Hypothesis: The part of human nature that predisposes us to belief in gods (ToM and HADD, etc.

Fernapple comments on Dec 28, 2021:

Yep. Though I think that there could be several wired in parts to that, not just one. Animism, for one looking for intelligent agents behind any mystery, which may be derived from the false positive wiring. And neophobia, which was once a very useful survival strategy, and probably several others I can't think of yet.

“There is symbolic as well as actual beauty in the migration of the birds, the ebb and flow of the...

Fernapple comments on Dec 28, 2021:

And yet that only happens because the earths rotation, and its orbit do not line up. There may be planets which follow even tracks around their stars, where there live aliens who have no idea of what the word, seasons, could mean, or even that such things exist. From very simple things often there emerge very complex and wonderful products.

Geeeesh, what’s a guy gotta do to level up around here, pose naked!?!?? 😎

Fernapple comments on Dec 28, 2021:

Wait till you get to eight, and they send you the big invoice for usage.

A little exposure will orientate people on religion and it’s actual purpose.

Fernapple comments on Dec 28, 2021:

In the UK we do not have, what you call in the US, separation of church and state, so that most state schools in the UK, are affiliated to a religion. And for many years religious education was the only compulsory subject on the school corriculum, we are now, compared with the US at least, an almost secular society, with little or no active church attendance for most people.

Just harvested greens from my cold frames on Christmas Eve day here in Maine, zone 4.

Fernapple comments on Dec 28, 2021:

Hello and welcome, do enjoy the site. We love garden posts.

What Christmas Carol do you dislike the most and why?

Fernapple comments on Dec 27, 2021:

Oh little town of Bethlehem. Its just so twee from the first line, makes my skin crawl.

lol.. Perhaps something to chew on. If the universe has no beginning, then it has no edges

Fernapple comments on Dec 27, 2021:

That is even included in some versions of the Big Bang theory.

Beau of the Fifth Column - Let's talk about political theories of everything.

Fernapple comments on Dec 27, 2021:

At the root of all religion, including conspiracy theory, is the fallacy of seeing an intelligent agent behind anything which can not be explained, simply because learning to live with not understanding and learning to live with the idea of chaos, is too hard for some.

Destiny

Fernapple comments on Dec 27, 2021:

A pointless question, about three fictions. And even if free will and destiny did exist, it would only matter to believers, since you can only sin, in the sense of place a stain on your soul, if you have a soul. Therefore what causes you to supposedly sin, is of no interest here.

How many Believers perceive Atheists and it's not surprising since they don't understand the logic ...

Fernapple comments on Dec 26, 2021:

I hope that many "Believers perceive Atheists", its bad enough them not liking or understanding us, without bumping into us in the street because they can't see us.

The current state of the Covid pandemic in America: Many Americans have been vaccinated but ...

Fernapple comments on Dec 26, 2021:

Well perhaps you are not all that bad, I do seem to remember that D. Trump did change him mind about vaccines. So perhaps not mad just understandably confused. Stupid as well, but that is another issue.

I haven’t posted a post in a few days.....so here goes nothing.....😎

Fernapple comments on Dec 26, 2021:

PTSD ?

Why are our symbols for "Toys" so weird and old?

Fernapple comments on Dec 26, 2021:

Very true and interesting. Although it has to be said that there is a far simpler and perhaps more basic reason for it. Which is that symbols are by their very nature retro, and have to trail behind the times, simply because it takes time for them to be adopted by culture and become conventions. Much as mainstream education always trails ten or twenty years or more behind the latest scientific, political and historic thinking, simply because a time lag is inevitable.

I love this guy!

Fernapple comments on Dec 26, 2021:

Very true. Though in fact, the earthly tyrants are there behind the god, from the start.

A cool yule to one and all!! ❤

Fernapple comments on Dec 25, 2021:

And to you. Or if you prefer, may it be hot and steamy.

Some natural art for our big holiday.

Fernapple comments on Dec 25, 2021:

It says. "Video unavailable." Sorry.

I'm new here.

Fernapple comments on Dec 25, 2021:

hello and welcome, enjoy the site, and do check out the groups if you have time, there is a lot there.

For those closet Atheists, here's one for you.

