Simon Paynton

I don’t feel a void.  I don’t feel life is meaningless, and I’m not a nihilist.  Christians can’t make sense of that.  Which may be understandable as they are required to see something from another’s point of view.  What Christians worship is a void in our life, yet there’s “nothing there” in the sense of there being no void.

It’s not even the…[Read more]

Lol, that’s true

Reg the Fronkey Farmer wrote:
@unapologetic – Re. Sunday Assembly: No thanks. I am pretty antisocial.

Those things sound pretty strange to me.  Everyone’s there to worship nothing?  What’s the point?

Reg the Fronkey Farmer wrote:
Cooperation and shared thinking helped shape human intelligence.

This author, Cody Cottier, does a good and competent job of summarising Michael Tomasello’s work on the evolution of human cognition.  He also misses out some important stuff like cooperative breeding, which allowed a greater brain size (increased help…[Read more]

Reg the Fronkey Farmer wrote:
The Atlantic unfairly disses Dawkins.

This article disses the author of the Atlantic piece, Ross Andersen, thus:

It appears that Mr. Andersen is not just journalistically ham-handed, but also incurious.

Ouch!  Is that true?  Maybe Mr Andersen believes that indigenous creation myths are as valid as science.

I think i…[Read more]

Well, it’s a mixed bag.  On the one hand it can be paranoid, aggressive and arrogant, responsible for the very worst that humans can do.  On the other, it’s a beacon of light.

what i think needs to be exposed is the dominant role of human nature in power dynamics and in adoption of beliefs.

Yes, why does it bring out the worst in people as well a…[Read more]

jakelafort wrote:
Simon, does not seem like the reaction to Muslims in UK is racist or xenophobic.

It’s a right wing trope – “we hate Muslims”.  Draw your own conclusions.

The abuse of vulnerable girls seems to be disproportionately done by Muslims, it’s true.  Although, everyone and his dog seems to be at them, because they’re vulnerable g…[Read more]

jakelafort wrote:
islamophobia

I don’t know what it’s like in the US, but in the UK we have quite a lot of Muslims.  Some right wing people are forever going on about Muslims this and Muslims that.  Muslims are going to take over.  Muslims are going to declare Sharia Law.  Muslims are a bunch of evil freaks.  I hate Muslims.  That is Islam…[Read more]

jakelafort wrote:
Robert is describing the doctrine, belief and practices of that tiny cult. Is he tarring all 900 members of the cult? Or is he exposing the cult for what it is in simply describing it?

You can say that a cult has x, y and z doctrines, beliefs and practices.  But you can’t say that all the people in it are the same.

Reg the Fronkey Farmer wrote:
Scientifically speaking, there is only one human race: Homo sapiens. The concept of different “races” is a social construct, not a biological one.

The different ethnic groups look different and are different colours.  But I agree, those are superficial differences.

_Robert_ wrote:
Ah, OK. A religion is a race now.

Religion is not a race, and therefore you’re not being racist.  But it’s the same thing, to tar a whole group with the same negative brush.

Reg the Fronkey Farmer wrote:
It is not disbelief that is dangerous to our society; it is belief.

That is very true.  One of the best answers is “I don’t know”.

Unseen wrote:
I don’t think there’s a way to stop it from happening.

I imagine that the secret services monitor the physical airspace around the political VIPs.

Unseen wrote:
They should all be disillusioned with him. You can’t believe a word he says.

“Two assassination attempts in as many months.”  I think that Trump is going to get assassinated.  I hope he doesn’t, because it would make everything ten times worse.  I would feel sorry for him, but I blame him too for consistently ramping up the poli…[Read more]

It seems like some of Trump’s own gun nuts are turning on him.  This one was a previous Trump voter who became “disillusioned” with DJT.

Belle Rose wrote:
I think they were both staged.

I can’t imagine him standing there without flinching, waiting to take a bullet to the ear.

Reg the Fronkey Farmer wrote:
What traits make someone morally exceptional?

From the original paper:

Across three studies, there was strong subjective consensus on who is morally exceptional: those who are empathetic and prone to guilt, those  who reflect on moral issues and identify with morality, those who have  self-control and actually e…

[Read more]