I knew it!

brentan comments on Aug 25, 2018:

They used horses and a chariot in the old days. They even knew the driver's name!

Earth according to ...

brentan comments on Aug 25, 2018:

....and we've got to get ourselves back to the Garden.

What do you think will happen to individual witnesses if the ORG financially collapses?

brentan comments on Aug 24, 2018:

I wouldn't worry too much about them. It's just another club with cliques and hierarchies, and they know how to play the game.

Hi everybody.

brentan comments on Aug 24, 2018:

What happened, and why do you think it happens?

Been so long since I've had sex, I'm starting to wonder if they've changed it.

brentan comments on Aug 24, 2018:

It might be a terrifying experience. I would use 'vanilla' as a safe word!

Do you ever feel like no matter how much you talk no ones actually listening and get to the point ...

brentan comments on Aug 24, 2018:

Maybe the problem is political. I mean in the sense of where a person is in the hierarchy matters more than what they say. By hierarchy I mean anything from family to group of friends to society in general. Switching from one group to another can also cause a big change in the value of you say.

I think I'm alarmed by a door that is that fragile

brentan comments on Aug 24, 2018:

I hope it finds a safe space.

This is my favorite song...for now. If you don't like hip hop, move along. :-) [youtu.be]

brentan comments on Aug 24, 2018:

It's hard to beat rap when it comes to aspirational lyrics and complex melodies.

The “unmaking” of MeToo’s Asia Argento - World Socialist Web Site

brentan comments on Aug 24, 2018:

Morality has become a high-stakes game for rich people.

The Beresford Hotel Glasgow.

brentan comments on Aug 23, 2018:

It reminds me of a big jukebox, or a big Eddie Rockets.

As a movie buff.

brentan comments on Aug 23, 2018:

The only movies I can watch more than once are musicals.

Position and acceptance

brentan comments on Aug 23, 2018:

I think that one of the sure-fired ways of getting a person to block out another person's point of view is when that person attacks instead of discusses.

I love this.

brentan comments on Aug 23, 2018:

I'm thinking of Angela's Ashes and The Valley of the Squinting Windows.

HELL EXPLAINED BY A CHEMISTRY STUDENT The following is an actual question given on a ...

brentan comments on Aug 23, 2018:

I never expected any student to be marked well for thinking outside the box.

Cartoons from your childhood

brentan comments on Aug 23, 2018:

Snagglepuss.....exit, stage.......... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3-a4qWCtIg

Good stuff.. [businessinsider.com]

brentan comments on Aug 23, 2018:

Gratitude is the right attitude - it's a hell of a platitude! Seriously, I think it helps me a lot. But what about the poor souls who genuinely have nothing to be grateful for? I think these are the people who turn to drink and/or drugs to try to fill an empty hole in their souls. I think they are looked on as collateral damage in an unfair world.

This could a good perplexing question for a religious type.

brentan comments on Aug 23, 2018:

Here's what I think is the best picture of the world in the mind of the people of the ancient Near East. Sheol is the equivalent of Hades, later converted to Hell.

Craziest religious thing you’ve ever done?

brentan comments on Aug 23, 2018:

When we were boys, a group of us young Catholics used to sneak into our local Protestant church and swing real hard on the bell ropes that called their faithful to church. Eventually, the Protestant minister got fed up and contacted the Catholic priest and complained. We were gathered in my parents' home to be given a good telling off from the priest. Lucky for us, he privately thought it was a great strike against the infidel Protestant church and we all had a good laugh about it. I'm sure we should have been punished but if we had been caught doing all the things we shouldn't have been doing.......

I think your mind either expands or shrinks under either an alcoholic or drug induced state.

brentan comments on Aug 23, 2018:

I think better when I'm relaxed. I mean I think better philosophically. I don't drive better drunk. But not just philosophically. When I was in college, doing very non-philosophical stuff like spreadsheets and annual rates of return, being somewhat drunk really helped open my mind to tricky questions.

