"How could we take something as natural and wonderful as learning and turn it into education? " ANON

brentan comments on Feb 8, 2020:

Let's just think in terms of work and consumption.

A convoluted argument hard to grasp for agnostics, but if it were to succeed...? [sojo.net]

brentan comments on Feb 7, 2020:

This verse might discourage Christians from making any personal efforts to save the world. It might even seem to some Christians like a lack of faith in God getting the job done. That said, I'm not sure how many Christians might even know this verse: *The nations were angry, and Your wrath has come, And the time of the dead, that they should be judged, And that You should reward Your servants the prophets and the saints, And those who fear Your name, small and great, And should destroy those who destroy the earth - Revelation 11:18.

Beyond True and False

brentan comments on Feb 6, 2020:

I'm thinking in terms of Iain McGilchrist's The Master And His Emissary and Kant's Critique of Pure Reason. Kant claims that things-in-themselves, noumena, can't be experienced or proved as real because the understanding only deals with turning appearances (representations of reality) into experiences. Reason is a meta-function where the judgments of the understanding are compared through reflection but if reasoning works with judgments and judgments work with appearances, then reality is beyond the grasp of reason. He calls the misjudgment of using reason to try to deal with the ineffable the 'dialectic'. McGilchrist explains the dilemma in terms of the emissary, a servant of the master, usurping the role of his master by behaving as if he were the boss. The emissary is reason and the boss is intuition. The former is the left brain, the analytical half. The latter is the intuitive right brain. Ever since the Axial Age, reason has become ascendant and intuition dismissed as emotional and/or imaginary. McGilchrist believes it is time for the master to put the emissary in his place and start being the boss again. It is really good to see the two sides of the coin being better understood.

Wow.

brentan comments on Feb 5, 2020:

Yes, that's juvenile and unprofessional. I'm not sure whether Trump has brought her down to his level or the real Pelosi shows under strain.

Is this logical? Is there any flaw? Any room for argument?

brentan comments on Feb 4, 2020:

The thing with these syllogisms is that all the premises must be correct for the conclusion to be correct. I'm not convinced the first premise is correct.

Attorney General Warns of 'Militant Secular Effort' to Drive Out Religion

brentan comments on Feb 4, 2020:

I thought the only militant apart from the military is the Church Militant. https://www.churchmilitant.com/

Just trying to build up some points here to get to that level 3, so listen up.

brentan comments on Feb 4, 2020:

It's an odd Christianity but what the heck. You'll race up the first few levels without breaking into a sweat.

There is NOTHING Liberal about islam: : : :, ,Jihad Report ,,, January, 2020 Attacks 127 ...

brentan comments on Feb 3, 2020:

I guess submission and liberality are naturally at odds with each other. It is a religion that does a lot of wrong. Don't they all? Unless we think of modern Western countries as non-religious. Even if we do, the death toll is horrific on both sides. I think most Muslims just want to get on with having a life, like everyone else. I would be really interested to know if Muslims in Europe and America are becoming more liberal just by living in the Western culture.

[youtu.be] One for Irish football fans

brentan comments on Feb 3, 2020:

Le bastard!

German bishops declare that homosexuality is completely and utterly 'normal'

brentan comments on Feb 3, 2020:

That's a hoot. I see the Anglican Church has its knickers in a twist over it lately.

The writing of histories - as Goethe once noted - is one way of getting rid of the weight of the ...

brentan comments on Feb 3, 2020:

I wonder what he meant and does it fit with the idea that 'history is written by the victors'.

nobody is happy with what they have!

brentan comments on Feb 2, 2020:

The bastards!

Study nature, love nature, stay close to nature. It will never fail you. - Frank Lloyd Wright

brentan comments on Feb 2, 2020:

He forgot 'don't turn your back on it'.

I can't say I'm very shocked by these comments, but it does make me wonder how these people could ...

brentan comments on Feb 2, 2020:

I guess they've never heard of the fruits of the spirit or the ministry of reconciliation with God.

Has joy any survival value in the operations of evolution?

brentan comments on Feb 1, 2020:

I wouldn't have thought joy was directly connected to courage but who knows! I sure think life without joy is a poor experience.

[startsat60.com] Carole King's heartbreaking message to women.....

brentan comments on Feb 1, 2020:

I didn't know that. I've always thought Carole was secretly gay, not realising she was married three times.

Butt sex sells... [youtube.com]

brentan comments on Jan 31, 2020:

I read Christopher Hitchens said anal sex was over-rated.

"Is it surprising that prisons resemble factories, schools, barracks, hospitals, which all resemble ...

brentan comments on Jan 31, 2020:

Detainers using containers.

