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I quote:- On Truth Social, Mr Trump dismissed the reports as "fake disinformation".
Fernapple comments on Feb 8, 2023:
Grammar fascists will tell you that two positives can not equal a negative. To all that sort of thing I just say. "Yeah Yeah."
"I feel most spiritual when I’m out in the woods.
Fernapple comments on Feb 7, 2023:
Wow ! That is getting very close to religious naturalism as most people would understand it. I did not know you did that in this group.
“Human subtlety will never devise an invention more beautiful, more simple or more direct than ...
Fernapple comments on Feb 7, 2023:
She is not perfect, but evolution is certainly the most ruthless of economists, who tolerates nothing wasteful.
When I was younger, these massive disasters were a rarity.
Fernapple comments on Feb 7, 2023:
Turkey is beautiful, especially the mountains. But sadly you pay a price for beauty, Just some of my holiday snaps taken quite near to the earthquake zone a few years ago. In a beautiful village set in a great wide valley between the mountains, and peopled by wonderful friendly locals.
The greatest non-swearing British insults: 1.
Fernapple comments on Feb 7, 2023:
Not sure that pillock counts as non-swearing.
Nothing else in the world.
Fernapple comments on Feb 7, 2023:
Sadly though, the old ideas still often have a lot of guns. A people have to bleed before the world moves.
It's better to feel good that to look good.
Fernapple comments on Feb 6, 2023:
Well I hope you feel a lot better than you look.
that must be it.
Fernapple comments on Feb 6, 2023:
Funny that I think you may be on to something ?
Why does anyone need a god?
Fernapple comments on Feb 6, 2023:
11. The god claim gives your prejudices the backing of authority, and sets your party/race/social group above all others.
I heard that superb owl Sunday is this weekend, so, in recognition, here is a superb owl!!....
Fernapple comments on Feb 6, 2023:
Some people say that owls are not really all that wise, but I bet you never saw one sitting in front of the TV all day on Sunday.
1906 video of market Street in San Francisco just 3 months before the big earthquake and fire.
Fernapple comments on Feb 6, 2023:
Quite an original idea for the time, to film from a moving vehicle. I wonder who was the first ?
Re-branding Jesus?
Fernapple comments on Feb 5, 2023:
Jesus has been re-branded more than a dozen times already. Even the early Roman and Orthodox churches were very different from the early Nazareth church. Which were different from the Jesus of late Rome, and different from the Jesus of the middle ages etc. etc. One of the things which made Christianity a popular religion, is that the bible, upon which it is based, is so garbled, contradictory and meaning free, that you can interpret it how you like, to suit nearly any situation and marketing ploy you wish to use. A good trick, no wonder it is the worlds largest religion. But then, reinventing Jesus as a gun swinging red neck, may just be pushing the reinterpretation a bit further than even it will really stand. "Only in America !"
Republican politicians are constantly trumpeting that they want to see government operated like a ...
Fernapple comments on Feb 5, 2023:
I have seen businesses with products they do not wish to sell do exactly that. Cheapen it make it worse, put the price up, and then say. "Nobody was buying it, so we took it off the shelves." Then. "But you can buy the new B-Line, its better and cheaper, but you do have to pay us a monthly fee to keep up the license agreement on the new red button feature." Then the customer says. "But I don't want the red button feature, it does nothing useful, who would ? Why can't I by the old product without the monthly fee?" "Well co's see nobody was buying it."
A little knowledge: " When would you estimate the "dumbing down” of America began?
Fernapple comments on Feb 5, 2023:
This may seem to be an echo chamber statement on this site, but I think that religion and marketing have a lot to do with it. Since it seems to be worse in America than many places, and in America religion is strengthened by the lack of a state religion, and the separation of state and church, which made religions into free enterprises unshackled and unrestricted by the state, and highly competitive. Able and willing to do what all advertising companies want, which was to market the idea of. "Buy our product and get it all, everything you want, happiness, wealth, community, status, marital happiness etc. etc. " And that helps to deepen the feeling that. "I want". Is a valid a source of truth, which need not bow to evidence, effort or wisdom. Because getting what you want all the time regardless, is promoted a a human right and transcendent truth in the US.
40°is colder than it was 30 years ago.
Fernapple comments on Feb 5, 2023:
I find that too, but I just thought that it was caused by me getting older.
Why can't ghosts and god NOT be proven?
