At the advanced age of 71, it has become crystal clear to me that Xtians are not the only deluded ...

Fernapple comments on Jun 19, 2024:

We live in a world dominated by marketing, and marketing above all loves to feed narcissism, because narcissists are needy. If you want to believe that you are special, when you are not, and by definition being special is rare, then you will need constant fake evidence of that, to keep away the doubts. And, buy my product, because, people who own this are special. Is always the number one marketing ploy, whether it be a manufactured physical product, like a car, or an immaterial one like a belief system. So that our marketing culture does all that it can to normalize narcissism. While sadly the one thing that narcissists are least happy with, is the plain, truthful and honest answer to the vast majority of questions, indeed nearly all questions, which is. "I don't know." The narcissist has to have the answers to the big questions, (And even small ones.) because they are surrounded by people who pretend they do, and you can not be, even a bit, less knowing than your neighbor if you are really someone special. While the more extreme the answers, the more special to a mind kept unnaturally immature by indoctrination, they will seem. So that in a sales and marketing based culture, yes, the number of people who believe in crystals, UFOs, ghosts, Bigfoot, and even, "I am a victim of conspiracy." will increase and multiply. (LIke this may post.)

Does anyone think it’s a red flag when somebody describes themselves as a “freethinker”?

Fernapple comments on Jun 19, 2024:

A freethinker is someone who doubts all that they have been told, and is therefore free of presuppositions.

So what would you be if you could?

Fernapple comments on Jun 20, 2024:

I am happy where I am for now. But if I could not have that, and there was an alternative second choice, then I would go for travel writer.

“The greatness of a man is not how much wealth he acquires, but in his integrity and his ability ...

Fernapple comments on Jun 23, 2024:

Someone also once said, that it is not how you make your money, but how you spend it that counts. It may have been Andrew Carnegie, who famously gave almost all his to good causes.

Just wondering, Is there any more evidence for alien life than god?

Fernapple comments on Jul 11, 2024:

Evidence no. But probability yes, although it is a very low one, the things needed for life to develop, especially beyond the slime stage, are as far as we know so rare that they almost count as impossible. Yet it is a very big universe, if there was only life on one planet in a million, and that only went on to become an advanced intelligence in one in a million times, that would still be a awful lot of life out there. Do they visit or observe us ? Probably not. Even if they are far more advanced than us, they would still be constrained by the basic laws of physics, which as far as we know now, are enough to prevent us ever finding another inhabited planet. Especially as it seems likely, from our own experience on this planet, that the development of technically advanced cultures will always lead to extinction.

“A conservative is someone who stands athwart history, shouting STOP!” ……….

Fernapple comments on Jul 15, 2024:

History is never kind to conservatives. But of course all progress is of advantage to someone, and someone will profit from each bit of progress, so that a conservative, if logical, will say, let progress stop when I am at the top.

This post is from an observation that I have made regarding a few Christian’s that are or were in ...

Fernapple comments on Jul 17, 2024:

Religious people believe that the world needs a source of absolute authority, to enforce absolute laws, because they believe that, humans are naturally broken and untrustworthy. So far not so good. But then, think for a second, who would be most likely to want that ? You and I, probably do have at least some faith in the natural honesty and goodness of our fellow humans, but religion of course is filled with people who don't, and feel the need for authority imposed from above. And why would anyone not trust others ? Most likely because they do not trust themselves, and judge everyone else to have no more devotion to real values than they do. Religion preys on the narcissist and the morally weak, because they are the most needy. Then you add to that the fact, that religions find endless ways, to excuse being illogical and accepting irrational ideas, and train people to that endlessly, (theology) . Then is it any real surprise that dishonesty comes easily to the religious, when they are probably narcissists with low moral instincts to begin with, relatively anyway, and have then, spent a lifetime being trained to avoid honesty.

What would you classify yourself as??

Fernapple comments on Jul 19, 2024:

What Tejas said.

To help with stress, read a book.

Fernapple comments on Jul 28, 2024:

No, I tried, reading a book, writing a diary and going for a walk. But I kept bumping into and falling over things, it was really very stressful.

