Fernapple's Profile

Is nihilism not just a natural part of growing up and maturing anyway ?

puff comments on May 21, 2022:

Yes it is, but some just don't feel it

Fernapple replies on May 21, 2022:

Some just never grow up, I sometimes think that I am not very mature myself in many ways, but I think that I manage that one OK.

Not really gardening but related.

MikeInBatonRouge comments on May 20, 2022:

Beautiful country lane landscape. Interesting to ponder how various weeds respond to our human actions on the landscape. We seem to be the best thing ever to have happened to "weed-kind." Lol

Fernapple replies on May 20, 2022:

They were just waiting for us to come along. Many weeds were of course originally plants of disturbed ground. Who usually had to wait for a landslide earthquake or flood to give them the bare earth they needed, so they were probably quite rare, but then we came along and started ploughing and digging everywhere.

It is the hight now of the Cow Parsley season, Anthriscus sylvestris, here in the UK.

Boomtarat03 comments on May 20, 2022:

It is a wonderful spot to squat and think about life 😆🌱🍃 I love it, the leafy surrounding. 💚💚💚

Fernapple replies on May 20, 2022:

@Boomtarat03 It is a lovely place yes, but not me no, I do bike the lanes, but nothing like that fast.

It is the hight now of the Cow Parsley season, Anthriscus sylvestris, here in the UK.

Boomtarat03 comments on May 20, 2022:

It is a wonderful spot to squat and think about life 😆🌱🍃 I love it, the leafy surrounding. 💚💚💚

Fernapple replies on May 20, 2022:

@Boomtarat03 Just for fun, here is a tour of the area by bike. Which is anything but relaxing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EFR1zKF_3Yk

It is the hight now of the Cow Parsley season, Anthriscus sylvestris, here in the UK.

Boomtarat03 comments on May 20, 2022:

It is a wonderful spot to squat and think about life 😆🌱🍃 I love it, the leafy surrounding. 💚💚💚

Fernapple replies on May 20, 2022:

Yes and I am lucky, it is only a mile from where I live.

It is the hight now of the Cow Parsley season, Anthriscus sylvestris, here in the UK.

FrayedBear comments on May 20, 2022:

What's the white bush?

Fernapple replies on May 20, 2022:

Hawthorne ( Crataegus) one of our common hedgerow bushes.

Not really gardening but related.

Lorajay comments on May 20, 2022:

British vegetation grows in such neat mounds even when it is growing in the wild. My weeds usually have intrusive other weeds.

Fernapple replies on May 20, 2022:

There are one or two clumps of Red Champion as well. Especially in the second photo near the left hand edge, bright pink.

That's why I'm proud to be a Wiccan

Fernapple comments on May 20, 2022:

Funny how, what glorifies god, always seems to be very like what they wanted to do anyway.

Fernapple replies on May 20, 2022:

@anglophone Only in the image of very limited men. Did you ever hear the playground chant. "My big brother will get you."

But we are now civilized

racocn8 comments on May 19, 2022:

Micro-dick.

Fernapple replies on May 20, 2022:

Very small whale, used to live in our village pond, and once sank a paper boat.

But we are now civilized

Flyingsaucesir comments on May 19, 2022:

Funny that he lumps two legitimate natural sciences and a natural biological function together with supernatural nonsense. What a gibbering idiot. Sigh.

Fernapple replies on May 20, 2022:

Oh I think that is only his short list. His full list would be, basically everything not found in the only book he thinks everyone else should read. (He never bothered because he pays the preacher to read it to him. You know, reading is hard. )

I'd like to explore stoicism more in depth. Any comments regarding stoicism?

Matias comments on May 16, 2022:

Stoicism is something other than a kind of self-help program to get your feelings under better control. if you want to be a Stoic, then you have to believe in something like a hidden, cosmic order: what the Stoics called the "logos". A Stoic must bring his own life into harmony with this Logos. This...

Fernapple replies on May 17, 2022:

@Matias The problem is confusing morality with ethics. Nature "the part of objective reality that is studied by physics, chemistry and biology" is not ethical, but it is often moral, as is proved by a lot of science, that many animals across many species, especially the social animal, exhibit moral behaviour. Such as taking measures to avoid incest, supporting and helping other family members and allies, exhibiting a basic instinctive understanding of fairness, and having social status based on contribution. Where ethics emerge, is from the problems created by the first and greatest mismatch in human history, when we first started to develop culture, and we moved from living in a natural environment to a cultural one. And the cultural environment was one to which we had no natural genetic adaptions. So that anomalies soon became apparent. As in for example, people have a natural moral instinct to protect, even violently, family and friends. If therefore you could, and it was very easy, create an artificial extended family, such as a nation or tribe, using cultural tools such as arts and religion, then you could manipulate that instinct and induce people to respond in violent defence, when that fake family was supposedly attacked. ( The attack can also be a cultural fake. ) In other words you could create war. But then you start to get problems and conflicts of interest, because for example, if someone dies fighting a war for their artificial family, then they can no longer defend their genetic family from an attack by lions or bandits when they come. It was needful therefore when the problems of mismatch became apparent, to try to create a framework of ethics, codified moral rules, to try to overcome the problems. But though ethics are logical constructs , they are still powered and motivated by genetic instincts and emotions. I do not know for example without looking it up, if the Stoics had an ethical ruling against incest, but I would expect they did, since many systems of ethics do. But why would any system of ethics rule against incest ? What harm does it do ? Well the short conventional answer would of course be that, inbreeding is more likely to produce weak sick and deformed children, who often die young. But that in turn only begs the question. So what, why should we not produce as many weak sick and deformed children who often die young, if we are enjoying the sex ? The answer of course is that we prefer strong healthy children, and that the sicknesses, pains and early death of children upsets us. In other words it causes an instinctive, emotional, negative response, born out of our natural genetic programming, which at the bottom of it is why we have an ethic against incest. But if we did not have those instincts and emotions, then ...

