Thy Plague Doctor

Ethiopia is a bit of an anomaly in the area and they have diligently improved their political and economic system. But religious strife is a MAJOR problem, especially between Christians and Muslims near the Somali and Djibouti border. Their government may be secularish…but their defense policy most certainly is not. That’s not to mention…[Read more]

Wow. With a couple notable exceptions (exceptions that seem to define the rule) there appears to be, by total coincidence…a fascinating correspondence by how important citizens think religion is…with total dysfunction as a country. The closer you approach 100% the more likely you live in a failed state.

don’t be an asshole !

Isn’t that one of the most profound goals of humanism? And one of the great transformations in Western society since secularism began?

Look, I celebrate Xmas (as opposed to CHRISTmas). It’s a family togetherness thing only. No prayers, no saying grace, no going to a Christmas Eve or Morning service.

I love Christmas time. It’s a fabulous holiday, especially for children. I actually like Christmas songs, they have great tunes and friends and family love singing them. And we can s…[Read more]

Ahhh. If I hadn’t heard the comment about Edward Scisor hands, I would have thought you were “the crow”. Not being able to trick-or-treat. Sorry to hear that man. That is a major loss of opportunity. Make sure your kids can. It is utter bliss.

One of my dogs really wanted to make friends in the back yard and her tecnique was to run after them and bark. She never made any friends. But she did end up with porcupine quills in her face (several times) and got sprayed by a skunk twice. The first time she came in the house and after 10 seconds we kicked her out. It still took a very very very…[Read more]

There was no Haloween as a kid in Germany or the UK. Only in Canada. And I remember it was cold, one year it was -10ºC/14ºF and we had to wear our winter jackets and even snow pants. The only thing they could see was our face, which was often a cheap plastic mask (the cool dress up part under our jackets no one could see). By trick or treating f…[Read more]

Yes indeed…I totally screwed up on my conflation of sound Vs. valid argument which likely confused you so that’s my fault.  In the texts I wrote you should substitute sound with valid.

Valid = logically follows

Sound = yes yes yes

Yes indeed, an argument could be sound but still be false.

• All round metal objects are coins
• Washers are round metal objects
• Therefore washers are coins.

The argument is sound because the conclusion logically follows from the premises. However one of the premises is not the case (all round metal objects are coins) and therefore we cannot…[Read more]

Ehhh. I’d say your professor did not choose his examples well. Those two arguments are barely different. Certainly not distinctive enough to say one is deductive and the other inductive. Though yeah, I’d say B is a little more deductive than A but ONLY because of the kind of language used…not the arguments. The best trick I learnt to easily…[Read more]

Pope you are just asking us to twist and torture the terms we use so that you can square a circle. You’ve just given a bunch of “perhaps we can”. I agree that’s a good idea in the question of free will in general. We are so ignorant and lacking so much information it’s all a perhaps. But if you demarcate the universe as absolute determinist…[Read more]

If it’s in your nature (your brain tells you) to want to prevent a suicide, for example, you as a cause can have the effect of preventing one.

LOL. Unseen is the universe clock work or not?

The failure to acknowledge the implications of no free will reminds me of the failure of theists to use the smarts they otherwise possess when analyzing their god.

Indeed. I’ve read better terrible theology than Sam Harris’s book. I mean honestly, a respectable book on those who posit we have no free will based on the clock work nature of the…[Read more]

But that is the real mystery Reg. Does Alexa have a choice? Does she? Woooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooh !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am leaning towards the idea that “punishment” is not really an effective deterrent.

It really has its limits (though of course, having no consequences for people’s actions is also very problematic). When I studied the American death penalty, the ultimate conclusion, based on numerous studies, several books dedicated to the topic of capital pun…[Read more]

We do hold people responsible. When we do.

Yeah. Because we have no choice whether to make others responsible or not. Giving meaning to any of our moral choices is totally besides the point. Regardless of what we did or why…we had no option but to do what we did. Try owning up to that, and I can try to respect your position on free will.

I think that just declaring that we don’t have free will doesn’t automatically invalidate “responsibility”.

How does making people responsible for what they did, if they had no choice, make any sense? We don’t make those with severe mental illnesses responsible for many of their crime, because, that doesn’t make sense. Just as we don’t blame a…[Read more]

I don’t think we know. not with certainty, but if every moment was always going to unfold as it has and every moment will unfold in the only way it can then the notion that we hold a person responsible for their actions is silly.

It couldn’t be more simple than that. I think by extension, punishing someone for doing something that they could not h…[Read more]

I find that sort of argument full of entitlements and ultimately flawed.

That’s the funniest thing I’ve read this year. The only reason we are talking this God bullshit remotely seriously is because people like you keep insisting the invisible man in the sky exists. And you keep claiming God has these qualities and when we respond by showing the…[Read more]