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

Fernapple comments on Nov 7, 2019:

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

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

Fernapple comments on Nov 7, 2019:

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

[msn.

Fernapple comments on Nov 7, 2019:

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

Proposition: No one is totally pro-life.

Fernapple comments on Nov 6, 2019:

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

Talk is cheap. Reduce oil consumption or die.

Fernapple comments on Nov 6, 2019:

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

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

Fernapple comments on Nov 6, 2019:

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

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

Fernapple comments on Nov 6, 2019:

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

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

Fernapple comments on Nov 6, 2019:

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

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

Fernapple comments on Nov 6, 2019:

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

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

Fernapple comments on Nov 5, 2019:

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

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

Fernapple comments on Nov 5, 2019:

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

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

Fernapple comments on Nov 5, 2019:

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

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

Fernapple comments on Nov 5, 2019:

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

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

Fernapple comments on Nov 5, 2019:

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

Science and Nature ...one in the same.

Fernapple comments on Nov 5, 2019:

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

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

Fernapple comments on Nov 5, 2019:

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

I could use some feedback.

Fernapple comments on Nov 4, 2019:

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

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

Fernapple comments on Nov 4, 2019:

Go on what does mine tell you ?

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

Fernapple comments on Nov 4, 2019:

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

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

Fernapple comments on Nov 4, 2019:

Don't waste your time even thinking about him.

It is my birthday.

Fernapple comments on Nov 4, 2019:

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

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

Fernapple comments on Nov 4, 2019:

Yes and they work well.

Religious anonymous??

Fernapple comments on Nov 4, 2019:

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

I started camping about 10 years ago.

Fernapple comments on Nov 4, 2019:

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

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

Fernapple comments on Nov 3, 2019:

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

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

Fernapple comments on Nov 3, 2019:

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

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

Fernapple comments on Nov 3, 2019:

Sell them for garden ornaments perhaps ?

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

Fernapple comments on Nov 3, 2019:

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

I don't know what to tell you guys.

Fernapple comments on Nov 3, 2019:

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

Is the concept of god irrelevant??

Fernapple comments on Nov 3, 2019:

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

Hello to everyone in this community.

Fernapple comments on Nov 3, 2019:

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

Quick little "hello".

Fernapple comments on Nov 3, 2019:

Welcome back, you have been missed.

test very high res.

Fernapple comments on Nov 3, 2019:

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

I frequently drive past a JW's Kingdom hall.

Fernapple comments on Nov 2, 2019:

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

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

Fernapple comments on Nov 2, 2019:

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

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

Fernapple comments on Nov 2, 2019:

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

I read somewhere that atheism is not a religion.

Fernapple comments on Nov 2, 2019:

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

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

Fernapple comments on Nov 2, 2019:

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

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

Fernapple comments on Nov 2, 2019:

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

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

Fernapple comments on Nov 1, 2019:

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

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

Fernapple comments on Nov 1, 2019:

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

John Crossan on Biblical Literalism...

Fernapple comments on Nov 1, 2019:

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

Want to meet people that thinks the way I do.

Fernapple comments on Nov 1, 2019:

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

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

Fernapple comments on Nov 1, 2019:

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

What is your favorite holiday & why?

Fernapple comments on Nov 1, 2019:

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

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

Fernapple comments on Nov 1, 2019:

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

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

Fernapple comments on Nov 1, 2019:

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

IS CHANGE GOD?

Fernapple comments on Oct 31, 2019:

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

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

Fernapple comments on Oct 31, 2019:

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

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

Fernapple comments on Oct 31, 2019:

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

I stop by a McDonalds once or twice a week.

Fernapple comments on Oct 31, 2019:

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

I suppose I should make a hello post.

Fernapple comments on Oct 31, 2019:

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

Funny animal singing while bathing

Fernapple comments on Oct 31, 2019:

The Link does not work, sorry.

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

Fernapple comments on Oct 31, 2019:

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

Requesting thoughts re Yuval Noah Harari books

Fernapple comments on Oct 31, 2019:

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

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

Fernapple comments on Oct 31, 2019:

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

Just wanted to share some of my photos took from the Big Buddha in Tung Chung, Lantao Island ...

Fernapple comments on Oct 31, 2019:

Wow. Beautiful gardens as well.

I am going to get my reward in heaven.

Fernapple comments on Oct 30, 2019:

I know. You have started your own church and people are giving you lots of money, right ?

