Is everyone alright? I hate reading about these shootings. It must be terrifying.

Fernapple comments on Sep 1, 2019:

Are you alright ? Have not heard from you for a while and know you are having problems.

When someone seriously bases their life on a 2000-year-old Jewish zombie, they are constructing a ...

Fernapple comments on Sep 1, 2019:

No never had a serious relationship destroyed. But I do think that in part they intend to build that wall, in many ways intelligence, the real working kind, I have always thought is more about honesty and as you say, intellectual integrity, than just problem solving, and for many people it is easier to build a wall than to face up to the demands made by honesty.

Not a question

Fernapple comments on Sep 1, 2019:

Welcome to the site. No one knows how to work this site properly, that's part of the fun, just relax and let it wash over you.

"Don't make someone a priority when they treat you as an option." -Sameek Das

Fernapple comments on Sep 1, 2019:

Sadly that is at the heart of the human tragedy. People don't like the needy, so they always end up feeling a need for the people who don't need them. Sorry.

Baked yesterday for French toast today....

Fernapple comments on Aug 31, 2019:

Looks wonderful just with butter when fresh is good enough. Do try to make some wholemeal, that makes the best he best French Toast, really nutty.

What I what shall they do now?

Fernapple comments on Aug 31, 2019:

If you believe that contraceptives are sinful, then guess what happens. They may not have worked out the link yet, they are sometimes preoccupied with the church, and it tend to make them a bit slow on the uptake.

Great news for those of us in the monetary reform movement. What do you think of Public Banking?

Fernapple comments on Aug 31, 2019:

Especially good if they issue credit/debit cards. Nothing has contributed so much to the rich poor divide as the rise of plastic money. Every time you use a card you effectively pay a tax, which goes directly into the accounts of rich capitalists in off shore tax havens. If governments controlled e-commerce the revenue could go to public services, and there would still be a better deal for both retailers and consumers.

GAUTAMA BUDDHA--A GREAT WORLD AGNOSTIC.

Fernapple comments on Aug 31, 2019:

Yes it very much started out as a secular philosophy, as indeed were perhaps the teachings of Jesus, but much of the world including their followers just were not ready for secular philosophy.

Some social media websites finally taking responsibility! Pinterest to direct vaccine searches to ...

Fernapple comments on Aug 31, 2019:

That's fine, though it has to be said that Pintrest is not the most political of social media sites or the one most people would think of first when going for health advice. So this may be a case of another great victory of the Swiss navy.

Incredible photography.

Fernapple comments on Aug 31, 2019:

It is obviously forested country, which I would think is on the borders of a polar bears natural range, it may be therefore that the wolves rarely see one and they were just being curious about something strange. It certainly does not seem that they were attacking it as such.

In need of a good comeback line.

Fernapple comments on Aug 31, 2019:

Another way of looking at happiness is that, possibly in most early societies the idea simply did not exist. Early people simply went after short term goals, in other words pleasure. The idea that you could be in a state of permanent pleasure, i.e. happiness, only begins when organized states and religions begin to promote it as a way to con people into giving them money and power in exchange for an impossible dream.

In need of a good comeback line.

Fernapple comments on Aug 31, 2019:

There is no such thing as happiness, it is just an unachievable goal planted in our brains genetically by evolution to make us run after things, if we ever achieved it, we would stop running, and if that happened it would not work any longer.

There is so much wrong with Christianity, mainly the part where devotees are required to "WORSHIP" ...

Fernapple comments on Aug 31, 2019:

Coming from England also, where practicing Christians are effectively a minority, I have often noticed that they are often among the meanest and least charitable of people, at least towards the larger community. I think that, in part, this is because they are asked to give so much, time, money, thought and effort to the church and the rest of the congregation, that there is little left when they step out of the church door. Or maybe the religion just attracts mean people.

Is it pagan of me to be lighting a fire and being entranced by the flames? Oh well ..

