Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth. - Henry David Thoreau

Fernapple comments on Jun 29, 2019:

Well, he seemed to have got his wish, at least he certainly did not get much of the other three sadly.

Good morning fellow gardeners!

Fernapple comments on Jun 28, 2019:

Both can be nice, and maybe in this case not greedy.

On living by your principles:[brainpickings.org]

Fernapple comments on Jun 27, 2019:

Very true, and it is very similar to another post which made the point that all human disagreements are not about fundamentals, about which we mainly agree, but mainly about not taking enough interest to try and understand someone else's nuances.

Hello to all my Agnostics friends.

Fernapple comments on Jun 27, 2019:

Have a great day, well done for keeping your interest going.

Lao-Tzu, from the Tao Te Ching Translated by Stephen Mitchell We join spokes together in a ...

Fernapple comments on Jun 27, 2019:

Every quarry is a cathedral in the negative. ( I like quarries. )

Gardening is so relaxing.

Fernapple comments on Jun 27, 2019:

The best advice is. If a plant does not do well, don't worry about it, just treat it as a chance to try something else. Easy.

Who ever came up with the Grim Reaper?

Fernapple comments on Jun 26, 2019:

I do not know specifically, but pale horseman of the book of Revelation, could be a good start. On the bigger issue, the christian church has of course done all it can to promote the fear of death. If your big sell is that of immortality, then everything you can do to prop up and exaggerate that fear, is bound to seem good, even if it means creating a cartoon horror figure. The classical worlds. "Why fear death, since I shall not be there to feel it." Had to become the world of the 'god/death fearing christian'. Hence we now live in a world where the final mercy that vets can offer to their animal patients, is denied to humans however great their suffering.

Religion has done little to prevent war, famine, crime, oppression, misery, and unhappiness

Fernapple comments on Jun 26, 2019:

Human culture has both caused and prevented all of those things at times, religion is not a thing of itself but only a part of human culture and it therefore partakes of all the prejudices and follies of the wider culture. The claim that religion stems from an outside source like god, is not one that I think any on this site would subscribe to. Therefore it has no special role in the growth of human thinking, except that by claiming to have 'given' truth, it does, (and by its nature must,) act to support ultra conservative views, so that it can if you wish be seen as a brake on human thinking. If that is good or not depends on how conservative your views are.

Is the universe infinite?

Fernapple comments on Jun 26, 2019:

The correct answer and the one which truly separates the rational from the theist is. 'Don't know.' Almost all cosmologists accept these ideas only at the level of hypothesis not theory, and all of them are considered to be highly speculative. There is no written promise which says that the human brain has to be able to understand everything. The human brain evolved as a survival tool on the plains of Africa, that we can understand more than we need just to survive is mere accident, and another thing we do not know is the limits of what we can understand. You made a really nice summing of our current understanding, but the use of Occam's Razor is not appropriate in this situation, and the usage is a popular misunderstanding of it not the original.

Name Something Christians say when they know they are losing an argument with an atheist.

Fernapple comments on Jun 25, 2019:

You don't understand it.

Name Something Christians say when they know they are losing an argument with an atheist.

Fernapple comments on Jun 25, 2019:

So you think that you should be able to just go round killing and raping and doing whatever you please.

Name Something Christians say when they know they are losing an argument with an atheist.

Fernapple comments on Jun 25, 2019:

Your belief is just as irrational and unsupported by any more evidence than mine, so go on prove there is no god.

We in the US seem to be having a bitter fight over the issue of the separation of church and state, ...

Fernapple comments on Jun 25, 2019:

It is also to be noted that in many European countries the state religion often has the weakest hold on people. The reason for both is because, the best way to kill religion, if that is your intention, is to give it state approval. Religion like everything else in the cultural market place has to find a niche product to sell, and it's best is as an alternative to the state, ( perhaps I would say its only real use.). Make it part of the state and not only does it loose that role, and that of giving voice to those down trodden by the state, but it also becomes tainted in peoples minds with every crime and abuse the state commits, as well as its own crimes. Double trouble.

those eyes

Fernapple comments on Jun 25, 2019:

And the small fur mittens.