Fernapple comments on Dec 25, 2021:

It probably wont. So no envy there.

Beatus et Laetus Sol Invictus Die.

Fernapple comments on Dec 25, 2021:

Yes but he goes away a night, just when you need him most, co's its dark then.

If someone whispers in your ear 'Believe In Yourself' that's good advice, but if someone whispers in...

Fernapple comments on Dec 25, 2021:

The reverse of course is true. A sceptic questions even themselves. Whereas a believer in God believes they are right all the time, because. "God always agrees with me, and he can't be wrong."

Happy Newtonmas

Fernapple comments on Dec 25, 2021:

Not until the fourth of January.

I know I'm being pedantic, but I don't like describing myself 'godless'.

Fernapple comments on Dec 25, 2021:

I usually describe myself as old, ugly, blue eyed and bald, same as I would if I was religious.

To all my friends on Agnostic.

Fernapple comments on Dec 25, 2021:

"Beware the ides of March. " Good cheer my friend.

The main reason that I ditched religion was that it was way too confusing of who I was supposed to ...

Fernapple comments on Dec 25, 2021:

I knew a dog once, and she loved virtually everyone and most creatures, but boy, did she hate squirrels. And I don't mean, wanted to hunt them. I mean really, snarling, foaming at the mouth, hair bristling, total all out rage. We never did find out why.

Some of the loony members of this forum seem to think that everything is black or white but the ...

Fernapple comments on Dec 25, 2021:

All masks will give some protection, because they all, in effect, increase the distance and the number of obstacles between two people who may exchange the virus, some better than others. But it is not really a question for doctors. How small particles like moisture droplets and viruses circulate and spread in the air, and how many of them are likely to be stopped by various filters with various degrees of sealing and baffling around their edges, is really a physics problem, which should be put to physicists and engineers. Who will probably tell you that the issues and problems with modeling it all, are far to complex to give even a close answer, and that your best choices would be simply to look at the statistics and see what happens in practice. But the bottom line is, that masks are a virtually zero cost from of protection, and that even if you hung one in the air three feet away from an infected person, some of the viral particles are going to lodge on it, not enough to be important, but some. How many, has to do with things like inverse square law and the static electrical charge of both the particles and the mask, plus the size/mass of particles, air temp, wind speed, humidity and a hundred other things. But since I suspect that most anti-vaxers/anti-maskers are too lazy to bother trying to understand any one of those, so it would be a waste of time talking about them anyway.

How To Start Your Own Religion [thoughtcatalog.com]

Fernapple comments on Dec 25, 2021:

Everybody creates their own religion in those terms, even the members of mainstream religions, since no two believers will have exactly the same view of their religion's meaning.

Wishing all my agnostic friends a holiday full of love and peace.

Fernapple comments on Dec 25, 2021:

Have a good time, and a bright new year. ( Be sure to get drunk before you go to church, I find it helps you to get through the service, and for some reason you tend to get invited to fewer return visits. And besides, the wine they serve is really awful, and really tiny mean amounts.)

The Story Of Christmas

Fernapple comments on Dec 25, 2021:

Surely he would know. After all he raped his mother, without breaking her virginity, into getting pregnant with himself to give birth to himself, which may be incest, but which presumably results in a child with two sets of chromosomes , although if he had two sets, then he would not be himself, but half Mary. While if he had only one set that would be parthenogenesis, which would not make a viable fetus, but would not be incest, but then it would not be parthenogenesis, because you usually have to be female to do that, and you get a female child never a male. If he can't work it out, I am sure I can't. But then according to the O.T. he did not know how to selectively breed goats either, so maybe he did not understand it after all. Which is odd because he designed it. OH well, I give up.

Scientists discover an ancient oceanic reptile that evolved exceedingly fast

Fernapple comments on Dec 25, 2021:

Interesting article. It has been said before that size change seems to be one of the quickest things for evolution to achieve, things get very large and very small quite quickly.

God spoke to me today and told me I was the second coming.

Fernapple comments on Dec 24, 2021:

Hello and welcome, enjoy the site.

Rhetoric is the art of ruling the minds of men. - Plato

Fernapple comments on Dec 24, 2021:

Charisma is the ability to influence without logic. Quentin Crisp

Are your dreams logical?