My brother, a former Southern Baptist minister, said that, “Donald Trump is God’s judgment on ...

brentan comments on Aug 23, 2018:

Is it because of the gays again? Trump's the man to teach you people morals. Seriously though, I had reason to read Deuteronomy again recently. The blessing and the curse, oh boy! If the modern world was under the curse of Deuteronomy, we would be living in captivity, eating our children, covered in boils and much, much more.

Bible Verses That Inspired the Pennsylvania Church to Cover Up Abuse [thenib.com]

brentan comments on Aug 23, 2018:

We have the Pope turning up on Saturday. He's not getting an uncritical welcome. But what it is with these Christians who come out to worship the guy like nothing criminal was happening at all!

Depression doesn't define my life, but it's something I deal with.

brentan comments on Aug 23, 2018:

I think when it doesn't define you, it means you're on the mend.

I was pumping gas, when I noticed a man holding a sign saying that he would work for food.

brentan comments on Aug 23, 2018:

Oh boy, do these kindnesses matter! I don't see a lot but yesterday I was in McDonald's and dropped a €20 note on the floor while I was eating. A young woman told me about it and picked it up as I struggled to get out of the seat. I was so pleased that, even though I had thanked her immediately, I sought her out before leaving and thanked her profusely again!

The most beautiful writings come out of this group.

brentan comments on Aug 23, 2018:

Yes. It was a very pleasant surprise. Lots of talent out there!

Who would make the best US president

brentan comments on Aug 23, 2018:

Bernie!

This fucker is now interferring in our (South Africa) polotics EWN: 'You white supremacist': ...

brentan comments on Aug 23, 2018:

The moral authority of the West hath spoken.

Yup! That's how it works!

brentan comments on Aug 23, 2018:

The bond must be bigger than the irritation.

Tee shirt.

brentan comments on Aug 23, 2018:

Wow. To think I'm all that!

Quotidian kwɒˈtɪdɪən,kwəʊˈtɪdɪən/ adjective: of or occurring every day; daily.

brentan comments on Aug 23, 2018:

That's a good one. I wonder has it anything to do with quota, as in you've got a number of hours every day and then it's over.

Islamic God in quran says you would beter to have 4wife if you have less money or facilities 3wife ...

brentan comments on Aug 22, 2018:

Is sighat the Muslim way of legitimising prostitution?

Quran says when you see a none believer you must give him or her one stroke (sward) and thease days ...

brentan comments on Aug 22, 2018:

The problem comes from mixed messages in the Koran.

The door is open?

brentan comments on Aug 22, 2018:

Is that a home or a bus station?

I've been very diverse in companion choices, marriages, boyfriends, dates over my lifetime.

brentan comments on Aug 22, 2018:

Oh, I'm fine with that.

Just wanted to say hello! Hello! 😊

brentan comments on Aug 22, 2018:

Hi. You're very wlcome!

If time travel were real which time period would you go back to? Back to the Future style!!

brentan comments on Aug 22, 2018:

I would go back to Elizabethan England.

Homosexual Role in Abuse Scandal Acknowledged

brentan comments on Aug 22, 2018:

Perhaps it's true in the Catholic Church but not generally true.

Positive! : )

brentan comments on Aug 22, 2018:

Grrrr! (that's not positive).

Is there such a thing as "cultural theft"?

brentan comments on Aug 22, 2018:

I was reading recently about black women complaining that white women were stealing their hairstyles and had no right to because they didn't belong to the culture. If this was brought to its extreme conclusion, no black actors could play Hamlet and black people in general couldn't wear business suits.

I'll Drink to that...... [cosmosmagazine.com]

brentan comments on Aug 22, 2018:

I always liked these verses from the Bible about wine: He makes the grass grow for the livestock and provides crops for man to cultivate, bringing forth food from the earth: wine that gladdens the heart of man, oil that makes his face to shine and bread that sustains his heart - Psalm 104:14, 15. I never thought of it as beneficial, just cheering, but I guess it's both.

