious that we have been raided by Reddit atheists and weebs from the other boards.
I see tons of debunked memes and people who only scratch the surface of Christian theology and perpetuate old arguments against Christianity.
But really I blame the Roman Catholics and mainstream Protestants who fail to address anything consistently. They bend Christianity to please guys like you and it falls apart and are then disappointed that you guys don't like what they have done to Christianity.
Seriously advise you guys to look up Reformed theology instead of wasting time with these lousy Romanist shitposters (Romanist = Roman Catholics) who will post their church fathers to sound smart or those Protestants who don't know the first thing about Calvinism dismiss it because they are retarded.
>>429047
bump
>>429047
Calvinism is the idea that there is no free will and the whole human race are just puppets on a string for God and that God has predestined newborn babies to go to hell by deciding they will not accept the religion. It's the idea that all other religions are secret Satan in disguise.
It's one of the most retarded theological positions.
>>429062
Yeah, it and its extreme opposite, pelagianism, were debunked centuries ago
Looking for assistance in gathering and compiling a history the South African state which focuses primarily upon the 20th century of Apartheid. I already have the relevant information necessary to understand the workings of the current bicameral parliament under Zuma and the ANC but it has been difficult finding and deciding upon unbiased sources which present the history of Apartheid and its natural abuses towards the natives with going too far in demonizing the government as overly racists or glorifying the supremacy of white rule.
General timelines from settlement to the modern day or just a source of such a timeline would be much appreciated as well, it's not that the initial colonial history of South Africa as a settlement and early Boer conflicts with the Zulu aren't important, I'm just more focused on the state than the colony in my research.
If at all possible I'd like the thread to avoid becoming a flame war between /pol/acks and /his/torians.
>>429031
Honestly, at this point in time I think it would be incredibly difficult to find unbiased sources about the severity and actuality of human rights abuses under apartheid. It's too recent an issue, and it's still too polarising.
I can't give you much help, unfortunately, but I can tell you that my mum, who is South African, told me once that if there were human rights abuses (apart from the restrictions on work and movement) committed by the state, almost no one really knew about it - on account of a lot of censorship by the government. She said that's why, even though you had a sizable group of White South Africans protesting against the law very early on, not too many people were against it. By the late 80s though, the general opinion among White South Africans was that it was bad, and most of them wanted it gone. I'm not saying no one knew what was going on, people just weren't aware of the severity of it (if it was severe at all).
Realistically though, white rule itself wasn't all that great, which may come much to the dismay of post-Apartheid white South Africans and other non-South African whites who idealise the system despite never living under it. The economy wasn't doing great, you couldn't travel easily or find work abroad due to being international pariahs, and the government was relatively corrupt and oppressive towards dissent (not much better than the one now, mind you). It was in no way "heaven on earth", That's just my two cents though, actual South Africans or people more knowledgeable about the subject are free to interject and correct any of my misconceptions.
>>429271
Appreciate the thought from your mom. The most difficult part about all of this is that you're right when you say that
>It's too recent an issue, and it's still too polarising.
Apartheid South Africa isn't quite on the level of Rhodesia because there is a 'hero' in the story represented by Nelson Mandela, unlike Mugabe and his massive failures. Still though I think it's important to recognize that we are talking about a state that went from creating and then dismantling its own nuclear weapons to replacing three finance ministers in one week. What's most difficult is trying to find material that demonstrates the efficiency of the Apartheid system as well as its social misgivings. A perfect example that I was able to find would be white Afrikaner unions convincing their employers to increase wages to push blacks out of the job market by making them too risky an investment given the higher wages. This resulted in more skilled workers being hired but created and economic dead weight loss through the decreased purchasing power of the formerly employed blacks.
Interesting fact: South Africa was better under white rule
we know that the roman empire in the west fell in 476AD. But if you were to go back in time and be made the emperor of the western empire what would you have done to prevent its fall?
introduce a minimum wage
>>427917
In what year do I become emperor? If it's 476 exactly I don't see much of a way out
>>427917
Not kill my only competent generals (Stilicho, Aetius) for one thing. Put all my priorities to secure North Africa and use the wealth to appease the barbarians to go home. Afterwards, connect both empires together.
The Romans despite declining numbers in their army actually won most of their engagements. Losing North Africa was the killing blow.
I have a number of friends who sincerely believe in all of the myths about Dark Ages, and how Christianity hindered development of Europe, or how barbaric tribes destroyed everything the Roman Empire has build. How do I argue with this type of shit?