Fernapple comments on Dec 24, 2021:

A bit of both really, though often they do relate a little to what is happening in life at the time, they are usually quite unrelated and rarely logical, but some of the more memorable ones are. What I find really strange about dreams though is how easily they are to forget, even quite vivid or disturbing dreams that are fresh in the mind when you wake up, can not be recalled at all by mid day.

Let's never forget that Christmas is more than presents and decorations, it's the time of year when ...

Fernapple comments on Dec 23, 2021:

No they were not married, they were betrothed.

Why his mumbo jumbo shows no logic anywhere

Fernapple comments on Dec 23, 2021:

According to the book, it was actually god who. "Hardened Pharaoh's heart." So he took away Pharaoh's free will, in order to make it happen.

"Night at the Creation Museum" Will Change Your Mind About Absolutely Nothing

Fernapple comments on Dec 23, 2021:

The Creation Museum has nothing to do with changing peoples minds or selling a message. It is just about selling tickets for money, to creationists who want an easy undemanding day out, which is not going to change anything, and sceptics who are going to laugh , but are still going to spend money. E. H. has taken part in enough debates with non creationists over the years, to know which are the, almost good, arguments on the creationist side, and which are absolute rubbish. Yet he still keeps pedaling all of them. Because he is probably not even a believing creationist himself, but he knows what sells tickets.

I know, I know, I'm a blimming hypocrite. 😆 Season's greetings to you all!

Fernapple comments on Dec 23, 2021:

They are not Christmas gifts, they are Yule gifts, they are part of a far older tradition than Christianity and the Christians stole the festival. Enjoy your Yule.

I've been trying to get divorced for 5+ years, so it no longer applies to me, but funny nonetheless.

Fernapple comments on Dec 23, 2021:

They do that all the time, its just that it get louder and more annoying with time.

Isn't that special...

Fernapple comments on Dec 23, 2021:

Actually, they just celebrate the fact that the earths orbit and rotation don't match. Its a bit like a train, it rattles a bit, apparently none of their gods could get the tracks level.

HAPPY FESTIVUS! I've got a lot of problems with you people.

Fernapple comments on Dec 23, 2021:

Oh good. We love a problem to solve.

The vaccine-hesitant can't even take the vaccines at this point and hope to evade Omicron.

Fernapple comments on Dec 23, 2021:

Although even one dose offers some protection, especially against extreme symptoms.

If everything around you seems dark, look again. You may be the light. Rumi

Fernapple comments on Dec 23, 2021:

Yes but my wick is getting smaller, and limper, with age and overuse.

'It wasn't hard' he says, the cheeky bugger.

Fernapple comments on Dec 23, 2021:

Wonder what he would have got, if it was hard ?

Man Charged w/Stealing 58-Foot-Long Bridge - YouTube

Fernapple comments on Dec 23, 2021:

In the Natural History Museum, London, England, there was for many years the skeleton of a dinosaur ( Diplodicus I think ) which stood in the main hall, upright and articulated. The very last bone from the tip of its tail was stolen, and so it had to be replaced with a replica, made of plaster. In fact the theft took place again and again every few weeks, so often, that the Museum ordered multiple copies and kept a box of them.

At long last we know all that we could learn from history, and that is that people learn nothing ...

Fernapple comments on Dec 23, 2021:

That's very true, actually about the first thing you learn from any in depth study of history, is that the human race keeps making the same mistakes over and over again.

By the end of this week, we will have 9 more seconds of daylight.

Fernapple comments on Dec 22, 2021:

I shall not hold my breath. (Although, thinking about it, even at my age, I think I could manage nine seconds. )

Happy Winter Solstic It's going to be a long night.

Fernapple comments on Dec 22, 2021:

Groan.

An angel even an atheist can believe in!

Fernapple comments on Dec 22, 2021:

Best wishes for the season.

You just never listen do you! Don't say you weren't warned!

Fernapple comments on Dec 21, 2021:

Don't think that you will come round and do my laundry either, if my washing machine breaks.

I post this every year and no need to change the tradition! Happy Solstice.