Humanist/agnostic lesbian lady of a certain age here (61).

brentan comments on Aug 22, 2018:

Welcome to the forum. I'm very sorry to hear about your relationship ending. I trust you will find lots of people here to share your values.

abreact ab·re·act /ˌabrēˈakt/ verb Psychology release (an emotion) by abreaction.

brentan comments on Aug 22, 2018:

Is it like catharsis?

I took a course in theology in collage and to sum it up you had to beleive i guess to pass.

brentan comments on Aug 22, 2018:

Jehovah's Witnesses make a point to warn their flock off higher education. College did, or used to, draw people's attention to far-ranging topics that conflict and make a person research and contemplate. I'm not sure now. It will definitely draw a person away from the narrow belief of religion but then probably draw them into some other form of identity politics.

I'm curious to know your opinions....How honest do you think one should be in a relationship?

brentan comments on Aug 21, 2018:

Sorry to hear it. I there is a problem where idealism, even though lip service is paid to it, isn't really welcome in society. Maybe it's culture v evolution, and evolution always wins.

Brand new here. This site was a really great idea. Thanks to whoever put it together :)

brentan comments on Aug 21, 2018:

Welcome aboard!

I may have posted this already.

brentan comments on Aug 21, 2018:

I love joni Mitchell too. She was always caught between career and love. I especially love Song For Sharon, that wonderful description of changing from a girl to a woman (Mama's nylons underneath my cowgirl jeans). You did a great job weaving your story around Joni's songs. The heart is a lonely hunter.

One Obligatory Lie This is a dating site.

brentan comments on Aug 21, 2018:

I guess all we can do is vent our frustration. I had to read your conclusion twice. At first I thought you were saying 'Imake a plea for same gender relationships'. That would be a change from joining the METOO movement.

Some thought this Pope would be different.

brentan comments on Aug 21, 2018:

He feels the whole church is responsible so laity and clergy must both pray and fast for penance.

Religious people are members of a contemporary "Cargo Culture".

brentan comments on Aug 21, 2018:

Do you mean in the sense of quid pro quo?

First North American co-occurrence of Hadrosaur and Therizinosaur tracks found in Alaska August ...

brentan comments on Aug 21, 2018:

The point I drew from this is that it was quite possible to walk from Asia across the now Bering Strait into the North American continent. I think humans could do the same later on.

“You claim that the evidentiary miracle is present and available, namely, the Koran.

brentan comments on Aug 20, 2018:

For a reader, the sin of the Koran lies in how repetitive and boring it is. For a moralist, it has all has been said before.

It never occurs to me not to help.

brentan comments on Aug 20, 2018:

I read in Jordon Peterson's 12 Rules For Life that some people will care for their pets more than they care for themselves. What happened? What are they desperately holding back from everybody, including their counselors? You must know, Nurse Quantros. And you must know why you keep silent about it. Another thing Jordon Peterson says is that it's necessary to have a counselor who is smarter than you. In your situation, it seems clear to me that the counselor isn't smarter than you, or at least you don't think s/he is. I think you want your bread buttered on both sides, by playing psychological games with the counselor and then being sorry for the position you're in.

Levels of intimacy

brentan comments on Aug 20, 2018:

I read that the Greeks had four words for the different types of love we could experience. Sexual love was just one of them. I think intimacy is like that. Sexual closeness is just one of the types of intimacy. I don't know if anyone has articulated the different types of intimacy but I would be surprised if nobody ever did. Being complicated, humans can experience different types of love and/or intimacy at the same time. I can't help thinking too of the old meaning of intercourse, where sexual intercourse was only one sense of the word.I think playing music with other musicians is definitely a form of intercourse.

ECCENTRIC: ec-cen-tric.

brentan comments on Aug 20, 2018:

I don't know why the eccentric people that added colour to our society are gone. They gave madness a good name. In Dublin, we had the likes of Johnny Forty-Coats and Bang Bang. https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/bye-bye-bang-bang-a-great-dublin-eccentric-gets-his-due-1.3201436

Does anyone know how to contact the Spanish Inquisition?

brentan comments on Aug 20, 2018:

Call AutoDaFe 666.

