Sunday School 5th December 2021

[Reg the Fronkey FarmerModerator]

It is not easy for Christians to have their faith shaken when their God is never blamed for anything (5 pages).

MSM goes stupid with claims that some Biblical myths are proven by science.

Democrats need an effective response to Republican messaging about religion.

Would you take a pill that could turn Atheists Into believing Christians?

SCOTUS may loosen a few more bricks in the Wall of Separation by granting State funding to religious schools.

My idea of Hell would be to be forced to spent a week in Heaven. The televangelist Marcus Lamb has been promoted to Heaven.

It is difficult to withhold my opinion on the Mississippi attack on Roe vs Wade.

Apologists never come up with any original arguments for the existence of any of their gods. That is not surprising and most seem unaware of the flaws and fallacies in the arguments they do use.

World of Woo: The Quack Bills that will allow the unqualified to practice medicine. Some people just can’t say boo to a golden goose but are great at doing their own research.

Environment: Why increased rainfall in the Arctic is bad news for the whole world.

A “Theory of Everything” doesn’t make sense.

Neutrinos have been detected for the first time by the LHC.

Earth’s water may have come from the Sun, new research suggests.

The oldest known Denisovans fossils have been discovered. There are many more human species that we are yet to meet and one of our close evolutionary relatives still lives on in our DNA.

50 years ago, a forgotten mission landed on Mars.

Stupid neuroscience, you’re not the boss of me!

The misuse and abuse of meta-analyses.

Marge and Homer’s ice cream argument, or why meta-ethics matters.

Why can’t we travel back in time?

The factors that influence the impact of information on our feelings.

Long Reads: When Jesus is used to steal from his flock. Is the simple and decisive Science experiment still a worthy ideal?

Sunday Book Club: Feeling & Knowing: Making Minds Conscious.

Some photographs taken last week.

While you are waiting for the kettle to boil……

Podcast: Sam Harris speaks with Oliver Burkeman about our relationship to Time.

Coffee Break Video:  Steven Weinberg and the quest to explain the World. Michael Nugent: “You have rights. Your beliefs do not.”

[Reg the Fronkey FarmerModerator]

Have a great week everyone!

[StregaModerator]

Thanks, Reg!!!

[Simon PayntonParticipant]

Reg the Fronkey Farmer wrote:

Marge and Homer’s ice cream argument, or why meta-ethics matters.

This article looks very interesting.

Utilitarianism, a moral theory defended by Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill, urges us to place moral importance on the consequences of our actions. On this view, if the consequences of an action would bring about more happiness, then the action is morally acceptable. One implication of this view is that there are, strictly speaking, no prohibited actions. Kantian ethics, on the other hand, does not place importance on consequences. Instead, a Kantian will claim that: 1) there are actions that are prohibited; and 2) the consequences of an action are irrelevant to whether one ought to carry it out.

According to evolutionary ethics, and everyday morality, these are not trivial questions but kind of cut to the heart of things.

An action is morally acceptable if it fulfils one or more moral norms, and if it is not unacceptable on some other moral grounds.  A moral norm is normative – we “should” fulfil it – because a moral norm is an ideal way to be cooperative in otherwise potentially competitive or aggressive situations; and cooperation is normative, i.e., required for thriving, surviving and reproducing.

It is also considered morally normative – ethical – to help one’s friends and in-group members.  These people constitute the limits of our inclusive fitness.

The consequences of an action depend on whether or not the action is morally sound or on the other hand is tainted by greed, anger or ignorance (according to Buddhism), which leads to unsatisfactory consequences. Conversely, it follows from this that a wise and morally sound action will produce the optimum consequences.

[Simon PayntonParticipant]

Simon Paynton wrote:

a moral norm is an ideal way to be cooperative in otherwise potentially competitive or aggressive situations

That should be, according to theories of evolutionary morality: a moral norm is an ideal way to be cooperative generally, and a social norm is an ideal way to be cooperative in otherwise potentially competitive or aggressive situations.

[jakelafortParticipant]

My TOE hurts.

It is hubris. It is an atom in an ocean figuring out not only currents and plankton but the entire sea and all that lays beyond it. It is a herculean task and then some. It relies on the notion of uniformity and is not substantiated or testable. Is physics a singular endeavor with properties that are uniform. Are there phenomena that are not subject to the same physics we experience? Is it safe to assume that one hundred and 27 million light years away that same laws apply? Are there temporal limitations to an apparent uniformity?

[Simon PayntonParticipant]

Even mathematics doesn’t have a theory of everything.  It’s too much of a patchwork quilt.

[_Robert_Participant]

It is not easy for Christians to have their faith shaken when their God is never blamed for anything.

That would be fine except gawd seems to get credit for all things good.

[UnseenParticipant]

My contribution to Sunday School this week. These bozos are undoubtedly worried about preserving Christianity in addition to their white supremacy and fascism.

These wannabe thugs claim that Europeans were the original Americans (Native Americans notwithstanding, I guess).

Well, the people they are referring to, presumably our Founding Fathers, came from England or were descended from Englishmen mostly, and whether the British Isles is to be regarded as part of Europe is highly disputable. A lot of continental Europeans and not a few Brits would say No.

However, if these shmoes want to go back to Europe (Spain, Portugal, Germany, Russia, France, etc.), let’s buy them plane tickets.

P.S.—I don’t see any women in the group, so I wonder if these guys are also incels in addition to being pathetic examples of manhood.

[Simon PayntonParticipant]

Simon Paynton wrote:

Even mathematics doesn’t have a theory of everything

For all we know, there may be a theory that explains all of mathematics.

[UnseenParticipant]

Simon Paynton wrote:

Simon Paynton wrote:

Even mathematics doesn’t have a theory of everything

For all we know, there may be a theory that explains all of mathematics.

Goedel notwithstanding?

[Simon PayntonParticipant]

I’m not sure.  It seems there have been a number of attempts to unify mathematics with one principle.

https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/philosophy-mathematics/

[Simon PayntonParticipant]

Reg the Fronkey Farmer wrote:

Marge and Homer’s ice cream argument, or why meta-ethics matters.

We need to know, ultimately, if the meanings of our moral concepts affect our practical action. We need to find out if shared or unshared understandings of ethical judgment can help us understand disagreement about what we ought to do.

I think that people value different things, and value different moral principles, and this is a source of disagreement.  For example, pro-choice people value the mother’s freedom and well being and the future well being of the child.  Pro-life people value the foetus’s life more or less exclusively.  Liberals value freedom of expression and self-actualisation – rights, and conservatives value tradition and order – responsibilities.

[StregaModerator]

Simon, you’re thinking of mathematics as if it’s a thing. It’s not a thing that needs to be understood, it’s our toolset for understanding things.

Think of maths as a grid through which we view our universe. Does B17 (imaginary grid reference) actually exist?  Well yes because we can point at it. But we can only point at it because we put it there to see through.

Maths is a tool, not a mystery to be unfolded 🙂

[Simon PayntonParticipant]

The reason mathematics is a toolset for understanding the world, is that it captures logical properties of the world, and so, it has to be discovered, just as the world has to be discovered.

[Author]

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