Some good news: [scitechdaily.com]

Fernapple comments on Nov 11, 2019:

Some have said that you are less likely to get infections from copper coins, or ones with a high copper content, than silver ones, it being though by some that money is a major vector of disease.

Charles Darwin may be wrong about where life started on Earth: study (Darwin 'wrong' is ...

Fernapple comments on Nov 10, 2019:

A. Darwin's letter to Hooker is famously speculative, he never claimed to be anywhere near the solution. B. the hydrothermal vents hypothesis is old news now anyway.

I am fifty-seven today 😮. Unholy mother of a non-existent deity--how did that happen?

Fernapple comments on Nov 10, 2019:

You did not die at fifty seven. So that make you one of the lucky ones. Happy birthday.

Why do Christians need guns?

Fernapple comments on Nov 10, 2019:

Christians don't, but some people need more than one security blanket, and when the church is not enough then you can still hug a gun. Those who don't need security blankets don't need either.

Are atheist men, generally, angrier than Christian men?

Fernapple comments on Nov 10, 2019:

No, but people who care are.

People with go are my favorite people I am considered as young for my age so that the people I mix ...

Fernapple comments on Nov 10, 2019:

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

ah but politics was a different game then...

Fernapple comments on Nov 10, 2019:

Sound just like today, no change then.

Oh Spain, thanks for the great visit.

Fernapple comments on Nov 10, 2019:

Seville and Cordoba I loved them both, I especially loved the river front a Cordoba with the Roman bridge it seemed like the most historically beautiful place on earth.

Just a quick tech survey. Whats streaming device(s) do you use?

Fernapple comments on Nov 10, 2019:

I do not need a streaming device, despite my age I still manage to fully control my bladder, thank you.

I post a topic.

Fernapple comments on Nov 10, 2019:

I generally make sure that I like every comment, but I keep asking for a thank you button on the like menu, may get one some day.

WSJ: US Farmers Filing For Bankruptcy At Levels Not Seen Since Great Recession

Fernapple comments on Nov 9, 2019:

Trade wars are no different from any other sort of war, politicians start them and ordinary people suffer in them.

Does anyone else find the comment section under porngoraphy videos more entertaining than the actual...

Fernapple comments on Nov 9, 2019:

We have porn vids on this site, where ?

Howdy folks! Found this link in my FB newsfeed and thought I'd check it out.

Fernapple comments on Nov 9, 2019:

Hello and welcome. Enjoy the site. Do check out the groups if you have time, thereis something for everyone.

Good morning, folks!

Fernapple comments on Nov 9, 2019:

Good morning. Though I think it must be mid day with you now. It is evening here and cold and drear.

Why do people insist on believing in a magical God?

Fernapple comments on Nov 9, 2019:

I don't know if that is the only reason, but it is certainly one. And the main cause of it, is the failing of the worlds education systems to provide enough true education to engender appreciation, with which all the wonders of nature open up. Trash culture which fails to fulfill anyones needs and drives them to woo or pharma, is born in the classroom, where teachers are made to program children to be victims, because that is what those who sell woo and pharma will pay for.

Posted a day early to start you thinking - For the Fallen A poem by Robert Laurence Binyon ...

Fernapple comments on Nov 9, 2019:

I like the poem, but sadly the video does not work.

".

Fernapple comments on Nov 9, 2019:

Sorry but it does not resonate with me, taken out of its original context and being I think grammatically difficult or vague, it is hard to know exactly what it is about.

The argument of intelligent design is very popular among the religious because on the surface it ...

Fernapple comments on Nov 9, 2019:

But there I think lies the big difference between us and the theist. I think that there is an impossible gulf, not in the quality of thinking but in its style, which could never be bridged. Because the sceptic approaches truth, thinking that. "It will be best won if I do not care how much discomfort and loss of joy the winning of it requires, truth is its own reward." While the religious believer approaches it, thinking that. "Truth is that which brings me the greatest joy and comfort, and most confirms what I wish to see."

----Walking under ladders, four leaf clovers, broken mirrors---- I was never really religious, but ...

Fernapple comments on Nov 9, 2019:

None out of habit, but I do like to salute Magpies. Not for habit or superstition, but just because it seems to be such a fun thing to do, the magpies, especially the European ones, are such jaunty birds that they seem to be asking for a smart hello.

“Truth never damages a cause that is just”............Mahatma Gandhi.

