DonRamsay

Really Turbs, you should get your mind out of the gutter . . .

I think Gnarly has given up on us all thinking we are all destined for HELL! However, relax, the apes know better . . . . [ATTACH]48022._xfImport[/ATTACH]

A teacher teaching English to a pilot's child: [ATTACH]48019._xfImport[/ATTACH] Well, maybe it was a bit of a stretch to get it into aviation humour . . . but I thought it was funny.

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If you can see the Southern Cross (or Pole Star in Nth Hemisphere), what more do you need? An Almanac and a tide chart ? But, the best advice is to carry a satellite phone and/or a Spot Tracker in remote areas and don't move too far from the crash site. Even a decent mobile phone will give you a GPS (with downloaded maps) that makes a compass look like a stone wheel.

You may have a good memory for the bad old days of the Cultural revolution, and they were terrible days indeed, but it would appear from your comment that you may not be aware of Mao's status (or lack of it) in China these days. Sun Yat Sen is seen as the father of modern China - not Mao. Chou En Lai is more revered and the Cultural Revolution is (quietly) seen for what it was - a disaster. There is even talk (in whispers) of moving Mao's mausoleum away from Tiananmen Square. Perhaps remembered as more Devil than God.

Enjoyed Xian as a favourite city. The wall was impressive and I loved this sign outside the wall: [ATTACH]48000._xfImport[/ATTACH]

I agree it is important to understand that the warriors are just the tip of the iceberg but I can't agree that the warriors are "are boring on their own". We were very privileged to be invited down into the Pit. The invitation came with a very stern warning "not to touch". [ATTACH]47999._xfImport[/ATTACH]

The skills to build the great pyramid were not acquired overnight but over centuries if not millennia of trial and error and progressive development. Early pyramids just fell down. Later the stepped pyramids were more successful. I would love to see a pyramid at Giza restored with its polished limestone outer casing and the gold cap. What a sight that would be. Guess that will never happen due to cost and damage to the pyramid. However, perhaps one of the mega rich could build a pyramid using modern technology and cladding that in limestone with a gold cap. The treasures that came from Tut Ank Ahmun's ("The image of Ahmun) tiny tomb are spread all over the top floor of the Cairo museum and are a thing of wonder in themselves. A rival to the pyramids might just be the tomb of the first Chinese emperor Qin. The warriors are well known but the vast underground city has yet to be touched. There are suggestions of underground rivers of mercury and that might just make it a very difficult proposition.

I visited Abu Simbel a few years ago. Wonderful. It was originally on the floor of the Nile Valley and due to be flooded by Lake Nasser (Aswan Dam). UNESCO organised for it to be cut up into blocks and moved to the higher ground where it sits today. If you look closely you can see where the bits fit together but all-in-all they did an amazingly god job. I did not see any evidence that it was other than a temple with the big statues of Ramses II and his missus. It is about 250 kms up the river from the Aswan Dam wall (near the cataracts) which is about 1,000 kms South of Cairo. The Hatshepsut temple (Valley of the Kings near Luxor) is as magnificent as it looks in the photo. The paint on the ceiling is still in pretty good nick after thousands of years. Love Egypt.

The Inca Earth God is known affectionately as Pacha Mama. The "mama" has been substituted for the original "Kamaq" as it was more catchy sort of title for the Earth Mother.

Other than poking fun at the illogicality of belief as a way to live your life I don't need to think about whether there are gods or not. For the same reason I don't devote a lot of time wondering about the existence of Leprechauns or admirable Russian despots or economics geniuses in Zambia. I live my life atheisticaly - without reference to deity. I don't actively disbelieve if there is such a thing. I Don bee to be anti-theist but it is tempting. I o however understand that you cannot have a logical discussion about belief because belief requires a suspension of the scientific method. When a scientist says that he believes he will have a cure for Alzheimer's within 5 years he is really saying that he "suspects" or expects to have a cure based on extrapolation of the current rate of success to date.

Turbs, I can't accept that it is logically possible to have a disbelief in a God(s). You can accept that there are Gods on faith alone (belief) or you can think and consider the evidence. When it comes to deities, I prefer to look at the evidence and make a logical decision. It's not that I have a disbelief in gods, it's more that I haven't found any reason to suspect that gods exist. I think there are no Gods and that is a different position to suspecting or believing (based on no evidence) that there are no gods. I think therefore I live in a chaotic world where things just happen. I can live with that. I don't have the primal urge to require total order where in reality a form of chaos exists. Things don't always happen for a perceivable reason but I will grant you that if there is a God and I've missed the evidence they surely do work in mysterious ways. I love that there are more suns in the universe than there are grains of sand on the planet Earth. Either the Gods of the heavens are over achievers who don't know when to quit (one sun is enough for the Earth) or they have some other unfathomable experiments going on.

