Fernapple's Profile

"All religions bear the traces of the fact that they arose during the intellectual immaturity of the...

Fernapple comments on May 5, 2019:

In Nietzsches time, it was common for people to regard themselves as living in an intellectually mature culture, and western Europe as almost perfected, perhaps we have good reason to be less sure now. But anyway do all cultures mature at the same speed, humans don't, nor do we always remain mature.

I'm a middle school Science teacher.

Fernapple comments on May 5, 2019:

A time is coming when for many Agnostic/Atheist is the default position. It certainly is for many in Europe. Some people take a hard road to where they are going, some start out from there. The pioneers have long hard treks, but their children are simply born on land which is ploughed and planted. Do not envy them, you should regard it as a great achievement of your generation, that many children are born into a world where it is possible to be free from religion, without having to fight the whole community, or feel they will be vilified for it and need to arm themselves with knowledge to defend themselves. The ultimate hoped for destiny of Atheism/Agnostic is to become forgotten and irrelevant, as the theism to which they are a reaction becomes forgotten history itself.

How are you all doing today?

Fernapple comments on May 4, 2019:

Good I am glad you may be getting your home back. My well being is good, still got health and home, coming on the summer which in my business is fun the time, only wish the weather was better, but this is the UK so you got to get used to it.

Religious fundamentalists and many of today’s atheists share the same approach to texts.

Fernapple comments on May 4, 2019:

Since the only people able to impart meaning truly to a text are the people who wrote it, and for the most part you can be fairly certain that they meant it literally. After that it is only the cherry picking and interpretation of the reader, who is usually then trying to claim that it therefore has more authority than secular ideas. Since although interpretation is really only the thoughts of the individual, it is sanctified by art/religion which are supposed to have privileged access to truth. Although both are actually vague ways of expressing things and therefore unlikely to be accurate. You may as well take Winny the Pooh and interpret that, at least you start with a good book to being with.

I was lucky enough to be born in a the bible belt in a family that didn't participate in a religion.

Fernapple comments on May 4, 2019:

That is why I find the religious, " Morality can only come from religion. " so annoying. Since most none believers showed far more moral strength than the faithful ever did, when they chose to leave; and even those who never believed, but only choose not to join in, usually do so mainly for moral reasons.

I'm glad the general forum was restored but it seems only a shadow of its former self.

Fernapple comments on May 3, 2019:

Summer time and the garden calls. Bot no it does not seem as good, especially for new users. Will try MissKathleens advice though.

What to say when hijacked by two born agains in public

Fernapple comments on May 3, 2019:

I think you did very well anyway and should be proud of your self restraint, especially as your relationship with the third party is clearly one which matters deeply to both you and your children. You can not make people climb out of the cesspit, you can only tell them where to find the ladder if they wish to listen, it is not your fault if they choose to stay.

Spending a Day on Earth 4 Billion Years Ago [youtube.com]

Fernapple comments on May 2, 2019:

Nice video lovely graphics, only one small error those distances to the moon should be in hundreds of thousands of kilometres not just thousands.

There are a lot of purists on this site.

Fernapple comments on May 1, 2019:

Detroit ?

How many on here either have decided to abandon major social media platforms (FaceBook, Twitter, ...

Fernapple comments on May 1, 2019:

Was told to do Facebook to promote my business, never got so bored in my whole life.

What specifically happened that made you turn into an atheist/ nonbeliever?

Fernapple comments on May 1, 2019:

Never really did believe, never was in a religion. Slowly over a long period I lost all interest in the thought that I could be missing something, decided I must be agnostic but became more hardline over time.

Really liked how the sun was coming through the petals

Fernapple comments on May 1, 2019:

Great photo, very hard to get that without too much or too little contrast loosing detail.

Ha, Facebook is moving toward "groups". Stop copying us Zuckerberg! ;) [cnn.com]

Fernapple comments on May 1, 2019:

Why don't you try to imitate him, start building this site into a profit making empire to replace the the free and democratic internet. All existing members could buy shares for a dollar, and be worth millions in a few years, and we will hire a good lawyer to help keep you out of prison.

Given that life in itself is meaningless, what do we have in mind when we talk about the "meaning ...

Fernapple comments on May 1, 2019:

Life does not need meaning to have value, if you understand that life itself has value then that understanding is all the meaning it needs. Since life is all you have it matters not if it has meaning or not, since there is nothing more, and that applies even to the theist, since even if there is another life which is not entirely independent of this one, then you have nothing more than this one with which to affect the next life.

Please , bring back sassygirl3869 .

Fernapple comments on Apr 30, 2019:

Sorry to loose her, I always found her comments interesting. There should be clear guidelines on when members are barred, it should be made public, and there should be some sort of clear vote by senior members before it can happen. I like the fact that there are members on this site who I disagree with sometimes, I am not even planning to block anyone because hopefully I am big enough to stand critics and I answer quite well to a wide range of names. (Though I do understand that if you are for example being sexually harassed, it may be a needful feature.)

