The first rule of fight club is no damned fight club. Who's with me?

Fernapple comments on Sep 6, 2020:

The first rule of life is. If you have time to watch trashy Holywood productions, you haven't got a life.

“I am an Agnostic because I am not afraid to think.

Fernapple comments on Sep 6, 2020:

That will do well enough. Hello and welcome to the site. Do check out the groups if you have time, there is something for everyone.

I constantly watch/listen to this at least once a week.

Fernapple comments on Sep 6, 2020:

She needs the sceptic community badly. Its a pity we can't send her a message about sites like this.

"Orgasm on a plate." Laughing at the Farmer's Market.

Fernapple comments on Sep 6, 2020:

I just love markets, even if I don't buy anything. Just meeting people who made or grew what they are selling, and watching people just wandering around enjoying the fresh air and the social interactions, instead of trying to fill their trolley faster than everyone else.

Are you conditioned? If so in what ways? Please share. [quotes.justdharma.]

Fernapple comments on Sep 6, 2020:

Why would I not wish to be controlled by circumstances ? I am here to live, and to interact with the world in which I live.

Is there anything that can be done about people who post things multiple times in the same group?

Fernapple comments on Sep 5, 2020:

I don't know, when once I did it by accident, I got a warning message, saying. You have posted this already. Or something like that.

Having moved away from the Co-operative bank as i lived too far away, I’m thinking about moving ...

Fernapple comments on Sep 5, 2020:

Really good information thank you. I am thinking of putting money into a credit union so that sub-page about those is really useful. PS. I did not realize that we are quite near neighbours, at least in global terms.

The Lie and The Truth

Fernapple comments on Sep 5, 2020:

There is a lovely old painting too. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truth_Coming_Out_of_Her_Well

Multiple times now I have written private messages only to have them disappear when I hit send.

Fernapple comments on Sep 5, 2020:

No, but the site does seem to be geared for a PC rather than a mobile device, nearly all the problem reports do come from people using mobile devices.

Going to kinda free write this, and none of this will qualify as "required reading" so if anybody ...

Fernapple comments on Sep 5, 2020:

Hello and welcome. Enjoy the site, and if you have time do check the groups, there is something for everyone. But posting on one page is generally enough, it will still show on the front page.

Hello Heathens, Just joined a few hours ago.

Fernapple comments on Sep 5, 2020:

Hello and welcome. Enjoy the site, and if you have time do check the groups, there is something for everyone.

Do new members get free Coffee? TeeHee

Fernapple comments on Sep 5, 2020:

Hello and welcome. Good members get a T shirt, but for free coffee you need to go somewhere where they take money off you for other things, like a church for example. Enjoy the site, and if you have time do check the groups, there is something for everyone.

Hello I’m new.

Fernapple comments on Sep 5, 2020:

Hello and welcome. Enjoy the site, and if you have time do check the groups, there is something for everyone.

[livescience.com] some vikings believed in a mirror world

Fernapple comments on Sep 5, 2020:

I have heard that the legend of El Dorado, and the city of gold that the Spanish spent such effort chasing in South America, back in the sixteenth century. May well have arisen out of a simple misunderstanding. Because in many native cultures it was believed, that the spirit world was what you saw when you looked at reflections, and most mirrors were made of gold. Therefore the man and city of gold, were just the native name for heaven or at least the equivalent of the Christian 'Pearly Gates', which could be viewed quite literally in mirrors, or on the bright surface of the sun.

I have access to 4 or more browsers on my computers.

Fernapple comments on Sep 4, 2020:

Try updating Firefox, the latest one shows your most visited sites on the home page with icons, by default.

Do you care?

Fernapple comments on Sep 4, 2020:

Knowledge is power and understanding, that's why good governments try to spread it, and bad ones suppress it.

Which are you? ;)

Fernapple comments on Sep 4, 2020:

Complexity and truth are two different qualities, which do not relate to one another. That's why the modern common misunderstanding of Occam's razor is false, though the original was useful. Quality of evidence needs to be considered as well as quantity. But at the same time it is generally better to hold something to be true, if it is supported by multiple sources of evidence, rather than one, if the evidence is all of the same quality.

