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Religious people are weak. Well, not weak, but vulnerable. Religious people are more vulnerable to self-deception. The reason is I think, most religious people don't use rational thinking. I think they willfully ignore rational thinking, because it is a threat to their beliefs. Religion offers them hope in the continuation of life after death. That's powerful. We're all afraid of death to some degree. That fear is natural. It stems from our natural fear of the dark. Our ancestors had to be afraid of the dark, because in the darkness there were predators waiting to eat them. We've carried that fear, among others I'm sure, with us throughout our evolution. Death is the ultimate darkness. It's the opposite of life. The first instinct of any living creature is survival. We know there is nothing we can do to survive physical death, but we can create things in our minds to deal with our mortality. We can escape death by believing in an afterlife. That's where religion grabs people. It promises survival. Seeing that survival is the first and most important instinct, it's no wonder we turned to religion to save us.
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@Intelligence_06
The world is a heaven to the people who treat it like one.
Children with pediatric cancer might think differently.
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See the 2013 Smithsonian Magazine article titled A Last-Second Surge of Brain Activity Could Explain Near-Death Experiences
Something physical might be able to explain the phenomena of near death experiences, according to a new finding by a team of neuroscientists from the University of Michigan. They observed, at least in the brains of rats, a sudden surge of electrical activity that continues for roughly 30 seconds after clinical death. This activity, they write in a study published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, “demonstrate that the mammalian brain can, albeit paradoxically, generate neural correlates of heightened conscious processing at near-death.”
Although the team had predicted they’d find some activity, “we were surprised by the high levels,” George Mashour, a co-author, said in a press statement. “At near-death, many known electrical signatures of consciousness exceeded levels found in the waking state, suggesting that the brain is capable of well-organized electrical activity during the early stage of clinical death.”
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@TheUnderdog
Actually they do. A tumour containing a miniature brain has been found growing on the ovary of a 16-year-old girl in Japan.
The 10-centimetre-wide tumour was discovered when the girl had surgery to remove her appendix. When doctors cut the tumour out, they found clumps of greasy, matted hair inside, and a 3-centimetre-wide brain-like structure covered by a thin plate of skull bone.
Closer analysis revealed that it was a smaller version of a cerebellum – which usually sits underneath the brain’s two hemispheres. A mass on one side resembled a brain stem – the structure that normally joins to the spinal cord.
The 10-centimetre-wide tumour was discovered when the girl had surgery to remove her appendix. When doctors cut the tumour out, they found clumps of greasy, matted hair inside, and a 3-centimetre-wide brain-like structure covered by a thin plate of skull bone.
Closer analysis revealed that it was a smaller version of a cerebellum – which usually sits underneath the brain’s two hemispheres. A mass on one side resembled a brain stem – the structure that normally joins to the spinal cord.
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God's design doesn't have any problem with killing fetuses. Miscarriage is the spontaneous loss of a pregnancy before the 20th week. About 10 to 20 percent of known pregnancies end in miscarriage.
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@TheUnderdog
Well stated, this is why you should run for office.
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@Reece101
It is because highly intelligent people are compassionate.
"There's a correlation between high emotional intelligence and high IQ in psychological assessments," Christine Scott-Hudson, licensed psychotherapist and owner of Create Your Life Studio, tells Bustle. "We know that the higher a person scores in traits of empathy, the higher the person will score in traits of effective verbal comprehension."
In other words, empathy, which is part of emotional intelligence, and comprehension, which is part of cognitive intelligence, is directly linked. So if you lead with your heart, Scott-Hudson says, there's a good chance that you also lead with your mind.
Do you think Albert Einstein would have been a Trump voter?
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@oromagi
Yes, The U.S. and the Taliban struck a deal that paves the way for eventual peace in Afghanistan. U.S. Special Representative Zalmay Khalilzad and the head of the militant Islamist group, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, signed the potentially historic agreement Feb. 29, 2020 in Doha, Qatar, where the two sides spent months hashing out its details. Under the terms of the deal, the U.S. commits to withdrawing all of its military forces and supporting civilian personnel, as well as those of its allies, within 14 months. The drawdown process will begin with the U.S. reducing its troop levels to 8,600 in the first 135 days and pulling its forces from five bases.
The rest of its forces, according to the agreement, will leave "within the remaining nine and a half months."
The rest of its forces, according to the agreement, will leave "within the remaining nine and a half months."
