I agree fully.

skado comments on Nov 30, 2022:

Must have skipped biology class.

Fernapple replies on Dec 1, 2022:

Yes for once I wholy agree with you. But, religion does indeed need to go away, but it also needs to be replaced, by things that will fulfill the same social, cultural, economic, emotional biological needs just as well, if only because if it is not, then it will only come back. And fortunately there are masses of things that are waiting to step forward and do so, whether it be, environmentalism, science, philosophy, social justice, the rule of law, secular morality, democracy, free debate, the arts, free media, secular charities, or social clubs etc. all of which offer their own community, logos, mythos, and rituals, to more than equal those of religion. The great crime of religion is not that it does not often succeed in fulfilling human biological needs, but that it stands in the way of things that will fulfill them much better, and provides a platform for those who do not want human needs to be better met.

A government that robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul.

Fernapple comments on Nov 30, 2022:

Even if that is a thousand poor Peters to pay one rich Paul.

Fernapple replies on Dec 1, 2022:

@MsKathleen Certainly not.

Humanists hold that ethical values are relative to human experience and need not be derived from ...

puff comments on Nov 30, 2022:

Why do all ethical values seem to need to be founded in one species only, humanity, when life on Earth contains so many others? Ethics, human ethics, do not concern them?

Fernapple replies on Dec 1, 2022:

There are though some ethics which are found across many species, such as support and protect relatives, avoid incest etc.

Men's/Women's clothing The day after I put all my clothing in the dumpster due to the mold I ...

anglophone comments on Nov 30, 2022:

Welcome to the sexism that is baked into the clothing industry. (Peevish joke: Why can I never find any brassieres in the Men's Department?)

Fernapple replies on Nov 30, 2022:

I know. When men start to get to a certain age, and everything starts to sag downwards. LOL

Weird religious news: Thai Buddhist monks defrocked and expelled from temple after all were tested ...

David1955 comments on Nov 29, 2022:

Having lived in Thailand I can assure you that not all monks in temples are good holy people. There have been monks charged with crimes and all kinds of things. Sometimes crooks and creeps run into temples and monk-up in order to " make merit' for bad deeds (Buddhist baloney) and avoid punishment. I...

Fernapple replies on Nov 30, 2022:

@Beowulfsfriend I am told that a lot of degeneration set in at the time, when the government allowed service as a monk to count as your national service. Many saw that as the easy option, when compared to the armed forces or the police etc. and you know the easy option never attracts the best people.

I wonder if the Theist and Atheist worlds will ever notice that God and Reality behave exactly the ...

Fernapple comments on Nov 28, 2022:

God only behaves the way that his inventors want him to behave. And if his inventors were happy with reality, then they would have no need to invent him. God is just the name we give to our own excessive ego and narcissism.

Fernapple replies on Nov 29, 2022:

@ecowellness Yes I am talking only about the god inventers and sellers, not the buyers. Though to a degree all are buyers and sellers, for even the believers follow for narcissistic reasons, such as the belief that death should be feared, because "I " matter.

"Seek progress, not perfection." Anon.

Diogenes comments on Nov 29, 2022:

Enough progress- and one achieves perfection.

Fernapple replies on Nov 29, 2022:

Near perhaps but not quite, nothing is ever absolutely perfect, and a good job too, because that would stifle life. The big mistake though is to get very near to perfection, and then think that change always equates to improvement.

"Seek progress, not perfection." Anon.

Pralina1 comments on Nov 29, 2022:

That’s a hard one 🙁

Fernapple replies on Nov 29, 2022:

I think that it means that you should regard perfection as the ultimate target, but be happy that you will never get there.

I wonder if the Theist and Atheist worlds will ever notice that God and Reality behave exactly the ...

David1955 comments on Nov 28, 2022:

Which God is this now? I assume this post is to stir the hornets nest, and/ or get points, so I'll take it as tongue in cheek. Does the 'atheist world' include agnostics? You know how touchy they can be about that.

Fernapple replies on Nov 29, 2022:

@skado But Spinosa's god includes the reaching of morallity through reason and the study of reality, you have said that you don't believe in that, therefore you can not believe in Spinosa's god.

I wonder if the Theist and Atheist worlds will ever notice that God and Reality behave exactly the ...

waitingforgodo comments on Nov 29, 2022:

If reality is indistinguishable from god, and reality exists (paraphrasing your observations) then does that relegate god to a redundant, tautological synonym for existence and all the theanthropic chauvinism to pretentious, unrealistic delusion? Asking for a friend. Love ya stuff.

Fernapple replies on Nov 29, 2022:

@waitingforgodo Sorry no. I am perhaps guilty of using a local usage on an international forum. I do not know if you know the perhaps British English expression "nailed it", which means, got it exactly correct.

I wonder if the Theist and Atheist worlds will ever notice that God and Reality behave exactly the ...

waitingforgodo comments on Nov 29, 2022:

If reality is indistinguishable from god, and reality exists (paraphrasing your observations) then does that relegate god to a redundant, tautological synonym for existence and all the theanthropic chauvinism to pretentious, unrealistic delusion? Asking for a friend. Love ya stuff.

Fernapple replies on Nov 29, 2022:

You nailed it.

These Mysterious Fungi Belong to an Entirely New Branch on The Tree of Life: [sciencealert.com]

racocn8 comments on Nov 28, 2022:

Surely one of the biggest puzzles is how we only have DNA-based life, and no serious variations. The puzzle (for me) is that for all the billions of years, if ET could travel here, they surely would have contaminated the planet with their own biochemical brand of microbes. That we haven't found any ...

Fernapple replies on Nov 29, 2022:

There is of course the "RNA World" theory. Which is still to a degree valid. Which says that life may have begun based on RNA, and then switched to DNA when it evolved to that stage, because DNA was more stable and more efficient. If that is so, then life did once exist in a none DNA form, as a few arguable forms of life, including some not usually thought of as life, such as some viruses, still are wholly or mainly RNA based today. It is possible therefore that all organic life, if it exists, across the entire universe, would probably discover DNA, sooner or later, and switch to that, because it is the most efficient chemistry available for organic life.

I wonder if the Theist and Atheist worlds will ever notice that God and Reality behave exactly the ...

