Got to work too early.

brentan comments on Jul 18, 2018:

Do some work, you slacker!

A good read Queues can be great levellers.

brentan comments on Jul 18, 2018:

I enjoyed the article. I didn't know who wrote it but it was great to see such insight into what is going on. I really hope he has got it right about America going downhill while South Africa is improving. If South Africa's new president turns out just like so many other African presidents, I won't be surprised.

Ritual Cannibalism.

brentan comments on Jul 18, 2018:

According to scripture, it troubled a lot of Jesus’ listeners too. It starts with John 6:53: So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. He continues in verses 57 and 58: As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like the bread the fathers ate, and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.” It didn’t go down well with the Jews in general or even the disciples: When many of his disciples heard it, they said, “This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?” ‘John 6:60 ESV. Jesus gave them some explanation in verses 62 and 63: Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. So I think it’s fair to conclude he meant his words were like bread that would sustain the spirit and save it.

What song would you want played for your funeral?

brentan comments on Jul 18, 2018:

Mild und Leise sung by Jessye Norman.

What was the most unusual album you ever owned?

brentan comments on Jul 18, 2018:

Weirdest album probably Roy Harper Come Out Fighting, Genghis Khan. Weirdest album cover, maybe Cheap Thrills cover by R. Crumb

Should everyone read / study the bible ?

brentan comments on Jul 18, 2018:

I would recommend a few hours being spent listening to Christina Hayes' free YouTube lectures on the Hebrew Scriptures. The lectures come from Yale University, I think. When you get the jist of what's happening in the book, you can decide how detail you want to read.

What is something you think everyone should do at least once in their lives?

brentan comments on Jul 18, 2018:

A parachute jump!

Obvious Stupid Question...

brentan comments on Jul 17, 2018:

He has to break the law first.

Prochoice-What Does it Mean?

brentan comments on Jul 17, 2018:

The woman can choose. That's nice. The prospective father can't That's not nice. What to do?

I would like your thoughtful answers about the following:.

brentan comments on Jul 17, 2018:

One of the odd things about the Jehovah's Witnesses was that even though they weren't fans of Darwin, they were solid believers in evolution when it came to finding a mate. Just like the powerful males got the beautiful women since time immemorial and people take what they can down the hierarchy, the brothers and sisters were supposed to appraise themselves realistically when they wanted to get married.

Words to live by What words or sayings do you live by?

brentan comments on Jul 17, 2018:

My favourite is ‘live and let live’ Be slow to talk and quick to listen.

Would you consider a relationship with a sex-bot?

brentan comments on Jul 17, 2018:

No. Not even the little sex toys! It just seems wrong. I can't say for sure what it is that I think is wrong. Could it be I believe flesh and plastic don't go together? Or (God forbid) I still think a god looking down on my strange shenanigans would disapprove?

I keep saying God doesn’t exist. He keeps punishing me to prove a point. It’s a vicious circle.

brentan comments on Jul 17, 2018:

Don't lose heart. Be strong and he'll give up.

I just scored a free ticket to Temple U in Harrisburg and their forum with exiled Iranian journalist...

brentan comments on Jul 17, 2018:

That should be very interesting. I don't know this particular woman. I know a little about Ayaan Hirsi Ali from Somalia and if Masi Alinejad is anything like her, you'll really enjoy the evening.

From an old Italian saying.

brentan comments on Jul 17, 2018:

Here's a counterpoint from Dante on the pain of exile: You shall leave everything you love most dearly: this is the arrow that the bow of exile shoots first. You are to know the bitter taste of others’ bread, how salt it is, and know how hard a path it is for one who goes descending and ascending others’ stairs. - Paradise Canto 17:55-60

If CRISPR were perfected to the degree some people hope it will be, would you edit you own genome?

brentan comments on Jul 17, 2018:

I would try to get the best pair of eyes money can buy so I can read until I'm brain dead.

Do we make our fates or is life preordained??

brentan comments on Jul 17, 2018:

I think one variation of the old teaching was that both things happened at the same time. We made our own choices and God knew in advance what they would be. Maybe that's John Calvin.