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@Tarik
I propose that the moral evaluation of actions emerges from human rationality, or, in Darwin’s terms, from our highly developed intellectual powers. Our high intelligence allows us to anticipate the consequences of our actions with respect to other people and, thus, to judge these actions as good or evil in terms of their consequences for others. But I also propose that the norms according to which we decide which actions are good and which actions are evil are largely culturally determined, although conditioned by biological predispositions.
The first proposition advanced, fully consistent with Darwin’s ideas, is that humans, because of their high intellectual powers, are necessarily inclined to make moral judgments and to accept ethical values, that is, to evaluate certain kinds of actions as either right or wrong. The claim made is that moral behavior is a necessary outcome of the biological makeup of humans, a product of their evolution. It is the exalted degree of rationality that we humans have achieved that makes us moral beings. Humans are Homo moralis because they are Homo rationalis.
The first proposition advanced, fully consistent with Darwin’s ideas, is that humans, because of their high intellectual powers, are necessarily inclined to make moral judgments and to accept ethical values, that is, to evaluate certain kinds of actions as either right or wrong. The claim made is that moral behavior is a necessary outcome of the biological makeup of humans, a product of their evolution. It is the exalted degree of rationality that we humans have achieved that makes us moral beings. Humans are Homo moralis because they are Homo rationalis.
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Images of White Jesus have obviously been used to promote the idea that white is best. And in many representations of Jesus, especially in stained glass, he is not only white, but the purest white—whiter than anyone else. It’s terrible catechesis.
And that has the most terrible effects on people who do not look like that.
And that has the most terrible effects on people who do not look like that.
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Is morality is subjective or objective?
The first thing to understand is that there is no such thing as objective morality. All morality is necessarily subjective. Here's why: All morality is based on individual value judgments regarding any given moral issue at hand.
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Oh, sorry, I thought this forum was about Jesus and Mary Magdelene.
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@BrotherDThomas
Yes, Cain did marry his sister.
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@n8nrgmi
atheists lack critical thinking
I think Albert Einstein, Stephen Hawking,Richard Feynman,Niels Bohr,Louis de Broglie,Francis Crick,Steven Weinberg,and Erwin Schrodinger would disagree with you.
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Did you notice how there are never any miracles in high speed aircraft impacts with the ground?
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@n8nrgmi
Here is a good example of a miracle for an atheist. The physicist, who died at the age of 76, wasn’t expected to see his 25th birthday, after being diagnosed with the incurable neurodegenerative condition ALS at age 21. Though Hawking beat the odds for more than five decades, the scientist told the Guardian in 2011 that death was never far from his mind.
“I have lived with the prospect of an early death for the last 49 years,” Hawking said. “I’m not afraid of death, but I’m in no hurry to die. I have so much I want to do first.”
“I have lived with the prospect of an early death for the last 49 years,” Hawking said. “I’m not afraid of death, but I’m in no hurry to die. I have so much I want to do first.”
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There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.
But without deeper reflection one knows from daily life that one exists for other people; first of all for those upon whose smiles and well-being our own happiness is wholly dependent, and then for the many, unknown to us, to whose destinies we are bound by the ties of sympathy.
A hundred times every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life are based on the labors of other men, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the same measure as I have received and am still receiving.
A human being is part of a whole, called by us the "Universe," a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings, as something separated from the rest -a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest us.
Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circles of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.
Only a life lived for others is worth living.
--Albert Einstein
But without deeper reflection one knows from daily life that one exists for other people; first of all for those upon whose smiles and well-being our own happiness is wholly dependent, and then for the many, unknown to us, to whose destinies we are bound by the ties of sympathy.
A hundred times every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life are based on the labors of other men, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the same measure as I have received and am still receiving.
A human being is part of a whole, called by us the "Universe," a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings, as something separated from the rest -a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest us.
Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circles of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.
Only a life lived for others is worth living.
--Albert Einstein
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See That ’70s myth—did climate science really call for a “coming ice age?”
Claims that scientists flip-flopped on climate don't reflect the science.
by Scott K Johnson
Claims that scientists flip-flopped on climate don't reflect the science.
by Scott K Johnson
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Pressley Stutts, a Republican leader in South Carolina who fought COVID-19 vaccination efforts, died on Thursday of the coronavirus after a weekslong battle, including six days spent on a ventilator, The Greenville News reported.
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@thett3
You need to watch United States of Al on CBS.
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Do you charge your wife and kids room and board? If they can't pay would you evict them? If you say yes to both of these then you are a family capitalist.
