Tom Sarbeck

So Peter van Inwagen says atheists can be the angriest and most bitter of all?

He is teaching himself what he needs to believe. Full stop.

Does anyone else remember that, during the Cold War between capitalism and communism, when many people feared that nuclear war was imminent, Red China’s ruler remarked that China could afford to lose half of their six hundred thousand population?

They could afford to lose more than America’s entire population.

With the earth’s population now n…[Read more]

Hi, Benjie. While I usually describe Catholicism as a plantation with slaves, I can agree with your describing it as a corrupt and selfish dictatorship.

My Catholic dad started the first two of his five children—my older sister and me—in a public school before Catholic bishops decreed that Catholic parents should send their children to Cat…[Read more]

The shooters may be mentally ill, or very angry, or very something else.

They may be doing as coal mine canaries once did, warning miners of deadly gases. Shooters may be warning some of us of our serious and worsening overpopulation problem. Add their numbers to the many others engaged in killing us.

Are we sapient enough to understand the d…[Read more]

@mikelansing:

A person’s body might be strong enough that its immune response can defeat the effects of an infection without medical intervention.

Similarly, a person’s mind might be strong enough that one or more of its PTS stages can defeat the effects of a traumatic event without therapeutic intervention.

The French approach? The Amer…[Read more]

Sheesh, Reg. I didn’t count the number of times during my Catholic years I ate and excreted the body of …hm-mm, I forgot who they said it was.

The WDYYB game has a few variations.

The lonely YB character starts with a non-specific plea for help or complaint.

The WDY character tries to help and suggests a remedy.

YB says something like “That’s not good enough” and  wins the round.

WDY, not wanting to lose, tries again.

The exchanges continue, YB always winning and WDY always losing…[Read more]

PB, I’m saying PTS (without the D) is not a disorder.

Just as the stages of the body’s immune response system are how the body protects the body from infection, PTS’s four stages—hyperalertness, emotional avoidance, physical  avoidance, acting out—are how the mind protects the mind from trauma.

As to the ‘self’, we each take one everywhere we…[Read more]

I’m going to know when I have only 38 minutes to live?

What are you folks smoking?