Hello everybody new here

Fernapple comments on Oct 30, 2019:

Hello and welcome. Relax and enjoy the site. (Points come fastest when you are not looking. ) Do check out the groups there is something there for everyone.

A clearer picture is emerging about the origin of humankind. [livescience.com]

Fernapple comments on Oct 30, 2019:

Questionable but interesting, now we can wait and see if what turns up next confirms or contradicts this. I love the speculative edge.

The last faith that I tried to follow, a little more than ten years ago but for almost twenty years,...

Fernapple comments on Oct 30, 2019:

It is true that community is the one real thing that religions offer, yet as you have discovered it can be found in other places. I hope that you find the belonging you are looking for.

12 December election is going to play havoc with MPs Christmas card lists!

Fernapple comments on Oct 30, 2019:

I think that a fixed date election every year would be a good thing, and Dec 25th would work really well. After all for some reason most people do not work that day, no where is open and people get bored with nothing to do.

Hey everyone, how is your week going?

Fernapple comments on Oct 29, 2019:

Full seven days just like all the rest. Thank you. Hello and welcome, do please enjoy the site, and especially check out the groups there is something for everyone there.

Has anyone seen the doco Enemies of Reason?

Fernapple comments on Oct 29, 2019:

No.

Last year girth visited. It stayed.

Fernapple comments on Oct 29, 2019:

It is not really that friendly, it goes away if you don't feed it.

I agree with this but would definitely add laughter and integrity to the list. What about you?

Fernapple comments on Oct 29, 2019:

I think that I would treat, truth, honesty and integrity, as one, so I would shorten the list. But I would add 'Appreciation', Without that you have nothing, while with it everything in the world is a wonder, and it is best gained from learning, which is why I would not put learning in on its own.

I've plateaued on leveling. I must not be Atheisting hard enough.

Fernapple comments on Oct 29, 2019:

Points and levels come fastest when you are not looking. Just enjoy the site and you will get there. (It only gets worse at the higher levels anyway. LOL )

Hi, this is me after a long day of waitressing.

Fernapple comments on Oct 28, 2019:

Save a little of the money you earn if you can, a treat for yourself now and again makes all the difference and restores your energy. Especially consider traveling, if you are single, and remember waiting skills are in demand all over the world.

Have you ever noticed...

Fernapple comments on Oct 28, 2019:

You try to narrow the odds as best you can.

If only they would listen

Fernapple comments on Oct 28, 2019:

Yes but if he existed he was not a Christian either, and would have been very upset if you had told him he was not Jewish. LOL

kids now think we all are idiots

Fernapple comments on Oct 27, 2019:

They always did.

Who agrees with videos posted by DarkMatter2525 on YouTube?

Fernapple comments on Oct 27, 2019:

Would never judge any group of videos. Show me one and I will tell you about that one.

Good day all u people.

Fernapple comments on Oct 27, 2019:

The world goes round because, momentum is retained until friction, including tidal effects, stop it.

That's an easy fix

Fernapple comments on Oct 27, 2019:

There are two ways of looking at that, one says that fear mongers have a product to sell and that the best way to make them go away, is never buy the product. The second says that, just because your security system is off, it does not mean there are no thieves outside.

[agnostic.com]

Fernapple comments on Oct 27, 2019:

An old argument but a really neat way of putting it.

Why is the world letting this happen

Fernapple comments on Oct 27, 2019:

To use the biblical metaphor. A lot of countries, people and the UN are all busy washing their hands.

Who said blondes are dumb....

Fernapple comments on Oct 27, 2019:

Dolly Parton. "It does not annoy me when people say blonds are dumb. Because I know I ain't dumb. I also know I ain't blond."

The idea that everything is preordained, that the world unfolds according to "God's plan" I see as ...

Fernapple comments on Oct 27, 2019:

It matters not either way, to a sceptic, for if life has no 'KNOWN' greater meaning. Then how you get to none meaning, is meaningless too.

Well, looks like I kinda jumped right in my first day here.

Fernapple comments on Oct 27, 2019:

Welcome and enjoy. But please do rub a few people up the wrong way if you like. We have broad shoulders.

I have been seen a pretty disturbing trend in social media among Atheists over the years.