.

Fernapple comments on Sep 4, 2020:

Secular charities are far bigger overall in Europe than the Christian ones, (I suspect that may be true even in the US.) and they are by default none religious. To paraphrase the old saw. Agnostics and Atheists are not organizations or movements, in the same way that not playing golf is a sport.

Comparative evaluations are accurate .. [agnostic.com]

Fernapple comments on Sep 4, 2020:

Scientist. "I think we should measure the level carefully before we make statements." Pedant. "It all depends on the size of the glass, and are we measuring in litres or pints." Realist "It does not mater, a part full glass, even of piss, is more useful than an empty one." Socialist. "Its better everyone has half a glass, than one person has two glasses full and another has none." Capitalist. "Its my glass therefore I own the piss, whoever made it." Feminist. "I bet a man did that." Opportunist. "Great its nearly time for another round."

When should you decide to engage in civil discourse?

Fernapple comments on Sep 4, 2020:

Don't start to debate, just state your position in a positive way, in other words don't say. "No I do not agree with that." Instead say. "I am finding that the freedom, and positive personal growth that I gain from not engaging with astrology right now are too valuable to loose." Then leave it to them to start the debate if they want to, which they probably won't, but by the time they have heard you say something like that several times, they may just start to question for themselves with out you having to do anything. Example wins more converts than debate.

Can an atheist be a proud Secular Christian?

Fernapple comments on Sep 3, 2020:

Since there are so many different forms of Christianity, it is a virtually meaningless term and can therefore be anything you want it to be. So that if someone, like everyone else, wanted to cherry pick out the bits they like and then call that Christianity, then they are no different from anyone else, and are perfectly entitled to call themselves a Christian if they wish. Personally if they believed in "love your enemies", "turn the other cheek", and "take care of others outside your tribe (good Samaritan) " I would probably call them simply a, good person instead, because I think that they are better than that religion. Or even better than Jesus who if we take the New Testament as half true, also said some really horrible things.

Trumpers vs isis

Fernapple comments on Sep 3, 2020:

One lot are going left to right, and the other lot are going right to left ?

Marcionism and Mormonism Gnosis reinvented by the Latter Day Patriarchs By Len Hazell

Fernapple comments on Sep 3, 2020:

I love the way the, perfect holy word of god, emerges from a horse traders market of dealing and double dealing.

Never again ever

Fernapple comments on Sep 3, 2020:

Who is Chuck Norris ?

In his book "Quantum Reality", Jim Baggott writes: "When we look closely we find that it’s not ...

Fernapple comments on Sep 3, 2020:

Yep that's basically true. We all have to accept certain things as givens before we start. As in mathematics where they are called axioms. The most important of which, beyond pure maths, is that we all have to accept the idea that the only input we receive, that from our senses, is not a total illusion, for if we don't accept that then nothing is true and we are going nowhere, except into empty aimless solipsism. The idea reflects however on the big mistake however that many religious apologists then make, which is to confuse the acceptance of practical axioms with faith. But they are quite different in that axioms, though without any basis in evidence, are things that you accept because you have too, especially where you have no choice, so that they could be called necessary faith or axioms. Whereas religious faith is used when there are choices, elective faith. And that difference is not just a practical mater of how we work things out, but actually changes the whole nature and meaning of the acceptance. So much so that the two things should probably have different names and it is an unfortunate accident of history that in English the word faith has been applied to both. The language needs revising.

Why do we like distant train whistles?

Fernapple comments on Sep 3, 2020:

Good question. Right now anything that reminds me of travel makes me sad.

Never thought of using Japanese anemones as cut flowers before.

Fernapple comments on Sep 3, 2020:

They are lovely. I always wonder if they are the last of the summers bounty, or the first glory of autumn.

I thought this concept was brilliant.

