Tom Storm

I don't really understand your response. 1) I am not comparing the hatred of trans people with the hatred of any other groups. What is this, a hatred ...

Sounds like you have made an assumptions about dreams and inner life having some kind of important or sacred connection. I've alwasy thought dreams we...

Got ya. But would clothing and machines also have ethereal versions? I am assuming that this other plane where ghosts 'dwell' the might simply be a pa...

I think this is an interesting frame. Take it seriously, but not literally. In other words, don't be dismissive, but seek to understand and expand our...

The logic of hauntings is interesting. Mostly it seems variations of the restless sprit inhabiting a space with unresolved issues - grief/anger. Which...

I think that's right. But if you are a Christian, say, which bits of the Bible do you obey? There's a cornucopia of contradictory moral advice in thos...

Agree totally. The Spinoza quote is a lovely one. And no doubt we'll be seen as unfairly hating of religion, crass, modern-era physicalists. But the p...

Does this mean wrote a response that for you is an unassailable novelty? :wink:

I thought it was fine. Josh's answers are quite sophisticated and anti-essentialist. I have sympathy for this approach, but as a non-philosopher with ...

Nice. Thanks.

I have some trans friends, a few trans colleagues and have worked with trans people. I have no theory of trans, I just tend to respond to folk as requ...

But can we really say that the history of theistic morality is much good? Take Luther, who on the one hand extolled the moral teachings of Christ yet ...

Male kangaroos fighting. People sentimentalise kangas, but really they are vicious thugs and can grow taller than a human male. Recently I watched a m...

:up: Thanks - will check this out.

:up: I hear you, but there is this. I have gay friends who were convinced by argument that being gay was irrational and unnatural and in some cases, a...

I think by now aliens are folk accounts. All such traditions start somewhere. Perhaps aliens are just a technologically updated form of supernaturalis...

I don't think it is a 'state of mind' as such that we're looking for. Just a worldview that includes, perhaps even embraces, ghosts and spirits and is...

That follows in as much as in a culture where the idea of ghosts and spirts are accepted as real and are culturally important, you're going to see way...

A debunker of psychic and 'supernatural' phenomena I knew in the 1980's once told me that he believed in haunted minds, not haunted houses. I am incli...

Nice OP. I agree with your points. Given humans are meaning making creatures, working hard to identify or make some order out of the chaos, we can't h...

Yes, arguments and the lack of demonstration of gods has maintained and sharpened my atheism. But my initial impulse was not based on arguments as suc...

Got you. Thanks.

One of the more intriguing responses I've read here in a while. But is this an argument or more of reaction? Which very idea of god is abhorrent? I mi...

That's ok - we're just having a conversation. How would we know what each other might know? It's all fine. :up:

:up: Yes, I understand he hosted large dinners and was a superb conversationalist and dry wit back in Konigsberg.

Relief and something of a disappointment too.

:lol:

I asked this of ChatGPT which advised me that 'c**nt' is 'not considered repectful langauge' and is 'innappropriate.' So I asked it for any jokes it c...

I can only talk about my actual experiences over 40 years, working in a range of roles. I don't recall any significantly unethical cultures. Sometimes...

Fair enough. I'm no expert on degrees of faith, since I've never had the experience in any form. Nevertheless, most of the Muslims and Christians I ha...

Interesting. You may be right. Yes, populist leaders of a certain kind are autocratic because they are generally insincere and know what to do to get ...

:up:

Funny you should mention this. I love Canberra and am there now. Just for 3 days while on a road trip. I love the manageable scale of the city, it's q...

Thanks for clarifying. :up: Understand. I generally highlight faith in this way just to make a point. When it comes to Christian traditions, I do cons...

After the age of 40 I started to enjoy small amounts of the Rolling Stones (earlier stuff) still dislike the Beatles. Enjoy later Leonard Cohen and so...

Ravel - Daphnis et Chloé, Pavane pour une infante défunte. I also really like his piano concerto for left hand - written for Wittgenstein's brother, P...

Isn't this missing the point of the example? I think @"joshs" observation seems relevant. As humans develop our moral understanding and ethics, the sp...

Interesting. So the idea is that the essential nature of being is beneficial towards all things?

I found Ravel a lot more interesting when I was a kid. Debussy struck me as bland and equivocal. My favoured music as a kid - say 20 years old - were ...

Very industrious. I have no hobbies. The closest thing to a hobby I had was 20 years drinking whisky and meeting strangers in bars. Loved almost every...

Sounds like foundations of existentialism. From a very young age, perhaps 7 or 8, I formed the view that human life was inherently meaningless. This h...

Interesting. I've heard a number of atheists make the same point. Mainly that only magic can get us out of the shitstorm we seem to have created for o...

I still can't see how you got there. Sorry. My focus is primarily on the reality (or not) of the entity (gods), not upon the reasonable confidence. I ...

Thanks for the thoughtful reply. I have a copy of some Sean Kelly lectures on the subject which have been interesting. But it leaves me none the wiser...

I've read something of his history and some essays on his thought and some work by Dreyfus (whose reading of H may not be seen as adequate these days)...

But why do we require faith? Why aren't gods simply present in our lives and why this: This seems crazy to me. Why would gods be invisible and why wou...

Yes, everything can be taken too far. I don't consider myself a realist.

Who is your intended audience? If it's the average person, me, for instance, I struggle to see why it should matter to me. What would that look like i...

Yes, I'd go along with this - which fits with my idea that dissatisfaction is often the fillip for philosophy. I think a generic 'curiosity' is a fair...

I think we agree.