Fernapple comments on Oct 27, 2019:

In any group of people, there are always going to be a few bad eggs and extremists who will misbehave. There are however a lot of atheists on this site, and as far as I can see there are very few who are abusive, and I certainly see no organized grouping intent on abusing theists deliberately. Maybe this site only attracts the better behaved I don't know. But you have to remember that the term "New Atheism" may well have been created by theists, it is certainly one which is mostly used by them, and based on past experience, theists are quite capable of setting up straw men and promoting near total fabrications, as part of their propaganda. Be carefull where you dig, people sometimes bury treasure, but that is not all they bury. LOL

Bronze Age finds in The Thames [google.com.au]

Fernapple comments on Oct 27, 2019:

Interesting finds, but that page really should win a prize for having the most annoying adverts ever, and so many of them.

I see posts here saying "are Atheists this?

Fernapple comments on Oct 25, 2019:

It comes round time and again on this site, the same basic question. Sometimes they are new people who are still a little confused, but mostly they are either former theists or theist trolls, who have spent time listening to preachers telling them what agnostics and atheists are. I usually try to put them right, everyone deserves a civil answer and the benefit of the doubt. Unless of course they ask if atheists eat babies, in which case I email them a digital copy of my recipe book.

Bbbbbbbbbbbbbaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!

Fernapple comments on Oct 25, 2019:

And they have the usual choice, between the grey wolf and the brown wolf of course. LOL

math is so hard

Fernapple comments on Oct 25, 2019:

There are 10 kinds of people in the world, those who understand binary and those who don't.

Hi crowd! 61-year-old guy here, walks with a cane.

Fernapple comments on Oct 25, 2019:

Welcome and enjoy. Don't worry about points, they come fastest when you are not looking, but do check out the groups there is something for everyone.

People Are Calling This ‘The Most Powerful Christmas Commercial Ever’

Fernapple comments on Oct 25, 2019:

So what is good about neglecting grandfather at any other time of the year. What makes Christmas different ?

Rats trained to drive tiny cars find it relaxing, scientists report [m.phys.org]

Fernapple comments on Oct 25, 2019:

You have to wonder though, who ever thought that lab rats would not suffer from boredom, and that boredom would not cause stress.

Anyone ever notice that the crucified Jesus is shown in pictures as being both nailed and also tied ...

Fernapple comments on Oct 25, 2019:

How the Romans generally crucified people has long been a subject of speculation for historians. The best consensus at this time, seems to be that. The victim was hung from the cross by ropes around the arms, which caused extreme pain and difficulty breathing after a short while. So that nails were placed in as well, which meant that the victim could try to ease the discomfort of hanging by the arms, by putting some weight on to the nails and trying to move, which was in turn very painful of course. This kept the victim constantly squirming for as long as their strength lasted, and was seen therefore as part of the punishment. In any case it would not have been possible, simply to rope the victim to the cross, because the arms would have shrunk and slipped out as the blood drained from them. Later, it is thought it was common to puncture the victims side below the ribs, with say a spear, to let out the fluid which formed in the chest cavity. Which stopped the fluid choking the victim and therefore prolonged the suffering. Some people have made the point that it was perhaps a stake and not a cross which was used, one explanation for this however is that it was both. The stake being a fixture, and the cross/cross bar being the part carried by the victim. This makes since since the crowd would not want to watch while holes were dug and stakes planted, but watching the victim being lifted or hoisted into place may well have been part of the entertainment. There is of couse no certainy that it was always carried out in exactly the same way.

Stephen Hawking famously said that "Philosophy is dead." What do you think?

Fernapple comments on Oct 25, 2019:

In the past a lot of philosophy was concerned with the business of describing how the material world worked, as was religion. In those roles, certainly one philosophy, natural philosophy, which we now call science, superseded all the others, when it developed the scientific method, which set a higher and more objective standard of truth. But that still leaves huge areas, especially morality, in which the scientific method can not be used. Philosophy therefore is still very much needed. Although it could be said that most of what needs to be stated, on subjects like morality, was said in the past by early philosophers and that therefore it is to a large degree, a done work. It also should be said that since the scientific method sets a higher standard of objective truth, then it is an obligation on the other philosophies to work within the discoveries of science.

Alexander Hamilton in the 1787 Const.

Fernapple comments on Oct 25, 2019:

"and as they cannot receive any advantage by a change, they therefore will ever maintain good government." No. and "as they cannot receive any advantage by a change, they therefore will ever maintain THE STANDING good OR BAD government." The real irony here though is the date 1787, just immediately before the French Revolution overturned a very bad government indeed.