Fernapple comments on Feb 4, 2023:
Like someone said. If god wanted to prove his existence to me, then if he was all powerful and all knowing, then he would know how to prove his existence to me. ( We are though talking about the Christian god here. Odin and Zeus would not perhaps be able too, since they were not all powerful. ) Which means, either, god is selective, (perhaps racist sexist) in who it choses to show itself to, it prefers to remain hidden and all human gods are impostors, or it does not exist.
Preacher Accused of Enabling Pedophile at Creationist ‘Dino’ Theme Park
Fernapple comments on Feb 4, 2023:
The story certainly has the marks of being genuine. When once you start earning your living out of lies and/or self deception, then you soon train yourself to the point where anything and everything become possible. And believing that your friends "innocent" story is literally true without any qualifications, doubts or reservations is easy.
Ya know, while I won't categorize all Xtians as lacking intelligence and being gullible, many of ...
Fernapple comments on Feb 3, 2023:
The two are not mutually exclusive, nonetheless.
This is how I want to live. Though it's easier said than done... [youtube.com]
Fernapple comments on Feb 3, 2023:
Very good. Here for what they are worth, ( Not much.) are my views, which all end in a joke, very like Absurdism which I would perhaps call Appreciateism. When we realize that there are no big, god given, purposes in life, demanding our obedience. And the many completely contradictory purposes, offered by the many different religions, prove that to be so. Then we can easily see, that wanting any big purpose at all, is merely a vanity and narcissism. The failings which are the weakness that all religions feed off. For if you build up the vanities of people, then they will, obey you, pay you, and praise you, for as long as you keep flattering and confirming those vanities, over and over again. Yet atheists often say in reply to the theist's question. “What is the purpose of life, if there is no god ?” That, by being none religious, we are free to choose our own purposes. Though admittedly they must by definition be small personal ones, for a transcendent purpose is just another god, meaning that in the deepest sense, atheism, agnosticism and deism are inevitably, by their nature, mainly philosophies of humility. Yet here for fun is the irony. Suppose for one second, hypothetically, for arguments sake, that there is a creator, an intelligence behind the universe, though one who has not revealed any purpose to us yet, perhaps a deist creator at most. Then what can we discern, if anything, is most likely to be pleasing to it, if pleasing it has any value at all ? Well after the usual if doubtful, givens, such as, be kind, the only thing I think that seems likely, is that we should appreciate its creation as much as possible, down to the smallest detail. Valuing and treasuring all that we are given. And what are we doing when we create our own small purposes, whether, we climb mountains, garden, paint pictures, entertain our pets, make a coffee for a friend or help in a charity shop, if not appreciating that creation, or nature, down to the smallest detail, and valuing it enough to care for it ? Practical environmentalism. Perhaps therefore being an atheist could after all, be the most pleasing of all things to the hypothetical creator. Now forget the hypothetical creator, since it has now done its job, and what are you left with ? That the small things are the biggest things there are, because they demand the greatest appreciation of you, and it is when you turn your back on the idea of great purpose that you come nearest to your greatest purpose. And when you forget god that you are most likely to please god. So you see that in the end, my deepest thoughts lead to an ironic joke. Nice joke perhaps ? Yes, but I was also never more serious. And is this my original philosophy ? No, I don't think so, for at the very least the Greek philosopher ...
Frontiers of Commoning, with David Bollier Interview with David Sloan Wilson What ...
Fernapple comments on Feb 2, 2023:
There is one important thing which has to be kept in mind however, as a warning against overstating the importance of group selection. Which is that, while individual humans usually live for only thirty or forty effective breeding years, at most, cultures and nations tend to exist for centuries, if not thousands of years. So that for every group death (selective event ) there are perhaps a hundred or a thousand selective events at an individual level, making individual selection a much more powerful and quicker force.
Frontiers of Commoning, with David Bollier Interview with David Sloan Wilson What ...
