gearl's Profile

What does it mean to be open/closed minded?

gearl comments on Nov 13, 2017:

Ken Ham and creationists are always accusing scientists of being closed minded when they won’t debate. During the election to a large extent most of the non-right winged news stations had to always have a representatives from both sides on to debate every subject. There is no need to give ideas that have been proven false repeatedly equal time and access. Time is more valuable than that. When there is not clear cut evidence then debate would be appropriate.

I am fairly new to this site and find it intriguing and uplifting plus the dialoging helps me learn.

gearl comments on Nov 13, 2017:

I may have agreed to an experiment but when I saw where it was going I can't imagine continuing with it. Welcome to the site.

I see faces in trees, rocks, moss, and other naturally occurring things.

gearl comments on Nov 13, 2017:

I seldom see humans. Mostly just animals.

Almost 40% of evangelicals more likely to vote for Roy Moore after pedophilia allegations – ...

gearl comments on Nov 13, 2017:

I don’t live in Alabama but I live in a rural area of a red state. People here are about as dense and would probably vote for the sucker. I don’t like big cities but there have been so many times I’ve really wondered if living here is worth it or not.

Why is Critical Thinking so important? - YouTube

gearl comments on Nov 13, 2017:

It appears to me that about half the population of this country respects critical thinking skills and the other half abhors them. You know which is which.

The nature of the Abrahamic god fable is that he gives us free will.

gearl comments on Nov 13, 2017:

The more I think about free will the less I know about it.

This is the topic on my mind tonight: Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority.

gearl comments on Nov 13, 2017:

Don’t think I’ve ever been in the majority so I don’t know. I always agree with Twain though so it must be right.

Yuval Harari: “Human beings are all algorithms!” - L'Atelier BNP Paribas

gearl comments on Nov 13, 2017:

I loved “Sapiens” but had problems with “Homo Deus.” The second section of that book seemed to me a unjust degradation of secular humanism. The first book is within in realm of expertise while, I felt, the second was, at times, outside it. Otherwise I enjoyed the first and last parts of “Homo Deus.” Harari analyzes whether conciseness in necessary for AI to make important decisions and whether AIs when they are more intelligent than humans could ever compete with humans making decisions. As to your question, yes, I think our thinking is a type of algorithm although a more complex algorithm that AI will attain anywhere in the near future.

SINS RELIGIOUS PEOPLE "THINK" ARE LISTED IN THE BIBLE Rape, Torture, Slavery, Genocide, Polygamy,...

gearl comments on Nov 13, 2017:

In my experience, most religious people use the Bible as a showy centerpiece, not something to read. I’ve also noted that atheists who have converted from Christianity usually have a much higher knowledge of the Bible than Christians. Atheists who have grown up in secular households usually don’t care and have very little knowledge.

Is "Political Correctness" becoming a religion?

gearl comments on Nov 10, 2017:

I couldn't get the link to work. In my opinion, too many people just don’t seem to realize the difference between insulting ideas that people have and the people themselves. Ideas always should be fair game but people should never be attacked for how they were born.

Your date turns religious, what do you do?

gearl comments on Nov 10, 2017:

I would have a heart to heart and explain why this isn’t going to work.

Since we are in favor of equality should we not have an equal number of women in our government as ...

gearl comments on Nov 9, 2017:

Looking at the number of women who replaced white men in Virginia the other night maybe all it would take is for more women to get out and run for office. I’m not for replacing men with women only because their women but if they can do the job, then they have my vote.

Does the soul exist?

gearl comments on Nov 9, 2017:

Given that without heaven or hell, what would be the purpose of souls, I dug up the following story to start you off. The following is supposedly an actual question given on a University of Washington chemistry mid-term. The answer by one student was so "profound" that the professor shared it with colleagues, via the Internet, which is, of course, why we now have the pleasure of enjoying it as well. Bonus Question: Is Hell exothermic (gives off heat) or endothermic (absorbs heat)? Most of the students wrote proofs of their beliefs using Boyle's Law (gas cools when it expands and heats when it is compressed) or some variant. One student, however, wrote the following: First, we need to know how the mass of Hell is changing in time. So we need to know the rate at which souls are moving into Hell and the rate at which they are leaving. I think that we can safely assume that once a soul gets to Hell, it will not leave. Therefore, no souls are leaving. As for how many souls are entering Hell, let's look at the different Religions that exist in the world today. Most of these religions state that if you are not a member of their religion, you will go to Hell. Since there is more than one of these religions and since people do not belong to more than one religion, we can project that all souls go to Hell. With birth and death rates as they are, we can expect the number of souls in Hell to increase exponentially. Now, we look at the rate of change of the volume in Hell because Boyle's Law states that in order for the temperature and pressure in Hell to stay the same, the volume of Hell has to expand proportionately as souls are added. This gives two possibilities: If Hell is expanding at a slower rate than the rate at which souls enter Hell, then the temperature and pressure in Hell will increase until all Hell breaks loose. If Hell is expanding at a rate faster than the increase of souls in Hell, then the temperature and pressure will drop until Hell freezes over. So which is it? If we accept the postulate given to me by Teresa during my Freshman year that, "it will be a cold day in Hell before I sleep with you," and take into account the fact that I slept with her last night, then number 2 must be true, and thus I am sure that Hell is exothermic and has already frozen over. The corollary of this theory is that since Hell has frozen over, it follows that it is not accepting any more souls and is therefore, extinct...leaving only Heaven thereby proving the existence of a divine being which explains why, last night, Teresa kept shouting "Oh my God." THIS STUDENT RECEIVED THE ONLY "A"

JUST IN: 'POLITICO' Announces Weekend Betsy DeVos Resignation/Firing Rumor

gearl comments on Nov 4, 2017:

I hope she hangs in there a while longer and then goes straight to jail without a get out card.

FFRF Bible Quiz -- How Much Do You Know About the Bible?

gearl comments on Nov 4, 2017:

Congratulations! You scored 43 correct out of 50! I listen to a lot of Matt Dillahunty

The Great Intelligent Design Challenge Some months ago, I made a challenge to an ID group.

gearl comments on Nov 1, 2017:

Most ID people use complexity to prove intelligence. The eye, the flagellum or the wing are all examples, they say that are too complex to have evolved. As for the eye different stages can be found in nature from flatworms that can only detect light through the nautilus that has an effective pin hole eye to the octopus whose eyes seem better designed than humans. The flagellum can be shown to exist for other purposes and a half of a wing can be used for gliding away from predators and allowing the animal an advantage enough to carry on his genes. Richard Dawkins in his numerous books on biology explains all of this for anyone willing to learn.

How is your faith in humanity?

gearl comments on Nov 1, 2017:

When I was religious I was very negative. When I lost faith in religion I gained faith in people. Right now in the present political climate I have lost a lot of faith in people in general.

Do you have health insurance?

gearl comments on Nov 1, 2017:

Yes and Yes. I think it should be a right.

"There are no forbidden questions in science, no matters too sensitive or delicate to be probed, no ...

gearl comments on Oct 31, 2017:

Good quote from a great guy.

Do you have a soul?

gearl comments on Oct 31, 2017:

No

How many can relate to this cat?

gearl comments on Oct 31, 2017:

You can lead a cat to water but it’s hard to get him wet.

Pence says US to stop funding 'ineffective' UN relief efforts | TheHill

gearl comments on Oct 31, 2017:

In the year that he has been in office I’ve yet to see anything either of these yo-yos has done for the benefit of the common citizen. They are truly immoral people. If they’re for it I gotta be against it.

How should the pro choice movement insure its claim to fairness.

gearl comments on Oct 31, 2017:

I think contraception is the responsibility of both parties. When I was young, fifty-some years ago, I always made sure I used protection and when we got serious I took her to the Doc and got the pill. I never assumed that she was taking it without asking. I think having a baby without it being a decision by both parties is ludicrous. If the girl lies or tricks the guy telling him she is using protection then I’d give him a free ride but otherwise it’s both their responsibilities and he should have some say if he’s going to have to pay for twenty years. If they’re old enough to make babies they should be old enough to talk out differences.

Dressed up for work today. One of the few holidays I enjoy. Happy Halloween everyone!

gearl comments on Oct 31, 2017:

WOOOooooooo to you!

Is it true that the NSA is more powerful than the president of the US?

gearl comments on Oct 31, 2017:

There are supposed to be checks and balances where executive, legislative and judicial balance. Supposedly both the executive branch and congress is supposed to have some jurisdiction over the NSA but a lot of the time the work is so secretive that nobody seems to know what’s even going on within the agency. In my humble opinion a lot of government has become so secretive and complicated that really nobody knows what’s going on. These agencies can be good or bad depending on who’s in charge. Just look at the executive branch right now. I sure don’t know the answer to your question.