Fernapple comments on Nov 9, 2019:

Is there a difference between the two ?

I have a very specific question for you experienced gardeners.

Fernapple comments on Nov 9, 2019:

If they are first planted below the frozen soil. Then the sooner the better.

Is there an investing group?

Fernapple comments on Nov 9, 2019:

Don't think so.

How do you feel about exaggerating to make a point?

Fernapple comments on Nov 9, 2019:

I would say. Do I fail to see the point of this post ?

A different way to define the religious impulse and experience, or to get away from terms like ...

Fernapple comments on Nov 9, 2019:

The three main theories are of course not mutually exclusive, but could reinforce each other.

How would the mythical Noah's ark crew have perished, first?

Fernapple comments on Nov 9, 2019:

Parasites, they had to infect themselves with so many diseases and bugs, they would never have made it up the boarding ramp. LOL

Since this seems to be an actual problem that riles people up here: Spirituality is.

Fernapple comments on Nov 9, 2019:

I am sorry, but you will never get a final definition of 'spiritual', the whole point of the word and what makes it attractive to people is that it has no real meaning, and can therefore be redefined to mean whatever the speaker/writer wishes. Some on this site have proposed, something like. " Emotional awe at the wonder of nature." As a secular meaning, but you will never stop people using it in a million other ways anyway, even if you do get that, and nothing else, put in all the dictionaries.

Solitaire is an unfair game.

Fernapple comments on Nov 9, 2019:

Perhaps it exists to teach sympathy with those who have been given bad stacks by life. Or maybe it is just badly designed.

New here, saw on Facebook last year and decided to try this site out, consider myself agnostic

Fernapple comments on Nov 9, 2019:

Hello welcome and enjoy. Just a couple of small tips, do check out the groups there is something there for everyone, and don't worry too much about points, they come fastest when you are not looking. Some people value a good bio highly.

The image asks the question, "Why didn't god just kill the pharaoh?

Fernapple comments on Nov 9, 2019:

According to the Bible it was god who "hardened" Pharaohs heart anyway. So if he could harden Pharaohs heart why could he not soften it, or did he just want to show off how effectively targeted his weapons of mass destruction could be ? Interestingly, some people have proposed that the killing of the first born may have been down to a common fungal infection of Ergotism, which infected the grain making it poisonous. It being said that in times of famine, (and the others plagues could have caused famine,) the Egyptians had a tradition of only feeding the first born from the granaries, the other children and animals had to fend for themselves. This meant that the damp infected grain was eaten only by the Egyptian first born, while the Hebrews, who did not have that tradition, were spared, or at least only suffered mild collective poisoning.

And all of life is there! no but seriously, potted philosophy but really well done - [aeon.co]

Fernapple comments on Nov 8, 2019:

I do love the Epicureans, but I think that some of the history here is very doubtful, and certainly the view presented of the Stoics is very much a straw man picture.

Came across this and found it interesting.

Fernapple comments on Nov 8, 2019:

OK so he has set up the usual straw man of a hard atheist, so what. There are a couple of million people in that line ahead of him. And he is kind of in a round about way saying that that represents all atheists, without actually saying so, which is not new either. And then he is kissing the feet of a few theists for a massive cash prize. Even I would do that. Then it seems he is letting everyone thing that the prize he won was for physics, not the Templeton prize. So it seems that he may not be great at physics, but he is very good at dishonesty.

These rockin' grandmas are performing this song on the Today Show as I type this.

Fernapple comments on Nov 8, 2019:

When you have got it, you never loose it.

Has anyone got any ideas?

Fernapple comments on Nov 8, 2019:

Join and encourage secular charities. One of the main assets the churches have are the ready made communities they provide, when their are six churches in every town, then let there be seven charity shops with a call in centre and a coffee shop inside, and the chance to volunteer and join in.

I need a book suggestion.

Fernapple comments on Nov 8, 2019:

Go for a soft option, not a hard attack. Try. 'The Book of Atheist Spirituality.' by Andre Comte-Sponville. Or even more indirect. 'The Sacred Depths Of Nature.' by Usula Goodenough.

So this isn't a women's forum but I don't think anyone is going to be offended by this - and also, ...

Fernapple comments on Nov 8, 2019:

Not really relevant to me, but I have to just wonder, at the vast amount of misinformation out there on every subject imaginable. What sort of idiot, pedaling what sort of woo, persuades women to put things like cleaners and steam up their vagina, and what sort of education system does a country have to have in order to produce people so uncritical that they do it ?