Ryo1 comments on Nov 28, 2022:

You seem to suggest that it is a 'fact' that God (I presume that it is the Christian god) and reality behave exactly the same way and that the theist and atheist worlds are yet to notice that 'fact'. On what basis you suggest that God and reality behave exactly the same way, and how, may I ask?

Fernapple replies on Nov 28, 2022:

@Ryo1 Religions thrive on obscurity, it is called the god of the gaps, and if there is no gap to hand to hide your god in, then you just use a little obscurity to create one. It is a cheap trick that would be gurus use all the time, and in some circles they get away with it.

I wonder if the Theist and Atheist worlds will ever notice that God and Reality behave exactly the ...

Garban comments on Nov 28, 2022:

God is a fabrication to explain reality we don’t YET comprehend.

Fernapple replies on Nov 28, 2022:

@Mcflewster Especially exact synonyms, if a word has no extra meaning why bother with it at all.

I wonder if the Theist and Atheist worlds will ever notice that God and Reality behave exactly the ...

Ryo1 comments on Nov 28, 2022:

You seem to suggest that it is a 'fact' that God (I presume that it is the Christian god) and reality behave exactly the same way and that the theist and atheist worlds are yet to notice that 'fact'. On what basis you suggest that God and reality behave exactly the same way, and how, may I ask?

Fernapple replies on Nov 28, 2022:

And if god did behave in exactly the same way, why would anyone want one, why not just call it "reality" and be done with it.

I have been studying Humanism for a number of years.

Mcflewster comments on Nov 28, 2022:

The study is really about how much everyone understands "Humanism". agnostic or not. I also believe that the fears of Humans form a great source of jokes.Especially the toilet ones.

Fernapple replies on Nov 28, 2022:

@Mcflewster It is the threat which is seen as ridiculous. So you would make a joke such as. "Hostile aliens from another planet are cominng to get the Humanists, and have set out across space, armed with their highly advanced weapons, to exterminate us all. They will be here in just two billion years." It may not be very funny but it shows how it would work.

I have been studying Humanism for a number of years.

Mcflewster comments on Nov 28, 2022:

The study is really about how much everyone understands "Humanism". agnostic or not. I also believe that the fears of Humans form a great source of jokes.Especially the toilet ones.

Fernapple replies on Nov 28, 2022:

All jokes are about fear or tension, you build up the tension during the story, then the punch line releases it. The observational joke by reminding you that you have successfully faced the same threat many times before. The racist, sexist, ageist etc. joke, by telling you the threat is made to someone you don't care about. The ridiculous joke by making the threat seem silly. And so on.

What if we are wrong?

skado comments on Nov 27, 2022:

No “if” about it. There is obviously *something* out there. And, whatever “it” is… it is the source of our existence. We didn’t invent the universe - it invented us. Most major world religions caution against becoming overly confident that we know God’s nature. Most major ...

Fernapple replies on Nov 27, 2022:

"Most major world religions caution against becoming overly confident that we know God’s nature." That is not true, the whole point of religion is the claim to know something, religions which made real relativist statements would cease to exists as religions, and become at most deism. At best most religions are only warning against the personal search for truth, in case it presents a challenge to their dogma.

Hi guys ♥️ I have been avoiding like hell to make a real post for months and I am trying to ...

Fernapple comments on Nov 27, 2022:

Relax, eat healthy, remember you are loved, and don't take anymore shit from anyone. You can tell them that's under doctors advice now.

Fernapple replies on Nov 27, 2022:

@Garban That's the idea.

"We do what we know — and when we know better, we do better." Anon

ChestRockfield comments on Nov 27, 2022:

I wonder, then, how the phrase "You know better!" arose. 😝

Fernapple replies on Nov 27, 2022:

Some of us are slowwwwwww learners.

That wolf character from the red riding hood story didn't really sound like that bad of a guy to me.

Pralina1 comments on Nov 27, 2022:

The Woolf was the only form of life w morality at this hideous , absolutely hideous story I f hate that story 🙄 Mother of girl : who the fuck let’s their very elderly mother to live alone in the woods , and sends food once a week ? What an ass Mother : who sends a 8 yr old to the woods ...

Fernapple replies on Nov 27, 2022:

An alternate view of the story is to see the wolf as a metaphor for a paedophile. He does after all not immediately eat her, but instead asks her to get into bed with him.

"Not everything is either 'good' or 'bad,' but there are a lot of things that are just neutral.

LenHazell53 comments on Nov 26, 2022:

Depends very much on context and circumstance If I say please don't shoot me when you have a gun to my head and you say no that is not "Just Neutral" If I say are you going to shoot me when you have a gun to my head and you say yes that is not "Just Neutral"

Fernapple replies on Nov 26, 2022:

Yep that was what I thought too.

The biggest problem with Christianity in my opinion is that all the Christians think they know the ...

dumasarok comments on Nov 25, 2022:

* "Faith" is defined by me as belief without evidence. My neurons don't work that way.

Fernapple replies on Nov 26, 2022:

Or even, despite evidence.

When I had my doubts about my own religion I decided to do some research.

Moravian comments on Nov 25, 2022:

The supposed "evidence" in the writing of Josephus is known to be faked and was inserted by others after his death so the only evidence that Jesus existed is from the gospels written many years after his death. The gospel of Mark was the first to be written and the others are thought to be copies ...

Fernapple replies on Nov 25, 2022:

The new testament god is not really much better. Jesus still supported the old laws, it claims, still promoted genocide, sexism and racism, and created a death cult, which worshiped a mass extiction event in the imagined future as a good thing.

I have always thought that nature had health benefits, whether you "forest bathe" or like to do ...

waitingforgodo comments on Nov 24, 2022:

Wholly shinrin-yoku Is that petrichor which I smell before me? https://www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/article/forest-bathing-nature-walk-health

Fernapple replies on Nov 25, 2022:

Great article and a good sellection. My bucket list is just gettting longer and longer.

So the world cup is underway in Qatar.

FvckY0u comments on Nov 23, 2022:

Democrats support Biden. Republicans support Cruz. Sometimes you have to take the good with the bad. Soccer is no different. Enjoy the games if you are into it and don't if you aren't.

Fernapple replies on Nov 24, 2022:

@FvckY0u No only that they should not vote for both parties.

