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.

“ We ignore public understanding of science at our peril. ” Eugenie Scott. Do you agree?

Fernapple comments on May 27, 2019:

Since science is the main tool we use to understand the world today, allowing people to opt out of any attempt to understand it, is the same as allowing them to opt out of attempting to understand the world. Which is why people who find the world threatening, because fear is a marketable product for the increasingly powerful pop media despite the fact that in many ways the world has never been safer, want to a opt out of science. And those who want to use them increasingly pander to that. Science has been naive in thinking that the more truth it discovered the more it would be loved, thinking that everyone valued truth just as the scientific community does, and failed to see that the more successful you are at finding truth the more you will be opposed by those interests lie in squashing it. It is naive to think that the value of truth will sell itself, or that success will not breed enemies.

Have you ever been annoyed by just the sight or voice of a person?

Fernapple comments on May 27, 2019:

Yes I think that the fashion for wearing a collar back to front is really annoying.

Puppet Muhammad loves equality too. 🙄🙄🙄😑😑🤣🤣🤣

Fernapple comments on May 27, 2019:

Funny how god always gives you what you want. Could not be a better fit if you dreamed him up for yourself.

Why is it people that say "I hate mean people, stuck-up people, people who can't take a joke, and ...

Fernapple comments on May 27, 2019:

You see the world though the lens of your own eyes.

Does this group do anything consrtuctive that benefits society?

Fernapple comments on May 27, 2019:

It provides a social support group for many who are doing a lot of good out there, and especially the lonely and isolated. It gives a platform for people to explore their moral understanding, which makes them better at engaging with the larger society. It educates, (see the many groups). And most of all it helps to promote healthy skeptical thinking, out into the wider world by encouraging skeptics.

SUBJECT... I WANT TO GET RICH, SHOULD I OPEN A CHURCH? Go to "Alan McPherson " Facebook.

Fernapple comments on May 27, 2019:

A church is a profit making business just like any other. But it does not have to manufacture any product, does not have to deliver until after the customer is dead, so no returns. And the other customers (congregation) do most of the marketing, and P.R. plus raise nearly all of the finances, without expecting any return on their shares. Wow, that is some business plan !

Landscapes: some more oldies (which is pretty much all I have these days) — 1: Cradle ...

Fernapple comments on May 26, 2019:

Wonder how many of those views are still the same.

Selfishness as a virtue?

Fernapple comments on May 25, 2019:

I do not agree, but it is true that misplaced or ill thought out altruism perhaps does more harm in the world overall than bad intent.

Does anyone feel Buddhism (or some sects of it or some parts of it) is more of a philosophy or way ...

Fernapple comments on May 24, 2019:

Most religions contain an element of philosophy, that does not mean they are not also religions, just as most farmers have a garden, but that does not mean they are gardeners not farmers.

According to the latest OECD report based on seriously outdated (2014) numbers one in four ...

Fernapple comments on May 23, 2019:

It is often proposed in many countries, that politicians should have a pay/pension rates based on national statistics, as an incentive to improve wealth imbalance. But that ignores the fact that most politicians, in most countries, make the greater of their income from expenses, (some honestly some not ) and doing so would only encourage greater misuse, and therefore less honesty and clarity.

Took these today(late afternoon) a park near my place.

Fernapple comments on May 23, 2019:

Good park, the parks near me are good enough but do not offer anything like that.

So...um, it’s almost June but no one told Colorado.

Fernapple comments on May 22, 2019:

Ouch !

The only difference between a cult and a religion is the amount of real estate they own.

Fernapple comments on May 21, 2019:

Or how old they are. Which in some ways is the same thing since they acquire real estate over time.

Do atheists value life more than theists considering that they don't believe in a afterlife

Fernapple comments on May 19, 2019:

In a philosophical sense yes, and I think we value this world more because it is the only one we have. But in a day to day sense, no. Many years ago I was in hospital and was told that I would die, it turned out in the end that there was not much wrong with me and that could be fixed, which was a nice surprise. (Though it would have been even nicer if they had not scared me in the first place.) Yet I swore on leaving hospital that from then on I would live every day as if it was to be my last, but of course you don't, you soon put it behind you and slip into a regular day to day, just like everybody else.