I'd like to explore stoicism more in depth. Any comments regarding stoicism?

Matias comments on May 16, 2022:

Stoicism is something other than a kind of self-help program to get your feelings under better control. if you want to be a Stoic, then you have to believe in something like a hidden, cosmic order: what the Stoics called the "logos". A Stoic must bring his own life into harmony with this Logos. This...

Fernapple replies on May 17, 2022:

@skado No that is incorrect, the Epicureans do not say. "Do as you please and everything will work out fine." Quite the contrary, the Epicureans said that success and happiness comes from learning to curb and regulate the pleasure impulse. Since they saw misfortune as coming from uncontrolled desire. As in. If I drink too much I will get a hangover, if I have too much sex, I will get more children than I can support, whereas if I drink very moderately, I will make social bonds more easily, and moderate sex will get you a supportable family, of well provided for children, to support you in old age. The big difference with the Stoics came about, because the Stoics believed that misfortune alone was the main cause of suffering, and that morale behaviour had little effect on that, so that nihilism was needful to face the inevitable unhappiness. The misassociation of the Epicureans with hedonism, comes from early Christian propaganda, and was at least philosophically quite untrue, though of course any large scale movement is bound to have some corruption. And is ironic in at least one way, because the early Christian monastic tradition probably got a lot of its inspiration from the Epicurean communities, where the followers of Epicurus lived lives of austerity and simplicity following the teachings of the philosopher. It is little doubted by historians that most of the portrayal of Epicureanism as mere hedonism is an invention of the propagandists. Perhaps in part, because, as well as being a rival cult, the Epicureans also treated men a women as equals, which made it easy in the misogynistic mindset of many then , to portray the Epicureans as sexually immoral. It is sad that such misunderstandings and strawmanings of the movement still persist to this day, when there is no good reason not to understand the truth, but the Christian sub-culture still passes on its own version of history untouched by mainstream history, and it is very pervasive.

A thought experiment: Let's imagine a utopian society that wants to abolish all differences ...

Fernapple comments on May 16, 2022:

Yes they would, for them not to there would have to be no genetic determinism at all, and we know without any but the most technical of scientific doubt that there is a lot.

Fernapple replies on May 17, 2022:

@Matias If we do not have intuitive access to it, then why would it exist ? Natural sellection does not create things which do not do anything.

I'd like to explore stoicism more in depth. Any comments regarding stoicism?

Matias comments on May 16, 2022:

Stoicism is something other than a kind of self-help program to get your feelings under better control. if you want to be a Stoic, then you have to believe in something like a hidden, cosmic order: what the Stoics called the "logos". A Stoic must bring his own life into harmony with this Logos. This...

Fernapple replies on May 16, 2022:

@Matias No that is completly wrong, ethics exist in nature, and our ethics emerge for nature, for the simple reason that there is nothing but nature for them to come from.

The happiest nations on Earth are strongly secular

Julie808 comments on May 15, 2022:

Perhaps that goes to show that people relying on their own ingenuity and sense of kindness and fairness get along just fine toward attaining happiness.

Fernapple replies on May 16, 2022:

They also perhaps, expect more of their government, employers and fellow citizens if the church is not there to tell them that the only good things come though us.

The happiest nations on Earth are strongly secular

skado comments on May 16, 2022:

Spinmeister Phil strikes again.

Fernapple replies on May 16, 2022:

I did not know that your real name was Phil, what have you been up to now ?

The happiest nations on Earth are strongly secular

NostraDumbass comments on May 15, 2022:

An interestingly different interpretation of the data goes like this: The more strife and inequity there is in a society, the more likely people are to be attracted to religion as a coping mechanism. Conversely, when social problems are reduced and freedoms,prosperity, equality and education ...

Fernapple replies on May 16, 2022:

Also compare with this. https://rsf.org/en/index?year some may be moving forward in all ways

As we move towards summer the spring garden certainly has hit some flower power this week.

MikeInBatonRouge comments on May 15, 2022:

Beautiful! The cornflower, in particular, is a nostalgia trigger for me. I never see quite the same kind here in southern Louisiana. Not sure, but I suspect the heat would be too much for them. However, in my early childhood, until we moved when I was 8, our nextdoor neighbor, "Cham," a retired ...