It would be nice once in a while LOL

brentan comments on Jul 17, 2018:

Animal passion - I think that would be too tiring. Maybe we could just undress ourselves. Not the whole way because then there's more clothes to put back on. Socks don't get in the way.

Joe Cocker - You Can Leave Your Hat On (Official Video) HD - YouTube

brentan comments on Jul 16, 2018:

Joe was so full of heart. We loved him enough to let slide any imperfections.

Every time I scroll through comment sections on this site, I feel joy.

brentan comments on Jul 16, 2018:

Yes, so far so good. People really do seem to make an effort to express themselves and understand the other person.

Steely Dan - Josie - HQ Audio -- LYRICS - YouTube

brentan comments on Jul 16, 2018:

How to describe the music of Steely Dan? Stylish, sophisticated, what else? And the dreadful nasal tone of the lead singer which was a perfect fit for the songs. What about the embrace of urban excess, the emptiness of modern values. My favourite slice of lyric is in the song Haitian Divorce: 'Now we dolly back Now we fade to black' to tell us they are moving on from previous scene and take us forward to the next one.

Why do women want to erase and cut all ties to their ex-boyfriends even when they broke up mutually ...

brentan comments on Jul 16, 2018:

I think it's because their nature is to bring everything they got to a relationship and when it's over, their nature dictates that they have to take everything away. The next guy will get the lot. At least for a while. Because I think it is their nature, I don't doubt their sincerity.

Went on a tangent with this one.

brentan comments on Jul 16, 2018:

I think i got one of them. If a dog is chewing a bone, leave him along or you'll get a (tooth, nail) stuck in your bum.

Teaching English in Latin American

brentan comments on Jul 16, 2018:

It's a brave move. I wish you every success. I'm afraid to move even though life is fairly routine here.

What is your favorite kind of Ice Cream? Chocolate, Vanilla, Strawberry?

brentan comments on Jul 16, 2018:

Just plain vanilla, unpolluted. Please, no double meanings!

What kind of philosophical school of thought do you adhere to in your daily lives??

brentan comments on Jul 16, 2018:

Jordon Peterson-ism.

If you get invited to go to someone’s church, do you?

brentan comments on Jul 16, 2018:

Oh for heaven's (goodness) sake go! It's not a big deal and the boredom will restore your faith (trust) in atheism.

I no longer visit Face Book since I found Agnostic.

brentan comments on Jul 16, 2018:

My FB content has dried up. Maybe we've bored the knickers off each other. The only people keeping the ball rolling were tiresome repetitive Muslims. I found out about this forum just in time.

I may be broken, but I’m still beautiful.

brentan comments on Jul 16, 2018:

You look good but you've got quite a lot of ears. Ya hear me?

A interesting thought

brentan comments on Jul 16, 2018:

It's a fair question for those of us not familiar with astronomy. But what's with the two choices to vote on?

I've discovered I was on the autism spectrum late in my life (i.

brentan comments on Jul 16, 2018:

We were having a lot of trouble with one of our sons and Asperger's came up in the conversation with counselors. I got a book, can't remember the name, and saw myself in the pages. I never knew anything before except Rainman. I would like to get an official test but nobody does it for adults in Ireland. I have to say being conscious that I might have it hasn't made one whit better at fitting in. It just means that perhaps I am not so much at fault as I thought. So I'm a bit easier on myself. I probably should count myself lucky even I lost my wife and children over my oddness. There are so many worse places on the spectrum.

What are your views on abortion??

brentan comments on Jul 16, 2018:

Would it work if women have complete control over their bodies and men have to make sure the woman they are having sex with have the same objectives about possible reproduction? Does that make sense? If a man wants children, he better know what his partner wants.

DO ATHEISTS AND HUMANISTS HAVE SACRED VALUES?

brentan comments on Jul 16, 2018:

So it seems Dennett means sacred as unchangeable. I would mean it as holy. I suppose it would mean both for a Christian. I'm an agnostic raised with the Judeo-Christian culture. It was inculcated in me as a Christian who took the Bible seriously. So my values have changed. One thing that has changed for sure is the 'value' of stoning adulterers and homosexuals, although to be fair Christians have moved on from that too in the sense that they leave the judgement to God, who scripture says will not treat them kindly in the end. Here are what I would suggest are Christian values, called fruits in Galatians 5: 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control. The obvious thing about these values is that they are very human values too but I won't go into why the apostle Paul thinks they come from God's spirit. I couldn't tell half the time whether my impulse to follow these values is from my culture or from secular motivation.