A bit haunting. Love it!

Fernapple comments on May 19, 2019:

Maybe they have been reading D. Adams "Hitchhykers guide to the galaxy."

I have been thinking about getting married again after so many years of being a widower.

Fernapple comments on May 18, 2019:

It is not about wisdom, it is just something you either have to do or not.

Should schools continue teaching Arabic numerals?

Fernapple comments on May 18, 2019:

Ask the protestants if they want a catholic calender brought in by a pope and based on the ancient Roman model taught to their children in schools as well, and then count how many say. "No we want the old one we always had."

"Selection for Tuskless Elephants Working in Gorongosa National Park, Mozambique, Dr.

Fernapple comments on May 18, 2019:

I have also heard that sea fish are getting smaller and becoming sexually mature at smaller sizes. Because of course we fish for them with nets, and smaller fish pass through the mesh.

"Selection for Tuskless Elephants Working in Gorongosa National Park, Mozambique, Dr.

Fernapple comments on May 18, 2019:

It could change the whole ecology, since elephants have a big effect on the flora and if tuskless elephants dig and bark strip less, then that could lead to all sorts of changes.

The Future Energy - Top 10 Energy Sources --- 10.

Fernapple comments on May 18, 2019:

A good overview, but the producer does not seem to have a deep understanding. Hydrogen is not an alternative form of energy production, but merely a way of using energy made by other means, since it takes energy to extract hydrogen from the molecules which contain it. Also he confuses tidal and wave power, which are quite different, even I spotted those errors and I am no expert, so how accurate it is in detail is hard to say.

Luciano Pavarotti. - Giuseppe Verdi, La Donna e’Mobile (Rigoletto) [youtu.be]

Fernapple comments on May 18, 2019:

Wonderful rendering.

It is astonishing the lengths to which a person, or a people, will go in order to avoid a truthful ...

Fernapple comments on May 18, 2019:

Yep, just been blocked by one of them.

Some beautiies to start your weekend.

Fernapple comments on May 18, 2019:

Lovely you seem to be ahead of us in the UK, still a few weeks to the first roses.

The World's Ugliest Iris's.

Fernapple comments on May 17, 2019:

Certainly not ugly, I wish I had some that colour.

Some time back a question came up in Quora that I found slightly interesting.

Fernapple comments on May 17, 2019:

Not a valid question atheism is the default, the question should be. Why are you religious ?

2 weeks count down to move.

Fernapple comments on May 17, 2019:

Sounds like a lovely project. Some water features today can be made with pumps that will run on solar, so no need for an electrical point, or using power.

The sense of the world must lie outside the world.

Fernapple comments on May 16, 2019:

Another derivative post would it not be better in the quotes group, I though that the main page was for people with original thoughts.

You will never be happy if you continue to search for what happiness consists of.

Fernapple comments on May 16, 2019:

I just posted this as a comment on another meaning of life post, thought it fitted well here too. Two people walked through a desert, the first wished for a garden and cried, the second gazed in wonder at the marvels which are sand dunes. The main reason people love science, reason and the material world, is because they are both beautiful and wonderful. Those who seek after meanings beyond the visible world merely show their limitations and lack of appreciation, it is they whose powers fail of appreciation fail, not that of those who love what they have. And in the end even worse, they show the bad taste of the half grown adolescent, weeping because the childhood illusion their parents indulged them with, that they were the center of and most important thing in the universe, is no more. Before speculating about life it is useful to have one.

Some people think that science has all the answers that matter, and that things that cannot be ...

Fernapple comments on May 16, 2019:

Two people walked through a desert, the first wished for a garden and cried, the second gazed in wonder at the marvels which are sand dunes. The main reason people love science, reason and the material world, is because they are both beautiful and wonderful. Those who seek after meanings beyond the visible world merely show their limitations and lack of appreciation, it is they whose powers fail of appreciation fail, not that of those who love what they have. And in the end even worse, they show the bad taste of the half grown adolescent, weeping because the childhood illusion their parents indulged them with, that they were the center of and most important thing in the universe, is no more. Before speculating about life it is useful to have one.