Fernapple replies on May 16, 2022:

Yes they do look very exotic don't they. Though with me they are almost too happy and invasive. I don't grow Stokesia asters though, perhaps I should give thaem a try, even upside down they look great.

The happiest nations on Earth are strongly secular

NostraDumbass comments on May 15, 2022:

An interestingly different interpretation of the data goes like this: The more strife and inequity there is in a society, the more likely people are to be attracted to religion as a coping mechanism. Conversely, when social problems are reduced and freedoms,prosperity, equality and education ...

Fernapple replies on May 15, 2022:

Yes, That could be true, that societal health causes a decline in religion, not a decline in religion causing societal health. Though of course there can be a third situation, which I would put my money on, where "A" does not cause "B" nor "B" cause "A" , but that the two cause one another in a complexity of feed back loops.

Who says that America & its sycophant Britain do not interfere in other country's citizens ...

Fernapple comments on May 15, 2022:

Yes, but the world moves on and what was bad in the sixties, is truly horrible now.

Fernapple replies on May 15, 2022:

@LenHazell53 Exactly.

As we move towards summer the spring garden certainly has hit some flower power this week.

FrayedBear comments on May 15, 2022:

Last to flower in our summer \ autumn are these little imported beauties:

Fernapple replies on May 15, 2022:

Wow. They never get to that size in the UK.

As we move towards summer the spring garden certainly has hit some flower power this week.

Redheadedgammy comments on May 15, 2022:

Gorgeous! Here are a few from my garden.

Fernapple replies on May 15, 2022:

What a wonderful garden you must have.

Truth

ChestRockfield comments on May 14, 2022:

There's a hot chick at work that said the coming ruling makes her want to have as many abortions as she can before it's illegal. I told her I'd do whatever I could to help. 😝

Fernapple replies on May 15, 2022:

Bet she would love you to pay for a week in a private clinic. LOL

Is this the real reason the number 13 is thought to be unlucky by men?

nogod4me comments on May 14, 2022:

Superstitious beliefs are just as bad as religious beliefs. How many idiots have stayed on the thirteenth floor of a building and convinced themselves it was the fourteenth floor because of superstition? So stupid.

Fernapple replies on May 14, 2022:

A little stat. World wide the most common house number incorporating a letter in the address, is twelve 'A'.

Do you agree that religious morality "comes down from savage ages" like Bertrand Russell said in ...

TheMiddleWay comments on May 14, 2022:

There are two fallacies I see here: 1) one, that because we have many examples of religious thinking causing harm, and purportedly few examples of secular thinking causing harm, then secular thinking should be embraced. But the fallacy here is that is nothing more than claiming that because white...

Fernapple replies on May 14, 2022:

Secular thinking is better in at least one way, if it is good secular thinking at least. And that is that there is an intrinsic honesty not found in religious thinking. Which is that when an idea in secular thinking has to be supported by a belief, or beliefs, then it has to be plainly stated that it is supported by that one belief or set of beliefs. Whereas religious thinking makes the claim that all beliefs are dependent upon each other, and that therefore dismissing one means dismissing all beliefs. As in. If I make the secular claim that I do not think it is good to promote gambling, then I may make a justification, giving the idea that gambling can be addictive and destructive to happiness. ( All morals must depend ultimately upon a belief, which I term a prerequisite, since it is not possible to derive them just by logic alone. )The belief supporting which idea is, my belief that it is better to live in a world which is more happy. While if a religious person makes the same claim that, they do not think it is good to promote gambling, then make a justification, giving the idea that gambling can be addictive and destructive to happiness. The belief supporting which is, their belief that it is better to live in a world which is more happy. There then follows, that creating a more happy world is not just a personal choice of belief, but is supported by their god, and their belief in that god, and is justified by, holy scripture and tradition etc. Meaning that a whole set of fake authorities must be rejected along with it, if you reject the first belief. And that is fine, if you are dealing with what would generally be thought of as a good idea, such as not advertising gambling to children say. But what if the idea is a bad one, such as racism, that blue people are vastly better and more valuable humans than green ones say. This is why religion is so beloved of those who would promote bad ideas, because they have no need to expose the basic belief behind the conclusion to scrutiny, but can claim the whole belief system, and that rejecting one part is rejecting all morality completely.

A new member, hoadao3493 just seems to have joined, for the sole purpose of posting adverts for ...

anglophone comments on May 14, 2022:

I reported for him for spam, and I haven't seen him since, though he is obviously appearing for other members.

Fernapple replies on May 14, 2022:

I am still not sure how you report someone, so I posted it here, in the hopes someone would or had done so. Thanks.

If Facebook is for faces, what is Buttbook for?

Fernapple comments on May 14, 2022:

Pedants, there should only be one T, But-book.

Fernapple replies on May 14, 2022:

@anglophone Well stick it between two slices of bread of course.

