Earlier quoted context omitted.
What makes people like you think it's a good idea to go and bother people in their home about your religious beliefs? Many people must find it frightening or just very annoying. Why subject people to that? It doesn't seem nice, let alone Christian.
How would he know if he's "bothering" them without asking? Not everyone in the world is reflexively atheist.
Japanese Change Trays
171–175 of 175 posts
Re: Japanese Change Trays
#172See also English Victorian change packets:
http://boingboing.net/2012/04/30/victorian-change-packets-li...
Re: Japanese Change Trays
#173Earlier quoted context omitted.
Nicely put. This is exactly why there was (is?) quite a lot of effort in finding effective alternatives to the door-to-door method. There's still a lot of people who aren't modern (and the 'no person left behind' policy dictates that you'd continue to do door-to-door to sweep them up), but alternatives are needed.
In terms of moral introspection, I perceive a continuum of information quality from vague suspicion to almost complete certainty. Morally, I would have a very, very difficult time making life-changing affirmative moral arguments to complete strangers without almost complete certainty. And, I could never, never ascribe almost complete certainty to a piece of information not complying with the vacuum intellect test (i.…
But, if you relax the rigor and you're willing to settle for what you personally qualify as overwhelming circumstantial evidence, it's not too hard to meet that level of confidence (the Anthropic Principle is very powerful). These people are often True Believers.
It's a whole different mindset, and worth spending the effort to wrap your head around. I'd bet it's a sufficiently different frame of mind that you'll have a hard time relating. It's easy to just gloss it over as a fool's thinking, but it really can be quite complex and deep (after all, without that moral vacuum, there's a lot of core axioms to keep straight). And that's not bad; just be warned that it can be a bit of a memetic virus, but it's certainly not too hard to quarantine. Usually at a very low level there's an assumption made about the way things are, and enough evidence is brought in to make that assumption feel reasonable; that's not science but rather more of a judicial argument. If it feels a bit boot-strappy, you're a bit on track. Typically once the mindset is settled, that rationalizes the initial bootstrap; I think often those who preach worry that many will not be exposed to the needed bootstrap, and feel a moral imperative to help others through that process. And that's how you get the evangelism. (Clearly there's a gross amount of glossing over here :)
And it'll help a lot in pleasantly/tactfully dealing with such individuals. People are just folk, and most are sincere. Just not always as... rigorous as folk like yourself.
Re: Japanese Change Trays
#174Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've seen them everywhere I've visited in Germany. An image search came up with this¹, which says they're called "Zahlteller" (counting plates). 1: http://www.schnitzelbahn.com/homepage/2010/11/25/the-evil-za... (scroll down a bit)
Oh ok. Yes, some places put your change in a tray (which I've seen in the US too), but you still hand money directly to them. It's really not the same thing that's discussed in the article.
Re: Japanese Change Trays
#175Earlier quoted context omitted.
In terms of moral introspection, I perceive a continuum of information quality from vague suspicion to almost complete certainty. Morally, I would have a very, very difficult time making life-changing affirmative moral arguments to complete strangers without almost complete certainty. And, I could never, never ascribe almost complete certainty to a piece of information not complying with the vacuum intellect test (i.…
I was never a part of a group that believed in hell (hope that doesn't give me away...), so I can't speak for that. But, if you relax the rigor and you're willing to settle for what you personally qualify as overwhelming circumstantial evidence, it's not too hard to meet that level of confidence (the Anthropic Principle is very powerful). These people are often True Believers. It's a whole different mindset, and wort…
And certainly handling such individuals with kid gloves is important to mitigate the intransigence reflex. I only ask because I wish to discover some more effective strategy to aid some of the more zealous individuals to improve their moral consistency. Fear is far more powerful than reason, however.