Tom Storm

Throughout the ages the question has remained - how can an ordinary, perhaps foolish person tell the difference between the two? This can be an issue ...

An eminently sensible and substantive contribution to this great social policy conundrum.

You've actually gotten the hang of death pretty well already. We all have. Think back to what it was like for you in the years, centuries, millennia b...

Neoliberalism is an imprecise term. It interests me that Hayek, the founding thinker of neoliberalism was no fan of big corporations, oligopolies or b...

Never get involved in a land war in Asia.

I don't see any good reason to accept the proposition that reincarnation is a possibility. There's a thread all about it already. https://thephilosoph...

So it can be a civilized state. And I've seen it work very well here all my life. I understand some Americans with a libertarian bent don't agree or u...

Thanks Joshs. I'm making my way through some of the principles of phenomenology and I have to say much of it resonates. But I'm in the shallow end of ...

One of Husserl's? I don't properly understand it. Quick definition?

My view is that a civilized state works to build cohesive community and the health and happiness of its citizens through the provision of care, essent...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kGPhpvqtOc

I'm glad you feel that way. But that's your business. I don't think you are in a position to judge another - unless you are trying to emulate the puni...

Agree. Which is why I have never really seen the New Atheists as anything more than fundamentalist busters. A job worth doing, but not philosophy. Bis...

Yeah, I think curiosity about matters of life and death is lame too.

I read David Bentley Hart on this and I recall him suggesting that Augustine understood Torah stories as allegorical. Not sure that patristic understa...

Curiosity. Something to do. The idea galvanises so many wars and conflicts and animates so many internecine feuds, even on these virtual pages. How co...

I guess so - I try to be aware of the various interpretations people hold.

God is one of my favourite characters from literary fiction.

I rarely think in terms of help.

Some people are just scared. I had my two jabs of Pfizer and no side effects. I don't generally suffer form paranoia about government or the wealthy, ...

Changed my comment. I'm not debating if the science is accurate (how would I know?) just what they say it was.

It misleads because physicists maintain there was no explosion. The term was started as a joke by Fred Hoyle.

The bouncy castle pumped it up.

Exactly. Now you have it.

When you read physicists about the Big Bang it's not described as an explosion, it's an expansion of condensed matter all at once in every direction. ...

Perhaps Corvius has it on faith that there was no big bang.

II get what you are saying but 'm not convinced by this. I think that metaphor is off the mark. For one thing, lions exist and we can readily test if ...

Not sure what obstacles you are thinking about but thanks for the advice.

Of course. Given I am not a philosopher or a some other appropriately qualified expert, it is of almost no consequence what I understand or think abou...

I guess that could make you a Mysterian. :razz: Coming from this perspective of science's blind spot - is it even worth considering this question, or ...

Thanks for elaborating your ideas. I guess we differ on the question of individual certainty. If someone says that they believe a thing I'll accept th...

Doesn't sound very plausible. Maybe you could try to explain. People either believe or they don't. It's not complex.

No. But that might be the case.

:up:

Seems like a variation of Reagan's fabled 'trickle-down economics'. What is it with the disciples of Hayek and water?

It was meant as a quip, not theology.

Yep, I know the book and I saw Krauss' roadshow on the topic. As I'm sure you'll agree, Krauss is a pop star not a philosopher. But he's way smarter t...

In classical theism God is always omnibenevolent. But even if what you say is true, asking why remains pertinent. I always suspected he wasn't loved w...

:up: I'm pretty mediocre myself, but let's keep that between us...

Agree. Have you read his 1979 Crisis of Confidence speech? He describes the current era pretty well. A sample: "The symptoms of this crisis of the Ame...

Why are you such a cunt?

Not really. All our cars were V8 and we set fire to tyres and bushland just to watch them burn.

Are we living in an age of mediocrity? This is a pretty popular claim. I don't think so, (or should that be no more than ususal?) but it depends on wh...

Cripes! - my wording was all over the shop. Not sure what I was trying to say. Except that some physicists, Sean Carroll (being one) have stated that ...

That's what I've found myself doing more and more as I get older.

Yep, I understood that. Yes, and if the premises are correct the argument is valid. But there's so much missing from this to get us to William Lane Cr...

I have no significant views on this matter which is why I sent Alex O'Conner's angle. Personally, I don't care if the universe (whatever that actually...

The merits of this argument notwithstanding it doesn't get you to Craig's Jesus, even if valid. The best Kalam can do is establish there was a cause t...

Cool. Coherent but unlikely. For me if God is the jealous, dictatorial, error-prone fuck-knuckle he appears to be in the Old Testament, then we should...

Allen tells stories, he drops in cultural comment and ideas from a range of sources, often coalescing around his rather untheorized brand of atheism. ...