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Originally Posted by Cato
I already pay for those services, I don't need you to.
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What, you mean you pay the entire budget for the U.S. military out of your own taxes? Seriously?
I am impressed. You must be one mega-rich dude.
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Did you wake up this morning? If so, did someone else bring your brain to consciousness?
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Yes, I did, and yes, the entire planet did that.
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Wow! It's amazing we even exist as a species.
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Yes, it is that. We're the product of a whole lot of unlikely chances. Now, I personally believe that it is very likely indeed that some technologically intelligent species or other would have evolved in more or less the same time frame that we did, but humanity specifically? Very, very unlikely indeed.
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When someone else thinks for you, what does that feel like? Is it strange to have them move your muscles?
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No, I'm quite used to it. So are you.
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Nope, I've been in the position of having to work for my own benefit.
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Perhaps that's what you intended, and what you thought you were doing, but I assure you, your employer knew that you were working for their benefit, and they shared the scraps with you because otherwise they couldn't get you to do it. And you were forced to do it because, if you hadn't, you wouldn't have been able to survive.
So if that is the criterion for slavery, then you were a slave. However, your employer's ability to work you had legal limits, and he could not do you physical harm or kill you, and he could not sell you to someone else. So, by the criteria
I proposed for slavery, you were not a slave. And I stand by those criteria -- you were not.
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Aren't these all things any government could do to its citizens?
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Certainly not. The U.S. government (for example) cannot work me without limit, cannot kill me or physically injure me (not legally anyway), and it absolutely cannot sell me. Nor can anyone else. I am not a slave.
I'm going to snip the stuff about people who choose to eat raw food because it's silly. Some things just aren't worth humoring you over.
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Not at all. I'm just eager to read how adaptability - the cornerstone of evolution - doesn't mean evolution.
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When we speak of evolution, we are speaking the language of biology. In biological terms, evolution implies a genetic change over time, driven by the effects of natural selection, mutation, and genetic drift. (I'm assuming you understand these terms; if not, you may want to look them up. The information is readily available.) Genetically, our species is much the same now as it was when our ancestors lived by foraging and hunting. Thus, in biological terms, we have not evolved.
The same word has other meanings outside a biological context, and simply means "change over time." Obviously, human society has changed over time, and thus has "evolved" in that sense. However, that is using the word differently than I originally meant it.