What was the first date you've ever been on?

gearl comments on Oct 31, 2017:

I was a late bloomer. It was the night of high school baccalaureate, which I skipped and met up with a cute little girl who taught me how to really kiss. I’ve always have been so grateful to her. It was heaven.

Women and Misogyny

gearl comments on Oct 31, 2017:

Great question but I am not qualified to answer it. You should have left off the last sentence.

I would consider myself to be very liberal when it comes to viewing government.

gearl comments on Oct 31, 2017:

I don't recognize the history of what you are talking about. Could you give us a link or explain.

When The Earth Was Flat --- all the bits of science we got wrong.

gearl comments on Oct 31, 2017:

Thanks, I’ll look that book up. Your comment made me think of Newton. He is considered by many to be one of the most intelligent people who ever lived yet because of indoctrination he spent more time on alchemy than on physics. Even during the renaissance it would have been a death sentence to speak out against the church. People were as intelligent as we but they just lacked education and information and the church did everything they could to keep it that way. Now we have people that call themselves conservatives and those who are progressive. Conservatives, especially social conservatives, tend to want to return to the days of ignorance while progressive look to the future. I have real problems with those who look back at the ancient world and find magical knowledge that was lost. I have never found evidence of that in any literature that I have ever read. People were ingenious but they had no “hidden knowledge that was lost.” The holy books have bronze age thinking permeating their pages and it is useful historically to learn how those people thought but because so much of those books is pure myth, it certainly is not useful as factual history and the contents are not scientific and they contain very little morality.

Do you follow and know more about politics now than any other time in your life?

gearl comments on Oct 31, 2017:

Your experience seems in many ways to mirror mine. I can now name more cabinet positions than any time during my life time. That’s probably because I’ve pretty much been supportive of social, educational and environmental changes that have taken place over the past century and this administration seems hell bent on putting us back a hundred years. Trump appoints the very folks who would destroy agencies they are in charge of. I am sure though that if I were not retired that I would have much less time to follow it as much as I do. I also have to pace myself because too much of it is just too depressing. Most news is repetition so I try to choose outlets that report on things from a different point of view such as foreign sources, from a news behind the news or from a historical perspective. The last couple of days have been exciting.

Should panhandling be prohibited?

gearl comments on Oct 31, 2017:

I’ve given money to people where they’ve immediately taken it and bought liquor. That makes a guy or girl less likely to give the next time but I know that when the occasion arises I don’t have time to monitor and if I make the decision to give them money I need to feel I did the right thing. I can’t imagine prohibiting it as a lot of people have a difficult time in their lives and I wouldn’t want to deprive someone actually in need. It would be better if government was generous enough to take care of such folk.

What do you find sexy?

gearl comments on Oct 31, 2017:

The first thing is eyes and a natural smile. A sense of humor, intelligence, strength, empathy and liking animals.

Genetic History

gearl comments on Oct 31, 2017:

My daughter was interested so we got hers for her birthday. I learned that I am 97% European mostly from Great Britain and my wife is 99% SE Asian. Not much we didn’t already know.

George Carlin --- Religion is Bullshit

gearl comments on Oct 31, 2017:

Carlin was the first stand up I was familiar with many years ago. Now it seems that I discover new ones all the time. Ricky Gervais, Eddie Izzard, Jim Jefferies, Seth MacFarlane, Bill Maher and Julia Sweeney have all been popular. I’ll always owe a debt to Carlin as he was the first to get right in my face with it, make me think and make me damn proud to be atheist.

What religions have you studied other than Christianity?

gearl comments on Oct 31, 2017:

I took a comparative religion course in college. It helped on the road to agnosticism. I don’t think that the study of religion was a waste because it gave me a little knowledge about how the majority of the world thinks. It’s hard to find argument without knowing something about what the other guy believes. I sure wouldn’t want to major in religion but I learned enough to convince myself that one is as crazy as the next.

Trump's buddies Manafort and Gates perp-walked into FBI headquarters this morning.

gearl comments on Oct 30, 2017:

I’m holding my breath but I’m afraid if I exhale something will go wrong and instead of this being the beginning of a dream come true the nightmare will continue.

What to do about a friend's obnoxious significant other?

gearl comments on Oct 30, 2017:

When confronted with someone like that I can be pretty abrasive as well but I like to do it with humor. I would go to the ultimate left which I am anyway. I’d say I get my news from Rachael Maddow and Steven Cobert. I’d talk about his invisible friend and make fun of Drumph. You’d soon find how good of a friend she is. It has worked a couple of times for me and I’m still friends. No guarantee so use your own judgement.