When you say "Trust the science", what does that actually mean?

Fernapple comments on Aug 11, 2024:

Science is not a belief system. It is simply the philosophy that there is no absolute truth possible, but that the best and most certain approximations to truth are made by using the most rigorous methods.

“Compassion is not weakness, and concern for the unfortunate is not ...

Fernapple comments on Aug 14, 2024:

Well socialism is, or should be, one form of concern for others.

Does it take more courage and work to be good than evil?

Fernapple comments on Aug 24, 2024:

Maybe, different goods and different evils, require different levels of courage and effort. But being evil is much more banal and boring, so the rewards are always less.

Where is everybody?It seems like a ghost town in here.

Fernapple comments on Sep 1, 2024:

Yes but us ghosts are having fun. The site has had a lot of technical problems lately, as you know, I think a lot of people gave up.

How can anyone watch Don-OLD Trump, his cronies, and his butt-licking media stooges and not realize ...

Fernapple comments on Sep 5, 2024:

If she ever gives up on politics, there is another job teaching how to handle idiots just waiting.

Sooo, today traffic is backed up on I-95, which is the road i get to anywhere around here on.

Fernapple comments on Sep 11, 2024:

In the UK we have a lot of narrow country roads, with only light traffic, where there is just a thin strip of paving in the middle and two wide grass verges. When you meet someone coming the other way, you are supposed, to pull over onto the verge to pass. You can bet your life that if the vehicle coming the other way is slow to pull over, or does not pull over at all, it is nearly always someone driving a big, four wheel drive, off road vehicle, with extra wide wheels.

Ginger is good for nausea and indigestion.

Fernapple comments on Sep 13, 2024:

Yes but though Ginger is a nice fat cat, he belongs to my neighbor.

Don't you hate it when someone leaves the questioning/thinking/doubting emoji but don't explain what...

Fernapple comments on Sep 15, 2024:

Just left it.

The noblest pleasure ...

Fernapple comments on Oct 1, 2024:

1. Appreciating something that has no value to anyone else. 2. Giving in secret. 3. Knowing you need less than you earned. take your pick.

Well now that you explain it.......

Fernapple comments on Oct 6, 2024:

Groan.

The Terrifying Way A New Email Scam Is Stealing People's Money [huffpost.com]

Fernapple comments on Oct 12, 2024:

Sometimes, I forget to do something, like turn of a light, and I jump out of bed in the middle of the night, with nothing on, to switch it off. Which since my bounds are thirty yards away from the windows, and screened by shrubs, should bother nobody. But if they have sneaked into my garden, and do have blurry footage of a hairy sixty six year old, streaking past the window, with his paunch and man boobs bobbing up and down. Then, well, I am not ashamed of being old, ( Its a small achievement, but more than most scammers will make. ) so publish away.

When I was a kid, I was taught in school that Columbus was a great man who discovered the Americas.

Fernapple comments on Oct 14, 2024:

Also possibly fishermen from Northern Europe and the Chinese. But also of course Columbus did not "discover" the so called America, or the not so new world. Firstly because he did not find the mainland, but only the off shore islands in the Caribbean, but mainly because he himself spent most of his life refusing to accept, despite growing evidence that he had discovered the New World. Since he was quite sure that, due to very serious miscalculations, he had "rediscovered" the East Indies. And he believed that it would ruin his repute as it indeed should, if it was a new world. The Americas are quite rightly named after Amerigo Vespucci who really discovered them, in the sense of enlightening the literate world about them. That is assuming that the Americas are not named after Richard Amerike, as some people think.

In the early days of agnostic.

Fernapple comments on Oct 18, 2024:

No, at least not wholly, I think that it is mainly that there are less new recruits now. Most of the older members have shot their bolts, and said what they wanted to say to the other older members. But that could mean that though there is less said, the little bit which is still said is more meaningful and original, the maga element aside of course.

How is it tha Michigan has almost 1 million more registered voters than there are people legally ...

Fernapple comments on Oct 21, 2024:

Its the day of the dead. Votes for Zombies ?

