anglophone's Profile

There are many things that we can debate and argue over with religion.

anglophone comments on Jan 28, 2020:

The most damaging effect is not obvious: it is the sometimes catastrophic impairment of the pre-frontal cortex part of the brain as somebody is growing up. As a result, the ability to engage in cognitive flexibility is lost, which means that they accept as true any bullshit that their parents tell ...

anglophone replies on Jan 29, 2020:

@Mcflewster Agreed.

Here we go again. An article on Trump's Middle East Peace ( ?

Jolanta comments on Jan 29, 2020:

It’s a farce that so called peace plan.

anglophone replies on Jan 29, 2020:

Agreed.

This from my friend in Japan, just in case it is not clear how serious this new virus is! The ...

KKGator comments on Jan 27, 2020:

The CDC Coronavirus Home Page. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/index.html

anglophone replies on Jan 27, 2020:

Thanks.

Why Religion Is Not Going Away and Science Will Not Destroy It

abyers1970 comments on Jan 26, 2020:

I look at this from my own experience. 30 years a Christian and at times a diehard one. Had a very traumatic experience and almost died. Tried to say prayers for 2 years to solve an emotional problem with no success. Finally someone suggested hypnosis and I tried it one time and it helped me more ...

anglophone replies on Jan 26, 2020:

I just *love* the way you put it! At a personal level, I am driven to know cold hard facts and act on them: it is one of my survival mechanisms in this dingbat crazy world.

How educated are people when it comes to deciding their theistic beliefs?

xenoview comments on Jan 26, 2020:

Educated people use logic with all parts of their life, except when it comes to religion. Most theist don't understand what agnosticism and atheism is. They don't research anything when it comes to religion, they use faith. You can't make a person give up religion, they have to do that on their own ...

anglophone replies on Jan 26, 2020:

Or ... "You take a person to logic, but you cannot make him think."

"It just makes sense that god exist"`is an argument that annoys me to no end.

David1955 comments on Jan 25, 2020:

For thousands of years everyone said the sun went around the earth. Everyday it went around the earth. Day after day. Of course the sun went around the earth. It just made sense. Trouble is, they were wrong. Millions of them. Just plain wrong.

anglophone replies on Jan 25, 2020:

@DavidLaDeau Poor William Lane Craig! And I feel sorry for those who accept his absurd claims.

"It just makes sense that god exist"`is an argument that annoys me to no end.

Archeus_Lore comments on Jan 25, 2020:

"If that is true, you should be able to prove to me that god exists . . . . I challenge you to PROVE IT!, for millennia, humans have claimed that god exists, but have yet to prove it to anyone, care to try?" This is a head-on challenge to what they are saying. They will ultimately try to ...

anglophone replies on Jan 25, 2020:

I have had the same experience.

"It just makes sense that god exist"`is an argument that annoys me to no end.

JohnnyQB comments on Jan 25, 2020:

Logical fallacy, part argument from incredulity, part god of the gaps argument. They cannot accept something happening without a god being involved, because they do not understand how it could happen without god. Yes... it, along with all the other crap is very annoying.

anglophone replies on Jan 25, 2020:

I amuse myself by pointing out their numerous logical fallacies. Some of them become quite enraged.

"It just makes sense that god exist"`is an argument that annoys me to no end.

Eazyduzzit comments on Jan 25, 2020:

The only reason it "makes sense" is because we've been indoctrinated since we were old enough to listen, that God is the reason for everything. It took a long time questioning one thing at a time until I realized that it made no sense at all. I can understand why some people think the way they do, ...

anglophone replies on Jan 25, 2020:

I find that theists lack the ability to think. You clearly have the ability to think.

White House Streams Church Service Claiming ‘Demonic Spirit’ Causes Homosexuality | Michael ...

Grecio comments on Jan 23, 2020:

Trump apparently does not agree with separation of church and state. Pence is an idiot.

anglophone replies on Jan 25, 2020:

@PedalingOn Goodbye.

White House Streams Church Service Claiming ‘Demonic Spirit’ Causes Homosexuality | Michael ...

Grecio comments on Jan 23, 2020:

Trump apparently does not agree with separation of church and state. Pence is an idiot.

anglophone replies on Jan 25, 2020:

@PedalingOn To answer your question: it was the people that voted for him. Is that explicit enough for you?

Watch This Christian Lady Swear Up a Storm While Preaching at Walmart Customers | Hemant Mehta | ...