Fernapple comments on Aug 31, 2019:

So they are saying that we get bored by stuff we are familiar with, yes true certainly but very banal. However making the theory that in the case of fire this is special in some way, is really stretching the limit of credibility without good scientific evidence which they don't provide.

Step inside this abandoned old house untouched for 40 years

Fernapple comments on Aug 31, 2019:

Most of that looks even older than forty years.

U.S. Attorney shreds domestic white terrorists in epic speech

Fernapple comments on Aug 31, 2019:

Don't usually comment on US politics here since it is little of my business, but yes a good well thought out speech.

What did Satan do anyway?

Fernapple comments on Aug 30, 2019:

One or two people here have pointed out that Satan/ satan is a title not a name, but the satan is not the same through the bible. In fact several satans appear early on as loyal helpers of god, there is no reason to believe from the bible that the snake in the Garden of Eden is the same thing as any of the others, in fact it seems to be just a snake. Here is quite a good video history you may enjoy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-gbOnWj6Mw

What’s your favorite month on the calendar and why?

Fernapple comments on Aug 30, 2019:

Like you September/October, it is cool not cold, not too dark, the bugs are gone, and for me who works seasonally it marks the start of my off season when I can relax.

Socialism no longer scares people. Has the word lost its power to scaremonger? [twitter.com]

Fernapple comments on Aug 30, 2019:

The right has just come to power with a vengeance in the US, it is bound to generate a counter reaction, which will make the left seem like salvation for a while. But you have to remember that the right swing was itself a reaction to a growing left wing domination of the political establishment. What you have to hope for, among the pendulum swings of reaction and counter reaction, is that the pendulum will one day settle around a consensus, because if the opposite happens, and the swings get ever wider, that way leads to madness and the end of civilizations.

When I was a senior in college, I took a course in geology.

Fernapple comments on Aug 30, 2019:

Travel. An interest like geology can provide a vast number of objectives of interest to justify journeys, while giving them purpose and objectives, but when once you are on the journey, then it is what you find beside the road which you did not go looking for, which adds huge amounts to the richness and wonder of life.

Photo by David Antoja No other description, but lovely!

Fernapple comments on Aug 30, 2019:

Delicate, like a fine lace table cloth that has come to life and is doing magical if sometimes cruel things.

WHAT IS THE NATURE OF REALITY?

Fernapple comments on Aug 30, 2019:

One thing that is perhaps true, (you can say no more for anything ) , is that, we are apes evolved to survive and reproduce on the plains of Africa. There is nothing about that which requires our brains and senses to be able to perceive or understand the greater workings of the universe, especially at much bigger or smaller scales than the human sized objects that are found on those plains. We just were not made for the job of understanding the universe, that we can even begin to get an idea of what may be going on, is itself amazing. And we are not even at a human scale very good at understanding things, I well recommend reading up on chaos theory, if you have any doubts about that.

"Cheeto Christ" - Randy Rainbow video mocks Trump's God complex.

Fernapple comments on Aug 30, 2019:

How much embarrassment can the US take ? Has no one ever thought he may be in need of medical care.

Why were several of my posts on the main page deleted?

Fernapple comments on Aug 30, 2019:

Yes it is plain and obvious here this side of the pond, have you tried visiting your posts by going through your profile page to the list of posts there.

Near Montrose, CO...Live in a trailer; have your own observatory. ❤️

Fernapple comments on Aug 30, 2019:

You can move to where the dark sky is at its best.

Question to ask.... Lol

Fernapple comments on Aug 29, 2019:

The other way that you can look at it is. There are a thousand and one things that can make you miserable, and you need to be free of all of them to be happy. Some chance.

Goodness gracious it's been awhile everyone! Hi! So my friend goes to a private christian college...

Fernapple comments on Aug 29, 2019:

The one thing I like most about the god of the gaps, is that it has kept on getting smaller and smaller all the time, till it perhaps fades away.