If you don't sin then Jesus died for nothing.

Fernapple comments on Nov 9, 2024:

Ah ! That is what Rasputin taught, but he ended with a British Secret service bullet in his head. But then don't all great thinkers.

Posted by a very religious relative on fb.

Fernapple comments on Nov 9, 2024:

David may be to the Psalms, what Henry eight was to the tune "Greensleeves", and Trump was to Time magazines "man of the year."

Just exactly what we all knew!!! [share.newsbreak.com]

Fernapple comments on Nov 15, 2024:

Early yet, but one hundred days.

Does the "Share" function actually work?

Fernapple comments on Feb 18, 2019:

I copy and paste, its quick easy and gives you the chance to easily change a post slightly for each group.

Don't know if this has always been here and I never noticed, but there is the emoji notification and...

Fernapple comments on Feb 24, 2019:

There used to be a thumbs up yes, I noticed the change, it makes it more difficult to glance quickly down the list and respond to the comments first.

And I don't like bugs at all, sigh.

Fernapple comments on Mar 8, 2019:

I have managed a very large garden and a plant nursery now for over twenty years using only organic methods. Sometimes there is the odd white patch on a leaf, but that is it, and nobody but me ever seemed to notice.

A good summary of bad science that has driven death and ill health.

Fernapple comments on Mar 17, 2019:

I am still sceptical about the benefits of fats in the diet, but it is often said, and I have no reason to doubt it, that a lot of the research into the effects of fat in the human diet, was, and continues to be funded by the sugar industry.

Let go of what's gone. Be grateful for what remains. Look forward to what's coming.

Fernapple comments on Mar 17, 2019:

At my age not much. LOL

A different type of Border Security from the Scientific Community [purdue.edu]

Fernapple comments on Mar 18, 2019:

What about a wildlife corridor too. The old iron curtain in Eastern Europe is now a famous nature reserve which connects half of Europe with one wildlife friendly zone.

Howdy Folks, I am new and desperately in need of kindred spirits for discussing mutual beliefs.

Fernapple comments on Mar 21, 2019:

Welcome. Viewed coolly you have to accept that the bible is not a book by an author, but a scrap book of Bronze/ Iron Age press cuttings made by many people over a long time. What sort of press it was, can be judged from the stories it tells of sexual predation, rape, murder, genocide, child and animal abuse etc. So it is a bit like quoting the Red Tops as your authority.

Just found this photo from the last time I was abducted by Aliens (Oct.

Fernapple comments on Mar 24, 2019:

Can understand why they brought you back.

Why I Love Agnostic.

Fernapple comments on Mar 24, 2019:

What were they thinking of, this site would be a lot duller if it was not for the female input.

Cop out: "Spiritual But Not Religious" [google.com] Agree or disagree?

Fernapple comments on Mar 26, 2019:

Its the only fence you can sit on, and everybody else gets a pain in the butt.

RICHARD DAWKINS ERROR CONCERNING THE ORIGIN OF LIFE Pursuing the concept that anything is ...

Fernapple comments on Apr 6, 2019:

Actually I have read all of Dawkins books, some of them more than once, and either this is either complete misquoting, complete misunderstanding, or just plain lies. I do not remember Dawkins saying any of those things. Though I do remember passages which could be distorted to be read like that. If these are not just lies, then you need to go back and read Dawkins again more carefully.

Does anyone recognize this plant. It's flowering for the first time.

Fernapple comments on Apr 9, 2019:

Tradescantia.

I recently went to a religious a event with a family member at Easter time.

Fernapple comments on Apr 27, 2019:

You say, "how can normally intelligent people accept this." . But of course they are not "normally intelligent", they are people who have been damaged, perhaps beyond repair, by years of careful indoctrination, repeated so often that they have lost the power to even think about it in the same way they think about other things. Most of them would not buy a second hand car from a dealer who said. "We will only deliver after have left the country to live abroad for good, and we have never had a complaint." Yet they happily buy. "You will get your reward only after you are dead and gone from the universe for good, and no one ever came back and said we failed."

