-
Anti-vaccination: Is it right?same with motorsports — Isaac
Some just can't get enough rush from virus infections...? -
Anti-vaccination: Is it right?Man refused to get vaccinated even after his own father died of COVID – now he’s dead from COVID too (Aug 19, 2021)
I guess ... something ... runs in that family. -
Should the state be responsible for healthcare?I don't have a problem paying taxes so that a kid somewhere can get surgery.
Why would I?
Found in many civilized societies. -
Kalam Arguments and Causal PrinciplesWhatever begins to exist has a cause (for its existence) — Ghost Light
A special case of the principle of sufficient reason.
So, the thrust is to derive something that does not fall under the premise, something immutable or atemporal.
This, in turn, implies inert, lifeless (perhaps even kind of boring).
The closest that comes to mind is abstracts, but, either way, nothing resembling mind (experiencing, thinking, etc).
Those wishing to promote a sentient being (outside the premise), would then entertain special pleading, or have to take a path analogous to a multiverse type thing (unparsimonious, "orthogonal temporality"?).
, in modal logic, a possible world is just a self-consistent whole.
This expression thereof can make reasoning easier. -
Madness is rolling over Afghanistan
-
Madness is rolling over AfghanistanI'm thinking the main concern is the regular Afghan, the future.
The Taliban are kind of disparate, in that what the "top" states in public don't reflect what some (tribal) Taliban guys actually do without repercussions.
What might be done in the interest of the regular Afghan? Nothing?
• The fall of Afghanistan is the result of a financial judgement (upd Aug 16, 2021)
• Afghanistan’s all-girls robotics team ‘begging’ Canada to help escape Taliban (Aug 17, 2021) -
Madness is rolling over AfghanistanPls America kindly fuck off from the face of the Earth outside of America kthx. — StreetlightX
@StreetlightX, you really should open a new post about the follies of the US.
The evil presidents, "world police", pandemic mis/handling, war profiteering, (mad) political system, leaked (otherwise withheld/denied) wickedness, colonialist empire-building, "Big Pharma", fascist discrimination, genocidal'ish foreign policy/action, ... Plenty (sub)topics to analyze. -
Madness is rolling over AfghanistanRecord number of refugees fleeing to Afghanistan
Aug 17, 2021
KABUL, AFGHANISTAN—After the successful installation of the Taliban government in Afghanistan, their new offices and processing centers have received more refugees, VISA and citizen applications than they currently have capacity for.
"We have families with young children living in tents right outside", said Ahmad Qahar, an official of the Afghan immigration agency, pointing at the would-be shanty town outside.
The unprecedented situation has put a heavy strain on Afghan resources, and they have approached the UN for assistance.
"With the uncertain future and potential dangers, our family quickly decided to get on the first plane to Kabul", said Mei Cy, a Singaporean national. Similar sentiments have been expressed all around the globe, like Yael (from an unspecified Middle Eastern region) and Swedish Björn, who wished to otherwise remain anonymous.
With the US finally opening their borders for residents wanting to exit, the Taliban authorities could be faced with a larger influx still, and, without help from the international community, the fall could see humanitarian disasters. -
What can replace God??So what you suggest is [...] — dimosthenis9
... that religious texts don't define morals, aren't authoritative, and the diverse gods aren't around, are useless/irrelevant in the matter.
It's on us, always was, so we better cultivate and nurture moral awareness.
Prescribed rule-following maintained by hope for eternal bliss (reward, safety), and fear of damnation forevermore (punishment, threat), doesn't make a person moral, though it could make them scary/dangerous. It’s merely motivated self-interest. Sure, if there are persons out there that would misbehave if not for a virtual leash (hope for, or fear of, otherworldly consequences), then, by all means, they should remain leashed. -
What can replace God??What can replace God?? — dimosthenis9
Reality? Truth? Learning?
We can pass moral judgment on religious texts, they therefore do not define morals.