Another false headline re covid.

vocaloldfart comments on Nov 24, 2022:

One doth wonder. The common cold kills 180.000 people a year in AUSTRALIA. That equates to a 5% mortality rate. The Spanish flu has a similar mortality rate in AU. Covid mortality rate worldwide is estimated at 0.0045% There has been a recorded rise of deaths from "other " causes not ...

Fernapple replies on Nov 24, 2022:

@Kurtn At my estimate then, about half the deaths in Australia are caused by the common cold.

So the world cup is underway in Qatar.

FvckY0u comments on Nov 23, 2022:

Democrats support Biden. Republicans support Cruz. Sometimes you have to take the good with the bad. Soccer is no different. Enjoy the games if you are into it and don't if you aren't.

Fernapple replies on Nov 24, 2022:

That is true to a degree, if you are a soccer fan then I see no reason not to watch the games on TV since the TV companies will go there and transmit them anyway. But many fans are going in person, and buying Qatar goods and product, which is not really taking the good with the bad but more like giving a donation to the party you do not like, in exchange for a hat with a logo, when you could buy a sun hat in your local store.

So the world cup is underway in Qatar.

ChestRockfield comments on Nov 23, 2022:

Did you watch John Oliver's episode on this? It's brutal. Fuck FIFA and fuck soccer.

Fernapple replies on Nov 23, 2022:

Not yet but I will follow your lead.

Do bees play, now there is a question ?

ChestRockfield comments on Nov 22, 2022:

Here's another question: where do yellowjackets go to the bathroom?

Fernapple replies on Nov 23, 2022:

I have no idea ?

Do bees play, now there is a question ?

Garban comments on Nov 22, 2022:

The article calls them bumble bees. Are they social ones or the solitary ground bees? Social creatures seem to have an affinity for play, it’s just hard to imagine an evolutionary benefit for social bees to play. Interesting.

Fernapple replies on Nov 23, 2022:

The British Bumble Bee is a social bee, though only with single season collonies, the queens over winter alone and then start a new nest in spring.

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.

Fernapple replies on Nov 23, 2022:

@Lilac-JadeCanada Good to hear, take your time .

I have slight reservations about Humanism as a movement, but this promo from the British Humanist ...

Mcflewster comments on Nov 22, 2022:

Please note that the BHA no longer exists with that name . In re-branding, it has become Humanists(UK) and is even more logical and progressive in many fields

Fernapple replies on Nov 23, 2022:

Thank you. I get their email news letters, though I am not a member, so I do know that but sometimes I forget.

I have slight reservations about Humanism as a movement, but this promo from the British Humanist ...

barjoe comments on Nov 22, 2022:

I don't like organized "beliefs". My atheism is personal to me.

Fernapple replies on Nov 22, 2022:

@barjoe Yes your situation in the US is the exact opposite of ours here of course. In that, in the US the churches have a lot of popular support, but, in theory at least, no political power, and are using their popular base to push for political power. Where here in the UK they have a lot of historical political power, but almost no popular support, and they are trying to use that political power to win popular support.

I have slight reservations about Humanism as a movement, but this promo from the British Humanist ...

barjoe comments on Nov 22, 2022:

I don't like organized "beliefs". My atheism is personal to me.

Fernapple replies on Nov 22, 2022:

And you are welcome, you are just as free to keep your atheism private, as people are welcome to keep their religion private if they wish. (Though they often don't.) But I think that we do have to be greatful, to those secularists who are willing to organize, since government and the media mainly only respect organized oppinions, and without some organized voice, we give the debate, and the lions share of the power, to the religions by default.

I have slight reservations about Humanism as a movement, but this promo from the British Humanist ...

Marionville comments on Nov 22, 2022:

I’ve never been motivated to join the BHA…however I can see the point they make of needing some cohesive voice which can represent the “secular’ view in debates regarding societal issues. Particularly as a counter-balance to the religious views which are often given more weight than they ...

Fernapple replies on Nov 22, 2022:

Yes I agree about the need not to basically give up the floor to religions in all issues, just by default, being very important. I am glad to hear that you were well pleased with the celebrant, I have no personal experience with them, but I do know that the religious/Christian celebrants vary a great deal , and I have gone to services where to whole thing was very bad indeed, even after you allowed for the Christian content. I would imagine that the Humanist celebrants may well be more conscientious, and are more likely to put in the effort needed, to create something which really refers to the departed's life in a meaningful way.

Why the Ten Commandments have No place in public schools!!! We are NOT a Christian nation, hence ...

Fernapple comments on Nov 19, 2022:

And yet in Northern Europe where many countries have state churches, Christianity is almost gone, and exist only in nominal largely harmless forms. While in America where it was privatized and therefore set free, it still thrives, and in its worst forms.

Fernapple replies on Nov 20, 2022:

@floWteiuQ Thank you.

there is no one here to talk to

waitingforgodo comments on Nov 20, 2022:

Pay no attention to the other sexual deviants below, I'm the one you want. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itRFjzQICJU

Fernapple replies on Nov 20, 2022:

No don't, you will regret it.

“Nature has given man one tongue, but two ears, that we may hear twice as much as we ...

waitingforgodo comments on Nov 20, 2022:

Clearly indicative of the welll known fact that a woman spoke first and elected to exercise the right of reply when the listening was none too compliant. I can hear clearly now my reign has gone. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrHxhQPOO2c

Fernapple replies on Nov 20, 2022:

Love that song.

Why the Ten Commandments have No place in public schools!!! We are NOT a Christian nation, hence ...

Fernapple comments on Nov 19, 2022:

And yet in Northern Europe where many countries have state churches, Christianity is almost gone, and exist only in nominal largely harmless forms. While in America where it was privatized and therefore set free, it still thrives, and in its worst forms.

Fernapple replies on Nov 20, 2022:

@floWteiuQ I think also, that the idealizing of capitalism, to the point of rejecting all social responsibility, may also help to keep people childish. Since spoiled children are the most needy and the most inclined to think that merely buying what is on offer, over and over again, is the route to happiness. That is therefore a type of personality encouraged by both the producers of material goods and the profit making churches, since that way they get to both sell the most goods, and the most shallow, cheapest and easily produced of goods and ideals. A lack of critical judgement is what the market wants more than anything.