It seems there are people in this world that believe that there is historical truth and accuracy in ...

Fernapple comments on Nov 8, 2019:

I would not take it anything like that seriously. See, Williams comment below for all else you need to know.

In the profile questions, this appears: "Is there more than a 10% chance that the following are real...

Fernapple comments on Nov 8, 2019:

I think the list is there to pick up theist trolls who often try to enter the site. It forces them to openly admit who they are or to give false answers.

I have an idea!! Let’s talk about the word “spiritual”!!! No one’s thought of THAT yet! ...

Fernapple comments on Nov 8, 2019:

I usually get my spiritual feelings from a bottle of gin. (Not a joke, it is quite literally true, that both usages have the same root. And certainly in the past some people believed that drunkenness was literally a form of spiritual possession. Whether that is true of the Last Supper metaphor, is something for fools, sorry serious theologians, to argue about.)

Should you doubt the forces of life and the power of renewal, simply observe the miracle of a ...

Fernapple comments on Nov 8, 2019:

The organic acids which living things give off eventually dissolve concrete, yet grass which renews each year can last unchanged for millions.

brutalgirth -- who is this dipshit?

Fernapple comments on Nov 8, 2019:

His only post read like random twaddle, I just ignored it.

And back to another low-light evening shot, Fuchsia can be a good subject…

Fernapple comments on Nov 7, 2019:

Warm low evening light, both brings out the colours and lights the full form.

Hi, just wanted introduce the gardener in me this group.

Fernapple comments on Nov 7, 2019:

Wonderful story. Welcome and enjoy.

Better an uncomfortable truth than a comfortable lie? What say you?

Fernapple comments on Nov 7, 2019:

I think that there is an impossible gulf, between believers and sceptics, not in the quality of thinking but in its style, which could never be bridged. Because the sceptic approaches truth, thinking that. "It will be best won if I do not care how much discomfort and loss of joy the winning of it requires." While the religious believer approaches it, thinking that. "Truth is that which brings me the greatest joy and comfort, and confirms my beliefs."

SPIRITUAL.

Fernapple comments on Nov 7, 2019:

Nice try, but sadly I think that you have no chance. The reason why people like to use the word spiritual, is because it has no fixed meaning, and therefore they can use it to mean anything they want, and moreover if they are challenged about any part of it, they can simply shift the meaning evasively. It is in other words a popular word just because it is a meaningless none word, give it a fixed meaning and people will stop using it, but first you would have to find a way to force people to do what they don't want.

One of the best TED Talks I've seen in awhile.

Fernapple comments on Nov 7, 2019:

If someone could sell you a route to happiness, then they would only get to sell it to you once. However if they can make you unhappy and persuade you to buy a fake cure, then they can sell you that over and over again.

One of the best TED Talks I've seen in awhile.

Fernapple comments on Nov 7, 2019:

Good talk, and I read fearlessfly's link which help to explain the personal experiences which got him there, which was also worth while.

[msn.

Fernapple comments on Nov 7, 2019:

Well done. If you can start someone looking or reading, then that is the best thing you can do for them.

Proposition: No one is totally pro-life.

Fernapple comments on Nov 6, 2019:

The believers do with the life issue exactly what they do with every other issue. That is, they cherry pick just what they want, ignore logic if it does not support their preformed conclusions, and put their fingers in their ears to shut out any outside input. You give the whole system too much credit, by offering it well reasoned arguments.

Talk is cheap. Reduce oil consumption or die.

Fernapple comments on Nov 6, 2019:

While I agree that both oil use and overpopulation are killing the planet, I think that this is a very simplistic model. Correlation is not proof of causation. It could for one thing, be the other way round.

When I was growing up, I was in a pretty much constant internal conversation with God.

Fernapple comments on Nov 6, 2019:

I don't know, I never talked to god, but I still sometimes talk internally to my long dead father, especially when doing craft work and construction things. Saying things like. "You see if we use the large one, the cover won't slip over, but the small one only holds one tray up, so what we need is something between the two. And that we have not got. Problem."

So this might be for Brits only but would love a general opinion.

Fernapple comments on Nov 6, 2019:

No it is not just you. And it is all because we are supposed to celebrate the survival of a king, who most people then and now would think better in prison than ruling a country, in a war of terror fought over religion. The only true traditional part is the bonfire, which was once lit to celebrate the Autumn season, and hearten people before the winter, fair enough, but these silly people should get it that it is the bonfire, not fireworks, which has a true traditional meaning. A lot of them now don't even have the fire, just an annual excuse to play dangerous games with explosives.