If the diverse religious adherents didn't speak on their behalfs, the gods would become silent. -
Madness is rolling over Afghanistan
-
Madness is rolling over AfghanistanI wonder what the situation might now be if, say, one of those trillions had been used to foster a very large number of Afghani teenagers for a few months in a western country. — Banno
Great idea.
Use some on mining, farming (not opium), schools, teachers.
Don't know how easy/difficult all that would have been some 20 years back.
A decade ago, it might have been easy enough, maybe. -
Madness is rolling over AfghanistanThere are a few historically and politically savvy people around here. — jorndoe
And a bit of ranters ranting. :)
Afghanistan Falls To Taliban Couple Hours Earlier Than Expected (Aug 16, 2021)
Afghanistan's untold story: Stability, tourists, miniskirts (Aug 19, 2009)
To my understanding, the next generation of Taliban are considerably less intransigent and fanatical than the previous one, and, so, the fears of what the upcoming regime will be like are kind of overblown. — thewonder
Let's hope so. (y) They now have iPhones, not quite a rejection of non-archaic/medieval life. Involving them, talking, showing, etc, might help some. -
Madness is rolling over AfghanistanWe'll see if the Taliban movement has improved, which would be a welcome development.
Say, don't prevent whoever (not just mothers with children) from leaving, and taking their belongings with them. Allow anyone to discontinue membership of their religious ideology, implement opt-in. Set up a reasonably fair and impartial court/legal system, equal for all. ...
Wikipedia » Taliban » Condemned practices -
Madness is rolling over Afghanistan, sure, I guess "the West" took part in getting the Taliban going - the USSR, the US, Pakistan, ...
Either way, the movement was and is religiously motivated, and currently on a crusade.
They're not inherently Afghan, though, they have presence/networks in neighboring countries as well.
The UN has asked the Taliban to chill - not going to happen, probably hardly even heard.
With fairly well-defined borders and no external resistance/interference, their goal is in sight.
They have been confronted by whoever before, and cries for help ain't new.
Uncertain/unpleasant future for some, Sharia for all.
Hopefully, the Taliban caliphate won't be as bad as Daesh.
Many Americans understandably don't want to send their young people off into a fire across the globe, and return missing a foot.
Anyway, "the religious students" will have a country of their own, to do with as they like. -
Madness is rolling over Afghanistan, well, what can anyone suggest...?
There are a few historically and politically savvy people around here.
Afghanistan seems to be converging on a rough theocracy, basic human rights out the window, oppression of females, ..., while we watch, before switching over to the food'n'shopping channel. -
CoronavirusRIP Jason Hargrove of Detroit. :(
• 'Take This Serious': Bus Driver Dies Of COVID-19 After Calling Out Coughing Rider (NPR, Apr 2020)
• 11 Days After Fuming About a Coughing Passenger, a Bus Driver Died From the Coronavirus (NYT, Apr 2020)
• Detroit bus driver who complained about a coughing passenger dies of coronavirus days later (WP, Apr 2020)
Understandable if his family/friends are p!ssed at contrarians/anti-vaxxers. :angry:
• The vaccinated are angry. That's understandable but unproductive, health experts say (USA TODAY, Aug 2021)
(FYI, I have a short page elsewhere with some lessons learned from the pandemic; doesn't inspire much general trust in fellow humans.) -
Motivated BeliefThere's a related notion called motivated reasoning.
A terrifying new theory: Fake news and conspiracy theories as an evolutionary strategy (Paul Rosenberg, Salon, Aug 2021)
This isn't so much about formation of belief as about social dynamics. -
Coronavirus[...] Honestly, I couldn't care less if the clearly insane conspiracy theorists are given a slot on Farcebook or not. Any restriction on actual scientific research is a hundred times more worrying than the media circus platforms of a few tinfoil hats. — Isaac
Right. Such ulterior motives for (not) publishing ain't cool.
There's a separate problem involved, let's call it tunnel vision.
