How true is it that religion has done more harm than good in the world ?

Fernapple comments on Dec 11, 2021:

I do not know whether it has caused more harm or more good in the past, and I don't think that it would ever be possible to tell. What is certain is that its claims to be the originator of morality are certainly false. Since being a social animal we certainly had an instinctive morality in the beginning, and the earliest codified moralities, probably started with political institutions like clans, tribes and trade networks, since almost all known early religions are morally neutral, and politics began long before religions saw the profit to be gained in being players in the morality game. They were late on the scene. The problem with religion however is that, there are, both, good and bad morals, and religion alone of all human intellectual institutions makes no distinction between them. It can support anything from, giving all your goods to the poor, to human torture and sacrifice in order to feed the blood lust of the gods. Without any demand for proof or justification. Unlike philosophy which at least demands logic, science which demands that as plus experimental proof as well, and democracy which at least asks for the weak justification of popular support. And given that traditional theist religion, has now been totally eclipsed in the market place of ideas as a provider of good morality, by modern secular institutions, such as human rights, secular law, respect for democratic principles, secular education, moral philosophy, social sciences, and international law etc. etc. The only people who will have a real use for religion in the future, are those who wish to pedal bad morality, and need to find ways to justify that, by using institutions which can command unthinking respect without asking questions. So that to my mind at least the love affair between religion and evil, will only get ever deeper, closer and more totally complete as time goes on.

“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.

My desire to be well informed....

Fernapple comments on Jul 24, 2020:

I love it, but cats always stay sane in this mad world anyway, they are perhaps the only ones who do.

Philosophy vs. Religion

Fernapple comments on Nov 13, 2019:

This came up on another post but it works here too. No religion does not provide answers, religion provides pseudo answers , because if it provided truthful honest answers, such as. "Nobody knows learn to live with that." Then people would not keep coming back for more, like any pedaler it is part of every religions remit to keep the addict coming back, and so the successful ones, provide only pseudo answers which create as many problems as they solve. Instead of saying for example, you can solve moral problems by looking into your instincts and thinking things through for yourself, and then helping to provide the skills needed to do that. Religion says, come to us with your moral problems and we will provide a ready made answer, which comes from our holy books and therefore has the extra authority of the supernatural and so will trump any arguments from other people with different opinions, plus enable you to be as lazy as you wish. ( In other words there is no need for conversation. ) And of course that means that without thought or converse with any other interested parties, and promised a happy world in which listening to dissent and thinking are not needed, the religion addict keeps coming back over and over whenever there is a moral issue. Perfect marketing, every drug dealer should go to church to learn how its done best.

My favorite quotes from Rollo May are these from way back in 1975: "We are living at a time ...

Fernapple comments on Dec 29, 2023:

Good quotes. Although I would say that myth also presents the moral folly of the race, as well.

A wish for the new year for you from Neil Gaiman. I wish for you all the same. 😌

Fernapple comments on Dec 31, 2023:

"The boy with the bow there at your side to guide you. " Bit cryptic that one but only needs a seconds thought.

Four plus hours.

Fernapple comments on Oct 3, 2020:

Its the nonsense that keeps you young, do more.

I had to put this here…

Fernapple comments on Dec 18, 2021:

Barringer. That just has to be a sloppy attempt at irony.

What do bees do in winter?

Fernapple comments on Feb 28, 2021:

Yes and they live six months like that in winter, but only six weeks when they are working flat out in summer.

My father was excommunicated from the catholic church for having a vasectomy in defiance of the ...

Fernapple comments on Oct 4, 2019:

"For me the greatest deficit of organized religion is their compulsion toward exclusivity." Sadly they have to go that way, since it is the only thing they have to offer. If you believed in an all loving, fair and none exclusive god, then what would you need organized religion for ?

“Anything that can be said or thought of God is, as it were, a screen between us and God.

Fernapple comments on Dec 25, 2023:

If it is a mystery, you call it a mystery. If I go to the florist and order red roses, yet when they are delivered, they turn out to be yellow, then I am justified in going to complain. And if the florist tells me, that he has his own special definition of the word "red", with which he takes it to mean, any colour except blue. Then I think him either a fool or dishonest, and probably both. What such personal usages does show however, is contempt for his fellow humans. Indeed those who have real concern for their fellows, and know they have something they think worthwhile to say. Will always try their best to use the plainest and most accessible of language, in order to be understood most easily by the greatest number.

