Horton Barker-At The Foot of Yonders Mountain [youtu.be]

brentan comments on Aug 8, 2018:

That old man has a surprisingly good voice for his age. It's a nice song too.

[yahoo.com] Faith Leaders Being Targeted For Aiding Migrants

brentan comments on Aug 7, 2018:

If they break the law, treat them like everyone else.

[m.youtube.com] Top 80, so longer but a few jaw droppers for me. I really enjoyed this one.

brentan comments on Aug 7, 2018:

I really enjoyed that trip down memory lane - thanks!

Hello Heathens. Hope everyone has a great day today.

brentan comments on Aug 7, 2018:

Hello fellow heathen. I heard a guy say recently that heretics are people who don't hold to the whole body of doctrine in an orthodox belief - they have a pick and chose attitude to the mainstream religion. I don't know if that's technically correct but I never really knew what the word meant.

The Solution to Stop Islam. - YouTube

brentan comments on Aug 7, 2018:

I think she has been so badly mistreated by the Muslim culture that she doesn't read the Koran completely objectively. I wish her well. She must be very strong.

I’d like to float an idea.

brentan comments on Aug 7, 2018:

Oh go on, then (insert smiley here).

Hello all! Noob here. Tips? Pointers? Thank you Site looks interesting.

brentan comments on Aug 7, 2018:

Hi. Welcome to the forum.

Not sure if I'm looking for any advice, or just needing to talk.

brentan comments on Aug 7, 2018:

I'm not able to give any advice. I just wanted to say well done for all the work you've put in as a father.

[youtube.com]

brentan comments on Aug 7, 2018:

That's very clever and funny. Hal needs a patch real bad.

Just your perspective..... !

brentan comments on Aug 7, 2018:

In the cartoon, it seems that the perspectives are determined by circumstance. Each man sees a change in circumstance and we laugh because their underlying circumstance isn't changing.

A must read.

brentan comments on Aug 7, 2018:

The Bible captured the idea very well: So I set my mind to know wisdom and madness and folly; I learned that this, too, is a pursuit of the wind. For with much wisdom comes much sorrow, and as knowledge grows, grief increases – Ecclesiastes 1:17, 18. It might be essential for the sake of a functioning society that not everybody is highly intelligent, educated and perceptive.

[youtu.be] the real deal. What a song

brentan comments on Aug 7, 2018:

I didn't underwhat she meant by barbed wire boys.

Deconstructing Genesis-Part 3 – Molded By Reality

brentan comments on Aug 5, 2018:

It is a good thing to read and reflect on what scripture says. It might be better to read what others have to say about these matters and then add your conclusions to the mix. I don't try to understand scripture literally. It doesn't work well for me. If I look on the stories as moral fables, I can make sense of them. But that's me. I'll keep an eye on your writings to see what you come up with.

The best revenge really is living well.

brentan comments on Aug 5, 2018:

I would like to hear his side of the story.

If god was real...

brentan comments on Aug 5, 2018:

It has got that way. Maybe it was always that way.

"History does not record anywhere at any time a religion that has any rational basis.

brentan comments on Aug 5, 2018:

Maybe he didn't know too many religious people.

Do you remember this?

brentan comments on Aug 5, 2018:

That's a big bandage. Can't you get it out of the package without a string?

Inspired by @Tampabrew 's earlier untitled post I dug this out of mothballs; it's a few years old ...

brentan comments on Aug 5, 2018:

I think Americans who insult Trump insult their presidency and thus their nation. Now before anyone answers, I said 'insult', not 'criticise'.

In his image? ?

brentan comments on Aug 5, 2018:

Perhaps they look surprised because you don't understand what made in God's image means.

Parenting...

brentan comments on Aug 5, 2018:

Where could a parent go for professional help? A museum?

Could you master your mind? Or how well do you master your mind?

brentan comments on Aug 5, 2018:

If you saw the brain the way Iain McGilchrest sees it, the corpus callosum dividing the two hemispheres might make that physically and psychologically impossible. The gist of it is that the left hemisphere controls focus on specific items in a mental image. The right views the overall picture. The corpus callosum both inhibits and processes output from the two sides. For example, the corpus callosum won’t allow the left hemisphere to remove the focus of the left brain when it is working. It will, however, allow information received from the left brain enter the right brain to be added to its picture of the whole. Could it be possible to master the mind? Probably not if this means the left brain must master the right. The corpus callosum won’t allow that. https://brainworldmagazine.com/the-divided-brain-an-interview-with-dr-iain-mcgilchrist/ He also has very interesting lectures and discussions on YouTube.

