Responding to a Franciscan Priest’s Question About “Good” Atheists | Hemant Mehta | Friendly ...

Fernapple comments on May 18, 2021:

Yes I have seen this before, it seems to be very popular, and it, plus many people giving answers to it are circulating widely, Google it or look on Youtube you will find plenty. There are therefore only a couple of things that I would add. Firstly that of course. The whole premise is the basic old theist mistake of thinking that atheists/agnostics have just another belief system like their own, requiring proof and justification. But not believing is not itself a belief, it is the default position, of 'none belief' which does not have a burden of proof. You can be a none believer for any reason you like, or more importantly, for no reason at all, if you wish. And you are under no obligation to justify yourself to anyone, least of all someone with an agenda. So that if you do, even to a tiny degree choose to debate with theists, you are being very kind and charitable, and those, like him, who receive kindness, should not, look the gift horse in the mouth. It is like asking someone why they don't go swimming in the winter, and then belittling them for not trying to talk you out of it, hard enough. As for why we don't answer the good theist arguments, this just shows that he is not familiar with atheist writings himself, in exactly the same way, since he would soon find that all his so called, good arguments, are well answered. While at the same time I am quite sure that he is an atheist with regard to, Allah, Vishnu, and Buddha, yet I am also pretty sure that he has not made himself familiar with the writings of all the best Hindu and Islamic theologians etc., or he would find it hard to cling to his absolutism.

Imagine throwing a Book of Mother Goose nursery rhymes on the table in front of a kid .

Fernapple comments on May 18, 2021:

Try looking up the arguments of Epicurus, made two and a half thousand years ago, but it still asks a question that religions like that can not answer.

what do the big brains say about information being an object, but not matter nor energy?

Fernapple comments on May 18, 2021:

I think that there may be more than one form of information, at least two forms. The physics form, which means (roughly) any complexity which may be subject to degrading by entropy, and the human cultural form which means any complexity which can be decoded into a human brain, to create a unit the human brain can control. The second type may exist in many forms outside of the human brain, and indeed may encompass the whole of the observable universe. Which means that it differs from the first type, in that the first type also includes the non observable universe. Go on, now have some fun with that.

Every day I drive by a sign in someone's yard that says "one way" and it has an arrow pointing up.

Fernapple comments on May 18, 2021:

If you think that you have an invisible friend in the sky, who dwells in an invisible realm which you will be able to access after death, who does not mind you drinking his blood and eating his flesh, and will change himself into bread and wine so that you can do so, how hard is it to believe the earth is flat ?

Tom Scott I promise this story about microwaves is interesting. [youtube.com]

Fernapple comments on May 18, 2021:

Wonderful if somewhat nasty story. I really do hope this does not start people doing this at home, and maybe it is a good thing that it can not be scaled up to creatures the size of humans.

"Say what you will about the ten commandments, you must always come back to the pleasant fact that ...

Fernapple comments on May 18, 2021:

Actually in some translations there are eleven, and the two different versions given in the bible differ slightly.

Ok.

Fernapple comments on May 18, 2021:

Come on show a little sceptical backbone. How could you be sure, that it is not, two thousand nine hundred and ninety nine Donald Trumps. Prove me wrong ?!

Bible was written in Hebrew.

Fernapple comments on May 17, 2021:

The buybable does say that the followers of Jesus were given the power to understand and speak in all tongues yes. So the real question is, at what point did his anointed followers lose the power, since they don't seem to have it today.

The irony of religious people is that they hate people of other religions but also believe that ...

Fernapple comments on May 17, 2021:

Good point. Though I think that theists will just put their fingers in their metaphorical ears, and pretend they don't understand it, fall back on faith, or produce some incredible logic chopping long trail of an argument, in the hopes that everyone will get lost along the way and not spot the logical failings when they come up.

How do you think the first one invented the first God?

Fernapple comments on May 17, 2021:

I think that animism certainly came first. People believed in spirits, which were found in everything, and were more or less all the same. A few of the spirits gradually got promoted however, especially as controlling heirachies grew up, in the early days of civilization, then some spirits had to become more powerful than others, to reflect the growing inequalities in human society. Until eventually some of the spirits had been promoted so far, that they were in a new class altogether, promoting in their turn, of course, the interests of the rich, powerful and nationalistic, who were now making a deliberate bid to control and modify human culture.

