Tom Storm

Ok, I get you. I guess if you are addicted to anything as a form of self-medication (which is usually what an escape amounts to) this is problematic, ...

I get from this that it is an immutable truism that the paragon teaches the scoundrel just through their presence or example. Anger and aggrieved advi...

Thank you TC. As I said to you earlier, I read TTC first in 1985 (ish) and was unable to incorporate it into my thinking. I guess it seemed then to be...

There's another approach - the staring point being 'I doubt that there is truth, however, let's look into some of this to see what I find.' This means...

Cool

Good to know. I find myself agreeing with many of the versus - I don't understand all of them. TC, I'd be interested in how you find it supports you (...

This bit I don't understand. Why is this wrong?

Art does whatever you want it to do. What does it matter? Unless you are a strict idealist...

I guess young people are different depending on who you know. The young people I know do not share this view. They work hard, seem respectful and are ...

Tao Te Ching – Verse 2 When people see some things as beautiful, other things become ugly. When people see some things as good, other things become ba...

Not sure anyone is being intoxicated away from anything. That's a curious formulation. People like what they like. Even when exposed to alternatives i...

There's also the matter of personal taste. A few people I've met would rather be exposed to the hysterical woman than the Beethoven.

:up:

I first attended a lecture on Plato's theory of forms in 1985. I struggled to comprehend the nuances. Asked a fellow student who said - 'We are to tak...

You can say that but how do we know you understand them? And I am not saying you don't, just that we have no way of knowing this. Heidegger is notorio...

Thanks already know this one. I was referring to Joshs other terminology and asking if it was in the same vein as Plato's forms.

I have met anarchists who are realists but I did not make the point C is a realist. I doubt he is.

I have no feelings about Chomsky's integrity, my point addressed the issues of complexity not validity.

Economics - where money and resources are prioritized is almost entirely a reflection of the cultural priorities of a society. I have worked with Budd...

I think that is a legitimate position. I have often thought that the problem is this word 'morality' it contains so much baggage. It can also be seen ...

Chomsky is a realist when it comes to geopolitics. He has argued in a few places that materialism lacks coherent content.

I said it. People who live in fear do not take responsibility. They live in an altered state of awareness.

I think you are using my comment to engage in a little patronizing ad hominem. Noam Chomsky - a highly complex theorist - made this exact same point a...

No the point I was addressing was your reflection about divine command theory.

The jails are full of vicious criminals who believe in god. There is nothing intrinsic to the idea which makes people behave ethically.

You have obviously not done any time in a Supermax prison - not many 3 year-olds there. You do what you are told or suffer the consequences. If god is...

Thank you for the offer. The only corporate types I know generally use weasel words, convoluted syntax and jargon to hide or massage the facts. They a...

Thanks Joshs but that hasn't helped. Like Pato's theory of forms? Can it not be explained in a simple sentence?

You're right, spiritual is not always a good match. Is there a better word? Supernatural? Even more loaded for some. It depends on the claim being mad...

Even in the unlikely event that we can confirm an example of a supernatural event, the next problem is determining cause. As Isaac Asimov used to say,...

Yes, many ways. God puts people to the test. Do not eat the fruit. Do not do anything God asks you not to do. Obedience is fidelity. But if you must c...

I don't understand what you mean here?

That's not the interpretation I am making. And the question you pose has nothing to do with my proposition. I never said knowledge was evil. But not f...

The only tree of knowledge I know is the kabbalah. Knowledge isn't evil per say but you may be commanded to remain ignorant/simple - in which case see...

Most Christians accept evolution. Not sure where the hard atheism comes from.

I just had a quick scan on line. It certainly is striking - it reads like poetry and the reader needs to have a particular personality or imagination ...

Nicely put but I'm not sure it addresses most of my comments.

Thanks for your response. I was unable to get much out of the Tao Te Ching to be honest (decades ago) but I'll give it another look. I'm sure I can re...

I guess you have to make the case that moral statements like this are justifiable epistemologically in whatever philosophical/spiritual system you set...

Nicely put. I guess the real job of all of us is to consider ideas we are not necessarily drawn to and perhaps even repelled by (of course you wouldn'...

[ Interesting - you raise many questions. On what basis do you arrive at this Trinitarian model? When you say precepts of Chris (I am assuming you mea...

Possibly the most elegant summary of the situation I've yet read. I get that people like to feel part of a special group of initiated outliers who cha...

I agree with Justice Wendell Holmes.

You can't resolve this highly emotive issue. You either buy into the idea that we live in community and support it and consider tax a way to pay for c...

You're right, he is not addressing the point as such but then both guys are talking past each other, which seems the necessary end result of competing...

That's a very dramatic way of phrasing the dilemma but it seems appropriate and I like your wording. I also think sometimes people give up by finding ...

I greatly enjoy Hart's work. It interests me that he has identified the problem of evil and the suffering of innocents as the one which has capacity t...

Yes, that's all a given. I think all we can go by in assessing a religion in the world is living traditions.

I hear you but I don't think you can get agreement on this so readily. We don't have a mechanism to discern who is a true Christian and who is not. Ge...

I don't really have a strong view on this. I am attracted to some Buddhism ideas - but isn't everyone? I don't see any Asian cultures that I would swa...