Truth is Variable Most “truth” in our lives is variable.

Fernapple comments on Aug 29, 2019:

I drink therefore I fall down.

Goodness gracious it's been awhile everyone! Hi! So my friend goes to a private christian college...

Fernapple comments on Aug 29, 2019:

To be really blunt and hard, I would have been tempted to tell her that there is no such thing as Religious Philosophy its an oxymoron anyway, but I think you did a very good job of being kind, gentle and patient. Well done. It would perhaps have been good however to have added that science is not the only reason why religion is in decline, especially I would have pointed out that religion is by its very nature trying to sell an exclusive access to the supernatural, its the only thing it has to sell. With traditional religions preaching the message that only their own members can receive the benefits, such as salvation. Meaning therefore that in a multicultural world, a religion such as christianity would ask her to believe that ever person she knows and values from a different background, plus millions of others she has never met, are doomed while she is saved. While if it is not offering that, what is it offering, that secular philosophy does not ?

I don't get rabbits.

Fernapple comments on Aug 29, 2019:

I think that the generalization that, prey animals do not need sophisticated mental development and social cooperation, is a bit too wide. It is different for every species, look at ground-squirels for example, they have very sophisticated mental development and social cooperation, exactly to avoid predators. And since jackrabbits and domestic European rabbits are not even remotely related, it certainly does not follow that they are the same in behaviour at all.

If their so-called savior was never married during those 33 years, he was either a pedophile, in ...

Fernapple comments on Aug 29, 2019:

Come on, surely he and his twelve followers were plus female hangers on were a bi-swingers group.

One of the main ideological critiques of modern Communism is that a controlled economy is controlled...

Fernapple comments on Aug 29, 2019:

It does not matter what sort of a constitution or document you have, since in any state, not just communist, you will always have a political establishment, and that political establishment will always find a way to distort the mechanics of government in its favour to redirect wealth and power to itself. All governments are dominated by political establishments, and there are no real differences between political establishments and private corporations in terms of seeking profits, regardless of the costs to the majority of people. Therefore, in any country, any lessening of democracy, (most have very little to start with) or the giving of more responsibility to government, is the exact equivalent of selling your country to a private company; as though you were to sell the US to Monsanto or Google. This is the great logical failing at the heart of communism, taking the worst possible nightmare they could think of and proposing it as a solution, which most pro-communists and extreme socialists fail to see or address.

"With reasonable men, I will reason; with humane men I will plead; but to tyrants I will give no ...

Fernapple comments on Aug 28, 2019:

The main problem with tyrants is wasted time. For all tyrants die some day, just like everyone else; and what is their legacy, but that they spent their life time holding back any possible progress.

Is education missing the boat by failing to consider the real issues?

Fernapple comments on Aug 27, 2019:

This was posted on this site for quite a different reason, but it has a lot to tell you about how and why our education systems fail. https://agnostic.com/post/394515/atheism-2-0-alain-de-botton-excellent-tedtalk-i-just-discovered-about-20-min-https-www-y

Is education missing the boat by failing to consider the real issues?

Fernapple comments on Aug 27, 2019:

It is hard for any culture to educate in a real sense. Because inevitably progress in teaching will only go to the most compliant or be sought by the most earnest believers. Teachers therefore must, either have no conscience, be so good at cognitive dissonance that they can not understand critical thinking or they leave the profession. So that in any society teachers are always its most damaged individuals.

Why is racism is wrong?

Fernapple comments on Aug 27, 2019:

1. Science tells us that we are all so closely related that the idea of race makes no sense. 2. The old rule that if you want to make a moral system, do it as if you were to be at the bottom of the pile. 3. If there are no racial differences then you loose a lot of good people from your list of possible friends by falsely prejudging them, and even if there are races and some were better than others, then the weaker should always be treated with greater humanity. So either way it does not work. 4. Because like religion and god it is a false construct used by people who want to manipulate and profit from others, by lying to them. Every racist needs to ask who is using me.