Say, if 90 studies show the veracity of a vaccine, and 10 show downsides, then weighing all available evidence is equally warranted. That's not always what happens, though, since skeptics/deniers/clowns might just see risks, where subject matter experts acquire a better, more relevant overview.
Sure, "doing your own research" is fine, as long as you know what that means. No tunnel vision, context, bigger picture, overview, histories of similar events, don't just dismiss subject matter experts and turn to deniers. Especially in quarrels/preaching. -
Donald Trump (All General Trump Conversations Here)Some journalists have found some names, money, events, ...
The Big Money Behind the Big Lie (Jane Mayer, The New Yorker)
The Georgia runoffs later confirmed the election results, though.I don’t think we can say with certainty who won. I believe there were more illegal votes cast than the margin of victory. The only remedy is a new election. — Cleta Mitchell
Big-Money Republican Donors Are Now Backing the GOP’s War on Fair Elections (Joan Walsh, The Nation)
In the US, given a good chunk of dollars, can you purchase fraud that wasn't there? If you keep going long enough? -
Objective Morality: Testing for the existence of objective morality.Wouldn't morals be a scientific matter if they were objective?
-
Necessity and god(trying to catch up here...)
Did anything come of this...? Seems to have gone off-track. -
The end of universal collapse?, still wondering ...
Talk about the state of anything when it is not being observed is empty words. — Wayfarer
you really want to elevate yourself to a condition of existence? Universalize self-dependence? :brow: Let's talk about Mars.
We can easily and meaningfully talk about Mars onlookers or not. -
The end of universal collapse?
-
Constrained Realism : Ontological Implications of Epistemic AccessDoes substantial mean real in that context? If someone didn't believe the world was real he would be a solipsist — Gregory
Not sure (yet), was hoping someone else had ventured down this rabbit hole. -
Is progression in the fossil record in the eye of the beholderSo to wrap this thread up, can we say we don't need to know the full adaptive biology of successive species to know that they evolve from each other? — Gregory
Seems unlikely that we could dig up a complete continuum of past life.
We're also burning some of the remains in our cars.
In a sense, every species was/is subject to mutation/change over time, i.e. transitional, only once extinct did that end.
• The Fossil Fallacy
• Transitional Tetrapod Fossil
• Evolution: What missing link?
• Transitional Forms: The Evidence for Evolution by Natural Selection
• Transitional forms
• List of transitional fossils
-
What is 'evil', and does it exist objectively? The metaphysics of good and evil.The nerd in me compels me to quote
You say you are true evil? Shall I tell you what true evil is? It is to submit to you. It is when we surrender our freedom, our dignity, instead of defying you. — Picard (TNG S1E23) -
A new model of empathy: The ratPeople suck? — Benkei
That we are more appropriately considered vermin than are rats. — Ciceronianus the White
What new might we learn? :) -
Climate change denialBit of July reading
6th — Anthropogenic influence on extreme precipitation over global land areas seen in multiple observational datasets
8th — NASA's AIRS Tracks Record-Breaking Heat Wave in Pacific Northwest
9th — We need a carbon-removal industry – should polluting companies pay for it?
13th — ESA and NASA join forces to understand climate change
16th — Dr James Hansen on climate: June 2021 global temperature update
18th — Germany knew the floods were coming, but the warnings didn’t work -
A new model of empathy: The ratthinking of empathy as a sort of proto-morality is putting the cart before the horse — T Clark
A taunting torturer can use empathy for bad. Empathy itself does not entail doing the right thing, but can just help understanding others.
(At least the rat experiment didn't show any taunting, as far as I can tell.) :)
Ages ago I read that some have less empathy and tend to make moral decisions based on perceived consequences, but this has been shown wrong.
