Quote

knife
n. pl. knives
1. A cutting instrument consisting of a sharp blade attached to a handle.
2. A cutting edge; a blade.

v. knifed, knif-ing, knifes
v. tr.
1. To use a knife on, especially to stab; wound with a knife.
2. Informal. To betray or attempt to defeat by underhand means.

v. intr.
To cut or slash a way through something with or as if with a knife: The boat knifed through the waves.

Source: The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company

Diablo's B.A. in English clearly wasn't worth the time and money.

In Response to jon (#12722):

Diablo's B.A. in English clearly wasn't worth the time and money

Unlike all the other ones.. hmmm crosslink to the burger king topic in Australian marketing? nah...

In Response to jon (#12722):

Diablo's B.A. in English clearly wasn't worth the time and money.

Huh. Neither was my wife's, apparently. I know more Shakespeare than she does.

Did Diablo's come from Dartmouth, too?

In Response to zamphir (#12724):

Getting a degree in English at Dartmouth is kind of like getting a degree in Transgendered Studies at Bob Jones University [bju.edu].

In Response to tor (#12723):

shh shh shhhhh.

i just started my b.a., and i'll probably be majoring in enlish or history (well actually mythology/religion if i can swing it, but thats a little more complicated).

so far i'm still convinced that it will be useful to me...don't burst my happy little school bubble.

In Response to goat_girl (#12771):

English Literature majors are highly sought after in the pool cleaning industry. Of course, now, I guess so are Computer Science majors. I digress.

In Response to Grimicus (#12781):

i think on the totum pole of usefullness, it goes like this

Computer Engineering

Vampiric Studies Major

Political Science Major

Classics Major

English Major

transendental meditation major

Philosophy Major

Klingon Major

--
It's better to destroy than create what's unnecessary.

In Response to kornz (#12804):

You misunderstand the usefullness of an incredibly high tolerance for and high operancy while under the influence of alcohol that a Philosophy degree gives you.

In Response to zamphir (#12812):

i thought that was Political Science...

I am a poli sci major and all I have been really doing is hanging out with professors in the pubs arround campus.

In Response to kornz (#12824):

Pubs? Pubs?

Philosophy professors don't bother to limit their drinking to pubs!

If it's good enough for the pub, it's good enough for the classroom!

Besides which, Poli Sci gives you the illusion of being a useful degree - "Hey, I can go on to become a politician with this degree! (Or at least, have half a chance of becoming a Congressional intern)".

The practical nature of a philosphy degree is only one of the very FIRST illusions that the degree program cures you of.

In Response to zamphir (#12812):

To paraphrase Moby in a Rolling Stone article, the most useful thing about being a philosophy major in college that "you can tell people later in life that you were a philosophy major in college, and they'll think you're a lot smarter than you actually are."

In Response to Deathalicious (#12755):

Jeez, I just had a look at their homepage.

I mean they believe that "We believe that the best way to understand both Scripture and the scientific evidence is in terms of an earth that is only 6 to 10 thousand years old." Riiiiight. You just go on your merry way and try and expain DINOSAURS to the bio majors. Oh yes, that's right, dinosaur fossils were put in the earth to fool sinners (scientists??). Occam's Razor anyone?

And then they go on about how if you send your kid there, you'll be giving them the pressure to crystallise their faith (read: brainwash them), but of course not the WRONG KIND of pressure, you know the kind that causes you to question fundamentalism in any way, shape or form.

And yes, they don't like witches.

I find it highly ironic that they call themselves, of all things a "liberal arts college". It also appears they're not accredited. I wonder why.

In Response to snipergirl (#12881):

Occam's Razor anyone?


Well I would go so far as to say that tectonics are actually more complex an answer than a sneaky god.

Look at the history of sneaky gods. They are cool. Like when Loki got thor to dress up as a lady and stuff. I mean that is some damn cool god action (we have human "experience" of such things being possible).

Explaining fish fossils in a mountain? I want to go the sneaky god angle and I believe that Occam's razor (no needless entity deal etc) would actually go for a sneaky god rather than the immensely complex tectonic plate theory.

Not saying that the god thing is right but saying that Occam's may not be the best answer here. I think more of an argument based on, look how well all of these complex things fit together and support each other and stuff is probably a better argument.

Remember there is a fossilised bowler hat [drdino.com] floating around out there... man I love that one. Oh bugger I was going to re read and this and make it more legible but I gots to do some work, sorry if it misses the point or something.

In Response to Deathalicious (#12755):

Bob Jones? Is this named after the Saint Bob and Saint Jones? you know, the saints from the old testament that didn't make it to the new?

I like the idea of safe and secure online 'giving', though. That's gotta be the best paraphrasing I've heard in a while. Especially when I'm giving to S&E's endowment (you did say transgendered studies, no?)