"Paradise.

brentan comments on Aug 5, 2018:

That sounds like a lovely place!

If I belive christian 1.

brentan comments on Aug 5, 2018:

It's not that these people believe unbelievers are going to hell that bothers me. It's the belief that some of them have that they should send unbelievers to hell before their time. I hope we never have to deal with that in the West again. Fingers crossed!

What do you do for 'self' care?

brentan comments on Aug 5, 2018:

I like video games to take my mind off things. Cooking works too.

10 Questions that religious person should ask himself before death 1.

brentan comments on Aug 5, 2018:

I didn't know that about Ali and Omar appearing in Muslim dreams according to their beliefs about Islam.

This is so good..

brentan comments on Aug 5, 2018:

Often found assembled in Portland, Oregon.

Some food for thought about Science.

brentan comments on Aug 5, 2018:

That comes across very arrogant.

If one has an affair on their partner, aside from the morality, guilt and violation of trust ( not ...

brentan comments on Aug 5, 2018:

Selfishness.

A reminder for us all to take the time to just breathe, to "stop and smell the roses".

brentan comments on Aug 5, 2018:

I hope that meme wasn't posted during work hours.

This was just posted by United Satanists! They are so bad butts! So much evil you may want to cover ...

brentan comments on Aug 5, 2018:

That's the sin that got Satan into trouble!

Good Evening Everyone! Peace & Joy to your Hearts!

brentan comments on Aug 5, 2018:

Where would we be without our global industrial gurus? Spiritually bereft, I guess.

I <3 him

brentan comments on Aug 5, 2018:

He's bullshitting for political advantage. Children have always been subject to suffering on America's shores. On every other country's shore too. Even the ones with no shores.

Why We Hurt Each Other: Tolstoy’s Letters to Gandhi on Love, Violence, and the Truth of the Human ...

brentan comments on Aug 5, 2018:

This paragraph speaks as much for our time as Tolstoy's: *What is now happening to the people of the East as of the West is like what happens to every individual when he passes from childhood to adolescence and from youth to manhood. He loses what had hitherto guided his life and lives without direction, not having found a new standard suitable to his age, and so he invents all sorts of occupations, cares, distractions, and stupefactions to divert his attention from the misery and senselessness of his life. Such a condition may last a long time.* This is manifest in my own country, Ireland, which is starting to live in a post-religious era.

At least I'm considerate. Edit: this is a joke, people.

brentan comments on Aug 5, 2018:

Well, it's not exactly MGTOW.

I'd like to share with you a piece I've composed for a video game.

brentan comments on Aug 5, 2018:

I enjoyed that very much.

Geese, so many middle aged people here. Where are all the young adults?

brentan comments on Aug 5, 2018:

Hey 19, we got nothin' in common....no, we can't talk at all.... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SOI_Yl_0e8

Good Books that made a difference.

brentan comments on Aug 5, 2018:

Crisis of Conscience has had a great influence of many Jehovah's Witnesses, including me. I just finished Victor Frankl's Man's Search For Meaning and it is said to have had a huge influence on people for several decades now. It is a wonderfully positive book drawn from the horrors of living in Nazi concentration camps.

Is "believing" in karma superstitious or is it scientific based?

brentan comments on Aug 4, 2018:

I think the idea of people getting what they deserve is just to keep us tame. Hell might be just an extension of the same wishful thinking.

Belief in karma is as much garbage as belief in an afterlife.

brentan comments on Aug 4, 2018:

Well, that's that then!

Studying the cause of the Civil War...funny, and not very funny at all.

brentan comments on Aug 4, 2018:

Apu knows his stuff: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFwHQYDqf6c

Written by my close relative.

brentan comments on Aug 4, 2018:

It seems not only religious people feel a deep sense of impending doom. Quite a lot of entertainment reflects that too. If the fundies are right, Armageddon's a-comin' and things will get very much worse belore the Messiah comes to solve our problems. I don't think non-believers are articulating any unified alternative message. Everyone believes the problem is a cause of the economy. I believe it's a hole in people's lives caused by lack of meaning. The meaning given to people by their various religions has dissipated and there seems to be nothing to replace it.

Watched lo and behold ruminations on the computer age I think the internet is one of the best ...

brentan comments on Aug 4, 2018:

It's a huge part of my life. I love it.

Not worth a title The president spews hate You can see it in his eyes In his face At his ...

brentan comments on Aug 4, 2018:

Very good. I think the Bible says many people will mistake the Antichrist for the Messiah.

