Is it Peter's Church?

brentan comments on Nov 6, 2019:

My guess is it's Paul's Church.

The universe may be conscious, say prominent scientists - Big Think

brentan comments on Nov 6, 2019:

I've been intrigued by this concept since I read Rupert Sheldrake's book on morphic fields years ago. I never thought it would gain gain traction. Thanks for the link! I really enjoyed it.

not as trite as it may sound -

brentan comments on Nov 6, 2019:

When nations grow old, the arts grow cold and commerce settles on every tree. Imagination is the real and eternal world of which this vegetable universe is but a faint shadow. - William Blake

Was thinking of a spectrum not of belief but more about how we proceed in the moment.

brentan comments on Nov 6, 2019:

I heard on a YT video recently that Plato recommended a sense of wonder as the basis for anagoge (spiritual growth) while Aristotle argued wonder was the basis to answering questions about life. It made me think of Einstein and his sense of wonder that seemed to embrace both ideas. The poet William Blake argued that the concept of a mechanical universe and the never-ending measurement of the universe was destroying the wonder of life. He understood wonder as the human imagination growing in power to become vision. For him, there was no God other than mankind when it lived with vision. That vision certainly gave meaning to his life and perhaps that is what this is all about whether it remains earthbound or ventures into the supernatural.

This study makes me think I've been a bit too hard on people afflicted with religion.

brentan comments on Nov 6, 2019:

It gets complicated when the victims behave like bullies. This happens in many situations, like mentally ill people abusing those caring for them, and people in socially-deprived areas behaving violently towards other people. I find it easy enough to care about people until they start threatening me.

Does anybody else see the general timbre here of late being of battle lines being drawn up of ...

brentan comments on Nov 6, 2019:

There's quite a lot of venting. I accept many people have been hurt very badly by religion. I think I'm very fortunate that even though I have huge respect for the Bible and the Judeo-Christian culture and often voice it, I get very little negative feedback from it. Fingers crossed we continue to read opposing opinions in a friendly way!

Just some pointers

brentan comments on Nov 5, 2019:

I'm ready now to text in confidence. Without even using Grammarly. Slipping in that bit about Epstein raised a smile.

These words came to me.

brentan comments on Nov 4, 2019:

William Blake would be proud!

Christians often equate atheism with satanism, but atheists don't believe in a Satan either, so are ...

brentan comments on Nov 4, 2019:

Maybe they would justify it by saying 'he who is not for me is against me'.

This apply to you too

brentan comments on Nov 4, 2019:

LOL. Where recognition probably meets avoidance.

I do not want that.

brentan comments on Nov 4, 2019:

I like duck. I think I'd spend the extra $6 for the Crispy Duck by Half.

Bertrand Russell - “Why should I allow the same God to tell me how to raise my kids, who had to ...

brentan comments on Nov 4, 2019:

Poor God. He definitely had nobody to teach parenting to him.

He should have spelled it out. :P

brentan comments on Nov 4, 2019:

and if you could get food there...

I just now joined.

brentan comments on Nov 4, 2019:

I don't think it's ever definitely too late. I hope not anyway because I'm 65 and would love to meet someone compatible. Anyway, best of luck and welcome to the forum!

So many new members saying not much, including me.

brentan comments on Nov 4, 2019:

The bastards!

Everything human is pathetic.

brentan comments on Nov 4, 2019:

He must have been having a bad day.

At our age... [youtube.com]

brentan comments on Nov 4, 2019:

I was intrigued by William Blake's Nebuchadnezzar. I googled it and see the print is on the cover of their Death Walks Behind You album. I guess this is the title song.

Old Saying, "Death is nature's way of telling you to slow down"

brentan comments on Nov 4, 2019:

Stop, even.

A couple days ago I read Stephen king's book "The Institute".

brentan comments on Nov 4, 2019:

I've been promising myself to read something in fiction for some time now. I read lots of his books when I was younger and loved the way he dealed more with terror more then horror. I'm glad to hear he hasn't lost his touch!

Tonights offering A British Band this time the first Band I saw in concert took all of my holiday ...

brentan comments on Nov 4, 2019:

They were a great band! I saw them in concert in Dublin many years ago. It was the first time I saw a band using two drummers. I get what you say about the changes in the songs. My favourites are probably One night In Paris and The Second Sitting of the Last Supper.