Did that and quite interesting. There is an evolutionary reason why people always want to believe there is order and not chaos and Brown explores that well.

Facts are facts and beliefs are beliefs. Never the twain . . . But for Constantine's meddling with the Christian faiths and uniting (most of) them under the creed of Nicea Christianity would either have disappeared by the end of the 4th Century or there would be hundreds of versions of it with scores of New Testaments.

[ATTACH]47941._xfImport[/ATTACH] Who'd have thought Gnarly's attempt at humour would produce over 3,200 rebuttals?

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"Jesus Loves You - but everybody else thinks you are a . . . . . . . . ."

With apologies to the Gnarly one . . . A Rabbi, Hindu priest and tele-evangelist are driving through the country when their car breaks down. They walk to a farmhouse and ask the farmer if they can have shelter for the night. He says yes but explains that there is only room enough in the house for two of them, someone will have to sleep in the barn. The Hindu priest says he will do it and walks out to the barn. A few minutes later there is a knock at the farmhouse door. The farmer opens it and the Hindu is standing there. He explains that there is a cow in the barn and because cows are holy to him he can't sleep in its presence. The Rabbi hears this and states that he will gladly take his place and leaves. A few minutes later he too returns explaining that there is a pig in the barn and his religion prohibits him from associating with what they consider an unclean animal. The tele-evangelist says that he'll go sleep in the barn and leaves. A few minutes later there's a knock at the door. The farmer opens it and sees the cow and the pig...

Interesting Bruce, I'd never thought of that. So the big guy gives us free will knowing full well that Eve would eat the apple and that Adam and the rest of us would be punished for all time and that Joe Stalin and Adolf Hitler would use theirs to ensure 100 million people met an untimely and violent death. Surely he would realise (in advance) that the design of humankind was badly flawed? But then why would an omnipotent being create a life form that clearly was so imperfect that there was every likelihood that they would wipe out not just many other species but their own? Sounds like a malicious child who builds up a toy block wall only to smash it down for the fun of it. Perhaps we need a new prophet (sorry mohammed you may not be the last) with a better imagined God Mk II. And perhaps this new prophet won't have a predilection to marry a 9 yo girl?

You've been reading FT posts again . . . you were warned.

Could not watch that right through. These guys make George Pell look like a Christian.

I've only ever known one person who was a Muslim. He was from Egypt studying architecture at the same Uni I was at. We got to be good friends nod I asked him about Islam. He told me how family centric it was. No domestic violence from alcohol abuse, an obligation to offer hospitality to anyone who turns up at your door. Regards the headwear, imagine how a young woman would feel looking good at the beach in a stylish bikini. Now think of the same woman urging up for her Uni graduation ceremony in the same bikini. Very comfortable on the beach but feeling naked and embarrassed in a more formal situation. Now think of the Muslim woman who feels comfortable at home without the hijab but in public feels terribly immodest. Clearly, a learned behaviour, just the same as the non-Muslim's behaviour and emotions. Imagine now a Pacific Islander very comfortable walking around the village topless - until some well meaning Christian missionary inflicts an ancient Middle Eastern religion on them. I've always thought that Australians had a good approach to religion. Useful for naming ceremonies, Christmas and Easter, weddings and funerals and for comparative religion jokes . . . A priest a rabbi and a minister . . . Don't take it all that seriously. Get the best out of it and never try and convert anyone to your particular form of imaginary friend. My faith is that Australian's lackadaisical way will wear down the Australian Muslims to the Australian level of "devotion". Might take a generation or two but it will happen. Have a look how Australian Anh Do is and that happened in less than one generation. Australians are probably more at risk from Scientology and Hillsong than Islam.

Need a young virgin for a wife? Here's the Christian approved way of going about it: If a man find a damsel that is a virgin, which is not betrothed, and lay hold on her, and lie with her, and they be found; Then the man that lay with her shall give unto the damsel's father fifty shekels of silver, and she shall be his wife ... Deuteronomy 22:28-9 Class act, or what. And these people claim the moral high ground? Give me a break. Thank God we don't have church law in Australia. Long live secular law!