Fernapple comments on Feb 2, 2023:
"Weird" "Western educated industrial rich and democratic." Is not by any means the only cultural group which does scholarship and science, or even, today, does the majority of it. That is a very narrow parochial USA centric view, which is by no means true, but only shows an inward looking short sightedness. Certainly in may be true that "Weird" cultures were the ones who let the cat of empirical scholarship and science out of the bag to the largest extent, but now it has escaped it is very nearly a world wide phenomena, and it is very unlikely to go back in its bag again. I am sure that in part the view that empirical scholarship is only a western phenomena, could be justified because, those few cultures which do not embrace it to some degree, are the loudest and most obvious in their opposition. And there is a real danger certainly, that the USA, if it falls into the hands of resurgent Christian culture, may well become on of those few. For that Christian culture, although it certainly birthed empirical scholarship and science, is quite capable of eating its child if it feels threatened, and that is probably the greatest threat scholarship faces. Yet I think that the empirical world is a strong one, and that even in the USA , the anti education and and science movement will soon reach its peak and may even face a reaction. While if it does not, then there is no law which states that the intellectual leadership of the world, has to remain with one culture or even in one geographical location, and it may perhaps benefit and refresh itself with change.
I tested finally negative for Covid last Thursday and this past Tuesday I had lens replacement for ...
Fernapple comments on Feb 2, 2023:
Best wishes.
“True humility is not thinking less of yourself, it is thinking of yourself less……………...
Fernapple comments on Feb 2, 2023:
True but you can go too far. If you don't think of yourself now and again, you can end up in a mess, and then you become a pain to everyone.
The problem is not people being uneducated.
Fernapple comments on Feb 1, 2023:
I seem to remember Henry D. Thoreau quoting a version of that. So it must go back to at least the middle of the nineteenth century.
Here we go again another Baby ayatollah Khamenei tantrum Iran closes French institute over Charlie ...
Fernapple comments on Feb 1, 2023:
If you are the ruler of a country, and you can not deliver a working economy, good welfare, reasonable freedoms, and a respectable education for everyone, then your best bet is to pedal some hate, any fool can manage that.
How Being Happy Makes You Healthier
Fernapple comments on Jan 31, 2023:
There is a link missing I think.
55% of adults think Jesus will return to Earth (this includes 1% of atheists. [allisrael.com]
Fernapple comments on Jan 31, 2023:
In what sort of country, do only one percent of people lie to surveys, just for fun and to screw the figures. What is happening to the world, what sort of a twit gives a truthful answer when approached by someone with a clip board ?
Does anyone else agree with me that we should be DISCUSSING religion rather than DEBATING it?
Fernapple comments on Jan 31, 2023:
Why can you not do both ?
There’s a theme to my memes…
Fernapple comments on Jan 31, 2023:
Yep, books for me too. I much prefer to get up for breakfast.
This is another reason why we should exercise more.
Fernapple comments on Jan 31, 2023:
Perhaps. But is it also not likely, that women who run three times a week, also have healthier diets, use fewer drugs and expose themselves to better environments generally. It may be true, but is it directly or indirectly true ?
It is not your environment; It is not your history; It is not your education or ability; It is ...
Fernapple comments on Jan 31, 2023:
As much as anything, it is how high the standards of logic and honesty that your mind sets, are.
Saw this full page add in the Seattle Times.
Fernapple comments on Jan 31, 2023:
The Catholic church is really a different church in every country, where it is forced to move one way in one, it moves back in another.
Nature with is own awesomeness
Fernapple comments on Jan 31, 2023:
Great photos.
I have a Nikon P1000 now. Here are a few pictures.
Fernapple comments on Jan 30, 2023:
Wonderful shots. Here is one of my more basic photos in a similar line.
The Meaning of Life
Fernapple comments on Jan 30, 2023:
Very good. Here for what they are worth, ( Not much.) are my views, which all end in a joke. When we realize that there are no big, god given, purposes in life, demanding our obedience. And the many completely contradictory purposes, offered by the many different religions, prove that to be so. Then we can easily see, that wanting any big purpose at all, is merely a vanity and narcissism. The failings which are the weakness that all religion feed off. For if you build up the vanities of people, then they will, obey you, pay you, and praise you, for as long as you keep flattering and confirming those vanities, over and over again. Yet atheists often say in reply to the theist's question. “What is the purpose of life, if there is no god ?” That, by being none religious, we are free to choose our own purposes. Though admittedly they must by definition be small personal ones, for a transcendent purpose is just another god, meaning that in the deepest sense, atheism, agnosticism and deism are inevitably, by their nature, mainly philosophies of humility. Yet here for fun is the irony. Suppose for one second, hypothetically, for arguments sake, that there is a creator, an intelligence behind the universe, though one who has not revealed any purpose to us yet, perhaps a deist creator at most. Then what can we discern, if anything, is most likely to be pleasing to it, if pleasing it has any value at all ? Well after the usual if doubtful, givens, such as, be kind, the only thing I think that seems likely, is that we should appreciate its creation as much as possible, down to the smallest detail. Valuing and treasuring all that we are given. And what are we doing when we create our own small purposes, whether, we climb mountains, garden, paint pictures, entertain our pets, make a coffee for a friend or help in a charity shop, if not appreciating that creation, or nature, down to the smallest detail, and valuing it enough to care for it ? Practical environmentalism. Perhaps therefore being an atheist could after all, be the most pleasing of all things to the hypothetical creator. Now forget the hypothetical creator, since it has now done its job, and what are you left with ? That the small things are the biggest things there are, because they demand the greatest appreciation of you, and it is when you turn your back on the idea of great purpose that you come nearest to your greatest purpose. And when you forget god that you are most likely to please god. So you see that in the end, my deepest thoughts lead to an ironic joke. Nice joke perhaps ? Yes, but I was also never more serious. And is this my original philosophy ? No, I don't think so, for at the very least the Greek philosopher Epicurus more than twenty centuries ago wrote. ...
