War

[reverendjeremiah]

I have never once said that "war doesnt produce inventions."

My argument, if you have been following, is that war is NOT NEEDED to fuel human invention.

Sure, I agree that war can speed up human invention... but my argument is sternly that war is not needed to fuel human invention.

Then you quote this link:
http://atheistforums.org/thread-9097-pos...#pid196160
Which says:

Sure...I mean, what would humanity ever do if we didnt have land mines or thumb screws?

POINT: All of this stuff could easily had been invented without war.

Its the same bad excuse people give me for Capitalism. They suggest that without a profit motive, nothing would have been accomplished or invented.

Basically they are saying that without war and money, mankind would be a bunch of lazy dipshits.

...and then people wonder why crony capitalism and war is job number one in America and other countries...

what are you trying to say or suggest i said? I have never once suggested that war didnt produce inventions.

could you be more specific why you posted a link to my earlier post?

And this is why I didn't want to be drawn into this, despite great love and respect for reverendjeremiah. In general I avoid serious forum discussions because most of it is bullshit arguments and heaping helpings of confirmation bias and other quirks of human reason, and is often peppered with ignorant statements which even superficial research would uncover. And that goes double for the sort of individual — no names mind you — who are frequently seen peppering forums with threads which are little more than pretense for them to get on their hobby horse and ride. Thank you kindly, I choose not to participate. The only reason I excepted this thread from that basic policy is, as I said, I have enormous respect for the rev and am generally predisposed to make time for him that I wouldn't do for someone else. And now that time is over.

I see.

I appreciate the respect... but you were not clear on why you even posted the link.

Oh, and you dont have to participate in this discussion if you dont want to. Its as easy as not posting in it.

Removing part of a toolkit, just because you feel it "lowers quality", does little good and quite a bit of harm, as there are many dependencies and side-effects that are not fully understood, even now.

Who said the tool should be removed from the toolkit? I didnt. I am suggesting that we quit using the tool and put it back in the tool kit and try another.