Applied CT.

brentan comments on Oct 25, 2019:

A lynching, no less. Strange fruit, indeed.

"Theologian: An uncommon individual who, though possessing finite abilities, has been called by ...

brentan comments on Oct 25, 2019:

Helping the little people is a big ego-boost. They will often buy you a nice car too!

Do we change the clocks this weekend or next? I can never remember.

brentan comments on Oct 25, 2019:

Spring forward, Fall backwards.

Avoid cliches.

brentan comments on Oct 25, 2019:

Me too. Wouldn't touch 'em with a ten foot pole.

Anyone ever notice that the crucified Jesus is shown in pictures as being both nailed and also tied ...

brentan comments on Oct 25, 2019:

This was very important when I was a Jehovah's Witness. I think stake is correct (Greek stauros, if memory serves well). If so, I guess one hand had to be placed behind the other and a nail put hammered through the two of them. This would put more strain on the nail (poor nail!) than one nail per hand on a cross. Maybe that's why the hands were tied to the stake with a rope as well.

James Madison in the 1787 Convention: In framing a system we wish to last for ages, we should not ...

brentan comments on Oct 25, 2019:

That kind of forward thinking is very backward indeed.

Alexander Hamilton in the 1787 Const.

brentan comments on Oct 25, 2019:

That reminds me of the double-meaning to the statement 'the people are revolting'.

Stephen Hawking famously said that "Philosophy is dead." What do you think?

brentan comments on Oct 25, 2019:

If science is about how everything happens, it's great. If it's about why, the meaning of life etc., it has nothing to offer and has left many people cold. Granted, many people feel there is no meaning, no why, but many others sense more is going on than meets the eye, or scientific inquiry, to put it another way.

James Madison - “Religious bondage shackles and debilitates the mind and unfits it for every noble...

brentan comments on Oct 24, 2019:

I guess passive-aggression isn't very noble. I'm not sure, though, that nobility is virtuous.

George Bernard Shaw - “All religions begin with a revolt against morality, and perish when ...

brentan comments on Oct 24, 2019:

I wonder what he meant.

Why I'm divorced.

brentan comments on Oct 24, 2019:

O M G!!!!!!!!

I'm sure this has been posted here before, but it's still relevant.

brentan comments on Oct 24, 2019:

So relevant for the Jehovah's Witnesses, and maybe the Mormons too.

Here's a great article about the decline of music in our society.

brentan comments on Oct 24, 2019:

I think, like bullshit that distracts you from focusing on the emptiness of the verbal content, a lot of modern music is just distracting noise. Musical bullshit. But I'm not feeling one bit hopeless about the situation. I keep finding singers and musicians worth a listen.

Appropriate for this group of people.

brentan comments on Oct 24, 2019:

Truth, the ultimate party-pooper.

A couple of them Ford McQuay-Norris Streamliner 1934

brentan comments on Oct 24, 2019:

I guess the letters in maths have one thing in common with the car - they keep changing their position.

Hated answers.

brentan comments on Oct 24, 2019:

We should be grateful to have the privilege of cooking for them.

Do you agree?

brentan comments on Oct 24, 2019:

I'm getting mixed messages because of those tattoos!

For all the multi-partner members around

brentan comments on Oct 24, 2019:

Literary miscegenation. I fear for their children.

It doesn’t.

brentan comments on Oct 24, 2019:

Beautiful too.

If you are saying God created all living things then why all living things except us aren't in ...

brentan comments on Oct 24, 2019:

He chose us out of all other creation. Weren't we the lucky ones!

One day, Joe, Bob and Dave were hiking in a wilderness area when they came upon a large, raging, ...

brentan comments on Oct 24, 2019:

So much for God knowing what you need before you even ask him!

10,000 years in 4 minutes: Google claims huge quantum computing breakthrough [nbcnews.com]

brentan comments on Oct 23, 2019:

Wow! I wonder how many qubits to a regular byte there are now.