[bitchmedia.org] Why do we have an obsession with serial killers like Ted Bundy?

brentan comments on Nov 3, 2019:

Ha! I'm watching a film about him right now.

“Man is nothing but object.” - Ludwig Feuerbach

brentan comments on Nov 3, 2019:

What did he mean?

Whatever our reservations as skeptics, whatever our doubts about the admixture of Native American ...

brentan comments on Nov 3, 2019:

There's a lot of meanings given to the word 'sacred' in the dictionary. Leaving out the ones with clear religious overtones, one meaning was 'to regard something with reverence'. I think it's fair to say the word has its root in religion but meanings change and/or expand over time. I like the Native American intuition about our relation with nature. Lovelock's Gaia concept was much the same thing. The Bible says little about that relationship as far as I know but there are some allusions to the result of living sinfully on the land, such as: And if you defile the land, it will vomit you out as it vomited out the nations that were before you. - Leviticus 18:28.

Critical thinking requires that you abandon all the stories that do not meet the basic criteria for ...

brentan comments on Nov 3, 2019:

I think they are morality tales to make us think and be cautious in a dangerous world.

In my opinion, evolution is the greatest stumbling block for a theistic worldview, especially when ...

brentan comments on Nov 3, 2019:

This might raise a smile: ‘… the philosopher Leibniz famously maintains that, since the world was created by God, and since the mind of God is the most benevolent and capable mind imaginable, the world must be the best world imaginable. Under such a system, humans perceive evil only because they do not understand the force governing the world and thus do not know that every ill exists only for a greater good’. https://www.sparknotes.com/lit/candide/quotes/ It was generally accepted that Leibnitz, who in all fairness was a genius, was being mocked by Voltaire in his book Candide. ‘All is for the best, in the best of all possible worlds’ was the mantra of Pangloss, Candide’s ever-optimistic tutor and philosopher. I came across this first in, of all places, an episode of Sharpe’s Rifles.

I spent almost a year in the pre civil rights South.

brentan comments on Nov 3, 2019:

Causation or correlation? I'm not qualified to answer. I have to rely on that old saying that there's no smoke without fire.

What are your thoughts on sociopathy and psychopathy as mindsets?

brentan comments on Nov 3, 2019:

I think sociopathy is a function of population growth in the sense of it being in direct proportion to population growth. I'm not sure the word means lack of conscience but the result is the same. The nature of it lies in people becoming viewed as more of a hindrance than a help in proportion to growth. I think it's a learned mindset in the sense of parents teaching their children the basic assumptions that life is dog eat dog so individuals lose their intrinsic value. To be fair, many individuals in these high populated situations have little intrinsic value to be seen anyway. The psychopaths go a step further in not just conceiving others as hindrances but also conceiving that they should be eliminated as necessary. All this is a far cry from the Judeo-Christian idea that every human being is made in the image of God and his and her life should be treated as having such a high value.

"bible scholar"

brentan comments on Nov 3, 2019:

There's a place where you better not think outside the box. Contrast the lectures by Christine Hayes at Yale.

It's great to see lots of new members sharing interests and discussion.

brentan comments on Nov 3, 2019:

The darn cheek of them! Fuckers always causing cognitive dissonance.

The god police are the most dangerous on the planet: christian, islamist, buddhist, hinduist, ...

brentan comments on Nov 3, 2019:

I'm looking forward to reading Douglas Murray's new book The Madness of Crowds to read how he expounds the idea of lefties becoming the new god police.

1, 4 , 5. And if it was only that easy , oh man 🙃🦇😩

brentan comments on Nov 2, 2019:

3, 6 and 9 sound great!

Admit nothing.

brentan comments on Nov 2, 2019:

Timmy must learn the morality of the situation.

Is the concept of god irrelevant??

brentan comments on Nov 2, 2019:

I think the concept of God nowadays is very much about our aspirations. That will never go out of date.

Hello everyone.

brentan comments on Nov 2, 2019:

I've been enjoying his videos for some time now. I love his theory that human civilisation goes back much further than 6000 years and that Noah's Flood is probably the floods at the end of the last Ice Age around 12000 BC.