So Twitter now regards a picture of a meteor as being "intimate": [bbc.

Petter comments on Nov 17, 2022:

How about the photo of a cow in a field also flagged as "intimate"?

Fernapple replies on Nov 18, 2022:

@Zealandia Well there you go, All over including a face mask, with just a wet nose and tongue showing out, in that obvious attempt at an erotic and deviant turn on. Shocking.

So Twitter now regards a picture of a meteor as being "intimate": [bbc.

Petter comments on Nov 17, 2022:

How about the photo of a cow in a field also flagged as "intimate"?

Fernapple replies on Nov 17, 2022:

Did you not notice. The cow did not have even a pair of pants on !!!!!

If there were a god, I would not be bombarded with information about the Kardashians every time I ...

Fernapple comments on Nov 16, 2022:

If there is a God, I hope for his sake that I am not made in his image. And I sure as #### hope the Kardashians are not.

Fernapple replies on Nov 17, 2022:

@Gwendolyn2018 And sadly that is what our whole society is devoted to promoting, shallow and self centred. Since the shallow and self centred are most likely to believe that they can buy happiness, and are therefore easiest to sell to.

Recent Bronze Statues Unearthed In Tuscany

Fernapple comments on Nov 14, 2022:

Where , when, why, how, by who ?

Fernapple replies on Nov 15, 2022:

@FvckY0u Thank you.

Why do atheists hate God?

Fernapple comments on Nov 14, 2022:

God is a synonym for the, "argument from authority fallacy."

Fernapple replies on Nov 15, 2022:

@Mcflewster Thank you. The God lie may have other uses, but I have noticed that perhaps its most common is as a debate blocker and concealer of holes in evidence and arguments. You want to get to the next bit because you don't have evidence or reasonable argument, drop god in to fill the gap, he is not only a thing which hides in gaps, ( The god of the gaps. ) but also a gap filler.

Holden Caufield always expects the world to be better than it is.

Ryo1 comments on Nov 10, 2022:

Doomsday believers are also bad.

Fernapple replies on Nov 10, 2022:

Yet if you truly believe in god the creator, then you are, are you not, duty bound to love, honour and protect the creator's creation, and protect your god given environment, right up to the worlds very last second. Surely the true believer guards the wayside flower against harm with their own body, for a few more seconds, even as the light of the approaching meteor fills the sky. Or am I being too logical again ?

Perfect camouflage! 🦋

LiterateHiker comments on Nov 9, 2022:

I see a tree.

Fernapple replies on Nov 10, 2022:

Try looking to the right of the bump about two thirds of the way down, and look for a regular pattern in a slight arc.

A grad student just told me that Julius Caesar brought Christianity to England in 55 BCE; she wanted...

Fernapple comments on Nov 4, 2022:

Actually if she quoted the date 55 BCE and did not know why it was changed from BC, and what BC meant in he own Christian tradition. You have a second reason to lay your head on the desk.

Fernapple replies on Nov 5, 2022:

@Gwendolyn2018 Thank you. This side of the pond he is regarded as one of the American greats of the Transendentalists nearly the equal of Emerson. If your BF is correct, then I don't see that it matters much, it is sad however if he is quoting an urban myth.

A grad student just told me that Julius Caesar brought Christianity to England in 55 BCE; she wanted...

Fernapple comments on Nov 4, 2022:

Actually if she quoted the date 55 BCE and did not know why it was changed from BC, and what BC meant in he own Christian tradition. You have a second reason to lay your head on the desk.

Fernapple replies on Nov 5, 2022:

@Gwendolyn2018 Perhaps you could tell me something unrelated, but about how history and literature are taught in the US. Do you ever teach, or do you know, if Henry David Thoreau is still to some degree taught in American schools, and if so, is it mainly as a naturalist/travel writer ? In the UK he is mainly remembered as a social and political philosopher, for Walden and Civil Disobedience, yet I have heard that in American schools he is only taught as a naturalist ? Which seems strange and perhaps a little sinister, given the challenge his social and political views would be to the American establishment, you have to wonder if the bias is not intended.

A grad student just told me that Julius Caesar brought Christianity to England in 55 BCE; she wanted...

Fernapple comments on Nov 4, 2022:

Actually if she quoted the date 55 BCE and did not know why it was changed from BC, and what BC meant in he own Christian tradition. You have a second reason to lay your head on the desk.

Fernapple replies on Nov 4, 2022:

@Gwendolyn2018 Yes Anglo Saxon era is the alternate name we use here too.

Ban the Bible from libraries. I have never read the Bible. Is this true?

AnneWimsey comments on Nov 4, 2022:

Yes,verbatim.Also Lot (the "righteous one" whose wife turned to a salt pillar) having sex with his daughters afterwards...although it was a-okay beause they got him drunk...... Also King David lusting after the wife of Uriah & having the guy sent to a War Front & placed where he would be ...

Fernapple replies on Nov 4, 2022:

And the Levite who kicks his concubines body, because she had the termerity to die on him, after he let the men of the town gang rape her.

A grad student just told me that Julius Caesar brought Christianity to England in 55 BCE; she wanted...

Fernapple comments on Nov 4, 2022:

Actually if she quoted the date 55 BCE and did not know why it was changed from BC, and what BC meant in he own Christian tradition. You have a second reason to lay your head on the desk.

Fernapple replies on Nov 4, 2022:

@Gwendolyn2018 Traditional in the UK at least the Medieval era only starts in 1066, 410 t0 1066 being called the dark ages, although that is going out of fashion now. There is however some evidence that there were Roman Christians in Britain, but that they were driven out of the country, England at least, by the pagan Anglo-Saxons after the Romans left, and the country with had then to be reChristianized.

Is there a way to see the results of polls? If so, how? Thanks

Fernapple comments on Nov 3, 2022:

Usually they just appear automatically if you open the post.

Fernapple replies on Nov 3, 2022:

@Captain_Feelgood No as far as I know that is all you get, members get to see how they personally voted, so you could ask them even at later dates.

How Europe colonized even the world of plants, and why we pay the price to this day.