Boris Johnson says Putin threatened to ‘hurt’ him with missile strike after visiting Ukraine | ...
Fernapple comments on Jan 30, 2023:
Would not believe a word either of them said.
First I ever heard of this plant.
Fernapple comments on Jan 30, 2023:
A great reminder, takes me back. An elderly lady in the village where I grew up used to be very keen on them, and grew them in her garden, but I have hardly ever seen them since.
“In the small matters trust the mind, in the large ones the heart”………..Sigmund Freud.
Fernapple comments on Jan 30, 2023:
I never found the two to be in conflict.
I am weary of choosing between atheist and agnostic.
Fernapple comments on Jan 30, 2023:
No I do not care, and I often use both terms for myself, in part because a lot of people do not understand agnostic. The only thing that I do make sure that I do, is that I explain exactly where I stand and what I use the terms to mean whenever it matters, it is not fair to allow misunderstanding.
I think there should be a law that if someone is constantly talking about their religion in a ...
Fernapple comments on Jan 30, 2023:
Hello and welcome to the site. But sorry to say I am from the UK, so I have no experience of religion in the workplace.
Answer to “There's nothing more frightening in America today than an angry White man” I ...
Fernapple comments on Jan 30, 2023:
Having watched this for a while now, and even for across the pond, you can not help see the bitter irony of, people trumpeting. "Make America Great Again." By proposing the ending of democracy, freedom of speech, and freedom of belief, which things are obviously even from here, exactly the things which did make America great. Part of the problem seems to be complacency. Democracy has always been a cornerstone of what it takes to be a world leader in every field, and the world has always been led , economically, intellectually, and morally, by the most democratic countries of the time. Americans, especially the privileged whites, have always assumed, it seems to be a big part of your culture, your national myth, that a perfect democracy was achieved in the US in the late eighteenth century, and it needs no improvement. Yet much of the rest of the world has spent two centuries improving their democracy, and you are being left behind. Someone on this site recently posted photos of people in the US cuing for miles down the roads, in order to cast their votes. I can not begin to tell you just how much national shame there would be here, if such a photo appeared here. The papers and news services would be in uproar, special programmes would be on the TV. and special meetings of parliament would be called. Yet all that seemed to happen in the US, was that someone tried to prevent them being given water !?
Looks perfect to me.
Fernapple comments on Jan 29, 2023:
Oh lovely. I am thinking about getting a new greenhouse, and you are putting salt on the wound.
Religion vs. Spirituality: The Difference Between Them
Fernapple comments on Jan 29, 2023:
I think that you will find that, most people on this site are well aware of all of this.
THERE ARE NO ATHEIST BABIES (from an atheist website) .
Fernapple comments on Jan 29, 2023:
That is all very true. But I have little interest in arguments about how people define words. Each person may do so as they wish. The only really honest obligation is to make the definition you are using plain at the outset, if there is likely to be confusion. So that if you are defining atheist to be a character of adult humans who are aware enough to make an informed choice, then you should say so, and if you are taking it to mean anything, like a cabbage, which does not have active beliefs, or anything to believe with, then you should say that too at the outset. No problem then. But cabbages and babies do have one other important thing in common. Which is that, not only are they not capable of holding an informed opinion, but they are also not capable of expressing one. So that their inclusion, or not, within a religion, is decided for them by others. A priest may take a cabbage. Which is held by the cult to be unclean, because it was grown and handled by an unclean member of another religion. Then wash it in holy water, and declare it to be clean, and therefore our cabbage, fit to be eaten at the cults holy feast on their holy day. So too a baby may be declared to be a Christian baby, a Jewish baby or an animist baby etc. Without it having any say so, and then just like the cabbage, it may be denied some medical treatments, starved and beaten for ritual reasons, and even have bits cut off it at the whim of those who decided it religion for it.
