Resourced based economy

cava comments on Feb 28, 2018:

I have yet to see a true socialist system work. It appears to me that "hate, war, crime, greed, sickness" are part of the human condition, the engine behind progress, which no mere meritocracy can escape or change.

Any Kevin Smith fans here?

cava comments on Feb 27, 2018:

His selfie was unbelievable, true to his form of art nearly to the end. (or nearly a hamburger in paradise)

Will you still love me When I'm no longer young and beautiful?

cava comments on Feb 27, 2018:

I feel the sonorous notes sung by the Long Island chanteuse, very ducky. Only time will tell.

Are There Humanist Rules Regarding Foul Language?

cava comments on Feb 26, 2018:

I dislike the gratuitous use of swear words, but I enjoy their effective use in conversation. Especially their ability to add emphasis and disrupt passivity in conversation, Their selective use gives conversations an emotional range which would be difficult to achieve otherwise.

Do you have a favorite decade of music?

cava comments on Feb 25, 2018:

1965/1975 best of the best. It's kinda funny that the explosion in the arts comes in times of great strife. “You know what the fellow said – in Italy, for thirty years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland, they had brotherly love, they had five hundred years of democracy and peace – and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock.” ? Graham Greene, The Third Man

How should Jediism be considered in terms of religion/spirituality?

cava comments on Feb 25, 2018:

Coincidentally, (and a little off topic) Mark Hamill is getting his own star on the Hollywood's Walk of Fame . William Shatner tweeted him 2/22/18: "Congratulations! BTW ask for a star on the south side of the street. I'm on the north side and don't want to devalue the neighborhood." To which Hamill tweeted back: "Thanks, Bill, It wouldn't be as special without a classic Shatner-burn from you! Live Long, But Get Lost- , mh." Love it: "Live Long, But Get Lost"

What is something you should never say to the opposite sex?

cava comments on Feb 25, 2018:

I like the song the best. It appears that men have this topic down pat.

Trolleyology can be very fascinating to think about

cava comments on Feb 23, 2018:

I am not a fan of utilitarianism as way for an individual to live, however I think it does have a role in public policy. The advent of autonomous vehicles (unlike the Trolley) will mean that choice is taken away from the driver by the software that directs the vehicle. These cars are on the road now, but in the not to distant future they may be the only way to travel on major roads. The car will have its ethics built in... :)

Like Sigmund Freud said, religion is as much about immorality as it is about morality.

cava comments on Feb 22, 2018:

"The immorality is much deeper than that. In his letters to the Galatians, Paul tries to dissuade the new Christians, most of whom were Jews, from observing Jewish law: “If salvation is by the law, then Jesus died in vain.” It is like saying that deeds don’t matter" More along the lines that beliefs are stronger than law. Paul's belief in Christ changed the course of history by transforming the law of an 'eye for an eye' into 'love thy neighbor as thy self.' It was a new, and completely radical change in value systems.

Opinions sought: what's the best rock bank of the current decade?

cava comments on Feb 21, 2018:

Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real formed 08/09 –Lukas Nelson is Willie Nelson's son. https://youtu.be/dK4pHHLfXpk The Promise of the Real has been working with Neil Young since 2015, It is a power combination, revitalizing Young. The band also produces its own work which is great.

Best little known movies?

cava comments on Feb 21, 2018:

https://youtu.be/6dP0B985JvY

Opinions sought: what's the best rock bank of the current decade?

cava comments on Feb 21, 2018:

Prophets of Rage tear it up like no other recent group I've heard. https://youtu.be/2220MdXVPGw

Lana Del Rey - Burning Desire - YouTube

cava comments on Feb 21, 2018:

I enjoy her music, especially the way her voice meshes with her lyrics, and her outlook. My favorite of her's is "National Anthem".

How Social Darwinism Destroyed America From the Inside

cava comments on Feb 21, 2018:

Compare US quality of life 100 years ago to today, it destroys this nostalgic notion of Social Darwinism, which I don't think is a thing anyway. https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/02/america-in-1915/462360/

Ok people, OK Go! If you haven't watched at least a dozen music videos by the band "OK Go" in your ...

cava comments on Feb 21, 2018:

I like the video, I especially like their thanking State Farm Insurance for making the video possible "Cause if your mind don't move and your knees don't bend Well don't go blamin' the kids again" Determinism's power (your mind don't move and your knees don't bend) over chance (kids dancin) even if it were 68 takes.

