jeffreypaulbradt

Enco,

Jew hatred/antisemitism ain’t going nowheres. Longer legs than Betty Grable.

I just want it to be honest. The pretense of the lefties? I want to see honest debates in which the mythology is debunked and the proponents are embarrassed, humiliated and discredited. Now i know many of the champions of Palestinianism and demonization of Israel…[Read more]

Jake,

I think I’ve found just the ticket for countering Antisemites…a video like this, with an obvious variation on the McGuffin theme:

PopeBeanie,

I heard news that Trump is now saying good things about vaccines. But is it just talk, or will he replace RFK?

Of course Trump is saying good things about Vaccines. Operation Warp Speed was his baby and he wants his Nobel Prize for it, (albeit he also threw in lots of crazy talk of drinking bleach, hydroxychloroquine (which is for…[Read more]

TheEncogitationer wrote:
Are all you guys still supporting government-run health care after all this?

Has there ever been a more corruptive, governmental force in a civilized country, bent on destroying a health care system than what’s happening now? The damage seems so intentional. Even the incompetence seems intentionally made as permanently…[Read more]

TheEncogitationer wrote:
But I can attest today that a Jesus Fish on a work van or business sign doesn’t necessarily equal trust or quality. Televangelists and Noah’s Ark theme parks do not help matters either.

I think the “trust” thing works both ways with religious people.  I’m always suspiciously on the look out for tell-tale hypocrisy.

Fellow Unbelievers,

This is not what I had in mind for The Singularity and I’m sure others would agree:

Can Xi and Putin Cheat Death Before the Rest of the World?
https://unherd.com/newsroom/can-xi-and-putin-cheat-death-before-the-rest-of-the-world/

Simon,

Travel and trade come into the story. But in the first place, if family, clan and tribe ties are dissolved to a great extent, then people become individuals. And religion provided the trust necessary for individuals to trade, outside of a collective family group.

Perhaps initially this was the case in human history. But I can attest…[Read more]

Strega,

I am no Prohibitionist and make fun of them frequently, but having to drink alcohol as a necessity is not appealing, and minor children doing it is not a good thing either. And remember alcohol is brewed with water, so there shouldn’t be anything in water that could kill yeast culture.

Ancient peoples associating alcohol use with health…[Read more]

TheEncogitationer wrote:
Tribes and clans can be and were dismantled by travel and trade between different peoples.

Travel and trade come into the story.  But in the first place, if family, clan and tribe ties are dissolved to a great extent, then people become individuals.  And religion provided the trust necessary for individuals to trade, o…[Read more]

I think Holy Water is meant to have some spirit in it? And 10 year old scotch is no longer for 10 years olds.

“Always carry a flagon of whiskey in case of snakebite, and furthermore, always carry a small snake.…..W.C. Fields.

Ha! Enco, the Church guided water ignorance had a strange but happy side effect. It turns out that the locals (in the uk) discovered that people who drunk wine, gin or beer did not get sick, whereas those drinking water were keeling over everywhere.  As a result, adults and children alike were swigging back the alcohol, giving gentle rise to the…[Read more]

Reg,

I misspelled and couldn’t edit in time.

Diogenes wouldn’t care whether his lantern put him out of the Net Zero Club.

Was Diogenes Woke?

We agree. He was not! 🙂

Jake,

All very well put! Attributing the progress we take for granted to religion and in particular Christianity and Islam is often a Post Hoc, Ergo Propter Hoc Fallacy. Proximity in time is only one element of causation. David Hume listed a bunch of other elements of causation, but I’ll have to look that up.

You’re right also about the…[Read more]

Reg,

Was Diogenes Woke?

Where does one get that?

Diogenes wouldn’t want the “Free Palestine” crowd pitching tents next to his Grecian Urn home and possibly using it as a public toilet in his absence.

And Diogenes would care whether his lantern put him out of the Net Zero club.

And Diogenes sure wouldn’t want anyone of any identity getting in…[Read more]

Christianity back in the day and Islam in any islamic nation today is the death of individuality and individual rights. The regulation of life is all encompassing and it swallows up all that is decent and desirable in life. Listen to any honest Muslims who have forsaken their cults and you will see i know of what i speak. And everything i have…[Read more]

Simon,

I’ve got a book that says just that, and they make a good point. The Western Church, in the medieval period (500 – 1500 AD), dismantled the tribe/clan system of family favouritism, and this led to people becoming more individualist and also promoted the idea of free will (so that people could be judged, presumably). So, Christianity was…

[Read more]

Reg the Fronkey Farmer wrote:
I think the writer is “tilting at windmills” and is arguing a point that does not need to be made. It could even be deemed a “strawman argument”. Her critique seems aimed more at an imagined “scientific arrogance” than at how science is genuinely practiced.

I think she’s right that science has had ideological…[Read more]

TheEncogitationer wrote:
* (That Christian Apologist Gish Galloping Galoot I once told you about one time even went so far as to claim that the entire Enlightenment experiment and even Atheism were the product of Christianity! That takes some real mental gymnastics!)

I’ve got a book that says just that, and they make a good point.  The Western…[Read more]

Yeah Enco, I don’t recall exactly when Americans started loading themselves onto the short busses because I spent my working years with teams of engineers and scientists. I generally thought the average among us had a lick of sense. My grandparents understood that vaccines do save lives and authoritarianism is bad. They knew not to eat so much…[Read more]