Tough day my hippies.

brentan comments on Oct 23, 2019:

I think the Like button is gone wonky again. Either that or my PC. Anyway, that was lucky! I would celebrate and chill at the same time, if that's possible.

Just a dude taking a poop. Nothing to see here.

brentan comments on Oct 23, 2019:

I hope he's not missing the bowl.

As opposed to Socialism:

brentan comments on Oct 23, 2019:

I think that if people 'democratically' agreed to steal your bike, that would theft and they would be liable to prosecution.' If true, it would make no difference in the two regimes.

Is it possible for a 7 year old to know that they are in the wrong body?

brentan comments on Oct 23, 2019:

It would some task separating those with a personal bias from those who only care about the good of the child. Luna, though? That's awful!

Best advice! ❤

brentan comments on Oct 23, 2019:

I was lucky that my father was like that.

The term logos, the root word of ``logic,'' refers to the sum total of our rational understanding ...

brentan comments on Oct 23, 2019:

I always took it that mythos was the primal expression of logos - the early attempt to rationalise the world around us. I see mythos becoming subsumed into the concept of logos during the Axial Age and then adopted into Christianity. I'm very unhappy with one particular public intellectual, the very Catholic E. Michael Jones, appropriating logos for his faith and confining the understanding and expression of logos to his religious doctrine.

I was essentially raised in a cult (JW) which is a big reason for my getting out of organized ...

brentan comments on Oct 23, 2019:

I'm ex-JW too, happy being able to think for myself again.

I solved that problem.

brentan comments on Oct 22, 2019:

LOL. There's more than one way to skin a cat!

an elementary issue I'm sure but i wanna say this.

brentan comments on Oct 22, 2019:

Well Ok, but they are very related things. What prompted you to say that?

This song used to be my touchstone during the confusing times of emigrationn.

brentan comments on Oct 22, 2019:

I know the feeling. I had been listening to a cassette I had of Madame Butterfly for a while before I emigrated to the U.S. I can't describe the feeling of beauty and peace it gave me in the maelstrom of the new world. I guess it's bringing your culture along with you into a new world that you haven't figured out yet.

If god ever actually gave a sign

brentan comments on Oct 22, 2019:

Yeah well fuck him too!

JOHN PAVLOVITZ, a religious man who is nonetheless, right, on the right side, and righteous, even to...

brentan comments on Oct 22, 2019:

I guess he is just advocating democracy. True, not everyone can see the other point of view so a vote stands firm for our opinions. I think he is repeating Hillary's judgment that these people who don't share our point of view are deplorables. But more than that - he is saying that he has approached them on so many levels and they have fallen short on each one of them. Isn't that truly deplorable? And there seems no reason to believe that when the time comes to vote again, that all these right-minded folk will out-vote the deplorables. Maybe it's time to get off the high horse and listen to the other side.

What do you call a male witch?

brentan comments on Oct 22, 2019:

A minority. But I'm sure they love him.

Anyone else NOT raised in a religious family?

brentan comments on Oct 22, 2019:

My mother was angry at the Church for its intrusions into her personal life and my father was more interested in middle-class morality. The emptiness of the latter motivated me to look into religion for deeper meaning. Middle-class morality and Church power died during my lifetime and now I feel my whole society is dealing with an emptiness that economic growth, as the only morality and raison d'etre left to us, cannot fill.

Ok, NOW they're heaven-bound......

brentan comments on Oct 22, 2019:

It's the Christian thing to do!

Chickenfoot - Highway Star [youtube.com]

brentan comments on Oct 22, 2019:

That's a very respectable cover!

The hated enemy.

brentan comments on Oct 22, 2019:

Mothra Jaysus!

Wind Rose - To Erebor [youtu.be]

brentan comments on Oct 22, 2019:

Culture isn't dead yet!

Thomas Paine - “The Bible is a book that has been read more and examined less than any book that ...

brentan comments on Oct 22, 2019:

He must give God a paine in the ass.