"Sonder"

cava comments on Feb 20, 2018:

Sometimes while driving I look over and wonder sonderly.

Where do you think our morals come from? what brings about improvements in them?

cava comments on Feb 20, 2018:

Well, I don't think man is by nature social, rather nature forced man to be social to avoid death. It is therefore not something that man by nature is inclined to, rather man is compelled by nature to be social. Nature provides this end only negatively. Man conquers nature because it compels him to do so and the result is freedom and responsibility. Loosely based on Aristotle, also pointed at by Hobbs & Nietzsche.

How do you feel about buddbism ?

cava comments on Feb 19, 2018:

What is ' buddbism' ?

117 - Networks, Power, and Chaos A Conversation with Niall Ferguson

cava comments on Feb 19, 2018:

He is interesting, conservative historical apologist for US Republican administrations thru the ages :)

Aesthetic Thought

cava comments on Feb 19, 2018:

Mother earth bears us, we live and return to the mother earth.

Who is your favorite artist and work by them?

cava comments on Feb 19, 2018:

I really like Thomas Hart Benton. http://evworld.com/images/wreckold97.jpg

Kalam Debunked... [youtube.com]

cava comments on Feb 18, 2018:

Yes, the argument is flawed in many ways, but it may be possible that everything around us in the universe was created ex nihilio. Lawrence Krauss is a Cosmologist who holds the position, he has a book on the subject and there is a lot of controversy about it. He is kind of a dawk. https://youtu.be/OAnrYnMxIGo

Is ignorance bliss?

cava comments on Feb 18, 2018:

You have a funny way of askig the question. You start by referencing studies that say that the more intellectual a person is the "more likely they are to suffer from depression and other issues", then you ask ..."do you feel that the idiom is true". I was expecting you to ask if you thought this idiom were true. To ask if one feels something like this is true suggests emotional intelligence, which is different, more complex in some ways (in my opinion) than cognitive intelligence. I don't feel or think that it is true.

Massive study of Australia's gun laws shows one thing: they work

cava comments on Feb 18, 2018:

I certainly don't have the answers but consider that Australia's population is around around 25 million and the US population at 320 million. There are around 300 million guns owned by Americans and guns have played almost a mythological role in American history. Stricter gun ownership laws may help lower gun related death in the US. Looking over some of the information, those states with the toughest gun laws appear to have the lowest number of gun related incidents in the nation.

I still see more liberal gun grabbers making poor arguments for gun control.

cava comments on Feb 17, 2018:

https://youtu.be/ZxD3o-9H1lY

"How can you be a moral person and be an atheist?

cava comments on Feb 17, 2018:

Well you might tell them that you love life, and your love of life does not include any irrational faith in some mystical life after death which seems to pervade most religions. The primary way religions obtain a hold over people is their insistence of salvation after death. This belief in eternal life has caused so much pain, suffering and abuse that it ought not be tolerated by any sane person.

I still see more liberal gun grabbers making poor arguments for gun control.

cava comments on Feb 17, 2018:

I enjoy skeet shooting with shot guns, but there is just no way a 19 year old should be able to legally purchase an AR-15.

So I decided to look into some debunkers of the simulation hypothesis.

cava comments on Feb 17, 2018:

The simulation hypothesis proposes that all of reality, including the earth and the universe, is in fact an artificial simulation, most likely a computer simulation. I don't think it matters, I have come to the conclusion that what we see is reality regardless of its source.

Holy Touch: Eric Nally squeaks out the highest note ever sung by a male at the 1:54 mark.

cava comments on Feb 16, 2018:

"If Noel Fielding and Freddie Mercury had a love child it would be Foxy Shazam vocalist Eric Sean Nally."

Do you tend to lean towards nihilism?

cava comments on Feb 15, 2018:

I think we construct reality as parts of a community, a neighborhood, a family or a support group. That includes things like nihilism. Think about how much $10.00 is worth? Or do you think it is just a piece of colored paper? When you turn on the lights entering a room, can you imagine all the massive infrastructure that makes flipping the switch and turning on lights possible. We don't have to think about it, it is basic to our understanding of how things are and we can't escape that understanding of the world, it is kinda like a transparent prison. That is why, I think, we create meaning, we (individually or as a society) really don't have a choice in the matter. Camus said that there is only really one serious question in philosophy and that is the question of suicide. If everything is absurd then what difference does it make. And, to live is to suffer, if not now then eventually. I think we have a responsibility to the reality we have constructed for our selves, to the set of meanings, values and beliefs that move us, our family and our society. To deny this responsibility is an act of bad faith with our self. Socrates (al la Plato) said that he would rather be out of tune with the world then our of tune with himself.