Last night and this morning before going to bed and leaving for work respectively I went and checked...

brentan comments on Jul 16, 2018:

"Wot you talking about, Willis"

Good morning you good people. I am about to go forth and kick Monday's ass. Who's with me?

brentan comments on Jul 16, 2018:

I admire your confidence. Monday would always frighten and depress me. Coffee was the only weapon I had in my arsenal so I was under-equipped. I'm told that eating a protein-rich breakfast is a must to get you through the day. But confidence might be the very best thing!

West coast or east coast?

brentan comments on Jul 16, 2018:

West for things to see, east for things to do.

First day back to work after being fired the first time in my life from a right to work position ( ...

brentan comments on Jul 16, 2018:

Best of luck. I hope it goes really well!

I tried drowning a spider with a Miller Lite and now it's dancing around my house listening to Dave ...

brentan comments on Jul 16, 2018:

Haha. You always make me smile!

Many television shows are based on god or religious themes, and was wondering if any of my fellow ...

brentan comments on Jul 16, 2018:

I loved Little House on the Prairie and The Waltons. These 'holy' shows are a little bit like ordinary TV stories where the bad guys lose out and the good guys win - all in the space of an hour! We all know that the law doesn't always win and good guys certainly didn't always win out on the prairie but it's nice to pretend for a bit. But what about American Gods? Wow, that was a whole different proposition! And what is an atheist to make of the deification of the things we worship in modern society - sex, money, power? Semantics, or could there be more to it than that? I wonder what Neil Gaiman thought!

After months of uninterrupted analysis, I am now prepared to conclude that, indeed, my laundry is ...

brentan comments on Jul 16, 2018:

Well, now you have a solid theory. You've added empirical evidence to support your view and we can all start folding instead of waiting. But folding is a drag, almost as bad as ironing. I'm just going to wear crumply casual clothes.

And so the American disease infects Australia: [getup.org.au]

brentan comments on Jul 16, 2018:

In Ireland at the moment, we still have the usual feral gangs of Irish teenagers who may have some of the immigrant youth with them. The U.K. deals with immigrant gangs that have more insidious objectives than just mindless violence. The British media does its damnest to silence anyone bringing this out into the open. Our media, of course, plays down our immigrant problems too. So each situation needs to be judged independently. The problem is finding media that tells the truth.

What do you make of the many UFO sightings this last year? [ctvnews.ca]

brentan comments on Jul 15, 2018:

I don't believe it all. We won't see a UFO until the Anunnaki return.

Wish everyone knew this.

brentan comments on Jul 15, 2018:

She has a lovely bum.

What is the worst thing for a child to see in an R rated movie?

brentan comments on Jul 15, 2018:

Breastfeeding. They might feel a sense of loss. Violence, definitely violence.

Benny Hinn: Let the Bodies Hit the Floor [youtu.be]

brentan comments on Jul 15, 2018:

I wonder would Benny's show be a great night's entertainment if we just took it as fun?

Each step matters

brentan comments on Jul 15, 2018:

Don't lose your resolve. It must be very tempting to quit but the goal is a worthy one.

I Love It! A lazy Sunday morning at home, a beautiful thunder storm with monsoon rains.

brentan comments on Jul 15, 2018:

It sounds fresh, revitalising, cleansing. We've been desperate for a bit of rain lately.

Bestfriend Loyalty

brentan comments on Jul 15, 2018:

I think you want your friend to tell her spouse.

I'm meeting 3 of my new boyfriend's kids and several grandkids today.

brentan comments on Jul 15, 2018:

Good luck. I bet you'll be fine once it gets started!

It is stupid to underestimate the power of stupidity.

brentan comments on Jul 15, 2018:

I can't help thinking a huge part of the world population is stupid. That's in terms of IQ. Stupidity, like cleverness, has its benefits as well as problems. The downside of wisdom is articulated well in the Bible, Ecclesiastes 1:18: For with much wisdom comes much sorrow, and as knowledge grows, grief increases. We need to be fair about this. The power of intelligent people to cause havoc is huge too. Historically, I don't know which side does the most harm. Another point I would raise in defense of stupid people is that they are probably entitled to be dumb. If you're born dumb, that's the luck of the draw.