Poor fly depressed

brentan comments on Oct 22, 2019:

I had a St. Francis of Assisi attitude to my buzzing buddies and then I went to Spain.

So cute!!!!

brentan comments on Oct 22, 2019:

An extra dimension to symbiosis!

Thomas Paine - “The declaration which says that God visits the sins of the fathers upon the ...

brentan comments on Oct 22, 2019:

The curious thing is that the proverb comes from Deuteronomy 28, when it was a curse, not a proverb. The curse was promised to the nation if it broke its Mosaic covenant with God. Around the 6th century BC, there was the assumption that their exile was the promised curse. The Jews in exile complained bitterly that they shouldn't have to pay for the sins of their fathers. Ezekiel seems to be disingenuous when he tells them in chapter 18 that it is only a proverb that is not true. One would think he would know it was the curse of the God of whom he was a prophet and that that he was actually saying the word of that God was being corrected by him, a mere man.

I'm alex and i want to make new friends

brentan comments on Oct 21, 2019:

Hi. Welcome to the forum!

John Dryden (of a fellow writer)--"The rest at some slight meaning make pretense/ But Shadwell never...

brentan comments on Oct 21, 2019:

What a meanie!

And in the WHITE HOUSE! Gawd help us!

brentan comments on Oct 21, 2019:

I don't know whether calling them socialists is just being honestly incorrect or political disingenuousness. They are social democrats, believing that wealth distribution is skewed badly and needs more balance.

Religion is the opium of the people.

brentan comments on Oct 20, 2019:

I have to conclude that Marx was speaking well of religion even though he was working for economic conditions that would make the world less heartless. I think we still need to work on the problem of soulless conditions.

We made too many wrong mistakes. - Yogi Berra

brentan comments on Oct 20, 2019:

Or booboos as Yogi Bear would say.

Can you identify these 2?

brentan comments on Oct 20, 2019:

Could it be his Dad? I think the features are similar.

The Human Be In with all of San Francisco's Rock Bands including: Santana and Steve Miller Band.

brentan comments on Oct 20, 2019:

I see they got poets on the menu too.

I've lost my appetite.

brentan comments on Oct 20, 2019:

Can't wait!

Thomas Paine - “All national institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian, or Turkish, ...

brentan comments on Oct 20, 2019:

The bastards!

THE CONCEPT OF NOTHING.

brentan comments on Oct 20, 2019:

That's how I understood Lawrence Krauss' book A Universe From Nothing. He seemed to be saying nothing is possibly a backdrop on which to 'hang' things, for want of a better word.

GRANDMA IN COURT In a trial, a small-town prosecuting attorney called his first witness, an ...

brentan comments on Oct 20, 2019:

Ha! She could help create more court cases than help solve them.

How do you say.....

brentan comments on Oct 20, 2019:

Ha ha. Benny Hill-type German.

Obama Willing to Serve as Temp President While Trump Receives Psychiatric Evaluation | The New ...

brentan comments on Oct 20, 2019:

America ready to go back to the same old, same old.

Seems a bit early to be driving home for Christmas

brentan comments on Oct 20, 2019:

Oh yeah, and you don't add in the video!

In case no-one's shared this gem, I thought I's pop back in briefly and do so! Los Tigres Del ...

brentan comments on Oct 20, 2019:

That sounded great in Spanish! I'll bet the prisoners really enjoyed that day.

"Is that sarcasm?

brentan comments on Oct 20, 2019:

That's a new one for me - thanks!

That's where mine goes...

brentan comments on Oct 20, 2019:

Never!

My favorite from ACDC [youtu.be]

brentan comments on Oct 20, 2019:

Wonderful, cathartic fun!

LGBTQ Activists Shut Down Britain’s Only Chick-fil-A Just 9 Days After Opening ...

brentan comments on Oct 20, 2019:

No messing about there!

Fellow Members of the Community Senate and the Administrator of Agnostic.

brentan comments on Oct 19, 2019:

I'm not bothered by him at all. If I'm not in the mood to read one of his comments, I just move on. I think blocking is a bit extreme, never mind getting involved in some kind of democratic lynching.

