Dang Martin

@unseen That ‘fear of death’ is probably the most duplicitous in terms of the religious solution. When something scares you, you can either come to terms with it, or believe a pretty fairy tale.  The problem with the pretty fairy tale, is that it doesn’t enable the believer to actually come to terms with their fear, and move forward ac…[Read more]

@unseen, thanks for capturing my point so succinctly.

Years ago, I used to be quite a popular beta-tester on various computer programs. The idea was that you’d try to crash or otherwise break the new program. I beta-tested for the early google site.  Programmers love good beta testers as it enables them to fine tune their work.

The same applies to new scientific theories. The proponents of the th…[Read more]

The minute emotional choices entered the political arena, logical discourse flew out of the window.  People are not debating issues, they’re debating people. The emotional attachment to ‘characters’ in politics is pretty new, and the result is logic-free opinions. I’m hoping it’s a kind of tidal movement, where eventually sense will prevai…[Read more]

@simonpaynton You’re saying that we are fools to discard two petty metaphors that are actually irrelevant to the religion?  I’m still trying to understand where foolishness comes in and what I would lose, to my detriment, by discarding all religious speech as spouting nonsense.

You said we would be fools to ignore certain religious content.  Wha…[Read more]

@simonpaynton I am still waiting to hear what it is in religion that is so special and useful that I’d be a fool to throw it away.  That some religions mirror some aspects of morality is not a surprise, because humans carry that morality within them, and it will inevitably spill out into any religion they come up with.  But you have stated tha…[Read more]

So if I don’t know about a mustard seed as an analogy for something, that makes me a fool?  That I cannot be wise without a rock in some water?  I’ve already told you the Golden rule has nothing to do with religion, other than being claimed by an assortment of them.

Love god?  What the fuck has that got to do with wisdom?

Again, @simonpaynton, wh…[Read more]

@simonpaynton what exactly would I be throwing away when I throw away everything religion related?  “Some stuff” doesn’t really enlighten me.

@simonpaynton You said  “if we abandon all religion as having zero value, we are fools”.  What in religion, should we abandon religion altogether, would we not have?  Why would we be fools?  What would we lose that is otherwise unavailable?

The Golden rule has nothing to do with religion, other than occasionally being co-opted by a religio…[Read more]

Thanks, Reg, I will indeed and yes we are

@belen You’re telling me you learned something mind blowing but you can’t tell me what it is? That’s not very reassuring.

Bellen wrote:

Can there be an atheistic religion?

No.

Agree.  No.

@belen can you please paraphrase? I’m not in a place where I can play sound.

@unseen We are discussing genital ‘editing’ of babies, in order to safeguard them from experiences that they aren’t likely to be exposed to until they are an adult.  If this is the case, then there is no need to ‘edit’ genitalia at birth, since the protection apparently provided by this operation is not expected to kick in until they are ad…[Read more]