Fernapple comments on Sep 3, 2020:

Religion is taught like that in schools in a lot of Europe, including the UK. And has been fading fast for a long time as an important part of life.

A good dose of the Philosophy pf Religion is enough to make anyone an atheist.

Fernapple comments on Sep 2, 2020:

Very good. But you left out, twenty centuries of milking every ounce of wealth possible out of the poorest and most innocent communities.

Good morning

Fernapple comments on Sep 2, 2020:

Yep but shall soon be going to bed, different time zone. And sorry but your cat appears to be from the southern hemisphere.

How to slam dunk creationists when it comes to the theory of evolution

Fernapple comments on Sep 1, 2020:

Yes the only problem with that is that some creationists are quite happy to question any science, even gravity. (Although you could, perhaps, make the case that the theory of gravity is built on less solid evidence than evolution.)

Will spend my birthday helping a dear friend.

Fernapple comments on Sep 1, 2020:

Well done. I am sure it will be a happy birthday.

Life in Lockdown

Fernapple comments on Sep 1, 2020:

Yep can't argue with that, though you did miss out beer.

"I prefer someone who burns the flag and then wraps themselves up in the Constitution over someone ...

Fernapple comments on Sep 1, 2020:

Very clear and succinct statements.

Landscapes — 1: On the Moralana Scenic Route, South Australia, 1987.

Fernapple comments on Sep 1, 2020:

Do you know by any chance what the blue flowers are in one, please ?

Sure you really want total freedom?

Fernapple comments on Sep 1, 2020:

Good Peter, You rhyme so well. You from a poet, I could not tell. Lunch I buy ! Its very nice for me, To come on here, And get a poem for free.

Trump declines to condemn teen who killed two in Kenosha

Fernapple comments on Sep 1, 2020:

Actually he did not refuse to condemn, he actively supported. He said . "Self defence." Which is pre-judging the court case in public, which I am sure he should not be doing. He is simply playing to his core supporters prejudices to gain their handclaps. The trouble with that is, that he will alienate the middle ground if he becomes too extreme, and he may then find that come the election, his core supporters are a much smaller minority than he thought. You should never underestimate just how many basically good sane people there are in the world, however loud the extremists may be.

I'm glad to have found this community! It is good to have access to like minded individuals.

Fernapple comments on Aug 31, 2020:

Hello and welcome, enjoy the site and do check out the groups if you have time, there is something for everyone. I don't know about 'like minded' though, some of the people here are pretty freaky, I love them to bits. Be especially wary of the pedants, we have some gilt edged beauties.

Can an atheist and an Evangelical be friends?

Fernapple comments on Aug 31, 2020:

Yes of course, Christians are the victims of the religion for the most part, you should not hate the victim, only the thing which misleads them, in fact you have to try the harder to help them.

Another thought on Kenosha: the kid's mother armed him, drove him there, dropped him off.

Fernapple comments on Aug 31, 2020:

I was amazed that she was not charged, in Britain the guardians of a minor are responsible for the minors crimes.

An aged (wo)man is but a paltry thing, A tattered coat upon a stick, unless Soul clasp its hands...

Fernapple comments on Aug 31, 2020:

Happy birthday. The sweetest of chestnuts do not ripen till last, and wear the most tattered garments, it is the kernel grown inside that counts.

Many rehabs rely on religion.

Fernapple comments on Aug 31, 2020:

Many rehabs rely on replacing one addiction with another. It may be that for the individual at least, religion is a less harmful addiction than say drugs. But it is funny that one of the principle objectives of ethics in mental health, is to insure that the therapist does not create a dependency in the patient on the therapist. Though of course the further you get from mainstream health-care and the deeper into alternatives, the more that is waved, until it becomes the normal thing to do. "My receptionist will deal with your bank details. See you next week."

What religions have you been associated with/called just by how you act?