Do you agree that religious morality "comes down from savage ages" like Bertrand Russell said in ...

skado comments on May 14, 2022:

“Savage Ages” is a term no scientist or historian would use today. It’s considered offensive. It’s more of a value judgement than a descriptive term, and that value judgement may be far from historically accurate. Everything we have, religion and science alike, is built on what came ...

Fernapple replies on May 14, 2022:

The idea of "savage ages", certainly is now considered politically incorrect, and would not be used today. But it would also be a very strange idea to think that morality was the only field of human life, in which there has been no progress or advancement in thousands of years. That would be to take a view much further towards the opposite extreme, and probably far more doubtful one than the one that I am sure Russell intended. While to critic a person in a different age, merely for using the language of his own age, is a very extreme ad hom indeed.

I have a question that no Christian I have ever asked can answer.

Fernapple comments on May 14, 2022:

In the middle ages it was considered a mater of importance, if Adam and Eve had belly buttons. So much so that the theology often changed with the administration, so artists were forced to use fig leaves etc to cover the area, in fear of being charged with a crime if they got it wrong, or a new ...

Fernapple replies on May 14, 2022:

@Julie808 My Fig leaf was perhaps intended a little light heartedly, since yes, in more recent time it was used to cover the genitailia, but there was a tendency in early times to avoid showing the centre of the belly.

Do you agree that religious morality "comes down from savage ages" like Bertrand Russell said in ...

skado comments on May 14, 2022:

“Savage Ages” is a term no scientist or historian would use today. It’s considered offensive. It’s more of a value judgement than a descriptive term, and that value judgement may be far from historically accurate. Everything we have, religion and science alike, is built on what came ...

Fernapple replies on May 14, 2022:

If you set up fake sources of authority, such as scriptures, tradition, or even the supernatural, they will always be open to abuse by the criminally inclined. In part because they are bound to become degraded over time, and therefore mixed up to the extent that they will stand any interpretation you wish to place on them. And in part, because any fake authority is only needed by the criminally inclined, since good morality can, and does, find its own justifications. If you want to be an ultra conservative, or promote views based on a prejudice so bad that you can not find rational arguments, then your last resort is God. Whose mixed up scriptures and revelations degraded over time, are easily mined to support any view you wish. It is moreover a bad mistake to assume that "scripture" and inherited religion, were made in the first place only by the morally most advanced and thoughtful people of their time, any time. Just as much of the scripture would have been written in the past by those with less than prefect intentions, as is written into the media today, by political propagandists and prejudiced hacks. The bible which is a very bloody book, spends far more time promoting crimes such as, genocide, theft by force, rape , racism, and zenophobia than it does moral codes such as "Don’t kill. Don’t steal. Don’t lie." being a perfect example. Religious reform is a never ending maintenance task yes, and the foremost form of religious reform, is to abandon the old long corrupted forms of religion, like theist religions, which are now only of interest to religious imposters, in favour of improved and yet to be corrupted religions, such as human rights, environmentalism and democracy, for just three examples of many, ( Which do exist and are to some degree religious), continuing to give excessive respect to the old, merely because it is old, only sharpens the weapons of the criminal for them, and downgrades the moral debate of the current age. And I am sorry but Russell does not make. "the same mistake here so many smart people do - the assumption that if I can think my way through complicated moral and emotional challenges, then everyone one else can too." Humans do not vary greatly in basic levels of intelligence, however much snobs may like to think they do. And the basic priciples of morality are not complicated, not rocket science, indeed they are not even, anything like as difficult as the maths of long division, which most people manage at school. The basics of morality are very simple, what makes them complicated and difficult, is trying to teach many conflicting moralities derived from many different sources, like biblical, all at the same time, instead of teaching basic principles and encouraging the asking of basic questions. Which ...

Infusing Youthful Brain Juice Restores Older Mice’s Memories! [technologynetworks.com]

Garban comments on May 13, 2022:

Make mine a double.

Fernapple replies on May 14, 2022:

In some cases, is it not better to forget.

This is a BBC post about six strange animals you may never have heard of.

Garban comments on May 13, 2022:

Those eyes!

Fernapple replies on May 13, 2022:

Yes. I often look at a collie dog, and think. If human females had eyes like that ? But then human males get into enough trouble already, so perhaps not.

In the "greatest democracy", USA, it is reported that genocide occurred between 1819 &1969 against ...

Fernapple comments on May 13, 2022:

Almost all countries in the past have committed genocide and other atrocities, and that is nothing to be proud of. But yes you may have a limited and very reasonable pride in your country, if its culture has grown up enough to admit and acknowledge it past fully, since that is a real achievement and...

Fernapple replies on May 13, 2022:

@LenHazell53 True to a degree. But Tasmania, Argentina, and one or two others occur, just off the top of my head.

He figured a long time ago but Texas is yet to...

BD66 comments on May 12, 2022:

He just has the most up close and personal relationship with Christianity. There are plenty of other bloody and absurd religions that he was unfamiliar with.

Fernapple replies on May 13, 2022:

That is very true. Although as an educated eighteenth century European, he would at least have been very well informed about the polytheisms of ancient Greece and Rome. Well enough at least, to make a valid comparison, though I was probably overstating his case for humourous effect.