Doesn't care even the city is in the middle of chaos coz he is in he's own ...

brentan comments on Oct 19, 2019:

That's bad form, playing pocket billiards in public.

Would you need CT to figure out this one, or would common sense and some education do it?

brentan comments on Oct 18, 2019:

Someone's gone off the reservation.

I’ve been feeling crippling loneliness lately.

brentan comments on Oct 18, 2019:

I'll just add this song because it is an elegant and succinct expression of being lonely. I can't say whether 'seems I'm not alone in being alone' is much comfort. Anyway, I hope your lonely feeling can be put down to a particularly crappy day and new days provide new opportunities. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePwjipxjAmA

Truth in ...wait... What??!!

brentan comments on Oct 17, 2019:

Close, but no banana.

Did King David Rape Bathsheba?

brentan comments on Oct 17, 2019:

It's a very biased story. David seems to have been running a protection racket in the hills prior to becoming king (1 Samuel 25). He did commit adultery and also arranged to have the husband killed (2 Samuel 11: 3,4, 14,15). Then, when it came time to pay the price, David's son's life is taken to atone for what David had done (2 Samuel 12:13, 14). It is without a doubt 'one fucked up story' and I would really love to know how people reading it back when it was written down for the first time accepted David as a heroic character who was loved by God (1 Samuel 13:14).

You dirty rat

brentan comments on Oct 17, 2019:

Well, it's the thought that counts.

Alternate ending

brentan comments on Oct 17, 2019:

Darth's not fair!

Nick Harper - Seed Off to Preston tonight to see this guy.

brentan comments on Oct 17, 2019:

I'm surprised I hadn't heard of him. I really enjoyed this album! I was well aware of his Dad with his wild lyrics and lyrical, reverberative voice. You can hear those influences on this album. I still have Stormcock. I must give it another listen today.

Life lessons

brentan comments on Oct 17, 2019:

Keep society healthy. Weed out the weak!

The worst part of getting old! I have just turned 64, some of you will say "youngster!" maybe, but I...

brentan comments on Oct 16, 2019:

You needing some help and your wife willing to give it sounds like a good complaint to me.

Hate when that happens.

brentan comments on Oct 15, 2019:

It's that fuckin' Andrex dog again.

The Trauma of Public Speaking and Other Reasons You Need Buddhism in Your Work Life

brentan comments on Oct 15, 2019:

And I thought it was just good for motorcycle maintenance.

Sometimes you just have to wonder...

brentan comments on Oct 15, 2019:

I'm not sure if it's a case of morality or aesthetics.

I'm ok with her misinterpretation.

brentan comments on Oct 15, 2019:

Pink Proyd.

I watched a youtube video called Caesar's Messiah and I was blown away.

brentan comments on Oct 15, 2019:

I was immersed in the Bible for many years too so when I started to think about the origins of Christianity being fabricated for political reasons, I was intrigued but not completely convinced because of the sheer sophistication of the project.

Red lipstick, heavy mascara, short skirt, high heels.

brentan comments on Oct 15, 2019:

I think you would need to be very circumspect working with women these days. I think the issue lies between the women wanting to look their most attractive and men needing not to be affected by that.

Joe Rogan+Jordan Peterson Obliterated by Mark Blyth+Noam Chomsky on Iphone 📱📱🤣🤣 ...

brentan comments on Oct 15, 2019:

Let's try socialism. That worked great!

Marc Anthony [youtu.be]

brentan comments on Oct 14, 2019:

His English looks as good as my Spanish! He's very good. I saw a YT video of his performance at the Vina del Mar years ago and have a couple of his albums.

Cafeteria xtians

brentan comments on Oct 14, 2019:

And to think sophia means wisdom: Wisdom cries aloud in the street, in the markets she raises her voice; at the head of the noisy streets she cries out; at the entrance of the city gates she speaks: “How long, O simple ones, will you love being simple? How long will scoffers delight in their scoffing and fools hate knowledge? Proverbs 1:20-22.