In Response to unFalln (#12885):

the saints from the old testament that didn't make it to the new?

... I hate to injure anyone's delicate Christian sensibilities, but given what has become the old testament (ie: the Torah) there are no old testament saints. This is because the Jews did not need this sort of thing. They also did not have other annoying concepts (such as Hell - Gehenna was a garbage dump). The closest they come is a place to put people to whom God has revealed himself, and who have subsequently decided to say 'Ah, fuck off, old man, I don't need you anyhow.'

In Response to sakuruth (#12888):

don't forget, if a soul was found to be unfavorable to g-d, then g-d nullifies the soul. and the most you can be in Gehenna is about 5 months

In Response to kornz (#12902):

the most you can be in Gehenna is about 5 months

Yeah. They need to keep the population limited to 40,000.

In Response to tor (#12884):

Occam's Razor anyone?

I must agree with the protruding rock, here.

I personally think Occam's Razor is an overhyped piece of crap with no scientific merit. It can help with reasoning, but offers no true testability and has no application in theological arguments. Here's the simplest answer to all questions:

God did it.

Why?

Its beyond your knowledge.

Done.

In Response to deerboy (#12904):

I think you truly have to have a magnificently overconvoluted explaination for something presented to you to be able to truly use occam's razor with a high degree of confidence.

If I make a theory about the war in Iraq being caused by interstellar grapes that wanted to start an illegal monkey-smuggling operation and needed a great distraction over in the Middle East, you could... hey, wait. That actually makes a lot of sense.

In Response to tor (#12884):

Actually, I was more referring to evolution as making more sense when it came to fossils than SGT (sneaky god theory)... I mean really, why would God bother with sticking fossils around that suggest an evolutionary basis. And creating so many different species of finches within a 20km radius of each other. Rinse and repeat for a wide variety of biological examples I can't be arsed coming up with since I'm drunk.

I agree, plate tectonics is a complex explanation... but compared to SOME of the theories floating around at the time it was proposed (immensely long land bridges anyone??) plate tectonics just explains more in one stroke than the rest of them.

My point being you have to conjure up some pretty weird psychology to attribute to God in order to explain the world being around for 6,000-10,000 years. And yeah, I find evolution, plate tectonics etc to be slightly more straightforward explanations of a wide range of phenomena than "God did it to fool dumbass scientist sinners".

But yeah. Loki is cool. If it isn't evolution or plate tectonics, I'll settle for Loki. Or possibly the Simpsons explanation: Wizards

I'm reminded of a quote from a guy in my Chinese 101 course:

Me: "So what are you going to do with a degree in linguistics?"

Him: "A B.A. in Linguistics? Um, you want fries with that?"

In Response to snipergirl (#12909):

I was looking for a story I had received a long time ago about a guy named "Bob" who will give you a million dollars if you believe in him, but you can't leave the town or he'll take away your money or something. Look it was a long time ago, I don't remember all of it. If anyone recalls something similar to that, let me know.

Anyway, somehow I came upon this:

--------
"A Sunday school teacher was asking her students some questions after a series of lessons on God's omnipotence. She asked, "Is there anything God can't do?"
            All was silent. Finally, one boy held up his hand.
            The teacher, on seeing this, was disappointed that they had missed the point of the lesson. She sighed and asked, "Well, what is it you think God can't do?"
            The boy replied, "He can't please everybody.""

--------

It's from this website:

http://jokes.christiansunite.com/

Is it just me, or was that completely devoid of humor?

In Response to Phobos (#12958):

On the subject of the omnipotent deity:

Can an omnipotent deity create a boulder so large that the deity cannot lift it?

Oh, and I actually found that joke rather amusing.

In Response to sakuruth (#12960):

Can an omnipotent deity create a boulder so large that the deity cannot lift it?

Hey, I took Philosophy 101 too. Good class, huh?

In Response to daubergoat (#13004):

Yes, I was gonna use the boulder argument, but you beat me to it. Here's my more convoluted argument that basically proves the same thing. I've put it in to the standard way the argument goes for that special touch:

  ME: "Ok, if God says he made humans with free will, right?
  CHAT ROOM IDIOT: "Dur?"
  ME: "He is omniscient too, right? That means he knows everything happening everywhere in case you didn't know."
  CHAT ROOM IDIOT: "Dur?"
  ME: "He is also infinitely intelligent, right?"
  CHAT ROOM IDIOT: "Dur?"
  ME: "So if he knows everything, and can calculate the vector for everything and how it interacts with everything else because he's all intelligent, then how can he give (wo)man free will? He knows what's going to happen. I hereby prove that God LIES!!!
  CHAT ROOM IDIOT: "So... free will, right? Explain it to me."
   
  Anyway, that's my proof thingie. Incidentally, how did this get from discussion of whether a word is or is not a verb to fallacies of faith?