What if the money that is spent on religion throughout the world was instead spent on science?

Fernapple comments on Feb 9, 2020:

A trillion dollars could also be spent on giving everyone on the planet clean water and food. Someone once said, and it may be true, that, if what the US spends on christmas presents alone, was given for just one year, it could create enough infrastructure to solve world hunger forever.

Punctuation is a thing! Just sayin'.

Fernapple comments on Feb 9, 2020:

What the ?!:*#!;

Belief is back: why the world is putting its faith in religion

Fernapple comments on Feb 9, 2020:

People turn to religion when they are alienated from mainstream society, that has always been the case. And many people feel alienated now, but there are also now increasingly other alternatives. Though of course, the immoral and criminal elements of society will rush to fill the pews, whenever mainstream society advances and improves its moral understanding.

[inverse.com] Voyager 2 is back online!

Fernapple comments on Feb 9, 2020:

Amazing.

From last August.

Fernapple comments on Feb 9, 2020:

Not a bad idea to post the before and after Photoshop pictures, so that people can see what you did.

The law is agnostic about truth. Alan Dershowitz

Fernapple comments on Feb 9, 2020:

We are all agnostic about truth, if we are reasonable, because we all know that final truth is an impossible dream, a perfection unobtainable in messy human life. While those who do believe in absolute truth are tyrants at heart. But that does not absolve us of the duty, which I think the law of most civil lands recognizes, of trying our best to find the best approximation we can to truth.

More ideas on the solstice, the sun, and human needs - [aeon.co]

Fernapple comments on Feb 8, 2020:

Lovely article. I work outside a lot, and a bit of winter sun is everything. The only thing that worries me is, that life is short and is it really a good thing to be wishing the summer back.

‘When one door closes another opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed ...

Fernapple comments on Feb 8, 2020:

Someone said the other day. My uncle always used to say that. "When one door closes another opens." And when I was young I used to think that he was very wise. Then I grew up, and found out he was just a very bad cabinet maker.

“To be sure, the dog is loyal. But why, on that account, should we take him as an example?

Fernapple comments on Feb 8, 2020:

That's just silly, of course dogs are loyal to one another. Any one who has ever had dogs and observed the grief when one dies will know that.

I don't know how many members look for computer software, but for those who do here's a link to ...

Fernapple comments on Feb 7, 2020:

Thank you useful.

The view out my dining room and guest room windows today.

Fernapple comments on Feb 7, 2020:

Wow. she is a beauty.

If you could magically lift Trump out of office, who would you put in his place?

Fernapple comments on Feb 7, 2020:

You of course.

Incredible Moment An Orangutan Extends A Helping Hand To Man In River An incredible photo has ...

Fernapple comments on Feb 7, 2020:

Not all humans are bad, but an ape has to be careful which one she picks as a friend.

“I can calculate the motion of heavenly bodies, but not the madness of people”.

Fernapple comments on Feb 7, 2020:

Newton had a lot of trouble with people. And certainly was not free of a little madness himself, perhaps in part due to his many experiments with heavy toxic metals when he studied alchemy.

You Can’t Have It Both Ways .

Fernapple comments on Feb 7, 2020:

No religion is not the source of morality, everything is natural and does come from nature via us. BUT. The important point about religion is that it unbalances any debate over morality or anything else. Because it enables those who accept it to claim an extra, supernatural, authority for their individual views. So that, to use your example. When some men wish to dominate women they can add extra force and power to themselves, by claiming the backing of the supernatural, (a boogeyman called god especially,) who THEY often claim invented or inspired their morally. Though of course they invented it themselves just like everyone else. That is why religion is, and increasingly is, only a source of bad ideas, especially in areas such morality, ( evil ideas if you like, though I do not believe in the idea of evil as such, but it will serve as short hand here ). Because when once people realized, perhaps five or six thousand years ago, that they could do secular philosophy, and debate things like morality publicly and rationally, ( It did not have to wait for science, even though that is wrongly seen as the only natural opponent of religion, it happened long before that.) then we lived in a world where good ideas could be propagated, debated and presented freely to anyone. Which left religion with only the role of promoting bad (evil) ideas, since that was the only trade left in the market place. It did of course inherit and get infected with a few good ideas, which it kept, as long as they were those that could be made to live with the evil ones without conflict, so that it could present them at the front of the shop as a smiling face to sell the product. But the trouble gets worse today, because as science, secular philosophy, and secular democratic government grow, and become more competent at their jobs, then increasingly religion turns to evil. Becoming more and more the place where evil ideas go to fester, escape public scrutiny and propagate themselves among the weak and immoral. It has to do that because that is the only game left in town for religion to turn to.

