Nobody. People are crazy; when they fall into the sway of religious and nationalist leaders, they act crazier than usual. It's fine to acknowledge tha...
Then you would be them. There is no point holding anyone responsible for any atrocity, since, if you were them, you'd rape and pillage, too, and I ass...
Easy. He knows that one of the of the things that are good for us - and important to our mental heath - is the illusion of agency. The global economy ...
That would explain why it doesn't appear as a research paper. Apparently, the follow-up on cardiac patients was legitimate. Most people who have been ...
I have found this too. The few I have met didn't object to my atheism, but welcomed any help in their efforts to relieve the suffering of others. Good...
I think it's a mistake to identify the entire Christian spectrum of religions with the individual religious institutions. Like all large-scale organiz...
I wonder where this free-floating consciousness gets its information. Do we each have one? How do 8 billion (assuming other species have none, which i...
They may be absolutely correct. A whole lot of traffic victims and people suffering heart attacks could not have survived without medical intervention...
That is not the case. The brain, as I mentioned just a few minutes ago, keeps functioning for minutes and in some very rare instances, even hours, whe...
Nope. Mind is not a separate entity. It is an emergent property of the brain - the result of all the activity and connectivity of all those billions o...
Alternative organs have been suggested, but they proved inadequate to the task. Other explanations involve mysticism and magic, in which I'm not a bel...
Isn't that a self-answering question? Brain>consciousness. Dead brain>no consciousness. People tell all kinds of stories about things they saw and exp...
Right now, there are different ways of organizing democratic elections, any of which can be studied in practice and put into effect. Some form of repr...
I don't think imagining or dreaming of one's death is anything like dying. In actual death, the body is involved: most fatal processes are painful. Pa...
Sound education and responsible mass communications media would go a long way toward making that possible. Unfortunately. both institutions are money-...
As I've stated earlier: catastrophic collapse and the necessity of starting over. This happens from time to time in every civilization: it's overcome ...
Not without a catastrophic disruption of the status quo. No vested interest is going to relinquish political power without a struggle, and the establi...
That would be nice. But somebody still has to conceive of, define and articulate those human rights. The UN would be my choice, since I agree with the...
If you take the dimmest possible view of humankind. It's never even close to 51% of the population that wants to take rights away from their fellow ci...
That 'if' clause holds true of any kind of governance. If a theocracy is violent and restrictive, it's likely that many harmless acts are considered t...
Sports have been badly neglected by this miniTrump's administration. Among other things, like freedom of speech. Hungary stands #3 in fencing (althoug...
True, of politics and legislation. But societies generally adhere to a single set of basic values, though the members may disagree on detail and there...
I won't complain if you say he wasn't a very nice man, or that this is not a very appropriate monument. https://www.pinterest.com/pin/4376936575092569...
That's how it's presented by the vested political interests that have been exploiting the prejudices and fears of the inhabitants. That's never a hard...
That's right. And this is why the framing of laws and moral strictures should not be left to a short-sighted, invested individual (like a prelate or m...
I was suggesting approaches different from the present system of punishments. Who says? The community says how it regards the responsibility and liabi...
Fantasy is also the first step in changing reality for the better. You imagine what you would like it to be and then work toward that ideal. (in theor...
I think this goes back to the patriarchal societies and their religions. Reward and punishment is one way to maintain social order, but it's not the o...
It was in the 1700's. Since most hangings were for murder, I assume they killed a younger sibling, since they were hardly big enough to kill an adult....
Since morality itself is an exclusively human concept, it follows that only humans can be moral or immoral, according to their own rules of right cond...
And here I was, under the impression that's it's an open thread! Sorry to intrude on your private business of resenting someone's 'tone' in their own ...
If we just consider elementary and secondary school, the idea is not to prepare students for a career or even a job. It's to prepare them for a life i...
And, of course, some presidents are more knowledgeable than others; some presidents get better advice than others; some have more and some less constr...
What happened doesn't magically unhappen because somebody doesn't want to own it. My ancestors were as aggressive and violent as any other peoples, an...
That's never stopped any civilization. Sure, you can buy that... All children are eager to learn. It takes some effort to turn them off learning. All ...
Conscientious teachers do try - if informally, as part of the normal classroom procedure - to instill a sense of fairness and tolerance. In a diverse ...
That's the point: they have no power! They do not "absolve themselves"; most low-income people do the best they can in their limited circumstances. In...
Some parents have the leisure to home-school their children - usually in order to indoctrinate them into a religion of fear, prejudice and punishment....
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