The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function.

Fernapple comments on May 14, 2019:

True. Though you can add the butterfly effect to that, and the laws of probability.

Do you think the dump would have the bicycle rims?

Fernapple comments on May 13, 2019:

Really original idea, and bike wheels are often zinc coated so they will last a long time.

“I contend that we are both atheists.

Fernapple comments on May 11, 2019:

Worse, if you spend too long looking for the fairies, you can miss a lot of the flowers. Even woo beliefs have their downside, they can blunt your appreciation and distort your taste.

Wow, I did not know that meth was a thing with the Germans then! [facebook.com]

Fernapple comments on May 10, 2019:

I have also heard that his drug of choice was Valerian, and that his doctor gave him a huge range of prescription drugs, but how much of it is true who knows ? Strange thing the web I see that the very next video is the voices of spring played in party dresses, by the A. Rieu band. Funny place the web ?

How do you de-stress?

Fernapple comments on May 9, 2019:

I go on to Agnostic dot com and start winding somebody up, the more wound up they get, the more relaxed I am.

Street market in Aswan, Egypt (1985)

Fernapple comments on May 9, 2019:

A long time ago now, (nearly my youth) I should think it has changed a lot.

Thought this would be an interesting share, let me know your opinions on the article.

Fernapple comments on May 9, 2019:

It is well worth while looking up the history of Satan as well and how he first appears in the bible long after the supposed garden of Eden, as a loyal servant of god, (and as a lower case noun not a name,) helping god bring the plagues to Egypt for example. Then becomes gods drinking buddy helping with the sadistic teasing of Job, and only finally becomes (possibly ) the devil. And if Satan is a lower case noun, a "satan" rather than the "Satan", then there is a good case to be made that the devil does not appear in the Old Testament at all and indeed is only added later to the New Testament..

Love is not love which alters when it alteration finds, or bends with the remover to remove.

Fernapple comments on May 9, 2019:

"Love is not time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks / Within his bending sickle's compass come."

Here is something to have you thinking as to how puny we are . . . Or are we? [curiosity.com]

Fernapple comments on May 9, 2019:

Many of those loops are far bigger than the earth.

One strange food combo that you like to eat.

Fernapple comments on May 8, 2019:

Curry powder, (yes just the cheap supermarket stuff,) mixed with mayo as a salad dressing, a little balsamic vinegar, just to stop it being too sweet.

When is it okay to say "I love you"?

Fernapple comments on May 8, 2019:

My wife and I courted for ten years on and off before we married, less than four months after that she died. Life is short it is better to fill it with a lot of mistakes made in haste, than play safe and make none but the mistake of emptiness.

All mammals poop in 12 seconds and pee in 21 seconds, but how?

Fernapple comments on May 8, 2019:

Wow, that means I am very slow, I wonder if I should be worried ? Are you sure that is not mins.?

This is so true...

Fernapple comments on May 8, 2019:

How do you know the difference until its too late ?

My first post in this group, a self portrait. Taken in Rhyolite, NV.

Fernapple comments on May 8, 2019:

I do admire a lady who is stylish enough to show her maturity.

Some small friends popping up around the house. Lousy camera

Fernapple comments on May 7, 2019:

That's interesting Pittsburgh, your plants especially the Lily Of The Valley seem to be at almost exactly the same stage they are here in the UK. Are you in the city or the country ?

People Who Always Point Out Grammar Mistakes Are Pretty Much Jerks, Study Finds

Fernapple comments on May 7, 2019:

If you put style before meaning, then you never get to understanding.

"Individualism, with its belief in the absolute value and autonomy of the person, is therefore the ...

Fernapple comments on May 7, 2019:

Sums it up fairly well.

Most of the front is done! My new little darling shrub (closest to camera) is Pearly Twirly ...

Fernapple comments on May 7, 2019:

That is a really pretty arrangement, and plenty of space for growth.

This Could Be The Most Progressive Country On Earth | HuffPost

Fernapple comments on May 6, 2019:

Please send free airline ticket to New Zealand and I will go and see. (Three weeks this winter would be nice.)

