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Ecurb

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No I don't. Instead, I'm saying it would be reasonable for a benevolent God to value courage, fortitude, and adventure. Since pain and danger are nece...
January 30, 2026 at 00:45
Actually, I take "worldview" literally: a way to view the world. Here's Walt Whitman on the "scientific worldview": If we see the universe in only mea...
January 29, 2026 at 14:46
In that case, it is not a "worldview". Science cannot tell us how to view the world; where to find beauty, where to find love, how to behave. These ar...
January 29, 2026 at 02:15
Well, that would be the religious worldview. Because God created the world, it is good. I'm not religious myself, but I'm not prepared to believe that...
January 29, 2026 at 02:09
How about all those self-flagellating monks? They thought they were "sanctifying harm". Actually, nobody (including some whacky monks) chooses harm, u...
January 28, 2026 at 15:51
Christians are commanded to "Love you enemies, do good to those who hate you." (Luke: 6:27) This kind of love (agape) is more than a mere emotion; it ...
January 28, 2026 at 00:38
It may not contradict a "scientific worldview", but it expands upon it. Science cannot create moral authority. WE must look to something else. In fact...
January 27, 2026 at 20:02
Your endless rant naively promotes all of my objections to your OP. Here are some examples: Of course if "reality" comprises the physical world, physi...
January 27, 2026 at 15:19
This is from your OP. Science is a technique, not a philosophy. It does not constitute a "worldview". Nor can science inform us about those matters wh...
January 27, 2026 at 01:12
See my post above.
January 24, 2026 at 18:09
If God is omniscient, he surely knew what was going to happen at the creation. By the way, I posted about some of those ideas in the thread comparing ...
January 24, 2026 at 16:07
What is a "scientific worldview"? A "worldview" is "a way of thinking about the world." If we think about the world "scientifically", we ignore (or at...
January 23, 2026 at 17:30
Maybe by that time the independent nation of Cascadia will emerge, comprising Oregon (my home state) Washington and British Columbia. We will not let ...
January 21, 2026 at 21:07
I think we should invade Vancouver Island. The 70 or 80 miles that are south of the 49th parallel are rightfully ours. We'll give up that section of M...
January 21, 2026 at 19:13
"Principles" and "notions" (or intuitions, or feelings) are not identical. Maybe chimps have religions -- maybe ants and bees do. There's no way of kn...
January 19, 2026 at 22:43
I understand it perfectly. As I wrote earlier, good manners are a trivial form of proper morality. I believe in freedom of speech. But rude speech is ...
January 19, 2026 at 17:02
Chimps have behaviors. We cannot tell if they have "principles". Eusocial (haplodiplontic) insects practice altruistic behaviors, too. Are these based...
January 19, 2026 at 16:52
That depends on what you mean by "morality". Obviously, all female mammals (and many non-mammals) care for their children and give them scarce resourc...
January 19, 2026 at 15:50
Man makes himself (as V. Gordon Childe once wrote). Based on the evidence of skulls, once language developed the lobes of the human brain devoted to l...
January 18, 2026 at 15:25
In Tilney's day, "nice" expressed "neatness, propriety, delicacy, or refinement." He deplored a word with a specific meaning morphing into one which e...
January 17, 2026 at 23:47
Yes it does prove they are right in terms of the definition of "man" and "woman". That's how lexicographers define words. Words often change from the ...
January 17, 2026 at 23:14
Clearest? How can a "great number" all have the clearest vision? Won't some have clearer vision than others?
January 17, 2026 at 21:48
In that respect, they resemble the rest of us.
January 17, 2026 at 21:35
Both influence behavior. Only the negative connotations surrounding "propaganda" make the word apply to one kind of influence and not the other. Those...
January 17, 2026 at 20:46
Well, I and most educated people in the U.S. disagree. The definitions are changing, as Jamal has clearly pointed out. It's reasonable to modify defin...
January 17, 2026 at 20:43
When you've written a widely syndicated column on manners for 40 years, let me know. "Woman" can refer to an image of a prototypical woman, just like ...