All my Conspiracy theories have come true.
Fernapple comments on Jan 28, 2023:
Pattern recognition. = Positive error bias. Definition, positive error bias: animal's ( including human ) brains are designed by nature, to have a positive bias in favour of recognizing patterns, more patterns than are actually there. Because in a natural environment negative errors, generally carry more cost than positive ones.
Tucker Carlson says the U.S. should invade Canada before it becomes Cuba. [huffpost.com]
Fernapple comments on Jan 27, 2023:
Perhaps Canada should invade the USA before it becomes Iran.
Interesting 🧐 [yahoo.com]
Fernapple comments on Jan 27, 2023:
It sounds very much like the old Dunning Kruger theory to me. Cognitive dissonance going unchallenged due to over confidence.
Galadriel prepares for bed in her chambers in Lothlorien. Just finished this one this morning.
Fernapple comments on Jan 27, 2023:
That is creative, You still need time effort and imagination even with AI helping.
“Greed is a bottomless pit which exhausts the person in an endless effort to satisfy the need ...
Fernapple comments on Jan 27, 2023:
It relates very well to the one of a few days ago. "Not what we have, but what we enjoy constitutes our wealth." Epicurus.
TWENTY FIVE THINGS NOT TO TRUST: 1.
Fernapple comments on Jan 27, 2023:
Any one who says. "A deeper truth."
........................ WHAT GOOD IS ART ?
Fernapple comments on Jan 27, 2023:
Art is wonderful, beautiful and wonderful, I love it. ( Which is the problem.) Because like beautiful things it is dangerous, and not to be trusted, most of all it should never be believed in, as a source of truth, for as a religion promoting dogma it is at its most dangerous. And like any god, "Art" as an entity does not exist, art is just a name we give to another none existent being like god. Belief in the "truth" of art is like belief in any religion, just another name for the fallacy called, proof from authority. Art is the name we give to the use of technology to manipulate our minds and emotions, but our ape brains made for life in the forest, did not evolve to cope with technology, or its influence over us. That is why art is always the first and most beloved weapon of dictators and tyrants. And why the churches of cruel gods, and the palaces of dictators are always filled with it, like nowhere else. And like all other religions, the art religion can mislead, art can prop up falsehoods, art can justify cruelty, art can be addictive, art can blunt the senses. Religion itself is the greatest and most widespread of all arts, for like that art supports narcissism, indeed may even be a synonym for human narcissism. ( If you don't believe that just try substituting the word art in your lines above for the words "religion" or "narcissism". ) They may not lower blood pressure, but the rest work. At the mouth of every trap is bait, and bait is never ugly, indeed it may be more beautiful to those tempted than reality. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DErwvIjaAE
Natural doesn't necessarily mean safer, or better- [nccih.nih.gov]
Fernapple comments on Jan 26, 2023:
Yep. It is also true that a lot of the chemicals found in plants, are there to kill or harm animals like us, who may want to eat them.
The Jehovah's Witnesses are no longer a "religious community" in Norway - YouTube
Fernapple comments on Jan 26, 2023:
Sad though that they still support so many other churches.
The Universal Clock of Aging [nautil.us]
Fernapple comments on Jan 26, 2023:
Clever image, time does indeed hunger after your telomeres. (Though they are mostly at the ends of the strands not the middle). But only those with dependents, who are usually young, have any real need to fear mortality, in anyone else it is just narcissism.
Study: Whales could play crucial role in fighting climate change “Understanding the role of ...
Fernapple comments on Jan 26, 2023:
Great article.
Since I got bumped off my old membership (which is still active but just not to me) I did some ...
Fernapple comments on Jan 26, 2023:
Or adverts.
Same sex sexual activity is still illegal in 67 countries, and is punishable by death in 11 of ...
Fernapple comments on Jan 25, 2023:
Yep, some parts of the world are even more backward than the USA, not much and perhaps for not much longer, but so far.
These things should be self evident, even to the religious people, they really should be.
