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User	joeyalphabet | 2006-06-30 |
Subject	untitled
Message	no that’s not necessarily true. i can always try to improve what little talent i have in a given area like basketball (and beleive me, there’s a dearth), but i don’t beleive i would ever become competent no matter how hard i try. i guess i’m saying it’s possible to improve but only to a certain extent based on what ability you already possess.

User	GothamFreak | 2006-06-29 |
Subject	untitled
Message	but... if you have it in your head that you aren’t going to be able to do something before you even start... then there is no point in even trying.

User	GothamFreak | 2006-06-29 |
Subject	untitled
Message	There are things that just aren’t possible no matter how hard you try... but on the basketball thing... you could become better if you made basketball everything to you and practiced it enough.... I think

User	joeyalphabet | 2006-06-28 |
Subject	untitled
Message	Not everything. I can’t play basketball, for example - and no amouint of will power will make me into some kind of superstar (or even moderately competent). You have to have some measure of innate ability to develop.

User	Blue Monk | 2006-06-28 |
Subject	untitled
Message	Better set up some parameters here.

User	mae | 2006-06-28 |
Subject	untitled
Message	If you really believe you can, and you set your mind to it, can you fly? You, yourself, I mean, not in an aircraft. Can you hold your breath for an hour? Can you become a mathematical genius? Can you sing an operatic aria written for a lyric soprano ? Can you run a 10 second 100 meter dash? Who do you think first said that old line "You can do anything you set your mind to"? Where did you first hear it? If you think about it, the answer is easy. A mother said it! That’s where you heard it the first time. Probably (though it wouldn’t have to have been) to encourage you to accomplish more than you have or to steer you onto another track from the one it looks as though you’re going to follow (or were at that time). Mothers always say that - heck, I’ve said it. But it’s like Santa Claus, The Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy - a nice story, but it just isn’t true. mae

User	kanu | 2006-06-28 |
Subject	untitled
Message	perhaps you could argue like that but it would just make you more thirtsy and wouldn’t help you get any orange juice - that’s the difference between us and god - god can achieve things just by desire - we on the other hand are required to work for it - and working in the material world is such a drag, which is why we imagine it would be great to be like god and just desire anything we could ever want - but such a desire to envy god is what brought us to the material world to begin with - So in the end of it all I guess you are still thirsty

User	insphered soul | 2006-06-27 |
Subject	untitled
Message	hmmm............i see. but, couldn’t one argue........and this is gonna sound stupid and make me sound like a smartass.........but couldn’t one argue that they should be able to just make the orange juice appear out of no where if they will it enough? not even if it was ever created. you just sit down and will a glass of orange juice to appear. by what people say, shouldn’t that be possible? (okay, to all of the stuff you said was stupid, this is the stupidest)

User	kanu | 2006-06-27 |
Subject	untitled
Message	That is why I said it has a case but it has limitations - there are other factors beside just the desire of the person - for instance examine the task of someone trying to get a bottle of orange juice - It will depend on not only one’s willpower to get a bottle of juice but also on the time (You cannot get a bottle of juice when the shops are shut) it will depend on the place (You cannot get juice in the midle of the sahara desert - even though you display an incredible will for acquiring one) and it will depend onthe circumstance (even if you have the money and go to a shop they may not sell you orange juice if you are wearing no clothes - okay stupid example but you catch the drift ....). On top of this there is the desire of god too (which perhaps many of you may consider irrelevant - but still it is not possible to drink orange juice unless the orange trees get watered by rain and not blown over in storms and also you won’t be drinking orange juice if you have an allergic condition that makes your face turn green and choke on your own blood (ok another stupid example but you catch the drift)

User	insphered soul | 2006-06-27 |
Subject	untitled
Message	if we don’t possess it, then why do people say that you can do anything as long as you believe you can do it? there has to of been someone that proved this was right in order for people to believe it and have a reason to support why they believe in it, right?

User	GiveMeTheGun | 2006-06-27 |
Subject	untitled
Message	I can’t tell you. I give up too easily.

User	kanu | 2006-06-27 |
Subject	untitled
Message	There is a case for positive thinking but it has its limitations - basically to have an infallible will you would have to also have infallible knowledge, which of course we don’t possess.