Ok today's minor feature.

Fernapple comments on Jun 25, 2019:

I see antifred is fairly high on my list, bet a few more of you have got him too ? There you go antifred.

I had to look twice at this!

Fernapple comments on Jun 25, 2019:

No sorry I think even IKEA have more taste. LOL

Keep your face to the sun and you will never see the shadows.....Helen Keller.

Fernapple comments on Jun 25, 2019:

No don't agree with that one, that way lies folly, the danger, interest, humanity, and wisdom is often hidden in the shadows. To work with the metaphor. Keep your face to the sun, and you will trip over the kerb.

Does being an atheist go hand in hand with liberal politics or are some of you Tory voters ?

Fernapple comments on Jun 25, 2019:

Being a sceptic first means not believing in none evidence based ideas, or over simplified none nuanced ideas. Therefore I tend not to believe in the political spectrum anyway. For example as a rough guide I find that my views are aprox. thirty percent left, sixty centralist and ten right, in other words generally liberal. And I think that you will find that most sceptics do not fit well onto the spectrum either. However since not all atheist/agnostics are sceptical, a very few will accept some ideas on blind faith, and will therefore buy into the prejudices of either the hard right or the extreme left. Look for only a little while on this site and you will find them.

And you think THIS site has problems enforcing its standards? [theverge.com]

Fernapple comments on Jun 24, 2019:

Delete your Facebook account, its ugly, slow, ramshackle, dull, banal, untrustworthy, and MZ wants to be world dictator. (PS. if you want social media there is a quite nice one called 'agnostic.com' or something like that, you will find it after a very short search.)

My wish for all y’all.

Fernapple comments on Jun 24, 2019:

Love that, here's another from the 'Gipsy Benediction'. "The faerybeam upon you- The stars to glisten on you- A moon of light In the noon of night Till the firedrake hath o'er gone you ! The wheel of fortune guide you ! The boy with the bow beside you; Run aye in the way, Till the bird of day, And the luckier lot, betide you." Clue ; you have to think for a second about who the boy with the bow could be.

We can all live without God, but what is one thing you can't live without?

Fernapple comments on Jun 24, 2019:

Something to do, can't sit still.

An investment in knowledge pays the best interest......Benjamin Franklin.

Fernapple comments on Jun 24, 2019:

And is the most fun.

Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and ...

Fernapple comments on Jun 24, 2019:

Would not want to get things right, then they would be out of a job.

Canada.

Fernapple comments on Jun 23, 2019:

Therefore you can not wear your 'agnostic.com' tee shirt.

Canada.

Fernapple comments on Jun 23, 2019:

To my mind oppressive if true. And likely to fuel rather than reduce religious belief, religion thrives under oppression.

From your personal experience, are some people simply not wired (say, neurologically or ...

Fernapple comments on Jun 23, 2019:

Yes but is it that some people are hard wired for belief, or is it that some people lack the wiring for skeptical thinking. Until language came along, (Quite late in evolutionary terms.) we could have had virtually no culture, why therefore would we have any evolved traits to deal with the consequences of culture, especially its abilities to manipulate us ?

Two Questions??

Fernapple comments on Jun 23, 2019:

Want to die in the forest so that the animals can eat, if not, compost. Same for my pets.

What do you think about Deism?

Fernapple comments on Jun 23, 2019:

A god who hides, is from a practical point of view, exactly the same as one who does not exist; therefore its a none issue.

2015 Taken from Marin County side.

Fernapple comments on Jun 23, 2019:

Best view of it I have seen.

Who? Me prejudiced? FYI. All countries. [curiosity.com]?

Fernapple comments on Jun 23, 2019:

It does not help of course that if you are old, you are often old/mature enough to not give a dam anyway.

Every time we think we know something, we find there's more to learn! A new species of 'cat fox' ...

Fernapple comments on Jun 23, 2019:

It is only a few years since even here in the UK, which has to be one of the most closely recorded places on earth, that we discovered that our commonest bat, was not one, as alway thought, but two species. Even now, we have very poor knowledge of even the large animals and plants, and only the faintest idea about the small things, every few square miles of forest destroyed, not only could, but at the smallest level undoubtedly does, contain things never recorded and never to be seen again.

