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Dan,

Eat, drink and be Mary. Or maybe "do" Mary - I get those confused.

So Mary's the one, huh? You've just made a lot of girls (and women) very sad.

Yes. No. Yes. No. Yes! No!

Prevarication and indecisiveness: how very unlike you Mr Rowden.

Um, see my avatar.

Yes, I was wondering about your avatar. Before you turned up the contrast it looked like a stylised padlock to me. Now I see that it's an omega merged with an equals sign. I still don't understand the symbolism. Perhaps: omega being the last and greatest letter of the Greek alphabet, it is nevertheless equal with all that is supposedly not so great. Am I close?

Laird: Which principles guide your behaviour and decision-making processes?

Dan: Truth and reason.

Hmm, that's a pretty top-level response. Can you get us down into the nuts and bolts of some of the more specific principles that truth and reason have led you to? For example, do you believe in honesty? Or how about the good old Aussie "fair go"? Etc.

Laird: What is the point/meaning of life - your own and in general?

Dan: Life only has the meaning we ascribe to it. I don't think I really ascribe any meaning to life, anyway; I just live it. Perhaps the meaning of life is the poor implementation of the semi-colon. In which my life is brimming with meaning.

On the one hand I tend to agree with you. Surely if there were some meaning to life, say that determined by a Creator, then at the beginning of our lives - or at least as soon as we could understand speech - that Creator would pay us a little visit and lay it all out for/to us. On the other hand: all of this vibrancy and energy around us makes it hard for me to believe that meaning is totally up to us to work out for ourselves, it just feels like there has to be some point to it all.

Dan,

I believe in honesty to the degree it is reasonable and helps us get to Truth. The Aussie "fair go" is a rather nebulous term, but I do believe in justice.

So would you tell a lie to be released from an unjust captivity?

What is justice? Is it an eye for an eye?

Laird: Surely if there were some meaning to life, say that determined by a Creator, then at the beginning of our lives - or at least as soon as we could understand speech - that Creator would pay us a little visit and lay it all out for/to us. On the other hand: all of this vibrancy and energy around us makes it hard for me to believe that meaning is totally up to us to work out for ourselves, it just feels like there has to be some point to it all.

Dan: That's exactly what Xians and other sundry irrationalists say about a Creator. Your words give them succor. Beat yourself repeatedly with an echidna for at least one hour.

Hey, that's very unjust of you. Xians wouldn't say the first bit - the bit about the Creator coming down and paying us personal visits to explain the meaning of life to us. Anyway the echidna says that I'm a dirty feral and it doesn't want anything to do with me.

Sher,

Shall I take it that you advocate tolerance? The three points of your philosophy seem to indicate an approach of not getting involved in other people's business.

Laird: So would you tell a lie to be released from an unjust captivity?

Dan: Yes. I am not against situational - ethical - lying. I might even tell Jehovah's Witnesses who came to the door that you're not home.

Nah, I'm a stickler for the truth. I wouldn't want you to lie on my behalf.

Laird: What is justice? Is it an eye for an eye?

Dan: In my case it would be a tooth for a tooth.

So essentially you believe in karma, right? A bad deed will (should) inherit bad consequences.

Laird: Anyway the echidna says that I'm a dirty feral and it doesn't want anything to do with me.

Dan: Pah, and people think monotremes are stupid.

It also said that whoever thought of the idea of using it as an implement of flagellation should himself be flagellated.

Dan,

Oh, ok, When the local mafia hitman comes to the door to kill you and asks if you're home I'll tell him you'll be right out.

Just tell him that it's nothing to do with you and you're not going to get involved.

If you're asking if I believe in revenge and/or punishment type notions, my answer is I don't believe in either. I don't even believe in a judicial system beyond one that determines if a person is responsible for an action and therefore a threat that ought be removed from society for however long the threat is deemed to exist.

Yeah, that's pretty much what I believe in too. So what did you mean with the "tooth for tooth" business then, or were you just playing around?