PopeBeanie

For example, many moms must believe that providing for their child and trying to make them happy and successful is their purpose in life. If he had a pet he loved, taking good care of it could be a purpose.

Mother-nature wise, the purpose of life is to survive and create offspring. (I’m sure that’s not a fun or useful explanation for most kids.)…[Read more]

The thing about the word evil is, it strongly implies some kind of consistently malevolent agency as its sponsor, in fact, consistently malevolent enough to define the agency’s over-riding character. Think Satan, for instance. Like Strega says, there’s the implication (if not certainty) that what’s behind the evil is supernatural agency.

It is…[Read more]

Ah, yes, the colonoscopy is a consciousness raising experience for me. I do it without the anesthesia because I like to watch the inside tour on screen. Not terribly painful (at least for me), and in fact sans-anesthesia statistically reduces the risks of complications, and I can immediately drive home afterwards.

Youngsters, it’s the…[Read more]

Evil’s definitely a human construct, but I think that ‘judging’ is not an all or nothing thing amongst animals. There are degrees, but humans can certainly amplify it with groupthink or other emotionalisms or intellectualisms.

Just thought I’d add another aspect behavior-wise in higher animals, play. Play is how we learn behavioral boundaries,…[Read more]

DanielW said

I won’t disagree that religion is a big factor in tribalism, and sometimes the most obvious factor, but I think it’s one among others.

jakelafort said

Of course those atheists who don’t really have a world view but are simply atheists by default are not included as being resistant to tribalism and all of its horrific manif…

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Here there was no mandate, no imminent danger, and no population was in danger of imminent destruction. I would also make the following two cynical observations:

1. International law precludes the use of force as a routine tool of international politics.

2. Chemical weapons allegations are a remarkably convenient tool.

I’d say some Syrian…[Read more]

Adding to the negative, a TrumPutin world oligarchy could even be playing the world just to grow itself. I don’t think Trump’s smart enough to succeed like Putin, but he can leave behind a trail of super-rich bastards before USA recovers to elevate its good natured core. Just hope a war or two won’t engage most of us in the flag-waving, re-elect…[Read more]

DoK, beautiful story, thank you! Sorry I didn’t see it until just now, and yes, it’s perfect for my larger, human/mammalian consciousness research/interests. I hope you and yours are well.

I am not explaining it very well, but I have often wondered if other moms who, for whatever reason, had a similar experience to mine, also experienced this sort…

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Cesar! Do you feel significantly older, now? (I don’t, but a few years ago I was in my sixties, just like I am right now, still.) 😘

@danielw I have a strong tendency to consider a lot of uniquely human qualities in terms of rushed evolution, such that the wide variation of qualities never had enough evolutionary time/history to be honed or fine-tuned or eliminated from us, genetically. E.g. some people are born with a small tail, or even gill parts next to their ears… which…[Read more]

Hoarding has positive selection behavior in some animal species, and I wouldn’t be surprised if humans evolved increasing tendencies for it, especially when they started to grow larger societies during active periods of agricultural settlements. Hoarding could be exaggerated to a dysfunctional degree in some people simply because having a hoarder…[Read more]

So we’re really missing out. So my POINT is – you know we talk a lot about peer reviewed evidence but it makes me wonder why anecdotal evidence may not be something to consider also…

Whoa, I been out of the AZ loop for a while. Missed your comment until now. Yeah, anecdotal evidence should help us get better at the evidence-based research, and (…[Read more]

I won’t argue against God or ghosts… call me agnostic. Only 99.999% improbable, and highly likely (and in many cases proven) that they exist merely in people’s imaginations. More to the point, what is the point of arguing anything without evidence, other than to have a two-way conversation with someone about how they feel about their dreams, or…[Read more]

I strongly suspect that ‘he targetted her’ is not an accurate description. Remember that this is the view of the institution – we have not heard from him. As atheists we support evidence based reasoning spiced with a little skepticism.

You may be right. But is your strong suspicion based on evidence? The topic title “sensitive hands” leads me to…[Read more]