Fernapple comments on Dec 21, 2021:

And all happiness of the season to you too. P.S. You put it very well, a perfectly formed essay.

“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it ...

Fernapple comments on Dec 21, 2021:

Well the days of easy travel seem to be over, so I guess it is going to become a far more prejudiced, bigoted and narrow-minded world. Travel especially flying may not have been good for our carbon footprint, but it did broaden the mind.

I liked reading this.

Fernapple comments on Dec 21, 2021:

Sagan always worth reading.

“Furthermore, we have not even to risk the adventure alone, for the heroes of all time have gone ...

Fernapple comments on Dec 21, 2021:

Sounds like the concluding paragraph of an interesting book.

In Christianity...

Fernapple comments on Dec 20, 2021:

Well he has not said much for a long time. lol

The habit doesn't make the monk.

Fernapple comments on Dec 20, 2021:

No but bad habits can.

Pope Francis condemns domestic abuse as "almost satanic" [bbc.com]

Fernapple comments on Dec 20, 2021:

Religion is a form of domestic abuse.

Focusing on being "a survivor" is not living.

Fernapple comments on Dec 20, 2021:

If living means happiness, or something like it, then I would say that there are two categories of things needed for it. One is the prerequisites, such as freedom for need, bordom, illness ( including depression ) and fear etc.. But that only brings comfort, the opposite of discomfort, which simply leads to contentment alone. And the second category is appreciation, which includes appreciation of self, ( attainment ) and appreciation of the world, and its gifts, ( taste ). Surviving is merely to attain the level of comfort, and effort is required to attain happiness.

Do numbers exist? Not the visual or verbal symbols for numbers, but numbers themselves?

Fernapple comments on Dec 20, 2021:

Define "exist" ?

Maybe too modern for this crowd

Fernapple comments on Dec 20, 2021:

Sorry the image is a little blurry, certainly to read the writing, and the orange packets are not a brand of anything recognizable we have here in the UK, so no can't tell what is in them or what it means.

I love new biology breakthroughs this one is better imaging of living cells. [youtube.com]

Fernapple comments on Dec 20, 2021:

Really wonderful, but sadly it is a little hard to tell in the video, which are their actual images and which are animations, created for the video.

What's the funniest username you've seen?

Fernapple comments on Dec 20, 2021:

Oh, that would be LiterateHiker of course. LOL

Interesting mating strategy…glad humans don’t share it!

Fernapple comments on Dec 19, 2021:

The Granny advice I was given to attract the female of the species was, to wrap a few mint leaves in a hanky and tuck that in your top pocket. I am surprised that they did not mention though, Artemisia abrotanum or Lad's Love, which is said to be used by women to attract specifically younger men.

Blood clots.

Fernapple comments on Dec 19, 2021:

I usually burn the blood cloths, would not want the police to find them, even if I have disposed of the bodies carefully.

Young Henry kept his promise to me and supplied me a photo of his Mums first car, aka Betty Beetle, ...

Fernapple comments on Dec 19, 2021:

Well done your family.

I love this movie.

Fernapple comments on Dec 18, 2021:

Also plagiarist, con artist, failed businessman, and faker of evidence. There is a lot more, but space is short.

I had to put this here…

Fernapple comments on Dec 18, 2021:

Barringer. That just has to be a sloppy attempt at irony.

I love this song!

Fernapple comments on Dec 18, 2021:

Ahh! Italian ballads. I always loved the kinky sex one, about putting salad dressing into someones bum, I assume as a lubricant. You know the one ? How does it go now. "Ass hole of mayo, ass hole with may. Ass hole, Asshole a' may." That's it !!

Jupiter's Great Red Spot Is 40 Times Deeper Than The Mariana Trench [youtube.com]

Fernapple comments on Dec 18, 2021:

As a portion of Jupiter's atmosphere though, that would not be all that deep., given it mean radius of 69,911 km.

Steven Pinker answers questions. [youtube.com]

Fernapple comments on Dec 18, 2021:

Not much to disagree with there, but not much that's new either.

Question am I Agnostic?

Fernapple comments on Dec 18, 2021:

You should fit in well here and find a lot of people who agree with most of that.

spiritual development

Fernapple comments on Dec 18, 2021:

Nope, will never give up on trying to help.

