Vera Mont

That's pretty depressing! I have always relied in human knowledge for safe food, solid buildings, transportation that conveys me predictably from A to...

Very true. It's difficult to maintain a healthy balance. I suppose 'fret' was not the most accurate word I could have chosen. I meant little mean acts...

Rather than keep score, how about we just try to avoid doing whenever possible and do a good turn whenever we can afford to?

The most ironic part of that is the people who try hardest to refrain from sinning also set their standard higher than those whose conscience is quies...

Retrieve an escaped slave - possibly, but it's a stretch. Slave-catchers were mostly bounty hunters who did it for money. Euthanize something or someo...

I don't agree. A lot of people shout, wave placards, attend rallies and say stupid things on camera - the public broadcast media have a prominent role...

But not well informed: there is real meat coming down the technology pipeline that's cleaner, leaner and healthier. https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-...

Apparently, only one of many.

The operative word in there is "claimed". I don't doubt that propaganda and indoctrination in youth (not from infancy, in this case, but certainly lif...

He's omniscient, omnipresent and omnipotent, or he isn't. I can't be any fairer than that. If Christians disagree about the degree of their god's powe...

With a wedding dress? No. But that reminds me. At City Hall that day, while waiting with our well-dressed friends and relatives, we saw a party of fou...

We all 'know' these things on some level, even though we are often unaware or unmindful of them. But they are very difficult to articulate without res...

Right now, I hear DS9, S4 E7 starting. I'm going to get a beer.

The concept of sin far predates the personification of that herder-god who gave his chosen tribe somebody else's fertile country. The concept of sin g...

If God wills that one of his creatures commit a sin, then that creature must do so; if He wills that they refrain from sinning, they have no option bu...

But at least the people who use it know not only that it has limitations, but where those limits currently are: that's where the leading edge of resea...

Absolute verbatim and exact? Nobody knows that except the omniscient fictitious being. When I'm not sure enough, I check. Most of my life, I have done...

That explains a lot of people. I myself fell down our basement stairs on my wedding day. Metal stair edges, leather sandals, two glasses of wine... I ...

How very odd! I would be curious as to why this should be the case. I would not demand reasons, but I would certainly wonder about them. Since I notic...

If you subscribe to such a thing as "the will of God", it means you believe in a god. And to believe, you need a specific god. The god you believe in ...

Governments do. They condemn torture - except when they condone it for National Security. And they don't call it torture; they call it 'enhanced inter...

That's the most compelling argument I've read today. Can't wait to see what pearls of wisdom tomorrow coughs up!

There are 'shoulds' and there are varying degrees of willingness to adhere to them, and varying degrees of accuracy in self-assessment. Sometimes we b...

It doesn't imply that we are not animals but that we are not like other animals. We are omnivorous animals with very large, sophisticated brains and o...

These acts? They look specific to me. Certainly. And it's not immoral to become ill due to lack of personal hygiene. It is immoral to make other peopl...

Nope. Not the acts. The moral judgment. Stay in your house, alone, be as dirty as you like and nobody condemns you. Break quarantine, greet people, it...

I'll have to remember that. I guess my posts are about get longer and somewhat top-heavy.

I covered that one. Nobody, except the high priests of ancient religions and military commanders, has the right to decide who is to be sacrificed for ...

TB, leprosy, polio - whatever. The moral issue is not personal hygiene but public safety. Getting drunk is not immoral; driving while drunk is. Having...

I doubt it. Hands are not a major vector in the transmission of Covid; airborne particles are. (Don't assume it's over!) The refusal to wear a mask in...

Every statement? Every POV? Every belief? Conversations could get really, really cumbersome. How be, we just provide links to authoritative sources fo...

Nobody knows what they would do in that situation. If it happens, you do what your instinct dictates, which you either do not survive or regret for th...

Thanks. She didn't get to do it very long, did she? I've been at this a little while longer, and the fear of losing our minds or each other is very mu...

If two or more people were threatening me and my loved ones, certainly. That's what the self-defence defence is. The killing of innocent bystanders in...

I have a pretty firm grasp on some subjects, it's insecure on others and there are some that I have not been able to grasp at all (and some in which I...

Would it? I've not seen it mentioned in any code. How do we determine whether others are becoming sick as a direct consequence of one person's state o...

They usually mean something like : "That gives rise to another question" I let it slide, even from people who quote irrelevant swathes of Wittgenstein...

Very well reasoned, too; compelling.

That really isn't an argument.

Why is everybody expected to argue about everything all the time anyway? Oh yes, I remember: "This is a philosophy forum." and "That's begging the que...

Not everything in human physiology or psychology is divided on strictly moral grounds. Some things are just embarrassing, or show weakness, or present...

I'm pretty sure vines aren't smart enough to conceive of an ethical framework for their action. Or have a choice of actions, for that matter. Yes. So ...

Yes, that is a point, howbeit unrelated to the comment I made. Another visionary takes an idea, or part of an idea, and incorporates it into his own a...

There is a world of difference between active reasoning and wishing to consider oneself reasonable. That difference manifests most obviously in their ...

Only in that the visionary was not in charge of making policy during his lifetime and is not in charge of making policy after he's dead. I.e. never. C...

It is arbitrary. Even when we encode it in law, it's still arbitrary: the line keeps moving in response to public sentiment. Some people are devoid of...

my italics I took this to mean, acts that do not come under a moral code, but are nevertheless considered shameful; things that, if they are witnessed...

... the world of believers. That is not how it works in the world of atheists. We don't think of our ourselves or one another as The way words work in...

I wonder what modern televangelists would do with Jesus.

Yes, it is absolutely relevant. Once dead, the visionary has no control or ownership of his idea. Anybody can 'interpret' it, subsection it, misapply ...