A interesting walk on the beach

Fernapple comments on Jun 22, 2019:

That's what they want you to think !

You're....

Fernapple comments on Jun 22, 2019:

Normal. (Most people have no problem doing it.)

Life appears to me too short to be spent in nursing animosity or registering wrongs.

Fernapple comments on Jun 22, 2019:

The Brontes certainly had plenty of experience of life's shortness. It sounds very much like Charlotte, who was the hard headed and business like sister, and who virtually invented the posthumous celebrity persona of Emily, and outlived her siblings to be the first one to build a life away from the tight closed village community.

I’ve been claiming to be Agnostic for over a year and a half now, but I’m leaning more towards ...

Fernapple comments on Jun 22, 2019:

A lot of people have taken that route before you, you are far from alone. I always regard myself as an agnostic atheist, since I can not prove that something supernatural does not exist, therefore atheism is a belief. But it is not hard to prove that the god of the bible or any other religious dogma does not exist, so I also call myself a ' broad church skeptic ' , since any god which does not communicate, is for all practical purposes, no different to no god at all, and therefore the really big important thing is to have left dogma behind, the rest is small stuff.

We have just reached the top of the analemma.

Fernapple comments on Jun 21, 2019:

Speed at which day length changes.

To get the full value of joy you must have someone to divide it with......Mark Twain.

Fernapple comments on Jun 21, 2019:

Sharing is perhaps the only thing which stops joys fading with age, and in the end you learn it is perhaps the only real one there ever was.

"Hyenas Roamed The Arctic During The Last Ice Age Modern hyenas stalk the savannas of Asia and ...

Fernapple comments on Jun 21, 2019:

Hyena remains have been found in caves in Yorkshire England along with the bones etc which they dragged in to what must have been their den.

Latest on Tory leadership contest .

Fernapple comments on Jun 20, 2019:

Come on, I come to this site to escape the news about these sad b-------s. Having said which maybe all the anti Boris will get behind Gove.

Over the years I have realised that my motivations are more philanthropic than for material ...

Fernapple comments on Jun 20, 2019:

It could be the limits of our ability to see. I used to work for a big corporation and it seemed utterly pointless. Then I set up my own business, and have been a sole trader for more than thirty years, my whole working life revolves around serving my customers and since there is only me, (plus one other for a while,) the one to one relationship I have with them. It maybe that when I worked for the company, my positive contribution to the world and the wellbeing of its people was greater than it is now, but it did not seem so.

Love my cute little freaky ferns - yes, ferns! And I do so wish I had been more careful in recording...

Fernapple comments on Jun 20, 2019:

I think that the one on the left is maybe not a fern but a Saxifrage.

Humility is the ability to give up your pride and still retain your dignity.

Fernapple comments on Jun 20, 2019:

You could even say, 'and win greater dignity'.

I am wondering to what extent people decide to be atheist/agnostic or just grow out of religion

Fernapple comments on Jun 20, 2019:

Was not raised to be religious in any meaningful sense, and so I grew up knowing little of it, but always assumed that the religious were basically good people with basically good philosophies. Then in my later years in education, I met with theist teachers and found that they were opposed to everything that I thought valuable and beautiful, and that they were often the most arrogant, self absorbed and shallow people who stood against every thing that seemed good in the world, for entirely selfish and greedy reasons, the shock of that has never left me.

New Mars Curiosity Rover Pictures [youtube.com]

Fernapple comments on Jun 19, 2019:

Beautiful, not almost Earth like, just Earth like. Pity about the poisonous atmosphere, the radiation, and the extreme cold, but some people think that London makes a good holiday destination, so that does not put them off.

Fascinating article! California scientists unravel genetic mysteries of world’s tallest trees ...

Fernapple comments on Jun 19, 2019:

The only slight problem I can see with that is that if humans actively start to manage the trees at a genetic level, only planting trees of certain genetic types in certain places. Then there could be a threat to the trees genetic diversity, surely it would be best to use the knowledge to replant as wide a range as possible everywhere possible, and then leave it to nature, (natural selection) to sort them out.