What is the most important trait you seek in a friend?

cava comments on Feb 15, 2018:

Someone you can trust, fight with, but you always know they will be there for you.

Another f@!king mass shooting here in America! At least 17 dead, 23 injured.

cava comments on Feb 14, 2018:

This was the 19th school shooting in the USA for 2018. Shooter had an AR-15, with extra magazines. Yea our legislators are monitoring the situation..Little Marco..,it's his shame he loves this fucking weapon.

Michelle Obama The portrait by Amy Sherald was unveiled yesterday in Washington.

cava comments on Feb 14, 2018:

Looking at some of Amy Sherald other works such as: https://I.pinimg.com/736x/e0/5b/03/e05b033dfdced13291e735db3b218a7c--the-map-black-art.jpg Here is what the MET has to say about 19th Century Folk Art [quote]They are characterized by sharply defined forms, neatly organized compositions with clearly defined spatial arrangements, some with an almost mathematical precision and symmetry, generalized lighting, equal attention paid to all areas of the canvas, an absence of expressive brushwork, and an overall flatness and linearity. A current, compelling theory about the look of folk portraits is that they matched the face of the neatly and geometrically farmed agrarian landscape. In any case, it is important to recognize that folk artists worked according to criteria set by their rural clientele. As a group, the portraits describe socially reticent sitters eager to record a likeness but shy of declaring personality and emotion. Elements of pride and class status are apparent but circumspect. Portraits record lasting traits and conditions (some are even memorials to the dead), rather than transitory mannerisms and situations.[/quote] Anyway, Sherald's work reminds me of a sophisticated version of folk art.

Im not going to lie.

cava comments on Feb 12, 2018:

Well I would say go find someone you can talk to, if you can do that, but I never followed my own advice and I have managed to get through some pretty the low points in my life. It was not easy and it didn't change quickly but eventually it got better. It's good you have a job. Put your energy into what you are doing.

What if a monetary system was unnecessary?

cava comments on Feb 12, 2018:

Did you catch Amazon Go? https://youtu.be/UT5EsCcUqMQ

Radiohead - House of Cards - YouTube

cava comments on Feb 12, 2018:

A house of cards is unstable it has no foundation. He wants her to throw away her life style, leave the key party, her husband, and he will do the same, they will run away together.

What is your take on the 2 party system?

cava comments on Feb 12, 2018:

The two party system has become problematic in US due to the cost of running for public office. Politics has become all about how much money you can raise to run, and the reality is that if you want to run for office you have to kiss the party's ass, follow their lead, and not have any independent viewpoints if you want the party's support. Lobbying efforts are about how much cash the lobbyist is willing to invest if you are willing to work for their positions. I agree with the right of redress, but not in cash. The US is a de facto plutocracy, government by the wealthy. The median net worth for a Congressman in 2015 was $456K and for a Senator 2012 $1,008,767, these are many multiple times higher then the median net worths of citizens in this country. The last campaign for the Presidency cost $2.3 billion which I think is insane. If we want to live in a Democracy our representatives must agree to campaign on an equal/fair playing field which means that people who run for Congress, Senate & President ought to be publicly financed on a budget with no allowance for any outside funding or funds out of budget. Of course it may be impossible to achieve since the rich rule. If this were possible I think it would mean that people who merit the position they are running for are more likely to win and that our Democracy might be secure, and not rotting away.

I am committed to logic, reason, and the investigation of the universe via the scientific method.

cava comments on Feb 12, 2018:

Logic, reason and science are tools, not ends. They provide means to achieve ends but they are neither good nor bad in themselves. Only the ends we posit for ourselves can be good or bad. It is a mistake to take theses as ends, I think it is a serious mistake. Our sense of duty to one another is based on our, family, our community, the country where we live. I believe that justice is only possible in a democracy. The general will of the people is not solely reducible to logic, reason or science. Logic, reason and science enable man. They provide the tools which enable us to mold nature to our ends. We are uniquely superior to all known animals in this respect.

Are you interested in the early 20th Century avant-garde?

cava comments on Feb 12, 2018:

Thanks, this is a great resource.