How long can a debacle the size of Putin's Ukraine adventure be kept under wraps?

Fernapple comments on May 11, 2022:

Don't worry, all those oligarchs, generals, and corrupt officials around Putin will only wait a little while longer. After all, they did not set him up to fail in the first place, for no reason you know.

Fernapple replies on May 12, 2022:

@Flyingsaucesir No, she "said" she thought that. She is in politics.

How long can a debacle the size of Putin's Ukraine adventure be kept under wraps?

Fernapple comments on May 11, 2022:

Don't worry, all those oligarchs, generals, and corrupt officials around Putin will only wait a little while longer. After all, they did not set him up to fail in the first place, for no reason you know.

Fernapple replies on May 12, 2022:

@Flyingsaucesir Sorry, it was a long time ago in one of the English newspapers, a respectable one like the Gaurdian I think, not the rubbish press, but it was a long time ago.

How long can a debacle the size of Putin's Ukraine adventure be kept under wraps?

Fernapple comments on May 11, 2022:

Don't worry, all those oligarchs, generals, and corrupt officials around Putin will only wait a little while longer. After all, they did not set him up to fail in the first place, for no reason you know.

Fernapple replies on May 12, 2022:

@Flyingsaucesir Yes, but you have to remember that with regard to the languages for example, he has been caught trying to pretend that he does not speak English, even though the secret is well out. That is a silly childish trick, that he no doubt inherited from his KGB days, and even then it was a silly game to play. ( Either he or his trainers had been reading too many spy novels. ) No, I think that we are dealing with a very limited mind, even if one experienced and determined and perhaps in a shallow way, smarter than the average politician. And even if he was highly intelligent, his cold war delutions would still give those around him an easy handle with which to manipulate him.

How long can a debacle the size of Putin's Ukraine adventure be kept under wraps?

Fernapple comments on May 11, 2022:

Don't worry, all those oligarchs, generals, and corrupt officials around Putin will only wait a little while longer. After all, they did not set him up to fail in the first place, for no reason you know.

Fernapple replies on May 11, 2022:

@Flyingsaucesir Yes but remember. Putin according to reports, does not look at the internet, read any newspapers or have any real knowledge of history. In short the only information he has, comes from his sycophants.

New research uncovers stereotype differences between agnostics and atheists

Fernapple comments on May 10, 2022:

Interesting but not exactly ground breaking, fairly predictable results.

Fernapple replies on May 10, 2022:

@waitingforgodo The paper was not really about agnostics and atheists, but about peoples, mainly theists, attitudes towards them. My point being that those prejudices are fairly well known already.

Ah... he was a son of the Pope

Scott321 comments on May 9, 2022:

Painted *by* Cesare Borgia? I’ve found that it has been alleged Jesus was modeled on Borgia but that seems debunked: https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/jesus-modeled-on-borgia/

Fernapple replies on May 9, 2022:

C.B. certainly did not do any painting.

It has just been put to me that people are truly puzzled as to why I think Russia has any reason to ...

Alienbeing comments on May 9, 2022:

You continue to try to justify Russia's invasion of another country by saying "so what, other countries invaded a neighboring country in the past". That is the worst justification one can imagine. It is exactly like saying "murder is OK because others have been murdered".

Fernapple replies on May 9, 2022:

@FrayedBear Yes but the bottom line is. "The crimes of others do not justify mine." The only logical possition is to oppose and both American and Russian violence, which make you humane, or support both which makes you a fascist, or argue about details and justifications, which makes you foolish.

Nazi Russia

Matias comments on May 9, 2022:

Hitler was motivated by ideology and racism. Putin has no ideology, he is just motivated by lust for power and glory

Fernapple replies on May 9, 2022:

Probably true. although Putin did declare, perhaps not genuinely, that one of his goals, was, uniting the Slavic peoples. So he does play some lip service to racism, even if he does not believe it.

Its the hight of the tree blossom season here now.

Killtheskyfairy comments on May 7, 2022:

So, bumper crop of apples expected?

Fernapple replies on May 8, 2022:

If they set, and the trees don't drop them, which they often do when there is a two heavy crop, but last year the crop was poor, so after taking a rest the trees may be ready for a good year.

Fetus and baby - what is the ethical difference?

Fernapple comments on May 4, 2022:

The ancient Greeks and Romans were not just subjective in their choice, they actually set the age at which killing an infant became murder, at two years. Because that was they age at which they thought you first became aware of your self as a person, and with that your own mortality. Which while I ...

Fernapple replies on May 5, 2022:

@Matias That is correct. Children were the property of the parents until thirty, so if the baby was born to under thirties the grandfather made the choice, after that the parents did.

Anyone who's been on friendster or myspace is laughing at the desperate attempts to "save" Facebook ...

Redheadedgammy comments on May 2, 2022:

I personally would love to see Fakebook and twiddler go down.

Fernapple replies on May 3, 2022:

@Redheadedgammy I know what you mean, I have to be on it because of business, but I retire next year, and then its gone for good. Although I am told that it is quite hard to delete an account, and that they still keep pestering you.