We're on a road to destruction if we don't make changes.

Fernapple comments on Apr 28, 2019:

I think that a site like this should try to be as board as possible, because the one thing that would drive me away would be banal content, and because if there are people saying things I would find horrible, then I want to know about them and what they are saying. Part of the reason for joining was to learn about human diversity and hear things which challenge me. But you can't please all of the people all of the time as they say, and it would be silly to bend over backwards to accommodate people who do not really want to contribute and would be happier elsewhere, you could easily go to great damaging lengths and then they go and make their own site elsewhere anyway.

When my ex and I were still together and fighting about religion, he said according to my atheism ...

Fernapple comments on Apr 29, 2019:

Religious people rarely follow their holy books exactly, if they do, they usually get put in prison. What they do is to cherry pick the bits they like and if that does not get them what they want, then they reinterpret the vague poetry thought the lens of their own prejudices. That's really the same thing, as they are making up their own rules too. The only difference is they try dishonestly to claim, that their ideas did not come from themselves, but are inspired by or come from a higher being, and therefore have more authority than other peoples.

I'm a middle school Science teacher.

Fernapple comments on May 5, 2019:

A time is coming when for many Agnostic/Atheist is the default position. It certainly is for many in Europe. Some people take a hard road to where they are going, some start out from there. The pioneers have long hard treks, but their children are simply born on land which is ploughed and planted. Do not envy them, you should regard it as a great achievement of your generation, that many children are born into a world where it is possible to be free from religion, without having to fight the whole community, or feel they will be vilified for it and need to arm themselves with knowledge to defend themselves. The ultimate hoped for destiny of Atheism/Agnostic is to become forgotten and irrelevant, as the theism to which they are a reaction becomes forgotten history itself.

Some people think that science has all the answers that matter, and that things that cannot be ...

Fernapple comments on May 16, 2019:

Two people walked through a desert, the first wished for a garden and cried, the second gazed in wonder at the marvels which are sand dunes. The main reason people love science, reason and the material world, is because they are both beautiful and wonderful. Those who seek after meanings beyond the visible world merely show their limitations and lack of appreciation, it is they whose powers fail of appreciation fail, not that of those who love what they have. And in the end even worse, they show the bad taste of the half grown adolescent, weeping because the childhood illusion their parents indulged them with, that they were the center of and most important thing in the universe, is no more. Before speculating about life it is useful to have one.

It is astonishing the lengths to which a person, or a people, will go in order to avoid a truthful ...

Fernapple comments on May 18, 2019:

Yep, just been blocked by one of them.

Do atheists value life more than theists considering that they don't believe in a afterlife

Fernapple comments on May 19, 2019:

In a philosophical sense yes, and I think we value this world more because it is the only one we have. But in a day to day sense, no. Many years ago I was in hospital and was told that I would die, it turned out in the end that there was not much wrong with me and that could be fixed, which was a nice surprise. (Though it would have been even nicer if they had not scared me in the first place.) Yet I swore on leaving hospital that from then on I would live every day as if it was to be my last, but of course you don't, you soon put it behind you and slip into a regular day to day, just like everybody else.

Does this group do anything consrtuctive that benefits society?

Fernapple comments on May 27, 2019:

It provides a social support group for many who are doing a lot of good out there, and especially the lonely and isolated. It gives a platform for people to explore their moral understanding, which makes them better at engaging with the larger society. It educates, (see the many groups). And most of all it helps to promote healthy skeptical thinking, out into the wider world by encouraging skeptics.

Humility is the ability to give up your pride and still retain your dignity.

Fernapple comments on Jun 20, 2019:

You could even say, 'and win greater dignity'.

Over the years I have realised that my motivations are more philanthropic than for material ...

Fernapple comments on Jun 20, 2019:

It could be the limits of our ability to see. I used to work for a big corporation and it seemed utterly pointless. Then I set up my own business, and have been a sole trader for more than thirty years, my whole working life revolves around serving my customers and since there is only me, (plus one other for a while,) the one to one relationship I have with them. It maybe that when I worked for the company, my positive contribution to the world and the wellbeing of its people was greater than it is now, but it did not seem so.