Lauren comments on Jan 24, 2020:

Wow. So that's something I hope to never see in person. How scary. I hope she gets the help she needs because there's more than religion wrong with her.

anglophone replies on Jan 24, 2020:

Your words "there's more than religion wrong with her" are so true. Like you, I hope she gets the help she so clearly needs.

divorce law

LucyLoohoo comments on Jan 24, 2020:

Reminds e of another law firm..."Dewey, Cheatham & Howe"

anglophone replies on Jan 24, 2020:

Also "Doolittle and Dalley", real estate agents in Kidderminster, England: https://www.doolittle-dalley.co.uk/branches

The hospital clerk asked my religion before a medical procedure.

anglophone comments on Jan 8, 2020:

Anybody who includes "atheist" as a religion is displaying a serious failure of cognition.

anglophone replies on Jan 24, 2020:

@AnneWimsey I was asked this face-to-face when I went in for a triple artery bypass graft. The receptionist was visible taken aback when I said "atheist".

White House Streams Church Service Claiming ‘Demonic Spirit’ Causes Homosexuality | Michael ...

Grecio comments on Jan 23, 2020:

Trump apparently does not agree with separation of church and state. Pence is an idiot.

anglophone replies on Jan 23, 2020:

And remember who it was that put Pence into Congress.

Zindagi Tamasha: Pakistan film suspended after religious uproar - BBC News

DavidLaDeau comments on Jan 22, 2020:

The Christians also try to ban anything that reflects properly on their religion. They often succeed.

anglophone replies on Jan 22, 2020:

Agreed.

I need to get something off my chest.

Cutiebeauty comments on Jan 22, 2020:

I don't understand what you mean....

anglophone replies on Jan 22, 2020:

Thank you for reading my rant. Sorry it was incomprehensible. I will try to post something more readable in the next few days.

What is the most annoying/hardest to answer argument for a diety?

dayII comments on Jan 22, 2020:

The argument from personal experience is a big one! Whenever I hear someone talking about how much a god has done for them, I always feel like replying, "You know, I had that same experience with the tooth fairy!" I really haven't found any religious claims that are difficult to counter. The ...

anglophone replies on Jan 22, 2020:

Part of me feels sorry for those who suffer such mental insufficiency.

As a former journalist, a few (hopefully) helpful hints to fellow posters: 1.

ToolGuy comments on Jan 12, 2020:

I will read a long post if it is in paragraphs rather than a wall of words to coin a phrase from @LiterateHiker.

anglophone replies on Jan 12, 2020:

Like you, I find a wall of words to be rather off-putting: I always have issues with that style of writing, and I often have issues with the author's seeming inability to organise his or her ideas.

Cosmic magnifying glasses show faster expanding universe - EPFL

bingst comments on Jan 10, 2020:

It doesn't say how they took into account the orbits of the quasars about those supermassive blackholes. Surely they did? I would imagine orbital velocities in proximity to a supermassive blackhole would have to be extraordinarily high.

anglophone replies on Jan 12, 2020:

@yvilletom I have the impression that you have the impression that I do not know what I am talking about. Would that be a fair comment?

Cosmic magnifying glasses show faster expanding universe - EPFL

bingst comments on Jan 10, 2020:

It doesn't say how they took into account the orbits of the quasars about those supermassive blackholes. Surely they did? I would imagine orbital velocities in proximity to a supermassive blackhole would have to be extraordinarily high.

anglophone replies on Jan 11, 2020:

@yvilletom Newtonian mechanics was debunked by observations of Mercury's orbit around the Sun, which is hardly a massive body in cosmological terms. Redshift and the change in pitch from a source of sound that is moving are mediated by two entirely different mechanisms. Evidence of the existence of black holes comes from the Large Interferometer Gravitional-Wave Observatory.

What is the one Truth or Method of finding the truth that you hold sacred above all others?

anglophone comments on Jan 9, 2020:

Part of my own truth is that there is no such thing as "the truth". Another part of my own truth is that the word "sacred" refers to religion. Yet another part of my own truth recognises that I have values. And yet another part of my own truth is that I have used a methodology (specifically, the ...

anglophone replies on Jan 11, 2020:

@Mcflewster Thank you for clarifying that. :)

Do atheists overreach?

anglophone comments on Jan 10, 2020:

Sorry, but anybody who answers "no" to the question "Can you be good without God?" is suffering a catastrophic failure of cognition. This immediately voids the rest of his book. I stopped reading your post when I reached that point in it. My reaction is much the same as that of @Indirect76: TLDR.

anglophone replies on Jan 11, 2020:

@Matias I took your words "In chapters 1 and 2, the author asks whether atheists are rationally justified when they claim to be able to be "good without God", and whether "naturalism warrants belief in Universal benevolence and human rights. His answers are No and No." at face value, hence my opening sentence.

