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>He said he had a friend who owned a pawn shop with a computer Unethical to aid a pawn shop, especially if you are a Christian. But hey, who am I to judge. Ed
by ovi256 19y ago
>He said he had a friend who owned a pawn shop with a computer
Unethical to aid a pawn shop, especially if you are a Christian. But hey, who am I to judge.
Edit: pawn shops are unethical from a Christian viewpoint, as they charge interest. And the parent said he was doing Bible study. But again, who am I to give advice on such topics as an heathen. Just downmod and show me I'm wrong.
- run4yourlives 19y agoSorry, what? Pawn shops are unethical?
- ovi256 19y agoFor a Christian, they are, as they charge interest. And the parent said he was doing Bible study.
- deleted 19y ago[deleted]
- astine 19y agoVery few Christians take that stance on interest today. Most haven't for at least 400 years.
- lee 19y agoInterestingly, the issue was resolved in the 1490s for the Catholic Church with the discovery of the New World. The expeditions required financing and the financing entailed interest. The explorers were painting pictures of golden cities, boundless riches and fountains of youth, somehow the church managed to magically resolve the interest issue.
- ovi256 19y agoThat was the point I was trying to raise. The Catholic Church was very liberal, when financial interests were at bay. All Western churches inherited its corrupted moral base. Edit: and the downmods restart. I would like to see some arguments against my remark. Something with more substance, besides obvious re-statements and appeals to number such as 'but everybody does it'. I thought HN visitors would be familiar with proper refutation and rhetoric, and that pg's How to Disagree was by now widely known. BTW, it's here: http://www.paulgraham.com/disagree.html http://www.paulgraham.com/disagree.html
- aswanson 19y agoI don't know about the merits of the argument; I'll grant you the logic, as most people here would. It's just that people are rightfully fearful of what pro/con religious remarks can have on the quality of conversation here.
- astine 19y agoIf you were trying to raise a point, you utterly failed. On two counts: a. Your argument was vague and lacked proper distinctions. It was so to the point of being annoying and insulting the intelligence of people with even a vague understanding of history. If you want to make a point, at least be clear about it. b. It was off topic and out of place. There was a very good discussion on how to make a living off of consulting going on and you had to distract from it with your personal pet peeves with Christians. If you want to start a debate, get your own thread.
- astine 19y agoActually, it had more to do with centuries of corruption in the banking system and the eventual realization that prohibitions against 'usury' were a. ill defined and b. unenforceable. For a history on the subject, read "Money, Bank Credit, and Economic Cycles", by Jesus Huerta de Soto.
- rms 19y agoWell, the parent could be Jewish and studying the Hebrew Bible. And historically, Jews were able to do very well for themselves because of the Christian's irrational prohibition of loaning money with interest. I didn't know there were many people left that still had such primitive beliefs. It makes me wonder if you actually believe what you are saying or if you're just saying it to elicit a response. Hopefully it's the second, the first one would be sad.
- mixmax 19y agoCome on guys - modding down is OK, but -12? It's an opinion, not a charge on someones children.
- deleted 19y ago[deleted]
- whacked_new 19y agoWow, I'm surprised too. I'm betting it's not the normal crowd -- or it has grown much larger over the past month?
- davidw 19y agoReally - what is going on here? -29 for some batty comment about Christians and pawn shops? I would have voted it down to -1 too, but come on folks. We've always reserved big downvotes only for offensive, insulting trolls, not things that were in some way "wrong". A -1 or 0 is sufficient to indicate that.
- astine 19y agoThis is not just wrong, but stupid. You don't have to be well versed in Christianity to know that most Christian sects have long since rethought their positions on usury. Most Christians take offense when people insinuate that they still believe in Geocentrism or something like that and this is very similar. But you are right, the comment is rather batty and I don't think the fellow meant anything by it.
- edw519 19y agoI have watched in both amusement and horror at what's developed below my post from earlier today. Didn't know where else to put this observation, so I thought I'd hang it here if you don't mind, astine. As one who takes something away from this board every day, I was excited to contribute something from personal experience. Interestingly, this was also the #1 question posed to me over Startup School weekend. I included these examples (my aunt's front porch, the dinner, and yes, Bible study) to show that business can come from anywhere, anyplace, and at any time, even when you least expect it. As I entered these examples, I wondered what, if any, discussion would ensue. Little did I know... So today I got 2 big surprises, this thread and a little number deep inside a nested iteration that's been spewing bad data for 2 1/2 years now. What a day. [Hate to disappoint, but the most interesting thing about the pawn shop project was converting their old data without knowledge of the original author's 25 year old compression algorithm. A subject for another day, I suppose...]
- kirubakaran 19y ago"It should be noted that no ethically-trained software engineer would ever consent to write a DestroyBaghdad procedure. Basic professional ethics would instead require him to write a DestroyCity procedure, to which Baghdad could be given as a parameter." http://www.guppylake.com/~nsb/pithy.html http://www.guppylake.com/~nsb/pithy.html :-) [This is a joke. I have no comment about the issue being discussed.]
- alaskamiller 19y agoSo Christians don't use credit cards?
- jrockway 19y agoIt's the atheists that are causing the economy to collapse by buying houses they can't afford and maxing out their credit cards! God is punishing them, finally!!11! Oh wait, you mean most people in the US identify as Christians, and they're the ones having problems? I see.
- ovi256 19y ago>most people in the US identify as Christians Exactly. With a strong emphasis on identify, or make that auto-identify. Like Ghandi, I like Christ, but not Christians. Except, maybe, Eastern Orthodox, but that's another topic.
- ashu 19y agoWho's Ghandi? I am only aware of someone named Gandhi.
- ovi256 19y agoYes, they do, but the subtle thing is that they should not.
- mixmax 19y agoSeriously - ovi256 is now down to -15 in karma, and (as far as I remember in regard to the modding system) can't even comment anymore. Just because he thinks it's unethical to own a pawnshop. His other comments are fine. Would you PLEASE vote the poor guy up a bit. I don't mind burning karma doing this, I've got plenty to spare. This is just wrong.
- rms 19y agothat's a yc urban legend actually, an editor needs to kill your account for it to be killed. It just so happens that by the time someone reaches negative karma an editor has usually killed their account.
- menloparkbum 19y agoDon't feel too bad about it. If ovi256 really can't comment, ovi257 can pick up the usury/pawnshop debate where he left off.
- whacked_new 19y agoThis is very intriguing... haven't seen these downmod scores since the teenwag sockpuppets.
- doubleplus 19y agoI agree, but I'm not at all surprised.
- deleted 19y ago
- andrewf 19y agoRegardless of viewpoint, introducing religion into an online discussion usually results in pointless, voluminous arguments that enrage a few and bore the rest.