Heres a puzzle to get your cells to work on, and part of another story from deep time.

Fernapple comments on Aug 27, 2019:

My own point would be to say that of course hardly any of those were mutually exclusive, so it may well have involved several factors working together.

Life is an Illusion, a Dream, a Bubble, a Shadow.

Fernapple comments on Aug 27, 2019:

Yep, sorry that is trumped by the common. "For evil to prosper, it is only needful for good men to do nothing." Quote.

I am so glad to see John Oliver address this issue.

Fernapple comments on Aug 27, 2019:

Video not available.

Religion vs science

Fernapple comments on Aug 26, 2019:

The two come from opposite directions and can never agree. In science truth is something to be sought even if it means loosing cherished ideas. In religion truth is that which offers to give us what we want regardless of all else.

Making Your Best Use Of The BLOCK Function This is a large, diverse, and multi-purpose online ...

Fernapple comments on Aug 26, 2019:

I do not agree, as you say. "there are people here who's perspective, life situation, needs, interests, or views may be so different from yours that there is really no strong rational reason for you to interact with them in any way." But they are the people who I most want to learn about, and to learn about them is why I use social media. I can see that we may need blocks if people are really offensive or threatening such as stalkers, but I have not had to use the block so far.

The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity.

Fernapple comments on Aug 26, 2019:

It has to be said however that the 'worst' he was writing about, were probably atheists and agnostics.

These groups will soon be running out of time.

Fernapple comments on Aug 26, 2019:

Hate to point it out on here, but of course, in the US especially, many of these clubs are in direct competition for the same space in the community social life as the churches.

It’s getting to be that time of year when bears and people begin to cross paths.

Fernapple comments on Aug 26, 2019:

Link does not work, sorry.

“This is a confusing and uncertain period, when a thousand wise words can go completely unnoticed,...

Fernapple comments on Aug 26, 2019:

That's all of the time.

After listening to "hidden brain" and how we bias EVERYTHING we see, I came across this quote and it...

Fernapple comments on Aug 25, 2019:

Love H. D. T. there is not a subject he does not have something useful to say about. But sadly I think, and please put me right on this, that he is taught in US schools in exactly the way that you would if you wanted to destroy an authors influence, with his out of date natural history still being taught, but his political and moral thought being left out ?

"A person of character.

Fernapple comments on Aug 25, 2019:

Always do what you think is right, not what you think people want you to do.

The great nation of the free.

Fernapple comments on Aug 25, 2019:

I don't usually comment on US politics here, since coming from the UK I figure it is none of my business. But that sort of statistic just has to be shameful.

This afternoon, I was playing games on my computer while overhearing programs about serial killers ...

Fernapple comments on Aug 25, 2019:

Yes that always seemed the best argument to me. And remember that it is not just odd individuals, if you take the Christian idea literally, then there are Billions of Hindus, Budhists, Moslems and Taoists plus every Christian who joined the wrong church, who are all headed for damnation, even the children.

Are childless people more likely to be religious?

Fernapple comments on Aug 25, 2019:

No data. I doubt childlessness drives many to religion, though it certainly drives many to pet ownership. But on the other hand, I would have thought that it could well be the other way round, since none religious people are often more environmentally aware, and many religions quite openly preach irresponsible reproduction.

"On the shores of hesitation bleached the countless bones of millions, who, on the threshold of ...

Fernapple comments on Aug 24, 2019:

Very like. "It is better to make a bad decision than none at all. The roads are covered in dead squirells who just could not make their minds up." Not sure who said that either.

Wisteria, I have run into a crazy situation with a Wisteria vine, Wisteria sinensis.

Fernapple comments on Aug 24, 2019:

Often sadly, grafting is just done for cheapness and speed, even with things that grow very well on their own roots, and the rootstock is therefore often something cheap and vigorous which is easy to propagate, but which will just not stay put in the long term.

