Well for the UK that is nonsense because almost everybody learns to drive in a manual car, there are very few driving instructors that use auto cars (not like the USA where I belive almost everybody drives an auto from the word go). In my case I now have 2 auto cars, a Land Rover and VW Golf. In both cases I can quite happily drive a manual if I want (ie, have done so on all my previous cars for the past 7 years since passing my test, also managed the other day when I drove a courtesy car from Land Rover). According to your theory Arthur..why would I want an automatic? Well:

1. The automatic gearbox in my land rover gives my horse a smoother ride in the horse trailer.
2. Having spent a lot of time in traffic on the M6, M4 and M25 over the past few years I know that the only car I would really like to drive on a congested motorway is an auto…there is no fiddling upto 2nd gear, then back to 1st as you crawl…have you ever had that annoying feeling when sat in traffic of having to constantly be just on and off your clutch? Clutch control is fine, but it gets tedious and makes your legs hurt after an hour or more! There is NO such problem with an auto!
3. The cruise control in my car works better with an auto gearbox and doesn’t come with the restrictions of cruise control associated with manual gearboxes.

So absolute rubbish, it is highly unlikely I will ever go back to a manual car…driving an auto is far superior.

I have found on Cruise controll on a manual is really dangerous!! My mother has a brand new Citroen C4 but when you want to break a tiny little bit on the highway with cruise controll you immediatelly drop from 120 tot 100 km/h which is fairly dangerous on the belgian highways!!!!

You’ll be driving to Pukkelpop? You grind, i grin 😀

Been to the eindhoven area today :diablo: If somebody sees a Ford Focus with belgian licenceplate trying to take a crossroad in 3rd gear that’ll be me :o. Some people just seem to drive like it’s no big deal, however, for me, it’s really a hard business. :rolleyes: Just need to have some more experience I guess because it’s not going smooth yet. Ohh and I don’t get along too well with my instructor :cool:. not good for exam, not good. 😮 Since I have my temporary drivers license I have never used my bike so often as now. 😀 I even started practicing sports.

It’s only your deserved punishment for driving an automatic. If you can’t shift gears, you shouldn’t drive.

That’s true. however, i would really like to have an automatic. Especially in the beginning gears is sometimes a bit difficult.

Isaac Asimov made a claim that the most practical and dramatic victory of science over religion occurred in the seventeenth century when churches quietly began to put up lightning conductors. So much for their belief in the will of god.

No one expects the Spanish Inquisition…!

Flood

The Spanish Inquisition is a typical example of how politicians use (abuse) religion to reach their goals. The newly created Spanish state needed to take care of its internal ennemies first. The Spanish Inquisition was not about witches and magicians, it was about people who opposed the rule from Madrid.

Ohh give me a break. Add Nietzsche too. Religion is dead! As if the trio Marx, Nietzsche and Freud have invented everything. As a matter of fact, they destroyed most of it? These phrases are already so shallow I’ve seen people wearing them on T-shirts.

Viper, Hitler wanted to get a grip on the Church, he wanted to appoint bisschops etc. But that doesn’t change the fact that he was not a christian, he actually hated christianity because it had the element of “forgiveness”. There have been bischops in the RCC who cooperate with Hitler, but the ideas of both christianity and nazism are completelly different.

Viper, before the Englightment there didn’t exist atheism. It’s a new phenomenon. Some guy wrote a book on Rabellais for example (famous french writer, pantagruel) and concluded he could not have been an atheist, because at that time, atheism was not “invented” yet. Even most of the enlightened philosophes were not anti-christianity. Voltaire, Montesqieu were all christians.

And Religion has a great impact. Maybe not today, but the way today’s world is shaped was influenced by Religion.

I also agree with alot of the ideas from many religions. Thou shalt not kill is a good idea. Treat others as you would like others to treat you is another cracker. Unfortuately those people who claim to be religious seem to have a huge problem actually practising what they preach, which I do have a problem with. They also tend to judge others by the brand of religion they have chosen.

Of course a lot of what is claimed to be religious problems are not really religious problems. I know several families that live here who came from Northern Ireland who actually don’t care what religion their neighbours are and they don’t go door knocking to “save” anyone every sunday.

Cool and trendy? Yeah that sounds exactly like me. Not.

Well, I’m not bound on saving everyone’s life too :D. Most catholics don’t do that actually.