Flat Earth CRUSHED by Discovery Channel [youtu.be]

Fernapple comments on Jan 29, 2019:

However painful they may be now and again, I just can't take flat earthers seriously. But that was fun anyway.

“The first step in the evolution of ethics is a sense of solidarity with other human ...

Fernapple comments on Feb 26, 2023:

I think that you can take it back one step further, and say. "Do I want to be happy, safe, and content ?" A. "Yes." "Am I more likely to be those things, if I live in a world where happy, safe and content, is the general rule for most people ?" A. "Yes" " Then is it worth my while to make some investment in everyone else ?" Provide your own answer.

“Mostly it is loss which teaches us about the worth of things”…………….

Fernapple comments on Nov 14, 2021:

Sad but true.

This has been asked a thousand times and will be asked again by an other.

Fernapple comments on Oct 11, 2019:

You could define evil as just the doing of malicious harm. Or, that which is neither good nor neutral. Or, you could define it as theists would, as a power which opposes good. But the three are not mutually exclusive, so it may carry many and several meanings, it all depends on context.

It may be my favorite things to do.

Fernapple comments on Feb 1, 2022:

Why is it that everything I want to do is either, illegal, immoral, or fattening ?

Nutball right winger says to me, "I'm not taking the vaccine cause I don't know whats in it".

Fernapple comments on Aug 8, 2021:

1. It is very unlikely they know what is in any of the food and drink they take either. 2. It is probably easier to find out what is in the vaccine, than in you food and drink. (Tiny amount of research needed.) 3.The main active part of the vaccine is, obviously, based on small parts of the virus. So this is arguing that a small part could be more harmful than the whole thing. Which is possible, but highly unlikely. A bit like troops running from the battlefield saying. "They have taken their guns apart and are throwing the bits at us. Its just too dangerous." I could go on, but will that do for a start.

“It is not enough to win a war; it is more important to organise the ...

Fernapple comments on Jun 17, 2020:

And often more difficult.

Hello, I'm new in this platform although I am an Atheist from quite long time before that I am a ...

Fernapple comments on Jun 28, 2020:

Hello and welcome, enjoy the site. Yes religion, theist or polytheist, is not a belief in god or gods, that is deism. Religion is three beliefs in one. First there is a god, second that god has something to say to people, and third that god was not clever enough to tell everyone, but could only manage to tell a few people who were then entitled to ask for money, power or sex before they could pass it on. Does that sound like a very profitable, if dishonest business to you ? I like that think that I will post it.

“What good is the warmth of summer, without the cold of winter to give it ...

Fernapple comments on Jan 27, 2021:

Saves me about thirty hours per year, putting on extra winter clothing and taking it off again, that's two working days a least. But then again, here is a little poem. "Like what I wrote." Search Only the stubbornest will, The greatest love can give. The very darkest night, The starlight sharply bright. Give all your lazy summers, The making of the hay. For the pure and cut-glass light, Of one bright, winters day.

Not everybody wants thoughts and prayers after a disaster - CNN

Fernapple comments on Sep 17, 2019:

When the famous earthquake of Lisbon struck, the practical prime minister of Portugal at the time was Sebastião de Melo 1st Marquis of Pombal. The church, and especially the monks of the inquisition, said that the quake was a punishment from god, and that the Marquis should enforce days of fasting and prayer. He refused and said. "First I must bury the dead and feed the living." Never thought much of Marquises in general, but always kind of liked him.

"I asked a man in prison once how he happened to be there and he said he had stolen a pair of shoes.

Fernapple comments on Aug 2, 2022:

In the UK we have an old saying. "They hung the man who stole a goose from off the common, (Free range perhaps in America.) but they lauded the man who stole the common from under the goose."

Can you say “nut job”!?! 🤗 [yahoo.com]

Fernapple comments on Sep 26, 2022:

Yes quite easily. I find, Llanfairpwllgwyngyll­gogery­chwyrn­drobwll­llan­tysilio­gogo­goch quite hard to say, but "nut job" is a piece of cake. ( Probably hazel nut and almond cream cake.)

@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.

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.

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.

A church is the only business enterprise where ...

