Richard Robertson

IMO humans invented a God that may or may not intervene in human affairs, but in any case a God whom is never to be held accountable for whatever He does. Kind of like the historical father of a family, or leader of men… in a world of flaws and evils of Man. (Well ok, some evil women too, but that’s secondary.)

Albeit in reality, we exist in a…[Read more]

Simon Paynton wrote:
I just mean that hands make it easier to make and manipulate technology.

Yes, in combination with the ability to watch each other (e.g.each other’s hands and faces) and learn.

fullermingjr wrote:
Ok then – given our shared, collective history (because that wouldn’t change – you can’t change the past), our current human nature (which hasn’t changed in 6 to 10 thousand years as best as the top anthropologist on the plant can tell, so it’s not likely to change in 200 years), our track-record of self defense and blame s…

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Davis wrote:
[The custom of slavery] is very patchy and it happened independently in different spheres of the world which barely (if at all) influenced one another and it generally only emerged under certain conditions.

History’s my weakest topic, but I’m sure institutionalized slavery couldn’t exist without each “civilization’s” ability to build…[Read more]

Somebody commented to me that they thought instead of removing the confederate statues, the US should teach history in schools. (Because that really gets emotions going).

I had to reply that the toppling of these statues IS teaching history in a way that schools never did, inasmuch as we are all becoming aware of the historical reasons these…[Read more]

Davis wrote:
Human nature evolved outside of complex civilization. We are not conditioned to live in density and complexity. Cruelty naturally comes from structuring complex society. It is a miracle there have been pockets of broad (though hardly universal) civil protections.

I have to wonder if wars won, and power wielders vs submissive…[Read more]

But this one has freckles. I don’t think modern cows have freckles, except when they’re young, or Irish.

(People here know most of the following, big-picture summary with a dose of speculation.)

Fossil history is about finding bits and pieces, amounting to a very small sample of the complete history. The probability of locating and discovering any species depends on its population over time, geographical spaces, conditions of preservation, and other…[Read more]