The Science of Swearing: A new book explains the neuroscience of why we swear

cava comments on Feb 11, 2018:

Steven Pinker talks about it in depth. https://youtu.be/1BcdY_wSklo

This is the most hauntingly beautiful song

cava comments on Feb 10, 2018:

I agree with Amy Winehouse...she's unaffected in all the right ways! https://youtu.be/6pAz9UpnRKw

As a break from the political, pious, and relationship threads: It's been a sloppy rainy day ALL day...

cava comments on Feb 10, 2018:

Credence is the shit! For something different take a look at: https://youtu.be/4ezrjhb-JeY Cultural approbation be dammed, they do it right.

Dreams.

cava comments on Feb 10, 2018:

I wonder about bears? I mean all that rack time. I bet they dream on & on about of all that honey, fishes and all those pretty sows they sowed. I think dreams have a biological purpose, probably involving memory. As far as the meaning of a dream is concerned, yes they can give you insights but their meaning is similar to a rebus, it is not straight forward as in a syllogism.

As I understand it, the existentialists believe that it is the responsibility of each of us to find ...

cava comments on Feb 10, 2018:

Existentialism must be experienced, I don't think it is a conclusion, it is a revealing, a way of confronting the reality we confront everyday. JP Sartre has a great bit in his novel "Nausea" the main character suddenly 'gets it' sitting on a park bench looking at the roots of a huge chestnut tree: "All at once the veil is torn away, I have understood, I have seen.... The roots of the chestnut tree sank into the ground just beneath my bench. I couldn't remember it was a root anymore. Words had vanished and with them the meaning of things, the ways things are to be used, the feeble points of reference which men have traced on their surface. I was sitting, stooping over, head bowed, alone in front of this black, knotty lump, entirely raw, frightening me. Then I had this vision". The whole passage is quite extraordinary.. http://twren.sites.luc.edu/phil120/ch10/nausea.htm

Do your socks match? Always?

cava comments on Feb 9, 2018:

Racket-ball, I use to wear different color socks to screw with my opponent.

[youtube.com]

cava comments on Feb 9, 2018:

The tune is a classic, great guitar rift, a swaying melody with mystical lyrics. Panning the artworks fits the mood perfectly. The name 'Kashmir' itself seems to be kind of a misnomer, maybe the name just felt right.

Does the structure of American society lend to unhappiness or dissatisfaction?

cava comments on Feb 8, 2018:

No I don't think the structure of American society lends to unhappiness. The problem as I see it is that our two party system, leaves the choice of candidates to two parties, and these become the only options for the voters. You may call that a democratic choice, but I have a hard time seeing it that way. Consider the last Presidential Election. I did not want either candidate, but if you wanted to have a say in how you would be governed for the next 4 years you had no choice but to vote. Many people did not want Trump, even among those who voted for him, and the same is true of Hillary. The system is flawed, and very much tilted towards the rich, who own the field and there is very little we can do about it.

I Would Love To Know Why Getting A Refund Isn't As Fast As Making A Purchase.

cava comments on Feb 8, 2018:

Funny, I have a friend that sells cameras on E Bay from time to time and she is always complaining that the buyer take advantage of E Bay's return policy which basically says that within a certain time period she has to accept the return and refund the money or replace the item. She recently sold a camera and a week latter the person indicated it was being returned. She found out that this person had gotten the camera to take wedding photos and then returned it. Companies are aware that some people will buy items, use and return them, but the guarantee of satisfaction is a marketing ploy so they keep the option available but make it harder for the person returning the items to do so, like requiring you to fill out a form, paying for shipping, waiting for the return to be processed and so on.

Why is Science fiction made real

cava comments on Feb 8, 2018:

I think this is because reality itself is suspect. If all we see and know has to be 1st thought then how do we know that what we think matches up with what actually is...the Matrix capitalizes on this...as did the scholastic philosophers who theorized about Occasionalism (the doctrine ascribing the connection between mental and bodily events to the continuing intervention of God).

The hungry wolf will climb up the hill. The sated wolf will remain where he is.

cava comments on Feb 8, 2018:

https://youtu.be/oOg5VxrRTi0

Can the term "born again" be applied to any new beginning?

cava comments on Feb 8, 2018:

“you must be ready to burn yourself in your own flame; how could you rise anew if you have not first become ashes?” ? Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra

Before you were born, you had no consequence on the billions of people alive throughout time.

cava comments on Feb 7, 2018:

I always feel sad when someone I know passes and I am sad when a young person dies, so much potential for life and creativity is gone.

A lot of truth here.

cava comments on Feb 7, 2018:

There is no doubt that Bertrand Russell was a great man and a great logician, however consider his thought and its effects and then compare them to the thought and effects of Sigmund Freud. Both men were staunch atheists, but Freud understood that in myth, man finds a way of understanding himself. Man is not just a rational being, man's desires, his irrational side enables both good and bad valuations.