Fernapple comments on Nov 26, 2023:

No that is quite wrong, you pay nearly every business which employs advertising to lie to you. The church is simply the only business where you pay for the lies alone, not get any product as well.

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.

Can you say “nut job”!?! 🤗 [yahoo.com]

Fernapple comments on Sep 26, 2022:

He is making very guarded, can be taken either way statements though, like, "hoping the war will soon end," without saying how. Obviously positioning himself, so that he can put distance between him and Putin very quickly if needed.

I admit I'm not very respectful to Xians nor any other religious practitioners of any faith but is ...

Fernapple comments on Jan 10, 2022:

The old chestnut about. "Hate the belief not the believer." Still perhaps hold good, but as with all things it will always benefit from being nuanced a bit. And it is certain that, there are in any religion, including Christianity, several sorts of believers, from the pure victims who are being exploited, all the way to the purely evil exploiters who are only believers because it is a way to exploit others without getting arrested by the police, and who would happily override any good that the religion may do, if it suit their selfish objectives. It is unreasonable and not even a good thing, to extend total forgiveness to the later, even if you do believe in the value of turn the other cheek. Which is another idea I would like to qualify.

"Politically, the weakness of the argument has always been that those who choose the lesser evil ...

Fernapple comments on Nov 9, 2020:

The point about the lesser of evils. Is that you only choose it when you have no other choice. Do I stay on the burning ship or jump into the water ? The point I think that is made here, is that you can soon come to accept the status as normal, if it is not too bad, and loose sight of the fact that things can still be improved, especially next time.

“I’m an atheist, and that’s it.

Fernapple comments on Jan 31, 2021:

Best one yet.

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.

One of the magic roundabouts in the UK. A nightmarish image for Americans. 😆

Fernapple comments on Dec 16, 2022:

Things like that are great for locals, who know how they work. But not so great for visitors, especially if you get in the wrong lane at the start, which is easy to do because they paint the arrows on the road surface, and that of course means that vehicles are on top of them. Doh !

Really?!!!

Fernapple comments on May 29, 2021:

Hello and welcome. The main thing which drives people to religion is laziness. Being told what to believe and letting someone else pretend to think for you, is the ultimate form of mental indolence, and therefore religions greatest gift.

Why yes I have on many occasions, can I get an Atheist Amen? :)

Fernapple comments on Mar 2, 2022:

Altogether now bothers and sisters. "Amen".

We are on the very cusp of the Astronomical start of spring, unless you're an Aussie, eagerly ...

Fernapple comments on Mar 20, 2023:

Here you go, a weather forecast just for you. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mV9q_KdtQfc

You are the sum of your parts…

Fernapple comments on Nov 5, 2022:

Yes but I would think that the value goes down with age. Makes me worth about three dollars fifty.

West Fork, Oak Creek Canyon, Sedona, Arizona

Fernapple comments on Jan 20, 2021:

Beautiful. Makes me think though just how much I am missing travel right now.

We seem to continue to have our conspiracy theorists on board and some of us are getting tired of ...

Fernapple comments on Jan 11, 2023:

I went into a bookshop today, and while browsing the shelves, I was horrified to find that they actually have a shelf called "Conspiracy Theories". OK it was only a small shelf, but even so ?!

.

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.

I believe that the actual number of deaths directly attributable to covid are a small fraction of ...

Fernapple comments on Jun 1, 2021:

Almost all deaths in any country or year are the result of more than one cause, but here in the UK, ( where incidentally there is no extra money going to hospitals, ) we have good stats for a higher than usual mortality. And that is despite the inevitable reduction in things like, road deaths caused by the stay at home/stay local orders, and winter flu deaths reduced by the social distancing, hand cleaning and mask wearing orders.

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.

Seriously. I know many women put down the seat, yet still leave the lid up. Just close both, please!

Fernapple comments on Jul 1, 2021:

I always put the seat down especially if I think that a female person will be using it after me. It helps to conceal the edges of the cling film I stretched across.

[whale.to] Yo! I hit the Woo jackpot o' crackpots.

Fernapple comments on Jan 21, 2019:

Yes you certainly hit the woo mother load there alright. At least until the next time, you know what they say. "If you make it fool-proof, someone will just design a better grade of fool."

I want the sane people on here to try and figure out how to keep the entire opening list of posts on...

Fernapple comments on Sep 26, 2023:

And since hardly anyone ever responds to him, (myself included ) it makes us look inactive as well.