MizJ comments on Nov 2, 2022:

[](http://)https://gardeningsolutions.ifas.ufl.edu/plants/trees-and-shrubs/trees/royal_poinciana.html These are all over central and south Florida, stunning when in bloom and native to Madagascar. I have a yellow one, not as showy but the bees love it. The worst example in the southern US is ...

Fernapple replies on Nov 3, 2022:

Yes, what happens of course, is that, when they imported the plants, they forgot to bring their pests and diseases with them. Which means that they often have an advantage over natve plants which have to combate a range of natural parasites.

TESTING LOGIC ON the basis that it is possible to test logical thinking and WITHOUT ...

Fernapple comments on Nov 1, 2022:

I agree that the expectant mother should always have the veto. But given that, I fail to see the point of involving the others at all, since their involvement would affect nothing. Indeed, there are only weak reasons for even informing them, and lots of good reasons for allowing the mother to keep ...

Fernapple replies on Nov 2, 2022:

@Mcflewster Parents and grandparents will generally have a say anyway. But you are making a false assumption that parents and grandparents inputs will always be useful and helpful. Sometimes they may well be highly toxic, if not immoral or criminal, and the women who wish to have their pregnancies kept secret to themselves, are the more likely to be the ones in need of that secrecy.

I never realized that telling a man he is "boring" is a personal attack.

AnneWimsey comments on Oct 31, 2022:

Sorry, he is boring To You, not intentionally boring you. Much kinder, and less judgemental, to say you find the subject(s) uninteresting & can we talk about something else?

Fernapple replies on Nov 1, 2022:

@Gwendolyn2018 There is nothing wrong with hating men, sometimes I feel like I do, and I am one. OK, sometimes I feel like I could hate women too, but I don't think that makes me a hateful person, after all, I never wanted to hate dogs.

I never realized that telling a man he is "boring" is a personal attack.

BitFlipper comments on Nov 1, 2022:

Yikes! No guy can afford to be boring if he's going to be dating. If he can't whip up some interesting stuff to talk about he should work on it till he's ready.

Fernapple replies on Nov 1, 2022:

It is often because, he has already worked too long on what he thinks should interest everyone else.

I never realized that telling a man he is "boring" is a personal attack.

AnneWimsey comments on Oct 31, 2022:

Sorry, he is boring To You, not intentionally boring you. Much kinder, and less judgemental, to say you find the subject(s) uninteresting & can we talk about something else?

Fernapple replies on Nov 1, 2022:

No sorry, it does not work. He just changes the subject and bores you about that. And often they just see it as a challenge to convert you, since a good bore can never understand how anyone else could not be as obsessed as he is..

On the arguing of facts...

nogod4me comments on Oct 30, 2022:

"The true-believer syndrome merits study by science. What is it that compels a person, past all reason, to believe the unbelievable. How can an otherwise sane individual become so enamored of a fantasy, an imposture, that even after it's exposed in the bright light of day he still clings to it - ...

Fernapple replies on Oct 31, 2022:

Ego, narcissism, may have a lot to do with it, not just the unwillingness to admit you may have been wrong. But even more if you choose to believe mainly just mainstream information, then there is nothing about that which makes you special. " I am someone special, therefore I believe something special. " That being different alone means that you are at the cutting edge, is an equally mistaken view which underlies many others.

Secular humanism is avowedly non-religious.

The-Krzyz comments on Oct 30, 2022:

I remember Kurtz fondly, especially his failed crusade promoting the use of that word: “eupraxsophy!” In the end, I still think he succeeded in spreading the ideas behind the word, even if the word itself remains little used.

Fernapple replies on Oct 31, 2022:

I never heard it before, but I am going to use it a lot now. Good word needs help.

By the way, I got a Covid booster last Thursday.

LiterateHiker comments on Oct 30, 2022:

I got a flu shot and the new COVID booster in early September. A week apart. Side effects for each vaccine were a low fever, headache and body aches for two days. No big deal. "Minor side effects are normal signs that the vaccines are working," the nurse said.

Fernapple replies on Oct 31, 2022:

That is about my experience.

I'm going to discuss being dead for a moment.

Fernapple comments on Oct 27, 2022:

I am sorry to disagree, but I do not think that there is any such thing as death, or any such state as being dead. There is merely life, and when that life ends there is no life, that is all. Human culture invents many words for things that do not exist, ( Not just dragons and gods. ) in part ...

Fernapple replies on Oct 28, 2022:

@Garban, @FvckY0u Yes there is much to be uncovered, and I have no idea about the higher levels of particle physics, and in that area there is I believe still much scope for conjecture. But the limits of my knowledge extend only to thermodynamics and atomic theory, so I do not go beyond that, since I do not care for conjecture except as game play. See my answer to Garban above.

I'm going to discuss being dead for a moment.

Fernapple comments on Oct 27, 2022:

I am sorry to disagree, but I do not think that there is any such thing as death, or any such state as being dead. There is merely life, and when that life ends there is no life, that is all. Human culture invents many words for things that do not exist, ( Not just dragons and gods. ) in part ...

Fernapple replies on Oct 28, 2022:

@Garban I know, but sadly I am one of those people who think that the search for objective truth has value, and can only be approached when all other complications such as the search for emotional reassurance are put aside. That is not to say that the search for emotional reassurance has no value itself, just that it must come second and fit within the established framework. And since we know, that even the very best evidence based searches for objective truth, with all the safeguards that science provides, often fall short are beset with pitfalls and usually lead to falsehoods more often than not. Then conjecture without any evidence or method, is at best no more than a fun game, and I do not belittle it as such, but it is no more than a game to amuse the mind in dull moments, I put it aside when thinking about things of practical import like my personal happiness. If FvckYou gains emotional support from a belief that harms nobody, and is a long way removed from organized religion and its corruptions, then that is great, and if he gains converts from organized religion, then that is a big leap forward. But it is not for me.

15,000 year old viruses found in melting Tibetan glaciers.

Marionville comments on Oct 26, 2022:

15,000 year old viruses being released from the permafrost….that sounds like the stuff of nightmares!

Fernapple replies on Oct 26, 2022:

Only perhaps to any mamoths who are still arround.

How do you respond to the question "Do you believe in God?

skado comments on Oct 24, 2022:

For me, it’s not a matter of belief. God’s existence is self-evident. No proof needed. My dictionary defines God as the supreme being. It defines supreme as the largest, ultimate, or most powerful. It defines being as something that exists. So already, God exists by definition....

