Billie M Jones

Thanks, Reg!!

Can quantum mechanics explain consciousness?

In a word, no.

At least, not in any ordinary understanding of “to explain something.”

Suppose Penrose and Hameroff’s ideas turn out to be true (and can be proven to be true, a dubious possibility in itself), what new treatments might come of it? Even true explanations wouldn’t mean much p…[Read more]

Have a great week everyone!

Fellow Unbelievers,

It is now another Thanksgiving Day!

In addition to the classic Unbeliever’s blessings linked above, it is also helpful to remember the folly of having “God as your witness” rather than the discoveries of the human science of Ornithology:

And on a serious note, it also helps to know just where…[Read more]

Thanks Reg!!

Have a great week everyone! A somewhat shorter post today as I have been traveling over the last few days.

Simon,

It’s important to make a distinction between errors of fact and errors of morality. If errors of fact such as spelling were a reason for guilt, I could never get a post out and you might not ever have written a book (which I look forward to reading when I get a chance, by the way.)

Also, while mnemonic devices are a good thing, unlike…[Read more]

Reg and Fellow Unbelievers,

I’m back.

Ken Ham evidently thinks there is some connection between The Tower of Babel desert legend and Evolution and racism that is just not found in evidence.

One, The Tower of Babel story is about JHVH-1 splitting humans into languages to keep them from being like him.

Newsflash: The mere existence of the…[Read more]

Simon Paynton wrote:

@jakelafort – I agree that it’s been used as a horrendous tool of oppression, but it remains psychologically valid. We’re all prone to mess up sometimes, for similar reasons.

Well…it was the woman’s fault. Let’s just blame the woman, LOL. Messing up is not a sin. A sin is defined as going against god.

Reg,

The story about Ken Ham and his Testor’s model Tower of Babel was fascinTing. Man has gone 238,000 miles in space to the Moon and back the same distance and has sent a human-made satellite Voyager II outside of our Solar System over 4 billion miles in space. That’s far higher than any human-created structure on Earth, even assuming a Tower…[Read more]

@jakelafort – I agree that it’s been used as a horrendous tool of oppression, but it remains psychologically valid.  We’re all prone to mess up sometimes, for similar reasons.

Simon do you stand by your original thoughts regarding original sin?

Unseen wrote:

I can’t imagine how one constructs an ethical system on less than an absolute or the absolute. How would it not be a system based merely on attitudes and/or opinions?

You’re probably right.  Anything else has wiggle-room.  A slave says, “I absolutely do not want to be a slave”.  It’s like Michael Shermer says, there is a “who says…[Read more]

To be fair – we are all able to mess up, at any time: our selfish, blind and thoughtless natures lead us to do it every so often, with the best will in the world.

Yes, we all do from time to time. C’est la vie.  But that is not the same as claiming that we mess up because we are born flawed. It is as vulgar as claiming that we need some “d…[Read more]

..the religious must be a different species than me. I say we split the nomenclature ASAP.

I have often thought to myself that if I could remember where I parked my spaceship I would have left long ago 🙂

…..security-training companies say houses of worship make up the fastest-growing segment of their business as more churches, synagogues, mosques and temples are arming their congregations.

..the religious must be a different species than me. I say we split the nomenclature ASAP.

“If a loving God is my center, then all my actions have meaning because they are related to the Absolute.”

I believe the only thing wrong with this statement is that “the Absolute” to the author must be God or what God dictates.

I can’t imagine how one constructs an ethical system on less than an absolute or the absolute. How would it not be a…[Read more]

Yeah Simon the fate of humanity is not a big deal. Sinister what?

The guilt and consequent control over the lives of the ignorant masses is of little concern. The flagellants knew how to expiate sin. Beat themselves silly and if that is not sufficient then find a Jew to lynch. The countless and nameless faces of human civilization whose lives…[Read more]

I don’t think it’s all that perfidious, or sinister.  I know it can be used as a powerful weapon in the wrong hands, but that doesn’t take away from its psychological and moral validity.

jakelafort wrote:

it is depraved giving responsibility to future generations for the act in the Garden.

But this is just the myth or story (which happens to…[Read more]