“For he that does good, who has the unlimited power to do evil, deserves praise not only for the ...

Fernapple comments on Dec 18, 2021:

And those, ( like religion ) who do evil, though they have the unlimited power to do good, deserves condemnation not only for the evil which it performs, but for the good which it forbears.

Darn near scared me out of 10 years growth she did.

Fernapple comments on Dec 18, 2021:

Another photo of her would be nice.

On this day December 18th fifteen years ago, my father passed away after experiencing a sudden heart...

Fernapple comments on Dec 18, 2021:

Sorry for your lose, I too have found that most of the loses in my life occurred at around this time of year. Fate dose not respect religious holidays either.

Deep-Sea Fish with Transparent Head Caught on Camera: [sci-news.com]

Fernapple comments on Dec 18, 2021:

So natural selection invented the visor too, amazing the range and scope of natures inventiveness.

Our fiction addiction: Why humans need stories… [bbc.com] .

Fernapple comments on Dec 18, 2021:

Good read. Makes well the point, that narratives do not have to come from religion, and don't need to be religious to enhance social awareness.

No explanation needed for those "in the know."

Fernapple comments on Dec 17, 2021:

Always wondered if you could have a surrealist song ?

No explanation needed for those "in the know."

Fernapple comments on Dec 17, 2021:

Did not get it until I read bobwjr's comment.

”We have indeed secreted a human age out of ourselves as spiders secrete their webs: an immense, ...

Fernapple comments on Dec 17, 2021:

The world most people live in today, is that of human culture, and that divorced itself from any obligation to be truthful long ago.

Poland's border wall will cut Europe's oldest forest in half

Fernapple comments on Dec 16, 2021:

And sadly, this is mainly because Belarus has deliberately created the migrant route in order to cause problems.

The Lively & Liveable Neighbourhoods that are Illegal in Most of North America - YouTube

Fernapple comments on Dec 16, 2021:

Interesting video. The longer I spend on this site, the more I wonder how anyone even survives in North America.

What caused you to leave Christianity?

Fernapple comments on Dec 16, 2021:

I was never in it, being raised in a mainly secular home.

Hi from San Angelo, TX.

Fernapple comments on Dec 16, 2021:

Hello and welcome, enjoy the site.

The greatest use of a life is to spend it on something that will outlast it. - William James

Fernapple comments on Dec 16, 2021:

Planted a lot of trees.

This suggest that somewhere is a chewy and spicy baby.... I'd go for that one. 😂

Fernapple comments on Dec 15, 2021:

When I was a child I always hated the religious song which starts. "There is a green hill far away, Without a city wall. " I did not understand the archaic use of the word "without" for outside, and I always thought that it sounded like a terrible tautology. Since hills with city walls are rarely green, you put city walls around houses and buildings. I also did not as a child get the metaphorical use of green, for full of promise, and thought that any fool should know that the hills of the Holy Land are bare and barren. I know better now. But actually I still hate that dreadful song.

Like this post or comment if you are looking for a new friend or text buddy.

Fernapple comments on Dec 15, 2021:

Hello and welcome, enjoy the site, and you will be safe.

I couldn't agree more. People should stop mocking birds

Fernapple comments on Dec 15, 2021:

Redbreast, Magpie, ( = Margaret) Blue Tit, Great Tit, and especially Great Crested Tit.

Prompted by the disbelief of one of our members that atheists would ever visit a theist site, I ...

Fernapple comments on Dec 15, 2021:

I have visited theist sites, but did not stay long, because I am not interested in starting conflicts, and I found the content so utterly banal, I soon got bored with it. Maybe that shows a lack of tolerance, because of course some of the content here can be dull, but I put up with it until I find the gems, where dull content would probably turn me off a theist site within seconds. As to a site similar to this one. If I knew where there were some, I would probably visit out of curiosity, but I really don't know of any other sites like this, even for atheists/agnostics, it really is a wonderful, and as far as I know unique, creation. Even the Facebook site I was invited to visit by a member here was uninteresting, but then I find Facebook itself hard to like. I am sometimes offered theist videos on Youtube , but again since I find the arguments just banal rather than challenging, I don't watch long.

