if you had read the thread, he said why he needed to use java. but otherwise, i can think of at least two things wrong with your statement.

why would you want to learn and/or use java? well, we have: type safety, automatic garbage collection, platform independence, object-oriented, cleaner/simpler/more-consistent syntax (and therefore, cleaner/simpler code), comprehensive built-in API, no pointers... even if you don't plan on using it in the long term, java is ten times easier to learn than C or C++. why would you not want to learn java? google uses lots of java behind the scenes - i guess they must be slow and outdated, too

it's also a common misconception that java is extremely slow. but don't take my word for it:
http://www-128.ibm.com/developerwork...vaUrbanLegends