Edward

  • Okay Simon I’ll give it a read over the holidays. I’ll let you know what I think when I’m done with it. You might consider reading the entire book as well so we can properly discuss it.

  • Okay Simon I’ll give it a read over the holidays. I’ll let you know what I think when I’m done with it. You might consider reading the entire book as well so we can properly discuss it.

  • Everything I’ve read about pre-farming humanity has told me the absolute opposite about large scale violence. Humanities greatest threat was hunger, animals and the environment…not one another. I will either read the book or not, I don’t want to skim. Is it worth reading?

  • Simon the rate at which people murder one another is dependent on how stable and prosperous a country is, not on how kind they are. Qatar is a prosperous and highly safe society but it is not REMOTELY a kind one. The chart is also conveniently from the ending of the middle ages onward and does not include the several millennia of the development…[Read more]

  • I am familiar with Pinker’s theory and I think it is rubbish. Human kindness, if plotted on a chart, is utterly ALL over the place and has absolutely NO linear progression. Come on Simon multiple genocides (including the holocaust), and reigns of terror happened in the last century. As the West has grown kinder in some quarters other parts of the…[Read more]

  • Simon, the humanistic caring of an open society in western countries is not a natural progression of human morality but a blimp in the history of human civilisation. It is not born out of inherent human kindness but a set of ideas born in the enlightenment, a reaction to religion and dogmatic morality and an increasing centring of the human…[Read more]

  • Encoginator, I think you are unaware of just how different and exceptional social media is as a quick and easy way to disseminate clearly disruptive and destructive “false information” which is money making poison especially for facebook and twitter. It is nothing like the moral panic of television or magazines when they came out. Open your eyes.…[Read more]

  • Beyond a small group of crank conspiracy theorists there was virtually zero controversy around vaccines until the social media age began. Having worked with social media for a decade now I know quite deeply the sheer poison that facebook and twitter are (to a lesser extent garbage videos linked via social media). I believe that next to global…[Read more]

  • Thanks, Reg!

  • D replied to the topic Happy Birthday, Ivy! in the forum Small Talk 5 years, 7 months ago

    Well that video is an elaborate version of the birthday song, and super ridiculous and camp video from a few decades ago. But yeah, as a joke we might sometimes play that version of the song as we bring out the birthday cake. I never heard of las mañanitas. I love the music of Mana (an amazing Mexican band, especially Labios Compartidos) and my…[Read more]

  • D replied to the topic Happy Birthday, Ivy! in the forum Small Talk 5 years, 7 months ago

    Felicidades Ivy!!!!!!!!!!

  • D replied to the topic The war on Christmas in the forum Atheism 5 years, 7 months ago

    Yeah in fact I’ve seen quite a few American films where some drunken uncle ruins Christmas for everybody. Is it an actual thing?

  • D replied to the topic The war on Christmas in the forum Atheism 5 years, 7 months ago

    Christmas lights in Madrid

  • D started the topic The war on Christmas in the forum Atheism 5 years, 7 months ago

    I guess we revisit this every year. Christmas is pretty uncontroversial among atheists in continental Europe. It is controversial amongst many in the United States. I don’t really know about Ireland or the UK. I enjoy Christmas lights, seeing “The Messiah” in concert, singing Christmas songs, looking at the public “Nativity Scene” and, of course,…[Read more]

  • D replied to the topic Are there dangerous ideas? in the forum Small Talk 5 years, 7 months ago

    They looked to a fascist for salvation.

    It’s truly fascinating looking at it from the outside, but I am certain that it is not pretty if you live in a state like Alabama or Mississippi which is already economically stagnant, lacking in social assistance and social programs and has a mentality of “people facing hard times deserve it”. Their lives…[Read more]

  • D replied to the topic Free Will Redux: A Question in the forum Theism 5 years, 7 months ago

    An hour and a half video cannot possibly do his theory justice nor would I consider that a “short period of time” to give a basic outline. But then you have relegated your philosophical journey to youtube, so there’s that. I’m sorry I ever suggested the whole “intellectual laziness” thing. Whatever should I have expected from a philosophy graduate.

  • D replied to the topic Are there dangerous ideas? in the forum Small Talk 5 years, 7 months ago

    the super wealthy capitalists will probably feel like they have the most to loose

    They have the most in financial terms to lose in the long run in the name of short term gains, but in terms of absolute suffering, the poor have the most to lose.

    Conservatives have created the narrative of being the “party of family values and responsibility” but…[Read more]

  • D replied to the topic Free Will Redux: A Question in the forum Theism 5 years, 7 months ago

    Simon, Reg has already referenced a think atheist post where Simon (the other Simon) did his best to summarise it. You’ll have to put in the work if you are otherwise interested. I will lend you the ebook if you want to read it.

  • D replied to the topic Free Will Redux: A Question in the forum Theism 5 years, 7 months ago

    Cats are the strongest argument for free will.

    Their sheer obstinacy and ability to enslave their human “owners” clearly shows cats have pure absolute free will.

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