Oh, shit.

Fernapple comments on May 17, 2021:

We will certainly bear with you. Take care of yourself, first and most.

Folks, especially knowing I won't meet my Mom, who just passed earlier tonight, in the "great ...

Fernapple comments on May 17, 2021:

All of our times are short, it is not the quantity of our time that counts but its quality. And if she had joy in her son, then, no one gets more. If you made her pleased with you, then you did all that you could, and remember no life is perfect, so don't beat yourself up over trivial mistakes, if she loved you then that is the last thing she would want. And if someone loves us, then the best thing that you can do for them when they are gone, is to try as hard as you can to be happy, and to remember them with happiness. Happy is not easy, but it is what those who love us most want for us.

“The Christian religion not only was first attended with miracles, but even at this day cannot be...

Fernapple comments on May 17, 2021:

I love me, some Hume.

Most of the atheists that I meet are what I think of as recovering Christians.

Fernapple comments on May 17, 2021:

Unlike you I was raised in a basically none religious, (Not atheist just not bothered.) family. My first real contact with religion came in my later days at school, since many UK schools are religious, and I realized at that point just what a threat to things I already by then knew I valued; truth, knowledge, honesty, science, and logic, that religion really was. The shock of that, and above all the pity I have for those trapped by it, will probably never leave me, because they hit me at the age when I was at the most sensitive.

[sciencenews.org] It never appeared difficult for me to see fake news is fake.

Fernapple comments on May 17, 2021:

It never appeared difficult to you. Good. That probably shows that you have reached the stage of maturity in life, where you no longer confuse, "I want." with, its true. Which used to be a stage most people reached at about seven or eight years old, but it seems that the commercial/religious culture of today has managed, to find ways to keep people below that stage of development, though their whole lives. And with it of course comes the negative, "I don't want to make the effort. No thinking please, its difficult. Just tell me I will get my ice-cream for clapping my hands when I am told to."

News Alert: Some in the Republican party have announced formation of a new party.

Fernapple comments on May 17, 2021:

That will never work.

Two prison guards are changing shifts in the morning.

Fernapple comments on May 16, 2021:

I am told that the only reason that Adolf Hitler started writing Mien Kampf, was because a prison guard told him that, the other prisoners were complaining about the noise he made practicing his speeches.

Putting aside all other issues: if atheists are right, why does anything matter at all?

Fernapple comments on May 16, 2021:

If I bite into a hot chilly pepper, it matters, and I spit it out. At that level most things matter, to some degree. It is however very arrogant to assume that the universe owes us an explanation of any higher meaning, whether one be there or not. Maybe we will never have an understanding of meaning, but also maybe there are more intelligent species out there in the universe, to whom the issue of meaning and why things matter, is a simple problem.

Putting aside all other issues: if atheists are right, why does anything matter at all?

Fernapple comments on May 16, 2021:

There could be great cosmic meaning without god, we don't know, the existence of meaning, and humans knowing that meaning are two different things.

Outside prepping for some planting and went to fill up watering can when I came across this Grey ...

Fernapple comments on May 16, 2021:

You wonder sometimes if animals who use camouflage are mentally programmed to look for things to sit/ stand on, which look like me. The same way that it is said cuckoos are programmed to lay their eggs, in nests which have eggs, that look like mine.

How would you solve this math problem?? My solution was 47 + 30 - 2 = 75

Fernapple comments on May 16, 2021:

Yep I would do it the same way as you. Or I would go. 28 + 40 = 68 and seven plus eight always takes you to the next five up, so 75.

Just 12 People Are Behind Most Vaccine Hoaxes On Social Media, Research Shows [npr.org]

Fernapple comments on May 16, 2021:

As the saying goes. It only takes one bad apple, to spoil the barrel. But that was in the days before bad apples were gifted a ready made network for spreading spores.

"Since the mid-1970s, there's been an international consensus for resolving the Israel-Palestine ...

