Somebody asked this dumb question: "Do atheists make a claim when they say that God does not exist?"
••••••••••••••••••
A retard wrote this bullshit:
"Most atheists are agnostic atheists, so they do not make that claim."
••••••••••••••••••
What I wrote for these fucktards:
If that's true then most atheists are morons.
The word "atheist" does not require any adjectives. A person is either 100% certain god fairies are not real or a person is a fucking idiot.
Tuesday, March 31, 2020
Monday, March 30, 2020
Not a good day but it could have been worse.
As I write this my rating is 2046. I belong in the 1900s so I expect to be killed repeatedly.
My lichess.org profile
Where I play chess: https://lichess.org/
Where I play chess: https://lichess.org/
America has something called a "wall of separation between church and state". These days, because of the coronavirus thing, we have a wall of separation between cashier and customer.
Google:
Jefferson's concept of "separation of church and state" first became a part of Establishment Clause jurisprudence in Reynolds v. ... Citing Jefferson, the court concluded that "The First Amendment has erected a wall between church and state. That wall must be kept high and impregnable."
•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
Here in the northwestern Illinois farm town where I live there are zero people infected with the coronavirus but we are not taking any chances. Our schools are closed. Our restaurants are closed. Our wonderful library is closed. And today I noticed at the grocery store they have a glass wall between the cashier and the customer. There are signs that say customers should keep a safe distance from other customers.
I looked something up. Most of the churches are closed. That's a good thing. The customers (aka suckers) will find out there are better things to do on a Sunday morning than praying to a god fairy that doesn't exist.
Jefferson's concept of "separation of church and state" first became a part of Establishment Clause jurisprudence in Reynolds v. ... Citing Jefferson, the court concluded that "The First Amendment has erected a wall between church and state. That wall must be kept high and impregnable."
•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
Here in the northwestern Illinois farm town where I live there are zero people infected with the coronavirus but we are not taking any chances. Our schools are closed. Our restaurants are closed. Our wonderful library is closed. And today I noticed at the grocery store they have a glass wall between the cashier and the customer. There are signs that say customers should keep a safe distance from other customers.
I looked something up. Most of the churches are closed. That's a good thing. The customers (aka suckers) will find out there are better things to do on a Sunday morning than praying to a god fairy that doesn't exist.
Prokofiev - Lieutenant Kijé suite op.60
Lieutenant Kijé (Prokofiev)
| Lieutenant Kijé | |
|---|---|
| Film music and orchestral suite by Sergei Prokofiev | |
From the film advertising poster, by Izrail Bograd
| |
| Catalogue | (suite) Op. 60 |
| Composed | 1933–34 |
| Duration | (suite) approx. 20 minutes |
| Premiere | |
| Date | (suite) 21 December 1934 |
| Location | Paris |
| Conductor | Sergei Prokofiev |
Sergei Prokofiev's Lieutenant Kijé (Russian: Поручик Киже, Poruchik Kizhe) music was originally written to accompany the film of the same name, produced by the Belgoskino film studios in Leningrad in 1933–34 and released in March 1934. It was Prokofiev's first attempt at film music, and his first commission.
In the early days of sound cinema, among the various distinguished composers ready to try their hand at film music, Prokofiev was not an obvious choice for the commission. Based in Paris for almost a decade, he had a reputation for experimentation and dissonance, characteristics at odds with the cultural norms of the Soviet Union. By early 1933, however, Prokofiev was anxious to return to his homeland, and saw the film commission as an opportunity to write music in a more popular and accessible style.
After the film's successful release, the five-movement Kijé suite was first performed in December 1934, and quickly became part of the international concert repertoire. It has remained one of the composer's best-known and most frequently recorded works. Elements of the suite's score have been used in several later films, and in two popular songs of the Cold War era.
An interesting scientific fact: If an asteroid didn't wipe out the dinosaurs 66 million years ago, our small mammals ancestors would still be hiding under the ground and on the top of trees. There would be no human apes. We would not exist.
New Fossil Discovery Offers Glimpse into the Day the Dinosaurs Died | NOVA | PBS
A mass of fossilized fish, uncovered in North Dakota, appear to preserve the catastrophic fallout of the asteroid impact that wiped out the dinosaurs.
A mass of fossilized fish, uncovered in North Dakota, appear to preserve the catastrophic fallout of the asteroid impact that wiped out the dinosaurs.
I answered a question about the Magic Jeebus Man.
"Is Jesus God or the Son of God?"
The Magic Jeebus Man is the son of the Magic Man.
Can you imagine the stupidity required to believe this ridiculous Christian bullshit?
The Magic Jeebus Man is the son of the Magic Man.
Can you imagine the stupidity required to believe this ridiculous Christian bullshit?
"Every creature that’s ever lived, including you, has been honed by the powerful force of evolution. Play NOVA's Evolution Lab to learn how it’s responsible for the explosion of Earth's biodiversity."
More NOVA PBS YouTube videos about evolution:
https://www.youtube.com/user/NOVAonline/search?query=evolution
Sunday, March 29, 2020
The senile Joe Biden is the Democratic candidate for President but he said he was a candidate for the United States Senate. I'm not making this up. The Democrats selected a fucking moron to be our next president.
Wall Street Journal
White House Extends Social-Distancing Guidelines Until End of April
The comment I wrote at the Wall Street Journal:
America needs to get people back to work again. The end of April sounds reasonable but it might have to be extended again.
Some people don't like Trump. I'm one of them. His love for trade wars is ridiculous. Unfortunately his opponent in November is Biden who is senile. Biden recently said "I'm a Democratic candidate for United States Senate." I could not vote for someone like that.