Good Morning My Hippies! Heading out to meet my new boss shortly.

brentan comments on Oct 14, 2019:

Yesterday, all his troubles seemed so far away....

Does this remind you of Trump

brentan comments on Oct 14, 2019:

Those deplorable Romans.

But, then again, it was perfectly fine for Sampson...

brentan comments on Oct 14, 2019:

It seems the wicked Romans adopted God's approved hairstyle by chance.

I laughed. Poor kid.

brentan comments on Oct 14, 2019:

Oh, that is so cold!

Let's celebrate Cliff Richard's 79th birthday with Devil Woman He was a sensation in Europe in ...

brentan comments on Oct 14, 2019:

I find it hard to separate Cliff the singer from Cliff the alleged pervert.

Won't even take you where you wanna go!

brentan comments on Oct 13, 2019:

At least it's free, even if you aren't.

Wow! Bill 'the hypocrite' Barr!!! Barr slams attacks on religious values, says 'moral upheaval' ...

brentan comments on Oct 13, 2019:

I guess he's a hypocrite if he's trying to convince people that everything was rosy in the garden when the country in general was religious. I agree with him in the sense that things have gone downhill since the demise of the power of the church. He probably only sees two options: stay secular or return to Mother Church. The lack of a third alternative, humanism, gaining any traction, makes him look correct. The values of secular humanism seem to be a luxury for the comfortable and intellectual and leaves a huge swathe of the public with few values to aspire to and be willing to suffer for,.

He can fix anything.

brentan comments on Oct 13, 2019:

McGuyver!

"What marks modernist thought above all is the belief that human existence is contingent - that it ...

brentan comments on Oct 13, 2019:

I like Jordan Peterson's idea that adopting responsibility for ourselves and those around us gives life meaning. But what about something more direct that sings to our souls and adds a quality to our lives such as Robert Pirsig wrote about. I think William Blake hit a profound note with his concept that the reality and quality of our lives are the product of our imaginations. I think many people fall back on art and culture when they lose their religions because they are related, all being expressions of human aspiration. What about the uneducated, then? They are robbed so much more than anyone.

Proverbs 16:4 (NRSV): The Lord has made everything for its purpose, even the wicked for the day of ...

brentan comments on Oct 13, 2019:

Yes indeed, and if we are inclined to get testy about it, we're told God is the potter and we are the clay so he can make whatever he wants and we have no right to criticise: You are only a human being. Who do you think you are to talk back to God? Does the clay say to the potter, "Why did you make me like this?" Doesn't the potter have the power over the clay to make one pot for special purposes and another for garbage from the same lump of clay? - Romans 9:20,21.

Your groaner for today...

brentan comments on Oct 13, 2019:

Well, we can't say we weren't warned.

Barr claims secularism is the cause of many of our society's ills. [thehill.com]

brentan comments on Oct 13, 2019:

I suspect he's right. But that doesn't mean I'd like a return to the old religion. I hope we're living in an interim period between old-style religion and an emerging humanism. I'm not confident about it, though.

Liar, liar pants on fire You know there ain’t no devil only god when he’s drunk! Great lines...

brentan comments on Oct 13, 2019:

"It's art, Jim, but not as we knew it".

Why are you a humanist?

brentan comments on Oct 13, 2019:

I think the word covers caring about people without the belief that they are made in the image of God.

H.

brentan comments on Oct 13, 2019:

Yes indeed! For the sons of this age are more shrewd in relation to their own kind than the sons of light - Luke 16:8. or The tigers of wrath are wiser than the horses of instruction - William Blake The Marriage of Heaven and Hell.

Wine & cheese?

brentan comments on Oct 13, 2019:

Well now, who's a party-pooper?

A little girl went into the kitchen and asked her mom "what's sex"?

brentan comments on Oct 13, 2019:

I hope sex isn't done in a few secs.