I want symmetry.

No you don’t Jake. All I see you doing is condemning the barbarity of Hamas and justifying the barbarity of the Israeli army. You are not interested at all in genuine justice but in justifying gross double standards. None of you talking about Israel/Palestine for the last weeks have been remotely capable of a shred of nuance, self…[Read more]

Women being raped is a problem, it is not a small problem, this shouldn’t happen, we can all do our part to stop it.

But I am Yet to read a person agreeing rape is a problem, not a small problem, that we should do what we can to stop it (except…[Read more]

I’m glad to hear you haven’t come across…[Read more]

Rape is very likely a biological reality. Chimps are rapists too and they share most of our dna

Indeed. Humans have the capacity to rape, murder, lie, commit genocide against millions, enslave, spread pointless hate. They also have the ability to modify this behaviour, by making actually very small sacrifices to increase overall safety,…[Read more]

In my ice hockey locker room, I hear guys…[Read more]

turns its adherents into something way less than animals

This is the kind of language anti-semites used in the run up to Naziism. It is no coincidence that Autumn left this website around when some of you started saying shocking dehumanising things that go far beyond simple criticism of religion. I am, at this point, embarrassed to be associated…[Read more]

Science deals with both the physical and the pure sciences, both practical and theoretical. Science heavily influences other STEM subjects (maths, engineering) as well…[Read more]

If we don’t have free will, we are not responsible for our…[Read more]

There is a common concern that without free will there’s no accountability. Nonsense. We will go on holding people to account because we have to, in the sense that this is how we respond to acts that displease or enrage us. We respond in this way because we have to. Literally. We have no real choice but respond that way.

That’s such a cop out. B…[Read more]

Yeah, it seems like we have “agency”; but is it real? Probably not, but the best answer is that we simply don’t know yet.

Agency is as real and meaningful as: decision, responsibility, culpability, power structures, invention, reward, retribution, entitlement, ownership, merit etc. Dismiss one…you should dismiss them all. If one is meani…[Read more]

If free will is an illusion, then control is an illusion (as is morality or consequence). That’s fine, I’m not saying with any certainty any of that exist. But it is ridiculous to dismiss meaningful choice, and still hold onto anything…[Read more]

The left nor the right is not destroying anything. A lack…[Read more]

When someone insults him

When he reads about someone being the victim of a miscarriage of justice

When he agrees/disagrees with his scheduled surgery being postponed because someone more urgent has been…[Read more]

In fact, the only time I have discussed…[Read more]

Out of interest, how would utilitarianism, or Kantianism, resolve moral dilemmas in ways that are not crude, simplistic, and unrealistic?

They aren’t crude, simplistic or unrealistic. Deontological moral systems are complex in moral rule building, that is the opposite of crude or simplistic. They are only unrealistic when pushed to the furthest…[Read more]

Both Kant’s universalisation, and Mill’s utilitarianism, are riddled with problems and inconsistencies.

They aren’t riddled with problems and inconsistencies. Deontological ethics are challenging, in application, when confronting difficult moral decisions (where a moral law conflicts strongly with your personal interests or comfort). All moral sys…[Read more]

1. Calling them “people of death” is a blanket attack on them. It is no different when people used to outrageously call Jews “money scroungers”. That isn’t directly calling an invidual a money scrounger, but the harm is still there (hence virulent voilence against Jews for most of European history). Calling…[Read more]

I mention frequently that we should be careful not to talk about the average atheists as a Western skeptic humanist. We…[Read more]

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5357259/

This article focusses on transgender youth sports, and the lack of evidence that there is an unfair advantage (at the youth level), the harm it causes, the insidious nature of…[Read more]

Alas, prejudice wins again and again. Under the…[Read more]

I am ready to let this topic go.

Sensible.

To give you an idea of how prevalent ghosti g is in Scotland, I had chatted with a lad for 5 weeks, almost daily.…[Read more]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_common_misconceptions

I read the whole article from beginning to end during a lunch hour. I wish so much there was more. A few I already knew, a few were a little surprising, others were even a little shocking.

I was most surprised about some…[Read more]

 that Islam as written (and practiced) can coexist within the framework of a liberal democracy.

No Abrahamic religions as written can coexist with liberal democracy. I cannot understand this obsession with singling out Islam. Christianity, Judaism and Islam, as written in their books, are ALL entirely incompatible with liberal democracy.

Liberal…[Read more]

I propose POD for Muslims.

Just when I thought I could get away from the vile bigotry of the last thread, its ugliness resurfaces. Not sure I want to be part of this forum anymore if every thread is going to be a discussion thread spreading and cheerleading bigotry.