Does anyone else find it strange (and kind of creepy) when a person's bio on here describes them ...

Fernapple comments on Nov 6, 2019:

Don't often read the Bio, I take what they write as their front page.

Ok, a lot of grumbling about us who haven't got faces.

Fernapple comments on Nov 6, 2019:

I think that it is a good face. Could do with a shave, but better than mine.

Do y'all FB (AOL,Yahoo!) users think you are critical thinkers and have a nose-for-news ?

Fernapple comments on Nov 5, 2019:

Facebook is rubbish end of story. The Z is just another little dictator trying to build an empire, out of other peoples stupidity.

Daylight Savings--Would you turn the clock back an hour only to turn it forward in the spring?

Fernapple comments on Nov 5, 2019:

Dose not make any difference to anything, if shops, schools, businesses want to make maximum use of the daylight, they can set their own hours for different seasons. Come on this is the twenty first century, in the western world we are said, (may not be true) to have had more than a century of universal education, surely everyone can understand a clock, and know that it only measures time according to arbitrarily allocated symbols.

Hello folks, I just joined the site, thought i'd say hey.

Fernapple comments on Nov 5, 2019:

Hello and welcome. Enjoy the site. You will find it best not to worry too much about points and levels, they come quickly if you don't look. But do check out the groups, there is something for everyone.

Randomly decided to look-up the "latest/newest religion on earth" and was directed to this: ...

Fernapple comments on Nov 5, 2019:

Be careful what you google for, you might just get something nasty stuck to your hard drive.

I received this gem on my door a couple of weeks ago.

Fernapple comments on Nov 5, 2019:

Looks like the same sort of leaflet we get here in the UK, same cheap paper and everything. https://agnostic.com/post/421695/they-are-back-for-a-long-time-i-have-not-had-a-visit-from-the-jw-banging-on-the-door-i-understood . They must print them globally.

Science and Nature ...one in the same.

Fernapple comments on Nov 5, 2019:

God was a personification of nature created by us when we could not understand nature, but thought it would be easier if we made it human, although we did not then understand humans as well as we thought we did either. Now that we can begin to understand nature, the god delusion is just in the way of understanding.

So, gentlemen, has anyone mentioned that your chosen screen name can be quite informative?

Fernapple comments on Nov 5, 2019:

Apart from Moosepucky, there don't seem to be many men sticking their necks out on this post ?

I could use some feedback.

Fernapple comments on Nov 4, 2019:

Keep looking for local friends and groups, don't give up, and in the mean time if you need to vent don't forget this site.

So, gentlemen, has anyone mentioned that your chosen screen name can be quite informative?

Fernapple comments on Nov 4, 2019:

Go on what does mine tell you ?

Over the span of 6 million or so years of man-not-kind do you think you have had an original ...

Fernapple comments on Nov 4, 2019:

A lot have been thought before yes, especially about the fundamentals, that is why things like classical philosophy still resonate today, but I do think that there are new things in the world, that were not there before. And even if that is not progress, it is still change, and with every new thing there will be new thoughts triggered in all of us.

I am curious as to whether other women find the following passages (taken verbatim from a message to...

Fernapple comments on Nov 4, 2019:

Don't waste your time even thinking about him.

It is my birthday.

Fernapple comments on Nov 4, 2019:

Happy birthday. Yes, a long as you keep your health, life does get better the more you learn.

Politicians in Sweden have no official cars, no aides, no immunity and they use public transport.

Fernapple comments on Nov 4, 2019:

Yes and they work well.

Religious anonymous??

Fernapple comments on Nov 4, 2019:

There is one for clergy I think, and several cult escape support groups, but not one for lay members of the mainstream churches. Though I suspect that the cult escapes support groups would be sympathetic.

I started camping about 10 years ago.

Fernapple comments on Nov 4, 2019:

I think that exploring is perhaps our greatest need, and you only get one life to do it in. The earth has a land area of 57 million square miles. Which means that if you can walk twenty miles a day, it will take you approximately 7800 years to visit all of them. Best get going.

My sister found an incredible response to a question on Quora.

Fernapple comments on Nov 3, 2019:

Something like this has been posted before but it is well worth repeating, for new members and those who missed it the first time especially. Interesting post.