'We Are Climbing Rapidly Out of Humankind's Safe Zone': New Report Warns Dire Climate Warnings Not ...

brentan comments on Aug 20, 2018:

It is weird that while the dangers of climate change are becoming accepted, so also are the claims of people like Graham Hancock who posit that the Great Flood of mythology is actually the result of climate change in the 13th century B.C.

I think all the recent news of pedophile priests proves once and for all that atheists do in fact ...

brentan comments on Aug 20, 2018:

It does look that way. Who'd have thunk we would need the secular authorities to curb the criminal, immoral excesses of the clergy!

So the Mormons want to change their name.

brentan comments on Aug 20, 2018:

Now Mormons will know how Muslims feel when they have to add 'peace be upon him' every time they say Muhammad.

Reading Richard Dawkins. Brilliant man!

brentan comments on Aug 20, 2018:

Yes indeed. Just keep him off Twitter!

Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood.

brentan comments on Aug 20, 2018:

She must not have met our feral youth. But I know what she means.

The Introvert's Heart

brentan comments on Aug 19, 2018:

The things people come up with! That's very clever. It sums me up pretty well.

Just sayin

brentan comments on Aug 19, 2018:

Well now. Them's fightin' words! Glad I'm on your side.

A weight lifted off my shoulders, I confronted a friend about something that really bothered me ...

brentan comments on Aug 19, 2018:

I believe it's very necessary at times, especially in toxic families. I wouldn't recommend anyone go as far as I did to remove toxic people from my life but when I got started, I found it hard to stop.

Grammar

brentan comments on Aug 19, 2018:

They are very witty cartoons. I wonder are there really grammar nazis? The last nazi I heard about who wasn't German was the Soup Nazi in Seinfeld.

SOUPÇON supe-son A very small amount, a sample or taster, particularly of a wine, a beverage ...

brentan comments on Aug 19, 2018:

I didn't know you pronounced the P.

AUGURY: au-gu-ry.

brentan comments on Aug 19, 2018:

I wouldn't trust modern forecasters (especially economists) anymore than the guys who used to inspect the innards of birds to tell the future.

Richard Dawkins. Too much or bang on?

brentan comments on Aug 19, 2018:

He was all fired up. How could he have bashed his way through the world of religious stupidity if he was not 'too much'? Newer atheists have an easier time than he did, because he did it first. I think he should never have lowered himself to engage with Twitter but overall (having read two of his books as well as the usual), I think he has contributed a huge body of knowledge to the world of genetics and helped cut the feet out from under an arrogant and often criminal clergy.

Book recommendation

brentan comments on Aug 19, 2018:

Hi. I'm real close to finishing Hitchens' God Is Not Great. I'm not sure what you mean by 'putting things in perspective'. Do you mean you find what these guys are saying very troubling?

What do you do on Sundays?

brentan comments on Aug 19, 2018:

I try to make sure I have something to do on Sundays. It must be the most incorrectly named day in Ireland. It is just about never sunny. It is a dull, depressing day. I'm glad when Monday comes and the world is busy again. I don't want to join them, though. I just want to use the facilities (no, not the toilets, I mean the library, café, etc.)

road poem On the land where I live lies the traces of an old road.

brentan comments on Aug 19, 2018:

All roads now lead from the suburbs to the malls. I particularly liked 'the deeds held by thickets and hardwoods'.

The Pope Francis mythology that he is somehow "different" is hogwash.

brentan comments on Aug 19, 2018:

Yes, only secular law can stop them. The Roman Catholic Church has used the confessional as a front to avoid taking crime to law. The Jehovah's Witness have used the two-witness rule to the same effect (Deuteronomy 19:15; Matthew 18:15-17). While the spirit of law is the pursuit of justice, church law is used to subvert it. But I think (and hope) their time is up.

Before and After Science I am a lion I am a hunter, a conquering soldier The Emperor ...

brentan comments on Aug 19, 2018:

Excellent - clutching defeat from the jaws of victory. Life is hard!

