Not remotely the same thing. A moments silence is forced upon you rather than something passing by that you have to briefly endure and it tangles you with a particular cause or event and assumes your regret that said event took place.

Nah i don't agree with that. I don't want to be instructed on how i should honor a particular event and if i supported the cause then i supported the deaths, not having a moments silence doesn't mean that i have been disrespectful either. And frankly i don't agree with respect for the dead in all circumstances. Theres many people that i would be pretty happy to see meet a swift death.

You're right, briefly enduring a pause in your day out of respect for the dead is completely different from briefly enduring a pause in your day out of respect for the dead.

Is their a purpose to you being here other than aggravating other people and wasting their time?

I think a lot of you are overlooking something very important here...

Aren't "moments of silence"...kind of ****ing stupid to begin with? What's the magic in not saying anything for a minute? I lay still, relatively quietly, for eight or so hours a night. There's an abundance of silent moments to commemorate all the lives of your dead relatives that I don't care about right there. It's just some idiotic tradition that doesn't mean anything, y'know, like taking off your hat when the national anthem is played. What's the point? Go on with the weird voodooed silence bullshit on your own time.

Its the reason that your enduring a pause in your day though, thats the key difference.

It is a ritual and a showing of respect. a moment of silence is a call to personal reflection.

What the ****? In what way am i attempting to aggravate people? I asked a simple question on a particular issue and wante dto know others views, i haven't said anything remotely offensive.

The reason in both cases is that someone died. Pretty simple.

'sigh'. I'm not sure you quite follow my reasoning here.

Right, but why should I have to do it? What if, the night before, I was eating my girlfriend out following an evening of Chinese food and accidentally threw up egg foo yong all over her vagina and she freaked out and started batting me over the head with an illuminated lamp and set my hair on fire and caused me to spend the next several hours at the hospital and so I really wasn't in the mood for personal reflection? I think one of the most respectful things we can do for the dead is do away with rather than perpetuate as many cretinous and unsought traditions/rituals that they unfortunately had to endure throughout their miserable existences as possible, don't you?