Does anybody like Lymericks?

brentan comments on Jul 15, 2018:

If I were write a limerick I’d be either a poet or a silly pr… I’d write witty rhyme All of the time But not rhyme the last verse just to be a d…

Apparently writing a post increases my "level". So here my post :)

brentan comments on Jul 15, 2018:

I wish I had thought of that!

This made my day. Christian woman: "It was so outrageous and so offensive" lmao [youtube.com]

brentan comments on Jul 15, 2018:

Good ol' apostle Paul. Put the two verses together and you get 'Love your wife as an inferior'.

If you had to sit and listen to an album today from beginning to end , what would it be?

brentan comments on Jul 15, 2018:

Today I'm in the mood for Wishbone Ash Live Dates. I love the two lead guitars.

I am an atheist.

brentan comments on Jul 15, 2018:

Too old now, but I remember the joy of running. It was that feeling, after much struggling and breathlessness at first, of finding the power in my legs, making me feel a bit like a superman.

What is reality?

brentan comments on Jul 15, 2018:

I think it's everyone's view of the world so there as many realities as there are people. I think truth is the aggregate of all the realities. That probably comes from Hegel. Other than that, it's the thing that can bite sometimes.

Are you the type of person who seeks revenge when you’ve been wronged by someone?

brentan comments on Jul 15, 2018:

No, but I often think about it.

Do people still have favorite poetry?

brentan comments on Jul 15, 2018:

@Bryn This thread has turned out great. My Favourite poem is (Spring and Fall) Goldengove by Gerard Manley Hopkins. I didn't understand the reference to Dante in T.S. Eliot's poem.

One Day Someone

brentan comments on Jul 15, 2018:

These memes, or whatever they are, can be very trite and invite the cynic in us to express frustration. But hope must be a good thing. A friend must be invaluable as we get older. I see a lot of bitterness around me and I'm sure it comes from loss of hope.

The term 'pagan' is used as a lazy method of describing many things non-christian.

brentan comments on Jul 14, 2018:

Is Christo-centric a word? You know, looking at the world through the Christian perspective. And 'infidel' must mean 'unfaithful' or maybe 'not faithful' to Islam. I'm not sure what 'heathen' means. I really like the way English has so many ways of expressing ideas that are close but not the same. And I think we always have been too lazy to use them properly.

HHHmmm could be :P

brentan comments on Jul 14, 2018:

Just a little prick and someone else can get a big one.

Did you ever have someone or something significant show up in your life when you least expected it?

brentan comments on Jul 14, 2018:

I met my wife when I was 37. I expected to stay single. Good to be wrong, yeah! I had to add to this comment to say that she left me when I was sure we would stick it out with the marriage. Bad to be wrong, bummer!

Moral philosophy

brentan comments on Jul 14, 2018:

I love it. I'm going to see Jordon Peterson and Sam Harris battle it out tonight in Dublin over whether we need a god to make us moral people.

I have fixed a hard date for myself - unless there is any improvement in my life over the next ...

brentan comments on Jul 14, 2018:

I think life is an opportunity. It is relatively short anyway. It used to 'nasty, brutish and short'. Now it's better but our minds are so sophisticated we tend to criticise what might be the best of times. Good writers usually have read avidly. We don't even need to read books to make favourable comparisons with many other people's lives around the world. TV news can confirm it every day. In other words, stick with it. Read a wonderful book. Visit a rose garden. Buy a latté. But maybe you have very particular reasons for feeling the way you do and I guess we'll hear about them soon.

Quick one. Would like to hear mainly from the ladies on this once

brentan comments on Jul 14, 2018:

Chris Rock explains it all in 4 minutes.

I just finished Borne by Jeff Vandermeer and now I am reading the first book in his Southern Reach ...

brentan comments on Jul 14, 2018:

No, I don't know that guy at all. I love stories about post apocalypse worlds and dystopian worlds. Anything from The Walking Dead to Idiocracy. But I never read a novel about it. The idea never entered my head. I don't know why.