Franklin Graham dropped by every UK tour venue after anger over homophobic and Islamophobic comments...

Fernapple comments on Feb 7, 2020:

We had a tele-evangelist channel, mostly US, which appeared on our free to view TV listings a couple of years ago. It seems to have disappeared now, I think because it met with a wave of disinterest and indifference. Great. Long live apathy, it has its uses.

Some days it barely seems worth the effort it takes to chew your way through the leather restraints.

Fernapple comments on Feb 7, 2020:

Yes that happens to everyone, you should only worry when it seems like that most days. If it is come and talk to people.

A convoluted argument hard to grasp for agnostics, but if it were to succeed...? [sojo.net]

Fernapple comments on Feb 7, 2020:

There is an obvious illogic in the end times ideology of most fundamentalists, once expressed as. "How can you claim to honour god , and yet despise his creation." If you follow the Abrahamic religious logic, that the children of Adam and Eve were given the task of caring for and tending god's creation. Then it follows that, it is their god given duty to use, even their last breath, in an attempt to protect the very last creature on the planet, even in the final seconds of judgment day as the wall of fire falls upon them. But of course the religious are not interested in logical theology, because the religious mindset is quite different at its very base from the secular. To the secular mind, truth is something, ideally, to be sought no matter how much it may hurt your desired world view. While to the religious, truth is, that which confirms what I want to believe. It is the very opposite way of thinking, and it is the way of thinking fostered by churches, corporations and governments, who want a vast supply, of permanently immature demanding children who can not wait to buy every new product. Which justifies every form of cherry picking, ignoring of what your holy book logically has to say, and living, with like minded others, in an echo chamber world where the center of the universe is "me", and the "me" can have everything the "me " wants, regardless of all reason.

Secular spirituality

Fernapple comments on Feb 7, 2020:

Depends on what you mean by spiritual. It means different things to nearly all the people who use the word. From. " I often talk to ghosts, and they talk back." To. " I sometimes get an overdose of endorphins when I run for too long, and I am too stupid to understand body chemistry. "

Am I practicing bias conformation if I ask, do all the drug addicts you have known try to make up ...

Fernapple comments on Feb 7, 2020:

Could be the other way round. Being arrogant could make you believe that you can get away with filling your body with toxic chemicals, and come to no harm, it could also make you a anti- education and a racial supremacist. Even long before the brain damage sets in.

I have an atheist YouTube channel, am active on many other websites etc.

Fernapple comments on Feb 7, 2020:

Keep it up. Most thinking people will not make simplistic judgments such as. "If you are American you must be ill educated and a bible waving theist." And the ones who do, are the ill educated, who need informing just as much as theists. You are an ambassador for your country, and a good one, even if only on a small stage, and therefore, sorry to say, you do have a personal have a responsibility to keep going.

for those who live in the cold and snowy regions, here is a little glowing gem to bring the glow of ...

Fernapple comments on Feb 7, 2020:

Marrow with a fancy name. LOL

Borrowed from Facebook: By Donald Phagan When I worked in the funeral business as a counselor to ...

Fernapple comments on Feb 6, 2020:

No fear of death only of dying. Do we not have religion to blame, for the fact that doctors can not give the last kindness to humans, which vets give to their patients every day. Not all death is free from suffering, and just think for a second how much unneeded suffering takes place every day, on a global scale, just because of that.

[newsone.

Fernapple comments on Feb 6, 2020:

Its democracy, it works because people have short memories. In the first year you are nasty, in the second you line your pockets, and in the third you start being nice to everyone. It only has to work with enough floating voters to tip the balance, and you can get away with anything. People just don't pay attention.

Just looked out back bedroom window to this

Fernapple comments on Feb 6, 2020:

Me too, some good frosts a last.

My friend and user-interface designer who helped with this site has emerged from his hibernation and...