Chinese authorities blow up Christian megachurch with dynamite | The Independent

Fernapple comments on Apr 30, 2019:

Sadly this is just the sort of thing that the churches love, it is great publicity for them as victims. China may have knocked down a church, but across the world every preacher will now be saying. "You see, this is what happens when you don't attend and put more money in the collecting box." This will help to build a hundred more churches world wide.

Of course - EVERYthing is a sin ! Guilt-guilt-guilt

Fernapple comments on Apr 30, 2019:

Since they are trying to sell you the next life. Like all good sales people they have to rubbish the product you are already using.

Anyone likes Harari's books?

Fernapple comments on Apr 30, 2019:

Half way through Sapiens, it seems a pleasant easy read but as Moravian says, nothing greatly groundbreaking so far. Yet all credit for a good summing of the issues, good overview.

When my ex and I were still together and fighting about religion, he said according to my atheism ...

Fernapple comments on Apr 29, 2019:

Religious people rarely follow their holy books exactly, if they do, they usually get put in prison. What they do is to cherry pick the bits they like and if that does not get them what they want, then they reinterpret the vague poetry thought the lens of their own prejudices. That's really the same thing, as they are making up their own rules too. The only difference is they try dishonestly to claim, that their ideas did not come from themselves, but are inspired by or come from a higher being, and therefore have more authority than other peoples.

"Atheism deserves better than the new atheists whose methodology consists of criticizing religion ...

Fernapple comments on Apr 28, 2019:

This is the usual apologetics line very carefully dressed to look moderate. But just try inserting the word "fascism" into the text where "religion" appears, and then see how it reads. As to bad atheism. Atheism is growing, and when something grows it is bound to be more diverse and embrace more people, many of whom will not be deeply interested or hugely understanding. If they are so then perhaps that is because the issues are no longer important, and/or perhaps because those who really understand and have deep knowledge failed to teach. Yet the educated core will also grow along with the rest, just not as fast. Atheism is not a belief, just a lack of belief, and unlike belief it does not have a dogma that must be understood or enforced.

What is the size of this community?

Fernapple comments on Apr 28, 2019:

Figures around forty to fifty thousand are being quoted it seems, but what would be more interesting is. How many active members do we have ? Since many sites like this will have 80% or more fossil accounts that are never used, and only 5% or less will be meaningfully active.

We're on a road to destruction if we don't make changes.

Fernapple comments on Apr 28, 2019:

I think that a site like this should try to be as board as possible, because the one thing that would drive me away would be banal content, and because if there are people saying things I would find horrible, then I want to know about them and what they are saying. Part of the reason for joining was to learn about human diversity and hear things which challenge me. But you can't please all of the people all of the time as they say, and it would be silly to bend over backwards to accommodate people who do not really want to contribute and would be happier elsewhere, you could easily go to great damaging lengths and then they go and make their own site elsewhere anyway.

More images from my deck. Wild Turkey, Sugar Maple in the Fall and a coy wolf taking a crap!

Fernapple comments on Apr 27, 2019:

Wow, I only get next doors cat crapping in my garden.

Here is a science podcast that talks about Krill that I really liked so I thought I would share it ...

Fernapple comments on Apr 27, 2019:

It looks more like an advert for a book. May be a good book but I expect real content in a link.

I recently went to a religious a event with a family member at Easter time.

Fernapple comments on Apr 27, 2019:

You say, "how can normally intelligent people accept this." . But of course they are not "normally intelligent", they are people who have been damaged, perhaps beyond repair, by years of careful indoctrination, repeated so often that they have lost the power to even think about it in the same way they think about other things. Most of them would not buy a second hand car from a dealer who said. "We will only deliver after have left the country to live abroad for good, and we have never had a complaint." Yet they happily buy. "You will get your reward only after you are dead and gone from the universe for good, and no one ever came back and said we failed."

Do scientific and religious explanations necessarily contradict each other?

Fernapple comments on Apr 24, 2019:

S J. Gould said that religion and science can easily get along because they operate in different realms, but that is only true if both agree to stay their own side of the fence. Generally science does that, but of course religion does not.

Do scientific and religious explanations necessarily contradict each other?

Fernapple comments on Apr 24, 2019:

True, but no person, scientist or not can ever refute a fictitious statement of any sort. Fiction obeys its own rules. I can not say that a hat in the Harry Potter novels can not appoint students, since a fictional world like the novel makes and obeys its own rules, which do not have to answer to any test valid for reality. The statement therefore says only that religion obeys the rules of fiction, and no more than that. (Though you can sometimes say that fictions are not self consistent, and many religious texts do fail even that test.)