Cosmic magnifying glasses show faster expanding universe - EPFL

yvilletom comments on Jan 10, 2020:

How large are these metaphorical cosmic magnifying glasses?

anglophone replies on Jan 11, 2020:

@bingst Yes.

Cosmic magnifying glasses show faster expanding universe - EPFL

bingst comments on Jan 10, 2020:

It doesn't say how they took into account the orbits of the quasars about those supermassive blackholes. Surely they did? I would imagine orbital velocities in proximity to a supermassive blackhole would have to be extraordinarily high.

anglophone replies on Jan 11, 2020:

I would guess that orbital velocities would only affect the observed redshift, and would have little to do with the different paths of light (which is probably what is important here) past the intervening galaxy, though there may be a second-order difference there. I would need to get my head around the relevant bit of cosmology before I could any sort of confidence in all this, though.

Does anyone else have a homophobic family member?

anglophone comments on Jan 11, 2020:

Anybody who opposes the LGBTQ community is merely flaunting their own deficiencies of personality. More specifically, they feel threatened by the behaviour of other people with whom they have no involvement.

anglophone replies on Jan 11, 2020:

@TimeOutForMe Thank you for sharing all that. :)

Trump says he deserves Nobel Peace Prize not Abiy Ahmed - BBC News

PondartIncbendog comments on Jan 10, 2020:

Trump deserves a missile up his ass.

anglophone replies on Jan 10, 2020:

What have you got against missiles? ;)

Do atheists overreach?

BradleyBell comments on Jan 10, 2020:

Damn that's a lot to read bro. Lol I think atheists do a little... I mean. Its really hard to prove that something doesn't exist. I think we are all agnostics, even those with faith.

anglophone replies on Jan 10, 2020:

For what it is worth, it is trivial to show that the God of the Bible cannot exist. The same goes for the God of the Torah. What many Bible thumpers fail to realise is that the burden of proof **always** rests with the person making the existence claim.

What is the one Truth or Method of finding the truth that you hold sacred above all others?

anglophone comments on Jan 9, 2020:

Part of my own truth is that there is no such thing as "the truth". Another part of my own truth is that the word "sacred" refers to religion. Yet another part of my own truth recognises that I have values. And yet another part of my own truth is that I have used a methodology (specifically, the ...

anglophone replies on Jan 10, 2020:

@Mcflewster By "truth" in the way that you use it, do you mean "a model that somebody finds more useful than another model"? The classic example of two such models is the Theory of General Relativity and Sir Isaac Newton's Laws of Motion.

What is the one Truth or Method of finding the truth that you hold sacred above all others?

DavidLaDeau comments on Jan 8, 2020:

I would add that "truth" is subjective; it is not fact. To answer your question i define "truth" as fact. What is the one method for finding fact that I hold above all others? Science, that being the scientific method of determining fact. There is no more "true" methodology of determining ...

anglophone replies on Jan 10, 2020:

@maturin1919 It seems to me that you have failed to comprehend @DavidLaDeau's point. You further seem to be neglecting the point that different people have different truths.

Anyone who claims to know what god wants you to do is clearly lying.

Word comments on Jan 10, 2020:

How do you say it is impossible to prove I exist? How do you prove I have not eaten a taco? What ever you think is God, non-existent flying spaghetti monster sky God, may truely be impossible to prove the existence thereof. Just because you cannot prove Willy Wanka God or Harry Potter God ...

anglophone replies on Jan 10, 2020:

(Thinks: Where did I put that vat of pasta sauce? I could do with eating a Word or two right now.)

The question of the so-called "fine-tuning" of the universe and its basic constants is one of the ...

Triphid comments on Nov 5, 2019:

IF, and that IS a VERY BIG IF btw, this Universe is so 'fine-tuned' by this god entity then why, A) is there at least 1 planet is this Solar System that rotates on its axis completely OPPOSITE to all the others, B) Why does our lunar body, the Moon, NOT rotate on its axis when even asteroids, etc,...

anglophone replies on Jan 9, 2020:

@palex I have done some more research into this. I thank you for correcting my misunderstanding. ((Hugs))

The question of the so-called "fine-tuning" of the universe and its basic constants is one of the ...

