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Search found 320 matches

by coledavis
March 23rd, 2021, 1:21 pm
Forum: Culture Club
Topic: George Orwell - lesser-known essays and reviews
Replies: 0
Views: 12089

George Orwell - lesser-known essays and reviews

I hope you don't mind me promoting my own book, just out last month. Revenge is Sour: https://volitorbooks.com/Revenge_is_Sour.htm
It had a rave review in The Independent. I would be interested in any reviews.
by coledavis
October 30th, 2016, 3:08 pm
Forum: Education
Topic: Atheist school's values & ethics
Replies: 308
Views: 294403

Re: Atheist school's values & ethics

Mark Twain: George Washington could never tell a lie. I can but try to refrain from doing so.
People like Mr Trump and his Brexit contemporaries (apologies to the principled Brexits) are not telling just the occasional self-defensive fib. This is a matter of degree.
by coledavis
October 30th, 2016, 2:31 pm
Forum: Education
Topic: Atheist school's values & ethics
Replies: 308
Views: 294403

Re: Atheist school's values & ethics

What about false information? It's having dire effects on society, even when not applied to individuals (accusations).
by coledavis
February 18th, 2016, 1:00 pm
Forum: Humanism, secularism, freethought...
Topic: historical atheism
Replies: 5
Views: 3165

Re: historical atheism

Also, the idea of people in the past all being benighted is most condescending. People forget about about the great philosophers of old; they surely can't have been unique in their ability to think for themselves. I am still in awe of the fact that Democritus suggested the existence of atoms, surely...
by coledavis
February 18th, 2016, 12:20 pm
Forum: Humanism, secularism, freethought...
Topic: historical atheism
Replies: 5
Views: 3165

Re: historical atheism

Yes, the online 'contributors' are not necessarily the same as those who buy (will have bought) the newspaper. I am gutted but not surprised, by the way, that the Independent as a newspaper is shutting down. I and a club of about 56,000 will miss it.
by coledavis
February 18th, 2016, 11:26 am
Forum: Humanism, secularism, freethought...
Topic: historical atheism
Replies: 5
Views: 3165

historical atheism

This article refers to research showing atheism to be widespread in ancient times. (One of the reasons I prefer Hitchens' God is Not Great to Professor Dawkins' discourses is because I find historical explanations most enlightening, particularly when considering the manmade nature of religions.) htt...
by coledavis
December 31st, 2015, 1:48 pm
Forum: Education
Topic: Atheist school's values & ethics
Replies: 308
Views: 294403

Re: Atheist school's values & ethics

Hi Alan - my thinking is that merely renaming an institution, now that the gleam has gone out of the idea, is unlikely to do much.
by coledavis
December 21st, 2015, 6:49 pm
Forum: Education
Topic: Atheist school's values & ethics
Replies: 308
Views: 294403

Re: Atheist school's values & ethics

Humanist websites frequently make reference to equality and to freedom. Are these two ideals actually compatible? Or are they, perhaps, too vague to be useful? Hmmm... They can be, perhaps, but it certainly isn't an automatic given (if we consider much of the communist experience as truly egalitari...
by coledavis
December 21st, 2015, 12:23 pm
Forum: Education
Topic: Atheist school's values & ethics
Replies: 308
Views: 294403

Re: Atheist school's values & ethics

Evidence-based reasoning. Yes. I guess as an atheist, my commitment beyond not believing in religion is to rational thought. Science is, to my way of thinking, a branch of rational thinking.
by coledavis
September 12th, 2015, 1:09 pm
Forum: Religion
Topic: Britain Is A 'Christian Nation', apparently
Replies: 111
Views: 52048

Re: Britain Is A 'Christian Nation', apparently

Three other speakers. A 'friend' of the deceased who couldn't complete his lousy poem because he kept bursting into tears (and apparently was also tearful when later trying to extort money from the major beneficiary - apparently his £20,000 wasn't enough for him). An atheist who did produce a witty ...
by coledavis
September 11th, 2015, 9:26 pm
Forum: Religion
Topic: Britain Is A 'Christian Nation', apparently
Replies: 111
Views: 52048

Re: Britain Is A 'Christian Nation', apparently

Is this normal? I went to a friend's funeral, at a crematorium. The local parson had little to say about my friend but went on and on about his own current preoccupations. These seem to be: hatred equals murder, and why Cain killed Abel. The motivation for this ancient doing-in? Cain was jealous of ...
by coledavis
December 31st, 2014, 12:31 am
Forum: Religion
Topic: Religious offense
Replies: 205
Views: 26453

Re: Religious offense

Dave Allen was on the box this evening (30/12/14). Two great comments (at least). I'm a practising atheist. God likes us better because we don't keep asking him for things. - Here we are in heaven. There are the hindus. And the muslims. And the Anglicans. - What's that wall? - Shh! That's for the Ca...
by coledavis
December 22nd, 2014, 1:33 pm
Forum: Education
Topic: Atheist school's values & ethics
Replies: 308
Views: 294403

Re: Atheist school's values & ethics

Re viewing the world through our senses.
No, viewing the world through our senses often means believing the apparent and ignoring the objective facts derived from science or other forms of systematic observation.
Viewing the world from the vantage of accumulated knowledge?
by coledavis
July 22nd, 2014, 11:26 am
Forum: Education
Topic: Atheist school's values & ethics
Replies: 308
Views: 294403

Re: Atheist school's values & ethics

The word self-defence seems self-evident. Yes, in the case of defending oneself from hooligans, yes in defending the world against Nazis. Take a look at the current Israel/Palestine situation and the definition seems awfully less tangible. Take into account some claims made by white minorities in th...
by coledavis
July 21st, 2014, 6:00 pm
Forum: Education
Topic: Atheist school's values & ethics
Replies: 308
Views: 294403

Re: Atheist school's values & ethics

"For example, we might look at our current principles about murder/violent crime and then reduce them to a basic principle that suffering and death should be avoided wherever possible. From there we would judge whether our laws were rationally consistent with what we socially agreed." Well we might....
by coledavis
July 13th, 2014, 1:56 pm
Forum: Education
Topic: Atheist school's values & ethics
Replies: 308
Views: 294403

Re: Atheist school's values & ethics

- no, I do not
- I do
- probably not all
- maybe

Guess I'm not a humanist. I'll stick with atheism.
by coledavis
February 18th, 2014, 10:39 am
Forum: Education
Topic: Atheist school's values & ethics
Replies: 308
Views: 294403

Re: Atheist school's values & ethics

I haven't got anything against special books - of philosophy. I guess I don't like 'revealed' books, found in bushes, mountains, etc. Indoors type, me.
by coledavis
February 12th, 2014, 10:51 am
Forum: Education
Topic: Atheist school's values & ethics
Replies: 308
Views: 294403

Re: Atheist school's values & ethics

There are plenty of people who work in London who are not bankers or money shufflers. There may even be some bankers who are honest, if the facts were to be pursued.
by coledavis
February 8th, 2014, 10:38 am
Forum: Education
Topic: Atheist school's values & ethics
Replies: 308
Views: 294403

Re: Atheist school's values & ethics

Not only do I wish to convince that there is no god, but I wish to bring in the inquisition. The comfy chair!
by coledavis
February 5th, 2014, 5:37 pm
Forum: Education
Topic: Atheist school's values & ethics
Replies: 308
Views: 294403

Re: Atheist school's values & ethics

"You get one chance in life - so make the most of it. Enjoy being with people, help out where you can and do some good on the way." This field of influence, positive and also negative, to me is the only afterlife you have. The stuff about atoms mixing with trees as part of an afterlife doesn't mean ...