Fernapple comments on Jan 25, 2023:
Some of us still like the odd baby, especially with a nice glass of red wine.
Be present!
Fernapple comments on Jan 25, 2023:
Now that is wisdom.
Eating chicken without killing chicken? Would you eat lab grown meat? [bbc.com]
Fernapple comments on Jan 25, 2023:
Try anything once.
Academic vs Scientific | ARMACAD
Fernapple comments on Jan 25, 2023:
Science is a relatively new word. As indeed is "academic" which is a Romantic usage, referring to the school of philosophers in Athens led by Plato and Aristotle, which gained its name because the members met in an arcade. Those who practice science were always referred to as, "natural philosophers" until the last couple of centuries, meaning originally that they studied the, natural material world, and used material methods. I. Newton would probably for example, have referred to his work most often as natural philosophy. Today the word scientist is usually taken to mean not merely natural philosopher, but also someone who uses the scientific method as well. Which is a vague, ill defined term, often disputed, but would generally be thought to include such ideas as, nothing being ever totally proven, repeatable results, experimental results being more important than hypothesis, and testing against disproof, plus a few other bits like peer review and the ranking of hypothesis, theory, mathematical proof.
SARCASM WARNING: It’s Not a Gun Problem—Americans Are Just Super Extra Evil, Crazy, and Stupid ...
Fernapple comments on Jan 24, 2023:
And I thought Americans did not do irony.
“The ‘60s are gone, dope will never be as cheap, sex never as free, and the rock ‘n’ ...
Fernapple comments on Jan 24, 2023:
The sixties were also horrible, housing and schools were cold and damp, the teachers beat the s##t out of you, travel was difficult, public transport was dirtier than modern cattle trucks, Christian dogma was dominant, the food was inedible and everything not actually illegal, was expensive and restricted, (You could not even have a phone until you were 18 and you had two letters of recommendation.) and you needed to carry a crank handle because the cars hardly ever started.
The last scientist who worked in the Alexandria Library was a mathematician, astronomer, physicist ...
Fernapple comments on Jan 24, 2023:
I would not say avoid the film "Agora", about her life, for it does capture some of the spirit of the times, but it is a wildly inaccurate depiction the facts of her life and times. Worth a look if you take your sceptical head with you. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agora_(film)
Hello! It's me.
Fernapple comments on Jan 22, 2023:
Welcome back, given a like for extra points.
What is a "Christian Country"?
Fernapple comments on Jan 22, 2023:
In simple terms. Any country with a majority population who identify as Christian, but it is rarely that simple.
I guess I finally understand that telling the truth all the time makes people not want to be around ...
Fernapple comments on Jan 22, 2023:
Telling the truth only offends people who doubt their ability to maintain their lies. It is the biggest liars with the most insecurities who are therefore most offended, why show people like that any mercy, sometimes there is pain to be faced before we grow.
Church of England apologizes for treatment of LGBTQ people “For the times we have rejected or ...
Fernapple comments on Jan 21, 2023:
Yet according to him, they are still not going to recognize same sex marriage. So we apologize to the fish for taking them out of the pond, but we are still going to drain the pond.
This man is pretty smart and wise for a religious person…..🤔 [amp.cnn.com]
Fernapple comments on Jan 21, 2023:
With ideas like that, he could pass for a European.
How weird is the whole concept of the Holy Spirit?
Fernapple comments on Jan 21, 2023:
I often wondered if that meant that all the other ghosts were unholy.
I've never been so sick in my life.
Fernapple comments on Jan 21, 2023:
I hope you will soon feel a lot better. Fortunately fewer people are having serious effects, now that the medical agencies are learning more about how to deal with it.
Free For All
Fernapple comments on Jan 21, 2023:
I have not blocked anybody. If you don't like their posts or comments, it is easy to ignore them, but sometimes even the worst trolls post something interesting, so why miss out.
“Let not to the marriage of true minds admit impediments.
Fernapple comments on Jan 20, 2023:
Not sure about that one, I think that love changes a lot over time, often growing deeper with more understanding.
50 Things Basically Every Single American Believes Are Completely Normal But Are Actually Very, ...
Fernapple comments on Jan 20, 2023:
Interesting list yes. It would be nice to know though which countries the comments came from.
Have you ever heard of the Laysan Albatross?
Fernapple comments on Jan 20, 2023:
Great video thank you. And not just the birds but what a beautiful place.