@Admin, I'm only receiving alerts for a fraction of the posts.

Fernapple comments on May 6, 2019:

Yes I just looked through the "My Groups" and found lots of posts that I had not seen, and most had hardly any comments or likes, so I can't be the only one.

Religious beliefs are nothing but lies agreed to; and lies make you weak, causing you to use 'Force'...

Fernapple comments on May 6, 2019:

Old saying. " People reach for their guns when they know they can't win the arguments."

"If neo-Darwinism is true and reproductive success a measure of evolutionary fitness, then every ...

Fernapple comments on May 6, 2019:

"Even if religion X or ideology Y is very successful, that does not imply that I should embrace it and subscribe to its tenets." Quite; or give any credit to its beliefs. And if J Sacks is really gullible enough to believe in the literal idea of decent from Abraham, how much credit should be given to any of his views.

It's been a long time since I had some holy rollers come to my house .

Fernapple comments on May 6, 2019:

There may be less of them about, because the churches who did send them out, are running scared from the legal and insurance problems that could occur if they are hurt in any way. The JW have certainly stopped door to door in the UK for that reason. Perhaps they are not sure that their god will protect them ?

Perhaps atheists need religion to exist to justify their position.

Fernapple comments on May 6, 2019:

It is like the old position expressed by the doctor who specialized in treating infectious diseases, who said that. "There is nothing I would like better than to be out of work."

Should we respect other people's beliefs?

Fernapple comments on May 6, 2019:

You should respect all people and try to find good will and kindness towards them, respecting their beliefs therefore is not possible if they hold beliefs which are harmful to them and others. It is therefore impossible to respect people and their beliefs at the same time if those belief are irrational. That does not however mean that you should disregard the distress you may cause by directly challenging those beliefs, rather that it is better to persuade by example.

Sam Harris’s argument is that the real villains are the religious moderates.

Fernapple comments on May 5, 2019:

I am not fond of the moderates, though I would never call on any point of view to be suppressed if that is truly what S. H. claims. The moderates however are not without responsibility for the doings of even the most extreme fundamentalists, since by normalizing religion and the idea that faith based belief is healthy, plus creating isolated communities which become defensively tribal and detached from public scrutiny, in an attempt to protect their unique moral values, which are the only thing they have to market. They create the seas though which the fundamentalist shark swims a hunts in safety, even though they may themselves genuinely claim to oppose everything the fundamentalist stands for. Worst are the religious none believers who claim not to believe a word of it, except as allegory, but do not care enough for the rest of the human race to stop supporting often evil institutions, in order that they may continue enjoying their childish pleasures, rituals and in the worst cases deluding the more vulnerable into putting money and power into their collecting boxes. And the fundamentalists are at least sincere.

These ferns grow wild all over this property and I've had good luck transplanting a number of them ...

Fernapple comments on May 5, 2019:

Looks a lot like Matteuccia struthiopteris the Shuttlecock Fern, its a lovely thing and likes a damp spot but is not fussy.

Teaching faith...

Fernapple comments on May 5, 2019:

Yes but since parents who were themselves indoctrinated can not see that it is abuse, there is no way of breaking the cycle.

Should The World Go Cashless?

Fernapple comments on May 5, 2019:

Electronic payments are controlled by super rich corporations, the costs are tiny but their percentages a huge, every time you pay with a card you effectively pay a tax to the super rich capitalists fat cats. It is one of the biggest contributions to the growing rich poor divide there is.

Against cheerfulness: Practising the Greek virtues of wisdom and courage is one thing.

Fernapple comments on May 5, 2019:

Your founding fathers once wrote. "The pursuit of happiness. " It always seems from this side of the pond, that that was wise, but that sadly it turned into a poison chalice. Because it is so often misread as the right and obligation of happiness. Not pursuit as something to chase, but as something like a job to engage in all the time. (Please forgive this little whimsy, it is not of course my place to comment on another culture, but it just seemed good to point out something that seems so strange to a foreigner.)

"All religions bear the traces of the fact that they arose during the intellectual immaturity of the...

