I don't understand. What is the standard that comes to the general mind when one dismisses the concept of spirit? Is there some reason I should meet t...
My internal experience. Without intelligent makers, there would be no couches or shoes. Of course some matter is alive, while most matter is inanimate...
Even if that were the case, the impasse is broken and the rescuer can take action. Morally, it makes no difference whether the tie-breaker is love, an...
Yes; I believe it's the biggest and most powerful religious organization in history. I don't put much credence in the scary thunder idea. We evolved i...
It's not morally relevant. But if the choice is 1/1, some other factor must tip the balance, else the would-be rescuer is paralyzed by indecision and ...
Who declared it immoral to choose one's own child over another child? If it's a question of being able to save only one from an external danger, makin...
Sure there is: human psychology. That subject interests me greatly in all its variety and complexity. I'm interested in mythology and anthropology. Ob...
Not in the arithmetic of military strategy. If it is strategically right to take out a munitions factory, a bridge, a railroad junction or a communica...
The existence or non-existence of "god" - a word for which people have very different definitions and descriptions - was never the issue with atheism....
just there: In response to a previous post, attempting to clarify this: Behaviour, yes. Ethics, no. Fairly narrow ones, actually, in a different conve...
I don't know about quantity, though I seriously doubt "more than anyone else", but if anyone were bored and silly enough to go back over all the relev...
Lincoln, by his own declaration, was willing let the institution of slavery stand, so long as that tolerance kept the union together, but he was deter...
Are you saying that a woman who has a child can't also have one or more jobs? (Many single and married mothers, in fact, do.) And she's not allowed to...
You were faster than me In your example, if someone else had been convicted of, or is currently on trial for those other murders, you would report you...
If the deciding agent uses a different set of rules, of course. That's why we can't tolerate heads of state with principles: we need them to be morall...
It would, if every jackpot sere that big and every jackpot had a winner. That would be $816,000,000 put back into circulation, rather than being spiri...
That gives you a unique perspective on civil war and how it is taught in school a few generations after the fact. I know more about the US one, and ho...
Some similar schemes have been proposed for democratic voting procedures, effectively turning every election into a plebiscite on some key issue. The ...
I know about roles. Most people have more than one role to play in society. What I disagree with is the notion that each role has a different ethical ...
Yes, I believe it is, and that something of the kind has been practiced by groups in various settings since the beginning of people. It works in group...
Rules of 'engagement', yes. Two different people in two different roles. So far, no ethical conflict. So, is it you contention that if a lawyer discov...
If people decide it is the legal way to settle their territorial claims or religious differences or political disagreements, of course it's legitimate...
Now there is a brilliant idea! Instead of seducing the poor into wasting their meager resources on a pipe-dream, scare the living crap out of the rich...
War is armed conflict between two or more groups with opposing objectives. Legitimate is a legal term. Any act that conforms with the pertinent law is...
Yes, I got that: Different roles, different ethics. So, what are the different kind of ethics that would guide your decision according to the hat you ...
Yes. Those basic instinctual tendencies vary as much in nature as they do in humans. Some birds and mammals mate for life; some for the duration of th...
You mean, it's okay for mothers and teachers to speed in a school zone, as long as taxi driver and shoppers don't? It's okay for a shopper to pocket t...
'States' are ruled by persons. The decisions in war, as in manufacturing, as in agriculture, as in trade, re made by individuals either separately or ...
Heads of state often do. Or wage one without a declaration. Sometimes in secret. Nothing makes a government declare a war or launch a war; a powerful ...
In a government, on a battlefield, or a corporation, or a courtroom or a church, actual persons make actual decisions. If these persons are bound by o...
God - whichever culture's god - is an idea. It's the idea of a human entity, only with a lot more knowledge and power over the natural world that huma...
Yes. Have you ever wondered why publishers go to so much trouble to design a cover that conveys what the book is about and put more information on the...
What's it to do with books? You've presented a point of view and advocated for it quite vigorously. I see no reason to move the conversion into unrela...
I'm desolate. I had no idea! I can only judge by what I've seen demonstrated. My convictions based on what I have learned are consistent, yes. In this...
No, I don't 'shut down'. I question the basis of the example, its relevance to real life, its constraints and its aims. Having thought about it, I the...
I have many thoughts on the topic, and some historical data which I'm not prepared to share since they're available to anyone interested enough to bot...
A democracy (whether sound or flawed) can be split on a key issue, like which religion should be dominant or which claimant has a right to rule, or wh...
Or vice versa. People who claim a religion don't just kill the irreligious and the heretics, they also kill those who profess a different version of t...
Let's just do that then. I'm up for discussing novels. But if you really want people to think about the moral choices they make, disbelief shouldn't h...
Yes, that one is pretty silly, too. Your point is not entirely obvious to me. Do you mean that however preposterous a hypothetical situation, we shoul...
I thought the example was about WWII. Quite a lot is known about WWII. Other implausible thought experiments, and I'm sure there are many, notwithstan...
Boston Legal, for the fourth time, I think. Still relevant. Bonus: the DVD's come in those old-fashioned bifold cases that let the disc go and accept ...
Suppose on what evidence? I could. But it would take too long and you would never be convinced anyway, so it seems like a futile effort. You, as well ...
And for that, they should die? I respectfully disagree. Kill 'em all! But for the sake of all that's unholy, do not, ever address the situations that ...
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