Fernapple comments on Aug 31, 2020:

I come from the UK, so that, as in most of Northern Europe, everyone assumes you have no religion until you tell them otherwise. Though there are a few of the older generation still living who assume you are a low level christian by default, but even they would never assume that much up front without asking, that would be considered at the very least impolite.

I strongly think that a person is a coward to be science educated on one side and believe in ...

Fernapple comments on Aug 31, 2020:

I do not therefore think that they are cowards, merely deluded. Some people, like famously Stephen J. Gould, see religion and science as existing in two separate realms, ( he called them magisteria, ) one in the spiritual or supernatural and the other in the natural. Which is great if there is no overlap and both sides respect the boundary. But of course religion can never do that, because religion is, by its nature, imperial and has to expand its empire into the natural world, since no mater how much power and knowledge you may have within the, possibly none existent, supernatural world, it profits you not one jot until someone puts a real material coin in your collecting tin. So that while science never ventures out of its realm, religion in order to appear to have something to give, and a way of obtaining something, must by its very nature invade the natural world or make statements about it. While since religion is free of the idea of objective truth, pear review, or even the need to be logically consistent, it is free to make any claims it wishes, which means of course that if you have a claim to make, especially an unpopular or criminal one, religion is where you go to make it.

Belief, Love and Politics

Fernapple comments on Aug 31, 2020:

Good article.

Aliens; why should we "listen" for them? Have they ever visited us?

Fernapple comments on Aug 31, 2020:

Good read thanks.

What determines whether a person is a Christian or not?

Fernapple comments on Aug 31, 2020:

There are also many different sects within Christianity, many of which claim that they are the only true Christians. And you have also to remember that the religion has changed vastly over time. A Nazarean, would not recognize the followers of Paul as Christian, who in turn would not understand the views of post Constantine Christians, while a couple of hundred years later the split between Rome and Greece made it into different churches, the Reformation and post Reformation non conformism, all change it again. And who knows what happened in the muddles of the first two centuries before any original written records. That fact is that you just have to accept that a Christian is anyone who self identifies, with what is basically an almost meaningless term, some don't even believe in a physical Jesus. The only common thread is that each are trying to give their quite different views a little extra (fake) authority, by linking them in name with a tradition. My guess is that the next incarnation of the name, will be as a rebranding of fascism. That is what you get when you set up the god fallacy, and/or, give god like authority to tradition. Anyone can manipulate god and tradition, (who have no voice or opinion of their own), to support whatever views they like, they are therefore, 'gods gift' (sic) to the criminal exploiter, and always fall into the criminals hands in the end.

A nice surprise, my t shirt arrived 😊

Fernapple comments on Aug 30, 2020:

Well done, and it fits too.

7 Things that PROVE God is Real is an article written six years ago by J.

Fernapple comments on Aug 30, 2020:

Link timed out, I am sorry to say.

40 of them?! Wow! I go first. The Ring.

Fernapple comments on Aug 30, 2020:

The wicker man.

What is something (besides religion) commonly believed to be true that is actually not?

Fernapple comments on Aug 30, 2020:

Art. Not works of art, but high art, the idea that some works of human craft are somehow 'spiritual' (another meaningless word) while others are mere crafts. Organic. The idea that you can use a chemical from a plant, which probably evolved the chemical to kill animals in the first place, with safety. But a chemical devised in a lab and tested though the most stringent safety standards must be dangerous, ( OK, sometimes they are, but prove that all plants etc. are safe.)

Vincenzo Galilei Fantasia Terza from Il Fronimo performed by M.

Fernapple comments on Aug 30, 2020:

Sad Alamanda went, and the site moves on, things change not always for the worse.

Here’s a question.

Fernapple comments on Aug 30, 2020:

There may already be one. The Humanist sub-group of sceptical thinking, sets out the view that. If you reject god and the supernatural, then your own species becomes the most important thing in life, and therefore fulfilling human needs and promoting human happiness becomes the highest goal, by default . I have a few reservations about it. For one, the lack of direct environmental commitment in that, unless you believe that looking after the environment is a prerequisite for human good, especially long term; which seems sensible. And perhaps it is just a little too anthropocentric a view in general. But those are small concerns.