Today is the day [9gag.com]

brentan comments on Jan 31, 2020:

Breaking free from the clutches of the EU. I wish them the very best of luck and wish my puppet-government would do the same.

If you could change one thing about yourself...

brentan comments on Jan 30, 2020:

My teeth, definitely.

I know I'm preaching to the choir here, but in case any of you want to steal it.

brentan comments on Jan 30, 2020:

I'm not sure a Sophie's Choice situation captures the essence of the problem.

why is always in France?

brentan comments on Jan 30, 2020:

We can ask why is it always in France or why are so many of us so darned passive. No protest, no revolution, no change.

What is the most sacreligious thing you have ever done?

brentan comments on Jan 29, 2020:

I went to a midnight mass one Christmas when I was a teenager. Many people went there straight from the pubs which closed at 11.30pm so I was one among many drunks. But I took it a step further by lighting up a cigarette in the middle of the ceremony. I was very brave when i was drunk and told anyone who wanted me to put it out to fuck off. I was very angry at the Catholic Church those days. As Red says in Shawshank Redemption 'That kid's long gone, and this old man is all that's left'.

And a Hobbesest

brentan comments on Jan 29, 2020:

Who's that fellow in the middle?

Report: Outbreak of idiocy spreading 10,000 times faster than coronavirus - The Beaverton

brentan comments on Jan 29, 2020:

No cure, sadly. I think the genes organise that way so we remain mostly sex machines.

Does anyone know how many other countries cite God to invoke patriotism in the pledges, anthems, ...

brentan comments on Jan 29, 2020:

Ireland is pro-European Union with all its liberal agendas so the only ones advocation a return to a combination of religion and patriotism are the hard-right.

Coronavirus is a punishment from God: Conservative Christian TV Host Rick Wiles claims that the ...

brentan comments on Jan 29, 2020:

It'll be those darn Chinese gays causing all this hassle.

The hypocrisy of those church pastors.

brentan comments on Jan 29, 2020:

I got a lot of laughs reading this.

Narcissistic universe

brentan comments on Jan 29, 2020:

It must be seeing a lot of its rear end lately.

Sometimes it is hard to make oneself understood.

brentan comments on Jan 29, 2020:

Some people turn off if you add a second clause to a sentence.

Luke 20:35 (NRSV): but those who are considered worthy of a place in that age and in the ...

brentan comments on Jan 29, 2020:

They've got heaven on their minds: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3R8tRKIiAII

Just a thought about the "people" that some seem to support.

brentan comments on Jan 28, 2020:

I guess we've made ourselves whores!

Paula White (DT's spiritual advisor) says she was 'praying Eph 6:12' when she called for 'all ...

brentan comments on Jan 28, 2020:

That's unbelievable. Well, I wish it was.

I cannot concentrate.....

brentan comments on Jan 28, 2020:

She might cause a lot of damage if they weren't her own breasts!

Christian author calls equal marriage too homosexual [patheos.com] HAHAHA, Too rich!

brentan comments on Jan 28, 2020:

I wasn't surprised that a Christian drew that conclusion. I haven't read the article but my understanding of scripture could easily lead to a conclusion like that. Scripture demands that marriage has a person who is the head (a male) and a person in subjection to the head (a female). Gay marriage for men would give equal status to the partners. But I want you to understand that the head of every man is Christ, the head of a wife is her husband, and the head of Christ is God. - 1 Corinthians 11:3 ESV

Here is a little something to make one think.

brentan comments on Jan 28, 2020:

I think there are interesting ideas in the poem that I don't understand. I feel it's something like the Copernican/Newtonian mathematical view of how the universe works making the old 'arts' obsolete. The poet seems to include the clergy as these artists of old and might be asking if mathematical complexities can conveniently disappear if located up the clergyman's ass. Any help would be great!

American women expect to find in their husbands a perfection that English women only hope to find in...

brentan comments on Jan 27, 2020:

That's a hoot! Jeeves 1 - 0 Hubby.

I just came to a realization I just realized I’m still angry with my ex husband (married 20 ...

brentan comments on Jan 27, 2020:

For what it's worth, it happens to men too. I never knew how fulfilling life could be by following my own star and that star was demeaned by my wife so I could never apply myself to it. Now it's full-steam ahead! I hope you too have things you love and can pursue now that you're free to do so.

