Yes, and I have asked it. The answer being 'Christ Jesus', Thor, Quetzalcoatl and Shiva are out of the running. Therefore, the next logical question i...
What makes him a god? Through religious wars, conquest and royal edict. And most of the dictators in history have not removed religion so much as repl...
It's better than being stoned to death for using a nonsense word to express displeasure when a can of tomato soup galls on your foot. I do not agree t...
How do you know what most people claim? Most of the people I've met didn't make any claims at all regarding philosophy. For their right to believe or ...
And why would members of tribes in a federation, not be more free to travel than citizens or nations are now? Even they were not restricted in knowled...
That also applies to the globe. If you wanted to preserve some remnant of nature, humans would have to be limited ion what land they can occupy and ex...
There is no way. Armageddon begins with a couple of wars and climate crises, proceeds to multiple displaced populations carrying overlapping plagues, ...
In education, choosing among different versions of history does not lead to resolution, but to conflict. And we have no objective source, because the ...
What do you mean by "learned in a shallow and narrow scope"? Ethnic identity tends to go quite deep and encompass culture that was centuries or millen...
And the bigger empires grew the faster they collapsed. My contention is that civilizations fail because they attempt to eradicate tribalism, in order ...
But then it is no longer a circle, not even an imperfect circle. A lump of clay would just be smaller lumps of clay, but a human brain would be severa...
What was the point? Athena said and you responded Which had no relation to her argument that other people should not be dictating what an individual d...
That is a metaphor, like the monkey on his back. This is how addiction and compulsion feels; this is how the addict or compulsive behaves. Of course t...
Indeed. And yet again, so can tyranny promote self-discipline. Who can retain his dignity when caned by an overzealous headmaster can also retain his ...
That's why I prefer anthropologists with a comprehensive view. I also refer to native mythologies for a sense of how peoples thought, behaved and rela...
It was actually pretty good. Not that much longer than LOTR, and it made a lot more sense then Finnegan's Wake. People who quote their favourite dead ...
That's the primary motivation of all living things. We humans make an elaborate song-and-dance about it, while a grasshopper just chews on leaves and ...
I'm not buying that excuse. Most of the men who made up the philosophy and the rules were married. Besides, how come the highly educated gentlemen of ...
You know that's largely hypocrisy. At the same time the 'rational' man disparages the emotionalism of women, he extols the flaming passion of a lover,...
I doubt we really needed all that background info. I went to highschool back when they were still teaching history, and in a recent ex-colony, where h...
Anyone - fool, coward, hero, saint, old maid, disowned son, abandoned child - can have hope. Hope doesn't need reason or evidence. "In sure and certai...
That's the story of Genesis. Adam and Eve were pure hedonists before taking the fruit. They took it anyway, got the grandfather of all beatings, and y...
It might be freedom, but where would completely arbitrary action come from? We - I include all sentient beings - don't act without motivation and ther...
I can imagine it, but that image doesn't fit with anything I've seen in the real world. For a grown woman in a stable marriage with reasonably secure ...
Of course they do! Lots of women who can't give birth adopt babies from women who could and didn't want to, or children taken away from parents who co...
I meant constitutional clauses, enacted legislation, enforceable laws. The rules of a country or bylaws of a city by which all residents are expected ...
Every single time. These are pure, innocent hedonistic pleasures that cause nobody any pain. Only if it's denied to them because someone has it. My ma...
No, I haven't said of the kind. I outlined what various harms could come to a society with wide-spread use of psychotropic drug. That is, attempting t...
Why? I've been involved in a number of encounters wherein pleasure was mutual, shared and reciprocal. That depends on the proportions and the society'...
Because the stuff in the previous paragraph is nonsense. I don't. And a 10-minute performance for the camera, however surprised the audience may be, d...
Unwilling is not the same as unable. Yes, some able but unwilling parents have 'risen to the occasion' in some ways. Usually by giving up what they wa...
Of the natural psychotropic drugs, only alcohol started out as recreational. Cannabis and opium were used medicinally and psilocybin or magic mushroom...
I never expected anything so exhaustive! And impressive. I'll have to mull over a few particulars, but I certainly get the main points and have no arg...
Doesn't the exclusion of a category negate 'total'? Isn't every law a limitation of individual freedom? Why does 'a liberal society'? All societies ha...
Well, that put a quick end to my desire for definitions! This* covers the subject admirably. Of course, having read it, I can't comment here, since mu...
Not so unusual. Math class had a similar effect on me, which is why to this day I struggle so with my tax return. At various kinds of work, too, there...
It's not one person, like an emperor. It's a loose association that shares a single interest: to own and consume the world. There's a book I haven't r...
I can see a future of online psychotherapy. You don't tell the bot about yourself and your problem; you just post links to your various forum exchange...
Of course. Only a mind can conceive of a thing having a symbolic significance other than simply being itself. There is no compelling reason for an ind...
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