Topic: I just "broke up with" my (former) best friend.

brentan comments on Nov 2, 2019:

I can’t help thinking friendship is more important than different opinions. Me, I think the moral question about homosexuality is about, where men are concerned, using the outlet for faeces instead of the outlet for urine. There have been people, like Jonathon Swift, who couldn’t handle the idea of even heterosexual sex for that reason and even found the ways humans evacuated their waste very disagreeable. For me, this smacks of a difficulty people have in accepting that even though we are human beings, we are animals too. We don’t think of ourselves as human animals who have raised ourselves conceptually while retaining our basic physical desires below the belt. We tend to think of ourselves in terms of godly creatures who have fallen into the depravity of the lower animals. Really, love is the only remedy for covering over our differences of opinion and our different ways of expressing physical love.

Real 'Garden of Eden' where ALL humans originated 200,000 years ago finally found in Botswana

brentan comments on Nov 2, 2019:

What! Descended from black people? Quelle horreur! Seriously, though, that theory has been criticised for ignoring information that places evidence of early man in many places in Africa.

Nothing like a smart kid.

brentan comments on Nov 2, 2019:

That reminds me of the idea that people who curse a lot are very intelligent.

Sex appeal in workplace?

brentan comments on Nov 2, 2019:

I'm pretty sure I understand the argument about sex in the workplace. I think we'll go through a phase where the principle of the thing will be judged more important than anything else and then revert to our human desire for the opposite sex, flirting and doing the bold thing with workmates. It makes me think of the time the Puritans took over in England and the people couldn't wait to get back to being ruled by decadent kings.

Calling for federal support and funding, Dresden declares ‘Nazi emergency’ [thelocal.com]

brentan comments on Nov 2, 2019:

Apparently, controlled immigration is racism nowadays. Many people want to hold on their cultures while the globalist economy wants to flood European countries with cheap labour. The extremists are a natural response to this. They tend to think of immigrants as the enemy when it is really their governments who are obeying the dictates of big business.

Enhancing humanist.

brentan comments on Nov 2, 2019:

I wanna woman!

Day of the Dead (Dia de Muertos) is celebrated in Mexico October 31 – November 2, which coincides ...

brentan comments on Nov 2, 2019:

Some day we won't believe in silly ideas like that and life will be much duller for it.

@brentan had asked if I'd share my coming out speech, given a couple of Thursdays ago.

brentan comments on Nov 2, 2019:

Cool. I'll send my email addy. Thanks!

I started college at Western Michigan University with this as a hit: [youtu.be]

brentan comments on Nov 2, 2019:

That was pretty cool going to college when you had a hit song.

Studies show that cows produce more milk when the farmer talks to them.

brentan comments on Nov 2, 2019:

That's awful...but I like it!

Continuing with your favorite Hanna - Barbara character, I give you part four of section one: ...

brentan comments on Nov 2, 2019:

Top Cat is 'the indisputable leader of the band'. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3_XRsDP7eM

"The world is a stage, and we all could have a major part to play."

brentan comments on Nov 2, 2019:

I'll sweep up after.

Attributed to Buddha--"Don't just do something, stand there"

brentan comments on Nov 2, 2019:

Is it him or his twin sister?

This sound right ?

brentan comments on Nov 2, 2019:

A homuncular drunk.

I always love how ultra religious people will quote Leviticus and claim that the bible is gods word.

brentan comments on Nov 2, 2019:

The Old Testament prohibition on homosexuality was brought into the New Testament in a catch-all verse for various sexual sins: Acts 15:29 New International Version (NIV) You are to abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from sexual immorality. You will do well to avoid these things. Sexual immorality covers a lot of ground and it is a shame that one form of scriptural immorality is focused on and all the rest pretty much ignored.

He " might ". U know . If he feels generous and all 😂

brentan comments on Nov 2, 2019:

Here's a beautiful agnostic love song. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FG0-cncMpt8

This is the story of just one beautiful work of art, which throws a light on some ancient history.

brentan comments on Nov 1, 2019:

That's a beautiful piece of art and I really enjoyed hearing about it.