After over a decade of mostly ignoring, shutting down, or being more than a little combative in the ...

Fernapple comments on Jun 19, 2019:

Always good to talk and even better not to have expectations.

Can Humanism Overcome Hate? - TheHumanist.com

Fernapple comments on Jun 19, 2019:

No hate is an inherent human instinct and it must find an outlet. Someone once said that, if you could ever get the whole world to accept just one philosophy as true and to agree on it, then it would have to immediately split into the orthodox and the reformed movement, who would immediately start hating and fighting each other. What you could do however is to change the nature of the combat, you could change the moral frame of the whole world to a point where physical violence is completely unacceptable, and hatred can only be expressed by perhaps say some form of token humiliation, that would theoretically be possible, I think. However unless we take some form of active genetic managing of the human genome, then we are still subject to evolution, and at this time, since the technology of medicine etc. has, at least in the developed world, removed a lot of the cost and danger of violence without affecting the benefits, it seems likely that we will become increasingly violent with time and less socially functional. Also perhaps more sexually dimorphic, ( A big yob who repeatedly rapes his multiple girlfriends, and the passive girlfriends who put up with it, produce more babies. ) until perhaps we go extinct, because some perhaps small problem arises and we no longer have the intelligence or social cohesion to deal with it.

Do you suspect there is an evangelical arm of atheism that wants to convert religious practitioners ...

Fernapple comments on Jun 19, 2019:

What is religious thinking ? Is it, "I must be nice to people and the planet because it would be wrong to offend against the gentle spirit." or is it, "We have to kill all who do not conform to our rightful doctrine, because god tells us that even allowing their existence is a stain on our souls." ? What sort of religion? Because if you evangelize against the first then you are wasting time and are intolerant, and if you do not evangelize against the second, then you share the guilt of those who stand by silent and thereby condone crimes with their silence. The question is the sort of over simplified, 'either or' duality beloved of appologists who want to put a stop to thinking.

A question I have pondering upon for some time.

Fernapple comments on Jun 19, 2019:

Deeply sorry for your loss. In many ways there is no such thing as death, at least not a state of being dead, there is only life which is finite and like all finite things it has two ends. What matters, is not how long you live, because none of us live more than a blink, but what you do with the time, and most of all, how much joy you bring while you are here. In grief too, and it may not work for you, though it works for me, trying to make a contribution and bringing joy into the world yourself is often the best comfort, because then you give your daughter a living legacy, and if nothing else keeping yourself busy helps.

Call me Mr Stupid if you like but I am even more confused about Brexit than I have been before! ...

Fernapple comments on Jun 19, 2019:

I am not pro-brexit particularly, but I do have to say that it was a sad day for democracy when the vote was passed, since it was plain that it would never happen. The political establishment had too much invested in Europe, plus too much corruption to be uncovered. My thought at the time was that, they will argue and fudge and complicate endlessly, until everyone has lost every thread, and then produce something out of the mess that no one, not even they, can understand, but which is designed to look like brexit without really being brexit. And guess what is happening.

I wholeheartedly endorse this: "I was born with a reading list I will never finish.

Fernapple comments on Jun 19, 2019:

Too many books, too many gardens, too many mountains, too many charming villages, too many sea front cafes, too many pubs.

What are your favorite song lyrics?

Fernapple comments on Jun 18, 2019:

Yesterday. Makes me sad every time I hear it, then I get a lift.

Conservative Christian Activist Warns Masturbation Is Gay Sex | Michael Stone

Fernapple comments on Jun 18, 2019:

Perhaps he is so ignorant of his holy book that he does not realize that it forbids masturbation anyway. They forbid every other form of sex, does he really think they missed that one.

"As long as there are slaughterhouses, there will be battlefields.

Fernapple comments on Jun 18, 2019:

Love Tolstoy quotes, he seemed to be completely out of step with the century he lived in.

“If we believe absurdities, we shall commit atrocities“ — Voltaire (1694-1778) ...