Fernapple comments on Feb 6, 2020:

If it ain't broke don't fix it, its a great site . But I still don't get alerts from all the groups I belong to. More members would be nice, it is a pity it is not called 'skeptics' or 'Free from religion.' something better known and more all encompassing, 'Agnostic' is very narrow in definition, and for a lot of international members, your English need to be pretty good to even know the word, but I guess it is too late to alter that.

If you would not be forgotten as soon as you are dead, either write things worth reading or do ...

Fernapple comments on Feb 6, 2020:

I hope people will forget me altogether as soon as possible.

Good morning everybody

Fernapple comments on Feb 5, 2020:

I presume this is a photo of you in your younger days.

SNOW DAY! Here in Oklahoma the snow is flowing with a mix of large wet flakes and ice pellets.

Fernapple comments on Feb 5, 2020:

Shivers.

I want your opinions in general about Facebook's " Community Standards " I find it to be a crock of ...

Fernapple comments on Feb 5, 2020:

A little fascist called Zuk is trying to build an empire, which he hopes will replace the free and open web for his own power and profit alone, with a slow, ugly, lumbering product which only sells because it promotes hatred and laziness in people who can't learn even the most basic computer skills, like how to email, or the most basic social skills like how to talk to people. There are far better social media sites, and if you are here you don't need to look far.

I fail to understand how the (allegedly) Greatest Nation on Earth (i.

Fernapple comments on Feb 5, 2020:

Alamanda just posted something that answered this far better than anything. https://agnostic.com/post/456720/so-maybe-preaching-to-the-choir-a-little-here-but-maybe-we-should-all-read-it-anyway-your-life-is Corporations and governments have no interest in education because education teaches you not to want, and without wants, you will not buy goods from the corporations or treats and promises from the governments. And without education democracy is useless.

MRI scans delve into dog-like complexity of squid brains [newatlas.com]

Fernapple comments on Feb 5, 2020:

Interesting article thanks, though a bit short.

I would like to know how many of you would vote against someone soley due to their open religious ...

Fernapple comments on Feb 5, 2020:

No I would have to look at the whole package, and what if the other candidate had an even more extreme religious agenda. You can't just make simple assumptions. One of the great weaknesses of so called representational democracy, if such a thing could exist, is that the voter can only vote for what is offered. And so you often get the choice of. "Do you want to be beaten with a stick, or hit with a stone."

“The basis of peace and stability, in any society, has to be the fullest respect for the human ...

Fernapple comments on Feb 5, 2020:

Yep. Though you would think that no one should need that pointing out. But then.....

If Adam and Eve only had two sons, Where did the son that lived wife come from?

Fernapple comments on Feb 5, 2020:

A lot of people have asked that question. The sceptic answer is. Its just a very silly story that has been mistranslated many times. I have also heard that some of the more rational theists say that. Adam and Eve were not the first people, but just the first ancestors of Abraham ( i.e. the Jews. ), and/or only the first people to be given souls by god.

My oldest (12) grandson mentioned that my potatoes had little things on them.

Fernapple comments on Feb 4, 2020:

Lovely story.

There may be some truth in this

Fernapple comments on Feb 4, 2020:

Someone posted the other day. "There are three types of men. Those who learn from reading, those few who learn from observation, and those who have to pee on the electric fence for themselves."

I would like to propose that we view religions in a manner that would make them a lesser source of ...

Fernapple comments on Feb 4, 2020:

There is a third use for money, which is to use it charitably for the benefit of others or everyone, a thing which the churches are very bad at, despite their claims to the opposite.

Self portrait

Fernapple comments on Feb 4, 2020:

Good lighting.

“We Grow in the Dark. Much like a baby in the womb or a seed in the earth” Unknown.

Fernapple comments on Feb 4, 2020:

" I think I must be a mushroom, they keep me in the dark and feed me bullshit." Anon.

I don't know why but certain people just don't take a good picture.

Fernapple comments on Feb 3, 2020:

One good trick for photos of faces is to use a short to moderately long telephoto lens length, standard lenses are not at all flattering to anyone, you end up with a big nose and tiny ears if nothing else.

"To stop well going, is more trouble then to keep going, yet at least both are more valued then to ...

Fernapple comments on Feb 3, 2020:

Do you mean ? "It is better to have loved and lost, than never to have loved at all." A. Tennyson.

Some thinking on drawing a line between moral decisions and religious decisions.