What religion does/did your immediate family identify with?

gearl comments on Oct 30, 2017:

My mother was a Jehovah’s Witness. My dad, I don’t know but probably agnostic. Dad never gave my mom any problem with religion and mom didn’t push religion on him. I was raised a JW by my mom and it took till I was almost forty years to get out.

How many atheist/agnostics used to be strictly religious?

gearl comments on Oct 30, 2017:

I am 74 and when I was young it was very uncommon for anyone to admit they were atheist. I may have known a couple but they never used the term and didn’t discuss it. I was raised religious and stayed that way until I was past 40. Then it took more years to convert. Fortunately for younger folks a lot of you grew up in more secular homes, so count your good fortune.

Does anyone know someone that was an Atheist or Agnostic and then became Christian?

gearl comments on Oct 30, 2017:

Several people previously have said that folks they know that became religious weren’t really atheist but instead they just weren’t active Christians. That is the experience I’ve had. I’m sure there are people that have gone from atheism to religion but I haven’t experienced that. The folks that I have talked to believed in the supernatural and in a god but then they get very religious and then think they have found GOD for the first time. They now have a personal relationship, they are born again and you know! I’ve thought about this and it isn’t the true Scotsman fallacy because these people somehow reason in their own minds that just believing in a god is equivalent to being an atheist and then truly finding him and getting that feel-good experience magically turns them into CHRISTIANS.

Should a candidate's ability to keep his/her religious beliefs to him/herself be a litmus test for ...

gearl comments on Oct 30, 2017:

I’m afraid that will never happen at least until we become a more secular nation such as Finland, Japan and many of the European countries. I supported Obama in most things but his always ending every speech with God Bless America made me cringe but I realize it was more political than religious. Unless we somehow get a bunch of secularists into politics, wanting politicians to keep beliefs to themselves ain’t going to happen. Also I want to know where they are so I can vote against them.

Self-help books: are they helpful or harmful?

gearl comments on Oct 30, 2017:

They’re someone else’s opinion. A forum like this one might do as much good. Learning critical thinking skills and doing honest research does more good in my opinion.

What's your take on pacifism?

gearl comments on Oct 30, 2017:

The belief that any violence, including war, is unjustifiable under any circumstances is to me a pie in the sky dream. Avoiding violence is usually the best course but not always possible. Bullies must be opposed.

Would you consider yourself a Humanist?

gearl comments on Oct 30, 2017:

Yes

Should homeschooling be legal?

gearl comments on Oct 30, 2017:

I live in a town where public schools have gone to crap over the last few years. I’m not a fan of homeschooling but if public schools are allowed to reach a deplorable state where history, civics and science are taught as indoctrination of the local predominate church then I might consider home-school. Thankfully my daughter has already graduated.

I didn't know whether to put this under this category or politics.

gearl comments on Oct 30, 2017:

That would be wonderful!

Energy practitioners

gearl comments on Oct 30, 2017:

For me it was a transition phase. I went from true believer to a force in the universe and finally to nothing paranormal with a lot of baby steps in between. I’ve got a friend who is now and probably will end his life right where you describe. He’s a big reiki fan and goes for crystals and power points, all the New Age BS. He’s a great guy but that’s where he’s at and that’s OK. I’ve met good folks who listen to Deepak Chopra and his woo. He reads up on some quantum terms and then acts likes he knows what he’s talking about. To me he’s no different than a lot of faith healers, out for money.

Engage or Ignore Trump Supporters?

gearl comments on Oct 29, 2017:

Their choice. My neighbor came over before the election and said he wanted to argue. I said sure. We went at it for over an hour and shook hands and he went home. He’s never been back. I think he thought he could talk some sense into me. I’ve lost several friends over Trump. I don’t go looking but I sure as hell am not going to crawl into a corner.

Whats your respond to christians calling the bible the good book?

gearl comments on Oct 29, 2017:

I think the best argument as to why the Bible is not a good book is slavery. Never does it condemn slavery, OT or New. It explains how to treat your slave, beating just enough that he doesn’t die, because if he doesn’t die for a couple of days your off the hook. If the slave is a Hebrew then all you have to do is give him a wife and then when the jubilee comes and if the slave loves his wife he has to stay a slave forever or just leave her and the kids with his wonderful master. Ask, do you agree with slavery? Does God? If god doesn’t change then why doesn’t it say: “Thou shall not keep another human being as property?” Where is the morality? Show me the goodness.