I wonder how old she will be when she realizes she fucked up…..🤠 [yahoo.com]
Fernapple comments on Jan 19, 2023:
If you can not marry a human at eight, then you can not marry a religion either.
It will be heavy reading!
Fernapple comments on Jan 19, 2023:
"May you live in interesting times." Old curse.
Hello I am new and looking for like minded friends!!
Fernapple comments on Jan 19, 2023:
Hello and welcome, enjoy the site. Please write a bio if you can, its nice to know who you are talking to.
Finding or crating meaning in life, part II To he human species, that which matters includes ...
Fernapple comments on Jan 19, 2023:
Perhaps the greatest crime of theism, is that it teaches people to despise this world, and think of it as only a ante-room where they prepare for a mythical far better one, and end time thinking where no investment in the future is required. Yet, as even a Christian once pointed out, there is a deep illogic in that. Supposing that you can worship and honour a creator, by despising his creation.
I think a part of the appeal of religion is from nostalgia.
Fernapple comments on Jan 19, 2023:
Can be so. It depends on what you were indoctrinated with as a child, I was given science and nature from an early age, and they still call up nostalgia for me. Yet I also got religious education as well, but that did not take, and thoughts of the early religious teachings now, only fill me with mild revulsion. If your childhood was ideal perhaps you can maintain nostalgia for all you were given, but if there were also bad parts, then when you try to put those bad parts into the past you leave behind, then perhaps some part of what you learned has to go with them.
Because of Autocorrect.
Fernapple comments on Jan 19, 2023:
I wonder if he asked for the Kosher menu ?
There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed ...
Fernapple comments on Jan 19, 2023:
Final pages of "The Origin Of Species".
"Football, beer, and above all, gambling filled up the horizon of their minds.
Fernapple comments on Jan 19, 2023:
Go back even more, and the Romans had bread, and circuses. Nothing really changes much.
I may not be human, but I play one on the internet
Fernapple comments on Jan 18, 2023:
So do many.
I don't know why I assumed this site would be better than facebook.
Fernapple comments on Jan 18, 2023:
It is always easy to overestimate the number of drooling morons everywhere, since they tend to stand out and push themselves forward. Its a side effect of the Dunning Kruger effect. However, if you find drooling especially offensive, you can always block me, at no cost on this site. But I think that it pays to keep an eye on us morons, since that way you are less likely to slip on the drool.
The Prodigal Son This is a ridiculous parable if there ever was one.
Fernapple comments on Jan 18, 2023:
The father, if I remember correctly, does say that the stay at home son has enjoyed all the benefits of life at home, for many years. But in truth you are very correct, it is a very silly story. The point of course is that it is simply a recruitment ad for the church, and like all adverts its main con is, that it says you will get everything you want, a happy life, nice home, good friends etc. if you only buy the product. No company ever sold their soap or cars, by presenting them as being used by unhappy, lonely people in a dirty poor home. Quite the contrary, everyone in the world of adverts is impossibly happy , loved and prosperous, and the word "impossibly" is the important one. Because if it was possible to be that happy, then there would be no need to keep buying the product in hopes of improvement. And since religion has no material and testable end product, it is pure advertising with nothing to deliver, and no production costs, and since it is infinitely variable, if the customer is not happy, then they are obviously using it wrong and must try harder. While the main part of the product is due for delivery, only after you are dead, so no complaints or returns. Religion is advertising made pure.
Hume and Avicenna 😆 [existentialcomics.com]
Fernapple comments on Jan 17, 2023:
Ah! But is a soul the same thing as a self ?
“The invisible and the non-existent look very much alike.” ― Delos Banning McKown
Fernapple comments on Jan 16, 2023:
The silent and the non-existent also sound very alike. Do not go to god for advice.
What world awaits Gen Z? | Malcolm Gladwell x Brain Bar
Fernapple comments on Jan 16, 2023:
Moderate quite good, though I have doubts about whether the sports analogy works for real life, quite so perfectly as he claims.
Hands down, the scariest nightmare I ever had, was the one that started out with me on my honeymoon ...
Fernapple comments on Jan 16, 2023:
I was walking down the street with my wife, when on the other side of the road we saw my mother in law, being attacked and beaten by four thugs who were trying to steal her bag. And my wife said. “Are you not going to do anything to help ?” I said. “No. four should be enough.” Les Dawson
FINDING OR CREATING MEANING IN LIFE, pART i I will begin this discussion by asserting that human ...