Do you read "fiction" or "non fiction" or maybe "historical fiction"?

brentan comments on Aug 4, 2018:

I progressed the same way. The only history I learned was from historical fiction like James Mitchener's Texas or Gary Jenning's Aztec. I think it was because there was meat on the bones of the story. These days I find there is more meat on the bones of philosophical books. My father used to call stories that were easy to digest - pap. I still like to read a pap story every now and then for a break from the heavy stuff. It's usually historical fiction about Shakespeare's England.

[m.

brentan comments on Aug 4, 2018:

I'm not usually stuck for words. Maybe I got struck by cognitive dissonance at the positive nature of your post. And I trust you managed to turn your life around. He must have been a great and unusual man to offer such kindness in a world set up to be unkind to him.

You can order your DNA profile, which can tell you how much neanderthal DNA you have, and can trace ...

brentan comments on Aug 3, 2018:

I'll bet my siblings and my ex have lots of Neanderthal DNA. I'm probably from a tribe of Arian Africans.

Genome Study Upends Our Understanding of How Language Evolved... [scientificamerican.com]

brentan comments on Aug 3, 2018:

I never thought our biology had anything to do with language. Maybe it has to do with how the sounds of language are produced by the tongue.

I want to open a bottle of dry, red wine, gaze up at the stars, and become lost in the thousands of ...

brentan comments on Aug 3, 2018:

Control yourself. Chastise yourself. Pinch yourself. Now go out and make money!

John Hartford - Steam Powered Aeroplane [youtu.

brentan comments on Aug 3, 2018:

Now that's very enjoyable - lots of talent on that stage!

“You have to be where you are to get where you need to go.” Amy Poehler

brentan comments on Aug 3, 2018:

Or you have to die to get where you're going to end up.

Haiku for a sexy weekend... After we made love smelling of great memories I left you smiling

brentan comments on Aug 3, 2018:

That's what happens if you don't shower after sex!

So, after talking to my mother she believes my lack of belief or lack of of tolerance for the ...

brentan comments on Aug 3, 2018:

Love your mother if she will let you.

Just my thoughts : linear perception has space/time locked into a paradoxical loop of various ...

brentan comments on Aug 3, 2018:

I need a clarification. Is 'linear perception' another way of saying 'thinking about the future' or do you mean that our perception of space-time is linear instead of multi-dimensional? If it's the latter, where do our emotions fit in?

Locus Mundi There should be a place Where feet have not trod Where eyes have not seen ...

brentan comments on Aug 3, 2018:

I guess we'll never lose our fascination for discovery of something new. To the universe and beyond!

Isn't the word "consciousness" becoming an excuse to replace the outdated "god" word?

brentan comments on Aug 3, 2018:

I think there is a change in the air. Perhaps people are unsatisfied with the Richard Dawkins-type notion that consciousness resides in the brain so that when the brain dies, that's it for our personal consciousness. I like Rupert Sheldrake's concept of consciousness being out there in the meta-world, and the brain working as a tool to retrieve, process and store thoughts. So in Sheldrake's world, the brain can die and consciousness lives on.

Right Said Fred singer finally able to wear his shirt after sexiness reduction procedure

brentan comments on Aug 3, 2018:

It must have been torture to be so sexy. I'm happy for his sake.

I have not been active on this site for a while..

brentan comments on Aug 3, 2018:

Hello and welcome back.

This new book called "Squeezed" looks really good.

brentan comments on Aug 3, 2018:

I think it's very true. It'll be a return to the bad old days when there was only rich and poor.

Another one I'm moving over from Poets' Corner, about a certain someone who's still making my heart ...

brentan comments on Aug 3, 2018:

It's short, sweet and concise.....in a word, excellent!

People who are unaware tend to be unaware that they are unaware !

brentan comments on Aug 3, 2018:

It's time to be woke. Even Jesus talked about it 2000 years ago: Blessed are those aware of their spiritual need - Matthew 5:3. Wake up, people!

Are you currently reading several books?

brentan comments on Aug 3, 2018:

Yes. Crime and Punishment by Dostoevsky and The Master and Margarita by Bulgakov.

Is it odd to occasionally look up and wonder... Is any of this real?

brentan comments on Aug 2, 2018:

Here's a potential antidote to the problem: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NP5ohTF4epE

I am going to vote for the cantidate who vows never to attend a "prayer breakfast".....

brentan comments on Aug 2, 2018:

You'll end up voting as often as a Jehovah's Witness.

How did you escape narcissism?

brentan comments on Aug 2, 2018:

The only cure I know for that problem is travel.