Ok, so what are they going to do with a 1-ton rock?

Fernapple comments on Nov 3, 2019:

In some places like the English lakes in the past, stone theft was a major issue, especially well worn stones, and I believe they have had similar problems in east Asia.

Ok, so what are they going to do with a 1-ton rock?

Fernapple comments on Nov 3, 2019:

Sell them for garden ornaments perhaps ?

Hello everyone. I'm new, I hope I fit in here :-)

Fernapple comments on Nov 3, 2019:

Hello and welcome, enjoy the site and you will find that points and levels come fastest when you are not looking.

I don't know what to tell you guys.

Fernapple comments on Nov 3, 2019:

Not another end of the world second coming ! I have lived through twenty or thirty of those already, and its getting boring. And now it looks like they are really scraping the bottom of the barrel.

Is the concept of god irrelevant??

Fernapple comments on Nov 3, 2019:

I most peoples day to day lives, no. But if someone hits you with something heavy, because their god told them to. Then yes.

Hello to everyone in this community.

Fernapple comments on Nov 3, 2019:

Worth while post, but If you want people to read your posts, you do need to use paragraphs.

Quick little "hello".

Fernapple comments on Nov 3, 2019:

Welcome back, you have been missed.

test very high res.

Fernapple comments on Nov 3, 2019:

Little point to loading high res. on this sort of site anyway, most people will be viewing it on smart phones, or small monitors, so they will not be able to see high res.

I frequently drive past a JW's Kingdom hall.

Fernapple comments on Nov 2, 2019:

You put people in a black box when you want to brain wash them.

I always love how ultra religious people will quote Leviticus and claim that the bible is gods word.

Fernapple comments on Nov 2, 2019:

They do have a loop hole, since St Paul told Christians that they could eat unclean things and that those laws only applied to Jews. However that is one of the reasons that, some, sects reject St Paul. Complicated isn't it, see what a mess you get in, when you start treating randomly selected old books as holy truth. LOL

We, quite rightly have been giving a lot of attention to leaders lately.

Fernapple comments on Nov 2, 2019:

I think that there is an impossible gulf, not in the quality of thinking but in its style, which could never be bridged. Because the sceptic approaches truth, thinking that. "It will be best won if I do not care how much discomfort and loss of joy the winning of it requires." While the faithful approaches it, thinking that. "Truth is that which brings me the greatest joy and comfort."

I read somewhere that atheism is not a religion.

Fernapple comments on Nov 2, 2019:

That is true of Hard Atheism, but you will find that true Hard Atheism is very rare, and that such a large part of sceptical people are either, Soft Atheists or Agnostics of one sort or another, that Hard Atheists are rare and not generally very important to the whole picture. And since I think that, the existence or not of god is trivial and unimportant, when compared with the issue of whether god communicates or not. Since a deist god, who has no message for us or hides from us, affects nothing, and is therefore of no practical consequence, because it generates no dogma. Therefore I always think of the big division as lying between organized religion, which has dogma and laws, and any place on the sceptical spectrum from deist through agnostic to atheist, whose inner divides are much smaller, and am happy to call myself a Broad Church Sceptic.

Where oh where did my little post go, oh where, oh where can it be?

Fernapple comments on Nov 2, 2019:

Hello and welcome. You always have to make sure you click firmly on the Submit/Post buttons, and then give it half a second before you move on. Other than that I have no idea, except that this site is a little like the Bermuda Triangle, strange things sometimes happen, and there are often odd disappearances, sometimes what you thought were whole solid human beings, just vanish into thin air. And what is even more odd, they then later reappear with different names and faces. Yes, it gets creepy here sometimes.

Time keeps everything from happening now; space keeps everything from happening where I am.

Fernapple comments on Nov 2, 2019:

That explains why I am on this site. If something were happening here and now, I would not be sitting typing.

As an atheist how do you respond to “i’ll pray for you.”?, I normally just smile and nod.

Fernapple comments on Nov 1, 2019:

Its different here in the UK, I have never heard it said. I think that here, even christians would think it impolite to offer to pray for someone without permission, and would think it vain to tell people about it if they did.

Stop Calling the Bible a 2,000-Year-Old Book | Hemant Mehta | Friendly Atheist | Patheos

Fernapple comments on Nov 1, 2019:

A fairly good general retelling of the bibles history. Though to be fair it is a bit of a straw man argument, because i do not think many sceptics would refer to it as a two thousand year old book. And if they do they are perhaps taking an average date for both testaments.

