jakelafort

If we have not succumbed to nuclear annhilation or descended into chaos fortunes will be made by people who invested in real estate in northern and especially mountainous areas.

Another negative probability as a result of the Ukraine is failure to cooperate to combat climate change. I understand it is getting a bit steamy in Europe. Parts of the USA are not exactly cool either. Texas forecast day after day after day over 100 farenheit. On the other hand i am not sure how much cooperation was in the offing…

Unseen, i thought it was a bad decision. As things have played out the costs far outweigh whatever advantage has been garnered. Wait, what advantage?

When China invades Taiwan we will have learned nothing.

Belle, cuz i don’t think your position makes sense. At that point in the pregnancy it is a kid and the state ought to protect it. Constitutional law and rights are concerned with balancing interests. That is why free speech is not absolute. Right to bear arms is not or at least should not be absolute. Free exercise of religion is not absolute.…[Read more]

Belle, for clarification of your position-does that change in the week before delivery?

Autumn, that makes me think of the impossibility of identifying the moment a species or an individual organism attains consciousness. Not just awareness of pain and good sensations or emotions but self-awareness. Being sentient

From Robert:

You don’t get it. I have doubts that you grew up as a practicing Christian as I did. Looking for a peaceful solution is not the goal. In fact, the worldly outcome is 100% irrelevant. You must really love the drug dealer who wants to kill you or the Nazi next door. Not to make things better but to demonstrate your submission to the l…[Read more]

Simon says:

Let’s take a hypothetical example. My neighbour is a drug dealer who wants to take over my house and threatens to stab me if I say no. What is going to give the best long term outcome for me? I stab him first? I call in some heavies to sort him out? Or I try and find a peaceful solution? Assuming it’s possible, the last opt…[Read more]

Simon, how is that an extreme case? I can give you example after example in which neighbors will turn in neighbors or murder neighbors and it is the rule as opposed to the exception. That Jesus moral instruction is garbage. How is it that humans can not admit when they are wrong. i don’t mean to pick on you but it is frustrating.

Robert, Unseen and I have defacated on Jesus’ love. I am sure with a little thought or other contributors additional excrement will be layed on his head. As i live and speak and write here is another thought: If your neighbor is a worthless leach and you have to choose between your neighbor and a stranger where the stranger is a good person in…[Read more]

Robert i thought of that very thing as a Jew in Nazi Germany how helpful it would be to follow Jesus’ neighborly instruction.

The other thing i should say is that moral instruction that utilizes an ancient religious text is in itself immoral. That there are or may be a nugget(s) or something that does not make you retch within the old testament…[Read more]

Simon, i agree a cliche is not necessarily bad but it is not necessary as moral advice if it is THAT well known.

The love your neighbor as yourself is good advice to encourage exploitative behavior. Let some kniving psychopath know through your good nature that you are an easy mark and see the behavior doubled. How one treats one’s neighbor…[Read more]

Simon what happened to your lessons on morality borne of evolution?

If you substitute immoral instruction for moral instruction i can drink to that. It is not necessary to rehash all of the pernicious and discriminatory aspects of relgiious imperatives, is it? Love your neighbor as yourself? How cliche and how lacking in nuance! Doesn’t it depend…[Read more]

I was not familiar with the term Seeker church but i instantly made an assumption that it was a front. Our world is composed of BS. Layers on layers of BS. Churches and iterations of Christianity are always an overwhelming negative influence and the apologists use tortured logic and emotional appeals. First item under my google search for seeker…[Read more]

I agree with Robert.

Think about a church community. What is it. What is its nature? What does it do? (thank you Doctor Lecter and Marcus Aurelius) Its purpose is to perpetuate its ideology. Try infiltrating a church as an outsider who politely expresses contrary opinions. Think ya will be well received? I doubt it. Maybe some pastor thinks he…[Read more]

Belle, you did not mention slavery. I did. It is because i know something of the history of the church and its messages. Churches use their influence to enforce/maintain unjust social hierarchy/order. The be content message delivered to slaves in only one iteration of the message. The grass is greener. Recent studies at least indicate that it is.…[Read more]

Belle, i think their message sucks. That be content message, sic transit gloria mundi was packaged to Black slaves to prevent malcontents from rebelling. Know your place in society. In the end or afterlife equality will be granted. Wonderful message for slave owners and Whites who benefited from slavery but atrocious for Black slaves. And even…[Read more]

Finally and with gratitude theists have proof the soul escapes albeit in a slow departure.

https://bigthink.com/hard-science/dead-bodies-move/