No disrespect intended but either it's real or fake?

brentan comments on Aug 19, 2018:

God seems to take an entirely different perspective on the relationship between young people and clergy: Later, Elisha left there to go up to Bethel, and as he was traveling along the road, some insignificant young men came from the city and started mocking him. They told him, "Get on up, baldy! Get on up, baldy!" He looked behind him, took note of the young men, and cursed them in the name of the LORD. Suddenly two female bears emerged from the woods and mauled forty-two of the young men. 2 Kings 2:23, 24.

How to cure Nihilism

brentan comments on Aug 19, 2018:

Here's a socio-economic view of the problem, called Shit-Life Syndrome in The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/aug/19/bad-news-is-were-dying-earlier-in-britain-down-to-shit-life-syndrome

"It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives.

brentan comments on Aug 19, 2018:

Here's another observation to add to the equation: I have seen something else under the sun: The race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong, nor does food come to the wise or wealth to the brilliant or favor to the learned; but time and chance happen to them all. - Ecclesiastes 9:11. I think the difference between the two is that one speaks from the perspective of all life over a very long period and the other speaks of human life in a shorter period. One way or the other, it pays to be able to adapt.

Some of the suggestions I see in this Senate group help me to understand the abuses of power by the ...

brentan comments on Aug 18, 2018:

I think abuses are unavoidable in hierarchical organisations. Power corrupts, we know. There is so often a problem with cliques. It's a big ask that people act so principled that they put the rules for fairness above their own wishes every time. But I don't think that means be silent about it. Hierarchies need criticism to keep some kind of order or they'll just get worse.

corpocracy-a society in which corporations have much economic and political power.

brentan comments on Aug 17, 2018:

Is America a fascist country? Perhaps a huge number of countries are now fascist, including my own.

PERPETUATE: per-pet-u-ate.

brentan comments on Aug 17, 2018:

I didn't think it had to have a negative connotation.

Contrary to rumors, I am still alive.

brentan comments on Aug 17, 2018:

He probably wanted your company so he made excuses to keep you searching.

Hope you all are enjoying anything good in your day for whatever reason it happens to be going on in...

brentan comments on Aug 17, 2018:

Thanks. I'm re-reading Antony and Cleopatra! I hope you're doing something nice too!

TRANSUBSTANTIATION: tran-sub-stan-ti-a-tion.

brentan comments on Aug 17, 2018:

I'm not so horrified as some people are about the allusion to cannabilism. I think Jesus explained the notion of what his body and blood signified in scripture. Blood had been the symbol of life since the time of Noah, never mind Moses and his law. Bread, too, had a long history of being interpreted as the food of God, e.g. manna in the wilderness. The Eucharist sacrament is the re-presentation of the Passover meal, when the practice was initiated.It probably should be an annual affair, like it is for the Jehovah's Witnesses, but nobody knows for sure.

The point and level system: points are awarded indiscriminately and therefore encourages many short...

brentan comments on Aug 17, 2018:

Applying points according to quality would be very subjective. Time-consuming too, I think. Maybe it's best just to ignore it and get on with the discussions. I read that the T-shirts can be bought at any level now. I'm also not certain that the levels on the site are a reflection of success as a person. They might be indirectly proportional to each other.

Faith is believing what you know ain't so. Mark Twain

brentan comments on Aug 16, 2018:

The things that you're liable To read in the Bible It ain't necessarily so. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdkeQc9opj8

"Ella tiene muchas riquezas pero no se ve feliz.

brentan comments on Aug 16, 2018:

Tienes razón!

Well I just found out I hit Level 7 today.

brentan comments on Aug 15, 2018:

I hoped I would get invited to join the Freemasons but so far no. Maybe next time. At least we get to approve some posts at Level 7. Oh, the power......

My tribe is filled with open-minded individuals.

brentan comments on Aug 15, 2018:

That sounds fair enough!