January 17, 2026 at 20:18
Of course I do. But "love your neighbor as yourself" is "propaganda" just as much as "kill the witch" is. I'm the one who is arguing that morals are c...
January 17, 2026 at 19:11
That's correct. Some linguists think language is "structural", others that it is more "analogical" (this latter would involve the "prototypes" you men...
January 17, 2026 at 18:52
That's my point, not yours. Morality is culturally constituted. It is "manipulated" by laws, mores, religions, philosophies, novels, poetry and other ...
January 17, 2026 at 18:22
Well, you asked for an authority on manners, and I offered one. You don't have to accept her advice, but based on Miss Maner's definition of "rude" su...
January 17, 2026 at 15:22
Explaining the Holocaust as the result of one deviant individual is unpersuasive. Hitler was elected, and he didn't personally kill any Jews. Hundreds...
January 17, 2026 at 15:17
Kees was a poet, a novelist, a musician and film maker. His car was found by the Golden Gate Bridge, and it was assumed he committed suicide -- but he...
January 17, 2026 at 15:03
By the way, here's a quote from the afore mentioned Miss Manners: “The emphasis on suiting pronouns to identity has to do with tolerance and acceptanc...
January 17, 2026 at 07:27
Here's one for a philosophy forum. Crime Club by Weldon Kees No butler, no second maid, no blood upon the stair. No eccentric aunt, no gardener, no fa...
January 17, 2026 at 06:36
If you mean the culture "evolves", anyone might agree. If you mean morality is influenced by biological evolution, fine. If, however, you mean that mo...
January 17, 2026 at 06:02
Everything has failed to create a better world. The world is as it is. However, there is no point of comparison. We don't know if the world without ph...
January 17, 2026 at 05:44
Plenty of people go by a name that is neither their birth name nor their legal name. A woman I know named "Kathleen" prefers to go by "Kathy". I suppo...
January 17, 2026 at 05:40
What does "legally" have to do with it? Why should that matter? Good manners suggest that we should refer to people by the name they request us to use...
January 16, 2026 at 22:22
Neither do I. But the story was probably first told during the transition from small, hunting and gathering societies (represented as "Eden") to civil...
January 16, 2026 at 16:58
Maybe. Maybe not. "Thou shalt not steal", for example, depends on a theory of property rights that did not exist in many simple societies. So the mora...
January 16, 2026 at 16:28
The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis (well known in anthropology) states, "Language has a tyranny on thought." The idea was that Inuits, who have 22 words for s...
January 16, 2026 at 16:01
IN his book Cows, Pigs, Wars and Witches Marvin Harris (a neo-Marxist anthropologist) offers economic "explanations" for the taboos on eating pigs and...
January 16, 2026 at 15:53
If that's true, why do we need moral rules? Of course all female mammals are altruistic toward their children. If they weren't, the children wouldn't ...
January 16, 2026 at 15:45
And I gave you an example where almost all native English speakers would say, "I saw a woman walking in the woods." Are you going to insist on asking,...
January 14, 2026 at 21:02
If the same person saw a person with long hair, breasts, wearing a dress walking in the woods, he or she might say, "I saw a woman walking in the wood...
January 14, 2026 at 20:45
Nonsense. The definition is changing, or has changed. Why else would it be commonplace for people to list their "pronouns". The use of "she" and "her"...
January 14, 2026 at 19:24
This begs the questions of policy. Should a "transman" use the men's or women's toilets? Should a transwoman play women's sports? It also ignores pron...
January 14, 2026 at 19:17
I don't buy it. I doubt many trans people want to "pass" so they can date. If you know someone well enough to "date" (have sex with), you would probab...
January 13, 2026 at 20:07
By insisting that gender identity develops in utero, you suggest that it is biological, like sex. But gender is culturally determined. So attempting t...
January 13, 2026 at 16:26
It is obvious that transgender individuals are "less connected to their bodies". WE don't need studies of fetal development to figure that out. Of cou...
January 13, 2026 at 15:32