Anyway, maybe the main thing that can be learned from these experiments, is that whatever morals (can) have emerged via biological evolution, even though we cannot derive such morals from biological evolution itself. -
Necessity and godYou're letting yourself be dragged onto their turf, exactly what I warned against. — baker
How do you figure? -
Can we explain the mystery of existence?[...] information [...] information [...] information [...] information [...] — Pop
Hypostatization extraordinaire? -
Necessity and godWhy must it be broken? Justify. — baker
Because people shouldn't replace morals with Leviticus 20:13 (for example)?
Incidentally, inquiring into possible readings of Leviticus 20:13 was run elsewhere (facebook) not long ago.
Some responded that the edict only applied to those tribes back then, others raised translation problems, others still suggested that it's not for humans to take action but leave it to post-mortem judgment, yet others held the US Declaration of Independence over the Bible, ... So, some of those responses were seemingly due to employing morals not defined by the Bible.
As anticipated, enough people in the groups were hesitant or silent or outright refused to give straight answers, one might hope due to moral quandaries, rather than fear of being boo'd out of town or something.
Anyway, it became clear enough that the passage can be read in detrimental ways by someone, and leaning in such a direction is just one step away, ... And that's sufficient to deny the Bible as a moral authority.
In Islam, there's a common sentiment that one must submit wholly to the Quranic Allah, and apply the Quran (and Hadith) to all aspects of life, which exposes a similar problem.
(nope, I'm not homosexual myself, not that it matters, I'm just a regular heterosexual, in case you're thinking of motives/self-preservation) -
Can we explain the mystery of existence?Perhaps not, but this fact itself is part of the answer to the question. No? Or do we just stop enquiring? — Pop
Stop? Heck no. :) We don't need omniscience to know something. And curiosity is also a thing. -
Can we explain the mystery of existence?Suppose we did find ... some explanation. Then what of explaining that explanation?
Can there be an explanation that does not admit further inquiry, even in principle?
If not, then we may just find ourselves on some indefinite path of exploration.
Hence the diallelus: The Problem of the Criterion (IEP), Regress argument (Wikipedia).
Either way, artificial stop-gaps aren't it. Back to work it is, I guess.
There are questions to which the only honest response is (presently): "Don't know." And that makes for a fair amount of dishonesty out there. -
Necessity and godQuit the rambling, .
Someone (a few) declared that God is a necessary being. And that's what the thread is about. If you come up with some different definition then that's not what the thread is about. *shrug*
Inability to come up with a self-consistent (possible) world without any given being (or mind or whatever) is an argument from incredulity. You see Yahweh or life or Bartricks in R3 or Q3?
Anyway, ramblery and wasting time go hand-in-hand, over and out. -
Necessity and god, they have to justify their claims proportionally and relevantly.
"scientismists" :D A new word added to my vocabulary
Science is descriptive, morals are prescriptive. -
Necessity and godLet the believers believe and the nonbelievers not. — Hanover
I beg to differ on one peripheral account, though of course anyone is free to believe whatever.
Until the diverse preachers indoctrinators proselytizers chill out, they should expect others asking them to justify their claims. In case they impose their faiths on others, politics, have their faiths interfere in other peoples' lives, whatever social matters, etc, then they should expect all the more. (Incidentally, Leviticus 20:13 came up recently elsewhere; responses varied.)
If they just want to exchange stories, or they keep their religious faiths to themselves, then sure, no problemo. -
Necessity and godA "necessary fact" is only true in (all) impossible worlds. — 180 Proof
Unless you include the abstracs that were presupposed by the logic itself in the first place (like consistency), I guess.
But who the heck ever worshiped, assigned mind to, personified, chatted with, wrote religious scriptures about "the law of consistency"?
There are various entities which, if they exist, would be candidates for necessary beings: God, propositions, relations, properties, states of affairs, possible worlds, and numbers, among others. Note that the first entity in this list is a concrete entity, while the rest are abstract entities. — God and Other Necessary Beings (SEP)
jorndoe
Start FollowingSend a Message
- Other sites we like
- Social media
- Terms of Service
- Sign In
- Created with PlushForums
- © 2025 The Philosophy Forum