Sunday School

[Reg the Fronkey FarmerModerator]

Daniel Dennett, philosophical giant who championed “naturalism,” dead at 82.

Biographer claims Donald Trump Is an atheist following $60 Bible sales. Who’da thunk it?

If I had known that the Jezebel Spirit was going to make an appearance, then I would have too.

How common is religious fasting in the United States?

Speaker Mike Johnson is under satanic attack.

Headteacher who won legal fight over prayer ban tells parents ‘if you don’t like it, don’t come to us’.

World of Woo: Former model almost died trying to cure cancer with juice diet.

Environment:  Two countries in Europe are powered by 100% renewable energy.

Daniel Dennett: Seven tools for Critical Thinking and how Bayesian Theory can help us think clearly.

Why so few witches were executed in Wales in the Middle Ages.

Ancient human evolution is “unparalleled” in nature.

The idea that matter is mostly empty space is mostly wrong.

There’s “a realistic possibility” that insects, octopuses, crustaceans, fish and other overlooked animals experience consciousness.

A.I. Mona Lisa’s lost her smile while over-trained A.I. discover novel solutions to problems.

Long Reads: New Atheism, New Theism, and a defence of cultural Christianity. How Donald Trump gets special treatment in the legal system. The invisible seafaring industry that keeps the internet afloat. Philosophical theories are much more like good stories than scientific explanations.

Sunday Book Club: The Blind Spot – What scientists can’t see.

Some photographs taken last week.  2024 Sony World Photography Awards.

While you are waiting for the kettle to boil……

Daniel Dennett Videos: The 4 biggest ideas in philosophy, with legend Daniel Dennett in one of his final videos. TED Talk: The illusion of consciousness. One of my favorite talks by Daniel Dennett – ‘How to Tell You’re An Atheist‘.

Coffee Break Videos: 14 Things the Misguided Religious establishment don’t want you to know.  Salman Rushdie in his first interview since he was attacked.

[Reg the Fronkey FarmerModerator]

Have a great week!

Some quotes from Daniel Dennett:

I am confident that those who believe in belief are wrong. That is, we no more need to preserve the myth of God in order to preserve a just and stable society than we needed to cling to the Gold Standard to keep our currency sound. It was a useful crutch, but we’ve outgrown it. Denmark, according to a recent study, is the sanest, healthiest, happiest, most crime-free nation in the world, and by and large the Danes simply ignore the God issue. We should certainly hope that those who believe in belief are wrong, because belief is waning fast, and the props are beginning to buckle.

Postmodernism, the school of ‘thought’ that proclaimed ‘There are no truths, only interpretations’ has largely played itself out in absurdity, but it has left behind a generation of academics in the humanities disabled by their distrust of the very idea of truth and their disrespect for evidence, settling for ‘conversations’ in which nobody is wrong and nothing can be confirmed, only asserted with whatever style you can muster.

We need to let our children grow up to face the world armed with knowledge, with much more knowledge than we ourselves had at their age. It is scary, but the alternative is worse.

There’s simply no polite way to tell people they’ve dedicated their lives to an illusion.

The only meaning of life worth caring about is one that can withstand our best efforts to examine it.

[_Robert_Participant]

Daniel Dennett…..truely a great gentleman/philosopher/magician. What? No last- minute, deathbed conversion to faith from the horseman?

[Reg the Fronkey FarmerModerator]

I have been to some of his talks over the years. I was fortunate to have an opportunity to speak with him on my own for about 10 minutes once. We discussed the nature of religious belief and the benefits to society of understanding Evolution, which means educating the “primate change deniers”.  It was after this talk.

No death bed conversation for him, for sure.

Not a single one of the cells that compose you knows who you are, or cares. Dan Dennett.

[StregaModerator]

Thanks Reg!

[TheEncogitationerParticipant]

First, thanks to Simon for alerting us on the death of Daniel Dennett. Kindest thoughts. He was the more low-key of The Four Horsemen. I really need to read more of him.

Now, Reg,

If I had known that the Jezebel Spirit was going to make an appearance, then I would have too.

I heard Rev. Joe Chambers from Charlotte, NC preaching 20 years ago about The Jezebel Spirit infesting the Churches. I don’t see what the problem is. Rod Stewart made her sound hawt!:

Then again, Rev. Joe Chambers condemned He-Man and She-Ra as promoting both Devil Worship and Secular Humanism in the same breath.

