Very well said Victor, you have expressed my way of thinking even better than I would

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>>I honestly believe this movement toward herding (of consumers with Windows 8, of developers with .NET and Azure) is about the one-world system foretold in Revelation. In order for such a thing to take place, people will have to become dependent upon the system, the system will have to be failing, and a solution that sounds reasonable will have to be created -- enter the "mark of the beast."
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>>My honest and true beliefs about what we're seeing in Apple, Microsoft, and the movement of governments around the world as they are continually manipulated by the IMF and related Federal Reserve Bank-like local entities. They are all working to enslave mankind into bondage and servitude, and not just for money reasons. It is about that final act where Satan himself will proclaim to be God, and will be worshiped by everyone who has not been saved by Jesus Christ.
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>Thankfully there is a religion section here now so the rest of the forum doesn't get polluted.
>I have to admit that beliefs such as this astound me when coming from what I would otherwise consider a practical & rational person. Anyway if you think Microsoft and Apple are the work of the devil then why don't you just turn off your evil computer right now and switch careers. Incidentally if you look back in history (even recent history) you'll find that there have been people and instutions with much more power and control over the country and world than MS and Apple. Good examples from right here in the USA would be Carnegie, Rockefeller, J. P. Morgan. People were far more dependent on these folks than anyone ever sense (and if the laws work properly, ever again). Surprise! The world is still here - no magic beings have popped up from hell to wipe us all out or flown down from the sky to wisk us all way.
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>If you believe that the world is going to come to an end - and perhaps any day now - does it not drain one's motivation to improve life on earth while we're here?
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>The irony of religion is that because of its power to divert man to destructive courses, the world could actually come to an end. The plain fact is, religion must die for mankind to live. The hour is getting very late to be able to indulge in having in key decisions made by religious people. By irrationalists, by those who would steer the ship of state not by a compass, but by the equivalent of reading the entrails of a chicken. George Bush prayed a lot about Iraq, but he didn't learn a lot about it. Faith means making a virtue out of not thinking. It's nothing to brag about. And those who preach faith, and enable and elevate it are intellectual slaveholders, keeping mankind in a bondage to fantasy and nonsense that has spawned and justified so much lunacy and destruction. Religion is dangerous because it allows human beings who don't have all the answers to think that they do. Most people would think it's wonderful when someone says, "I'm willing, Lord! I'll do whatever you want me to do!" Except that since there are no gods actually talking to us, that void is filled in by people with their own corruptions and limitations and agendas. And anyone who tells you they know, they just know what happens when you die, I promise you, you don't. How can I be so sure? Because I don't know, and you do not possess mental powers that I do not. The only appropriate attitude for man to have about the big questions is not the arrogant certitude that is the hallmark of religion, but doubt. Doubt is humble, and that's what man needs to be, considering that human history is just a litany of getting shit dead wrong. This is why rational people, anti-religionists, must end their timidity and come out of the closet and assert themselves. And those who consider themselves only moderately religious really need to look in the mirror and realize that the solace and comfort that religion brings you actually comes at a terrible price. If you belonged to a political party or a social club that was tied to as much bigotry, misogyny, homophobia, violence, and sheer ignorance as religion is, you'd resign in protest. To do otherwise is to be an enabler, a mafia wife, for the true devils of extremism that draw their legitimacy from the billions of their fellow travelers. If the world does come to an end here, or wherever, or if it limps into the future, decimated by the effects of religion-inspired nuclear terrorism, let's remember what the real problem was that we learned how to precipitate mass death before we got past the neurological disorder of wishing for it. That's it. Grow up or die.