Fernapple comments on May 16, 2021:

"It's not complicated. It's also not controversial." No, and it is also not biblical or racist, so if you want your buybable ideology and your racism, you wont be interested, thank you very much world.

“A stupid man’s report of what a clever man says can never be accurate, because he unconsciously...

Fernapple comments on May 16, 2021:

So if you think you understand............?

Animals To Be Recognized As Sentient Beings In New UK Laws [iflscience.com]

Fernapple comments on May 16, 2021:

And we will also pass a laws which say that. Gravity makes things fall down, water is wet, and hens lay eggs.

Animals To Be Recognized As Sentient Beings In New UK Laws [iflscience.com]

Fernapple comments on May 16, 2021:

And next year (maybe) the US government will recognize, that votes for everyone, means that everyone should have the chance to vote. ( Or maybe not.)

“It’s now very common to hear people say, ‘I’m rather offended by that’.

Fernapple comments on May 15, 2021:

Whole new meaning to. "Giving them a good Frying."

Next time he tries that looking for "some", the wife will say, "The remote is in the other room, go ...

Fernapple comments on May 15, 2021:

I bet that really happened, to whoever made the Meme. LOL

Two cities, separated by US-Mexico border, are in completely different stages of pandemic

Fernapple comments on May 14, 2021:

Hello and welcome to the site. Perhaps a little more information could be given ?

How do you feel about unvaccinated people singing (maskless) along with every song at a concert, ...

Fernapple comments on May 14, 2021:

PS. Is it not an contradiction in terms anyway. Surely if you sing at dinner tables, you wont have any friends.

How do you feel about unvaccinated people singing (maskless) along with every song at a concert, ...

Fernapple comments on May 14, 2021:

In the UK restaurants and concert halls are closed anyway.

"God" • debated in Philosophy.

Fernapple comments on May 14, 2021:

Unfortunately we do not live in; Philosophy, Mathematics, Science, or logic. The world we live in is one of: incompetence, self indulgence and dishonesty, and if you are not all of those three things, you wont fit in here.

People have to stop judging others and stop having a superior attitude towards others.

Fernapple comments on May 14, 2021:

Is an arts degree anything but a degree in snobbery ? Or is that just inverted snobbery ? Discus.

Atheism is a non-prophet organization.

Fernapple comments on May 14, 2021:

News to me that it is an organization. Think I may join. I am already in the non stamp collectors, the none golf players, the society for people who don't ride horses, the support group for people who don't swim in winter, and the does not go to football games club.

Of course instead of people being made in God's image Jesus was made in a real person's image.

Fernapple comments on May 12, 2021:

Yes, it is sometimes questioned, but certainly there was no standard image of Jesus in the Middle Ages, and the modern standard one certainly looks a lot like the portraits of Cesare.

I hope this is true.

Fernapple comments on May 12, 2021:

I don't know. I know some atheists who smoke a awful lot of weed, and smoking is certainly not good for you. LOL

WAGGING THE DOG?

Fernapple comments on May 12, 2021:

The usual reason most wars start, is because a politician can't solve the domestic problems, and needs a diversion. That is why Putin is restarting the cold war.

Why Confederate Lies Live On For some Americans, history isn’t the story of what actually ...

Fernapple comments on May 12, 2021:

I think your second line answers your first.

If a Christian infiltrates atheist group, is it cross-contamination?

Fernapple comments on May 12, 2021:

Groan.

"If they come for the innocent without stepping over your body, cursed be your religion and your ...

Fernapple comments on May 11, 2021:

Powerful statements, yes.

Atheist Debates - The American Church in 1965 [youtube.com]

Fernapple comments on May 11, 2021:

The slide of religion into a partnership with the fascist far right, and other criminal activities is not a mystery. It is inevitable. Because as secular political institutions, western democratic governments especially, but also international organizations, (the UN, the WHO, etc.) secular charities, and legal institutions, increasingly rise in power and importance, and increasingly, in a global world, find it convenient not to attach themselves to specific groups. They increasingly take charge of most of the profitable and moral activities of human life. Which leaves religion to find a market place for its services, where? They can only move their search for power and profit into the immoral fringes, because that is the only zone left.