I know this guy's a 'tad' religious, however, I can't help but agree with a lot of what he ...

brentan comments on Aug 2, 2018:

It's weird to think his opinion on the subject is important because so many people think he's inspired by God. Saying that, I don't know if he claimed this opinion is infallible. He's such a fake. Even some Catholics say he is a 'pope for the unbelievers' because he does nothing for Catholics and spends all his time trying to make Catholicism look good to unbelievers.

Vicente Fernandez - Aca Entre Nos - YouTube

brentan comments on Aug 2, 2018:

This was great. I began feeling sure it was a parody. Now I'm not sure. Here's a translation of the lyrics from Google: Here Among Us sung by Vicente Fernandez For showing off I told my friends That in love No pain annihilates me What to prove them I forgot your kisses And they were enough A few shots of tequila I told them that I found With another love And that in her arms I was ceasing to love you I hate you From the day of your betrayal And that there are moments That I have wished until your death Here between us I want you to know the truth I have not stopped worshiping you There in my sad loneliness I have wanted to scream Run out and ask What has happened to your life Here between us I will always remember you And today, next to me, you're no longer There is nothing left to confess That I can not stand That I am hating without hating Why do I breathe through the wound And there is a martyr There is no doubt that pain is also sung When you cry you can not Here between us

Johnny Flynn, theme song from 'The Detectorists'.

brentan comments on Aug 2, 2018:

Very nice, a fine gritty voice and nice finger-picking. Is that the TV series about the two English guys who search for old treasures in the ground? I saw the first series and loved the easy pace of the story and how human the main characteres were.

If one has these 3 gifts.

brentan comments on Aug 2, 2018:

I think you'd be on your way to a morally good life. In the business world, you might not stand a chance. In marriage, your wife might prefer a man out kicking ass for a living.

I hate memes, except those that are true !

brentan comments on Aug 2, 2018:

Sometimes we think very similar to the way Muslims think. Here's a link to a Muslim cleric explaining why women shouldn't drive. He's boldly saying what many men are thinking. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/saudi-arabia-woman-driving-ban-remain-lack-intellect-men-sexism-sheikh-saad-al-hajari-islamic-leader-a7960501.html

How do you decide which books to keep and which to let go?

brentan comments on Aug 2, 2018:

Keep the books you've read and have made a big impact on you. Never dump these. They are your soul. Dump the ones you always intend to read. They'll always be there and never read.

Call me Dave brought up an interesting question.

brentan comments on Aug 1, 2018:

I do get a thanks 90% of the time. The thanks matters to me because it signifies that politeness, which I think graces a society, is still alive and well.

Tommy Robinson freed on bail as court orders retrial Appeal court quashes finding of contempt ...

brentan comments on Aug 1, 2018:

It will be a judicial case of thesis, antithesis and synthesis.

Im kinda a socially awkward person, any advice on how to become more casual with my social ...

brentan comments on Aug 1, 2018:

I think reading something about Asperger's Syndrome would help, whether you're on it or not.

I don’t know how historically legit this message is but it sounds cool ?

brentan comments on Aug 1, 2018:

I'll bet they loved him!

I am, at the same time, deeply saddened and deeply angered by the degree of fraud and corruption ...

brentan comments on Aug 1, 2018:

I think there's no pretense anymore with free market capitalism. It's survival of the fittest totally stripped of the laws and morality that restricted excess. Sadly, I think it's what our parents wanted and also what we wanted, as we all joined in to gradually lower the bar and promote the focus on the individual.

Do you usually root for the good guy or villain in a movie?

brentan comments on Aug 1, 2018:

I like those movies where the good guy wins out and the bad guy gets his ass kicked within 2 hours. I think it was the law in America that the bad guy had to lose out in the end. They didn't want to encourage crime.

This was pretty interesting: [youtu.be]

brentan comments on Aug 1, 2018:

Christopher Hitchins claims in his book God Is Not Great that Stalin's Russia was superimposed on the Greek Orthodox doctrines of his time. Sam Harris repeated this idea recently at a conference in Dublin. I haven't got or read the book and haven't found the relevant information online. The only information I've read so far is here: https://skeptoid.com/episodes/4076

All of reality is one. We're still in the singularity.

brentan comments on Aug 1, 2018:

You must admit it doesn't feel like it.

I'm perhaps the most secular person in my intermediate family, since I've join this site I no longer...

brentan comments on Aug 1, 2018:

It's good you've found a place where you can be yourself. I remember well not being able to say what I thought in religious company.