Look out Thing

brentan comments on Nov 1, 2019:

She was doing a bad Thing.

I should have know better.. [m.youtube.com]

brentan comments on Nov 1, 2019:

I thought it was Jim Diamond but this guy is very well thought of.

“When men choose not to believe in God, they do not thereafter believe in nothing, they then ...

brentan comments on Nov 1, 2019:

I was taken aback by Sam Harris' response to Jordan Peterson's statement that socialism in Russia was based on an atheism that was genocidal in its very essence. Harris replied that everything about the structure of socialism was religious from the dogma, the state Inquisition, the treatment of 'heretics' and who knows what else. If true, religious belief of a kind carried on under socialism. Douglas Murray has just released a new book called The Madness Of Crowds that claims our modern ideological groups are also religious in the same way. Starkey's take on cult following, cultural guilt etc. gave me pause for thought in the context of new religion. I had to laugh when he called Greta Thunberg the new Joan of Arc but who knows? Maybe he's on to something.

When I wanted to grow up, this was NOT what I had in mind!

brentan comments on Oct 31, 2019:

I used to work Monday to Friday for Costco and then spend Saturday shopping there. I often thought of that song 'I owe my soul to the company store'.

Family photo ?

brentan comments on Oct 31, 2019:

I can spot the real witch. Wart you mean?

Dearly Beloved..We are gathered here today..

brentan comments on Oct 31, 2019:

A royal dog, A Prince, perhaps?

I have a random physics question for science types here, would be curious to hear some thoughts.

brentan comments on Oct 31, 2019:

I'm too tired!

The worst thing about aging is that you occasionally get very forceful reminders of your mortality.

brentan comments on Oct 31, 2019:

Make the best of it while you can?

Hide 👻👻👻

brentan comments on Oct 31, 2019:

I think I'd sheet myself.

It is enough to know that you are right.

brentan comments on Oct 30, 2019:

That's true. I've made that clear many times.

Gary Puckett & The Union Gap - Young Girl [youtube.com]

brentan comments on Oct 30, 2019:

That's a terrific song. Good attitude too!

Some people say sarcasm is the lowest form of humor.

brentan comments on Oct 30, 2019:

I like sarcasm. I find it therapeutic. It doesn't work so good in text, though, especially without emojis. But I do it anyway.

Well she did ask..

brentan comments on Oct 30, 2019:

Sounds like Bill in The Last Of Us.

You come and go...

brentan comments on Oct 30, 2019:

It needs to go.Hospital beds are really scarce!

Divinely inspired...

brentan comments on Oct 30, 2019:

Lost for words.

In case you need this while fighting the idiocy out there

brentan comments on Oct 30, 2019:

Yeah, pizza for nice people only!

“Religion is a sort of spiritual booze, in which the slaves of capital drown their human image, ...

brentan comments on Oct 30, 2019:

I hadn't heard that one. It's a less elegant version of Marx's comment, I guess, about religion being the opium of the people.

This one is attributed to Dorothy Parker, not sure if it has been verified.

brentan comments on Oct 29, 2019:

I guess the child inside you is completely dead if you lose all curiosity.

..........

brentan comments on Oct 29, 2019:

Brevity* is* the soul of wit!

I always loved watching Chico play the piano.

brentan comments on Oct 29, 2019:

Great fun!

I have spent many hours using CT to ascertain how Donald Trump has become the popinjay, barbermonger...

brentan comments on Oct 29, 2019:

I think you're right about him. He had a privileged upbringing but made from his father's ill-gotten gains. I dread to think what his father taught him life was all about.

Mathematician Reuben hersh makes the following interesting claim: >>Study of the lawful, ...

brentan comments on Oct 29, 2019:

It's the same old runaround with Plato's forms, Hume's empiricism, Leibnitz's rationalism and Kant's combination of the two. Kant puts maths in the (synthetic) a priori department. I'm not so sure. I think nature's forms might easily have suggested more deliberate shapes to a person. As for culture and its institutions, I think they developed from mythos as a growing rationalisation took precedence over individuality.

[archaeology.

brentan comments on Oct 29, 2019:

So much for the Dark Ages. That should be a good read!