Triphid comments on Nov 5, 2019:

IF, and that IS a VERY BIG IF btw, this Universe is so 'fine-tuned' by this god entity then why, A) is there at least 1 planet is this Solar System that rotates on its axis completely OPPOSITE to all the others, B) Why does our lunar body, the Moon, NOT rotate on its axis when even asteroids, etc,...

anglophone replies on Jan 9, 2020:

@palex Please cite your sources. TIA.

What is the one Truth or Method of finding the truth that you hold sacred above all others?

DavidLaDeau comments on Jan 8, 2020:

I would add that "truth" is subjective; it is not fact. To answer your question i define "truth" as fact. What is the one method for finding fact that I hold above all others? Science, that being the scientific method of determining fact. There is no more "true" methodology of determining ...

anglophone replies on Jan 9, 2020:

@maturin1919 I have given you a clear and concise answer to your question "Care to go into what, exactly, the distinction you make is?" by challenging your assumption in the form the question "If truth is inherently factual, then why do believers claim that it is the truth that God exists?". HINT: Truth is **NOT** inherently factual.

What is the one Truth or Method of finding the truth that you hold sacred above all others?

anglophone comments on Jan 9, 2020:

Part of my own truth is that there is no such thing as "the truth". Another part of my own truth is that the word "sacred" refers to religion. Yet another part of my own truth recognises that I have values. And yet another part of my own truth is that I have used a methodology (specifically, the ...

anglophone replies on Jan 9, 2020:

@Mcflewster You must first define "the truth" before I can answer your question. I come from the viewpoint that different people have different, and often incompatible, truths. An example of this is any confirmed atheist and any Bible literalist.

The question of the so-called "fine-tuning" of the universe and its basic constants is one of the ...

Triphid comments on Nov 5, 2019:

IF, and that IS a VERY BIG IF btw, this Universe is so 'fine-tuned' by this god entity then why, A) is there at least 1 planet is this Solar System that rotates on its axis completely OPPOSITE to all the others, B) Why does our lunar body, the Moon, NOT rotate on its axis when even asteroids, etc,...

anglophone replies on Jan 9, 2020:

@palex The video is misleading when it states "The Moon rotates on its axis", as it is rotating about a point that lies outside itself.

What is the one Truth or Method of finding the truth that you hold sacred above all others?

DavidLaDeau comments on Jan 8, 2020:

I would add that "truth" is subjective; it is not fact. To answer your question i define "truth" as fact. What is the one method for finding fact that I hold above all others? Science, that being the scientific method of determining fact. There is no more "true" methodology of determining ...

anglophone replies on Jan 9, 2020:

@maturin1919 If truth is inherently factual, then why do believers claim that it is the truth that God exists?

The question of the so-called "fine-tuning" of the universe and its basic constants is one of the ...

Triphid comments on Nov 5, 2019:

IF, and that IS a VERY BIG IF btw, this Universe is so 'fine-tuned' by this god entity then why, A) is there at least 1 planet is this Solar System that rotates on its axis completely OPPOSITE to all the others, B) Why does our lunar body, the Moon, NOT rotate on its axis when even asteroids, etc,...

anglophone replies on Jan 9, 2020:

@palex You are mistaken as to fact. I refer you to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orbit_of_the_Moon coupled with the fact that the Moon always has the same face towards the Earth.

What is the one Truth or Method of finding the truth that you hold sacred above all others?

DavidLaDeau comments on Jan 8, 2020:

I would add that "truth" is subjective; it is not fact. To answer your question i define "truth" as fact. What is the one method for finding fact that I hold above all others? Science, that being the scientific method of determining fact. There is no more "true" methodology of determining ...

anglophone replies on Jan 9, 2020:

@maturin1919 I see a huge distinction between facts and truths. Ping @DavidLaDeau

A close friend of mine goes back and forth between extreme antithiesm and Pascal's Wager.

hankster comments on Jan 6, 2020:

your friend just has that classic conflict between fear of hell and the hatred of the fear of hell. its sad. I wouldn't be surprised if as a Youngster the fear of hell wasn't driven into him pretty deeply.

anglophone replies on Jan 9, 2020:

@hankster Agreed, it is (or at least "was" in my case).

I don't have much knowledge in Astronomy or Physics and would like to ask these questions to ones ...

Ramon59 comments on Jan 8, 2020:

The only answer we most uncertainly know us that Time and Space (the continuum) most probably has a beginning in this universe: the Big Bang, besides that we can’t answer. According to the expansion hypothesis there is no end, the universe will expand until there is no more energy (a cold ...