I haven’t posted here in ages, but I do stick around on several Athiest sites.

Fernapple comments on Feb 6, 2022:

You may of course be both.

So yesterday my sons mom asked me If I became an atheist so I can do bad things (lol!).

Fernapple comments on Oct 19, 2019:

Just posted this on another post but it works here too. Most people are born into a religion, nominally at least, and for most people the reason for leaving it is lack of evidence, but the motivation for leaving it, is usually moral repugnance at the poor moral values of religion. And since leaving it takes effort and thought, plus has often a real price, I have generally found that sceptics tend to be very moral people.

Saw this full page add in the Seattle Times.

Fernapple comments on Jan 31, 2023:

The Catholic church is really a different church in every country, where it is forced to move one way in one, it moves back in another.

”Life is tragic simply because the Earth turns and the sun inexorably rises and sets, and one day,...

Fernapple comments on Mar 4, 2023:

Yet for the most part the fear of death, only exists because the theist religions feed the narcissism, which makes people think that immortality is the only way to attain the inflated expectations they are programmed with by that same religion. Fear of death does not seem to exist in many cultures. I remember the anthropologist who asked a tribal group who were unaffected by theism if they feared death. "No." In fact the very idea seemed strange to them. "What then do you fear?" He asked. "Lions."

So it appears mandatory vaccine passports are becoming a thing in France.

Fernapple comments on Jul 19, 2021:

People have a right to choose, but if that comes with a cost to them, I have a perfect right to withhold help and say, pay the cost. In most countries you can not drive a car without you, first take a test and get a license, that is a restriction of freedom, but it is there to protect others, from real dangers to their freedoms, since nothing takes away your freedoms like being killed. So we accept it even though it is an much more important restriction than the freedom to be anti-vacs, because unlike that, it comes with genuine economic, educational and health-care downsides, which really does help to create sub-class.

I dream of living in a post-religious society.

Fernapple comments on Dec 24, 2020:

Nothing that can't be replicated in other ways, no.

Tipping, what are your thoughts on this?

Fernapple comments on Jun 18, 2022:

Yes I always leave something for the hotel staff, that way you know it goes to them and not the owners. You can leave other stuff besides money, that you may not want to pack, such as books and local maps, just put a note on it saying. " Thank you, for you." So that they know it is not to be handed in, and always leave some money as well, since it looks mean, just to dump your junk on them.

Religion hurts progress

Fernapple comments on Jan 25, 2022:

Religion does not hurt progress by accident, religion is the method people use to justify being anti- progress, when they can't find a good reason.

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.

For some reason, I have just been blocked from the conservative atheist group lol.

Fernapple comments on Aug 11, 2022:

If he has done nothing wrong, why would it matter that the FBI looks through his safe ?

Why can't I get over my first true love?

Fernapple comments on Jan 22, 2019:

It is harder to face things when you feel that you are the one to blame, but you have to accept the truth is that we all make mistakes and that forgiving ourselves is the most important form of moving on there is. There is no act of forgiveness more important than forgiving ourselves. You have to teach yourself that your loss and the reason for it, are two different things which you have to deal with differently, otherwise they will keep on feeding each other in an endless loop. Moving on means accepting that these things are now a part of you and your history, and that you have learned and can grow to be better and stronger now you have more experience. Saying to yourself that; now thanks to my greater knowledge I am a far better more able person who can make a better job of future relationships and give a lot more to them, and therefore I can aim higher. Good luck with your search.

It just occurred to me this morning that some names in the Book of Mormon may be coded.

Fernapple comments on Jan 25, 2019:

Neat it could be. He was a complete fraud, who must have known that it was silly to write a nineteenth century book in sixteenth century English. What God can not understand modern languages ?

I think this site can help me put off doing my taxes for at least another month. [si.edu]

Fernapple comments on Jan 30, 2022:

That's the problem with this site, its addictive. But just remember Admin here, wont raid your home, sift though your private papers, and have you carried off between two hairy palmed agents, with your legs dangling, and force you to remortgage your house. Just saying. LOL

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.

Did Jewish Slaves Build the Pyramids?

