No. The idea that life is a competition just sounds like the dull and inchoate musings of advertising folk. Life is whatever you make of it. Don't ove...
You're welcome to probe. Not that I have much to say. I don't think humans have access to reality as it is in itself - the best we do is generate prov...
So I am an atheist (and I know from experience that atheists hold different values and beliefs, aside from this one small matter of belief in deities)...
No worries about disagreeing at my end. I am simply trying to understand where you are coming from. :up: I've not said science is useless. Science can...
Philosophy probably began with conversation. This exchange of ideas led to the creation of values and beliefs and a concomitant exploration of whether...
Fair enough. My own view is that life is a bucket of shit - more for some than for others. Don't overthink things. Actions matter more than theorising...
Sorry Mark, I am unconvinced and the arguments seem nebulous. Not if they think this is god's will or the natural order. Chances are they won't even b...
This is a lovely paragraph, thanks. It's the closest I think I could get to finding an objective way forward in this space. I suspect many people alre...
Remember religious or theistically derived morality is just as much of a sham. The morality of any believer is as subjective and dependant upon interp...
We probably agree on most matters of morality - not killing, stealing, lying, cheating, etc. Personally I don't think we need a theory of morality. We...
Probably Bowie, Tom Waits and Nick Cave too. With such characterful voices, it is obvious they would not make it on American Idol... Slickness has bec...
I read a lot of Youtube comments and this is a popular observation, but not just about music, it touches everything - sitcoms, tonight shows, building...
I think this is a wise observation. Note: I believe there are also many wonderful people who believe in god, who practice religion, who behave justly ...
Yep, the traditional 'proofs' of god. Most atheist books and freethinker polemical works respond to these old things. There are thousands of pages ans...
I understand that but it's pointless if no one can agree about what the truths are. The thing that actually matters - a morality - is missing. You kee...
Sure. But nor could you claim that atheists could not have created a similar culture. Or even that it might have been better (less guilt, less piety, ...
Maybe. I generally agree with that gods are incoherent ideas. But it is easier to say one is atheist as it's a word people know. I never find much pro...
If I want a laugh I might pop on Blue Velvet. Most contrived comedy irritates me - whether it is stand up or the mawkish material of Chaplain. I liked...
That point was made by a critic a long time before that show. Not sure how the ark would have gotten safely to the US without Indy, but as it turns ou...
I enjoyed the Proust I read back in the 1990's - he seems to be prefiguring a form of phenomenology, particularly through the experience of memory. Me...
Yes, I have gone with that too. I rarely wear anything but black so I kind of opted out of fashion 25 years ago. I hope it was something profoundly un...
That sounds right. What's funny to me at the moment is we have a some younger people at work - the 28 year-olds are laughing at the 22 year-old's musi...
Nice. Character is good. The Long Goodbye is one of my favourites, not just for what Gould does with Marlowe (languid and tractable, except when it ma...
Let's twist again, like we did last summer. There's nothing accomplished by invoking god in any context I can think of, unless you happen to have part...
I consider Greenaway is a visual genius. Interesting. See, I think it as a carefully crafted, meticulously layered film, each step in the story progre...
:up: I often use that FN quote. Religious culture saturates experience - how could it not? We've been conditioned by it for centuries, millennia - jus...
Was it Comte who said that he wasn't an atheist on the grounds that it took the idea of god too seriously? I don't believe there is a god on the basis...
Disliked those films. Personal taste. For me good cinema is art - mise-en-scène - composition, framing, lighting, art direction, cinematography, editi...
Could be right. I have never engaged with pop, not even when young. I listened to classical, later blues and jazz. The aesthetics of rock don’t intere...
I meander across the eras when it comes to films. But not so much in the last 10-15 years. I'm bored with stories and tired of CGI. I privilege films ...
Sorry Amigo, you have completely bypassed my argument which I can only repeat, but wont. I think we may be too far apart to continue. I'll leave it to...
I like Taxi Driver the others no. I get it. Brazil is the only one of Gillian's that I like. It holds some of the most striking production design and ...
Agree. I generally find his performances mannered and appalling. Post 1980 this was probably Kubrick's fault. I don't enjoy 'noble' message films. And...
I think this is a very common belief and the source of half the threads here. The god's of the gaps are a well known fallacy. But I'm as averse to imp...
I take option 3. :wink: Does the below muddy the waters? If someone has no belief 'either way' then they are an atheist. Not having a belief in god is...
I think this may be as simple as everything seems better if you are in an appropriately receptive frame of mind. I often shared this when younger - th...
Goodness. Seems antithetical to good community work which is supposed to encourage reflective practice and a diversity of approaches. I've seen some p...
One of my favorite quotes (which I think was Milan Kundera) is, "You build a utopia, pretty soon you're going to need a small concentration camp.' I d...
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