This is what theism is all about.

brentan comments on Aug 1, 2018:

What - you mean the Plymouth Brethren weren't martyrs?

I am often a woman of few words - but lots of deep thoughts.

brentan comments on Aug 1, 2018:

That's crafted very well! Not just the 5-7-5 style but also using the motorcycle ride as the vehicle to tell the story of a great start and a bad finish to love.

The ultimate hustle.

brentan comments on Aug 1, 2018:

What's better than a good story but an eternal story, an archetypal story. Jordon Peterson explains these stories as enactments of dramas used to convey philosophical intuitions that had no language as yet. We have a lot of the language now and can express so much that we don't really need the dramas anymore. I hope, though, that we respectfully store these dramas so that future generations can always study the world we come from.

I am challenging myself in writing a short poem, thought, ideas, or anything else, every day.

brentan comments on Aug 1, 2018:

Time and images, and those images make a strong claim on reality. Well done!

109-Year-Old Woman Says Avoiding Men Is The Secret To A Long Life

brentan comments on Jul 31, 2018:

I dread to think what brought her to that conclusion.

That's my favorite position

brentan comments on Jul 31, 2018:

Or you could be itinerant about it. I mean that in the literal sense of the word, of course.

Another recent poem: The Busted Neon Loneliness I drink overpriced Chardonnay in a ...

brentan comments on Jul 31, 2018:

As another poet said, 'a terrible beauty is born'. Or a film director portrayed in Taxi Driver. And as true as it is, it simply cannot be allowed to be everything. I hope Dostoevsky was right when he put the words into the mouth of the idiot 'beauty will save the world'. Well done for a wonderful poem!

Christian Zionism: The New Heresy that Undermines Middle East Peace – Middle East Monitor

brentan comments on Jul 31, 2018:

Maybe these people look on it as the price necessary to pay to bring in God's kingdom, making Palestinians collateral damage in the process while American fundies are safe at home. I doubt if the damage will stop there. Due to the inevitability that prophecy is always found false, no kingdom will come and who knows how bad things will get. I'm sure Christians will put the devastation in the Middle East down to prophecies about the Battle of Armageddon and delight in the carnage.

One of the delightful outcomes of the weekend byelections in Australia was the failure of a member ...

brentan comments on Jul 31, 2018:

Not such a downer after all! Best of luck with the new person!

I was hoping to post these two versions of a poem side by side, but didn't manage to do so.

brentan comments on Jul 31, 2018:

Well now, remind me not to mess with you! That poem is fierce and to the point (rapier point) and it was a clever idea to paraphrase it.

You guys are soooooo good for me! You don’t know how many times I have tried to write about this.

brentan comments on Jul 31, 2018:

It's very helpful, hopefully as much for the writer as the reader, to outline what it is to be a human being.

Men. Does your testosterone motivate you besides sex?

brentan comments on Jul 31, 2018:

Haven't they known about this in sport for a very long time? For me, it means it puts 'pep in my step'. This 'pep' is an energy that can be applied to anything.

Moses, the real deal

brentan comments on Jul 31, 2018:

I can't remember what those little cakes were called!

Children are our past, present and future [facebook.com] I do hope this works

brentan comments on Jul 31, 2018:

It brought me to a Facebook page where I had to request to join to see the full page.

The all new born babies are atheist before cheating them

brentan comments on Jul 31, 2018:

They're probably atheist at birth because of original sin, according to at least Catholicism. I think that's why their parents want them baptised as soon as possible.

If at first you don't succeed, try try the gin!

brentan comments on Jul 31, 2018:

I don't drink gin but I agree with the 'spirit' of the post!

YouTube Punishes Atheist for Exposing Christian Who Wants Gay People Executed – Friendly Atheist

brentan comments on Jul 31, 2018:

I guess this has nothing to do with right and wrong. YouTube probably only cares about who might sue them.

So many chat rooms on this site.... ..yet I only see two used...? Is this common ?

brentan comments on Jul 31, 2018:

I didn't know that. Stagefright?

"You raise your voice when you should reinforce your argument.

brentan comments on Jul 31, 2018:

Maybe Sam had got to the stage where he had a retinue of yes-men when he wrote that!

Is virginity moral law for atheist?

brentan comments on Jul 31, 2018:

I say no. Sex is not immoral. It's not to be trivialised either, what with serious consequences attached.

Any ideas for cutting back on caffeine?

brentan comments on Jul 31, 2018:

Sounds to me like your whole lifestyle is nothing but stress. But what to do if it's needed to pay bills? If it's a bit self-inflicted, may be time to go smelling roses instead of coffee.