Nice Comment

Comment was by Stephen Brodie on June 15, 2022 at 10:35am

WOTMQ: My Ways Are Not Your Ways

Comment was by Stephen Brodie on June 9, 2022 at 3:12pm

Thankfully we in the UK don't get f##ker Tucker on our TV screens 

WOTM: Replacement, It's Just A Theory

Comment was by Mrs.B on June 2, 2022 at 10:09pm

I thought so.

Comment was by Stephen Brodie on June 2, 2022 at 10:06pm

It seems to me that, that argument is totally cut and dry.

Good one Mrs.B

Comment was by Mrs.B on June 2, 2022 at 9:45pm

Comment was by Stephen Brodie on June 2, 2022 at 9:33am

WOTM: Craig Wants To Have His Trees And Eat From Them Too

Comment was by Stephen Brodie on May 29, 2022 at 4:58pm

WOTM: In Context

Comment was by Joan Denoo on May 28, 2022 at 1:22pm

If these make-believe gods of every strip emerge from the imaginations of the human mind, then it seems plausible that the same human mind can ascribe attributes that constitute praise for the wonders of nature. Looking around our precious planet, we find sights and sounds that evoke a sense of wonder, gratitude for being alive, and consciousness of our rich gifts. I do absolutely nothing to cause the essentials of life, yet I drink water, breathe air, and consume the nourishment of the soil. 

These make-believe gods put one human against another, one faith against another, and one race against another to the end of hate-filled thinking and acting.

Look at the natural systems surrounding us that we pollute, i.e. water, air, and depleted soil.

Comment was by Grinning Cat on May 27, 2022 at 9:07pm

I've heard of Catholic funeral masses for miscarriages, so at least that barbaric philosophy that puts a clump of cells above an actual, living, breathing, thinking, feeling person is somewhat consistent.

As for the Christian (and Jewish, and Islamic) God being "perfect" and "all-knowing" and "omni­every­god­damned­thing"™, a Goodreads reviewer argues that those attributes were relatively late additions to the religions:

The concepts of divine perfection - omniscience, omnipotence, etc. - are derived largely from the 3rd century BCE Stoics. These ideas were imported into Christianity in the Platonic interpretations of early Christians like Augustine and the latter Aristotelian ‘synthesis’ of medieval theologians like Thomas Aquinas. Similar roles were played in the Hellenisation of Judaism by Philo of Alexandria and Maimonides. The Arabic scholars al-Farabi and Avicenna introduced Greek thought into Islam as early as the late 10th century.

Nowhere in Jewish. Islamic or Christian scriptures do these Greek ideas of divine perfection appear. God is unknowable. The best human beings can do is ascribe him attributes (names) which constitute praise rather than description. There is overwhelming biblical witness in the Old Testament to God’s lack of perfection in the Greek sense: he has regrets from time to time; he clearly does not know the minds of his people; he craves reassurance; he rages and performs rash acts; he breaks promises. He is, in other words, deficient in every Greek virtue. And his power, although beyond the human, is not infinite. The Hebrew God simply doesn’t fit the philosophical mould.

In the New Testament the situation becomes downright scandalous: Jesus demonstrates that he can heal the lame, the blind, and the sick at will. But only to make a point, and not out of loving concern. Claiming sole power to solve all human problems, he needs to be cajoled into using it and then he does so often only grudgingly. Jesus, and his promoter Paul, are entirely wrong in their prediction of an imminent end of the world. The latter even appears to disenfranchise God by insisting, with no authority whatsoever, that the ‘eternal‘ covenant established by God was abrogated and that henceforth all power, infinite or not, is in the hands of Christ. Hardly an endorsement for Greek perfectionism.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2217095856

(from BlackOxford's review of Harold Kushner's When Bad Things Happen to Good People)

Comment was by Stephen Brodie on May 27, 2022 at 4:16am

Beliefs And Consequences, Part II

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