RE: Do Extraordinary Claims Require Extraordinary Evidence?
August 5, 2017 at 9:03 am
(This post was last modified: August 5, 2017 at 9:33 am by Mister Agenda.)
(August 4, 2017 at 12:19 pm)Neo-Scholastic Wrote:(August 4, 2017 at 11:49 am)Whateverist Wrote: Aren't you really just arguing for comfort in the face of death? Think I'll wing it without a security blanket. I'm sure I'm not worried about any awkward posthumous interview at the pearly gates. So really it just seems to be about spinning our mortality in a candy-land direction.
That's not the issue. Deciding if and when it is permissible to end a human life, what it means to be human, and how to make and live in a just society has very little do with what someone believes about the afterlife. Whether we acknowledge it or not, everyone has a philosophical world view.
How did we get from 'we shouldn't claim to know things that we don't' to the idea that any of us are saying that 'we don't or shouldn't have a philosophical world view'?
(August 4, 2017 at 1:26 pm)Neo-Scholastic Wrote: I have to wonder, when confronting fears and apprehensions about how their life will be affected by bring the child to term or caring for the severely disabled, and if people truly considered what it means to be human, they would make much different choices in such dire circumstances. These are not the only issues. We could just as easily be talking about any number of issues; I just went for the low-hanging fruit.
I have to wonder how sincere people are in their desire to reduce abortions with legal restrictions when the evidence says that ready access to birth control, sex education, and legal abortions is highly correlated with a lower abortion rate and lower maternal death rate; while banning abortions is mainly correlated with a high rate of illegal abortions and a higher maternal death rate.
(August 4, 2017 at 1:36 pm)Neo-Scholastic Wrote:(August 4, 2017 at 1:27 pm)Khemikal Wrote: Laws and prisons and good upbringing are hardly predicate on god, but they sure do end up housing a hell of alot of christers.......
It was the conviction of Quakers that changed our thinking about prison, from a place of punishment to forced penitence. That is where the word penitentiary came from.
Yet, you're not a Quaker yourself. What's the deal with people of other denominations taking credit for the decency and activism of Quakers yet not wanting to be Quakers?
(August 4, 2017 at 2:05 pm)RoadRunner79 Wrote:(August 4, 2017 at 1:59 pm)Khemikal Wrote: -add that to the pile of "atheist tendencies"...... as related by you, right up there with how they always steal your cookies.
I;ve gotta ask, if you find that people are often implying or suggesting that you're crazy....at what point do you wonder whether or not it might be you, rather than them? How does the joke go? First time a guy calls you a horse you hit him in the mouth. Third time, you look into purchasing a saddle?
I don't pay much attention, when they attack straw men, and try to speak for me or make false assumptions about motives
I can't remember anyone since my step-father quicker to make false assumptions about my motives than you.
(August 4, 2017 at 2:08 pm)Neo-Scholastic Wrote:(August 4, 2017 at 1:38 pm)Khemikal Wrote: Are quakers gods? No, they are not. So, it was the ideas of men that changed our ideas of prison. OFC, the quakers aren't around any more, and we continue to refine our model. Penitentiaries may soon become relics, as the quakers became relics...on account of being well meaning but mistaken adventures in correction. Kind of like the quakers, when you think about it.
What was the point of that?
There are still Quakers. My brother in law is one. The US would be a better place if there were more, I think.
Maybe you should think about joining them.
(August 4, 2017 at 3:01 pm)Whateverist Wrote: I suspect the number of convicted murderers who are xtian probably approaches 100% if/when they come up for parole.
It's about 65.1% on intake if you count Catholics and Protestants together.
I'm not anti-Christian. I'm anti-stupid.