Recent Comments

1. 1 day ago on 1 and Done

   Correction: lithp.

2. 1 day ago on 1 and Done

   Especially when man wants to misunderstand for his own ends.

3. 1 day ago on Pickles

   That was one of the benefits of smoking. Not only does it suppress your appetite, it means you cannot smell or taste much.

   When I stopped smoking (from age 13 to 39) I suddenly discovered food has a taste! Who knew? I didn’t!

   I piled on the weight big time and have never managed to lose it again. Food tastes sooooo nice!

4. 1 day ago on Pickles

   But it does make the ladies cuddly, and that’s nice. :-D

5. 1 day ago on Pickles

   Yep. And the women in Slimming World hate it when a new man joins because he WILL win Slimmer of the Week for the next few weeks.

6. 1 day ago on For Heaven's Sake

   My reading and research showed me that essentially, every viable world religion and philosophical proposal is aligned with and expands upon “Love your neighbour as yourself”.

7. 1 day ago on For Heaven's Sake

   “What is good? what is evil? How do you decide?”

   By reading and listening and watching and thinking. By evaluating the opinions of others and how they were viewed and the outcome of their recommendations and actions.

   I stopped believing in that ‘good’ and ‘evil’ nonsense a long time ago. It is childish. The universe is neither, it just is and it does not care about anything, including us. No person is just good or evil. A murderer can love his family, a rapist care for animals, a war-monger be generous with his money. We all make mistakes, we all cause harm from time to time – it is how we respond to that which makes life worth living as an individual and as part of a society.

   I incline toward utilitarianism, universality and equanimity. The greatest good for the greatest number and if a rule is true it is true for all and do what you can to make life fair for everyone (which does not mean treat everyone the same).

   “Is murder good or evil? How do you decide?”

   You even need to ask that? Do you need to be told what to think about that? I know what I think, how can you not?

   I note that ‘murder’ has been applied to the commandment about killing, thereby allowing the rich and powerful to order the weak and poor to kill other people with impunity. Thus is religion corrupted to allow the most heinous of crimes. No thanks. I have better values than that.

8. 1 day ago on For Heaven's Sake

   “So, basically, as you admit: YOU are your own church and your OWN authority.”

   Yes. Except for the church bit as I don’t have one.

   I make my own moral decisions and take responsibility for my actions and their outcomes. That gives me freedoms and restraints.

   I do not have to worry about whether I eat forbidden foods or whether my meat animals were killed while being prayed over. But I do worry about animal husbandry and the quality of my food.

   I do not believe we should continue to ‘go forth and prosper’ and continue breeding like rabbits as there are already too many of us, nor that we can use the planet as we see fit because some scripture says so, Instead I believe it is in our interests to moderate our child-bearing, our impact on the planet’s resources and on the environment.

   I do not care what consenting adults do in private, provided nobody is being hurt against their wishes. But I cannot confess my sins and be forgiven, ready to go out and have another week of sinning; I have to continue feeling bad about them and try to change my behaviour and make amends.

   I do not feel obliged to follow the Christian Just War Theories and instead feel all killing of one person by another to be wrong. I feel society should be constructed so that need not happen and will invest my time and money into that.

   I’m happy to admit to all that.

9. 1 day ago on For Heaven's Sake

   It is fear. That was the conclusion I came to.

   I was brought up Christian, went solely to church schools, Sunday school and to church.

   Studying Divinity as an academic subject eliminated the little faith I had left. Not in Jesus but in organised religion. Add to that a study of social history, reading the scripture of other world faiths, and realising what Jesus said in the Gospels did not match the behaviour and messages of people calling themselves Christians and claiming the power to tell others what to do. It was incongruous and incompatible.

   A long study of philosophy was beneficial – to realise people had been struggling with the questions of how to live one’s life forever. And there are multiple convincing answers. Being logically minded and intelligent, I slowly developed my own moral philosophy and came to the conclusion most of the 10 commandments and Jesus’ basic messages are a good set of values to live by. The rest is origin myth, fable, stories, superstition and social engineering.

   I get told by Christians and Moslems that as an atheist I have no moral compass. I disagree – my moral compass is very well engineered, and I built it myself. It is not something given to me by someone wanting to maintain control over their situation, for me to blindly accept with ‘faith’, and to encourage me not to think for myself.

   I have found through debate and discussion, that many people who evangelise are like smokers who won’t give up or hardened alcoholics – they cannot rationally explain why they do what they do. For them to imagine giving up their habits terrifies them. They would have to think for themselves, make their own decision but have been taught not to do that.

   They are frightened because their church (or mosque or temple or chapel) made them that way, promised them eternal salvation if they obey, and saved them from their own lack of a personal moral compass.

   They have to evangelise to validate their own illogical position to themselves.

10. 2 days ago on Eek!

    I don’t see how jless is refuting Darwinism. We humans are members of the great apes family, along with the chimpanzees, gorillas and orangutans. Darwin would have had no problem defending that, other than fear of offending his contemporaries.