Unseen

Reg the Fronkey Farmer wrote:

Religious moderation will do nothing to help the evolution of human enlightenment and progress. (my words). Do you agree?

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“The weak die out and the strong will survive, and will live on forever”—Anne Frank from her Diary

Inalienable rights are a little like life after death. It’d be great if we had them but basically you can’t have them without something like a deity. And I don’t believe in deities so…

Simon Paynton wrote:

Unseen wrote:

Rights only exist when legislated by a legitimate institutional authority with the wherewithal—and even more importantly, the will—to enforce them

But we bestow and demand rights to/from each other as well, as part of being normal individuals.

Unseen wrote:

In actuality, the right is held by the guarantor, not…

[Read more]

Most people, unless they are philosophers or political scientists, have likely never put much thought into weighing the relationship between rights and freedoms.

In a sense, a right is also a freedom. Rights, as generally understood, consist of a freedom to do something which is guaranteed in some way. If I have a right to order a gay wedding…[Read more]

Strega wrote:

A society can bestow rights, whether it be by consensus or legislation. No human is born with inbuilt rights… [nice topic, Unseen]

Rights only exist when legislated by a legitimate institutional authority with the wherewithal—and even more importantly, the will—to enforce them, and a moment’s thinking will reveal that the U.N. isn…[Read more]

Davis wrote:

Unseen wrote:

Values cannot be derived from sets of facts.

Of course they can. Values have always come from a hybrid of assumed axioms (highly conceptual moral frameworks and/or dictated norms) along with facts. The first is almost but not entirely exclusive of facts) the second can use facts to various degrees and various use of…

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Values cannot be derived from sets of facts. You may be able to prove that people prefer politicians with low voices (a fact, actually), but that preference cannot be turned into the value “Politicians low voices are better.”

Values are the result of pure analysis and can’t be derived from laboratory tests, experiments, or statistical analyses o…[Read more]

Unseen wrote:

Simon Paynton wrote:

Unseen wrote:

It turns out, that right wasn’t “inalienable.”

But the right to the right, is seen as inalienable by anyone who believes in human rights.

When a Christian claims to solve the creation of the universe by saying “God made it,” the atheist asks, “Who made God?” Likewise, when you talk about maybe n…

[Read more]

Simon Paynton wrote:

Unseen wrote:

It turns out, that right wasn’t “inalienable.”

But the right to the right, is seen as inalienable by anyone who believes in human rights.

When a Christian claims to solve the creation of the universe by saying “God made it,” the atheist asks, “Who made God?” Likewise, when you talk about maybe not having a rig…[Read more]

Simon Paynton wrote:

I was under the impression that the Declaration of Human Rights was made after the second world war, to help prevent people from feeling aggrieved enough to start another world war.

Maybe if some entity were there to actually guarantee those rights…

Dennis wrote:

Interesting question. I just finished Francis Fukuyama’s Political Order and Political Decay. He argues that rights basically arose from our biology, and are focused on protecting property and preserving that property for offspring. Organizations which grant more rights to constituents, in a Darwinian sense, have a superior chance o…

[Read more]

PopeBeanie wrote:

Reg the Fronkey Farmer wrote:

Maybe start with this video first.

Nicely thought-out/spelled-out video, covering biggest myths and providing best explanations. Most people like to simplify explanations, but “KISS” makes it too easy to avoid deeper understandings. “God did it, so why bother with scientific details?” is an easy co…

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When you argue with Xians, they will want to say we treat evolution as a “fact” but that we can’t prove it, and they will throw things at use that we can’t explain or demonstrate like “We’ve all seen the charts purporting to show the evolution of the horse, do why can’t you show us one with the evolution of the cow?” or “Show us an extinct…[Read more]

@Davis — Do girls prefer bad boys? Some do. .Many do. Just go out to a meat market bar and see all the asshole guys with a desirable female on their arm. “Show me a mentally, physically, and emotionally abusive sociopathic narcissist and pathological liar and I’ll show you a guy who has a date on Saturday night.”

For a lot of girls, dating and r…[Read more]

jakelafort wrote:

Asianne, in what way is it making it worse?

I can answer that, in a way. I’m reading that, more and more, especially in small businesses which are largely exempt from fairness in hiring laws (unless the dumbasses are too explicit or obvious about it), that they are less likely to hire women now for fear of #MeToo tr0ubles down…[Read more]

Simon Paynton wrote:

What does a religious person mean, when they say that atheism is like a religion? We might be surprised at the answer. Maybe they mean that we take whatever we believe in, “on faith”.

Often, this is the point they try to make. What they miss is that there’s a crucial difference between placing faith in something (e.g., sci…[Read more]

Simon Paynton wrote:

Article about Jehovah’s Witnesses’ tax exempt status.

So, they claim religious status for tax purposes. That’s enough for me to tell JW’s that they are simply wrong if they think they’re not representing a religion.

If they’re not a religion, they may owe billions of dollars in back taxes.