Can black people be racist?

cava comments on Feb 7, 2018:

Living in southeast Florida, we have many shades of skin tone. I have noticed that some black people from the Caribbean tend to be very bigoted towards Afro-Americans and even among themselves there are bigotries. The Jamaicans I've met seem have a superiority complex in regards to other non-Jamaican blacks.

Epicurean Paradox

cava comments on Feb 7, 2018:

There are rejoinder's to Epicurus. Augustine thought that human evil is the lack of goodness and that god created man with free will, so that man creates evil as a consequence of his freedom. Also, natural evils are only evils in so far as we know, that god is in the position to be able to put it all together so that what we experience as evil fits into his plans. The issue I think is what is meant by the word god. The classical conception of god as a kind of super duper, all knowing, all powerful regent is crap in my opinion. There are other conceptions of god which have much more to do with one's intimate experience of faith, as a calling. A calling I have not heard, but I still can appreciate.

What was the calamity in 'The Road'?

cava comments on Feb 6, 2018:

What wasn't a calamity? The whole book was a nightmare, very gray, ghoulish trip to the coast for dying father and his fragile son.

Wabi-Sabi. Do you find beauty in imperfection?

cava comments on Feb 6, 2018:

The universal is an idealization, it is the conception of beauty as perfection. Leaving an imperfection in place, makes a work of art particular, a particular whose beauty is superior because it is not an idealization, instead it becomes the universal particular.

Why argue about God or any belief?

cava comments on Feb 6, 2018:

"I've never seen any point to arguing about such things. Debates about God seem silly and pointless. Since spirituality is a very private matter, it seems especially pointless to have such discussions through text on the Internet." This statement seems to fly in the face of 3000 years of recorded history, which restlessly demonstrates that the belief in god forms the basis for the way people live in most world cultures. The concept of a god implies the existence of a necessary being, an absolute, which is an important constituent in thought because without some form of absolute everything is contingent, and therefore relative, but then there is no truth. So we deny the existence of a god, and live in a contingent world, but how do we replace what taking god out of the picture leaves out?

Schrodinger's choices.

cava comments on Feb 6, 2018:

"Basically you never really know if a choice is good or bad til the end." This assums that: 1) there is a beginning and an end 2) we know what is good and bad 3) that we can "really know" anything 4) there is a "choice" and we have it 5) "never" is ever

What do you do to help curtail negativity bias?

cava comments on Feb 5, 2018:

I have read some studies that suggest that positive or negative personalities are respectively correlated with liberal or conservative political dispositions. Also, this may not be entirely learn't behavior, these dispositions may be inherited traits. So then what, especially in US where liberals are out numbered by conservatives by a 25/36% respective margin based on a Gallup 1/3/2017 poll, are we to do. The issue seems to be that most people concentrate on negative events, which they continually rerun through their minds as if by doing so they could undo and thereby remedy the event. I think the lady in the Ted talk is right, the best way past a negative event is to talk about it with some one you trust. Talk therapy works. Of course if you are liberally inclined it might make more sense to talk to someone similarly inclined and not someone conservatively inclined...ha, ha...been there and done that.

Human decency is not derived from religion. It precedes it. Hitch

cava comments on Feb 5, 2018:

Dignity is defined as the state or quality of being worthy of honor or respect, which suggest to me that its concept derived out of politics.

I have a confession to make.

cava comments on Feb 4, 2018:

The Old Testament is interesting but extremely difficult to interpret without a lot background in biblical studies. Stories like those about Noah & Job say a lot if you can find the right key to interpret them. I only like Jesus's actual quotes in the New Testament and I bypass the rest of it. I also like the works of Paul the apostle. Paul was a deep thinker, well worth the time invested in reading him.

Do yoy find yourself still saying'bless you' when some one sneeze

cava comments on Feb 4, 2018:

I like saying 'god bless you' when someone burps, throws them off.

Name your hypocrisy

cava comments on Feb 3, 2018:

Still keep Pascal's 'get out of hell free card' in my back pocket.