Fernapple comments on May 5, 2019:

In Nietzsches time, it was common for people to regard themselves as living in an intellectually mature culture, and western Europe as almost perfected, perhaps we have good reason to be less sure now. But anyway do all cultures mature at the same speed, humans don't, nor do we always remain mature.

I'm a middle school Science teacher.

Fernapple comments on May 5, 2019:

A time is coming when for many Agnostic/Atheist is the default position. It certainly is for many in Europe. Some people take a hard road to where they are going, some start out from there. The pioneers have long hard treks, but their children are simply born on land which is ploughed and planted. Do not envy them, you should regard it as a great achievement of your generation, that many children are born into a world where it is possible to be free from religion, without having to fight the whole community, or feel they will be vilified for it and need to arm themselves with knowledge to defend themselves. The ultimate hoped for destiny of Atheism/Agnostic is to become forgotten and irrelevant, as the theism to which they are a reaction becomes forgotten history itself.

How are you all doing today?

Fernapple comments on May 4, 2019:

Good I am glad you may be getting your home back. My well being is good, still got health and home, coming on the summer which in my business is fun the time, only wish the weather was better, but this is the UK so you got to get used to it.

Religious fundamentalists and many of today’s atheists share the same approach to texts.

Fernapple comments on May 4, 2019:

Since the only people able to impart meaning truly to a text are the people who wrote it, and for the most part you can be fairly certain that they meant it literally. After that it is only the cherry picking and interpretation of the reader, who is usually then trying to claim that it therefore has more authority than secular ideas. Since although interpretation is really only the thoughts of the individual, it is sanctified by art/religion which are supposed to have privileged access to truth. Although both are actually vague ways of expressing things and therefore unlikely to be accurate. You may as well take Winny the Pooh and interpret that, at least you start with a good book to being with.

I was lucky enough to be born in a the bible belt in a family that didn't participate in a religion.

Fernapple comments on May 4, 2019:

That is why I find the religious, " Morality can only come from religion. " so annoying. Since most none believers showed far more moral strength than the faithful ever did, when they chose to leave; and even those who never believed, but only choose not to join in, usually do so mainly for moral reasons.

I'm glad the general forum was restored but it seems only a shadow of its former self.

Fernapple comments on May 3, 2019:

Summer time and the garden calls. Bot no it does not seem as good, especially for new users. Will try MissKathleens advice though.

What to say when hijacked by two born agains in public

Fernapple comments on May 3, 2019:

I think you did very well anyway and should be proud of your self restraint, especially as your relationship with the third party is clearly one which matters deeply to both you and your children. You can not make people climb out of the cesspit, you can only tell them where to find the ladder if they wish to listen, it is not your fault if they choose to stay.

Spending a Day on Earth 4 Billion Years Ago [youtube.com]

Fernapple comments on May 2, 2019:

Nice video lovely graphics, only one small error those distances to the moon should be in hundreds of thousands of kilometres not just thousands.

There are a lot of purists on this site.

Fernapple comments on May 1, 2019:

Detroit ?

How many on here either have decided to abandon major social media platforms (FaceBook, Twitter, ...

Fernapple comments on May 1, 2019:

Was told to do Facebook to promote my business, never got so bored in my whole life.

What specifically happened that made you turn into an atheist/ nonbeliever?

Fernapple comments on May 1, 2019:

Never really did believe, never was in a religion. Slowly over a long period I lost all interest in the thought that I could be missing something, decided I must be agnostic but became more hardline over time.

Really liked how the sun was coming through the petals

Fernapple comments on May 1, 2019:

Great photo, very hard to get that without too much or too little contrast loosing detail.

Ha, Facebook is moving toward "groups". Stop copying us Zuckerberg! ;) [cnn.com]

Fernapple comments on May 1, 2019:

Why don't you try to imitate him, start building this site into a profit making empire to replace the the free and democratic internet. All existing members could buy shares for a dollar, and be worth millions in a few years, and we will hire a good lawyer to help keep you out of prison.

Given that life in itself is meaningless, what do we have in mind when we talk about the "meaning ...

