Sunday School

[Reg the Fronkey Farmer]

Activists are fighting back against the agenda of the Christian Liars for Jesus. At least one honest Christian understands the problem clearly. It’s 2020 and religious freedom is STILL not a license to harm others. We need more journalists to recognize and report on Project Blitz.

Trump’s school prayer photo-op left out most common victims.

Christian educators in Kentucky are unhappy over the “lifestyle violations” of one of their students. Utah becomes the 19th State to ban LGBTQ “conversion therapy”. The Church of England has given up committing to gay sex.

A British MP has called for a review of the practice of holding parliamentary prayers.

Religion would serve us well by fading away from public spaces.

Well done to Iowa atheists who helped secure “religious freedom” proclamations in their cities.

I had almost forgotten about the Raelians and their “Happiness Academy”. For most people religion is not relevant to their level of happiness.

Police say woman drove into oncoming car as test of faith.

A comedian has fled Russia for insulting the feelings of believers. He won’t ask Trump for help as he might wake up in a Siberian gulag (OK, that bit is fake news).

This weeks’ Woo: My transgenic GMO Frankenfoods are delicious.

Climate Crisis: Scientists find plastic ‘pouring’ into Antarctica.

This is a reasonable discussion on the merits of rationality. This apologist has been critiquing atheism for years but does not even know what atheism is.  I don’t think he can even define what he means by “god”, just as most Christians can’t but then even a Harvard professor can display an ignorance that only a deluded Christian can. Maybe he should be called Professor Verisimilitude instead.

In an era of anti-expert populism is standing up for expertise a fool’s errand?

Some sharks  have recently evolved to walk. A newly described dinosaur was an apex predator. Our oceans are fully of surprises.

A new study uses the famous trolley problem to show how our culture shapes our moral beliefs.

Scientists solves the most complex Traveling Salesman problem ever.

We keep chasing happiness, but true clarity comes from depression and existential angst?

Auschwitz, 75 years later.

5 theories on why Neanderthals went extinct. The DNA of four children who lived thousands of years ago raises many questions.

Which evolves faster, Culture or Biology?

Pastness, presentness and futurity seem to be real features of the world, but are they?

Long Read: The secret history of facial recognition.

This week I am reading this book: The Kindness of Strangers: How a Selfish Ape Invented a New Moral Code.

Some photographs taken last week.

While you are waiting for the kettle to boil…..

Coffee Break Video: The richness of time. The perks of being a pirate. Auschwitz survivor pained by rise in anti-Semitism.

[Reg the Fronkey Farmer]

 

Have a great week everyone!

Hello Sir, we are in the area to conduct a survey on the importance of family.

Me: Don’t start out by telling lies. People might think everything that followed is not true. Everyone knows you are Mormons.

(My house, this morning – they left immediately).

[Simon Paynton]

loll!!

[Simon Paynton]

The Kindness of Strangers: How a Selfish Ape Invented a New Moral Code.

This article looks fascinating.  I’m studying this subject at the moment.  I’m wondering if Professor McCullough isn’t barking up the wrong tree.

As far as I’m aware, perspective-taking means uncovering the beliefs (perceptions) and desires (goals) of the other person.  This then allows us to figure out their emotions.  But trying to figure out emotions directly, from cues, is probably more tricky.

Also, “empathise” has a number of meanings, and one of them, which I think Dr McCullough might have got confused with, is “empathic concern”.  So, are we learning to figure out someone’s emotions, or learning to feel concern for them?  I think concern comes from knowing their perceptions and goals, and hence what could be making them suffer (if at all).

Maybe this is why “perspective-takers” didn’t do any better in “empathising” (feeling concern) than the “do-nothing” control group.

I’m grateful to him for dissecting the subject as he has.

Jean Decety in the paper “Empathy, justice and moral behavior” states that perspective-taking is associated with greater application of justice.  If true, then the kind of perspective-taking that works is in considering someone’s circumstances, perceptions and goals rather than their emotions.  This is based on the formula for fairness, “maximum benefit and minimum harm for each person concerned”.  The amount of benefit that each person needs, and harm that they don’t need, are based on individual circumstances.

Dr McCullough also doesn’t mention the condition of “imagine self” in the position of the other.  From what I’ve read, this only produces an overwhelming misery in the imaginer, and therefore, not much helping behaviour.

[Simon Paynton]

Police say woman drove into oncoming car as test of faith.

She’s one crazy lady.

[Simon Paynton]

We keep chasing happiness, but true clarity comes from depression and existential angst?

Someone said, “if you want to find a man’s genius, look for his wound”.  I agree that negativity forces us to look for solutions.

[Reg the Fronkey Farmer]

In the Edvard Munch painting “The Scream”, the scream is a scream from nature and the face in the foreground is a reaction to the angst the scream made.

[Reg the Fronkey Farmer]

Police say woman drove into oncoming car as test of faith…

Yes, driven crazy by the god delusion.

[Simon Paynton]

the scream is a scream from nature and the face in the foreground is a reaction to the angst the scream made.

That’s so cool!

[Belle Rose]

Me: Don’t start out by telling lies. People might think everything that followed is not true. Everyone knows you are Mormons.

(My house, this morning – they left immediately)

That is SO funny 😂 😂 😂

[Strega]

Thanks, Reg!

[Belle Rose]

Kobe Bryant is dead

[Reg the Fronkey Farmer]

Yes, he was well known in Ireland too, a country not too familiar with his sport. And still so young at only 41. What a shame.

[Reg the Fronkey Farmer]

The “trolley problem” is a good article and worth reading. As Diderot suggested circa 1750, morality should be founded on sociology and not on theology. He is one of my favorite atheist writers.

As an aside have you heard of the Diderot Effect?  Good to drop into a conversation about consumerism 🙂

[Simon Paynton]

Simon Paynton wrote:

Maybe this is why “perspective-takers” didn’t do any better in “empathising” (feeling concern) than the “do-nothing” control group.

What I mean is, in the article, the participants might be asked to say how somebody is feeling, and the experiment then measures their level of empathic concern.

I think the question should be, what does the world look like to this person (cognitive perspective-taking), and a person’s world comes to them in the form of perceptions and goals.

It is interesting how the attempt for participants to remain “objective and detached” resulted in lower levels of empathic concern than the control group – as if the coldness is somehow unnatural or unhealthy for human beings.

[Author]

Posts