Fernapple comments on Jun 18, 2019:

True, but sadly a lot of the time it does happen.

Thinking about a recent post by Freethinkingxx, it occurred to me that there should be local ...

Fernapple comments on Jun 18, 2019:

There is a UK group already and a couple more I think, but half the fun is communicating with people everywhere, especially, as being a gardener, I love to hear about gardening and wildlife in other climes.

Does anyone else struggle with hating religion?

Fernapple comments on Jun 18, 2019:

Pity the victims, (including all genuine believers) hate the idea. Not complicated, it only gets difficult when some believers use it to expliot or abuse others.

Does anyone else think the depth and breadth of discourse about religious detriment on this site has...

Fernapple comments on Jun 18, 2019:

Don't forget that this is a site for a wide range of people, if you want in depth, go to the groups where the experts meet. But do not forget that there are many people out there who are only just starting down the road, and they are often the people with the greatest need for help, understanding at a beginners level, support and perhaps just somewhere to vent. If you have climbed out of the cesspit of ignorance, at the top of the ladder you can turn round and give a helping hand to those still climbing, or you can kick them in the face for being slow. Choice.

Passive aggressive gardening

Fernapple comments on Jun 18, 2019:

Weeding gets you closer to nature than anything, it is the nearest thing modern humans ever get to do to our natural state of hunter gathering.

Passive aggressive gardening

Fernapple comments on Jun 18, 2019:

You have to learn to love the weeding, since nature gives and gives, for every plant you put in, there are a thousand to take out. Gardener = weeder.

God, Incorporated: The Big Business of Religion - YouTube

Fernapple comments on Jun 16, 2019:

Always was a business, always will be, should always be treated as such.

Sunflowers coming in nicely .

Fernapple comments on Jun 15, 2019:

All in a row. They will look really grand even before they flower.

What is happening in America to stop Female Genital Mutilation these days?

Fernapple comments on Jun 15, 2019:

It is one thing to make it illegal and quite another to enforce it. It has been illegal for years in the UK, but because it often takes place in secret, the victims are ashamed to come forward and the legal authorities are nervous about offending ethnic minorities and religions, years went by without a single case being brought to the courts.

The last few years has greatly increased my use of Talk Radio - particularly on LBC -London ...

Fernapple comments on Jun 15, 2019:

No reporting can ever be without bias. Which is why it is good tio listen to and read as wide a range as you can.

The Unrepentant Tresspasser is on shaky ground......

Fernapple comments on Jun 14, 2019:

There are some things for which you should never repent, and some of them are even more fun when illegal.

“The All Scripture Baptist Church includes its belief in the death penalty for homosexuality in ...

Fernapple comments on Jun 13, 2019:

The King James is also thought by many, historians especially, to be one of the most dishonest versions of the bible. The editors made large additions and alterations to the texts they were working from, including extra laws and commandments, many extra verses and an extra version of the resurrection.

When I read the following I start to have some small understanding of how far down the ladder ...

Fernapple comments on Jun 13, 2019:

Lucius in the 'Golden Ass' a well known satirical novel from the early Christian era of the Roman Empire, is transformed into a donkey, and in that form goes through a whole series of adventures. In the end he is saved by the goddess, who describes the Ass as the most unhappy and despised of creatures. It is usually said that no one today knows why that should be the case, and yet if this is was the popular way to mock Christians at the time, that could be one possible reason, which would explain a lot.

I know its maybe a bit petty but is there any chance we could just have a heart emoji as well as the...

Fernapple comments on Jun 11, 2019:

The list of emoji used to have one if I remember correctly, but it was removed along with several others during a spring cleaning. I keep asking for a "thank you" but so far no joy.

Reddit - atheism - My boyfriend is a Christian and I'm agnostic.

Fernapple comments on Jun 11, 2019:

You are lucky, if he shut up after not understanding, it is the ones who keep on talking after not understanding who are really annoying. Don't wish to seem flip, since I know this must be a real painful issue for you, but think about it, if he did not try to convert you there and then, the you a half way to a compromise.