Does it rain during rain dance practice?

brentan comments on Jan 27, 2020:

Wilhelm Reich made a machine that used orgone to bring rain. It was supposed to have worked in a test in Nevada, I think. I've always loved Kate Bush's song about the experiment, done from the perspective of Reich's young son Peter: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pllRW9wETzw

Discrimination and human rights.

brentan comments on Jan 26, 2020:

I read that the whole lousy attitude came about when desertification made the world a very savage place to live in (DeMeo, Saharasia). Nowadays, I think of change as an experiment; as in, why not see if gay equality works or not, ditto sex equality etc. I could understand a reluctance if the status quo was more right than wrong but the general unhappiness I perceive in society suggests to me that it's a risk well worth taking.

When Anxiety Presents as Anger, Not Fear | The Mighty

brentan comments on Jan 26, 2020:

I didn't read it, HC, but I have this idea in general that anger is at least positive/active while fear is negative/passive. I think people end up with mental problems through not (being able to) expressing their anger at what's wrong in their world.

Please, please, please is there a way for this to not become a porn site?

brentan comments on Jan 26, 2020:

I don't know how it happens. I have very few problems with porn (morally or aesthetically) but never see anything on the forum that has porn in it. Could it be pure accident or some darn algorithm?

Left and Right Libertarian Quadrants should Unite against the Authoritarian Left and Authoritarian ...

brentan comments on Jan 26, 2020:

I guess it boils down to freedom v rules. I'm not sure why the libertarian left and right might be divided (I'm inferring from Weinstein that they are) because I don't quite understand the ideological differences between say, Ghandi on the left and Freidman on the right https://www.politicalcompass.org/analysis2

Through the dark of future's past, the magician longs to see, one chance out , brtween two worlds , ...

brentan comments on Jan 26, 2020:

Lynch needs to express himself better than that.

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

brentan comments on Jan 26, 2020:

Compte’s idea of the stages of history as religious, metaphysical and scientific reminds me of Vico’s stages of gods, heroes and men. There is also the very interesting concept by Gioacchino da Fiore of the Age of the Father, corresponding to the Old Testament; the Age of the Son, beginning with the Incarnation of the Son of God, or New Testament; and the Age of the Holy Spirit, an idyllic time where the Church would be obsolete. From time to time, I read an occasional reference to the return of Vico’s age of gods. I think these ideas of the stages are a bit deficient in that they don’t allow for aggregation of thought (for want of a better term) that continues adding to itself as the cycles progress. I was pleased to find out that the poet William Blake did promote this idea.

Really, who does that?!

brentan comments on Jan 26, 2020:

I guess they didn't want to disturb the clock!

Pretty accurate.

brentan comments on Jan 26, 2020:

That little creature must be unfamiliar with Jordan Peterson.

All hail the great one!

brentan comments on Jan 25, 2020:

That's right. That's what made pride the worst sin of all.

Guangzhou circle building in China Those lower places look moldy as heck, but the place still looks...

brentan comments on Jan 25, 2020:

I'm in a minority of one on this one. I think this is a crime against any sense of beauty.

How spiders were created

brentan comments on Jan 25, 2020:

And it's a while now since I was watching David Attenborough, but I remember lots of seriously freaky creatures!

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

brentan comments on Jan 25, 2020:

I'm happy enough that the patriarchal idea of God doesn't make sense but I wonder about an entity we can't understand, at least so far. I'm thinking of something like universal consciousness.

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

brentan comments on Jan 23, 2020:

I haven't read the article but I think the concept comes from scriptures like this from Romans Chapter 1: 21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles. 24 Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. 25 They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen. 26 Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. 27 In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error. It's a curious but unpleasant understanding of human evolution. For Christians, I guess human history is a devolution from perfection in the supposed Garden.

“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.

brentan comments on Jan 22, 2020:

It's a problem. It's hard to succeed in life without bending to the status quo. The archetype for the person standing against the system is Jesus Christ. MLK, like many others, was taken out by the system. For the rest of us, we have our character murdered, becoming lesser people in order to carve out a living.

Have people watched The Witcher and what do they think of it?

brentan comments on Jan 22, 2020:

I watched it and thoroughly enjoyed it. I like those simple elements of sword, sorcery and sex. I think it was a great idea to introduce the comic troubadour into the story to give light relief to 'the people of plenty'.

Hard to travel in "Moses" times, specially in the desert!

brentan comments on Jan 21, 2020:

Hebrews 3.11 says, “As I swore in my wrath (in Psalm 95:11), ‘They shall not enter my rest.’”

What Fresh Hell is This??

brentan comments on Jan 21, 2020:

The American aspiration converted to dissonance.