We are now moving into the garden visiting season, and despite it not yet being very warm, we went ...

JackPedigo comments on May 3, 2022:

Love the greenhouse, Gazebo and cat/bird on the entrance way.

Fernapple replies on May 3, 2022:

Me too.

We are now moving into the garden visiting season, and despite it not yet being very warm, we went ...

Lavergne comments on May 3, 2022:

Beautiful!! The waves of color have begun up here in the plateau.....

Fernapple replies on May 3, 2022:

You seem to be at about the same stage we are here in the UK. Great colour.

So much for this COVID pandemic keeping the religious Christfools from going door knocking.

anglophone comments on May 3, 2022:

"Come inside and convince me that your god exists. You will remain inside until you have succeeded in convincing me. I charge $250/day for board and lodging."

Fernapple replies on May 3, 2022:

Oh I would do it for free, and with the maximum of charm. I know who would emerge at the end of the week with their world view changed. Unfortunately they have black listed me and don't come anymore.

Anyone who's been on friendster or myspace is laughing at the desperate attempts to "save" Facebook ...

Redheadedgammy comments on May 2, 2022:

I personally would love to see Fakebook and twiddler go down.

Fernapple replies on May 3, 2022:

Facebook, if only because it is so ugly, with over complicated messy pages.

I am a true right-to-lifer who holds that abortions need to be safe, legal, rare, and we need ...

p-nullifidian comments on May 3, 2022:

Many anti-abortionists would disagree that you are a “true right-to-lifer.” Curious, at what stage (of a pregnancy) do you ‘draw a line?’

Fernapple replies on May 3, 2022:

The ancient Greeks held that it was at two years after birth, because it is at that age that children first become aware of their own mortality. I am not saying that we should do the same, just that there may be different ways of looking at the issue, and still be regarded as a civilized culture, and to make the point that it is all very subjective anyway.

Not a bad idea.

Fernapple comments on May 2, 2022:

Double it.

Fernapple replies on May 2, 2022:

@MaryChristmas Ok, well make it once every two weeks then.

“Your habitually unhappy person resents it when you try to cheer them up, because that means they ...

LenHazell53 comments on May 1, 2022:

Alternately the unhappy person resents it when you try to cheer them up, because it means they just want you to STFU and have no interest in or compassion for the reasons for unhappiness, or in leaving you alone until you can deal with it. Claiming unhappiness is self indulgence is akin to saying ...

Fernapple replies on May 2, 2022:

@LenHazell53 Ah no, because Tom Waits is talking about the populist misconception of nihilism as sad, I am specifically talking about the type called "happy nihilism".

“Your habitually unhappy person resents it when you try to cheer them up, because that means they ...

LenHazell53 comments on May 1, 2022:

Alternately the unhappy person resents it when you try to cheer them up, because it means they just want you to STFU and have no interest in or compassion for the reasons for unhappiness, or in leaving you alone until you can deal with it. Claiming unhappiness is self indulgence is akin to saying ...

Fernapple replies on May 1, 2022:

@LenHazell53 Sorry Len, this is going to be a long one, but I hope that you will indulge me by reading it. "You mean philosopher, scientists, artists and realist?" Some of them yes, a lot of them perpetuate the idea that there is a (so called higher) meaning and purpose to life, and are therefore religious in intent ( Indeed belief in high art is a religion.) And that idea, is at the root not just of harmful religion, but of all human naccisism and vanity, which ultimately is at the root of all philosophical misery. Only nihilists can ever be truly happy, because it is only when you accept your own total worthlessness, and not just accept it philosophically, but truly take it to heart, that you can accept all loss and failing, including and especially mortality, because when you accept your worthlessness, then nothing is lost when you die or fail. Nihilism is not just a philosphy, but in fact just another word for growing up, and part of lifes natural proccess. But that is not just a negative belief, because then comes the big irony. Which is that nihilists who abandon all belief in meaning and purpose to their lives, are in fact the people who are most likely to find meaning and purpose. Because when once you accept that there is no higher meaning to your life, then you have to look for meaning in the world. Whether that be charity for humans, care for the worlds environments, family, community, education, appreciation ( sometimes called awareness, ) or just keeping the steam trains running on the local heritage line. Because all of those things are things of devotion, to the outside of yourself, and your only true worth is your worth to the world beyond yourself, the only loss when you die, what you will not be doing for it/them when gone, and the only true joy, (At least when viewed from a gods perspective if there should there be one.) is your appreciation of that creation. That I think is what, one of the few religions for which I have much respect, Buddhism was orginally groping towards, with its message of forgeting the self. Though it became a little muddled, with time. But it is exactly the opposite of most of the theist religions encourage with their promotion of vanity addiction as a way of keeping the victim hooked. The main idea in Christianity anyway, both its source and its traditions, is not humane kindness, but the idea of a personal god, with which you can have a personal selfish narcissistic relationship, especially in the NT Catholic/Protestant tradition. It abandons the polytheistic idea of many gods who may sometimes compete with each other, and have different agendas, thereby complicating and sometimes undermining the devotees relationship with the supernatural. Monotheism is a very individualistic, narcissistic idea ...