Fernapple comments on May 1, 2019:

Life does not need meaning to have value, if you understand that life itself has value then that understanding is all the meaning it needs. Since life is all you have it matters not if it has meaning or not, since there is nothing more, and that applies even to the theist, since even if there is another life which is not entirely independent of this one, then you have nothing more than this one with which to affect the next life.

Please , bring back sassygirl3869 .

Fernapple comments on Apr 30, 2019:

Sorry to loose her, I always found her comments interesting. There should be clear guidelines on when members are barred, it should be made public, and there should be some sort of clear vote by senior members before it can happen. I like the fact that there are members on this site who I disagree with sometimes, I am not even planning to block anyone because hopefully I am big enough to stand critics and I answer quite well to a wide range of names. (Though I do understand that if you are for example being sexually harassed, it may be a needful feature.)

Chinese authorities blow up Christian megachurch with dynamite | The Independent

Fernapple comments on Apr 30, 2019:

Sadly this is just the sort of thing that the churches love, it is great publicity for them as victims. China may have knocked down a church, but across the world every preacher will now be saying. "You see, this is what happens when you don't attend and put more money in the collecting box." This will help to build a hundred more churches world wide.

Of course - EVERYthing is a sin ! Guilt-guilt-guilt

Fernapple comments on Apr 30, 2019:

Since they are trying to sell you the next life. Like all good sales people they have to rubbish the product you are already using.

Anyone likes Harari's books?

Fernapple comments on Apr 30, 2019:

Half way through Sapiens, it seems a pleasant easy read but as Moravian says, nothing greatly groundbreaking so far. Yet all credit for a good summing of the issues, good overview.

When my ex and I were still together and fighting about religion, he said according to my atheism ...

Fernapple comments on Apr 29, 2019:

Religious people rarely follow their holy books exactly, if they do, they usually get put in prison. What they do is to cherry pick the bits they like and if that does not get them what they want, then they reinterpret the vague poetry thought the lens of their own prejudices. That's really the same thing, as they are making up their own rules too. The only difference is they try dishonestly to claim, that their ideas did not come from themselves, but are inspired by or come from a higher being, and therefore have more authority than other peoples.

"Atheism deserves better than the new atheists whose methodology consists of criticizing religion ...

Fernapple comments on Apr 28, 2019:

This is the usual apologetics line very carefully dressed to look moderate. But just try inserting the word "fascism" into the text where "religion" appears, and then see how it reads. As to bad atheism. Atheism is growing, and when something grows it is bound to be more diverse and embrace more people, many of whom will not be deeply interested or hugely understanding. If they are so then perhaps that is because the issues are no longer important, and/or perhaps because those who really understand and have deep knowledge failed to teach. Yet the educated core will also grow along with the rest, just not as fast. Atheism is not a belief, just a lack of belief, and unlike belief it does not have a dogma that must be understood or enforced.

What is the size of this community?

Fernapple comments on Apr 28, 2019:

Figures around forty to fifty thousand are being quoted it seems, but what would be more interesting is. How many active members do we have ? Since many sites like this will have 80% or more fossil accounts that are never used, and only 5% or less will be meaningfully active.

We're on a road to destruction if we don't make changes.

Fernapple comments on Apr 28, 2019:

I think that a site like this should try to be as board as possible, because the one thing that would drive me away would be banal content, and because if there are people saying things I would find horrible, then I want to know about them and what they are saying. Part of the reason for joining was to learn about human diversity and hear things which challenge me. But you can't please all of the people all of the time as they say, and it would be silly to bend over backwards to accommodate people who do not really want to contribute and would be happier elsewhere, you could easily go to great damaging lengths and then they go and make their own site elsewhere anyway.

More images from my deck. Wild Turkey, Sugar Maple in the Fall and a coy wolf taking a crap!

Fernapple comments on Apr 27, 2019:

Wow, I only get next doors cat crapping in my garden.

Here is a science podcast that talks about Krill that I really liked so I thought I would share it ...

Fernapple comments on Apr 27, 2019:

It looks more like an advert for a book. May be a good book but I expect real content in a link.

I recently went to a religious a event with a family member at Easter time.