Then there is this....

Fernapple comments on Aug 30, 2020:

Groan.

I've never posted before.

Fernapple comments on Aug 30, 2020:

Hello and welcome.

Trump is ignoring right-wing extremists who 'want to start a race war,' former DHS official says

Fernapple comments on Aug 29, 2020:

Dictators always start by ignoring the crimes of their followers. Then if their followers fail they can distance themselves and come in with the winners at the last second, and if they a successful they can jump in to take the credit. That is what sitting on your hands is for. Hitler did it, so did Stalin and so did the white government in old South Africa.

For all the knockers of RT?

Fernapple comments on Aug 29, 2020:

Sorry but I often watch RT and have done for some time, and sadly, I have watched it become increasingly a Putin mouthpiece, and propaganda machine over the past ten years. It may not be directly under Putin's control, though I would not rule that out. But that is the clever modern way, to franchise out your propaganda. Because that both, gives it more credibility and enables you to distance yourself from it more easily if you change your mind. While at the same time controlling it indirectly, by managing its funds, keeping the threat of direct control open but unused, (The threat over time, achieves more than the threat carried out.) and above all insuring that it is placed in such a way, with such a working ethos, that it only attracts employees favouable to you. Who can therefore be trusted to work for your interests gradually and in a low key way, (and slow gentle propaganda works far better than overt), even if you openly order them to be neutral or favour you opponents. This is the way that many news media are managed today, from the political right in the US controlling Fox, to the British state establishment managing the BBC, and the Kremlin the RT. You can not trust any news media, to get an approximation to the truth, and only an approximation you have to study them all, and then attempt your own personal meta analysis. Hard work and unlikely to succeed, but the only way. And for proof of this to anyone who may be interested, I only care to offer the fact that the article you linked this post to, is written by a British journalist who works for Russia Today.

“When you stare into the abyss the abyss stares back at you.” ― Friedrich Nietzsche

Fernapple comments on Aug 29, 2020:

Great photo. Even if it is a fake made in Photoshop, it is still clever. And if it is not, I hope they got the cat out safely.

I came across the following post: White is associated with light, goodness, innocence, purity, ...

Fernapple comments on Aug 29, 2020:

That usage of black and white predates modern racism, and goes back at least to the middle ages. One other interesting question to ask therefore is. Why the deliberate polarity ? I have never seen a white person, sort of beige/pink/grey at best, nor have I ever seen a black person, very dark charcoal grey with a hint of brown, being the closest, and that is very rare. Therefore if there are objectively no black or white people, is not choosing the most polar colours, as symbolic of race, a deliberate overstatement of difference using false facts.

The time here is 5pm.

Fernapple comments on Aug 28, 2020:

Amazed that the computer does not overheat. Well done for keeping going.

Millennials are losing their religion—and social media might explain why

Fernapple comments on Aug 28, 2020:

They say it is because social media give them identity, rather than getting it from their religion. But another factor could be that social media broadens their horizons, rather like travel. One of the great props of religion especially in the US, I always thought, was that Americans were statistically the least traveled nation in the developed world. It is much easier to think that people from other cultures are going to hell, when you don't know any people beyond your own county boundary.

Alleged Kenosha Killer Loved Cops, Guns, Trump, and 'Triggering the Libs,' Former Classmates Say

Fernapple comments on Aug 28, 2020:

If he is not an adult, why is his mother not also on a charge ? Surely at the very least allowing a child to possess a gun, is a crime, if the possession is not legal and you are its guardian.

‎Friday, ‎August ‎28, ‎2020 Souls of LOVE - Personifying - Ones Self - Spirits of ENERGY...

Fernapple comments on Aug 28, 2020:

Funny this seems to be becoming quite repetitive, I am sure I saw posts exactly like this one the last three or four weeks. Are you a bot. I always wanted to meet a bot.?

Some call it a weed but I love Honeysuckle! What a delicious smell.