Fernapple comments on Aug 8, 2020:

The most basic story in the old testament, is of semi-nomadic people from the Sinai desert moving into the bottom end of the fertile crescent and trying to take, and hold on to, land there. That probably happened continually for hundreds if not thousands of years, sometimes in small ways and sometimes with large acts of organized violence, the rich lands of the farmers would always be a temptation to the nomad from the desert. It is not surprising therefore that there would be a folk memory passed down among the later generations, of life in the desert, and opposed attempts at migrations into the farmlands. At the same time there was probably an almost continual trickle of fleeing slaves, criminals and peasants out of Egypt, into the desert to the east, who would be forced to join the nomads. It is therefore almost certain that stories of origins in Egypt circulated among the desert nomads, even those who had never been there. When you put those two things together and remember the tendency of folk memories to simplify, and personalize things, around a few half remembered, or mythical, hero figures. It would not really be surprising that a story like the old testament one, of the flight from Egypt and the conquest of Israel grew up, even though there would be not a trace of truth in it, it would be inevitable, because that is the way folklore remembers history, especially long drawn out history, the sound bite is not a new invention.

For the Antivaxxers.

Fernapple comments on Jan 23, 2019:

The one extinction I think that nobody will regret is that of Smallpox, which used to kill or disfigure a quarter of the worlds population at one time. And we nearly sent polio the same way, but it is now staging a comeback in some countries thanks entirely to anti-vaccine movements promoted by religious fundamentalists.

Do you enjoy listening to Handel's Messiah simply for the musical quality or do you get ...

Fernapple comments on Jul 5, 2021:

Music is just an abstract sound scape, there is no need at all to pay any mind to the words, to get enjoyment from it. That does not apply however to the visual arts, although the church in the past was one of the richest institutions in the world, and it commissioned some of the worlds greatest artists, the results are still almost always banal and silly.

“There are two means of refuge from the miseries of life: music and cats”.

Fernapple comments on Apr 17, 2021:

Beer, laughter, hugs, sunshine, green growing things, books, giving unasked, honest trade (happy customers), hot showers, old dogs, wind waving grass, young creatures of all species, etc. etc.

🌱🌼 Spring is on the horizon, and nature is about to put on its most colorful show! From the ...

Fernapple comments on Feb 2, 2024:

"A spring day came when I began to know that this was not the first spring of the world. That I had lived through other winters - perhaps seven or eight of them - and had known a sudden tender day like this one. And I wondered, for the first time. Why is it sad to be so happy ?" D. C. Peattie.

Every religious group that I know of has some kind of weird dogma that to me is beyond reason.

Fernapple comments on May 29, 2021:

And you intend to solve this how ?

What makes you happy? Different things make people happy... Let me hear your thoughts....

Fernapple comments on Jan 12, 2019:

Knowing that I have done something useful, as when I see a customer smile. Sorry it may sound cheesy but it really is what make my day.

From an atheist perspective (and I am an atheist), is there a difference between religion and a ...

Fernapple comments on Oct 5, 2019:

No. The only difference is that religions have political power as well as the religious sort, and so earn political respect.

If you could, would you

Fernapple comments on Jul 11, 2022:

End wars. The other two are often the creation of war anyway, and are more easily solved in a world at peace.

Belief consensus

Fernapple comments on Nov 16, 2021:

I can only say from experience, that my partners and I have never shared any beliefs, but it was never a problem because we all respected each others ideals, and were prepared to be tolerant. So I suppose that we all had tolerance in common at least.

I'm listening.

Fernapple comments on May 15, 2022:

Well don't hold your breath while you wait for an example of logic from certain quarters, or you will end up not alive too.

Health is in the mind as much as it is in the body, most of us will never look like a movie star or ...

Fernapple comments on Apr 29, 2021:

I would be very pleased if she let herself go. Especially if it was somewhere interesting, and doubly if I could tag along too. It is not how you look but how you live, that not only, "gets you a life", but that ultimately makes you attractive to others.

What's really important...

Fernapple comments on Mar 15, 2020:

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

Birth, life, death. That's it!

Fernapple comments on Jun 10, 2020:

You are born, you wear out and when you are too worn you stop functioning. There is no state called death, when you stop functioning, you fall apart, other things grab your bits and reuse them. Death is a word used by theists to big up falling apart, and make it sound more frightening and important than it really is.

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.

Interesting how a post about belief can trigger some folks. Isn't this agnostic.com?