Fernapple comments on Jan 16, 2023:
Very good. Here for what it is worth, ( Not much.) is my view, which is a joke. When we realize that there are no big, god given, purposes in life, demanding our obedience. And the many completely contradictory purposes, offered by the many different religions, prove that to be so. Then we can easily see, that wanting any big purpose at all, is merely a vanity and narcissism. The failings which are the trade of religion. For if you build up the vanities of people, then they will, obey you, pay you, and praise you, for as long as you keep flattering and confirming those vanities, over and over again. Yet atheists often say in reply to the theist's question. “What is the purpose of life, if there is no god ?” That, by being none religious, we are free to choose our own purposes. Though admittedly they must by definition be small personal ones, meaning that in the deepest sense, atheism, agnosticism and deism are inevitably, by their nature, mainly philosophies of humility. Yet here for fun is the irony. Suppose for one second, hypothetically, for arguments sake, that there is a creator, an intelligence behind the universe, though one who has not revealed any purpose to us yet, perhaps a deist creator at most. Then what can we discern, if anything, is most likely to be pleasing to it, if pleasing it has any value at all ? Well after the usual if doubtful, givens, such as, be kind, the only thing I think that seems likely, is that we should appreciate its creation as much as possible, down to the smallest detail. Valuing and treasuring all that we are given. And what are we doing when we create our own small purposes, whether, we climb mountains, garden, paint pictures, entertain our pets, make a coffee for a friend or help in a charity shop, if not appreciating that creation, or nature, down to the smallest detail, and valuing it enough to care for it, environmentalism. Perhaps therefore being an atheist could after all, be the most pleasing of all things to the hypothetical creator. Now forget the hypothetical creator, since it has now done its job, and what are you left with ? That the small things are the biggest things there are, because they demand the greatest appreciation of you, and it is when you turn your back on the idea of great purpose that you come nearest to your greatest purpose. And when you forget god that you are most likely to please god. So you see that in the end, my deepest thoughts lead to an ironic joke. Nice joke perhaps ? Yes, but I was also never more serious. And is this my original philosophy ? No, I don't think so, for at the very least the Greek philosopher Epicurus more than twenty centuries ago wrote. “Bring me a pot of cheese and I will feast.” And. “Don't over think it.”
My youngest claimed religion today, officially joined the cult that ruined my life.
Fernapple comments on Jan 16, 2023:
If you have taught them to value skeptical questioning, and set an example of being a moral and caring person without needing religion. Then you have done all that you could and should have done, it is no fault of yours. And if you have done those things, then you will probably find that the attractions of religion will soon wear thin, a decade is a long time.
Let's get personal.
Fernapple comments on Jan 14, 2023:
A friend named a plant after me, a kind of Polypodium. The trouble is, I really don't like Polypodiums at all.
Good morning.
Fernapple comments on Jan 14, 2023:
"My car windows are not dirty. That is my dogs nose art."
The Asshole Hypothetically speaking there's a person named John.
Fernapple comments on Jan 14, 2023:
If you have a good idea, the world will come to your door. But if you think that fridges are penguins, then you need a good agency to help to push the idea, fortunately God accept all clients, and does not charge any fees, so you get to keep everything.
Prince Harry, Meghan Markle Hated More Than Andrew by Older Brits—Poll
Fernapple comments on Jan 13, 2023:
Actually no, a lot of us Brits think that they are all a waste of space.
Memo to any parents out there that allowed your kids to attend concerts with me in High School! You...
Fernapple comments on Jan 13, 2023:
WE are all lucky to be alive, especially at your age.
Good question!
Fernapple comments on Jan 13, 2023:
Here you go. https://agnostic.com/group/naturalhistory/discussion/703069/sometimes-i-think-that-well-intentioned-had-work-should-just-be-appreciated-for-its-own-sake-whatev
There is a little known cure for jingles that suck up your brain capacity and won't go away all day ...
Fernapple comments on Jan 12, 2023:
"I must remember that." Could be another good one. But seriously I am sad to say. Getting fixated on jingles can be a sign that you are not getting enough sleep. If it happens often, it may mean that your brain is trying to send you a message. Do take care.
“Courage is not the absence of fear but rather the assessment that something else is more ...
Fernapple comments on Jan 12, 2023:
That. "Courage is, not being without fear but facing down the fear." Is a commonality, often overused. But your quote takes it to a far deeper and more meaningful level.

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