Sheaf Saint

Sorry BTF, that's 15 words

What about the ones who don't do it for money Frank?

I think you need to re-read View From The Top's post (#105) Again I find myself in almost total agreement with you though FC. It could be argued that forcing your own religious opinions onto your children and making them believe they will burn in the eternal fires of hell unless they conform is a form of psychological abuse. In a totally free and fair society, parents would refrain from imposing their own views on their children and instead wait until they are old enough to use critical thinking to determine for themselves what fits into their own world view. If all parents did this then there would obviously be a much more even spread of religious beliefs in all areas of the world, but this clearly isn't the case, and it is clearly even less so with Islam in particular. As I said recently in the thread about the parents of Shafilea Ahmed, I have a close friend who is from a Muslim family, and her father refused to even speak to her for years after she told him that she had read the Quran and had decided that she did not want to live her life according to the rituals and beliefs contained within it. He clearly felt that his own devotion to the doctrine that he had been subjected to was worth more to him than his relationship with his daughter. Very sad indeed, and it highlights perfectly how religion can poison and divide people.

Interesting viewpoint VFTT. Somebody recently sent me a picture describing Christianity as "The irrational belief that some cosmic Jewish zombie can make you live forever if you symbolically eat of his flesh and telepathically tell him that you accept him as your master so he can remove an evil spirit that exists in mankind because a woman made from a man's rib was convinced by a talking snake to eat fruit from a magic tree".

It's because dune has been banned.

The spiritual beliefs of the Aztecs, along with the Incas and the Mayans, died out thanks to a concerted effort from the Catholic Church to destroy any and all references to them. It is a shameful episode in human history that so little remains for us to study of a rich and advanced culture thanks to the insistence of The Vatican that all cultures should be forced to accept their own doctrine or be killed. The same thing happened to Paganism when Christianity was brought to Europe. Indeed. Christianity itself was just one of many religions being followed in the middle east during and after the time of Christ. Most of them died out, but Christianity only went on to become as prevalent as it did thanks to the Romans seizing upon it and using it as a tool to expand their empire. Quite ironic really, given that it was the Romans who supposedly* executed Jesus in the first place. *That's if he even existed, of course.

"Science asks questions which may never be answered; religion gives answers that can never be questioned". I honestly don't know who that quote is attributed to (something tells me it might have been Carl Sagan) but I came across it recently and thought it pertinent to the debate. I have to say I have thoroughly enjoyed catching up on this thread today and reading some excellent posts put forward - mostly - in a way respectful of others' opinions, as it should be. And that, I believe, is where religion often goes wrong and causes unnecessary division, when people of faith (theist or otherwise) attempt to impose their doctrine onto others who hold differing views. It all comes down to tolerance, which is so often lacking in religious history. Those on here who claim that atheism is as much a belief system as any theistic religion may have a certain point, but I would have to largely disagree. While it is true that claiming "I believe there is no God/god(s)" is as much a statement faith in one's own opinion as those who claim that there is, it can hardly be labelled a belief system because there is no specific framework that comes with it. To call oneself a Christian/Muslim/Sikh/Jew/Hindu (etc...) one must accept certain rituals and adhere to specific values that go with it, whereby atheism refers specifically to the rejection of not only a belief in a deity but also of religious observances.

By doing it gradually instead of splashing out ridiculous sums of money on one single player that might turn out to be a Billy-Big-B0ll0x and disrupt the team spirit. He might not, I grant you. But it's a massive gamble IMO, and the last couple of years have shown that's not how we do things at SFC, and the events at the other end of the M27 have shown the catastrophic results of a reckless transfer policy.

All this excitement about this one player joining... Am I really the only one who actually has concerns about it? Firstly, we aren't just breaking our previous transfer record for him, we're taking a sledge hammer to it, for someone who we're not even sure will adapt to the English game. That's very risky IMO. Secondly, if it's true that he has been told he will be the main man (admittedly that is just conjecture from some posters) and will be on massively higher wages than the other players, how will the rest of the squad feel about that? Isn't there a good possibility that it will upset the fine balance that NA has worked so hard to nurture over the last two years?

http://newsthump.com/2012/08/20/howard-webb-completes-shock-move-to-man-city/ Gotta love Newsthump!

