When I threaten you, I automatically remove reason as an allowable means to accepting my claim. I’ve in effect determined your choice. If you were truly free to exercise reason, I would have to accept its outcome no matter what, even if I considered you gravely mistaken. Punishment for arriving at a wrong conclusion turns reason into a thought-crime.
So when believers like Christians or Muslims contend their faiths are based on reason, one may simply object that this can’t be so because their god in fact doesn’t allow it. Using reason to arrive at any other belief than the correct one will earn you an eternity in hell. Thus, reason is in reality an evil to be avoided....Blind, unquestioning, and unexamined belief is what the theist’s retributive god truly desires, not a belief grounded in reason. Link
I wonder if David was taking the same drugs that Elon Musk was taking when he tweeted (or "Xed") that he loved Trump as much as a straight man can love another...
Raccoons have been introduced to Germany, Japan, and Ukraine. Let the British be thankful that raccoons probably cannot swim across the Channel - because once they do, you'll be...
As to Catholics and evangelicals, I think many who are attracted to such systems are people who are attracted to structures that impose social control - as long as they profit from the...
In 2 Samuel 1:26, we find this text: “I am distressed for you, my brother Jonathan; you have been a close friend to me. Your love for me was more wonderful than the love of...
Is a gay love affair mentioned in the Old Testament? There has been much dispute about the famous friendship of David and Jonathan; were they just good friends, or lovers? In 2 Samuel...
because he was obsessed with the idea that Jesus would arrive from the sky soon, very soon—as we read in I Thessalonians 4. And he assured his devout Christian converts that he would be...
As to Catholics and evangelicals, I think many who are attracted to such systems are people who are attracted to structures that impose social control - as long as they profit from the structure. I...
"And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal...
Sensible people who live well outside the natural range (or the invasive range) of raccoons. Where I live, you'd need a cat door that was somehow rigged in a way that only a cat could operate...
People tend to forget: the developers are in charge of AI, not the other way around. You're assuming that the developers are good actors. Unfortunately, this isn't so in the...
Why would someone who has billions of dollars—literally more than they could spend in 10,000 lifetimes—still wake up every day obsessed with making more? Even when they’re old. Even...
I see money more as a stand-in for dependency. We need money because we are not self-sufficient. Consider, if the feeble human had the adaptations of a goat, the human wouldn't need money. It...
People who believe the bible is still relevant in a moral sense should live their lives as if the bible is still relevant in every sense. For example, that would entail refusing to consume any...
While science deniers are probably too stupid to ask AI LLMs about their misconceptions, scientifically aware people can be proactive. Here's Gemini sharing its wisdom about the Skeptical...