“Your habitually unhappy person resents it when you try to cheer them up, because that means they ...

LenHazell53 comments on May 1, 2022:

Alternately the unhappy person resents it when you try to cheer them up, because it means they just want you to STFU and have no interest in or compassion for the reasons for unhappiness, or in leaving you alone until you can deal with it. Claiming unhappiness is self indulgence is akin to saying ...

Fernapple replies on May 1, 2022:

I don't think the quote is talking about depression, for which I hope we would all have some compassion. But rather is about the perpetual seeker after so called meaning, and purpose.

MP Neil Parish says he may have opened porn in Commons by mistake

Fernapple comments on Apr 30, 2022:

That's the oldest excuse in the book and the least believable. I have traveled though many corners of the web for years, and only once did I get into approaching porn by mistake, and then it was so obvious where the search was leading, it was more than possible to turn back in good time. Is he so ...

Fernapple replies on Apr 30, 2022:

@ASTRALMAX He made twenty four thousand attemps. Wow he was busy. !!! (Sorry that is a very silly joke.)

“My people are going to learn the principles of democracy, the dictates of truth, and the ...

puff comments on Apr 28, 2022:

He's well known in Australia from the Gallipoli campaign in WWI, where our ANZAC's (Australian and New Zealand Army Corp) were born/ blooded. He is thought of as an honourable adversary and a respected statesman here largely (besides the racist patriotic redneck twats who don't know history). Not ...

Fernapple replies on Apr 28, 2022:

Sadly Erdogan today, who is a good right wing theist, is busy dismantling a lot of what Attaturk created.

These 10 "non-commandments" seem reasonable to me. How about you?

Tejas comments on Apr 28, 2022:

Doesn't number nine kind of contradict the list?

Fernapple replies on Apr 28, 2022:

I think the site lost part of your comment. The number. It is best to spell numbers out on this site, it has that annoying quirk.

Do we look like apes?

BD66 comments on Apr 27, 2022:

Do the apes descend from the same dirt, or different dirt?

Fernapple replies on Apr 27, 2022:

Good question, and are some sorts of dirt better than others. I bet cats are descended from much better dirt than dogs.

I was asked once. How do I remain so happy and peaceful?

Fernapple comments on Apr 26, 2022:

For even as love crowns you so shall he crucify you. Even as he is for your growth so is he for your pruning. Even as he ascends to your height and caresses your tenderest branches that quiver in the sun, So shall he descend to your roots and shake them in their clinging to the ...

Fernapple replies on Apr 26, 2022:

@Pralina1 I really know that you are far too brave and wise to do that.

REGARDING THE RECENT ARCANE DIALOG ABOUT NEAR EASTERN AND SOUTHERN EUROPEAN MYTHOLOGY.

Fernapple comments on Apr 20, 2022:

"White entitlement" is not an example of Orwellian "new thought", but quite real. I know this for the very simple reason, if for no other reason than, that, being white, I have enjoyed the benefits of it though my whole life. Since I am confident that I would certainly not have enjoyed my limited ...

Fernapple replies on Apr 26, 2022:

@holdenc98 Come on, don't give up now, this could be the sart of a debate that could last us for weeks.

The larger picture...

Julie808 comments on Apr 25, 2022:

As far as religious literalism, I'm an agnostic atheist. As far as religious figuratism, I believe that is how religions are meant to be taken, but that doesn't mean the ideas in them are good, wise, fair or a pathway to happiness. The religious mythos needs to change and adapt to new our most...

Fernapple replies on Apr 25, 2022:

@Julie808, @skado If, we can not be sure of the original intent, (We can sometimes though not often.) then we are even more adrift in the realms of personal interpretation, allowing the even more freedom for the criminally anti-social to use it for their own immoral purposes if they wish. And since good people rarely need it, then it is much more likely to be the criminal who do.

The larger picture...

Julie808 comments on Apr 25, 2022:

As far as religious literalism, I'm an agnostic atheist. As far as religious figuratism, I believe that is how religions are meant to be taken, but that doesn't mean the ideas in them are good, wise, fair or a pathway to happiness. The religious mythos needs to change and adapt to new our most...

Fernapple replies on Apr 25, 2022:

@Julie808 At the bottom is the old problem, that you can not get to morality, or perhaps even truth, from first principles via philosophy alone, even less from its even more refined version natural philosophy, or science. At some point you must start with a belief, such as, “the world is real”, in answer to solipsism. Or. “I wish to live in a happy world”. Or “I wish to live in a fair world.” from which you may then begin to derive your moral principles and perhaps world view by logic and observation. Which ideas I would call, prerequisites. Though others would perhaps more often call them, beliefs. Because of course, most atheists and agnostics, do not have a complete absence of beliefs, they just do not hold religious or theist beliefs. Many hold to beliefs like the three above. Which I am certain are much better, if only because they are plainer and more direct, than most religious beliefs, and do not come with the, so often demonstrable bad, unforeseen consequence side effects which even the most seemingly moral parts of theist beliefs, like Christianity, carry. Atheism and agnosticism is not, and never could be, about abolishing belief, only about abolishing proven harmful beliefs with better, plainer and more universal ones. To which the issue of metaphor is simply an irrelevant distraction at best, or at worst a covert attempt to rescue bad inherited traditions. Take for an example from another field of ideology the idea called racism. Suppose that you had a racist parent, who repeatedly told their child that. “All those people are ugly and look nasty.” Then one day the child returns home, having met a member of the other race and says. “But they were not ugly. He/she was really hansom/beautiful.” To which the parent returns. “Yes but the ugliness is metaphorical.” Does that make it better, or does it in fact make it far worse ? And the same applies to many religious beliefs, such as. "You are chosen." or "We are chosen." Or ideas like hell as a metaphorical fear of death, which even if taken metaphorically still promotes the idea that fear of the unknown is good and healthy.

A knowledge of differential equations would be helpful

SnowyOwl comments on Apr 24, 2022:

My wife is half Scottish and half French Canadian so she tends to throw nickels around like manhole covers. I stopped going down the paper products aisle with her and it gives me an extra ten minutes to check out more interesting products that might actually be a good deal while she calculates down...

Fernapple replies on Apr 25, 2022:

Sizes change. Kitchen roll for example. I now have to buy "Jumbo" to get one big enough to fit in a holder which once held standard rolls. I have every sympathy with you though. My female best friend likes to go round the isles reading the "sell by" dates on all the products, and she wont buy anything unless it has at least four days to go, which takes forever because her sight is not that great, and she insists on taking her glasses off and putting them away at each move of the trolly. But then she gets to the "reduced to clear" isle because things are getting old, and she just grabs anything with a low price on it !!??

A while ago, I asked the following question and got an informative answer from a person who lives in...

Flyingsaucesir comments on Apr 22, 2022:

To the extent that Denmark is a secular country (how can it be, really, if it has an official State religion?), that probably has more to do with their particular religious sect (Lutheranism) being fairly moderate in its credos (as compared with American style Evangelical Christianity).

Fernapple replies on Apr 23, 2022:

@Flyingsaucesir Yes but they are not all that fond of their churches, and would you really want to go to the IRS office for a Sunday social ? LOL

Alone with depression

CuddyCruiser comments on Apr 23, 2022:

If they would lynch ya over a Sanders bumper sticker, imagine how they would react to some of these…….I’ve already worn quite a few of them visiting friends and family in North Carolina and have gotten funny looks.

Fernapple replies on Apr 23, 2022:

Wow, I love the Magellan quote, I never heard that one before. If its true in those days he could have been jailed or worse for saying that.

REGARDING THE RECENT ARCANE DIALOG ABOUT NEAR EASTERN AND SOUTHERN EUROPEAN MYTHOLOGY.

Fernapple comments on Apr 20, 2022:

"White entitlement" is not an example of Orwellian "new thought", but quite real. I know this for the very simple reason, if for no other reason than, that, being white, I have enjoyed the benefits of it though my whole life. Since I am confident that I would certainly not have enjoyed my limited ...

Fernapple replies on Apr 23, 2022:

@holdenc98 No. I would like to hear your interpretation of it please.

A while ago, I asked the following question and got an informative answer from a person who lives in...

Flyingsaucesir comments on Apr 22, 2022:

To the extent that Denmark is a secular country (how can it be, really, if it has an official State religion?), that probably has more to do with their particular religious sect (Lutheranism) being fairly moderate in its credos (as compared with American style Evangelical Christianity).

Fernapple replies on Apr 23, 2022:

Nothing kills religion though as quickly as making it an arm of state. When you do that, you deprive it of its free alternate voice, and you make it, in part, responsible for every failing of government. Religion dies under state ownership. If you look, all the most secular countries in the developed world, (Third world may be different.) have state chuches. Whereas in the USA, where you have separation and in Russia where for many years they tried to ban religion, the churches thrive.

REGARDING THE RECENT ARCANE DIALOG ABOUT NEAR EASTERN AND SOUTHERN EUROPEAN MYTHOLOGY.

Fernapple comments on Apr 20, 2022:

"White entitlement" is not an example of Orwellian "new thought", but quite real. I know this for the very simple reason, if for no other reason than, that, being white, I have enjoyed the benefits of it though my whole life. Since I am confident that I would certainly not have enjoyed my limited ...

Fernapple replies on Apr 23, 2022:

@holdenc98 Very well that is no problem, if you want a clear statement in childishly simple English, could you please tell me in plain English what it is that the MOYNIHAN CONGRESSIONAL COMMISSION REPORT says that interests you, since it is not something that I am familiar with, beyond the vague hints here.

Why do some people feel a need to always be insulting some other individual or group?

Matias comments on Apr 21, 2022:

My problem with this kind of statement is that nowadays what counts as an insult is not defined by a general consensus in society, but by the "insulted" people themselves. Given that a lot of people today seem to live (and sometimes even make a living !) as bleeding wounds, an innocuous remark may...