Two Neuroscientists Walk Into a Psychic Fair... [blogs.scientificamerican.com]

Fernapple comments on Aug 24, 2019:

Oh dear, it all sounds as hopelessly banal and shallow as I imagined, would have been nice if the article had at least one new surprise. My friend, who is quite elderly, took me into a shop in our local town, one that did that sort of thing, to buy a large salt crystal. I got to carry it for her, not perhaps the main reason she asked me, but certainly part of the plan. It came with a set of the usual instructions, which I started to read while we had coffee. My friend said. "Oh, I don't believe in any of that stuff, I just like crystals." I like her more every day.

It was windy and I knew Lake Huron would be putting on a bit of a show, so with my point and shoot ...

Fernapple comments on Aug 24, 2019:

Like the last one with the post especially.

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

Fernapple comments on Aug 24, 2019:

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

Anybody else love thunderstorms?

Fernapple comments on Aug 23, 2019:

Me too, thunderstorm over the Med. They kept on coming all night and I had a room with a balcony looking over the sea, I just sat and watched for ages. (With drink of course, the perfect night.)

Whoever told you it was nice to share your faith was lying to you.

Fernapple comments on Aug 22, 2019:

That is why churches encourage their followers to share their faith, it alienates them even more from the mainstream who treat them with hostile behaviour, and that forces them back ever deeper into the church for comfort and support. Especially when the church tells them, they are being told to do it, for the benefit of the mainstream, which makes them feel that the mainstream willfully misunderstands them and their intentions.

Why would an omnipotent and an all-knowing deity use a book to communicate to his followers despite ...

Fernapple comments on Aug 22, 2019:

You would think that he would at least republish a new edition with a modern publisher every few years, preferably in multiple languages. But then publishers can be hard headed people, maybe they take one look at his MS and send it back. LOL

Today is the final day of the worst year of my life;it was one year ago on the 22nd of August that ...

Fernapple comments on Aug 22, 2019:

Deep sympathy for your loss. Stay strong and look after your own health. Sixty is time for a whole other life yet, if you have the courage and strength for it.

What about grief?

Fernapple comments on Aug 22, 2019:

Generally not less than a year. Don't rush it, grief can make you lonely and in need of support, so that you will often seek companionship because of that, but those often wont make good long term relationships.

UPDATE on Religion's professor saying atheism is a religion.

Fernapple comments on Aug 21, 2019:

Being treated as a religion, and being a religion are not the same thing. Especially when the phrases about treatment only refer to legal definitions, you can not jump for legal definitions to all other definitions, such as philosophical.

My daughter’s spaceship Orion.

Fernapple comments on Aug 21, 2019:

Sorry but what is an EE ?

Starved For Practicing Emotional Intimacy (SFPEI) 1: PRACTICING EMOTIONAL CONNECTABILITY ...

Fernapple comments on Aug 21, 2019:

That is all very true. But you are not unique at all, you have to remember that men on dating sites tend, (note tend) to be a special subset of the male population, and that maybe with some exceptions they are not typical of the whole.

My religions professor is very adamant about convincing us atheists are just as religious as ...

Fernapple comments on Aug 21, 2019:

You have professors of religion, in Columbia ! Until you said that I would not have though it possible that any institution would have such a thing, but I am now prepared to admit that I was wrong and alter my position. And that is the difference, between belief and justified sceptisim. (Still don't like the idea, but will have to live with it. )

An important distinction to learn as an agnostic

Fernapple comments on Aug 21, 2019:

No sorry, it all depend on how you define 'religion' , and if define it as most people on this site would I suspect do, as any belief system which includes an element of the supernatural, then they are all religions except perhaps Toaism to a degree. The difference you mean, is that between religion and theist religion, and even then Hinduism certainly falls into that group, though it may be polytheist rather than monotheist. It maybe that some who regards themselves as sophisticate Hindus, see the Hindu gods as only mythical beings with symbolic roles in philosophy, but that is also true of the Abrahamic god for some, but for the great majority of Hindus there is still much literal belief.

