Jim

jakelafort wrote:
I indicated we posit free will and that is an artificial way to think of it. It is implicit.

What do you mean “implicit.” That free will is implied somehow? That doesn’t make it exist. It doesn’t make nonsense sensible.

I heard Sam do that exercise naming three movies.

I indicated we posit free will and that is an artificial way to think of it. It is implicit.

And as i am writing i see myself doing it calling politicians who want war hawkish assholes. It is simply unavoidable unless your some kind of freaky Buddhist sitting naked and unafraid in the snow in…[Read more]

@ Reg

Yeah, we don’t know what it is but we all want it. Why? So we can engage in our of our favorite activities: praise and (more importantly) blame.

Yes, the “pick a city” is a good exercise. I am determined to have free will.

Thanks Unseen. Not a trace of a Russian accent to be detected 🙂

I will check out the article on free will. Looks interesting. And I may comment on it if so moved.

One of the best arguments against free will came from Sam Harris when he asked an audience (I paraphrase), to pick a city, any city. That done, what process did you use to arrive at that city?

So, that’s about as free a decision as one can make and…[Read more]

Reg, I think you missed a good one:

Thanks, Reg!

Have a great week everyone!

Demons and angels are mostly downgraded gods when Yahweh got promoted to big dog. They live “up there” or “down there”, don’t cha-know, LOL

@jakelafort – Spiritual is a word that ALWAYS or typically needs context.

Inevitably wordlickers have stickers of those they adore and those they abhor.

Islamophobia is my new number 1. Earlier ambivalence is clarified. This word is an abomination. Utilizing it only furthers the agenda of the Islamists.

Frankly is an old adversary. It is rare to find a context in which it makes sense. Using it simply suggests the…[Read more]

I refuse to utter the word ‘contumacious’ in a sentence, no matter who asks me to.

Fellow Unbelievers,

World of Woo: The Medicine of Extinction.

I fully agree with not using ground animal bones, skins, and innards in fake woo medicines.

However, the author’s arguments on the grounds of human overpopulation and animal species extinction are simply mistaken, at least they are any more.

The biggest evidence refuting…[Read more]

Reg,

I haven’t seen or heard Emo in decades. Thanks for recalling his many witticisms!

Reminds me of the time when my cousin with whom i began a law practice lost his shit, “I don’t care for your vituperative rebuttal you contumacious fool!”

Funnier still was the time i was held up in court and got back too late to see a scheduled apptment. Cousin took the appointment. Walked into the office and my client, a prosyletizing asshole…[Read more]

Reg the Fronkey Farmer wrote:
Claudine Gay

2 down, 1 to go. Bad scholarship as well. Seems so much goes back to Stanford one way or another.

I wouldn’t exactly characterise, as a whole, the hundreds of millions of atheists in China, as free thinkers. Atheism does not equal Western, Educated, Sceptical, Freethinking Humanism.

vituperation – good word Claudine Gay. I was trying to recall it.

I have to admit that I don’t think of the Eastern Mediterranean countries as Asian. I think of them as Middle Eastern countries. Now, you can say “Eastern” really means “Asian,” but I don’t think of it that way.

I see this as one of those things people can define for themselves.