Fernapple comments on Feb 3, 2020:

This addresses some interesting topics, I think, but if you don't mind me saying so it could do with a little more work. I had to read it three times before I managed to fully get what it was about. And am not sure even now. Please don't post in haste.

The rosetta nebula do you see what I see

Fernapple comments on Feb 3, 2020:

Looks like Rosetta has been dieting too hard and had a bad nose job.

To my learned net-savvy friends on this site: I would like to build a simple two-page website with a...

Fernapple comments on Feb 3, 2020:

I can not really help you in the US, but it is certainly perfectly possible. Here in the UK I run two sites and have done two more in the past, I used a private company for hosting, have had wonderful service, get spam filtering, domain hosting for extra domains, a file management program, vast amounts of data storage and transfer, and a stats page, which tells me all about visitors etc. all for £65 ( maybe 75 to 80 dollars ) per year. So it can be done if you just shop around. Will mail you.

Nuclear science reveals sobering truth about faked Scotch whisky [thebulletin.org]

Fernapple comments on Feb 3, 2020:

Sad. But it says. "the scientists did not take a single sip from any of them during their formal research." So what did they do with the leftovers afterwards ?

Stephen King quits Facebook over concerns of 'false information' [cnn.com]

Fernapple comments on Feb 3, 2020:

Well done to him.

Anyone else not watching the Superbowl?

Fernapple comments on Feb 2, 2020:

No not watching it, along with quite a few others I think. This is after all an international site even though there is a US majority.

Don't get on the site as often as I'd like.

Fernapple comments on Feb 2, 2020:

Dan't bunk in ot, there as qite a foo of us morons on eer. What you will however find, is that posts like this, are almost always greeted with a tsunarmi of fake, and real, but mainly fake, modesty.

This year's biggest scare, the Corona Virus, has some mixed reviews.

Fernapple comments on Feb 2, 2020:

No one knows. The butterfly flaps its wings and a minor illness turns into the great plague, another flap and what looked like a great plague just fades away. The world is ruled by chance, much more than anyone likes to think, because we all like to look for patterns, we are pattern seeking animals that is how our brains are hard wired. But most of our observed patterns are just delusions, every bit as much as religion.

People are generally honest and natural instinct prompt them to speak truth.

Fernapple comments on Feb 2, 2020:

I just posted this, which is relevant https://agnostic.com/group/ScienceHealthHistoryBits/post/455494/about-humans-not-just-the-science-but-a-lot-about-thinking-two-https-www-youtube-com-watch-v?aid=2189643 Especially to why it is good to pick your friends carefully.

I can't say I'm very shocked by these comments, but it does make me wonder how these people could ...

Fernapple comments on Feb 2, 2020:

No I think that Sam Harris is just a little out. "Every act of violence is the result of a failed conversation" Every act of violence is the result of a failed argument on one side, only those who know they can not win the debate reach for their guns. It only takes a failing in the conversation on one side, and sadly the more they know that they will loose the argument the more they will stockpile guns.

Jaw drop moment. How can they NOT see the irony.

Fernapple comments on Feb 2, 2020:

How can they not see the complete lack of taste ?

How Fast Do Illnesses Spread On a Plane? | Health.com

Fernapple comments on Feb 1, 2020:

Depends on how fast the plane can fly. LOL

Less than 3000 points to level 8! Woo hoo. :)

Fernapple comments on Feb 1, 2020:

Well done. I sometimes think that we should all get together sometime, and have a badly fitting tee-shirt party.

I find it practical not to get upset with believers for their belief.

Fernapple comments on Feb 1, 2020:

I did not get upset, when they took their share of the widows pension. I did not get upset, when they tortured my neighbors child with fears of death. I did not get upset, when they told the girl next door that she had carry an unwanted child. I did not get upset, when they spat on my friend and his husband. I did not get upset, when they beat the woman I never met, with heavy canes. I did not get upset, when the child in a foreign land died of a preventable disease. I did not get upset, when they spent the hospitals money on a new church. I did not get upset, when they concealed crimes, for no one raped or humiliated me. I did not get upset, when they tried to suppress learning and knowledge so that people would not know how to question. I did not get upset, when they forced a nine year old to marry. I did not get upset, when they took a dirty knife to a tiny little girl, (I could not hear her scream.) I did not get upset, when they put people to death for being humane to others. I did not get upset, when they threw stones and bullets at one another's children, its their argument after all. I did not get upset, when they;- Sorry I think that I have to go now, I hear some knocking at my door. Maybe its them? I am sure it will be alright though, they have nothing against me do they ?