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@ludofl3x
Don't forget 1 SAMUEL 15:3. Now go fight against the Amalekites. You must completely destroy the Amalekites and everything that belongs to them. Don’t let anything live; you must kill all the men and women and all of their children and little babies. You must kill all of their cattle and sheep and all of their camels and donkeys.’”
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Islamic Extremist:
Hey let's go bomb an embassy
Christian Extremist:
Hey, let's go bomb an abortion clinic
Atheist Extremist:
Hey, let's go drink microbrews and talk about OUTER SPACE!
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Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Truly I tell you, it is hard for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.” -Matthew 19:21-24
Evangelist Kenneth Copeland: Net Worth $760 Million
I'm guessing that secretly he is an atheist.
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Humanists recognize that it is only when people feel free to think for themselves, using reason as their guide, that they are best capable of developing values that succeed in satisfying human needs and serving human interests.
-Isaac Asimov, 1984 Humanist of the Year and Past AHA President
Issac Asimov was an atheist.
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Can brain lesions cause mental illness?
When neurologic symptoms developed, they underwent neuroimaging studies and organic brain lesions were diagnosed. Further treatment required neurosurgical interventions. These cases show that brain tumors can be neurologically silent for a sufficient period of time and manifest as psychiatric disorders.
Sorry Boner, but the days of you idiots pretending you have some superior ideology is over. You didn't present Jack shit
you run around supporting all these silly azz materialists like a leach, blood sucking the life out of out dated and foolish thinking
I rest my case.
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Notorious televangelist Jim Bakker and his church in southwestern Missouri was ordered to pay $156,000 in restitution to viewers of his religious talk show who were convinced into purchasing a fake Covid cure during the early stages of the pandemic.
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See Evolutionary aspects of self- and world consciousness in vertebrates
Abstract
Although most aspects of world and self-consciousness are inherently subjective, neuroscience studies in humans and non-human animals provide correlational and causative indices of specific links between brain activity and representation of the self and the world. In this article we review neuroanatomic, neurophysiological and neuropsychological data supporting the hypothesis that different levels of self and world representation in vertebrates rely upon (i) a “basal” subcortical system that includes brainstem, hypothalamus and central thalamic nuclei and that may underpin the primary (or anoetic) consciousness likely present in all vertebrates; and (ii) a forebrain system that include the medial and lateral structures of the cerebral hemispheres and may sustain the most sophisticated forms of consciousness [e.g., noetic (knowledge based) and autonoetic, reflective knowledge]. We posit a mutual, bidirectional functional influence between these two major brain circuits. We conclude that basic aspects of consciousness like primary self and core self (based on anoetic and noetic consciousness) are present in many species of vertebrates and that, even self-consciousness (autonoetic consciousness) does not seem to be a prerogative of humans and of some non-human primates but may, to a certain extent, be present in some other mammals and birds
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I would say that SkepticalOne does not have any brain lesions also.
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Research has found religious belief is associated with certain regions of the human brain, but there is still much to learn about how these areas influence religious belief. A new study in the journal Neuropsychologia found that lesions in a particular brain region tend to increase religious fundamentalism.
“Human beliefs, and in this case religious beliefs, are one of the cognitive and social knowledge stores that distinguish us from other species and are an indication of how evolution and cognitive/social processes influenced the development of the human brain,” Jordan Grafman of Northwestern University, the study’s corresponding author, told PsyPost.
“Human beliefs, and in this case religious beliefs, are one of the cognitive and social knowledge stores that distinguish us from other species and are an indication of how evolution and cognitive/social processes influenced the development of the human brain,” Jordan Grafman of Northwestern University, the study’s corresponding author, told PsyPost.
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I also think that intelligence_06 doesn't have any brain lesions either.
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@Dr.Franklin
the poverty rate for afghanis increased the longer the US was there and the government was in power.
OMG, I agree with Dr.Franklin!
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God is just numerous brain lesions . Albert Einstein, Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk don't have any of these brain lesions. Oh, and FLRW and zedvictor4 don't have any either.
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@Conway
The variant did happen because people did not get vaccinated. Viruses cannot replicate on their own, but rather depend on their host cell's protein synthesis pathways to reproduce. This typically occurs by the virus inserting its genetic material in host cells, co-opting the proteins to create viral replicates, until the cell bursts from the high volume of new viral particles.
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@sadolite
Doesn't God want you to get vaccinated? He killed more than 500 Catholic priests and nuns who have died from COVID-19 in India to make an example that prayer doesn't work.