Fernapple comments on Aug 28, 2020:

Is that a honeysuckle ?

' Nothing in this world can torment you as much as your own thoughts ' - A. Moe

Fernapple comments on Aug 28, 2020:

Only things that can. ( Mind you that B######y mole who keeps on digging tunnels though my garden is having a d### good go.)

This is one of my favorite quotes.

Fernapple comments on Aug 27, 2020:

Oldy but a goldy. Hello and welcome to the site, enjoy the posts and do check out the groups if you have time, there is something for everyone.

The crooked owners of Hobby Lobby continue to fight returning STOLEN artifacts to Iraq.

Fernapple comments on Aug 27, 2020:

The peasant who steals a goose from off the village green, is a criminal. The lord who steals the green from under the geese, is a great public servant. The people with the money get to write the rules.

New Research Shows the Four Conditions That Lead to a Less Religious Society | Hemant Mehta | ...

Fernapple comments on Aug 27, 2020:

Of course you will have to move quick, the religious are aware of those things too, and a moving fast to squash them, before they become universal. They have already succeeded in crushing them in a lot of Islamic countries, and are moving fast in the US and Russia. There is nothing brings defeat as quickly, as thinking that you can smell victory.

The Christian Creed for dummies 1.

Fernapple comments on Aug 27, 2020:

Of course before you sign up you had better see what the , Mohammedans, Hindus, Buddhists, Odinists, Animists, etc. have to offer. After all they may have a nastier hell, if not a better heaven.

I recently watched Alex O'Connor's debate with two Muslims and as expected they used the usual ...

Fernapple comments on Aug 27, 2020:

You just say. "No, god prefers atheists/agnostic, and sends them to heaven while religious people go to hell. Because atheist/agnostics show good critical judgment not insulting him by thinking he will value blind faith, don't tell him what to do, and don't set up fake gods in his place. Now prove me wrong !"

Is access to this site purposely being reduced?

Fernapple comments on Aug 27, 2020:

No problems here in the UK.

Scaling The Border: The Not-So-Great Wall of America | Full Frontal on TBS - YouTube

Fernapple comments on Aug 27, 2020:

Just go with the eight year old.

What they don't want you to know about masks. : Unexpected

Fernapple comments on Aug 27, 2020:

Someone will clip the first few seconds off that and repost it. LOL Sorry I know its sad and dangerous, but a can't help it.

“Success is not the key to happiness.

Fernapple comments on Aug 27, 2020:

Yes but that is one hell of a big challenge.

when I was out doing some yard work today I received a voicemail.

Fernapple comments on Aug 27, 2020:

I get regular ones about my Amazon account. I know they are fake, because I have never had an Amazon account. I am perhaps in the front line, because I run a business, (tiny business) the, "We can upgrade your website and get you more traffic." ones are perhaps the most annoying. The ones that pretend to be from the gas/water/electricity companies the most dangerous. Though I had to laugh a the crude fishing attempt by one I used to get often, who described himself as being from. "Your service provider."

Got a call from, Apple Support," yesterday saying that their cloud storage had been hacked, and that...

Fernapple comments on Aug 27, 2020:

I get regular ones about my Amazon account. I know they are fake, because I have never had an Amazon account.

The Pressure Cooker that is Agnostic.

Fernapple comments on Aug 27, 2020:

Great post. Personal growth always hurts a bit, but well done. I think though that you would probably have grown though without our help, since you come over as a growing sort. Although there are some clever people here, we are I think a good mixture, it is just some people love the debate.

This Is A True Story: My girlfriend was raised Catholic in the Philippines.

Fernapple comments on Aug 26, 2020:

Know thyself.

If you are elected as the leader of your country, what is the very first thing you would do for your...

Fernapple comments on Aug 26, 2020:

In the UK. Bottom line from which everything else stems, create a more accountable democratic government system, starting by replacing of the house of lords with a proper second chamber.