What is the difference between "makers" and "takers" in the economy?

Fernapple comments on Apr 24, 2019:

The Market also fails because it does not always pay all of the costs. To use Williams example, the person who grows the watermelons may gain and the person who transports them and sells them on may gain. But if the soil is unsuited to cropping and blows away after a few decades, it is only future generations who have to pay a price for that, and whose food will be more expensive because there is less land.

How Do You Travel To Mars In Thirty-Nine Days?

Fernapple comments on Apr 23, 2019:

Doing a very rough calculation without allowing for acceleration and slowing times, if it took forty days to Mars at is nearest, then it would take aprox. twenty thousand years to the nearest star. Please check this someone.

Bob Dutko's Seventh and Eighth Proof for God's Existence Refuted.

Fernapple comments on Apr 20, 2019:

Even if science/history did prove parts of the bible true, that would still leave huge amounts that are false, which would only prove that it was not written by god or at the dictate of god.

I love butterfly gardening <3 <3 Red Admiral (Vanessa atalantis)

Fernapple comments on Apr 17, 2019:

Early for butterflies here, but I do get Red Admirals later in the year.

I planted two of these about 20 odd years back, they sure know how to multiply, but pretty good ...

Fernapple comments on Apr 15, 2019:

I have never seen a patch that big here in the UK, except perhaps on a roof. It was traditionally grown on rooftops and was thought to stop lightening striking. which is how it got the name Houseleek I am told. Houseleek just means house plant, because "leek" once just meant plant.

Typical Canary Isle rough volcanic shoreline, there’s miles of it similar to this...

Fernapple comments on Apr 15, 2019:

Best sort of shoreline, beaches are a lot less interesting.

Is there a correlation between being a true atheist and abolishing the monogamous lifestyle?

Fernapple comments on Apr 15, 2019:

The norms of human behavior come from our evolved heritage, religion merely takes what is there and gives the credit to the supernatural beings, because the priests who are employed in their name want them to have credit for everything, thereby getting more power and wealth to themselves. They should not be allowed to take credit for moral norms, any more than for making the rain fall. (Though they tried that too, because they could get away with claiming anything which people in the past could not understand.)

Clarence Thomas: Atheists Can’t Be Trusted Since Oaths Mean Nothing to Them | Hemant Mehta | ...

Fernapple comments on Apr 15, 2019:

Theists can't be trusted, because truth means nothing to them.

I've noticed that Pro-lifers love to invoke the Commandment "thu shalt not kill", taken from the ...

Fernapple comments on Apr 14, 2019:

The get out of stoning of course, was that no one individual did the killing, at least in bronze age eyes, the victim just died. It was the ultimate get out of responsibility free card, for the moral coward who wanted their sadistic pleasure without individual guilt.

Love comes naturally. Hate is learned. Agree/Disagree?

Fernapple comments on Apr 14, 2019:

No I think that both come naturally, it is just that we allow ourselves to be taught, "who" to love and who to hate.

These stories. I can’t believe them, yet they are true! [patheos.com]

Fernapple comments on Apr 14, 2019:

Hey, maybe if I try really hard to fit in with what they seem to want, they will stop pushing stuff up my bum.

My daughter,12, asked if she could go to church with a friend who invited her tomorrow.

Fernapple comments on Apr 14, 2019:

Encourage her to go to as many churches and temples as you can, then ask her to evaluate them. The first time you go to a magic act you may think it is wonderful and amazing, but if you go to five or six and then honestly ask which one is best....

I was just wondering how many declared "Believers" are really atheists pretending to believe.

Fernapple comments on Apr 14, 2019:

I don't think that it is a simple either/or, a lot are cherry pickers, who, believe yes, but make it easy for themselves by just ignoring the bits they don't like. It is quite possible to genuinely believe a vague deism/spirituality and believe that being a church member puts you in touch with that, without thinking that more than one percent of your holy book is true. The trouble with that though, is that of course it creates a happy safe home for the fundamentalist. Where sheltered by passive acceptance they can swim and plot without challenge, and it is therefore why even the most vague spiritualism is harmful.

Something for the times in which we live.

Fernapple comments on Apr 14, 2019:

Sometimes though the darkness will fall, however hard we try to play Canute and hold on to the light.

My Least Favorite Thing in the Garden You don't have to guess: it is pruning and trimming the ...

Fernapple comments on Apr 14, 2019:

Yes cutting back and mowing grass too can be real chores, they are the only bits of gardening which are not in any way creative, ( Even weeding is at least a bit of a hunt. ) and they are the two which really demand to be done.

If there is one thing I envy the religious, (besides their smugness at all the existential, climate,...