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Sixty Three years ago, the United States first sent combat troops into the Middle East. The July 1958 Marine landing in Beirut, Lebanon thus began the era of America’s now seemingly endless wars in the region. The 1958 episode has lessons for today. Backed up by three carrier battle groups, a Marine Corps battalion in full combat gear stormed a beach near Beirut on July 15, 1958. At its peak there were almost 15,000 Marines and Army troops ashore in Lebanon. At the same time, British paratroopers deployed to Amman, Jordan in a coordinated Western intervention intended to prop up friendly governments in the region.
It's time to get the hell out of the Middle East.
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Dr. Franklin's reference in comment #21 is from a website by Zoe Phin.
Here is a review of her work by M A Rodger:
Even though Zoe Phin's credentials are not that of a climatologist, I would suggest her work providing the basis for the 'article' presented (her work is set out here) is so poor, she should approach her college and ask for her money back. Evidently her education has entirely failed.
What Zoe Phin manages to show is no more than "Look!! Lots of numbers with decimal points. So I'm right and AGW is fake!!!" Or in her own baseless words "The greenhouse effect hypothesis is simply incorrect and should be abandoned for the sake of empirical science."
The first table of numbers presented by Zoe Phin are presumably taken from CERES and shows that high, uppermid & lowermid clouds have increased through the period 2003-19 while low cloud shows no statistical trend. However I don't see any use of this data within the analysis provided.
The second and third tables (again presumably from CERES but quite where from CERES is a different matter as this is modelled data not measured data) shows annual global average values for surface upward & downward IR and TAO upward for clear-sky/all-sky and with/without areosols. These numbers are not the sort of thing that can be measured globally and further are a ridiculously good fit with GISS annual global average SAT which shows to anybody with half a brain who thought to examine them that the values are modelled numbers not measured numbers.
The extent of the analysis provided by Zoe Phin is simply to compare the 2003-19 averages of these annual global average IR numbers and declare the upward surface IR do not vary enough between clear-sky/all-sky for clouds to play any role in any greenhouse effect. Thus Zoe declares AGW must be fake.
The averaged clear-sky/all-sky TOA upward IR numbers vary by 25Wm^-2, enough to provide 20% of a theoretical +33ºC greenhouse effect, not a million miles from what would be anticipated. But the analysis dismisses the relevance of TOA IR. We are told "Less top-of-atmosphere outgoing radiation doesn’t cause surface heating." So what does less energy leaving the planet do? Where does the energy that is now failing to exit planet Earth go? These are the questions Zoe Phin needs to answer before she continues to make a total fool of herself.
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@n8nrgmi
On February 29, 2020, the US, under the Trump administration, and the Taliban signed a peace agreement titled the Agreement for Bringing Peace to Afghanistan, with provisions including the withdrawal of all regular American and NATO troops from Afghanistan, a Taliban pledge to prevent al-Qaeda from operating in areas under Taliban control, and talks between the Taliban and the government of the then Islamic Republic of Afghanistan.
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@drlebronski
Well, I did spend a lot of time in Diego Garcia.
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Let the Taliban take over Afghanistan then nuke them. That is the only way to get rid of them. It's not like we never nuked a country before.
It would also be a good way to test our atomic bomb inventory. Remember that Trump was going to meet with the Taliban at Camp David. He probably was going to get them to attack the Capital.
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Didn't God know anything about quality control before he died?
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On April 14, 1865, John Wilkes Booth became the first person to assassinate an American president when he shot and killed Abraham Lincoln in his box at Ford's Theater in Washington. ... A supporter of slavery, Booth believed that Lincoln was determined to overthrow the Constitution and to destroy his beloved South.
Now that is a White Supremacist.
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@Fruit_Inspector
In 1900, Charles Carroll's The Negro A Beast claimed that blacks were more akin to apes than to human beings, and theorized that blacks had been the "tempters of Eve." You don't have an original copy do you?
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@TheMorningsStar
Yes, I believe there are multiple gods (gamers) creating this simulation and they get 1 point for every living creature they kill.
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My votes,
Debates
Resolved: Developing countries should prioritize environmental protection over resource extraction when the two are in conflict
Threads
Send trumpet to jail now
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Since I previously only gave 2 Users votes, I will now give my third vote to MisterChris.
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@TheUnderdog
Well stated. Political Parties came about to raise money to promote their members, but now with the Internet anyone can make their views available to everyone.
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What makes you think your afterlife will be the same as your before life
Because the 86 billion neurons in your brain will not exist after you die just like they didn't exist before you were born. You can only think in the language you learned while you were alive.
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