Frankly not much of anything.

brentan comments on Jul 13, 2018:

My life is similar. I think if I was wanted or needed for anything, I would do it. Otherwise, I have my bucket list of good books to read before I die. I trust you have enough things to do to keep life interesting too.

Civic morality

brentan comments on Jul 13, 2018:

I have a feeling that morality started with cave-dwellers who worked out what rules work best for the survival of the tribe. I'm guessing that the individual's survival depended on the tribe so the tribe was the sustainer of life. So would it work still as a guiding light for society even though we're out of the caves and very self-centred in our modern world? I think so, so long as we never lose sight that society must be the focus for morals and we never allow independent, subjective morals to dominate the issue.

Yep, friday night.

brentan comments on Jul 13, 2018:

Life can be very, very good sometimes. Gratitude is the right attitude.

It has to be hard to save lives!

brentan comments on Jul 13, 2018:

I Almost Died In Your Arms Tonight The idea seems to have come from the French 'la petite mort' (the little death).

Religion has done many good things as well as caused much pain and suffering, death and ignorance.

brentan comments on Jul 13, 2018:

I'm going to give it a high number because I dread to think what life could be like if it had never existed. 80/20 for me.

What is your ratio of comments to posts? And what does that tell us?

brentan comments on Jul 13, 2018:

It might say something about confidence. Or how strong our opinions are. There must be other things but that's all I can think of now. One thing for sure is that if there are no initial posts, that's it. So thanks, people, whoever you are!

My kind of therapy right here.

brentan comments on Jul 13, 2018:

We must make sure the working class don't get to see these memes. We need them in the projects, surrounded by grey buildings, far from the sea or anything remotely beautiful. Some groups might learn to live fulfilling lives, hopefully just the rich and upper middle-class. They can self-actualise, Maslow-style, and the rest can eat, sleep and multiply.

Look very hard you just might see god in a plop of bird poo! LOL!

brentan comments on Jul 13, 2018:

Ah, sure it must be true - God is everywhere!

What would you say to God if when you died you were faced with him?

brentan comments on Jul 13, 2018:

Oops!

It amazes me how little people know about evolution, although it probably shouldn't since so little ...

brentan comments on Jul 13, 2018:

I doubt people in general have read The Origin of the Species. I just pick up bits of knowledge along the way. If I was asked to explain something like 'the god of the gaps', I couldn't.

Respecting movies that are musicals

brentan comments on Jul 13, 2018:

Maybe his family have Nazis in the closet?

Anyone else have much experience with narcissism?

brentan comments on Jul 12, 2018:

Poor narcissists. Will nobody love them bar their analysts?

The only secularist at the table.

brentan comments on Jul 12, 2018:

I think you are wasting your time in the sense of hoping to engage sensibly, but not if you enjoy the discussions for their own sake. I think I would prefer to have unproductive discussions with people than no interaction at all.

For those who've reverted back to atheism...

brentan comments on Jul 12, 2018:

I was saved by tattoos by joining the Jehovah's Witnesses. They looked on tattoos and cropped haircuts as the behaviour of the Canaanites so despised by the Israelites.

Life it's to short to be normal, Keep the freakyness

brentan comments on Jul 12, 2018:

Like I have a choice! The medication does its best but the freakiness keeps breaking through.

Hi everyone! I am so happy! I got a new job today and it pays a lot more money! I really don't ...

brentan comments on Jul 12, 2018:

Be happy and wary and all sorts of realistic stuff. I hope the move works out real well.

Today is not a good day for me.

brentan comments on Jul 12, 2018:

There’s a lot of toxic stuff going on. I think there always was but nowadays there is no need to stay silent about it. I hope it’s some use to share with us strangers even though we can only guess what you’ve dealt with and try to empathise. I hope tomorrow is a better day.

Financial status, body image mean very little at nudist resorts | Troy Media

brentan comments on Jul 12, 2018:

I don’t think you could explain the feeling of freedom to someone who doesn’t feel the desire at all. I mean, look at my photo. Any sexual attractiveness I ever had is gone. If I went to a nudist place it would be for a feeling – a lack of restriction, a couldn’t care less, let it all hang out experience. Some day, not that far off, I will be dead. Strolling around in the nude for a while would make me feel alive. Especially if I got stung in the balls by a nettle.