Fernapple replies on Oct 25, 2022:

@Garban That is one of the most amusing disections of the simulation problem I have heard.

How do you respond to the question "Do you believe in God?

skado comments on Oct 24, 2022:

For me, it’s not a matter of belief. God’s existence is self-evident. No proof needed. My dictionary defines God as the supreme being. It defines supreme as the largest, ultimate, or most powerful. It defines being as something that exists. So already, God exists by definition....

Fernapple replies on Oct 25, 2022:

@Garban Personally, I do not have a big serious problem with people saying that god is equivalent to the laws of physics. It is just my opinion that, if god is equal to the laws of physics, then it would be better to call "It" the laws of physics, just to avoid confusion. While if people want to say that the laws of physics are worthy of worship, then I would say, that it is better not to worship anything, but if you must, then the laws of physics (Biology chemistry etc.) are probably better than anything else I know of. But you have also to consider, that attemps to sow confusion may sometimes be deliberate, since confusion makes a good smoke screen for a hidden agenda, or an empty vault.

We may be getting the bison back in the United Kingdom, especially thanks to a new birth.

Julie808 comments on Oct 24, 2022:

Interesting! They seem to have a different physique for the forest than we have for the grasslands in US. Here on Kauai we have a bison ranch. In April of 2018 there were about 119 bison in the heard, when we had some massive flooding on the north shore and they were all washed down the river ...

Fernapple replies on Oct 24, 2022:

Great photo, beautiful.

Ring, ring.

Fernapple comments on Oct 22, 2022:

No, he would not have minded that, don't forget, that he gets fifty or sixty people every day, who are far ruder than you were. Other amusing methods include. Pretend to be a robot answering machine. Pretend that you do not speak English yourself. Start telling him about your complex and ...

Fernapple replies on Oct 23, 2022:

@Gwendolyn2018 You have to be very wary, there are of course some borderline scams out there, which are almost legal. There used to be one here where people phoned you pretending to offer help with your computer, they then talked you through a few simple basics, like deleting cookies and defraging, then they sent you a huge bill. Claiming of course that they had given you a real service, which to a degree they had, and which made it difficult for the international authorities to stop it. The one which almost got me, was one which offered to put my business on an online database. How they caught me was, that they used the details of another real business, which I did trade with, as their id.. It was of course the last company they had scammed, but it looked like a friend asking for real details for her company and rep's customers list. Then they started sending bills for inclusion in a business database, claiming that filling in my details was equivalent to agreeing a contract, and I got demands and threats to take me to court etc. for the dept. ( The database did not exist anyway, nor did the dept collection company which supposedly sent the letters.) I took advice and it seems that a lot of businesses got caught, but nobody paid, and nobody actually got taken to court or anything like it. Eventually the originators of the scam who claimed to be in Europe, but were actually in South America, gave up and sold the scam, and everyones details, to a gang in Africa, but by then it was all but dead, and they gave up after a short time. There are also several fake invoice scams which send false bills to companies. It is easy for me as a one man band to avoid these things, since I generally know all that happens in my business, and also the big corporations probably have security, but they could be very dangerous to medium sized firms, with say ten to fifty employees. Where several people order goods and services, and someone else pays the bills. A bill lands on the desk, and looks like it was something ordered by J. D. in, say, personal or dispatch , and it gets paid without a thought.

How is one supposed to deal with the irony of life? Examine it, or just laugh?

Fernapple comments on Oct 22, 2022:

Live ironically. Feel the force of the irony moving through you, and become the bald monkey you were meant to be.

Fernapple replies on Oct 23, 2022:

@BOBdammit Well there is another irony. We spend a fortune on covering the bald bits with clothes and hair pieces etc, and then another fortune shaving the one bit that does have fur.

We may be getting the bison back in the United Kingdom, especially thanks to a new birth.

Sticks48 comments on Oct 22, 2022:

I didn't know there was a European bison. Beautiful!

Fernapple replies on Oct 22, 2022:

That is how rare they became.

Ring, ring.

Fernapple comments on Oct 22, 2022:

No, he would not have minded that, don't forget, that he gets fifty or sixty people every day, who are far ruder than you were. Other amusing methods include. Pretend to be a robot answering machine. Pretend that you do not speak English yourself. Start telling him about your complex and ...

Fernapple replies on Oct 22, 2022:

@Gwendolyn2018 And selfishness for strength.

Ring, ring.

Fernapple comments on Oct 22, 2022:

No, he would not have minded that, don't forget, that he gets fifty or sixty people every day, who are far ruder than you were. Other amusing methods include. Pretend to be a robot answering machine. Pretend that you do not speak English yourself. Start telling him about your complex and ...

Fernapple replies on Oct 22, 2022:

@Gwendolyn2018 Well done.

“The most valuable of all talents is never using two words when one will do”………… Thomas...

Fernapple comments on Oct 21, 2022:

"Double you, double you, double you." Or. "World wide web. Why say nine syllables, when three, maybe four, will do ?

Fernapple replies on Oct 22, 2022:

@LenHazell53 There was once a TV series called, "Yes Minister" many years ago. It was very funny at the time, but now it just seems like a news programme.

Why are they called "C" clamps when, in reality, they are "D" clamps?

Fernapple comments on Oct 21, 2022:

In the UK, they are called "G" clamps.

Fernapple replies on Oct 22, 2022:

@PondartIncbendog You could use them that way, if that is what floats your boat, yes. Personally I use them to hold bits of wood together, perhaps because I am dull and unimaginative.

That might also account for the snake, too.

LenHazell53 comments on Oct 21, 2022:

speaking of serpents, it looks like she is standing on it

Fernapple replies on Oct 21, 2022:

I dont think the artist missed that one.

“The most valuable of all talents is never using two words when one will do”………… Thomas...

Mcflewster comments on Oct 21, 2022:

Briefness and simplicity yes, but never miss out a word of accuracy, clarity or explanation?

Fernapple replies on Oct 21, 2022:

Especially on this site.

God's word

Budgie comments on Oct 21, 2022:

Again this shows how the lack of knowledge about basic biology influenced how men decided to control women. Since men (at the time of writing the fairy tale) had no real idea of how women conceived it was felt that if a woman had slept with a man there was no way of knowing if the child she had ...