Not sure if this is Woo, or just complete BS. [sidroth.org]

Fernapple comments on Aug 21, 2019:

I was going to say, is there any difference. But then I read it and yes only BS is good enough for this.

I blasphemed the lord for 18 months and all I got was this lousy T-shirt! Leon and I would like to ...

Fernapple comments on Aug 21, 2019:

Well done. I did not know though that the shirt came with a fur collar, must help keep your neck warm in winter.

This post is for fun and philosophical thought: If you could change lives with ONE person in the ...

Fernapple comments on Aug 20, 2019:

Marco Polo, just to travel so far when the world was such a big place. Or Joseph Banks. for the same reason.

Our autocorrect feature is really fun, if you don't take it too seriously.

Fernapple comments on Aug 20, 2019:

I do not use the auto-correct, but I do use the spell checker. Which usually picks up my UK spellings, (as well as my many bad ones). Can the mainly US members tell me, are you Sceptical/Skeptical about the value of that, and do you prefer that I change to the US to be consistent or should I leave the UK forms to give the site Color/Colour ?

I was Muslim when I was young and I left Islam when I was 23 years old in Syria before the war, ...

Fernapple comments on Aug 19, 2019:

Check out the map view of members, you will find those that live near you.

Just want to run this by everyone.

Fernapple comments on Aug 19, 2019:

Could help.

The public "TRUST IN SCIENCE" is on the UPSWING; finally and keep the momentum.

Fernapple comments on Aug 18, 2019:

Have you any evidence for this ? A link would be nice.

Did promise a smiling picture when i hit level 9

Fernapple comments on Aug 18, 2019:

Well done. And you look quite human in that photo.

Whats the wrong thing about religion?

Fernapple comments on Aug 18, 2019:

Welcome and enjoy. There are so many answers to that, but one of my personal favorites is. That religions attempt to unbalance any debate on morality by claiming that their morality is better than and supersedes all others because it is divinely inspired. Secular morality comes from evolved human nature, supplemented by reason, knowledge of history and cultural inheritance; in other words from the same place as theirs. But it is modest, tries to move on, and adapt and keep up with the times, it does not pretend to be perfect, to have finally answered every question or to do so by claiming a false divine authority, which keeps it ill adapted and only suited to a distant primitive past. Religious morality is only secular morality trying to big its up. Since there are in fact many different religious moralities, often deeply at odds with one another, following exactly the pattern you would expect from early pre-global communications cultures, while if they were inspired by a god they would all be the same, or at least as similar as the modern consensus seems to be. Therefore religious morality is a very strong proof that there is no god.

Do your kids want something of yours for sentimental reasons?

Fernapple comments on Aug 18, 2019:

Great you obviously have a good relationship. Learning to use a sowing machine is on the bucket list, I don't want to do anything fancy especially, just to know how. Though it is very hard to get good mens hankies in the UK these days, even if you pay designer prices, so that always seemed like a good simple starter project.

Public Service Announcement from the Mormons: [yahoo.com]

Fernapple comments on Aug 17, 2019:

Saw the video too. What is that building ? Is it a church or a theme park castle, the one Walt Disney rejected ?

Anyone else at work or working from home and just not motivated to do anything?

Fernapple comments on Aug 17, 2019:

Yes and it is hard to motivate yourself, especially with a site like this to distract you. But nearing retirement now so the pressure is off a bit. PS If you are self employed do you know that there is now a self employed group, could do with more members wanting to share experiences and ideas. https://agnostic.com/group/EntrepreneursSloggers

"The difference between Donald Trump and Greenland? Greenland is not sale." Amy Klobuchar

Fernapple comments on Aug 17, 2019:

Shame, I think that you could get a lot more for it.