I know that I am mortal by nature, and ephemeral; but when I trace at my pleasure the winding's to ...

Fernapple comments on Jun 11, 2019:

Some people do like their astronomy! But seriously the power of appreciation is surely the way best way to joy, the failing of education is not just bad because it makes people less useful and more likely to be criminal, but mostly because it steals from them the greatest source of happiness.

There are three things in the world that deserve no mercy; hypocrisy, fraud and ...

Fernapple comments on Jun 10, 2019:

Boy! I am glad I did not know him. Mercy depends surely on the motives and the circumstance rather than the name of the crime, and as I think that nearly everyone including me has committed all of those to some small degree at some time, I can only assume that he did not have many friends.

"Confronting the question most commonly asked of the growing number of Americans who support ...

Fernapple comments on Jun 10, 2019:

As a none American I can not really comment on these issues about which I have only a limited fringe knowledge. But from the outsiders view. Is it not also true, that if you make a huge profit making industry out of medicine, with only a finite number of customers. Will they not then try to sell you far more medicine than you need, even to the point where it is worse for you than your illness ?

God is an ever-receding pocket of scientific ignorance that's getting smaller and smaller and ...

Fernapple comments on Jun 9, 2019:

People once worshiped a mother goddess because they had not worked out how you got pregnant; then the great father when they had. That was back in the late Stone Age early Bronze Age, and the gaps have been getting smaller ever since, perhaps shrinking is the deities best trick.

On the way to the barn dance.

Fernapple comments on Jun 9, 2019:

Beautiful country. I love those little corners of ordinary lonely roads, where among the brush you may find a small bird or wildflower which no eyes but yours may ever see, and no other mind appreciate had you not come by.

This is chilling.

Fernapple comments on Jun 8, 2019:

And no one ever got rich or powerful by telling people. You are doing fine and don't need anything now.

And be kind while you're at it.

Fernapple comments on Jun 8, 2019:

OK quote of the month.

It pains me to block ladies. Women need to support each other.

Fernapple comments on Jun 8, 2019:

If I was you I certainly would not loose any sleep over it. If I guess correctly who it is, she does that to everyone. As to editing, I always edit, edit and edit again, it does not make me a good writer, but it is just the way of writing which seems to come naturally to me, never thought of doing it any other way.

Here is my lovely hometown... bergamo arttown

Fernapple comments on Jun 7, 2019:

Beautiful. what more can be said.

The oleanders are a bit thin because of the lack of water this winter and spring.

Fernapple comments on Jun 7, 2019:

They still look very good to me, I wish we could grow them here, they always remind me of the Med.

Soloists, choir, orchestra of the Volksoper Wien offered a special performance to passengers and ...

Fernapple comments on Jun 7, 2019:

Not like the buskers round here, sad.

Really useful on soil restoration - [ecofarmingdaily.com]

Fernapple comments on Jun 7, 2019:

Another factor of course could be that we have bred increasingly "high yield" crops, which are just bred to put on as much weight as possible with no regard to nutrient content, or flavour for that mater.

Defending the truth is not something one does out of a sense of duty or to allay guilt complexes, ...

Fernapple comments on Jun 6, 2019:

And it can be fun.

I'm not sure if this question should be directed to @sitesupport or @admin.

Fernapple comments on Jun 6, 2019:

I always make my photos 1200 square pics max. Since few people if any will be viewing them on screens which will show bigger photos to any effect, and fewer will be magnifying parts of them, most people indeed will be looking at them on phones and therefore even that will be more than is useful. You could adjust your phones time out settings but there is no point, your cameras extra resolution is only useful if making large prints, most screens will not benefit from it anyway.

If an extra terrestrial civilisation came to visit which world leader would we want to meet with ...

Fernapple comments on Jun 5, 2019:

If they are highly intelligent, enough to master stellar flight, and if they are not more interested in talking to ants or dolphins, then they have probably scanned all our media and chosen someone you have never heard of for themselves. Or even. "Take your leaders away, your new president is Fred Johnston of 2 Lime Tree Avenue." LOL

Here is a doctor with some interesting and valuable information for both men and women.

