Simon Paynton

There is not a whole lot of thriving going on in Southern Sudan or Somalia…and these places, are a whole lot more similar to human history than ours is.

I’ve never said that everybody thrives, I’ve always said that everybody wants to thrive.

Their goal is to simple survive. They only understand the pressure to survive another day and give little thought to thriving.

I am sure they also want to thrive.

When someone’s back is up against the wall, small things take on a great meaning.

Strega wrote:

Who do you want to matter to? Why do you want to matter? Why do you feel your life ought to have meaning? Where does the desire for meaning come from?

This a good question: do we need meaning, and if so, why?

We naturally matter to ourselves, and most of us need to matter to others too.  Because humans are so heavily into…[Read more]

Simon Paynton wrote:

an external arbiter outside of any human being

There’s also this: the pressure to thrive and survive, common to all living things.  Along with cooperation, this was Jesus’ main message in my opinion.  Simples.

The author of the article, John Ellis, says this:

The reality is that if the universe is impersonal, then morality is socially constructed with no basis in objectivity.

It depends what you mean by “objective”.  I presume that the Christian definition, or Ellis’ definition at least, is having an external arbiter outside of any human being.  For a…[Read more]

The article makes a number of points in itself.

Without a transcendent Being that has authority, no one can rightfully claim that it’s wrong to do anything. Without the existence of a God, I am free to do whatever I want.

The point here is, I think, who keeps people in line without God?  The answer is, each other.  You’re free to do whatever you w…[Read more]

“Does this apologist really destroy atheism in one tweet?”

– there’s a lot here to answer, and a lot to say.  I’ll take Dr Salviander’s points in the initial tweet:

2. However, also start with Christian morality

We start with a Western morality, if that is what she means.

3. Remove the bits you personally don’t like

I think it’s fair enough to do…[Read more]

Sounds very sensible, Kara.

What did the computer prove, exactly?  That God exists?  I must have missed that one.

Simon Paynton wrote:

so flimsy as to be laughable

But what exactly does Gödel imagine the being of God is like?  We can imagine that there is a being who is most moral/ethical, most knowing, most powerful, most this, most that, etc., but so what?  This doesn’t mean that a being actually exists, ever has done, or ever will, that possesses all of…[Read more]

“live in the present”

“Slow down.”