Fernapple replies on Oct 21, 2022:

That is true. Although fear of sexually transmitted disease may also have been a factor according to some people. But it may be that the biggest single factor, was simply the fear that mature and experienced women, presented a greater threat to the culture and the authority of its leaders, especially religious leaders, in a way that young girls, who would be easier to dominate and re-indoctrinate, would not. Certainly that reason is the one given in another passage by the Bible itself, where it says that foreign women should be killed, because they will teach the young men about foreign gods and foreign customs. You have to remember also that in those cultures, girls would often marry at twelve, fourteen or younger, and therefore those younger still, would still be quite small and weak, and easy therefore, to quite crudely just physically beat and abuse if they did not comply with their new culture. Also the immediate verses before. "Have ye saved all the women alive ? Behold these cause the children of Israel, through the counsel of Balaam to commit trespass against the Lord."

Why are they called "C" clamps when, in reality, they are "D" clamps?

skado comments on Oct 20, 2022:

I’m voting for G

Fernapple replies on Oct 21, 2022:

That is what they are called in the UK.

They're so quick to accuse us of being offended by their religion

Aaron70 comments on Oct 18, 2022:

I’m not offended by their religion so much as their bigoted ignorance and stupidity….🤠

Fernapple replies on Oct 19, 2022:

Religion is what you resort to when you want to prove, that which you can't prove by reason or evidence, and what you can't prove by reason or evidence is bigoted ignorance and stupidity.

They're so quick to accuse us of being offended by their religion

OldMetalHead comments on Oct 18, 2022:

Especially when they purposely misinterpret their scriptures to fit their modern agenda.

Fernapple replies on Oct 19, 2022:

Yes true. Althought they always misinterpreted their rules to fit their current agenda, it is not really a new idea. What made the Buy Babble popular in the first place, is that it is really vague and contradictory, so you can read anything you want into it, but then still claim holy authority backs your views.

“The weak can never forgive.

FrayedBear comments on Oct 18, 2022:

That's not what that supposedly poor man Jesus Christ said was it?

Fernapple replies on Oct 18, 2022:

The association of poverty with weakness is a doubtful one anyway.

Any takers

LenHazell53 comments on Oct 17, 2022:

Only is I run out of toilet paper and the situation is dire

Fernapple replies on Oct 17, 2022:

But remember to take the cover off and dump it before you get home.

Why are things best not dropped made slick as a greased fish?

AnonySchmoose comments on Oct 15, 2022:

why are medications you need impossibe to open ... vice grip did't help ... used exacto knife ...wrecked the lid ... had to transfer meds to new container after removing precrip label and putting it on the new bottle

Fernapple replies on Oct 16, 2022:

I have a friend who has weak hands and gets medication for exactly that. And you can guess the rest.....

Why are pseudosciences so appealing? [onlysky.media]

Gwendolyn2018 comments on Oct 15, 2022:

I didn't read the article, but pseudoscience is appealing because the theories--or fact, as people who buy into them would argue--are easier to understand. They also tend to be sensationalist, and people like sensationalism. My field is not science, but I have a passion for mythology. ...

Fernapple replies on Oct 16, 2022:

Actually the article is quite short, worth a read.

YARBOROUGH.

LenHazell53 comments on Oct 15, 2022:

Yarborough the town, has a name that comes from two medieval words Borough which originally meant a fortified area, such as an area within a city wall, the Mott of a mott and bailey town or a battlement of surrounding a Keep in a castle. (it later came to mean a town of the area surrounding a town,...

Fernapple replies on Oct 15, 2022:

@Marionville About ten miles, it is a suburb of Grimsby. Though there is also the Yarborough estate, which is the home of the earls of Yarborough, which is about twelve miles away, and famous for its forests.

Freya or Frigg is also the source of the name for Friday but let's just pretend that the Dead God on...

Gwendolyn2018 comments on Oct 13, 2022:

Monday: day of the moon Tuesday: Tyr's day, Norse god of war Wednesday: Woden's day, aka "Odin." Thursday/Friday: given above Saturday, Saturn's day Sunday: day of the sun, not "son" as Xtians would have people believe. We won't go into the names of the months, all named after ...

Fernapple replies on Oct 14, 2022:

@Dave375 That is what I thought, yep. And therefore Octavian made Julian the dinastic name, but I am not sure about which meaning of Julian he used for the calendar.

Researchers develop a paper-thin loudspeaker [freethink.com]

p-nullifidian comments on Oct 13, 2022:

As an amateur audiophile, I would be interested in the performance specs of speakers made with this technology.

Fernapple replies on Oct 14, 2022:

@Theresa_N Theory 1. Thin televisions are marketed so that they look neat hanging on the wall. Theory 2. Thin televisions are marketed as the industry standard, by any means possible, so that they seem cheap but people then have to spend extra money on speakers.

Freya or Frigg is also the source of the name for Friday but let's just pretend that the Dead God on...

Gwendolyn2018 comments on Oct 13, 2022:

Monday: day of the moon Tuesday: Tyr's day, Norse god of war Wednesday: Woden's day, aka "Odin." Thursday/Friday: given above Saturday, Saturn's day Sunday: day of the sun, not "son" as Xtians would have people believe. We won't go into the names of the months, all named after ...

Fernapple replies on Oct 14, 2022:

I may be wrong, but I thought that Augustus and Julius were the two names of one Caesar. Julian was the dinastic name following after Julius Caesar and Augustus the personal one. And it was of course called the Julian calendar because of his addition of the extra month. Our modern one is of course named Gregorian after the pope whose added the leap day every four years.

“O, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive”…………….

Fernapple comments on Oct 13, 2022:

"No man has a good enough memory, to be a successful liar." Abraham Lincoln.

Fernapple replies on Oct 13, 2022:

@Diogenes Some religions train people so well to accept cognitive disonance, that honesty becomes quite impossible to understand or appreciate.

Secularism and Nonreligion Journal Secularism and Nonreligion is the world's first journal ...

Fernapple comments on Oct 12, 2022:

Does not seem to have a lot of content yet, but that is only to be expected in a start up, I will try to remember to have another look in a few months.