Regret to inform you there will be no ZOOM CHAT or ZOOM TRIVIA this week.

Fernapple comments on Aug 26, 2020:

I do hope you find her better. I have not done the zoom yet but hope to when I can, its great that people are helping the site move forward.

“Choose your leaders with wisdom and forethought.

Fernapple comments on Aug 26, 2020:

Sounds like there are not any good choices then.

Just a curiosity thing.

Fernapple comments on Aug 26, 2020:

Could be that you posted in some groups which have been closed.

Holy Hate: The Far Right’s Radicalization of Religion

Fernapple comments on Aug 25, 2020:

Religion especially theist religion, provides respectability and authority which is based on god. But god does not exist. So god therefore, has no agendas of its own, will never have any quarms about what it is asked to do, or ask for a bigger share of the loot, the rape victims or the honours. He is therefore the perfect criminals hench man. God provides, support without questioning, and authority without cost or responsibility, and can be manipulated or cherry picked to say anything you wish. In other words, god is exactly what every criminal and anti-social psychopath wants, to frighten, and overawe their victims, in exactly the way the criminal wants. So that god and religion become like magnets for the criminal minded sucking them in joyfully. And now that theist religion's role in formulating and promoting morality, has been taken on by by the modern secular religion, which we call human rights, supported by secular authorities like nation states and international bodies, religion has no where else to go, if it is to continue, except into and ever deeper pairing and mutual symbiosis with organized crime of every sort. Though that is perhaps no more than revealing its true face, that it had all along.

Chilling huh?

Fernapple comments on Aug 25, 2020:

Hello and welcome, enjoy the site, and do check out the groups if you have time, there is something for everyone.

Chilling huh?

Fernapple comments on Aug 25, 2020:

Chilling ho! Good.

Africa declared free of wild polio in 'milestone' [bbc.com]

Fernapple comments on Aug 25, 2020:

Yep, just two countries left now where it still lingers. And I don't suppose it has anything whatever to do with those two countries being extreme theocracies with strong anti-progressive agendas. (That's sarcasm by the way.)

Ever just feel like Fannie Lou Hamer said, "I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired.

Fernapple comments on Aug 25, 2020:

Don't stay away too long, we are short of mature males.

THE EVOLUTION OF MORALITY: Recently while roaming through YouTube, looking for a good ...

Fernapple comments on Aug 25, 2020:

Is god moral because humans made god in their own image, or are humans moral because god made humans in its own image ? Its basically a chicken and egg argument. But since the existence of morality in none human animals is clearly demonstrable, it is plain that god is not needed for morality, unless god made all the animals in its image, and evolution is false. (Lets not go there for now.) I think therefore, that morality is an emergent property and you only require three things to reach that emergent state. Firstly, the hard wired aspects to morality we inherit from our evolution. Secondly we can then apply reason to those. The hard wiring from nature says, protect the family, reason says you can do that by making friends with all the other tribes, or by making war and killing them all. The first conclusion means you trade and give gifts, the second engenders the warrior ethic, you must be prepared to die fighting for land and family. Both are moralities, and both have worked to a degree. But then you add the third element, of cultural and historic experience. We see by observation, that those who took the second path often prospered for a while, but killing everybody else is impossible, it generally brings down retribution, and if you do succeed your family then splits and starts fighting each other. So we observe that it rarely really works well in practice, so that it is perhaps better to go the first way, and we apply a little more reason, producing over time a more peaceful morality. Given that those three elements work for every moral issue, god just becomes needless. But that does depend upon people being able to accept firstly evolution, and secondly, the idea of emergence. And given that I doubt one school in a thousand even teaches Emergence theory, and perhaps more than half of them world wide don't teach evolution properly, you are going to have one hell of a job explaining it to most theists.

The key sentence in the article "The second infection was a different strain of coronavirus, and...

Fernapple comments on Aug 25, 2020:

Could be, it could also be that the second strain itself was different.