Faking Reality: Why people embrace conspiracy theories. [cosmosmagazine.com]

brentan comments on Aug 15, 2018:

I think we are very weak as one person in society as a whole and that can give rise to a sense of victimhood but we can be as strong as we like in our interactions and attitudes with the world.

This could benefit universal health care.

brentan comments on Aug 15, 2018:

They've come a long way from the guy walking the dusty roads, lucky to get three squares and a bed for the night.

Pennsylvania Catholic paedophiles: if this was a non religious organization, it would have been ...

brentan comments on Aug 15, 2018:

If only Jesus would stop forgiving them, but he won't.

It occurs to me topics would flow much more nicely if the default setting went from oldest to newest...

brentan comments on Aug 15, 2018:

Yes, I like to follow a thread in chronological order too. It's counter-intuitive to read from the bottom and move up, and also having to go down to read replies to posts.

Have you notice through out history the envading conquaring force forces their religion onto their ...

brentan comments on Aug 15, 2018:

How to steal, rape and kill and get God's love in the process. Now that's a win-win situation!

The unavoidability of worship... [youtu.be]

brentan comments on Aug 15, 2018:

When we began college, we got an excellent talk from the governer of Dublin's old prison, Mountjoy Jail. He focussed our minds on the good luck we enjoyed compared to those in our age group who were inmates of the prison. Looking back on it now, I think it was a fight against arrogance. It was an unwinnable fight against the forces of a four year degree that students took as a sign of superiority. I really appreciated this man's fellow-feeling for the check-out worker. I liked the notion that we will all end up worshipping something so use your ability to think to worship something worthwhile.

No religion No God No problem

brentan comments on Aug 15, 2018:

I wonder.

Especially important for those that don't believe in the afterlife ...

brentan comments on Aug 15, 2018:

Gosh, I'm going to be busy.

BISON In the place where I was born the horizon doesn't exist.

brentan comments on Aug 14, 2018:

Somehow or other, it seems spiritual. I can't articulate why, I just feel it. Well done!

[youtu.be] the real deal. What a song

brentan comments on Aug 14, 2018:

Here's a similar idea from rural Ireland several decades ago: O stony grey soil of Monaghan The laugh from my love you thieved; You took the gay child of my passion And gave me your clod-conceived. You clogged the feet of my boyhood And I believed that my stumble Had the poise and stride of Apollo And his voice my thick tongued mumble. You told me the plough was immortal! O green-life conquering plough! The mandril stained, your coulter blunted In the smooth lea-field of my brow. You sang on steaming dunghills A song of cowards' brood, You perfumed my clothes with weasel itch, You fed me on swinish food You flung a ditch on my vision Of beauty, love and truth. O stony grey soil of Monaghan You burgled my bank of youth! Lost the long hours of pleasure All the women that love young men. O can I stilll stroke the monster's back Or write with unpoisoned pen His name in these lonely verses Or mention the dark fields where The first gay flight of my lyric Got caught in a peasant's prayer. Mullahinsa, Drummeril, Black Shanco- Wherever I turn I see In the stony grey soil of Monaghan Dead loves that were born for me. - Stony Grey Soil by Patrick Kavanagh

Perspective

brentan comments on Aug 14, 2018:

Turn your stumbling blocks into stepping-stones!

Political and social writing is nowadays almost completely tribal.

brentan comments on Aug 13, 2018:

People are finding a lot of comfort in identity politics. The leaders, I guess, love the fanboys.

A little reminder about perfection.

brentan comments on Aug 13, 2018:

When I was a Jehovah's Witness, I was told that perfection in the Bible meant completeness. I'm not certain they are right but it would mean a perfect person was someone complete in themselves rather than just good-looking.

So misunderstood.....

brentan comments on Aug 13, 2018:

Darcy and Eliza Bennett sharing their pride and prejudice.

So if the point of this site is a sort of safe haven for non-believers, how do believers find their ...

brentan comments on Aug 13, 2018:

Where is my guaranteed safe space? Don't answer, it's too sad.