That may be, and I can't help that. Religion has never been practical knowledge (except accidentally or peripherally). For most of our history, religi...
People are imaginative, curious, intelligent... We like to know what is going on. For the last several hundred years we've been using science (broadly...
Yes, I agree; human emotions may not be fully developed in infants and children, but they are there from the beginning. Over time both cognitive, moto...
We learn how to identify a melody, and whether it is a happy or sad melody; we learn how to recognize a rhythm; we learn how to recognize harmony; we ...
I've heard the Peking Opera doing traditional Chinese opera; I've also seen Japanese No plays, and must admit that neither of them meant anything to m...
Martin Luther called the work of lay people (whatever that was) as holy as the work of monks, nuns, and priests. Religious work (preaching, praying, s...
Skeptical theism has this great virtue: One doesn't have to engage with any believer about what God is or is not like. Whether Baptist, Bahá'í, or Bab...
What is whack doodle is always having to weigh up the lesser of two evils, the less repugnant, the slightly better, and the obviously unsuitable. It h...
There are several good guidance systems kicking around. Most of them are from religious sources, but there are secular ones too. Nothing wrong with re...
Of course it is. ALL societies, ALL cultural and religious institutions, ALL individuals everywhere are hypocritical. Hypocrisy is part of the human c...
I don't care whether you drive barefoot or naked. A person needs to identify a key virtue with which they will weigh their choices. Love is a possible...
Maybe, but there is insufficient data. Please provide much more information. Do you happen to have a a copy of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality I...
I always thought it was better to be merely a nonconformist than be considered a diseased pariah. IF one is going to be a nonconformist, if one is jus...
Really cutting loose from the demands and commands of society may be a pretty dangerous thing. If society withdraws its approval and tolerance from no...
Congress has to appropriate funds for the government to operate. While a debt ceiling has been in place for quite a long time, the use of it as a poli...
Richard Nixon was impeached for "obstruction of justice, abuse of power, and contempt of Congress" while Bill Clinton was impeached for "perjury and o...
If you are asking whether morality or legality is more important, it would matter what the stakes are, would it not? If the act is trivial and nothing...
Pot has been linked to improving just about every ailment from which people suffer. Clearly some or many of the claimed benefits are not valid. Cannab...
Smoking or eating cannabis may be illegal (or not, depending). Some people enjoy it; others don't. Most people don't use it at all. Casual use does no...
Depression is real, I get that. I've been depressed for years at a stretch (diagnosed; medication; therapy; the whole bit) and I understand HOW it is ...
Polls have for decades shown that Americans' estimate of US Government foreign aid to be far, far higher than it actually is. Many people think it is ...
It would indeed be better to employ someone without a job than to give them charity, but most people (who are working class) do not have it within the...
BC: Right: Care more! BC: By actually doing caring. Feeling like you care is nice; what matters is that you actually perform care. So glad you care ab...
The NEW major centers of Christian belief and affiliation has moved south to Africa, Asia, and South America. ("NEW" here refers to the last 20 to 40 ...
I don't think so either. On the other hand, I don't think he was suggesting that the kingdom of God was interior. Jesus was prophesying the coming of ...
#me2 and various other manifestations of liberation or outrage emerge when they can emerge. Meaning, #me2 is possible because women have enough securi...
1. Egotism and selfishness are in our genes. 2. Just because people want more stuff doesn't mean that not wanting stuff will make them content. 3. You...
Yes, terrorists are not primarily arsonists intent on destroying buildings. They are out to destroy symbols and affective features of life, such as th...
The fitness of critically endangered megafauna is in good shape. There is no improved fitness possible for various megafauna if we decide to kill all ...
Suppose Canada (which wasn't a country yet) had territorial designs on the United States back in the mid-19th century. Suppose they wanted to seize th...
I have always found explanations of the Trinity to be pious gobbledegook. The Trinity can be pleasantly invoked for blessings, and referencing the Tri...
Wasn't it Socrates that said: I've looked at clouds from both sides now From up and down, and still somehow It's cloud illusions I recall I really don...
Another factor: Did it make any difference that the distribution of land was much different during the carboniferous? The continents were not distribu...
Somewhere along the line I read that the reason the dead plant matter in the carboniferous period didn't rot was that the organisms that are capable o...
The Carboniferous period was characterized by dense, widely distributed forests which consumed much of the atmospheric carbon (CO2). Over millions of ...
That's true, and I thought of Washington, Grant and Eisenhower. They were good generals and were at least adequate presidents. The military contains m...
Before you vote for the poultry and vermin characters, better check out Walt Disney's politics. Bugs Bunny (Warner Brothers) has a deep irreverent str...
I'd just as soon generals stayed on base. Civilians are supposed to be in charge of the government. The problem isn't whether Bernie Sanders (who will...
No one should think they can read the human genome and predict behavior. As far as I know, very few specific short passages of the genome have been li...
The beginning of time and space is as far as we can go, whether one posits a Big Bang, a Creatio Ex Nihilo, or a Steady State Universe that always exi...
Who the hell maintains the list of accredited public intellectuals, anyway? Does one qualify by self proclamation? I'm an intellectual, sort of, and k...
I don't see how a polar position on determinism vs. free will is tenable. Everything I have experienced tells me that something -- "nature" -- determi...
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