Nadezhda

The thing is, poverty linked to terrorism is something of a myth. It is true, some very down trodden people end up being recruited an do the unthinkable, but there is absolutely no shortage of middle and upperclass Americans and European (even non-muslims who converted) who went to Syria to help do (which they knew well in advance) was u…[Read more]

If you are from Canada or Australia or the Netherlands or Spain…Christmas has become so secularized that one encounters religious elements quite seldom unless they chose to. Religious elements can be enjoyed as cultural-historical artifact in a non-religious way…and if someone puts a nativity scene or a christmas tree with an angel on to…[Read more]

The ethical reasons why we do things are:

1)  instinctive (i.e. we evolved this way)

2)  strategic (i.e. it is useful).

Those are our bases for making moral decisions.

This doesn’t make much sense Simon. “The ethical reason why we do things” makes about as much sense as saying “the artistic reasons why art is produced” or “the spiritual re…[Read more]

Matt wrote:
The more interesting question is: how do we tell a consciousness apart from a simulation of consciousness, given we don’t actually know what consciousness is.

+1

David Boots wrote:
the islamic faith cannot tolerate dissent and it cannot tolerate a diversity of opinion. It is for most muslims unthinkable to question their church and its dogma.

No. In Turkey, Albania, Azerbaijan, Bosnia, Kazakhstan, Tunisia there is a notable level of secularism and in some of these a high level of equality and religious…[Read more]

Simon Paynton wrote:
I think the religious people would have a point if they were upset that someone complained at the practice, which is, after all, proper respect for the dead, as they see it.

Simply because one is passing through an emotionally difficult time, doesn’t make it suddenly acceptable to insert your world view in a public setting.…[Read more]

Simon Paynton wrote:
are you saying that people actually get “offended” when someone says “happy Christmas”?  Who?  The Offense Bunny?  I get offended that someone might offended by “happy Christmas”, but then I think it must be an urban myth.

Wow Simon. How magnanimous your belittling of non-religious people’s offense to religious commentary in…[Read more]

Strega wrote:
After this, let’s debate the color unicorns get when they’re old.

+1

Simon Paynton wrote:
I would say a thought experiment is “valid” when it produces a model that appears to be correct. A thought experiment could maybe sometimes be thought of as a hypothesis: “if the world was like [hypothesis] X, what would happen?”. If “what happens” matches up with observable reality, then it’s good supporting evidence that…

[Read more]

Thanks all for the supportive comments. I’ve spent the last day listening to otherwise rational and compassionate friends and acquaintances trying to justify the violence. “We have to sustain public order”. “Yeah…but the referendum was illegal”. Egad. Nationalism is a horrid sickness. Turns cool headed reasonable people into sociopathic imbeciles.

The national spanish press is muting the abuse and NOT showing the most disturbing videos of police violence. Only the international press is doing so. Instead they focus on a small counter protest, show a few radicals throwing things at the police and one or two minor scuffles and lament that three policemen were hurt.

I never ever imagined…[Read more]

Where do they go from here?

Violence. Thats what happens in places that are not given the right to vote (Chechnya, Kashmir, Kosovo, East Timor, Dagestan, Basque country).

It will escalate by the day. The shadows of Basque terrorism may even pop up again. Places that were given the vote (Quebec, Scotland, Montenegro, Slovakia) were given the…[Read more]

Belle…most of these were today. The Catalonians have been wanting a referendum for decades and the national government never budged. They called their own referendum which the government says violates the constitution. So while Catalonians were voting for possible independence…heavily armed national police were sent in the thousands to…[Read more]

Belle Rose wrote:
@davis

I’m not sure why you’re trying to pass judgement on these things as “good or bad.

Because not all traits we have that came from evolution are beneficial or good. And we have evolved some features for no good reason. And some of the features we have evolved were useful in the past but now they are not. And some featu…[Read more]