Think Humanism

keithprosser2

Christians were pretty bad news in the crusades too... link "In this temple 10,000 were [muslims]killed. Indeed, if you had been there you would have seen our feet coloured to our ankles with the blood of the slain. But what more shall I relate? None of them were left alive; neither women nor childr...

keithprosser2

Thanks, Keith, not the story but close. It was to Sinclair Lewis that the, "When fascism comes to America it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross" quotation has been attributed.

Misattributed, apparently.

Let us know when you find the story you meant!

keithprosser2

There is a "future-fiction" story of about 40 years ago (that I wish I could find again) where America develops into a isolationist and isolated totalitarian fascist nation run by a militant clergy. Maybe " It can't happen here "? There is a link to the full text of the book at the bottom of the ar...

keithprosser2

"trys to get them all praying but apparently the kids just p*ss themselves laughing" Reminds me of my school days. On principle I object to compulsory 'assembly' as it was called, but I can't think of anyone who was brainwashed by it. And being Welsh first and atheist second, I see absolutely nothi...

keithprosser2

As a bit of a wanderer, I realise I haven't been west or north at all! I spent a few years in Singapore, which is fairly east, and I criss-cross the equator fairly regularly now I live in Kampala, Uganda, but the furthest west I've been is Swansea and the furthest north is Aberdeen!

keithprosser2

As an atheist who adores the grandeur of the KJV I have somewhat mixed feelings! I think it is not a bad to mark the 400th anniversary of a such great work of literature in some way, but it is an awkward precedent. These are religiously sensitive - one might say - paranoid days. This is bound to cau...

keithprosser2

But perhaps in the best possible way.

The "Ground Zero Mosque" is of course more correctly called Park51.

keithprosser2

Sometimes I can take a contrary position for the sake of balance and playing devil's advocate, but I can't about this. If you feel strongly about this, please check out the state of LGBT rights in Uganda where I live. Wikipedia: "A new bill has been introduced to parliament [In Uganda], providing fo...

keithprosser2

Of course with the old pounds shillings and pence you wouldn't get such rubbish because you could divide by 3. 1/3 of 1 pound was 6s 8d. You must have noticed that most of what is currently wrong with the world happened after decimalisation? Decimalisation was a huge mistake which we are paying for ...

keithprosser2

Apologies for stating the bleeding obvious, but the distinction in nomenclature is that a baby has been born; a foetus hasn't. In view of the reuters story just above 'bleeding' is probably as ill-advised a word as 'obvious'. I wish this was a problem reducible to a slogan like "a baby has been bor...

keithprosser2

Sorry to bump a thread, but Al Jazeera did a piece(with video) on the EDL. As a patriotic ex-pat (consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, as Emerson said) I am almost glad I am 4000 miles away and can keep my rosy ideal of England(*) intact.

(*actually Britain, as I am of Welsh origin!)

keithprosser2

I have added 'Irenic' to my vocabulary. I initially thought it might mean 'like Irene', but on checking it out its actual definition it is nothing like the Irene I knew.
Sure I'll pop along to PN.

keithprosser2

I've never appreciated bells. Apparently there are all sorts of complicated patterns and changes going on, but I'd rather listen to Indonesian gamelan .

keithprosser2

I'm not sure I want anyone mulling my postulations. I was very strictly brought up. I often wish I could conjure the vividness of a dream in the waking state. When I am awake if I think about, say, a cow then I don't get the image of a cow in my minds eye - or only a very vague, shadow of an image, ...

keithprosser2

My idea does bring up the problem of how the brain can 'predict the future'. I obviously don't mean that it has a mystical power of clairvoyance; all I mean is that the brain makes guesses about the most likely immediate future. But even that seems quite a feat for a bunch of neurones to pull off! W...

keithprosser2

Well, the next time you have a dream, look out for episodes! A species of surreality might also be a consequence... you would get something like 'local coherence' but 'global incoherence' as a consequence of the interplay between the 'predictor' doing its best to make what happens next 'realistic' (...

keithprosser2

Let me suggest a 'mechanism' for dreams... at least the sort of dreams I have. I'd like to know if people think it's a reasonable hypothesis. My idea is that dreams don't rely on any special mechanism at all... the idea is that what we are aware of (in the normal, waking state) is largely generated ...

keithprosser2

The perception that Muslims are fundamentally opposed to the values of western society such as free speech and equal rights for women is one such false dichotomy which I believe can be safely disregarded. I don't want to criticise, but I wonder if you wrote exactly what you meant (or is that vice v...

keithprosser2

Thanks T! so many gems in that article, but I particularly tickled by this one: We are indisputably still trying to understand the universe, and a lot of thought goes into it, and we are therefore doing (natural) philosophy. But we don’t call it that these days for fear of being mistaken for the sor...

keithprosser2

It may be a case where we have to "bite the ecological bullet" and use whatever productive land there is for sustainable agriculture, not slash & burn, and keep the animals in well protected and maintained parks just for tourism It's a question of who you you're asking to bite what bullet. I can't ...

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