On Wed, 07 Nov 2012 20:56:14 +0000, Stephen wrote:

> 1/	No one wants to stop existing when they die so the believe in a
> religion that promises life after death.

I disagree.  There are some who accept that that is the reality of the 
situation (to the best of anyone's actual knowledge), and are OK with 
that.

> 2/	A lot of people find it hard to "think outside of the box" and
> believe what they are brought up with as a matter of course.

That is true.  That is why the ability to reason and question is so 
important.

> 3/ Lots of people are really STUPID! (Did I say that out loud?)

That certainly is true.

> BTW I think that the talk in this thread (not you) where some people
> discuss just how intelligent/wise you should be before you should be
> allowed to vote, is marching to the sound of the Goose step.

I don't think that's a "Godwin"-worthy comment to make.  Objectively, 
there are ways to measure someone's competence (we do that all the time 
in the courts to determine if someone is 'competent to stand trial'), and 
a measure of competence and understanding of the issues being voted on 
would seem to be a reasonable expectation to set.

In this election, for example, I was unaware that there were two 
positions being voted on for school boards.  As I was in the voting 
booth, it was too late for me to learn something about those issues, so I 
abstained from voting.  Too many people see choices like that and decide 
that their vote doesn't matter anyways, so they pick a choice at random.

I self-determined that I was not competent to cast a vote for those two 
positions, and removed myself from the pool as I was uninformed on those 
candidates' positions.  I would have no problem with having to 
demonstrate working knowledge of the candidates' positions prior to 
casting a vote.

We require demonstrated competence for driving a motor vehicle and for 
many other things we do in our daily lives.  If providing proof of 
citizenship is such a high priority, certainly it seems that providing 
reasonable proof of competence also should be a high priority.

Jim

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