Some people are just born a sinner!

Fernapple comments on Dec 15, 2021:

Yep, even the word "sinister", which means left handed, has come in modern usage to mean, prone to, or appearing evil.

2021 in Review: The Year in Cancellations | The Daily Show [youtube.com]

Fernapple comments on Dec 15, 2021:

Video not available in Europe. Sorry.

Is teeny tiny a scientific term?

Fernapple comments on Dec 15, 2021:

Great post.

Vet Angry At So Many People Believing These Pet Breeds Are “Cute” Explains How They Are Not ...

Fernapple comments on Dec 14, 2021:

PS. To my last. And of course, at the bottom of it, bad taste and a total lack of empathy for other creatures, is just a product of ignorance. Because our education systems would rather not teach, understanding, empathy and good taste, in case they were "difficult" in the workplace.

Vet Angry At So Many People Believing These Pet Breeds Are “Cute” Explains How They Are Not ...

Fernapple comments on Dec 14, 2021:

So many of our dog breeds, are known to have serious health problems, as a result of deliberate breeding and inbreeding, in order to produce, nothing more than a fancy appearance. Which is invariably in extreme bad taste anyway, since any taste which does not value health and natural norms is by definition, bad taste. Yet, if I took a length of scaffold pipe, and beat a dog with it, until it was so badly injured that it could not walk or breath properly for the rest of its life. I would be taken to court and the legal book would be thrown at me. Yet the dog breeders get away with it year after year, and even get away with calling themselves dog lovers.

Who believes in the Big bang scientific creation myth?

Fernapple comments on Dec 14, 2021:

Atheism should really have no connection with physics, whatever the theories. Since atheism is concerned with the issue of whether there is a supernatural or not, which is faith based, and science is only concerned with the natural. If all the scientific theories about everything were proved to be wrong, ( And certainly I am informed by people who have more knowledge of it than me, that the big bang is a lot more doubtful than many. ) that would not prove god, only that a new scientific theory was needed. While if apologists found a conclusive proof of the existence of a creator god, that would not disprove any scientific theories, but would only ask what method the god used for creation. Science may disprove, ( To a reasonable level, if you do not embrace extremes such as total solipsism. ) the truth of certain ideas about the nature of god, such as the idea that god is accurately described in certain books like the bible. But that can also be disproved by history, philosophy, mathematics, textural study, logic and a dozen other disciplines anyway.

14th December 1812…🇫🇷 The French invasion of Russia, led by Napoleon Bonaparte, officially ...

Fernapple comments on Dec 14, 2021:

I remember reading an account by one of the survivors. Where he described having managed to steal a potato, just one. But being mad with hunger and cold he did not want to share it with his fellows, who had a fire and could have cooked it. He then wrote that. "I was punished for this, because the potato froze solid, and I could not chew at it, because the frost bite had shattered all my teeth." Sounds like fun.

In the age of information, ignorance is a choice. -- Donny Miller

Fernapple comments on Dec 14, 2021:

Yes, but not a very good one. And information does not dispel ignorance, you can have a lot of information about nothing worth knowing about , and still be in real terms ignorant.

The Steel Man Technique: How To Argue Better And Be More Persuasive

Fernapple comments on Dec 14, 2021:

In some ways it is very like the Socratic method, not a perfect fit but similar. Since you could say that in the Socratic method you get the other party to Steelman themselves, by inviting them to put forward ever more of their arguments until the basic structure fails.

14th December 1812…🇫🇷 The French invasion of Russia, led by Napoleon Bonaparte, officially ...

Fernapple comments on Dec 14, 2021:

Nine tenths of those he set out with.

“Healthy citizens are the greatest asset any country can have”…………….

Fernapple comments on Dec 14, 2021:

Also said, that his proudest day was the day when the NHS came into being.

Forget uninformed, or uneducated. There are some genuinely stupid people here.

Fernapple comments on Dec 14, 2021:

I try my best to be genuine.

Has anyone ever seen a clamshell that big?

Fernapple comments on Dec 14, 2021:

I visited the site where she is said to have emerged from the sea in Cyprus, a couple of years ago. There are a pair of rocks, ( Sorry only one in my photo. ) which look very like testicles.