Many people believe all humans are equal.

Fernapple comments on Feb 1, 2020:

And I have a unicorn at the bottom of my garden. But I am not letting anyone see it.

The Weather.

Fernapple comments on Feb 1, 2020:

Of course the "normal" may well be based on average, which alters with time, and a few decades of mild winters will pull the average up, thus lessening the apparent effects of warming. Statistics can be dangerous and misleading, while still being true in a purely mathematical sense. So far, here in the UK, this has been one of the mildest winters I can remember hardly a frost.

Now this is my kind of snow storm

Fernapple comments on Feb 1, 2020:

No snow so far for us in England, its been a 'very' mild winter to date, worryingly mild.

All is not what it seems.

Fernapple comments on Jan 31, 2020:

No I like diversity and can live with the fact that everyone does not agree with me. If when you were looking up at the stars with your sexual partner, they always said what you expected and never surprised you, you would soon find them very dull. Nor would there be anything more to learn, and when that happens it is time to die.

A wonderful photo found online! See first comment.

Fernapple comments on Jan 31, 2020:

Is it your photo ?

How a Guy From a Montana Trailer Park Overturned 150 Years of Biology

Fernapple comments on Jan 31, 2020:

Really good read.

I have something on my mind for a few days, and since I really have no one to talk to about it, I ...

Fernapple comments on Jan 31, 2020:

Had one myself, but it is hard to change especially when you are already well aware of your mortality. It may be a wake up call for some people, but if you are already well awake, you can not wake up twice. The death of my wife did however have a deep effect on me, because it did make me understand that while it may be easy to contemplate your own death, it is a lot harder to accept that before you get to that, you will probably have to face loosing nearly everyone else. I do therefore now, try to give the most I can to everyone and to extract the absolute most I can from them, while I still have them.

SEX I was remembering what sex was like when I was in my twenties.

Fernapple comments on Jan 31, 2020:

When you dump that libido and the youthful hormones, its a kind of freedom as well.

"Sunday school is a prison in which children do penance for the evil conscience of their parents.

Fernapple comments on Jan 31, 2020:

May once even been more manipulative than that. It was seen traditionally, when most of the poor lived in just one or two small rooms and worked six day weeks, as a way that the church could give parents the time they needed to have sex. In that way they could produce more children, to fill the pews and work as virtual slaves for the clerical and ruling classes.

A wonderful photo found online! See first comment.

Fernapple comments on Jan 31, 2020:

Its a fractal world.

All progress is based upon a universal, innate desire on the part of every living organism to live ...

Fernapple comments on Jan 31, 2020:

Live beyond its 'current' income.

So what is the world if it is not binary?

Fernapple comments on Jan 30, 2020:

Would be nice. But the world is full of religions, governments and commercial institutions, who all want people to be good hungry consumers, of whatever they are trying to sell. And that means that they want people to remain forever as spoiled demanding children, ever needy, impatient, uncritical of the offerings and aways without moderation. Nuance, care, thought, and mature moderation are not on the agenda.

My winter has been busy.

Fernapple comments on Jan 30, 2020:

Beautiful turnings, I love the contrast between the rims and the natural grain in the wood.

As an Aussie living in a mainly secular country I'm amazed and disheartened by the stories from ...

Fernapple comments on Jan 30, 2020:

What I have learned while on this site is, just how failed and broken the US education system must be. Sometimes seeing levels of ignorance expressed, (Not by members generally but in the postings.) that it should be a shame for any government in the 21st century to admit to allowing. Everyone should have the right to an education which at least provides a basic understanding of the world within which they live. Sadly you have to wonder where the next generation of educators are to come from, when you produce an uneducated generation this time, it becomes a task of trying to lift yourself by your own shoe laces. And doubly sadly, I suspect that the failing is spreading to other countries like the UK too.

Are we afraid of religion?

Fernapple comments on Jan 30, 2020:

The problem is that it is so old and deep rooted, that those who do try soon get bored. If you bang your head on the wall, you hurt your head more than the wall.