Fernapple comments on Apr 27, 2019:

You say, "how can normally intelligent people accept this." . But of course they are not "normally intelligent", they are people who have been damaged, perhaps beyond repair, by years of careful indoctrination, repeated so often that they have lost the power to even think about it in the same way they think about other things. Most of them would not buy a second hand car from a dealer who said. "We will only deliver after have left the country to live abroad for good, and we have never had a complaint." Yet they happily buy. "You will get your reward only after you are dead and gone from the universe for good, and no one ever came back and said we failed."

Do scientific and religious explanations necessarily contradict each other?

Fernapple comments on Apr 24, 2019:

S J. Gould said that religion and science can easily get along because they operate in different realms, but that is only true if both agree to stay their own side of the fence. Generally science does that, but of course religion does not.

Do scientific and religious explanations necessarily contradict each other?

Fernapple comments on Apr 24, 2019:

True, but no person, scientist or not can ever refute a fictitious statement of any sort. Fiction obeys its own rules. I can not say that a hat in the Harry Potter novels can not appoint students, since a fictional world like the novel makes and obeys its own rules, which do not have to answer to any test valid for reality. The statement therefore says only that religion obeys the rules of fiction, and no more than that. (Though you can sometimes say that fictions are not self consistent, and many religious texts do fail even that test.)

What is the difference between "makers" and "takers" in the economy?

Fernapple comments on Apr 24, 2019:

The Market also fails because it does not always pay all of the costs. To use Williams example, the person who grows the watermelons may gain and the person who transports them and sells them on may gain. But if the soil is unsuited to cropping and blows away after a few decades, it is only future generations who have to pay a price for that, and whose food will be more expensive because there is less land.

How Do You Travel To Mars In Thirty-Nine Days?

Fernapple comments on Apr 23, 2019:

Doing a very rough calculation without allowing for acceleration and slowing times, if it took forty days to Mars at is nearest, then it would take aprox. twenty thousand years to the nearest star. Please check this someone.

Bob Dutko's Seventh and Eighth Proof for God's Existence Refuted.

Fernapple comments on Apr 20, 2019:

Even if science/history did prove parts of the bible true, that would still leave huge amounts that are false, which would only prove that it was not written by god or at the dictate of god.

I love butterfly gardening <3 <3 Red Admiral (Vanessa atalantis)

Fernapple comments on Apr 17, 2019:

Early for butterflies here, but I do get Red Admirals later in the year.

I planted two of these about 20 odd years back, they sure know how to multiply, but pretty good ...

Fernapple comments on Apr 15, 2019:

I have never seen a patch that big here in the UK, except perhaps on a roof. It was traditionally grown on rooftops and was thought to stop lightening striking. which is how it got the name Houseleek I am told. Houseleek just means house plant, because "leek" once just meant plant.

Typical Canary Isle rough volcanic shoreline, there’s miles of it similar to this...

Fernapple comments on Apr 15, 2019:

Best sort of shoreline, beaches are a lot less interesting.

Is there a correlation between being a true atheist and abolishing the monogamous lifestyle?

Fernapple comments on Apr 15, 2019:

The norms of human behavior come from our evolved heritage, religion merely takes what is there and gives the credit to the supernatural beings, because the priests who are employed in their name want them to have credit for everything, thereby getting more power and wealth to themselves. They should not be allowed to take credit for moral norms, any more than for making the rain fall. (Though they tried that too, because they could get away with claiming anything which people in the past could not understand.)

Clarence Thomas: Atheists Can’t Be Trusted Since Oaths Mean Nothing to Them | Hemant Mehta | ...

Fernapple comments on Apr 15, 2019:

Theists can't be trusted, because truth means nothing to them.

I've noticed that Pro-lifers love to invoke the Commandment "thu shalt not kill", taken from the ...

Fernapple comments on Apr 14, 2019:

The get out of stoning of course, was that no one individual did the killing, at least in bronze age eyes, the victim just died. It was the ultimate get out of responsibility free card, for the moral coward who wanted their sadistic pleasure without individual guilt.

Love comes naturally. Hate is learned. Agree/Disagree?

Fernapple comments on Apr 14, 2019:

No I think that both come naturally, it is just that we allow ourselves to be taught, "who" to love and who to hate.