Peter van Uhm is the Netherlands' chief of defense, but that does not mean he is pro-war. At TEDxAmsterdam he explains how his career is one shaped by a love of peace, not a desire for bloodshed -- and why we need armies if we want peace.

This is pretty well said.

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[rant]

Yesterday I was pretty bored and replied to a post on the Colorado Furs Yahoo Group board. I replied to a guy that was asking how many furry atheists are in the group. He also said we shouldn't tell anyone that they are wrong for believing in whatever.

I replied about my views and how I see things differently now than what I used to. I also said that I disagreed with the part that we shouldn't tell someone they are wrong if it is something they believe. I used the analogy, "If someone believes the sky is purple I am pretty sure you would say they are wrong and that it is in fact blue. Why then would you not correct someone that says the Earth is 6000 years old and evolution isn't real?"

This got a wave of replies from the "Don't rock the boat" type of people and the "Science is based on faith, quit trying to push your beliefs on people."

The latter group of people are a sad lot indeed. One guy tried to say that a colorblind person has to take it on faith that the sky is blue. I corrected him by mentioning that blue is just a part of the visible spectrum of light that can be measured and detected. You could take an instrument and point it at the sky and on a clear day the device will tell you that the sky is blue. The guy said he would never believe what I have to say (closed mind much?) and attacked me on some other grounds (subjective vs objective reality I think).

I then get a warning from the censor nazi mod of the board (mostly why I stay off it anyways) that I am just trying to start arguments. Uh, all I did was explain how you can verify that the sky is blue even if you are unable to see colors. If your blind faith makes you upset at this demonstrable fact then you need to see a psychiatrist because you have some serious problems.

Another thing, I was attacked as being a "Militant Atheist." I have covered this time and again and won't go into the details of why and how it is a misrepresentation here. I said that the term is merely a diversionary trick by theists to attempt to make the person shut up. When I pointed this out to him he tried to backtrack, but it is still pretty clear that his message was, "Shut up." This tactic is the same as when someone tries to unjustifiably calls someone a racist, sexist, etc. If someone pulls this on you do not let them get away with it.

Anyways, there were others that I wanted to reply to but never got the chance. To any that were reading the forum, where was I trying to say the reincarnation guy was wrong? Sure, I asked him how he came to the conclusion he did and how could I test this for myself. To which he refused to answer for reasons that are only truly known to him but can be speculated. Where was I trying to push atheism on others? All I was doing was explaining how to perform certain tests and how we know the sky is blue (honestly, how did the color of the sky piss off so many people?). I was also informing people on the various fields that all come to the same conclusion concerning the age of the Earth. It does not take faith of any kind to agree, unless you think chemistry, geology, cosmology, physics, and other fields are all wrong despite the advances in technology that we fully enjoy and take for granted today.

There is an analogy for the "Science is faith" nonsense that people spew out. Let's say we have Johnny Blindfaith. He believes that 2+2=5. That is his belief and he takes it on faith. He does not believe what Mathematicians have to say because he believes that Mathematics never proved that 2+2≠5 but 2+2=4. When a person (Mr. n) comes along with a basic understanding of mathematics comes along and explains the proofs, gives examples, etc. Johnny Blindfaith gets upset and calls Mr. n a "Militant Mathematician" and stamps his feet and says, "I will never believe what you have to say."

Lastly, the questions I had asked was asked from the point of view of a skeptic. I am not going to blindly agree with something because it gives me a warm, fuzzy feeling. I will have to see results that can be duplicated by a third party that will draw the same conclusions. That can be done for a blue sky, it can not be done for reincarnation or some multisoul in the multiverse that experiences all possible lives. It is pseudoscientific nonsense.

[/rant]

PS. the mod eventually did stop being a hypocrite and enforced a standard to everyone and not the typical double standard. I will however try to keep free from the board since it is full of closed minded nut jobs that aren't interested in facts and it is also heavily censored. One guy was warned because he said, "Poop."