Name Something Christians say when they know they are losing an argument with an atheist.

Fernapple comments on Jun 25, 2019:

You don't understand it.

I went off to a 40's & 50's singles group yesterday afternoon.

Fernapple comments on Jun 30, 2019:

Small talk helps to fill small minds.

How has learning science affected your life?

Fernapple comments on Jun 30, 2019:

I learned to accept that I don't have or need to have all the answers, that if I do need an answer then hard work is the best perhaps only way to get it, and anyone offering easy answers is trying to fool you.

Ark Encounter founder warns ‘kids of all ages’ that libraries are becoming dangerous - New York ...

Fernapple comments on Jun 30, 2019:

Sadly it just says this website is not available in most European countries.

It has now been put to me that it is wrong to post the same article in multiple groups.

Fernapple comments on Jul 3, 2019:

I tend myself not to do it much, but if I have something really good to share which I think both groups will enjoy then yes I do it. For example if there is an interesting shot of the garden, which is also an interesting photo, why not post it in both the Photography and the Gardening groups. In any case there used to be a short cut/sharing button, ( or some such device, I always copy and paste anyway, ) to help you do it.

More bad news for coal: Wind and solar are getting cheaper [cnn.com]

Fernapple comments on Jul 5, 2019:

That was bound to happen as there gets to be more the price comes down.

Even with all our technology and the inventions that make modern life so much easier than it once ...

Fernapple comments on Jul 11, 2019:

With our heaving population, we have to be the prime target for every parasite which can evolve fast enough to overwhelm our medical responses. We therefore have to be a sitting duck for a global pandemic.

If God is God He is not good If God is good He is not God Take the even take the odd {If God is ...

Fernapple comments on Jul 14, 2019:

I think that A. M. may himself have been quoting Epicurus. There is certainly a clearer version of a very similar remark attributed to him.

Look at these beauties! They look like miniature orchids.

Fernapple comments on Jul 27, 2019:

It looks like the perennial sweet pea, it is not a native wild flower here in the UK, but it grows beautifully for me in the garden, though sadly the scent is not as good as the annual types. But it does come up every year without any work on my part.

Hard work is simply the refuge of people who have nothing to do. - Oscar Wilde

Fernapple comments on Jul 27, 2019:

"Work is the curse of the drinking classes." I think that came from another Irishman G. B. Shaw.

As we mature most of us come to believe that “beauty is in the eye of the beholder,” or more ...

Fernapple comments on Aug 2, 2019:

No, because that is like saying that to be sensitive is religious, why stick the label religious on such experiences at all. If you think there is worth in such experiences, why not call them, 'spiritual' and if you don't call them 'Woo', or to be realistic just, 'unexplained subjective experiences'. Sticking the religious label on them is no more justified than sticking the religious label on morality, which religions like to claim is theirs alone.. My random dreams often feature my dead parents, that does not mean that my parents are alive; if subjective aesthetic experiences feature images from dead religions, that does not mean that those religions are the source of them.

Shelley! Insightful, ahead of his time. Ozymandias is far and away my favorite poem.

Fernapple comments on Aug 4, 2019:

Must look that up, sounds like an interesting book/essay.

I am new on here so I just wanted to say hello:) You are all beautiful:) Fun joke.

Fernapple comments on Aug 7, 2019:

Welcome, especially if you come bearing jokes.

Iowa Religious Extremist Who Burned Library Books Faces The Law [au.

Fernapple comments on Aug 9, 2019:

Interesting, in the UK it is almost always the case that the fine should be ten times the value of the items destroyed.

Agnostic and More

Fernapple comments on Aug 11, 2019:

Most people on this site are atheist in practice, but most are not too bothered about labels, because when once you leave behind religion and its dogma, you realize that no god is going to punish you for spelling mistakes, even if you spell atheist, agnostic, skeptic, humanist, or twenty other ways even deist. Also most people on this site are happy with, and familiar with the philosophy of science, and the general assumption it makes, that it is alway good to technically allow the possibility of error, no matter how certain you are of something. And given the fact that all of the worthwhile knowledge and understanding in the world, has been generated by that philosophy, it is perhaps no bad thing to show it a little nod of respect, even if it is trivial and without real meaning.