Republicanism as a religion.

cava comments on Feb 3, 2018:

Politics and religion go hand in hand. "The 115th Congress was sworn in on Tuesday (1/4/2017), and once again, not one of the 535 members of the U.S. House or Senate has stated publicly that he or she doesn’t believe in God." It's funny but not so much. Religion and politics are joined at the hip. I think religion was/is generated out of politics, the great man became a myth, an icon, a sovereign who developed a religious class as a tool to justify a divine right to lead. All our laws, the Bill of Rights, our currency, owe a debt to religion. So it's not surprising for Trump to present himself as defender of the faith. Republican's tow the line, the party line. Recent poll indicated 87% of republicans support Trump and republicans represent 44% of registered voters. They present a unified front. The Democrats on the other hand are like cats, which can't be herded. Putting their fate in with a well known and problematic couple only dumbs them down in my opinion.

Poetry arises in unexpected places

cava comments on Feb 3, 2018:

Britney’s poem “Remembrance of Who I Am” I think it has more to do with the way she sings her song than what the song says. That's the thing about song, it's not poetry and it is not pure music. https://youtu.be/N_xI22yBGIE

I read somewhere that the native peoples living above the arctic circle didn't have words for rape ...

cava comments on Feb 2, 2018:

Well the thing is that just because they don't have the words for these acts, you cannot infer that these acts were absent in their culture. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/nov/29/norway-police-uncover-more-than-150-rapes-and-sexual-assaults-in-lapland

What would Jesus say/do if he was around today?

cava comments on Feb 2, 2018:

That's trippy :) I like Eminem's "Walk on Water" https://youtu.be/ryr75N0nki0 [Chorus] I walk on water But I ain't no Jesus I walk on water But only when it freezes [Post-Chorus:] 'Cause I'm only human, just like you I've been making my mistakes, oh if you only knew I don't think you should believe in me the way that you do 'Cause I'm terrified to let you down, oh If I walked on water, I would drown We all create our own gods, our own expectations, our own facades, our own success, our own failures, but we can only walk on water when it freezes.

Should drug addicts be forced into rehab?

cava comments on Feb 2, 2018:

Rehab works, but addiction has a relapses rate similar to other illnesses. This means that treatment must be ongoing. I think all drugs ought to be legalized if under doctor's care, with the requirement for ongoing treatment for whatever the doctor deems harmful. A couple of countries have done this sort of thing...Portugal. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/06/05/why-hardly-anyone-dies-from-a-drug-overdose-in-portugal/?utm_term=.98af8f67fe4e

Ground Hog Day - Why is this still a thing?

cava comments on Feb 2, 2018:

"It's always February 2nd and there is absolutely nothing I can do about it" https://youtu.be/6VF5P7qLaEQ

Wonder which Philosophers come closest to your world view, here is a fun test.

cava comments on Jan 31, 2018:

Sorry about the link issue, thought I tried it after posting (apparently it truncated the code): Copy & paste selectsmart.com/FREE/select.php?client=PhilosophyGuys

Who is your favorite villain?

cava comments on Jan 31, 2018:

Danger 5's Hitler The Perfect Heil Hitler 2 parts dark rum Crushed ginger Fill with orange soda

I do not fear death, in view of the fact that I had been dead for billions and billions of years ...

cava comments on Jan 31, 2018:

"Look back now and consider how the bygone ages of eternity that elapsed before our birth were nothing to us. Here, then, is a mirror in which nature shows us the time to come after our death. Do you see anything fearful in it?" (Lucretius, De rerum natura bk III, vv. 972-75 between 99/55BC) The Symmetry Argument

Let's discuss the conflict between individual rights and the greater good.

cava comments on Jan 30, 2018:

What's the "greater good" for whom and how do you find that out. Suppose that you were a British Intelligence officer in France working with the French Resistance. They have a prisoner, and they plan to kill him regardless of what he might say. You ask to speak to the prisoner to see if you can gent any useful information out of him. You ask the prisoner some questions and he tells you that he will not answer any of your questions unless you can guarantee that he will be taken to UK as prisoner of war: Do you lie to him for the greater good? Or does your integrity stop you from lying? In fact this happened... the British Officer didn't lie to the prisoner.

Atheists Are Brainwashed By The Scientific Method

cava comments on Jan 30, 2018:

Dr. Canard's study resembles his name.

Why don’t facts change people’s minds? | Varsity

cava comments on Jan 30, 2018:

What are facts and why would facts be able to change someone's mind? We all experience the same world, but what we get out of that experience varies for each of us. What one person takes to be the case another might not even notice, or may even deny. Point of view affects how we interpret what we experience. Our point of view is based on our value system, what and how we value based on we have seen and and what we have learnt. There is no objective fact outside or an interpretation, in the broadest sense.