Half of New Testament forged, Bible scholar says – CNN Belief Blog - CNN.com Blogs

gearl comments on Oct 29, 2017:

Richard Carrier, Robert Price, Earl Doherty believe that Jesus was a myth while Bart Ehrman believes there was a historical Jesus who neither thought of himself as God nor claimed to be God. The fact that scholars now even put this forward shows progress in thought and an erosion of belief. CNN’s article gives it an audience beyond the few of us that are even interested and think it’s a done deal. YouTube has hundreds of debate and other videos on the subject. It can only get better.

After 'Choosing Donald Trump,' Is The Evangelical Church In Crisis? : NPR

gearl comments on Oct 29, 2017:

I wish, but I doubt it. I see the “I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose voters” holding up with Evangelicals. These people have no critical thinking skills and they’re teaching their children to be the same by homeschooling them. It’s hard to be optimistic with these people around and I live in their midst.

Would you want a Christian God to be real?

gearl comments on Oct 29, 2017:

Dan Barker wrote a book called “God: The Most Unpleasant Character in All Fiction” in which he went through god’s attributes as laid out in “The God Delusion” by Richard Dawkins word by word. “The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.” So of course not and besides it would be a boring hell.

Is it funny that we have to 'not search' for the truth in order to find it?

gearl comments on Oct 29, 2017:

I’m jealous of a lot of you guys because after I left the church of my childhood it took years of searching to find “truth.” I too went through various denominations then agnosticism and finally settled as an atheist. I really wish the internet had existed back then. It would have been so much easier.

I call myself a catholic agnostic, what do you call yourself?

gearl comments on Oct 29, 2017:

Atheist, Secular Humanist, Skeptic and Freethinker all fit.

How to let your children find their own way?

gearl comments on Oct 29, 2017:

I let her go down her own road but when she asked I used Isaac Asimov’s advice: “Properly read, the Bible is the most potent force for atheism ever conceived.” She started at Genesis 1:1 and got as far as Lot’s having sex with his own daughters and that did the trick. She started identifying as an atheist soon after when she was in middle school.

what can we do to stop this stigma about the word atheist?

gearl comments on Oct 29, 2017:

Identify as atheists and demonstrate by action that we are good people.

Considering that religion has gone to war with us should we go to war against religion?

gearl comments on Oct 29, 2017:

We have folks like David Silverman at American Atheists, the Freedom from Religion Foundation, the ACLU, the Richard Dawkins Foundation, Ex-Muslims of NA and the Origins Project. A lot of people on YouTube are pretty much at war with religion. These folks are speaking out about as loud as anybody can, which is pretty much equivalent to being a missionary. They do demand that illegal references to religion be removed from public buildings and the other things you mention. No, the absolute worst thing we could ever do would be to use violence.

What's the most surprising fact you learned about the religion you were born into, that wasn't ...

gearl comments on Oct 29, 2017:

The catalyst was the book “1984.” I was a Jehovah’s Witness in about 1982 and finally realized how they had over and over rewrote history. They call their religion “The Truth” and they, just like the Ministry of Truth in the book, constantly rewrote history to explain the “new light” they were receiving from God. One of the writers at their headquarters had also become acquainted with the actual truth and was disfellowshipped. He, then, wrote a book called “Crisis of Conscience.” His evidence made it crystal clear how they had manipulated and distorted their own history to make themselves look good and cover up the numerous failed prophecies and nonsense they teach. Sad to say I now see the same technique in other religious and political books. People just write their own version of history, not critically but just what they want it to have been like.

Can someone be religious and scientific at the same time?

gearl comments on Oct 29, 2017:

Francis Collins comes to mind. He is head of the National Institutes of Health and a leader in the Human Genome Project. Michael Reiss, an Anglican priest has campaigned for the teaching of evolution. I have watched John Lennox from Oxford debate with Richard Dawkins. Frank Tipler has authored books and papers on the Omega Point, which he claims is a mechanism for the resurrection of the dead. These folks seem to be able to compartmentalize their minds and separate religion from their science when working. Some very religious folk tend to be engineers more than scientists like Raymond Damadian who created the MRI machine and is a young earth creationist.

Is it worth moving to a blue state?