I've been thinking about the structural similarities between religions and conspiracy theories--the ...

Fernapple comments on Jan 30, 2020:

I think that both stem from some basic but very shabby needs, the fear of the unknown and the need to feel in control, the wish to be special having knowledge and power denied to others, and the wish to avoid personal responsibility, (if it is caused by powers beyond your control, then you can wash your hands ). And these needs are the enabled by the hard wired human preference for pattern finding, favouring positive errors over negative errors, which was once a survival mechanism built into us by nature.

To be. What does that mean to you? Honest answers only.

Fernapple comments on Jan 30, 2020:

The opposite of. "Not to be."

Every team sport is marked by cooperation.

Fernapple comments on Jan 29, 2020:

As sports prove, the two are not mutually exclusive, you can have all the benefits of both. But to get that you need good planning/design, and that means honesty and a lack of greed. Meh. No chance outside of sport, and even in sports and arts, you see lots of greed and dishonesty.

@Fernapple, @Marionville - this is so charming! [danceshistoricalmiscellany.com]

Fernapple comments on Jan 29, 2020:

A story was promoted in the 18th and 19th centuries, that the name Maidenhair, used for the fern Adiantum capilis -vernis, refers to the use of the plants as a medicinal shampoo by young ladies. But as a friend of mine pointed out. When you see it growing as clumps of fine foliage in damp clefts between rocks, as it usually does. You soon understand that the old medieval name, does not refer to shampoo at all, but as he puts it. "It clearly refers to the hair that you get when you stop being a child and first become a maiden."

I wonder how how many Agnostic.com members are on Facebookl.com like me?

Fernapple comments on Jan 29, 2020:

No, I would not willingly use Facebook for anything, and any attempt to communicate with me via facebook would be a waste of time, because I just ignore any messages that come through facebook. In twelve months I retire, and then I will never have to look at anything on the Zuck's evil shabby ugly empire again.

If you learn to sit with loneliness...

Fernapple comments on Jan 29, 2020:

Maybe true in a sense. But it ignores the fact, that it is the usual custom in English, to split negative and positive aloneness, by calling them loneliness and solitude. It therefore creates a false misconception, by creating the straw man argument, that people have not already observed that aloneness can be a positive as well as a negative experience. It has been pointed out that. You can be more alone in a crowded sub-way, than on an empty mountain side. Loneliness is I think, more about lacking a feeling of communication, either with others, with yourself, or even with and abstraction such as nature, than it is about physical apartness; which can in fact cut out the noise and lead to more true communication.

2 satellites will narrowly avoid colliding at 32,800 mph over Pittsburgh on Wednesday: ...

Fernapple comments on Jan 29, 2020:

So there is not enough junk on earth, we had to start making more to fill space up.

My department at school is located in what was the basement of a bank.

Fernapple comments on Jan 29, 2020:

Is that what you call the naught room ? LOL

There are many things that we can debate and argue over with religion.

Fernapple comments on Jan 28, 2020:

Its anti-education, not just in the sense of its direct disputes with science, secular philosophy and honest reportage, which are bad enough. But as much anything else, because it wastes time and resources which could be spent on real education, on the pedaling of pseudo-education. In other words every time someone spends an hour learning a religious text, it is an hour lost that they could have spent on something of far greater value. Especially so if they are deluded by it into thinking that what they are receiving is "education".

I was indoctrinated into the Church of Christ Community as a child.

Fernapple comments on Jan 28, 2020:

Yes if you have Aspergers, it is hard to do cognitive dissonance, you can see that as a weakness or a strength, or both, as you like, or you can let society decide for you which it is. (Not the recommended option, as far as I am concerned.) And perhaps it is, as I find it, harder to play societies games, but if you are going to play with society, why play with its weakest traits. You may judge it with far more understanding than it will ever judge you.

Petrified oak in AZ

Fernapple comments on Jan 28, 2020:

The colors are a gem workers dream. How slow you have to wonder is the chemical seepage required to achieve that.

Simply because I'm currently playing 2 CDs of Eric Coates compositions and now realising that he ...

Fernapple comments on Jan 28, 2020:

It must have gone on long after the war, because I can remember that.

Christian Website: The Bible Says an Asteroid Will Crash Into Earth in 2029 | Hemant Mehta | ...