Courage is the most important of all the virtues, because without courage, you can’t practice any ...

Fernapple comments on Aug 24, 2019:

Since as they say . "All good things come to those who wait." You could make a good case for patience. But then if you wait too long. "Life will pass you by." And it takes courage to wait sometimes and courage to act sometimes. Its complicated.

“He - and if there is a God, I’m convinced he is a he, because no woman could or would ever fuck...

Fernapple comments on Dec 3, 2019:

Obviously he never met my mother.

The cutting edge of Human Evolution is the integration of science and religion.

Fernapple comments on Dec 5, 2019:

For those who do not want to bother, I just listened to it all the way through. There is actually no mention of integrating science and religion. Except to say that some religious 'spiritual' practices are being studied by his science. There is a lot of self promotion to his sycophant interviewer. There is a lot of, word spaghetti, thrown at the wall, presumably hoping that the listener will find meaning where none was included to start with. He lists some modern world problems, which he then lumps together under the title of, "meaning crisis" and then says that he is trying to find a way to resolve it, while listing no particular direction; presumably because he has none. In the end he uses the early history of literacy and its effects on human progress, as a metaphor for for what he and his friends intend to achieve, saying that it will move the world forward in the same way, without giving any plain outline of his intentions, or any reason why anyone should believe the metaphor of literacy is justified. I pass no judgment, since without enlargement on his ideas there is nothing there to judge, it may be that he will come up with something so profound he will become the new Buddha, or maybe he is just a self delusionist lying twerp.

Considering this is Agnostic.com , why are so many posts dealing with God or religion ?

Fernapple comments on Dec 10, 2019:

The site and its members have a need to explain themselves to new members and others. Not everyone will have escaped the same distance from religion and its culture. If you have climbed out of the cesspit of ignorance, on to the green open levels of reason, there will still be people behind you on the ladder trying to climb out. You can waltz of selfishly, it is your right, or you can turn round and offer a helping hand. Though yes, that will mean that you have to look back into the pit again. But its your choice, and if you wish to, you can spend your time in the groups, they need more input, and ignore the front pages altogether.

there seems to me to be way to much animosity towards religion.

Fernapple comments on Dec 14, 2019:

Yes they may pass, (not proved but ok) and I am happy in my freedom. But I reserve the right to be outraged, on behalf of those of my fellow humans, and other creatures, who still suffer, and to fear that I may one day be among them.

What can be done about the inactive members problem on this site?

Fernapple comments on Dec 16, 2019:

That's about normal for most sites, groups and clubs, perhaps a little low but not that much. Sites of any sort which have ten percent or more active members, are very rare, lots of people join lots of things and then never take part, it is the same everywhere. We are though perhaps a little worse than average because. A. A lot of religious people come here to find out if we have horns, or swap baby cooking tips, and when they find we don't they leave. ( See my blog for recipes. ) B. Some people come looking for dates and either fail and go, or find someone and go. C. we are very boring people.

“I could not understand why men who knew all about good and evil could hate and kill each ...

Fernapple comments on Dec 17, 2019:

Thinking they knew about good and evil, was the problem, and still is. In fact you could make a good case for, even believing there are such things as good and evil, being at the heart of the problem.

Look again at that dot.

Fernapple comments on Dec 20, 2019:

Pale blue dot. One of the best.

The Saint-Bernard Catholic Church was constructed between 1910 and 1942.

Fernapple comments on Dec 27, 2019:

That is always a difficult one. In the UK we have many old historic churches, which can be a joy to visit, or some times just shelter from the rain when out walking. You feel that having benefited from and enjoyed the architecture, you should give something for is upkeep, especially as many of them have expensive upkeep costs. Yet you know that any money put in the collecting box can not be ring fenced, all being used to maintain the building, some of it will certainly go to propagate Christianity. I toyed with giving only half what I though a Christian would give, but that does not seem to work either. Because, even half can not be ring fenced and how do I know what a christian would give, ( they are usually very mean ) .