Race, gender and sexual identity are the new religions. [facebook.com]

Fernapple comments on Aug 25, 2020:

No I do not think that they are religions, but they are expressions of a real new modern religion, which is the idea of human rights, since they are things which most people generally agree are good, and believe in though they are immaterial. And that is perhaps a great and good thing, because, though considered to have a religious like authority. Unlike the pronouncements of Zeus, Moses, or St Paul, they are not regarded as entirely beyond debate and modification.

"He who has a why to live can bear almost any how." - Friedrich Nietzsche

Fernapple comments on Aug 25, 2020:

Though he failed badly in the end.

"The more the state "plans" the more difficult planning becomes for the individual.

Fernapple comments on Aug 25, 2020:

No the state should be planning to empower its people, that's what it is there for. It should read. The more the state plans badly. Though most of the problem is that trapped by bureaucracy, party and political systems, most states do not really 'plan' at all.

"I contend we are both atheists, I just believe in one fewer god than you do.

Fernapple comments on Aug 25, 2020:

Old but a gold.

Benford’s Law.

Fernapple comments on Aug 24, 2020:

I would not quite say that Benfords Law runs all the universe, it is a law supported by several different sub-laws and observations about how the digits are distributed in random numbers. One of the main uses of it is by the revenue authorities of the world, to help them spot when people are cheating on their tax returns.

How many more years...?

Fernapple comments on Aug 24, 2020:

One other thing that you have perhaps to think about is. Has Christianity really survived the last two thousand years, or has it reinvented itself so much, several times over, that it is not really the same thing at all. The name is the same, because reusing the old name helps you carry the old prestige forward, but would a Nazarean have understood the religion of Rome after St Paul, or a follower of Paul recognized that of Constantine, certainly the post imperial church of Rome was completely alien to the Greek church, the reformed protestant church of Luther was a different thing again, and so on, though Baptists, Methodists etc. Maybe it is coming to the end of the line now. Yet there are already 'green' 'Christian' environmental movements, in a church which was supposed only a short while ago to be praying for the destruction of the world. The great trick is to use God and the Christian/Jesus name, in whatever form you like to add authority and prestige to whatever view you want to pedal. But maybe you can only get god to change its mind so many times before people start to see through the trick, and the prestige they thought they carried forward starts to wear thin. Then its done.

Growing up in a Christian home it was branded in my head literally from birth to "Love one another.

Fernapple comments on Aug 24, 2020:

One of the problems with religious education and upbringing, is that religion deliberately sets unachievable standards so that people will fail, and then have to turn to the religion for help and forgiveness. Unfortunately one side effect of that is, that children then grow up in a world filled with adults, who profess absolute love, kindness etc. but then go out and kick homeless people. ( That does happen, though I use an extreme case to make the point.) What the children then learn from observing their community, is that insincerity is normal, and to set little value on truthfulness, but to esteem shallow expression highly. But that suits religions because of course, because truth is not what they want to sell.

PARTISAN WARP BUBBLES, TRUMP LIES AGAIN, AND OTHER NEWS AND LINKS: [united-cats.com]

Fernapple comments on Aug 24, 2020:

The the part of the pole quoted was just the republicans, and even that was quite a small margin.

“I spent half my money on gambling, alcohol and wild women.

Fernapple comments on Aug 24, 2020:

It is said that he was actually very careful with money, and did not trust banks, so he put his savings into hundreds of small accounts in every town he visited all across the US, and committed them to memory. When he died he left no record, so there is said to be a small fortune in in little deposits still waiting to be found.

Would you like us to have an Agnostic online magazine?

Fernapple comments on Aug 24, 2020:

Why limit it to articles about non-belief, to make it more interesting why not have a limited number of sub -sections , maybe only five or six, such as politics, science, lifestyle etc. Don't allow huge numbers of groups, but do allow people who want to read, to access it selectively through the headings.

Fun playing with spider webs & dew this morning

Fernapple comments on Aug 24, 2020:

Lovely, but he dew does remind me that, in the northern hemisphere at least, the summer is coming to an end.