Random
Source Code
Random
Obsessive devotion combined with thoroughly invasive attempts to convert people to whatever is being devoted to.
Devotion alone is not harmful. Teaching people about one's devotions or beliefs isn't harmful.
But people are completely out-of-line when they force people into unwilling bondage with the threat of death.
Usually, fanaticism is driven by power-hunger, corruption given by power, the strong desire to be considered right, misinterpretation of religious texts or other manifestos and documents, and/or insanity.
It's not often monetarily driven. That problem is usually called greed, an obsession with money. (Which I suppose might be a type of fanaticism.)
It is not belief, but fanaticism, that is the cause of many of the world's problems.
Some Christians either have a rather blasΓΒ© attitude towards their faith, or they practise raving fanaticism which would be dangerous to the public at large if carried out in office. (Many Protestant churches are possesed by fanaticism.) These two stereotypes give Christianity a bad, bad, bad image that it's rather undeserving of, as most Christians are moderates, or are the blasΓΒ© kind aforementioned.
Similarly, the Crusades and the Inquisitions were rather embarrassing fanatical events in history that have nothing to do with the message of Christ, but with the craze of power and being right.
Communism during the Cold War was sometimes fanaticism rooted in a state cult (like Stalinism), or in atheism. This fanaticism led to the deaths of many religious people, guilty of little to nothing else.
The fanaticism of the Ku Klux Klan led to the unwarranted deaths of many African Americans.
Nazi fanaticism killed Jews, communists, homosexuals, Catholics, and soldiers who could all have been doing something more useful than dying.
So, therefore, I believe strongly that it's not Christianity, Islam, Republicanism, Democratism, liberality, conservatism, Zionism, Judaism, capitalism, communism, socialism, dictatorship, or any other belief or circumstance which causes trouble. It is when these things hold too much influence over our lives and cause us to do horrible things. Or, fanaticism.
26π 3π
The ability to do what you ought to do. Often confused with license, which is the ability to do whatever you want.
Why is freedom the ability to do what you OUGHT to do, and not what you WANT to do?
If we take it as a given that freedom is universal (or should be), then freedom cannot be whatever YOU want it to be. Let's say, for example, that you wanted to kill me. Your "freedom" would infringe on my own "freedom". Or let's say you wanted to raise taxes on me to increase your own freedom. That detracts from MY freedom.
Therefore, if all of us are entitled to freedom, this definition of freedom is invalid because it doesn't safely entitle everyone universal freedom.
The definition I have posted, that freedom is being able to do what one OUGHT to do, however, IS freedom because when one does what he OUGHT to do, instead of what he wants to, he infringes on no one else's freedom. He disrupts no one in their freedom, but instead directs them TO freedom if they are not free. The only person who can limit your freedom in a society where freedom is doing good is oneself.
Father Corapi preaches the difference between freedom and license. Freedom is what Christianity is all about. God made us to be FREE. And even if that is what the Illuminati want, let's baffle 'em and be free in God!
67π 21π
The great land of Ireland, known for its tranquil, dark green countryside.
From the plane, my father saw the Emerald Isle far below.
30π 4π
A Russian crocodile who plays the garmon (or garmoshka, a type of accordion). He has a little furry friend named Cheburashka.
Gena sings and plays his garmon:
And I'm playing,
my garmoshka,
I am playing,
loud and clear
It's a pity
that one's birthday
comes but once
a year.
55π 47π
A formerly necessary wagon attached to the back of a train. The brake van was used to stop a train in case of an emergency (such as if a coupling had snapped, and the latter half of the train was rolling down a steep hill). On longer journeys, the brake van served as a temporary residency for the train crew.
Nowadays, most trucks (US:freightcars) are already equipped with brakes so they'll stop automatically should something go wrong. Some trains even have locomotives at both ends, further reducing the necessity of a brake van.
Synonyms: caboose(US), guard's van
*coupling snaps*
Driver: Cor! Look at that!!
*trucks rocket down a steep hill*
Fireman: I hope the guard (US: conductor) knows how to work the brake!!
Meanwhile, the guard sees a train coming, and he cranks the brake handle like mad. We see sequences of footage as the train and the brake van get closer and closer.
The guard, seeing his whole life flash before his eyes, shuts his eyes and waits for the impending crash-
Driver 2: Oi, mate, what're you doing? Gonna rub noses with our train for the day or what?
The guard notices he's still alive.
Guard: *wipes forehead* Phew! Thank God we had a brake van; this could have been quite nasty!
9π 3π
SSAD is an acronym for "same-sex attraction disorder". In olden times - before common sense became a precious commodity - this is what doctors and psychologists used to diagnose anyone who, instead of having the natural inclination to procreate with a member of the opposite sex, had a sexual attraction to one of his or her own sex.
Among modern secular society, SSAD has fallen into disuse, as the mental state it describes is considered "normal" among the secular world. (Although, on a side note, many things once considered crude, lewd, and despicable are now considered "normal" in the modern secular world.)
Many Christian groups still consider same-sex attractions a disorder. Some even make attempts to fix SSAD. Almost all Christians, however, declare that while SSA is a disorder, and sodomy a sin, we must "love the sinner and hate the sin".
If the first humans had had SSAD from the beginning, it is unlikely that any of us would be alive.
SSAD is a disorder because it is a disorder. It is not normal for a man to want to try to procreate with another man - for two men do not have enough eggs between them to procreate! Nor do two women have even a single sperm between them to fertilize their eggs.
Even if SSAD is genetic, it is still abnormal and counterproductive to the natural reproduction of human species. For no species can continue existing without having a desire to procreate, and SSAD is averse to this most natural desire of all animals.
31π 53π
An archaic operating system from the early 1990s.
Unlike modern PCs and MACs, it didn't have a START menu or toolbar; it had a program manager application. It was one of the first GUI Windows platforms, an upgrade of Windows 3.0.
3.1 was the first system I ever worked with, waaay back when I was four or five. 3.1 was a good machine, capable of handling any game from Reader Rabbit to the Oregon Trail (CD).
Then we upgraded to Windows 95, which had a better interface.
But Windows 3.1 will be dear to me forever, for it was my first computer OS ever.
57π 13π