Holy Mole! When ever I get this excited about economics, I walk out the door of my Apartment bldg.

brentan comments on Jan 21, 2020:

My understanding is that libraries were donated to the public from profits made from the 'wonders' of capitialism but I never thought their content was determined by any prevailing political-economic system.

“All the sacred rights of humanity are violated by insisting on blind obedience.

brentan comments on Jan 21, 2020:

That bad lady started feminism.

A little humor.

brentan comments on Jan 21, 2020:

I don't think she would ask that question if she had seen A Man Called Horse.

Righteous Brothers - Unchained Melody [youtube.com]

brentan comments on Jan 21, 2020:

If that is genuinely, completely unenhanced, the voices are outstanding!

MANNISH BOYS. TOO TIRED. [youtube.com]

brentan comments on Jan 19, 2020:

That's why white people wanted to work black people to death. They just wanted to curb their sexual excesses.

Since it's Martin Luther King day tomorrow, here's a quote from him: "Capitalism does not permit ...

brentan comments on Jan 19, 2020:

I love that expression 'rich beyond conscience'. I feel sure it's a moral issue and not just economic.

I thought this was amusing.

brentan comments on Jan 19, 2020:

I know, I know, the reality is terrible. But word play is funny!

Happiness is the perpetual possession of being well deceived. - Lytton Strachey

brentan comments on Jan 19, 2020:

Here's a little piece from today's paper: By far the most important single factor is mental health. Physical health also matters. The other huge influences are human relationships – in our family, whether we have a partner and whether we’re happy with the partner. Also very important is the quality of work and of course whether we have work, but in particular how we’re getting on with our colleagues at work. And finally the community – are we living in a friendly community where we feel safe? https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/jan/19/richard-layard-everybody-could-have-a-better-time-extract-from-can-we-be-happier

This should be a public service announcement on every channel....

brentan comments on Jan 19, 2020:

I think it's a need for education more than medication. We all talk to ourselves internally (and some like me do it externally too) but it's very ignorant to believe that the voice is a god in this day and age.

Ugh i had to put text

brentan comments on Jan 18, 2020:

The horror!

What the Internet was like

brentan comments on Jan 17, 2020:

Dial-up, oh gosh! And the blue bar.

Chas and Dave - London Girls (1983) [youtube.com]

brentan comments on Jan 17, 2020:

I guess their London, if it ever really existed, is gone now.

Damn these gangs of thugs...

brentan comments on Jan 17, 2020:

They do that coz they love ya!

While communicating with a couple online prospects (not from this site), I've been really thinking ...

brentan comments on Jan 17, 2020:

That careful way of going about things seems to be the safest. Sometimes I think I would like to have time to get lots of things to talk about then meet to share and other times I think I would like somebody around all the time and be a proper couple. The main thing for people nowadays, I think, is to protect ourselves while venturing out a little for more contact. It's a risky business but isolation sucks too.

These are long overdue after a lifetime of blond women jokes! [scontent-sea1-1.xx.fbcdn.net]

brentan comments on Jan 17, 2020:

I'm so offended!

Weekly bit of Rory. [youtube.com]

brentan comments on Jan 17, 2020:

Hard to go wrong there!

“To assign unanswered letters their proper weight, to free us from the expectations of others, ...

brentan comments on Jan 17, 2020:

I really struggled with this one without the preceding lines: It is the phenomenon somethings called "alienation from self." In its advanced stages, we no longer answer the telephone, because someone might want something; that we could say no without drowning in self-reproach is an idea alien to this game. Every encounter demands too much, tears the nerves, drains the will, and the specter of something as small as an unanswered letter arouses such disproportionate guilt that answering it becomes out of the question. https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/452795-it-is-the-phenomenon-somethings-called-alienation-from-self-in

Foster's wisdom.

brentan comments on Jan 16, 2020:

The bastard!

Sade Abu- It is her birthday today. What a smooth voice! [youtu.be]

brentan comments on Jan 16, 2020:

Sounds great. Looks great too.

I just started reading an extremely interesting book that I recommend to everyone: Sapiens, A Brief ...

brentan comments on Jan 16, 2020:

Yes, that's a great read!

All UK Labour leadership candidates sign up to stepped up pro-Zionist witch-hunt - World Socialist ...

brentan comments on Jan 16, 2020:

From antisemitic to pro-Zionist just like that! Well, they're desperate at the moment.

This meme has evolved into something I find very humourous....enjoy!

brentan comments on Jan 16, 2020:

Nancy has her eye on that guy!

Science advances one funeral at a time. Max Planck

brentan comments on Jan 16, 2020:

I don't know what to make of that.