Fernapple comments on Jan 27, 2020:

Exodus 29/3 "And thou shalt put them into one basket, and bring them in the basket, with the bullock and the two rams." Which plainly means as I see it that, a large volcano will come out of the ground in in Little Tupping By The Eyewash, on the third of July 2022, but only after a one legged man falls of a a three legged horse in the center of New York in June.

[youtu.

Fernapple comments on Jan 27, 2020:

Very good, but I still prefer also from Tosca. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8lD9ZmYHhE

My teaching has gone from busy to basically nuclear just lately.

Fernapple comments on Jan 27, 2020:

For what it is worth my old banal advice would be. Take a holiday, the best decisions are taken from a distance.

“He who does not understand your silence will probably not understand your words.

Fernapple comments on Jan 27, 2020:

Sad but true perhaps.

Everyone I know is asking, how can so many people believe Trump's lies.

Fernapple comments on Jan 27, 2020:

Yes even Marx said as much, remember. "The opium of the people."

Why Religion Is Not Going Away and Science Will Not Destroy It

Fernapple comments on Jan 27, 2020:

Never underestimate the dead cat bounce. Strong reaction often means that the threat is overwhelming.

Is there any evidence that sick people who are prayed for get well faster than the other group?

Fernapple comments on Jan 27, 2020:

I have heard that there is some evidence that it is the other way round. Especially when people are informed that they are being prayed for, the survival rate seems to go down. It is said that this may be due to being told you are, "being prayed for", is the same thing as confirming, you are suffering a fatal condition.

Not sure how this works but there seems to be a demeaning air toward all religious leaders here, ...

Fernapple comments on Jan 27, 2020:

People may have more than one facet to their character, and it is perfectly possible, and correct, to revere people for the good things that they do, yet not respect the bad. Indeed to do otherwise would be to give unqualified and thoughtless respect, which would not be worth having or giving. I can, will and do respect, people such as the Dalai Lama or Justin Welby, our current archbishop of Canterbury, for their often humane and reasoned political and economic statements, but at the same time hold their offices in utter contempt. And never while respecting their statements on some aspects of morality forget that in one respect, people, who hold offices where they earn power and profit from deception, have lost their moral values completely in any real sense.

I'm so tired of seeing all this stand-up-for-Jesus and conservatism on FB! I reacted to my sister's ...

Fernapple comments on Jan 26, 2020:

You got some here.

Just wondering. Is there another Southampton FC supporter out there?

Fernapple comments on Jan 26, 2020:

No. I they went extinct, just after the marsupial wolf.

I have just been exposed to something new--the non-theist grace before a meal.

Fernapple comments on Jan 26, 2020:

A little ritual helps to remind us that, some parts of life, like eating together, are special, and should be valued as such. Adding therefore to our pleasures and understanding. Ritual and the sense of community that religions give, are the only two things of value it has, which as yet the secular world can not fully replace. I think that only benefit can come from the secular world reclaiming the idea of ritual from religion, and I see no difficulty with gratitude being directed only at qualities like nature, rather than entities like gods

Do you believe in Global warming?

Fernapple comments on Jan 26, 2020:

Yes I do believe in global warming, but it is best not to place too much value on individual personal accounts from limited geographic areas.

I don't remember if I posted this beauty...Stonehenge!

Fernapple comments on Jan 26, 2020:

Pity, it must have looked really grand when it still had the roof on.

Aaagh! The man is beyond despicable. [bbc.com]

Fernapple comments on Jan 25, 2020:

People like him have to be thinking. "Gosh what if my mother had access to termination when she found out about me."

"Write quickly and you will never write well; write well and you will soon write quickly.

Fernapple comments on Jan 25, 2020:

si thuts mi bug mistook. Git ot new.

Why is it called the "mouth" of a river? Surely it ought to be the "anus"?

Fernapple comments on Jan 25, 2020:

Not if you are sail into it from the sea. Especially not if you are sailing 'up' it from the sea.

Chinese being fumigated like roaches! This is not the normal flu! Something bigger than the media ...

Fernapple comments on Jan 25, 2020:

It could just be a propaganda stunt. The government counting on the fact that most of their people will not know that fumigation is of no use, yet it makes them look responsive. Especially, it could just be an ignorant local government department in a state of panic, or fumigation which is not related to the virus.