John Crossan on Biblical Literalism...

Fernapple comments on Nov 1, 2019:

You just posted a post on fundamentalism as well. One of the main symptoms of which is gross oversimplification, such as seeing the world in terms of just two simple and opposite views.

Want to meet people that thinks the way I do.

Fernapple comments on Nov 1, 2019:

Hello and welcome. You will find a huge range of people here with all sorts of views, some of them are bound to match anyone with an open mind.

I'm agnostic & somewhat spiritual but that doesn't necessarily mean I want to talk about it.

Fernapple comments on Nov 1, 2019:

Hello and welcome. That you don't feel the need to talk about it is good, and you will find lots on this site, especially in the groups, which has nothing to do with agnosticism as such.

What is your favorite holiday & why?

Fernapple comments on Nov 1, 2019:

The next one. Because I am self employed so I don't get many and never know when they are coming. After that perhaps new year, because it is secular and forward looking. In this county, ( UK ) many people go out for country walks on new years day.

I moved here a year ago and other than trees I have a blank canvas.

Fernapple comments on Nov 1, 2019:

You always get at least one thing which produces too much, thats growing.

Saying from a friend, "Before you tell someone off, be sure you really give a damn what they say"

Fernapple comments on Nov 1, 2019:

You can't say that ! I love this site, if everyone did that this site would cease to exist.

IS CHANGE GOD?

Fernapple comments on Oct 31, 2019:

God always was an idea, but while you can test the idea of change, the idea of god is untestable. Therefore since I can also test the idea of my kitchen table, by that logic, my kitchen table may be god.

I’m wondering why people often ask for abundance n their lives, instead of being happy with having...

Fernapple comments on Oct 31, 2019:

Someone once said that if we could make everyone a nice well insulated weather proof box, like a coffin, and then persuade them to lie in it the whole time when they finished work, plus eat just a good nourishing gruel. Then not only would you solve all the worlds major problems at a stroke, but we would probably only have to work three or four hours a week for that sort of lifestyle.

I’m wondering why people often ask for abundance n their lives, instead of being happy with having...

Fernapple comments on Oct 31, 2019:

In part it is because we are programed by nature to be unhappy, because if we ever gained happiness then we would stop running after it. And the whole point of happiness is to keep us running, as far as nature is concerned, pain and happiness are to all animals like the carrot and the stick to the proverbial donkey. At the same time we have no pre-evolved mechanisms to deal with the attempts made by human culture, which came after evolution and could not therefore be understood beforehand, to redirect our programing, so that it is easy for the people who control culture to fool us into thinking that abundance equals happiness.

I stop by a McDonalds once or twice a week.

Fernapple comments on Oct 31, 2019:

Surely the Bible tells him that it is a sin to go in McDonalds anyway.

I suppose I should make a hello post.

Fernapple comments on Oct 31, 2019:

I am borderline. But I think this must be autism central, since the site seems to be full of people who do things logically, are quite incapable of holding two opposing views at the same time and are better than average in many other ways as well.

Funny animal singing while bathing

Fernapple comments on Oct 31, 2019:

The Link does not work, sorry.

I came upon this year's ago and feel it is still very relevant.

Fernapple comments on Oct 31, 2019:

Most of cosmology is still at the hypothesis stage, there is I suspect still a lot of evidence to gather and a lot of revising to be done, but I do think, that most people in the field are honest and well aware of that.

Requesting thoughts re Yuval Noah Harari books

Fernapple comments on Oct 31, 2019:

I find some of his insights very interesting, but he does tend to fill his books with a lot of padding, in some ways, yes, he is trying to show the whole of the big picture I know, but a lot of it still seems old hat. Maybe that's just a European view.

Root of evil in disease? What do you think? [livescience.com]

Fernapple comments on Oct 31, 2019:

Not exactly a new idea, but it is interesting that some people have taken the trouble to support it with good statistical data. There is of course the old urban myth, that the legends of vampires started with the disease rabies. Because mythical vampires and the disease share so many things in common, such as fear of bright lights and shiny things like church ornaments and of course running water, rabies being also know as Hydrophobia. Plus, both cause increased sexual desire, in the advanced stages a shriveled corpse like appearance both are spread by biting especially, while in Europe at least, the Balkans region is the geographical centre for both of them.