[Reg the Fronkey FarmerModerator]

So long as he walks the talk 🙂

[TheEncogitationerParticipant]

Reg,

Lots of wise thoughts from Dennett on epistemology and metaphysics, but economic history shows that In Gold We Trust is more solid monetary footing than “In God We Trust” on paper.

We wouldn’t have the present Inflation, Stagflation and Shrinkflation if the amount of Dollars hinged on the amount of Gold for which a Dollar is exchangeable. So it will remain until we find veins of Gold on the Moon, on bodies in the Asteroid Belt, or on other worlds. For sound money, then and only then should the standard change to something rarer and more valuable.

Rational analysis of Economic History and current events would have shown Dennett this and I ‘m sure evidence would have convinced him.

• This reply was modified 1 week, 4 days ago by  TheEncogitationer. Reason: Avoiding redundancy of the infinite

[TheEncogitationerParticipant]

Reg,

There’s “a realistic possibility” that insects, octopuses, crustaceans, fish and other overlooked animals experience consciousness.

I should say so. They all have eyes, antennae, feelers, and in the case of catfish, taste buds on the skin. Still looking for their Tigris-Euphrates, Alexandria, Wall Street, and Houston Launch Pad, though.

[Simon PayntonParticipant]

Reg the Fronkey Farmer wrote:

Ancient human evolution is “unparalleled” in nature.

I too have read it was climate change that drove the evolution of new human species, because it opened up new niches.  Every new niche means a new species.  But

the pattern in Homo species suggests that technology played a far greater role in speciation.

“Adoption of stone tools or fire, or intensive hunting techniques, are extremely flexible behaviours. A species that can harness them can quickly carve out new niches and doesn’t have to survive vast tracts of time while evolving new body plans,” van Holstein explains.

So the genus Homo was able to carve out more niches using technology, meaning more species.  I’m not sure how competition drives speciation.  I guess one species has to change in response to the success of another one, in the same niche.  The loser has to find a new niche and a new body form to enable them to live in it.

[_Robert_Participant]

Simon Paynton wrote:

Reg the Fronkey Farmer wrote:

Ancient human evolution is “unparalleled” in nature.

I too have read it was climate change that drove the evolution of new human species, because it opened up new niches. Every new niche means a new species. But

the pattern in Homo species suggests that technology played a far greater role in speciation. “Adoption of stone tools or fire, or intensive hunting techniques, are extremely flexible behaviours. A species that can harness them can quickly carve out new niches and doesn’t have to survive vast tracts of time while evolving new body plans,” van Holstein explains.

So the genus Homo was able to carve out more niches using technology, meaning more species. I’m not sure how competition drives speciation. I guess one species has to change in response to the success of another one, in the same niche. The loser has to find a new niche and a new body form to enable them to live in it.

Yes…Humans are no longer subject to the normal genetic screening processes. In many cases the least-fittest humans can propagate as much as anyone. It seems the struggle is changing to the situation where we somehow force our environment to adapt to us. We will fail, of course. Elon Musk can’t even build a decent electric truck, let alone guide us to civilizations on Mars.

[jakelafortParticipant]

Yes…Humans are no longer subject to the normal genetic screening processes. In many cases the least-fittest humans can propagate as much as anyone. It seems the struggle is changing to the situation where we somehow force our environment to adapt to us. We will fail, of course. Elon Musk can’t even build a decent electric truck, let alone guide us to civilizations on Mars.

Least fit.

Yeah.

Is it a stretch or bigotry to wonder whether century after century of Islam has caused a dumbing of the general population? If animals living underground or in caves generation after generation have in many cases lost their eyesight does generation after generation of Islamic life make epigentic changes both through the failure to exercise faculties and the reproduction that thwarts natural sexual selection?

I don’t have an answer. But i am curious.

[Simon PayntonParticipant]

_Robert_ wrote:

In many cases the least-fittest humans can propagate as much as anyone.

Yes, millions of years of evolution have resulted in … me.  How did that happen?

I think we’re extremely strongly shaped by evolution, biologically and psychologically.  That’s both a curse and a benefit.  How long before we wipe ourselves out?

[jakelafortParticipant]

How long before we wipe ourselves out?

Vegas has over/under at 22 yrs & 6 months?

If you take the under it may be a little problematic to collect.

[Simon PayntonParticipant]

There are all kinds of people who shouldn’t be here if Mother Nature had anything to do with it.  For humans, it’s not so much survival of the fittest, it’s the survival of the most cooperative.  That’s why young children are born knowing how to cooperate.

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