Fernapple comments on Oct 28, 2022:

We all have beliefs, and as long as they do not harm anyone I would not want to change any. But it would be a very dull site if it was just an echo chamber, indeed there would be no point in coming here. So I relish the open expression of alternate opinions and friendly respectful debate.

My rant for today.

Fernapple comments on Jul 9, 2022:

I run the risk of boring everyone, by repeating my personal definition of religion again. Religion is a synonym for the common fallacy called. "The proof from authority." Whether that authority comes from and old book, a supernatural being, a gurus supposed wisdom, or tradition, etc. it does not matter.

It is beyond time to lock him up…

Fernapple comments on Nov 30, 2023:

Should be in custody during trial, certain flight risk.

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 ) .

“The modern conservative is engaged in one of man’s oldest exercises in moral philosophy: that ...

Fernapple comments on Apr 3, 2021:

On the other hand people who are very unselfish, lend themselves to being exploited by those who are more selfish, which is good for neither of them. There is a balance to be struck, its complicated.

You can't be born in the wrong body

Fernapple comments on May 12, 2023:

PS. to my last. Bodies and minds are not "destined" for anything, nor are they made by angels, not even metaphorically, they are a series of accidental expressions of DNA, roughly filtered, (Very roughly.) by natural selection. To speak of them as having a destiny or having a purpose to serve, is stupid in the extreme, if Antonio Damasio is not quoted out of context, then he would be an idiot of the first water, but I checked the quote, and that certainly is not what he meant.

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.

Hello everybody, I hav'nt been on this site for awhile.

Fernapple comments on Sep 19, 2021:

Hello and welcome back. No shortage of sceptical people here.

Could a shooting star hit earth?

Fernapple comments on May 28, 2023:

"Shooting stars", is actually a term usually used for meteors, or small rocks, which burn up when they hit the atmosphere. If however you mean could we collide with, or suffer from a damaging near encounter with an actual star. Then yes, anything is possible, but given the vast distances of space, and the fact that no star moves at anything like the speed of light, especially relative to the others. Then it follows that we would have thousands of years to watch it coming, and would be aware if there was one soon. What is certain though, is that our whole galaxy is on a collision course with the Andromeda galaxy. Which is due to hit us in, I think if I remember correctly, one point one billion years, approximately. But given the vast amounts of empty space within galaxies, it is billions to one that we would suffer a direct hit. What is more likely is that the gravitational disturbances, would pull planets like earth into different orbits, and fling rocks and debris about with damaging effects. But given that just over a billion years is the time remaining until our sun dies anyway, that is probably about the limit of earths life in any case. There is/was a theory, that there is a rogue star which makes a close pass by the solar system every sixty million years or so. And that by flinging debris and comets about, it is the cause of earths periodic mass extinctions. But that theory is regarded by most serious scientists as a bit fanciful, at the very least.

SCIENTISTS GENERALLY AGREE…

Fernapple comments on Jan 30, 2022:

There is no direct connection recognized by mainstream science, between genetically evolved traits and almost any aspect of modern religion. The genetic factors which favour religion are merely precursors, which may cause religion to happen. As you say. "There are two schools of thought. One is that religion itself evolved due to natural selection and is an adaptation, in which case religion conferred some sort of evolutionary advantage. The other is that religious beliefs and behaviors, such as the concept of a protogod, may have emerged as by-products of other adaptive traits without initially being selected for because of their own benefits." It is a serious fault to quote two schools of thought, and then choose only the first largely discredited and minority one, and treat that as if it were the mainstream, which is exactly the opposite of the truth. Genetic evolution is unable to eliminate the cost deficits of religion, simply because religion is a recently developed cultural phenomenon which has not had anything like enough time to register as a factor in natural selection. Because culture, when once the initial factors favouring its development are in place, develops far faster than genetic evolution can take place. The argument fails to see the great distance at which all modern religion exists, from early primitive religion whose existence may have overlapped ( though its of doubtful significance ) with the evolutionary time scale. Anyone who does not understand that is so far from understanding science at a most basic level, that they could hardly qualify to speak on scientific issues at all, there is a lot of bad pseudo science out there. The genetic factors which led to the development of culture, and its benefits, have nothing to do with religion specifically, and religion is not a in any way a synonym for all of human culture. Nor is it a synonym for social solidarity, though it may be one cultural factor in achieving such on some occasions, yet it is it is becoming increasingly divorced from mainstream culture, and may have long since become a divisive factor in modern times, ( last ten thousand years or so. ) having exactly the opposite effect into the future. To see religion as an evolved trait is to seriously misunderstand evolution, at a basic level. A thing not unknown even among scientist involved in the field. And certainly not the among fringe sciences, like anthropology on the edges of biology. Since evolutionary theory can be difficult and is often counter-intuitive for the human mind, and not all scientists in related fields are given a good grounding in evolutionary theory. Human culture is almost completely flexible, and can easily be reinvented in many forms to fill our evolved needs. Most of us have ...