Some parts of the bible are nice and some are nasty.

Fernapple comments on Oct 24, 2019:

The main thing to remember about the bible is it history. The bible is not a book, in fact it is a scrap book of cuttings, containing parts from at least sixty six books, written by forty or more authors, and put together by numberless editors over more than a thousand years, and then frequently mistranslated several times. It contains therefore just about every form of writing, and just about every political, social and religious opinion you can think of, expressed both well and badly, in just about every possible way. That is the secret of its popularity, because that means that you can use it to justify anything you wish, just by cherry picking the parts that agree with you, or interpreting them the way you wish, since much of it is now so garbled that it is meaningless without interpretation. Yet the very thing that makes it popular is the very thing which renders it useless as a guide to truth, since by requiring both selection and interpretation anything read in it is no more than the invention of the reader.

I hate the “Karl Marx was racist so we shouldn’t use Marxist methodology”.

Fernapple comments on Oct 24, 2019:

One of the favorites of theists is to say that Darwin was racist. The best response is to point out that while Darwin was mildly racist, speaking of lesser races, Jesus was very racist, speaking of other races as no better than dogs.

“Why is patience so important?

Fernapple comments on Oct 24, 2019:

"All good things come to those who wait." Therefore the only reason for crime is a lack of patience. On the other hand if you are not impatient with the crimes against others, are you doing what morality demands ? Life gets complicated ! Therefore I need more patience.

Some of the replies to my posts have led me to ask this question. Is this a religious hate group?

Fernapple comments on Oct 24, 2019:

Any group is bound to spend some effort on self definition, and since this is a group for the none religious it is natural that its definition should refer to religion, and no one would join any group if they did not think it a better place to be. Yet self definition is mainly for those finding their feet on the front page, if you get out into the groups, you will find a lot of life that has nothing to do with religion.

Throughout history cults and religious leaders alike have often interpreted scripture in way which ...

Fernapple comments on Oct 23, 2019:

No interpretation needed to find scripture supporting slavery and the oppression of women, except the simple literal interpretation. PS. Playing the game. Judges 14 : 2 And he came up, and told his father and his mother, and said, I have seen a woman in Timnath of the daughters of the Philistines: now therefore get her for me to wife. Taken to mean. Always use your parents to do the donkey work, then you can go have a beer or two with your mates while all the courtship stuff is done for you. And make sure they find you a stupid wife, who wont stop you.

Do you think that God posts here?

Fernapple comments on Oct 23, 2019:

Yep, sure this one comes here often. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttevamkS6gw=LL_715bOSsuSbbQz3Cnu2muw=2&t=75s

Well I'm back sort of.

Fernapple comments on Oct 23, 2019:

Find lots of work to do, it stops you thinking too much and when you emerge from the tunnel you will have something to show for it. It may sometimes feel like nothing is worthwhile, but that is the illusion grief creates, you have to keep plodding forward. Because in the end there is nothing else but moving forward.

The term logos, the root word of ``logic,'' refers to the sum total of our rational understanding ...

Fernapple comments on Oct 23, 2019:

That we are all conditioned by our culture, and that it is impossible for the cultural antidote, scientific rationalism, to completely remove it from our system, though the effects can be made quite small if we try. Is the main theme of much modern thinking, including such things a R. Dawkins meme theory. But obviously it goes back a long way into, ironically, human culture, is useful and heartening to know, and it sounds quite smart when you use the old Greek. Certainly mythos is more general and better sounding than meme, but whether the difference between it and the word culture, is worth the worry, questionable.

HOLY TRIGGERED, BATMAN! I cannot believe how outraged some atheists get when they see someone ...

Fernapple comments on Oct 23, 2019:

Yes I have no problem with spiritual in the form you use it. The only problem with spiritual is that it has so many usages, all different, that it has become a virtually meaningless word, and can therefore be used as a cover to get all sorts of woo in under the door. Which is what upsets people. Perhaps in part because they think that, using it without exactly defining it, is wasting their time.

If I had written down all the posts that I ever thought of I would be on level 9 by now - or close.

Fernapple comments on Oct 23, 2019:

I don't. I think of a really great post in the middle of the day when working, and when I sit down at the computer in the evening I have completely forgotten it. Getting old, guess I should carry a notepad or smart phone. Nah, too much bother. PS. You don't want to get to level nine, that is when they send you the invoice for the tshirt you got at level eight, and sell your address to Christian mailing groups. LOL