Stephen Hawking's take on "Is there a God?

Fernapple comments on Dec 31, 2019:

Interesting but I don't think that any theist would be convinced by it, any proof about space and time are simply addressed by them by saying that god exists outside of space and time. As the saying goes, you can not reason someone out of something they never reasoned themselves into in the first place.

This post does not pretend to represent a scientific analysis; it's just a conversation starter.

Fernapple comments on Jan 1, 2020:

Given that it may not entirely be down to just the way this site works technically. Leeloo could have got a lot of replies because people genuinely want to help, I have noticed that on this site appeals for help, of any sort, usually get a bigger than average and often a very big response. Seeker3CO made a post that was a little assertive and looked a bit like, a points fishing post, though that may have been unintended. But it did, if I remember right, follow a few hours after a very similar post which did get a good response, so perhaps people confused the two, or just thought it was boring as we did that five mins. ago. I know that is why I did not bother. And as to sweetcharlotte maybe people are shy to talk about their inner feelings and do not wish to burden others with them.

Bad Apple and the Kindness of Strangers

Fernapple comments on Jan 5, 2020:

I went into a local government office, to make a enquiry about some government forms. It turns out that the office I went to, does not deal with that department, and the correct office was closed while next week. The lady behind the desk said. "You can do it on line." I explained that I had tried that three or four times, and failed perhaps because the first time I made a mistake and the website would not let me start again. "Oh yes the same happened to me that site is almost impossible." She said, and the man also agreed. Then she said that the department that had the forms was closed, but the man suggested that they could use their government access to log in to the other department and print me off facsimilies. Which they did then did. I said. "Great all I have to do is fill it in and post it." But they then printed me off a instruction sheet on how to fill it in, an addressed envelope, provided me with a desk to work on and directed me to the nearest post box. And it worked I had the information I wanted back a week later.

Sometimes it's just trees and clouds

Fernapple comments on Jan 8, 2020:

Yes that is good enough.

The Proof: That God Exists There is a hierarchy in Animalia, not only as quantified by the DNA ...

Fernapple comments on Jan 15, 2020:

If we are so superior, why is it that some of us have difficulty basic with grammar ?

Less than 3000 points to level 8! Woo hoo. :)

Fernapple comments on Feb 1, 2020:

Well done. I sometimes think that we should all get together sometime, and have a badly fitting tee-shirt party.

I can't say I'm very shocked by these comments, but it does make me wonder how these people could ...

Fernapple comments on Feb 2, 2020:

No I think that Sam Harris is just a little out. "Every act of violence is the result of a failed conversation" Every act of violence is the result of a failed argument on one side, only those who know they can not win the debate reach for their guns. It only takes a failing in the conversation on one side, and sadly the more they know that they will loose the argument the more they will stockpile guns.

Anyone else not watching the Superbowl?

Fernapple comments on Feb 2, 2020:

No not watching it, along with quite a few others I think. This is after all an international site even though there is a US majority.

“We Grow in the Dark. Much like a baby in the womb or a seed in the earth” Unknown.

Fernapple comments on Feb 4, 2020:

" I think I must be a mushroom, they keep me in the dark and feed me bullshit." Anon.

“The basis of peace and stability, in any society, has to be the fullest respect for the human ...

Fernapple comments on Feb 5, 2020:

Yep. Though you would think that no one should need that pointing out. But then.....

My friend and user-interface designer who helped with this site has emerged from his hibernation and...

Fernapple comments on Feb 6, 2020:

If it ain't broke don't fix it, its a great site . But I still don't get alerts from all the groups I belong to. More members would be nice, it is a pity it is not called 'skeptics' or 'Free from religion.' something better known and more all encompassing, 'Agnostic' is very narrow in definition, and for a lot of international members, your English need to be pretty good to even know the word, but I guess it is too late to alter that.

When I post something it never comes up on my own profile page.