So: Question for the gardners/naturalists here: Is this typical sparrow behavior?

Fernapple comments on May 11, 2021:

Good homes for sparrows are in short supply, sometimes they will steal the nests of swallows by forcing them out after they have built them.

Kim Jong Un Had Conductor Executed by Firing Squad Following Celebration, South Korean Paper Says...

Fernapple comments on May 11, 2021:

He had his former girlfriend executed in much the same way, just because his new wife did not like her. Getting more like Caligula every day.

Re Questioning: What is the ultimate aim of those who follow religions?

Fernapple comments on May 10, 2021:

Yep that is it. Never have to think, never address a moral problem (there are none ). You only have to read one book, and if that is too, hard someone will read it for you. And you will always be told that you are going to get everything you want, later if not now, so that you never have to take the main challenge of becoming adult, which is the understanding that "I want." is not the same as " Its True". Perpetual spoiled childhood.

This made me start looking for the steepest hill to be built on . . .

Fernapple comments on May 10, 2021:

I would not think it is the steepest by any means. But Knaresborough near me is fairly impressive and pretty.

Omni Calculator

Fernapple comments on May 10, 2021:

Interesting and useful site, thank you. Especially as it told me that I am healthy, and don't need to loose weight. (Perhaps there is something wrong with it after all.)

Theoretical physics is the field that develops theories about how nature operates.

Fernapple comments on May 10, 2021:

Hypothesis not theory. Hypothesis is before confirmation by experiment and pier review, theory is after, theoretical physics is perhaps misnamed, because it is concerned with hypothesis, but the making of hypothesis is a legitimate activity. Some parts of physics do veer off into the realms of religion it is true, and it would no doubt benefit from more critical attacks, but there are a growing number of people within physics who are attacking the basic assumptions.

Current opinions on Covid vaccinations (and other things) never cease to amaze me.

Fernapple comments on May 10, 2021:

Ask him why huge numbers of people would want to take part in a plot like that, and what would they gain from it. The 'why' question is often the hardest for them to answer.

I'm an Atheist, more over a antitheist.

Fernapple comments on May 10, 2021:

Psychoactive substances may have been part of the mixture in many cases, but they would be by no means needed to kick start religion. Humans are perfectly able to make mistakes, see things that are not there and invent things to deceive others, without chemical help. We are only of very limited intelligence, prone to error, and it was needful to invent and construct slowly over many years elaborate structures, such as philosophy and science, just to get us to begin reasoning even a little bit. You may find it interesting to research, "false positive errors", and Richard Dawkin's "memes theory".

“There is no exercise better for the heart, than reaching down and lifting people ...

Fernapple comments on May 9, 2021:

And none worse than being told. " No. We prefer life in the cesspit."

Religion is the worship of Man Prove Me Wrong

Fernapple comments on May 9, 2021:

No, man worships of his own art works. Think of the irony of the Christians, belittling the existing Roman imperial religions, by saying that when they put up idols, they worshiped just dead things made of wood and gold, fashioned by the hands of men. Yet arrogantly claiming to be superior, because their god was invisible; which really just meant, not made of wood and gold, but just made out of paper and ink. And sometimes the paper and ink is literally worshiped in its own right, think about that, next time you see someone put their hand on a bible in court. While the difference between worship of human art, and worship of humans matters. Because, unlike men, arts are practically immortal, so that yesterdays arts can take on lives of their own and inflict themselves on future generations, often in disastrous, unintended and unforeseen ways. ( The Christians made a straw-man argument anyway, since the idols were merely representations and not worshiped in their own right, but what religious person ever cared about being truthful. )

In our modern times of equality, shouldn't the female portion of Mennonites be referred to as ...

Fernapple comments on May 8, 2021:

No, ' delusional sheep ' suits them all.

- How do you drink your whiskey? - I take a sip in my mouth and then swallow.

Fernapple comments on May 8, 2021:

Take a sip, yes, but don't forget to swirl it round and suck in air to get the full flavour.

Is the grass green?