Fernapple comments on Jun 5, 2019:

I don't agree quite with the basic. "In Western Medicine, drugs are created to treat symptoms as opposed to treating the root cause of the condition." It is certainly true to a large extent but not without many exceptions. Also we have to be grateful here in the UK, that the drugs companies do at least have to find round about ways to get doctors to sell their products for them, (though they are very good at bribery). It must be terrible to live in countries where medicine is an industry directly marketing its products at the population, and maximum sales, rather than health, are seen as the end product.

The word “happy” would lose it’s meaning if it were not balanced by sadness.......Carl Jung.

Fernapple comments on Jun 5, 2019:

A good quote though Plato said much the same thing many centuries before, when he said that pleasure and sadness had their tails tied together.

Politics has slain its thousands,but religion has slain its tens of thousands.

Fernapple comments on Jun 5, 2019:

And not just slain in the violent sense, but how many millions died because religion encouraged poor hygiene, bad medical practices, dangerous rituals and and slowed technical progress ?

Yes we do...

Fernapple comments on Jun 4, 2019:

We all pick and choose our morals, but some do it openly, try to use rational thought to get there and are open to criticism, while others check to find their prejudices are confirmed in books so garbled they could mean anything, and then claim that they have been given them by authority.

In their time, these had to have been some of the most beautiful homes in the world .

Fernapple comments on Jun 4, 2019:

Ironic that death and destruction alone has preserved them when those that continued in use crumbled away.

Nighttime photography, Chihuly glass sculpture, Phoenix Desert Botanical Gardens.

Fernapple comments on Jun 4, 2019:

Wow that looks alive, taking it at night really makes it seem something special that i think it would not in daylight.

Why do you use agnostic.com?

Fernapple comments on Jun 4, 2019:

Yes sometimes the stories are almost too hard to read, they certainly make my small troubles seem easy to endure. Grounded yes.

I've posted this before but every time I do I get berated for doing so.

Fernapple comments on Jun 4, 2019:

No words have meanings, only usages. They are just tags which we attach to ideas which we can move and change, and do move and change, at will. If we are lucky those tags attach to approximately, ( never exactly ) the same ideas in the minds of others and that helps us to communicate. However because words form a major part of human culture, ( and having first fallen for the error of thinking that culture is a source of truth ) it is very easy to fall into the error of thinking that words contain inherent truths, which they do not. They are just arbitrary cultural and historical accidents, even less likely to contain truth than the human cultures which create them. It is because words are quite arbitrary and totally without inherent truth, and form such a major part of culture, that humans are enabled so easily to create cultures quite divorced from truth or reality.

In 1633, Galileo was ordered by the church to stand trial on suspicion of heresy, because he said ...

Fernapple comments on Jun 4, 2019:

At the time, his "crime" in the churches eyes, of claiming to have seen moons around the planet Jupiter was regarded as almost more serious. He then went on to do work in secret with air, using a vacuum which would have got him into even more trouble because that was another thing the church said could not happen.

Please someone come and get your stupid president and take him back?

Fernapple comments on Jun 3, 2019:

Go on be generous, let the US have a few days off.

“You are not controlling the storm, and you are not lost in it. You are the storm.” Sam Harris

Fernapple comments on Jun 3, 2019:

We are a storm which is doing horrible damage across the face of the planet.

There are two ways of exerting one’s strength: one is pushing down, the other is pulling ...

Fernapple comments on Jun 3, 2019:

Or you can just stand. Which is sometimes enough.

I see Donald Trump is doing his best to undermine Boris Johnson in his bid to lead the Tory party ...

Fernapple comments on Jun 1, 2019:

Yep that should do it.

Death is impatient and thoughtless.

Fernapple comments on Jun 1, 2019:

You can be ready for your own, but never for that of those around you.

The Great Agnostic "Col. Robert G. Ingersoll" (1833-1899)

Fernapple comments on Jun 1, 2019:

Listened to a bit, sounds wonderful. Thanks for the link.

Swedish Rhapsody.

Fernapple comments on May 30, 2019:

Like the mood change half way through.