IS IT JUST ME, OR IS ANYONE ELSE SURPRISED THERE HASNT BEEN A MORE VIOLENT REACTION TO DONALD TRUMP?

Fernapple comments on Aug 17, 2019:

Perhaps they are just waiting and hoping. Now if he gets reelected ?

An old favorite, the New-Age Bullshit Generator.

Fernapple comments on Aug 17, 2019:

I would love, (No that is wrong, quite enjoy, sort of. ) seeing the actual text you used.

I am a retired educator who taught at the high school and junior high levels, was a college ...

Fernapple comments on Aug 17, 2019:

A lot of people have reached the same conclusions, and though it is nice to have an expert opinion confirm it, I do not think that you have to be very well qualified to reach them. They more or less chime with mine, for example, and I completely failed at school. (Aspergers back in the day before such a thing was heard of, I left school at fifteen hardly able to write a sentence.)

The voice of the intelligence is drowned out by the roar of fear.

Fernapple comments on Aug 17, 2019:

True. Though sometimes desire and anger especially, can be better guides to action than poor reasoning, most of all because our reasoning is no more perfected than anything else we do.

I have had my Minolta 101 and 202 SRT cameras tuned up and ready for use (I will be using a 35-105 ...

Fernapple comments on Aug 16, 2019:

I used to do a lot of close up and micro photography when I used a SLR. Then had most of the important shots i had taken, converted to digital to work with a digital projector, and started using a digital bridge camera for all my photos. But though it has quite good macro for most things, the one thing that I have lost and miss, is the very close microscopic stuff. However I do enjoy using the bridge camera, so easy, but wondered about getting some film just now and again for close up work with my old set up which which I kept because it was very expensive , but then I would have to have it digitalized for use.

Did you order something, then realize you don't need it?

Fernapple comments on Aug 16, 2019:

Heck, I have often bought things in a store that were on my list, then driven home opened the cabinet and found I replaced them already last week. But on the other subject, try leaving out tomatoes too, there is a lot of new evidence that they cause and make a lot worse all sorts of inflammatory ailments, especially arthritis.

I love quotes, funny ones, inspiring ones, ironic ones.

Fernapple comments on Aug 16, 2019:

Yes that's me. Bye.

"Take man's most fantastic invention - God.

Fernapple comments on Aug 15, 2019:

Money is a measure. Just as, we use feet and centimeter for length, pints and litres for capacity etc. So we use money to measure life. If the shoemaker must spend eight hours of life making a pair of shoes, while the glove maker only takes four for a pair of gloves. Then the shoemaker expects, quite rightly, enough money to buy two pairs of gloves, for just one pair of shoes, and nobody will buy gloves if they do not feel that the "life enhancing" value, of gloves is not worth four hours of working life. Yet that breaks down when the rich become involved, especially those who control the money and sell it as a product, because their hours, however little their talent or effort, can be worth thousands of normal hours. And the reason for that is because, unlike all other measures which are legally regulated, money is not. If the tanner sells leather to the glover and the shoemaker, then the tanner uses the same ruler to measure it each time. Because if the tanner used a different inch or centimeter when selling the leather to different people, then there would be legal consequences, with fines and imprisonment perhaps. Yet money, which is used to measure the most vital of all things, is quite unregulated except by the near criminal elements who benefit most from its variability. While the shoemaker and the glover, they are stuck with it, like it or not, because they need it so much to facilitate their own trade with each other.

"Take man's most fantastic invention - God.

Fernapple comments on Aug 15, 2019:

God and money share one thing in common, which is that neither really exist in the material world. Both are just mental constructs of humans, which only have value because you can persuade other people into believing in them. And that is why they both have great power, because something which does not materially exist has no limits, it can be changed by those who control it into anything they like, and used by those who do the persuading of others to do anything.

Can you think of a 15 character or less atheist statement for my glasses arm?

Fernapple comments on Aug 15, 2019:

Holy Shit.