Fernapple comments on May 8, 2021:

The grass is 'mainly' green. Or the grass is 'generally' green. You raise a good point. Since it is a good idea in debate, especially where your opposite is likely to use such low devices such as straw man arguments, to anticipate that, and straw-man or at least qualify yourself first when you make a statement. That way you both steal their thunder and block the straw-man argument. And if they still press on with it, you can point out that they are at the very least inattentive, and that you already covered that.

End of the world

Fernapple comments on May 8, 2021:

I am sixty plus, and have lived through about twenty, world endings, as published by major churches. They say that science and religion are not in conflict, but they also say, the main core value of scientific proof, is repeatability.

Manufacturing or installation or materials failure.

Fernapple comments on May 8, 2021:

It may only be days to fledging, don't worry too much, and try to fix it between broods.

A question to the senate.

Fernapple comments on May 8, 2021:

Being from the UK I am prone to irony. Try doing that on a site full of Americans !!

Attn: Admin I've posted nicely at least six times before, now I'm making a demand: we want a ...

Fernapple comments on May 7, 2021:

P.S. to my earlier. We also need a Tin Foil Hat emoji. P.P.S. Why is the spell checker on here so out of date, it does not even include emoji ?

Evil Bible . Com – Fighting Against Immorality in Religion

Fernapple comments on May 7, 2021:

Sad that it says though, that the Bible is a hard read due to its archaic language, because of course that is making the same mistake that many Christians do, assuming that the King James especially, is the only version. When in fact, not only are some of the more modern versions easier to read, but they have much better scholarship than the K.J. which is perhaps the most distorted and wildly reinvented version there is.

"Harken yee unto me thou who shalt listen for Verily I tell thee that upon this the 8th day, not the...

Fernapple comments on May 7, 2021:

Put aside a little of the money, or all of it, you would spend on cigs every day, and watch the pile grow rapidly, until you have enough to give yourself a big treat. Incentive and a reminder of your achievement.

There is an article in the New Yorker that is about UFO's.

Fernapple comments on May 7, 2021:

I would seek medical help. Since, while it may just be possible that visitors will one day arrive here from another solar system, it is so highly unlikely that we, as the only sample we have, will ever reach other star systems, even imagining impossibly advanced technology, it is very unlikely that anyone else will, ever. It is much more likely that I have become delusional, medical help needed.

“We must respect the other fellow's religion, but only in the sense and to the extent that we ...

Fernapple comments on May 7, 2021:

Though sometimes for his own good, you have to point out that the zipper on his trousers is undone.

Attn: Admin I've posted nicely at least six times before, now I'm making a demand: we want a ...

Fernapple comments on May 7, 2021:

Puke, Thumbs down, Bye Bye and Thank You.

Nature is the best gardener/landscaper I know!

Fernapple comments on May 6, 2021:

Always, to me no art, even gardening, is of any value if it does not increase our reverence for nature.

First-known pregnant mummy discovered | Live Science

Fernapple comments on May 6, 2021:

Strange that it is only the first, of all the thousands of mummies know, many pregnant women must have died. You can only assume that they normally removed the fetus.

Does this bother you?

Fernapple comments on May 6, 2021:

Yep. Funny that ain't it.

(Well, it is "non-invasive" in one sense, but I wonder about the acid left behind.

Fernapple comments on May 6, 2021:

A new use for an old idea, odd nobody thought of it before. But the obvious downside is that you are probably going to need a huge amount of electricity, for small amounts of metal. Which could be costly, so it may only work for the really expensive types.

ANOTHER KEYBOARD BITES THE DUST.

Fernapple comments on May 5, 2021:

How big are her paws ?

“The Christian religion, not only was at first attended by miracles, but even at this day cannot...

Fernapple comments on May 5, 2021:

If you survive life without a logical sceptical brain, that's a miracle.

Has anyone else considered the possibility that religious festivals in the distant past, only ...

