h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

A very amusing article.
A very amusing article.
A very amusing article.
A very amusing article.
A very amusing article.
A very amusing article.

I think I 've used the paste function enough, now.

Visit my pages, they are of a similar calibre to yours (this is a self-congratulation, not a slight on your work)

Thank you very much, Mr. Prolonged. I have visited your page before, and even posted to the televangelists article. Very insightful.

It may have been your televangelist article that got me thinking, or else it was someone else's page that discussed atheism, but not to my satisfaction. I did a search on the subject and found that there were already user pages on the subject, but they were kinda bitter and argumentative. I felt the need to let the world know that not all atheists are grumpy physics professors

I'm not strictly speaking an atheist, in that I believe that it was more than possible for another race to have created our own. However, I find that the religious viewpoints that currently exist are so far off any possible mark that they should be completely disregarded. It is also my fervent belief that if it was not for two or three groups/factors/ideologies, mankind would be about 400 years ahead of it's current position in terms of technology. These groups/factors are: the technology and new idea fearing Christian Church; the barbarian hordes that sacked the Roman Empire; the modern, petty capitalist attitude to science (ie: if it doesn't earn us anything, it's a waste of time) and the American Government's slashing of the NASA budget and the slow down of the space program after the moon landings.

It was the sacking of Rome that created the atmosphere in Western civilization that allowed the feudalist system and the Catholic Church to ascend. The two factors share responsibility, but it is more fun to waggle your finger at the supposed representative of god.

As for the NASA thing, it is still going forward, and I like the idea that space technologies are being developed internationally now. Even if the Russians will never get their pieces of the space station aloft.

Oooops, missed a point. As far as capitalism, it is a driving force behind science, not a hindrance. It has been the development of capitalist economies in several nations that started the Industrial Revolution in the first place.

I suppose so- you do have a point about the capitalist system, but the problem is that people would have achieved so much more if it wasn't for the element of cost. The basic problem is that people are selfish: they won't work for nothing and still go at max efficiency. That's where communism went wrong, in that it trusted every individual to be responsible enough to work hard for the common good. The Russians etc forgot that all people are essentially deeply unpleasant creatures, and the only creatures on Earth that kill for anything but food.

Communism was wrong on so many levels because there was no impetus to improve yourself. Why work hard to become an engineer, or a doctor, when you would still make as much money as a security guard

Skilled Workers are the lifeblood of any economy. I think that people were supposed to do these jobs for 'the common good' or some such thing.

I've been scrolling back in this thread, trying to figure out how we so quickly moved this conversation from atheism to the failure of communism

I think that it's just my dogged method of converstion. Pop along to my page, five new articles up, another 13 on the way.