Fernapple comments on Feb 10, 2020:

Also make sure that the settings under posts is set to newest, not anything else. Its a little arrow with several tapering bars next to it just above the list.

Religion has always been used as a tool to control the population.

Fernapple comments on Feb 13, 2020:

Because it saves the effort of having to think things though for yourself. Laziness is the second greatest force in human life and history after boredom.

Malls: Never mind the Internet. Here's what's killing malls - The Economic Times

Fernapple comments on Feb 17, 2020:

Yes, and its not just the Malls or in the US, here in the UK the same factors are eating away at the high streets too.

@admin How come the new home page does not tell me how many notifications I have?

Fernapple comments on Feb 17, 2020:

Yes that is a real loss.

Have you ever thought of religion and communism as not being that different?

Fernapple comments on Feb 19, 2020:

Political ideologies and religions may share many things in common, but that does not make them the same things. A car has an engine and wheels, so does a plane, but that does not make a car a plane, because to be a plane it also needs wings. A political ideology is not a religion, because to be a religion you also need to have a belief in supernatural authority behind the ideas.

Should we be wary? @Allamanda please start the ball rolling. 🤔 [answers.com]

Fernapple comments on Feb 20, 2020:

Pretty but dangerous and supple. That's about right. LOL She is not the only one who chose a botanical as a pen name.

Suggestion for today: Post a favorite family/dad quote here! My dad had many! Of an ...

Fernapple comments on Feb 22, 2020:

My grandmother. "Shocking Mrs Bocking." Aways said in response to unlikely gossip.

What would you say to a friend that was a flat earthist?

Fernapple comments on Feb 22, 2020:

"Take me to the edge." "Why, you don't have to see the edge with your own eyes to know the earth is flat ?" "No but you do to push someone off it."

Surprises, yay or nay?

Fernapple comments on Mar 11, 2020:

I keep leaving my front door unlocked at night, in the hopes that one day a beautiful lover will surprise me, by climbing into my bed in the middle of the night. Nothing so far. But the hedgehog, the fox, and next door's cat all enjoyed a warm.

What's really important...

Fernapple comments on Mar 15, 2020:

Glad I don't live in the US right now.

I have a theory about karma.

Fernapple comments on Mar 20, 2020:

There is some truth in that. It also leads to confirmation bias, arseholes are convinced that everyone else in the world is an arsehole, nice people tend to think that the world is basically good.

“Don’t be afraid of being scared.

Fernapple comments on Mar 20, 2020:

When I was a child I used to be afraid of the dark. Then I grew up, and started to stub my toes a lot, now I know where I went wrong.

Japanese Truck Gardening Competition [odditycentral.com]

Fernapple comments on Mar 24, 2020:

They are great. My own effort are only on bench tops, and it usually takes a day to make something like these.

Should people be criminally charged or sued if they have coronavirus and still leave home?

Fernapple comments on Mar 24, 2020:

Perhaps not jail, though a good fine would not be bad. But on the other hand. The racists who planned to deliberately infect surfaces in areas used other by minorities, are undoubtedly guilty of attempted murder. So throw the book at them, as they say.

'We're keeping an eye on those holes you keep digging' - Your Neighbors.

Fernapple comments on Mar 29, 2020:

I used to know a lady whose garden lay just down a very steep slope below the village church yard. As the bank eroded, bones would tumble down into her garden. "What do you do with them. I suppose you have to tell the authorities ?" I asked. "Oh no, that would take too long. I just throw them in the hedge bottom, the weeds soon grow over."

The Inquisition from a Catholic perspective.[catholiceducation.org]

Fernapple comments on Mar 29, 2020:

The article fails to mention the most important thing about the Inquisition, which is the number and amount of the fines and expenses charged to its victims. And that the best way to get forgiveness is said to have been. "Name as many other heretics as you can, preferably rich ones." The whole thing was basically a money making enterprise, on a truly vast scale.

These things should be self evident, even to the religious people, they really should be.

Fernapple comments on Jan 25, 2023:

Some of us still like the odd baby, especially with a nice glass of red wine.