Fernapple comments on May 5, 2021:

Sorry, but not a new idea, people have been aware of the obvious cheat for centuries. The ancient Greeks even had a legend about how the Gods were cheated out of the best share. According to which. When the first burnt offering was made, the gods got to choose which bits were theirs and which were left for the humans to eat. But the crafty priests, ( it may have been Prometheus, I don't recall, ) wrapped some of the bones and the inedible offal in a thin layer of the best fat. Then they asked the gods which bits they wanted to be theirs ever afterwards. The gods of course chose, what looked like a large lump of the finest fat, but was in fact just bones. The story was probably told by the ancient Greeks tongue in cheek. But it explained how the division was made. There is a little more here. https://www.learnreligions.com/method-of-sacrifice-in-ancient-greece-4079925

I’m baaaaaaaaaaaack!

Fernapple comments on May 5, 2021:

Good, welcome, you have been missed.

All our considerations of extraterrestrial life are rooted in a fundamental limitation: our senses.

Fernapple comments on May 5, 2021:

Our senses are not the only limitation, just distance alone is enough, to detect the signs of life, which is a very tiny thing, as far as we know, (Life on earth is just a couple of miles thick, at most, film, on the surface of a planet, which as a whole, makes up less than a thousanth of one percent of the solar system. ) at the distance of other stars, would be practically impossible even if it was exactly like ours. The distances are such that it is likely we could only see the emissions from very advanced technological cultures, which may be far less common than life itself, and may be short lived anyway. Technology may quickly lead to self destruction, or many life forms which develop it, may just abandon it. The only other things which could be detected are things like oxygen in the atmosphere of exo-planets, but that requires very catching them at very rare moments when light passes though those atmospheres as they pass across the face of stars, and needs very high quality detection.

There's just no stopping spring growth in my back fern garden!

Fernapple comments on May 5, 2021:

Wow lovely, you are far in advance of me here in the UK , ours have hardly started yet. Mind you we have just had the coldest April on record, so we are not likely to but lush with spring growth yet.

15 Things You Didn’t Know About Cats and Dogs | Vetsource

Fernapple comments on May 4, 2021:

Good read, thank you.

I seem to have gone through something I can't explain.

Fernapple comments on May 4, 2021:

Sounds like an infection, if it is or if it is not, see a doctor and antibiotics should quickly sort it out, and if it is something more serious they will tell you.

Everyone thinks I’m a submissive because I’m wearing this collar.

Fernapple comments on May 4, 2021:

I always wondered why vicars alway seem to have such a bad flea problem.

Hi all. I am new here. Any advice or guidance in finding my way around is appreciated much.

Fernapple comments on May 4, 2021:

Hello and welcome. Just get stuck in.

A tub of margarine fell on my foot three weeks ago and it still hurts.

Fernapple comments on May 4, 2021:

If your feet are not healing well, it is a good idea to get your sugar levels and blood pressure checked. I don't want to worry you, it may be nothing, but it can be a symptom of serious underlying disease, poor circulation and slow healing in the feet are one of the first signs.

Just curious (but meant as a serious question, not a joke, however offbeat it may be): Has anyone...

Fernapple comments on May 3, 2021:

If they have a bilateral symmetry, which is very common on earth, so may be so elsewhere, it will be quite likely that one side will be slightly dominant. It may even be to the extent, that like some crabs say, they may have bilateral bodies, but with one side heavily modified, even with different limbs. Or they may of course not be bilateral at all, like starfish, or jellyfish.

Wombat? Close enough.

Fernapple comments on May 3, 2021:

Warthog. Its trying to hide its ugly face.

He doesn't even want to hear about that "common ancestor" crap...

Fernapple comments on May 3, 2021:

And some apes are good looking, unlike humans, horrible lanky bald things, with just odd tufts of hair, in exactly the places you would not want tufts of hair. Ugh.

Pakistan PM Imran Khan calls for Muslim countries to force Western governments to criminalise ...

Fernapple comments on May 3, 2021:

Given the near to broken state of Pakistan's economy, I think that the only country that would be a disaster for would be Pakistan. But that is probably what the imams want. Keep the people poor and ignorant, and they wont have the resources needed to ask questions.

Apparently, most people don't really want to be happy.

Fernapple comments on May 3, 2021:

Sorry your link does not work.

Someone again asked if agnostics are scared to say they are atheists.

Fernapple comments on May 2, 2021:

If god speaks in the forest where no one hears him, what difference does his mere existence make ?

So tired, tired of waiting...