Fernapple replies on Oct 12, 2022:

Correct that, I have worked out how the site works now, the main content is hidden in the front page image as pop ups.

Yay or nay?

Fernapple comments on Oct 7, 2022:

Would make a cool fish tank.

Fernapple replies on Oct 7, 2022:

@Julie808 No, I was thinking of it stood on a shelf in the living room.

My kind of circle of friends..

AnneWimsey comments on Oct 7, 2022:

They left out the wearing of mixed fibers, and shrimp.

Fernapple replies on Oct 7, 2022:

And short sightedness.

Questioning the Historicity of Christ There are several authors who debate that Christ was not an...

Flyingsaucesir comments on Oct 3, 2022:

It is probable that a philosopher/teacher named Jesus did indeed live in Galilee 2,000 years ago. There are contemporaneous Roman writings indicating this is so. This is not a big deal. It is silly to get hung up on that point.

Fernapple replies on Oct 4, 2022:

True. Though I ave also heard it said, by some scholars, that there are accounts of several different people called Jesus, and there is even some good evidence that the name was the BCC equivalent of John Doe and was probably used by many people to cover their real names.

Questioning the Historicity of Christ There are several authors who debate that Christ was not an...

SnowyOwl comments on Oct 3, 2022:

Even if he had existed in the past, would it really matter when you compare what Xstians do compared to what he supposedly taught? The closest I can get to the idea of a supreme creator being is an indifferent entity that cast forth seeds of life and never looked back to see if they took root or ...

Fernapple replies on Oct 4, 2022:

Very true. Although, I have heard a good case made by some expert textual historians, that the original Jesus, if he existed, was probably a extreme nationalist hate preacher, and that the liberal humane teachings were only added later by an early author. Who the unknown writers of the gosples then copied. We do know for a fact that perhaps the most humane of all the stories, that of the woman taken in adultery was not even added until the middle ages, a thousand years later.

" Arguments about false dichotomies are, at best, only one remove from statements of absolutes based...

Robecology comments on Sep 27, 2022:

Whenever I see or read about "debate" I refer to these rules; also known as "Graham's hierarchy of Debate.

Fernapple replies on Sep 27, 2022:

Looks interesting but I can not read the print on my screen, sorry.

A proponent of a Middle-Eastern religion once asked me, as an agnostic, what book I read to guide me...

TheMiddleWay comments on Sep 19, 2022:

I would look at you the same way. I've studied anatomy extensively and I've never come across an "inner compass" as an separate organ nor as a part of the brain. 😏 Thing is no body is born with innate morality. Nobody IS evil or IS good. Everyone LEARNS evil and LEARNS good and then through ...

Fernapple replies on Sep 27, 2022:

@TheMiddleWay Yes but that does not mean, that as with all good philosophy it should not start from and accomodate the best of scientific understanding.

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

Beowulfsfriend comments on Sep 26, 2022:

Russian orthodox catholic church is deeper in the middle ages than the roman catholic one.

Fernapple replies on Sep 27, 2022:

It is still the middle ages in some places. Most countries in the world including mine, the UK, have not moved out of the middle ages fully yet, even given five hundred year of trying. While Marx dreamed that one day communism would overthrow western capitalism, but it never happened. The developed world moved into socialism as its alternative to capital, and the only places totalitarian communism triumphed were medieval agricultural states like Russia, Cuba and China, perhaps because the rigid hierarchical structures were little different, and it was really a very little change.

" Arguments about false dichotomies are, at best, only one remove from statements of absolutes based...

racocn8 comments on Sep 26, 2022:

Interesting if true. I'd be curious as to examples to illustrate the observation.

Fernapple replies on Sep 27, 2022:

I can not share the current one I am involved in, because it involves another and is on going. But the old; males and females should have which given roles in life debates, which ignores the fact that most real people are on a spectrum with the majority somewhere in the middle, and only a few showing extreme male or female behavioral tendencies.

A proponent of a Middle-Eastern religion once asked me, as an agnostic, what book I read to guide me...

TheMiddleWay comments on Sep 19, 2022:

I would look at you the same way. I've studied anatomy extensively and I've never come across an "inner compass" as an separate organ nor as a part of the brain. 😏 Thing is no body is born with innate morality. Nobody IS evil or IS good. Everyone LEARNS evil and LEARNS good and then through ...

Fernapple replies on Sep 27, 2022:

@TheMiddleWay Morality is not a science subject, but a social and philosophical one. Nature and nurture do work perfectly well in a science such as medicine, I would never dispute that. Nor have I at any time said that. But it is a false anology to think that because they work in a science such as medicine, you can take them out of that context and treat philosophy, behaviorism, and moral philosophy the same. While even in medicine, the nature nurture model is hardly ever seen as of much value except where it leads to understandings of the interactions between the two, most medical models of the more complex diseases and symptoms that I have read, use language such as "both genetic and environmental factors".

A proponent of a Middle-Eastern religion once asked me, as an agnostic, what book I read to guide me...

TheMiddleWay comments on Sep 19, 2022:

I would look at you the same way. I've studied anatomy extensively and I've never come across an "inner compass" as an separate organ nor as a part of the brain. 😏 Thing is no body is born with innate morality. Nobody IS evil or IS good. Everyone LEARNS evil and LEARNS good and then through ...

Fernapple replies on Sep 26, 2022:

@TheMiddleWay Yes but that is an over simplified dichotomy again, you know full well, that there is a whole, almost infinite spectrum of levels of detail and understanding, between simplistic arguments about false dichotomies and hypothetical predictions based on knowledge of every atoms positions and movement. ( Which is impossible even at a theoretical level. ) Arguments about false dichotomies are, at best, only one remove from statements of absolutes, based on dogma, which I would have thought that you as a relativist would have known the failings of well enough. I do know with some certainty though, that when I hear simple dichotomies being raised in arguments by whichever side, and not only in the nurture nature debate, then I am almost certainly in the presence of a charlatan. Who is trying to avoid any nuance because nuance could throw light on the shaky foundations of whatever he is pedalling, and is probably just trying to raise a smoke screen of fake debate to avoid the appearance of unsupported dogma; even though there is small difference between them. I do not know who sold you on the idea of the nature ver. nurture idea, but you would do well to question their motives, judgement and commitment to honesty.