>pic not related
>>427330
You don't because it's true.
>/his/ please help me confirm my biases
>>427330
You don't. Anyone who commits to spouting crap they don't actually know about isn't worth the time.
If you really want to, just recommend him to watch the Civilization documentary series, the first two episodes do a good job addressing that or refer him to the wikipedia page on science in the middle ages
And after that, get better friends
>>427330
you tell them to go read a book about the subject and stop spouting ignorant shit
Why is it that Jews never produced the large and professional armies that Christians and Muslims had? Surely they had a similar ideology and would protect/spread their beliefs if they had an upstanding army.
Because G-d protects them.
As in before the dispersal from Israel by the Romans or after?
>>427136
Because jews, annoying as they are, don't typically proselytize
Why did ancient scholars look down upon democracy and yet feared and despised tyranny?
Couldn't they see one is a remedy for the other?
The tyranny of the masses is just as bad as having a traditional tyranny.
>idiocracy
>good
>>427086
Learn this difference:
demagoguery
democracy
Should be in Plato.
Francis Fukuyama said that the Russians are corrupt despots because the mongols tyranized them so hard that corrupt despotism just became a part of their culture. Is this true or is Fukuyama full of shit? Is Russian brutality just a Mongolian meme?
>>426989
It's a meme. Russia wasn't particularly brutal before the bolshevik takeover.
It is not a meme, claiming Mongol heritage was common even for the last Rurik tsars as a way to gain more prestige. The oppressive autocratic police state and eternal hunger for clay is what mentally separates them from other Slavs.
Fukuyama generally is full of shit. His 'End of History' essay is so short-sighted and west-centristic it makes me wanna tear the paper apart. I thought we dropped the teleological views on history after the dismissal of Hegel. Apparently political scientists still haven't reached that point.
Before 10,000BCE or so humanity was a species of hunters and gatherers. As a rule men did the bulk of the hunting of animals and women did the bulk of the gathering of plants and similar. But at the date previously mentioned things began to change in what's now Iraq. Basically some of the gatherers began to realize they could get more out of the fields of wild wheat that relied on had if they removed the various non wheat and barley plants plants and that they could use some of the seeds that they otherwise would eat to grow more plants. Eventually these ladies turned to clearing out land and growing nothing but wheat and barley on these plants. And so over several generations these hunter gatherers became farmers and would go onto build civilizations and develop technology more advanced than crude bows shooting flint arrows. This process would repeat itself in China, Equatorial Africa, Mexico, New Guinea and the Andes.
One of the most profound inventions in human history was developed by women.
>>426655
>inventions
Wouldn't discovery be more apt?
Also wouldn't that mean that animal domestication was solely developed by men?
>>426655
>developed by women
>Implying this isn't just pure conjecture, certainly possible though
>>426655
>One of the most profound inventions in human history was developed by women.
So? Men wound up doing the majority of the farming once it became an intensive, rather than supplementary, way of obtaining food.
I vote for the battle of Texel, fought between The Dutch navy and French cavalry. Pic related. They snuck across the ice by covering their horses hooves in cloth to avoid waking the sailors and captured 14 icebound ships. No casualties. The only known time in history that cavalry captured a fleet.
>France always solves everything with cavalry charges but sucks at naval warfare
>"fuck it, we'll cavalry charge a fleet"
>>426464
Age of Empires tier logic but it panned out lol
it's probably a meme, but hilarous anyway
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Kar%C3%A1nsebes
Was Berlin 1936 the best Olympic games ever?
>>426269
according to what kind of standards?
No. Seoul was. The birds they released that were immediately fried in the Olympic torch cemented its greatness.
Without a doubt
Rome and Barcelona Olympics were pretty cool though
Why do so many people blame him for the spread of HIV/AIDS in the United States?
>>426248
He knew about it but pretended that he didn't. He intentionally made it difficult to test and study the virus because at the time the vast majority of victims were gays, and he was a raging homophobe.
>>426255
prove it, pinko.
>>426248
Because everyone needs to have someone to blame. There must be someone behind all the injustices of the world. Accountability doesn't exist anymore.
What do you make of the fact that not a single pharaoh tomb has ever been found in the pyramids?
>>425792
Bigger targets, easier to loot, they have found tombs in Pyramids.
>>425834
Pretty sure it's spelled "tumps" you dumb cunt.
Not much, phaorohs have been found in other tombs.