Fernapple comments on May 2, 2021:

Or maybe that is what they tell everybody.

Can you spot the Copperhead Snake on the path.

Fernapple comments on May 2, 2021:

Boy that is some camo.

I like to watch evangelist performances, nice manipulative psychology lessons.

Fernapple comments on May 2, 2021:

No thank heavens, it is enough that I waste such a lot of time on this site. OK, joke , but yes you can learn a lot from them, and then you start to be aware of just the same methods being used everywhere. Every animal has a special adaption, the hare runs fast, the falcon flies fast, the lion is strong, the mole digs well, etc.. Yet many people wonder what special adaption humans have, and think we must be without one perhaps. But it is obvious really. We are the animal which tells lies, and has a special talent for that, beyond all others. Not just to other humans, but our lies are so good, even the animals living on the farm think we love them, when in fact we only keep them because we intend to eat them.

I think if anyone wants to know how silly the human being is, just go to tiktok and start swiping up...

Fernapple comments on May 2, 2021:

But pigs and dogs of course are unclean, even though they are Allah's creation too, never fathomed the logic of that. ( It may be that the prophets cats told him to put that bit in of course. ) LOL

When history comes alive

Fernapple comments on May 2, 2021:

Someone was very clever spotting the similarity and putting those two together.

I was brought up in a Christian home and became a Christian at eight years old, as time passed i ...

Fernapple comments on May 2, 2021:

Hello and welcome to the site. I think that your first line says it all. Can you really become a Christian at eight ? ! What does an eight year old understand about theology, history, life, and what knowledge did the eight year old you have of the world or any alternate belief systems, to make a judgment ? Were you really a Christian, or were you just an intellectually abused and indoctrinated child ? And what does it tell you about a belief system, that expects people to join forever at eight, and never points to any alternatives, or asks for any open criticism. One thing you will find here is a range of opinion on nearly everything, as well as support, for nearly everything.

I'm so glad this site exist.

Fernapple comments on May 2, 2021:

Its a good people site, and no matter what you have to talk about, we have enough diversity that there will always be some who want to listen and share.

Has your interest in religion increased or decreased after leaving your religion? Why?

Fernapple comments on May 1, 2021:

1. Never was religious and was raised in a largely secular household. 2. First encountered religion at school, and gained a good knowledge of Christianity there, but no other religion. ( UK schools are often Christian. ) 3. Not really applicable, but I have learned more over the years. 4. Still study it a bit, because I am interested in everything. 5. The Christian schooling I was given, made me realize just what a threat to every value I hold good religion was, and the sense of pity for all those people still trapped by those darker aspects of human culture, motivates me perhaps even more than the need I have to defend the things, like the environment, science, human rights, reason, etc., which I do value. 6. Faded a little since I know enough for my needs to combat it, and a lot of it is dull. 7. Very few.

“The only intelligent tactical response to life’s horror is to laugh defiantly at ...

Fernapple comments on May 1, 2021:

If I remember rightly, he was not exactly a big sack full of laughs himself though.

A picture speaks a thousand words

Fernapple comments on May 1, 2021:

Clever photo. Well done whoever.

Is there truly any difference between a "cult" and a "religion".

Fernapple comments on May 1, 2021:

A religion is a cult that has managed to get itself political power.

Oh yes they can...

Fernapple comments on May 1, 2021:

Times change it seems. At first I did not get the joke, because I mistook the ink blot card, for the top of a laptop with a logo on it.

it feels good to see the fireflies flash.

Fernapple comments on May 1, 2021:

I have never seen that, they are very rare to nearly extinct in the UK. They are on my bucket list when we can travel again.

Hmmm, wonder what a female box looks like...never mind, I finally remembered!

Fernapple comments on Apr 30, 2021:

Not sure if that's, pawn or porn, depends on number perhaps.

What is "a night with ebon pinion" anyway?

Fernapple comments on Apr 30, 2021:

It is that which precedes. "Dawn placing her rose tinted fingers in the sky, over a wine dark sea."

Bertolt has always had a strong philosophical point worth considering.

Fernapple comments on Apr 30, 2021:

The original meaning of the Greek word "idiot", was someone who takes no interest in politics.