From what I could gather on the TV, some fans were booing because he was down for ages and then got up and walked off the pitch.

A great performance, no doubt. I bet Citeh never expected to find themselves behind after they scored first. Very calm and never panicked, and when we did get the ball down and play it we looked OK. But there are still a few negatives to take away from it as well. I thought we sat back and invited far too much pressure onto us, and against a team like Man City we WILL get punished for that. And Fox's defensive header to set up their third was just abysmal. Get your head on it Danny and make sure it goes anywhere except back towards the penalty spot where a multi-multi-million pound player is waiting to pounce. I was a fan of his last season but on today's evidence I think he will cost us a lot of goals this year.

Crikey, I remember him!

The first time I watched that movie I was completely out of my tree on acid. Watched it again a few days later when I came back down to earth and it still made no sense. Maybe that's what the Phew are banking on... waking up and realising it has all just been a bad trip, they're not going insane - not even a tiny bit - and everything will be normal again soon. And who the hell is this Roger Walters bloke?

I never really used to be into his music much, although I have learned to appreciate it more as I have got older, but there can be no doubting his influence. He was the original pin-up, heart-throb pop star that began the music industry practise of using good looks to sell records. Though unlike so many of the 'artists' (I use the term loosely) who subsequently tried to copy that model, Elvis was actually a supremely talented musician.

Why is PL experience so important though? Seriously? Just because somebody has played in the PL before doesn't automatically make them a better player than someone who hasn't. It's the same game at the end of it all, so if you are good enough you will make the step up regardless IMO. This idea that we badly need PL experienced players is a fallacy IMO.

OK, that was a slight exaggeration. But it's clear that many contributors to this thread are already being pessimistic about our chances this season on the basis that we have been slower to sign players than other teams have. It's been the same old story on here every transfer window for as long as I can remember.

Well judging by some of the negativity shown so far, I imagined I would get a glut of instant replies on this about player x going to Fulham or player Y going to Stoke etc... But seeing as I haven't, maybe - just maybe - the right players that we need haven't really been available so far, or the ones we have identified are reluctant to leave their current clubs and so negotiations are taking longer than if they were out of contract or looking for a move. We know from Holloway's little spat at us that we are interested in Matt Philips, which answers the question of whether or not we have been looking for a winger, and if anybody seriously believes that NA and Nicola are happy with our CB situation and are not actively looking for extra players in that department then I can recommend a good therapist for you. Since Nicola took charge we have done our transfer business the way it should be done: behind closed doors until the deal is done. We also know that NA is very particular about the type of player he wants, and I'm talking about not only the skills and talent needed for the position but the right mental attitude to make sure the player isn't a disruptive influence on the overall squad mentality. If the choice is between waiting until the season has started to sign the right players or panic-buying the wrong ones just because a handful of fans are getting hysterical because we haven't splashed out £20m yet, I am far happier for Nigel to go with the former and I will reserve judgment until the window closes.

Seeing as I haven't really been following other clubs' transfer activity, and I really can't be arsed to trawl through all 117 pages of the HCDAJFU thread, can somebody please tell me exactly which transfer targets we have missed out on? I mean, we all know we need a CB or two, and a pacey winger would be nice, but can anyone give me actual examples of where we have been in for these players and they have ended up signing elsewhere?

He's clearly not a dedicated nutjob.

As I type I have been stationary on the M42 for over three hours, and the latest developments on this thread have so far kept me from losing my mind with boredom. Can we get the toaster out of storage and give it a test yet?

Just goes to show how subjective football is I guess. I was at that game and I thought he looked really shaky against what was at the time a very weak Barnsley attack.

My GF and me took her 9-year-old nephew camping at the weekend. He's already really sporty (plays for the Everton u10s) but he says he really wants to get into biking as a result of watching Wiggins, Hoy and Kenny.