Sexy Time.

brentan comments on Jul 12, 2018:

I don't think a gangbang could be as classy as an orgy.

Mistakes suck.

brentan comments on Jul 12, 2018:

I raised my children in a cult. Then I left the cult. Then my children wondered why they went through that hell for nothing. I have had no opportunity to correct it.

Seize the day!....every day!!!

brentan comments on Jul 12, 2018:

Who am I to contradict Robin Williams?

What kind of Atheist are you?

brentan comments on Jul 12, 2018:

My bad. I'm a passive atheist. But that's close to being an agnostic, I think.

Most Christians are unaware of this

brentan comments on Jul 12, 2018:

There you go now. God said "My thoughts are high above your thoughts" (Isaiah 55:8).

Good and evil are human nature.

brentan comments on Jul 12, 2018:

It could have all started in a cave. You know, trying to stay alive. Tribe survives = good Tribe wiped out = bad I'm not sure how we got from that to 'masturbation will weaken you spiritually' and believing that the Gnostic Gospels is heretical. Caves are responsible for lots of mad religious ideas. We should treat them with great respect, not just because of what happened in Thailand. In pre-history or thereabouts, caves were the entrance to the other world. Later, louts like Mohammad would use the cave called Hira on a mountain near Mecca to symbolise a connection with God. http://witcombe.sbc.edu/sacredplaces/caves.html

I have seen several times lately, where people are discussing some topic and they have a ...

brentan comments on Jul 12, 2018:

I think you must be right. There's a wonderful example of what you're talking about in the YouTube video 'Black People Can't Be Racist'. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6nbnGUUdQTU

Okay, then!

brentan comments on Jul 12, 2018:

I think he made all that up himself. It's not in the Koran. Maybe he read it in the Night Journey to Jerusalem.

Be like Jesus...

brentan comments on Jul 12, 2018:

The odd thing about it is that the gospels aren't complicated. It's not like we can say that we misunderstood the man because he was an intellectual. And yet there has always been a huge proportion of Christians who can't tell the difference between your typical pharisee and Christ himself. I boil it all down to this: the pharisees keep on about religious laws and Christ kept harping on about mercy. Example: Don't leave the donkey in the ditch on the sabbath even if work is forbidden. Do the decent thing! Free the poor animal.

Why A Top Religious Studies Scholar Is Now An Atheist

brentan comments on Jul 12, 2018:

There is a great opportunity to become knowledgeable about Christianity for free on YouTube. The professor is a guy named Dale Martin and the lectures come from Yale. His counterpart for the Old Testament is Christine Hayes and she is super too. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtQ2TS1CiDY=PL369DAFF77FA5FFF8

Do you think this quote is accurate..??

brentan comments on Jul 12, 2018:

I think it's true.

Damn my head! Anxiety makes me relive forty years of old mistakes over and over, randomly.

brentan comments on Jul 12, 2018:

Well, who needs enemies when we have our own minds to torture us? This has got to stop! I got the feeling you were talking in the terms of Eckart Tolle. I hope so because I think he gives great advice. I thought the concept of the pain-burden that he expanded on in A New Earth was inspired. One way or another, you’re slowing things down to ‘give your head peace’ as Northern Irish people say when someone is giving them grief. With a bit of luck, you’ll have days that are even better than acceptable – pleasant even. I hope so.

Yup, that's me!! LOL

brentan comments on Jul 12, 2018:

Maybe you are the one person who can be objective about relationship issues. That should be good. But you would poor in experience. Then there's the people who are married several times and viewed as experts on marriage. What's that about? I guess that would mean the couple who stay in a long-term happy relationship are too dumb to know the reasons they should be splitting up. Whatever you do, don't go near them for advice!

Oh, so it's the entertainment value...

brentan comments on Jul 12, 2018:

It's a good idea if you're short on problems.

End economic slavery! Create equality for all!

brentan comments on Jul 12, 2018:

Just be glad it could never happen in America!

The ten commandments of logic.

brentan comments on Jul 12, 2018:

Well, I might as well as just give up now.