Trotsky thought that certain so called left forces were acting the way they were and taking certain ...

brentan comments on Jan 16, 2020:

I get the impression from little bits I've read that Trotsky was more of an idealist while Lenin was more pragmatic. Everybody knows what happened next - execution after execution. And not confined at all to the rich and politically powerful. Lenin seems to be saying here that education will be the permanent solution to the working classes being oppressed. Me, I've lost faith in education. It was supposed to help us live peacefully together but it seems to be just a tool in the hands of the different political factions. For the moment, I think social democracy is the best of a bad lot.

The structure of marriage is heavily based upon religion; in the sight of god, till death, what god ...

brentan comments on Jan 16, 2020:

There are a few elements to it. One is the partner's needs. Another is the children's. There are more, of course. Only dealing with those two, there's the parent's need to get out of the situation where they feel trapped and the children's desperate need for security in their formative years.

Pope Francis assures atheists: You don’t have to believe in God to go to heaven | The Independent

brentan comments on Jan 15, 2020:

What a lovely man! I can breathe easy now.

We have an expression in the UK which says ” Not singing from the same hymn-sheet ” when family,...

brentan comments on Jan 15, 2020:

I must admit I don't think so and that may well be a very good thing! It keeps the conversion moving along.

Stolen from Psychotic2 on fbuk -

brentan comments on Jan 15, 2020:

The little turd!

Lol.........

brentan comments on Jan 15, 2020:

Oh dear, that's really funny!

Beware yet another religious troll has joined the site posting pro catholic godbothering answers and...

brentan comments on Jan 15, 2020:

I'm ready. Time for a witch hunt.

“If Shakespeare had never existed, he asked, would the world have differed much from what it is ...

brentan comments on Jan 15, 2020:

I think this guy answers the question for me: We are tied down, all our days and for the greater part of our days, to the commonplace. That is where contact with great thinkers, great literature helps. In their company we are still in the ordinary world, but it is the ordinary world transfigured and seen through the eyes of wisdom and genius. And some of their vision becomes our own. - Sir Richard Livingstone.

Well it's true....😉

brentan comments on Jan 15, 2020:

Just right for winter!

What do you call an elephant that doesn't matter? An irrelephant

brentan comments on Jan 15, 2020:

Now just a cotton-pickin' minute....

Carly Simon, Anticipation.

brentan comments on Jan 15, 2020:

I always liked that song but TBH never really listened to the words. Her voice and the tune were enough. I must check out the lyrics.

The enemy is within... they have breached the gates and they are among us.

brentan comments on Jan 15, 2020:

I've been listening to YouTube videos about John Dewey and his influence on education. The good thing about him was he envisioned a school as a co-operative between teachers and students where the formation of the student as a fully formed adult was the goal. This was to be done through the medium of the students' own aptitudes, be they academic of vocational. The gist of it seems to be that Dewey's teachings were taken on board by the education systems in America and abroad but the goal of forming the individual was lost and education became more the collection of data in memory to regurgitate during the exams.

Watch, before it gets deleted. - YouTube

brentan comments on Jan 14, 2020:

Oh, he's a seriously dangerous commie!

New years resulioution

brentan comments on Jan 13, 2020:

Go for it. It's worth a try!

The death of Roger Scruton is sad.

brentan comments on Jan 13, 2020:

A great contributor to the 'Great Conversation'. I loved his talks on the preservation of culture and beauty. Oddly, I saw nothing in today's papers about his death.

"The first casualty when war comes is truth" Hiram Johnson

brentan comments on Jan 13, 2020:

We are in a good position nowadays to see how the lies begin even before war starts. They create the conditions for war. No doubt the lies continue as the victor writes the story.

God is not necessary for religion.

brentan comments on Jan 13, 2020:

The root word for religion is 'religio' and it carries the sense of people bound together in a purpose. I came across it first when someone referred to the book Religio Medici. I think it carries a general meaning that became narrowed to community worship. If that's the case, then religion certainly can exist without a god.

Eric Clapton - I Shot The Sheriff [youtube.com]

brentan comments on Jan 12, 2020:

Funky white guy! And those backing singers - terrific!

Some will get this...

brentan comments on Jan 12, 2020:

Is it a reply from Rammstein?

Some time ago I recommended Sapiens: A brief history of humankind by Yuval Noah Harari.

brentan comments on Jan 12, 2020:

I read it and really enjoyed it. The thing that has stayed with me (because it was so surprising) is that the move to an agricultural life was not good for us.

“There are two sides to every question.” ---- Protagoras

brentan comments on Jan 11, 2020:

Was that the first reference to the dialectic?