Fernapple comments on Apr 14, 2019:

if there are enough sceptics, it would be nice to see a network of free from religion coffee shops across the world, even if they only open Sundays.. Sadly though, organizing sceptics is like trying to herd cats, so it is probably not going to happen.

I would like to address the AMERICAN DREAM! There is no american dream, it was an extreme economic ...

Fernapple comments on Apr 13, 2019:

While I mainly agree with you, the term, "American Dream" predates that. Here's Wikipedia. The term "American Dream" was apparently invented in 1931 by historian James Truslow Adams; he was referring to "That dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for every man, with opportunity for each according to his ability or achievement." The sad part is that a lot of the American dream was only based on the short term effects, caused by the vast resources unleashed by the collapse of the native American populations, under the strain of infectious diseases introduced from the old world. And the term was coined in the thirties, when most people lacked even the most basic of material needs, so that material wealth was paramount, and that an excess of material wealth could turn into a nightmare was basically unforeseen by nearly everyone.

Are human rights universal or linked to a particular culture? -

Fernapple comments on Apr 13, 2019:

When people use the rights word, what they usually mean is that certain values are thought by them to be beyond debate, since I do not believe that anything is ever beyond debate, I find it hard to take that without at least a qualification or two. If there is a universal discovered morality then it has to be based on the golden rule, which is fairly universal; and from that, the rights are no more than a set of derived laws, developed as pragmatic solutions to common problems of morality, they are therefore likely to vary, fail sometimes, and be in need of the occasional nuance. ( I do not think that they are purely western ideas, though they may vary much. For example, many cultures have recognized the so called right of rulers, kings etc. to rule, though we would not generally do so today. ) Given that, the question is really, whose view of rights serves best under any circumstance, and if you accept that, then they are debatable. Therefore it is open to debate if western rights are better or worse than any others, though the pragmatic view says they are fairly good. And since there are no universal rights, then there can be no right to have freedom from cultural imperialism, but to justify that you have to prove that western rights or any others you wish to enforce are best under each individual circumstance. Debate. In the end the rights you get are those of the strongest cultures anyway, might may not be right, but it does get to decide what is right. So that the best rights are those which make winning cultures.

So all in one day yesterday, had an interview, got notice to quit our rental property and was ...

Fernapple comments on Apr 13, 2019:

Take care of your health, you may need it in hectic times.

I love harvesting the blooms from my landlady's garden.

Fernapple comments on Apr 13, 2019:

Lovely flower, but I hope you landlady knows you are doing it. LOL

I just posted a sunset picture here.

Fernapple comments on Apr 13, 2019:

The "My Groups" button keeps coming and going too, part of the fun of this site is that I think that the servers sit on the edge of the Bermuda Triangle, strange things happen, and sometimes even large objects disappear, only to pop back again in an old dated form when you had thought they were gone forever.

I won the argument because I had a good point........

Fernapple comments on Apr 13, 2019:

Yes but don't try to hang too much on it because it is the vanishing point.

"It's the good girls who keep the diaries; the bad girls never have the time.

Fernapple comments on Apr 12, 2019:

Who said ? "Always keep a diary, and when you are old it will keep you."

Folks like Columbus didn't "discover" anything - others were doing it thousands of years before! ...

Fernapple comments on Apr 12, 2019:

PS. Columbus did discover something new, but it was not America it was the trade winds.

Folks like Columbus didn't "discover" anything - others were doing it thousands of years before! ...

Fernapple comments on Apr 12, 2019:

Lovely bit of history, lovely boat too.

"Can we make it a tradition, Mom?"

Fernapple comments on Apr 12, 2019:

They say dirt is good for babies, no harm done anyway. Personal and family traditions can be fun, ours was to always go somewhere new each year, and always go back to somewhere we had been before.

Which idea must die because it is blocking scientific progress?

Fernapple comments on Apr 12, 2019:

Interesting book. I don't like speculation, there are enough hard facts to learn for one lifetime without deviation, but just for fun here goes. Perhaps the idea itself that old ideas have to die before new ones can be added to science, I see that it is on the list, and perhaps science is maturing, not hopefully into dogma but to the point where core values are stable. If not then I would guess that either a new insight may over turn the standard model, I am no physicist but there seem to to too many small problems, like where is all the dark matter, for there not to be a major new thought needed, or maybe someone will find the dark matter or something that does its job, it has to be one or the other.

Got an interview for a research post. Wish me luck

Fernapple comments on Apr 12, 2019:

Best wishes.

BBC Radio 4 - A Point of View, Another Kind of Atheism

Fernapple comments on Apr 12, 2019:

He must have talked to some atheists, but I wonder if he does listening.

love the perfume of the lilac.

Fernapple comments on Apr 12, 2019:

Soon, shiver, wait, shiver, wait, shiver, wait, Lilac time.

Yuval Noah Harari: What explains the rise of humans? | TED Talk