I think you need to put any discussion of this on [OT] if not [OT][WOT][HUMANIST RELIGION][:-)] if it is to survive more than two cycles without self immolating. However, as I (God willing) fly to China to pursue further or respond to a number of the goals urges and drives that you mention below, plus those of my client and his Chinese contractors to boot, in a bit over 14 hours, I'll limit my self to one (maybe)(longish) comment, rather than spending the interesting hours it deserves in response. > There are probably 3 basic human attributes that any > structure needs to address > - greed, cause, and creativity. A free market with minimal > constraints can keep > greed occupied, but communism never addresses or assumes > this. ALL "cause" is mirage, phantasm, pretence, self delusion without an absolute reference outside the system. The ONLY system that makes sense in this context is what we call "the universe". We can conceive of larger/greater systems than this and people postulate them (even in populist entertainment such as MIB2!) BUT the universe is as far as our senses will thus far and possibly ever let us reach. One cut-to-the-chase, China is calling, version of this is - "If your cause is not founded in God then it has no basis in reality or usefulness that somebody else cannot deny entirely justifiably". ***OBVIOUSLY*** that statement will be utterly unsatisfactory to any God deniers and not wholly satisfactory to most others. This doesn't make it untrue (and it is true [tm]). It does NOT say that "God exists" - just that if God is not the basis for one's foundational references then you have no valid foundational references. If God does not exist then there are none. So, this is not an argument for the existence of God, just a comment on the implications of a system with or without God. Rutherford said that there was Physics and the rest, and that the rest was stamp collecting. Even so great a man (and NZer ;-) 0 as he failed to see that Physics is also stamp collecting. ALL we can do is observe. We can insists that things must be as we wish, must have cause, must have foundation, must have reason, ARE right etc, but without external reference it's all stamp collecting. Some get highly incensed by this assertion of the need for absolute reference and easily prove to their own satisfaction (but never to mine alas) that they/we can build valid and meaningful systems on a lesser and relative foundation. Doesn't work :-(. While that ramble may seem like a rather irrelevant digression, if its not addressed in the foundations to one's studies of the subject then all the rest is stamp collecting. We may prefer a given stamp, or insist that it is better or prettier or more valuable or purer or just plain "right". But until we accept that we cannot ever be a meaningful arbiter the other guy's dissenting opinion is every bit as invalid as our own. Russell -- http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist