Brian Iverson

If it’s in your nature (your brain tells you) to want to prevent a suicide, for example, you as a cause can have the effect of preventing one.

LOL. Unseen is the universe clock work or not?

The failure to acknowledge the implications of no free will reminds me of the failure of theists to use the smarts they otherwise possess when analyzing their god.

Indeed. I’ve read better terrible theology than Sam Harris’s book. I mean honestly, a respectable book on those who posit we have no free will based on the clock work nature of the…[Read more]

But that is the real mystery Reg. Does Alexa have a choice? Does she? Woooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooh !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am leaning towards the idea that “punishment” is not really an effective deterrent.

It really has its limits (though of course, having no consequences for people’s actions is also very problematic). When I studied the American death penalty, the ultimate conclusion, based on numerous studies, several books dedicated to the topic of capital pun…[Read more]

We do hold people responsible. When we do.

Yeah. Because we have no choice whether to make others responsible or not. Giving meaning to any of our moral choices is totally besides the point. Regardless of what we did or why…we had no option but to do what we did. Try owning up to that, and I can try to respect your position on free will.

I think that just declaring that we don’t have free will doesn’t automatically invalidate “responsibility”.

How does making people responsible for what they did, if they had no choice, make any sense? We don’t make those with severe mental illnesses responsible for many of their crime, because, that doesn’t make sense. Just as we don’t blame a…[Read more]

I don’t think we know. not with certainty, but if every moment was always going to unfold as it has and every moment will unfold in the only way it can then the notion that we hold a person responsible for their actions is silly.

It couldn’t be more simple than that. I think by extension, punishing someone for doing something that they could not h…[Read more]

I find that sort of argument full of entitlements and ultimately flawed.

That’s the funniest thing I’ve read this year. The only reason we are talking this God bullshit remotely seriously is because people like you keep insisting the invisible man in the sky exists. And you keep claiming God has these qualities and when we respond by showing the…[Read more]

God intercedes in your life and yet is such an uncaring and or sadistic prick that she will allow the species to become extinct?

God did murder every human but a handful with the flood. I think millions of people, including the “guilty” children and evil ones with mental problems and conditions that would exclude culpability drowned. It’s…[Read more]

 none of the responses resonated with me. Sorry :/   not even close

Yes because the function of this discussion was to get, maybe even just one person, to help you confirm your biases and to roll the eyes at all the rational comments coming in. It’s human nature to find sound criticism as hostile, unpalatable and offensive. It doesn’t resonate wi…[Read more]

One recent study shows that the male homo sapiens generally spits into the female’s open mouth as a sign that he wants to mate for life. However the sample size for this study was limited.

I believe that study was later enhanced by a study published in the highly reputable Vogue magazine which demonstrated how the female can judge whether she l…[Read more]

I always find it funny referring to gender groups by using the definite article in a laboratory sense. “The male”. Let’s explore it and see how it gets as we use it more and more:

“The female generally does more housework than the male though things have changed over time where the male is catching up to the female, though the gap is still…[Read more]

You are quoting a Maxim article?

If anyone starts a phrase with “Gay or lesbian people want….”  you can very confidently ignore everything that follows. Even something like “lesbians want women” is dubious as there are no small number of LGTB who deal with gender confusion, confusion over their sexual profile, trans-issues. I’ve rarely met two LGTB people who remotely want the…[Read more]

The same goes the other way around. With some women hiding their own personality, career, goals and dreams from a prospective partner under the assumption that guys want a woman less intelligent than them, making less money and having a less assertive influence over major relational decision. Of course, these guys exists and in theory, there is…[Read more]

Obviously the all men/all women is not true. The most that can be done is generalize.  And perhaps there are cultures where the general rules are inapplicable.

Indeed. Most of the toxic scum-thinking that comes out of modern online sexism (like Men Going their own Way, pick up artists, so called “men’s rights activists”) base most their arguments…[Read more]

While some of those guys are great thinkers and I admire how they have tried to spread the principles of humanism and rationalthinking in brilliant ways…after all these allegations (multiple ones for most of them) and their less than inspiring responses…at the very very least a few of them must be true. The rate of false allegations is really…[Read more]

No it’s been an idiocracy since Regan. And English speaking countries have all followed, lagging behind of course, but the UK is pretty close.

 If not attributed to God telling me what other possible explanations could it be?

Like a gazillion billion schmillion other possible explanations…ones that don’t involve an imaginary invisible supernatural being in the sky chatting with you and granting you your wishes. How on Earth does anyone get to the point where the default and only…[Read more]