It doesn't end here...

brentan comments on Oct 28, 2019:

That has a lot of significance for me and I do move on quite doggedly to make the future better.

Philosopher Intelligence

brentan comments on Oct 28, 2019:

The oracle at Delphi said Aristotle was the smartest because he realised how much he didn't know.

John F Kennedy argues for universal healthcare [youtube.

brentan comments on Oct 28, 2019:

Wow! JFK was a commie!

Don't forget

brentan comments on Oct 28, 2019:

I couldn't agree more.

If tRump were promoting the idea of fortifying the border with lions and tigers, would he just be ...

brentan comments on Oct 28, 2019:

In Colorado lol.

Summertime [youtu.be]

brentan comments on Oct 28, 2019:

That's a fine version. I like that, and the original, and Janis Joplin's version. My mother used to sing it at parties.

Does Philosophy actually any longer strive for arête, or only investigate in the abstract?

brentan comments on Oct 28, 2019:

I think it does. Jordan Peterson aimed his philosophy at improving lives. I'm currently watching John Vervaeke's YT lectures on 'awakening from the meaning crisis' and they too are practical. https://www.youtube.com/user/johnvervaeke

Going out in style....

brentan comments on Oct 28, 2019:

That's seriously witty under the circumstances.

when you think about it, it makes sense

brentan comments on Oct 28, 2019:

Gott in Himmel!

Faith is nothing more than the license religious people give themselves to keep believing when ...

brentan comments on Oct 28, 2019:

I guess Sam never looked up Hebrews 11:1.

Matthew 16:28 (NRSV) - Truly I tell you, there are some standing here who will not taste death ...

brentan comments on Oct 28, 2019:

That's why I'm convinced it was meant that they would see his kingdom within a generation.

How I feel on the Sundays I get off from work 🙃

brentan comments on Oct 28, 2019:

It's not a Sunday unless you're completely wasted by 8PM.

"An unexamined life, is a life not worth living".

brentan comments on Oct 28, 2019:

I will. I promise.

Apparently I'm the new admin to this group.

brentan comments on Oct 27, 2019:

The future depends on you! Best of luck!

Is that Christmas shit in the stores already?....

brentan comments on Oct 27, 2019:

They should wait til the day after Black Friday.

My new rebuttal meme for "Keep Christ in Christmas" nonsense

brentan comments on Oct 27, 2019:

That point needs to be hammered home!

Trumps brother found

brentan comments on Oct 27, 2019:

That's one ugly looking mug. The fish is no beauty either!

Asking for a friend.

brentan comments on Oct 27, 2019:

I suppose they might but after one glass of wine it doesn't matter so much.

hello all.

brentan comments on Oct 27, 2019:

I'm too busy playing the latest Call of Duty.

When we were kids

brentan comments on Oct 27, 2019:

Hey! It's Eckart Tolle with big ears!

OMG yes he adores this weird old stuff.

brentan comments on Oct 27, 2019:

To me, it's the musical expression of human aspiration, reaching out to touch the divine. I guess the divine is gone now, at least in the old religious sense but we can still relate to it as reaching out for the best that is in us. That's a lovely piece of music. I trust music will be a consolation on this sad day and always be a source of joy for you.

So gonna tackle a subject here that in the past has gotten some interesting responses.

brentan comments on Oct 27, 2019:

I think causes have natural responses and we get patterns from that. But it seems to me we can step in at any given time and reject the intuitive reaction. Perhaps the argument against that is that even the rejection is the result of a cause we can't see because we don't see the big picture.

"When I die, I'll donate my heart to NASA so they can see what a black hole really looks like.

brentan comments on Oct 27, 2019:

That heart needs a refill!

"For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong."-- H. L. Mencken

brentan comments on Oct 27, 2019:

And Einstein said we only really understand a complex issue if we could express it simply. We better watch for that!

“I say quite deliberately that the Christian religion, as organized in its churches, has been and ...

brentan comments on Oct 26, 2019:

The problem is that we don't see any great improvement in morality in countries where the power of religion has diminished. It might be argued that neoliberal economies, for instance, are enemies of moral progress.

Sounds about right.

brentan comments on Oct 25, 2019:

I see Catherine the Great is in the movies right now demonstrating her part in all this.