“My definition of an intellectual is someone who can listen to the William Tell Overture and not ...

Fernapple comments on Mar 29, 2021:

No that is just the definition of someone who is young, billy is showing his age.

Evangelist: Pray for Me in Asia Because Buddhists Have “Emptiness on the Inside” | Hemant Mehta ...

Fernapple comments on Feb 21, 2021:

It is good to have emptiness on the inside, at least now and again. Constipation really hurts, there is nothing as painful as being full of s##t.

I am drinking heavily tonight.

Fernapple comments on Mar 27, 2023:

I hope all goes well for you. Keep us posted.

I cannot get over the circular reasoning of the good book being good because it says it is.

Fernapple comments on Sep 29, 2019:

Yes it is circular reasoning, and if you push any theist hard and far enough, you will almost invariably come down to two bits of nonsense. Either. The bible is right because the bible says it is. Or. You have to take it on faith and faith is good because the bible says it is good, and I have faith in the bible. Don't however think that you can win by reasoning, remember the old saying. "You can't reason someone out of something they did not use reason to get into."

Another one bites the dust or when will they ever learn Marcus Lamb, a co-founder and the CEO of the...

Fernapple comments on Dec 1, 2021:

Not very interested in the story, but love the music video.

Some sad news for Agnostics Members….

Fernapple comments on Nov 8, 2022:

She should certainly receive my condolences, I thought I had not seen much of her good contributions for a while.

Community Garden Several years ago a couple of us built a large High Tunnel Hoop House ...

Fernapple comments on Jul 14, 2020:

Wonderful project. I let part of my plot off for village vegetable growing, and am rewarded with lots of free veg.

How would the existence of a god confer meaning on our lives?

Fernapple comments on Mar 16, 2021:

A God does not generate or 'confer' meaning, a god 'imposes' the meaning generated by its creators.

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.

Freeman Dyson - Can Science Deal with God? - YouTube

Fernapple comments on Oct 8, 2021:

Yes of course religion is a branch of literature. Mein Kampf was a work of literature, and fascism was a religion, Matthew Hopkins's 1647 book The Discovery of Witches, was a work of literature, and torturing, burning and hanging people was religion. Literature is just the unregulated, and often dangerous dribble of often anti social ( Being anti social is a good motivation to write. ) people. Literature is dangerous, because, just like religion, it has no need to justify itself against any standard of epistemology or evidence.

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.

OK, the group COVID CULT continues to post mostly nonsense by only one man and you are unable to ...

Fernapple comments on Oct 14, 2022:

Don't worry. There are some people you can not talk out of anything, some you can not talk to about something, and some you just plain can not have a talk with.

LOSERS: Traitors-Tools

Fernapple comments on Jul 28, 2021:

I think that I am safe to assume that the last question was rhetorical ?

If people didn’t believe that they had an imaginary father, that was much more powerful than them,...

Fernapple comments on Oct 14, 2020:

They could, more importantly, have more empathy with other peoples sufferings. If they could not dismiss them as punishment for sin, or preparation for a future life. The great trick with other people's suffering, is to find a way to explain it away. Without god we are all one family, with god we are each in our own family with our own special farther.

Things that make NO sense: I am sure you have all heard that your bedroom should be totally dark, ...

Fernapple comments on Jan 6, 2019:

Fire light is both much less blue than daylight and a lot weaker, our eyes and brains compensate for the low light so much that we do not notice how dim it really is. You do not really need to cut out all light only full spectrum light with a high blue content, which is how your brain tells daylight from firelight. Interestingly there has been some research done which shows that we are just the opposite when very young, and that babies sleep better with some light and noise, perhaps because that means that adults are near and therefore they are safe.