What would you do?

Fernapple comments on Aug 15, 2019:

Most of all be a good dad, nothing will help her to question religion half as much, as having the example of a good person who was not religious in her memories for her whole life. But don't wait to answer her question, the best time to answer a question is when it is asked, not doing so is evasive, and that can in a child's mind be mistaken for dishonesty.

Branches and......background.

Fernapple comments on Aug 15, 2019:

Like a Japanese water colour.

IS AMERICA RACIST AND SEXIST?

Fernapple comments on Aug 14, 2019:

There are no countries which are not sexist and racist to some degree, why should the US be any different ?

So being very under employed today, I thought that it would perhaps be a good idea to take a look at...

Fernapple comments on Aug 14, 2019:

Thank you all, its sorted now, I went from google and it worked fine. Don't know why the link failed.

I found reason just recently to block another participant here on this forum.

Fernapple comments on Aug 13, 2019:

I can understand why we need a block feature, and why some people feel the need to use it. Personally I seem to have been fortunate and have not needed to use it so far, though I have been blocked once I think, by someone after I told him he was boring. You would think that he would have been grateful for the advice. After all several people have told me that I am the expert on boring.

God(s) will is not the answer or the solution ever!!!

Fernapple comments on Aug 13, 2019:

"Man would have been too happy, if, limiting himself to the visible objects which interested him, he had employed, to perfect his real sciences, his laws, his morals, his education, one-half the efforts he has put into his researches on the Divinity." P.B. Shelley, agrees with you. Sorry about the hard English but he did live a long time ago.

Agnostic vs Atheist Sorry to rake up this seemingly old one up again but there have been so many ...

Fernapple comments on Aug 13, 2019:

I don't basically disagree with you but I think that the "Where are the scissors Darling?" analogue is not a good one. The real equivalent should be. "There are no scissors in an unknown draw somewhere perhaps on a distant planet." Which is the real meaning of you can not prove a negative, it does not refer to specific cases, but only to generalized negatives, using only logic not evidence.

How do you feel about this?

Fernapple comments on Aug 13, 2019:

In the UK this would be laughed at as something far too banal to be worth notice, by children of that age. How can there be excitement about something so trivial ?

Evangelicals have let the Wolves in.

Fernapple comments on Aug 13, 2019:

Jesus in the bible took a whip to the traders outside the temple, many of whom were only trying to sell the temple goers the things they needed for sacrifice and worship, and some of whom may have been poor and desperate. It was his only really significant political act. How can anyone say that christianity was not violent from the start,or that Jesus did not begin it therefore. And what is really significant about the story, if true, (big IF ), is that it was an act of enforcing religious dogma, just the sort the story of the good Samaritan is said to teach against. Yet it is perhaps the most likely to be the one literally true story in the New Testament, since it was the one significant act which would get a small town preacher noticed, and start people asking questions about him, and It chimes with the image of a small town fundamentalist on his first trip to the big temple in the city, who found to his shock that it disappointed his expectations. If there was a real person behind the gospels, what other part of the New Testament is most likely to be the original to which the other stories attach ?

You catch more flies with honey than you do with vinegar..........Benjamin Franklin.

Fernapple comments on Aug 13, 2019:

Very true, and funny you should quote that, I have just come from trying that myself, though perhaps not well. https://agnostic.com/post/388142/about-muffins-i-see-that-the-issue-of-atheist-agnostic-has-been-rearing-its-head-again-as-it-does

Eucalyptus at the beach

Fernapple comments on Aug 12, 2019:

Wonderful shot. And they do often look nice, but sadly they can be an ecological menace away from their native Australia, being very invasive and encouraging forest fires, which help them to suppress other tree species, so that in the end they become the dominant species across huge areas.

Is it normal to dislike other people’s children?

Fernapple comments on Aug 11, 2019:

A friend once asked me. "Do you like children ?" "I don't know, do you like adults ?"