Tom Storm

Some might argue that we didn't just kill god, we killed truth, beauty and goodness.

Well yes, but there's also a bigger picture - we could also take the view that religions unexamined and not held to account may readily lead to bad de...

There is no line - how can there be? Determining what is acceptable to a site by mods is not a science but an interpretive art. What are you really ge...

:up:

I agree, In my case I am not renouncing anything, just doing without stuff. I prefer it that way. Of course I am but a vulgar physicalist and it's is ...

It's the old question about what experience might add to knowledge. As you may remember the old thought experiment Mary's Room explores something of t...

Nice. But no matter how vast the intellect, a person probably always wonders what lived experience adds to knowledge. It's an old conundrum, hey? Even...

Good book on option 2 -Against Nature by Joris-Karl Huysmans. I believe it was Oscar Wilde's favourite novel.

I lack a sensus divinitatis, so I can't take the idea of gods seriously. Please feel free to believe in gods without evidence, most people who believe...

Few people get stuck on nihilism. Humans are meaning making creatures. We can't help it. The only meaning anyone gives their own life the one they pic...

Not sure how relevant this is but I generally draw a distinction between faith (belief without good reason) and reasonable confidence in, for instance...

I don't believe there are god's or that there is any meaning to life - except for the one you make yourself and for decades have practiced a form of m...

I thought Heidegger's first name was Martin...

Hmmm. I guess I consider myself something of a handrail physicalist so I have empathy for him. It was the tone of it that stuck me, perhaps a by-produ...

Yes, I wonder what the answer to that might be. People seem to need to worship things and this cast of mind necessarily turns science into the flip si...

I find myself agreeing with most of this. Do you think that in early Christianity God was understood more along the lines of the Logos? Certainly this...

Nuh... I think the Republican party will do just fine.

I have reasons for privileging humanism over other belief systems. Are the presuppositions I hold informed by gut feelings? Are all people's belief sy...

Nietzsche didn't really believe in capital T truth at all. As far as Nietzsche on Christianity goes - he found the stories implausible and the value s...

Sacred cows and their defenders... I've been watching with some surprise. Curious that people sniff out 'bigotry' when a perfectly reasonable critique...

Consider also spiritual pain - we know the world is full of people who are wretched and miserable for, shall we say, psychological reasons? Perhaps th...

This is interesting to me even as a lazy physicalist who has never taken much interest in idealism. Other than scholarly interest, how does this model...

My God.... what have i started!!! :razz:

Yeah - no worries. I kind of like the clunky myself too but I was moved by Le Guin's passion to undertake this project so....

I just got a copy of the Tao Te Ching translated by Ursula Le Guin. I read about her obsession with this work in its various translations from the lat...

Atheism is a bit more nuanced than this. From American Atheists: "Atheism is not an affirmative belief that there is no god nor does it answer any oth...

All you you seem to be saying here is that some people who believe that an old book says a thing think they have more authority than someone who chall...

I appreciate the effort but this just demonstrates a difference of opinion with Armstrong's reading and use of language. That's part of the territory....

We're done - all you do is make assertions and never answer questions posed. Bye.

Another assertion without evidence - what does that mean? What kind of knowledge are you referring to? If you mean there is knowledge that can be arri...

Sorry TA, the quote makes no sense to me no matter what word you use. My problem is the unclear English used and not whether this is science versus go...

WHat language is that AT?

You're right, it seems we don't understand each other. Maybe another time.

Not sure you'll get an A but I'm happy you put in the effort. :wink:

That could be partly true but I don't think you need to understand a life to understand where it is objectionable. After all (to change focus from Chr...

There's no 'of course' here at all. This seems to me to be a kind of content free assertion and lacks meaning. In what sense no difference? Details pl...

There's no doubt that people see reliable pathways in everything from astrology to handling snakes. The issue is demonstrating their reliability - sep...

That's a very negative reading of Armstrong's few words on compassion. I've tried a few times to re-read it wearing my cap of cynicism and still can't...

I used to smoke a couple of packs a day - loved it. Quit 15 years ago. I always found that those moments having a smoke on some back staircase, or on ...

Of course some people use drugs without developing addictions but it is a real risk - especially if that drug is crystal meth or heroin... Do you smok...

To make life more bearable and/or for fun. Most people are not Aldous Huxley.

What Nicholson should have said. "What counts as beautiful, Pal? That's ALL that counts. "

For me these sorts of questions are not very useful. They lack specificity and while anyone can free associate to them until the cows come home, what ...

Wasn't going for disdainful, more like incisive social comment... :razz:

Haven't seen it but if it is (and it's not just one reading), wouldn't that be an obvious borrowing? Films frequently (and often necessarily) filch fr...

I think compassion is something you either understand or don't. A little like having theory of mind - not sure it can be taught.

You may be right. I have no grounds to believe in rebirth. Not sure I believe in enlightenment either. But I do believe that people might develop pers...

That really is one of the most sensible questions one can ask of these claims.

It's in this lecture by Grayling on Wittgenstein and Language Games. Don't remember the time - near the end. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmckTveYN...

Wittgenstein, AC Grayling tells us, read almost no philosophy at all. Perhaps like J Krishnamurti he was a kind of seer.