It's worse than I thought. Biden is a fucking retard. The next video is my evidence:
"Joe Biden's 'confused crazy rants' should have discounted him years ago."
Some more stuff about Biden's problem:
Trump and GOP mount coordinated campaign to paint Biden as senile.
White House Extends Social-Distancing Guidelines Until End of April
The comment I wrote at the Wall Street Journal:
America needs to get people back to work again. The end of April sounds reasonable but it might have to be extended again.
Some people don't like Trump. I'm one of them. His love for trade wars is ridiculous. Unfortunately his opponent in November is Biden who is senile. Biden recently said "I'm a Democratic candidate for United States Senate." I could not vote for someone like that.
It's worse than I thought. Biden is a fucking retard. The next video is my evidence:
"Joe Biden's 'confused crazy rants' should have discounted him years ago."
Some more stuff about Biden's problem:
Trump and GOP mount coordinated campaign to paint Biden as senile.
An interesting story about people who eat people. I prefer chicken thighs.
The people who ate people in 1972 are god-soaked. They belong to the idiotic disgusting Catholic Church.
This is from National Geographic: "After the Plane Crash—and the Cannibalism—a Life of Hope."
You also practiced cannibalism. Talk us through your feelings at the time—and why you call it “a generous death.”
Cannibalism is when you kill someone, so technically this is what is known as anthropophagy. I’ve had these discussions for 40 years. I don’t care. We had to eat these dead bodies, and that was it. The flesh had protein and fat, which we needed, like cow meat. I was also used to medical procedures so it was easier for me to make the first cut. The decision to accept it intellectually is only one step, though. The next step is to actually do it. And that was very tough. Your mouth doesn’t want to open because you feel so miserable and sad about what you have to do.
My main issue was that I was invading the privacy of my friends: raping their dignity by invading their bodies. But then I thought, if I were killed I would feel proud that my body could be used for others to survive. I feel that I shared a piece of my friends not only materially but spiritually because their will to live was transmitted to us through their flesh. We made a pact that, if we died, we would be happy to put our bodies to the service of the rest of the team.
••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
This is from Wikipedia: Wikipedia - Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571
Upon being rescued, the survivors initially explained that they had eaten some cheese and other food they had carried with them, and then local plants and herbs. They planned to discuss the details of how they survived, including their cannibalism, in private with their families. Rumors circulated in Montevideo immediately after the rescue that the survivors had killed some of the others for food.[34] On 23 December news reports of cannibalism were published worldwide, except in Uruguay. On 26 December two pictures taken by members of Cuerpo de Socorro Andino (Andean Relief Corps) of a half-eaten human leg were printed on the front page of two Chilean newspapers, El Mercurio and La Tercera de la Hora,[2] who reported that all survivors resorted to cannibalism.[35]
The survivors held a press conference on 28 December at Stella Maris College in Montevideo, where they recounted the events of the past 72 days.[23] Alfredo Delgado spoke for the survivors. He compared their actions to that of Jesus Christ at the Last Supper, during which He gave his disciples the Eucharist.[36][37] The survivors received public backlash initially, but after they explained the pact the survivors had made to sacrifice their flesh if they died to help the others survive, the outcry diminished and the families were more understanding.[18]
••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
The movie:
••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
I recommend this stuff about cannibalism:
http://darwinkilledgod.blogspot.com/2019/03/everything-you-didnt-want-to-know-about.html
This is from National Geographic: "After the Plane Crash—and the Cannibalism—a Life of Hope."
You also practiced cannibalism. Talk us through your feelings at the time—and why you call it “a generous death.”
Cannibalism is when you kill someone, so technically this is what is known as anthropophagy. I’ve had these discussions for 40 years. I don’t care. We had to eat these dead bodies, and that was it. The flesh had protein and fat, which we needed, like cow meat. I was also used to medical procedures so it was easier for me to make the first cut. The decision to accept it intellectually is only one step, though. The next step is to actually do it. And that was very tough. Your mouth doesn’t want to open because you feel so miserable and sad about what you have to do.
My main issue was that I was invading the privacy of my friends: raping their dignity by invading their bodies. But then I thought, if I were killed I would feel proud that my body could be used for others to survive. I feel that I shared a piece of my friends not only materially but spiritually because their will to live was transmitted to us through their flesh. We made a pact that, if we died, we would be happy to put our bodies to the service of the rest of the team.
••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
This is from Wikipedia: Wikipedia - Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571
Upon being rescued, the survivors initially explained that they had eaten some cheese and other food they had carried with them, and then local plants and herbs. They planned to discuss the details of how they survived, including their cannibalism, in private with their families. Rumors circulated in Montevideo immediately after the rescue that the survivors had killed some of the others for food.[34] On 23 December news reports of cannibalism were published worldwide, except in Uruguay. On 26 December two pictures taken by members of Cuerpo de Socorro Andino (Andean Relief Corps) of a half-eaten human leg were printed on the front page of two Chilean newspapers, El Mercurio and La Tercera de la Hora,[2] who reported that all survivors resorted to cannibalism.[35]
The survivors held a press conference on 28 December at Stella Maris College in Montevideo, where they recounted the events of the past 72 days.[23] Alfredo Delgado spoke for the survivors. He compared their actions to that of Jesus Christ at the Last Supper, during which He gave his disciples the Eucharist.[36][37] The survivors received public backlash initially, but after they explained the pact the survivors had made to sacrifice their flesh if they died to help the others survive, the outcry diminished and the families were more understanding.[18]
••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
The movie:
••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
I recommend this stuff about cannibalism:
http://darwinkilledgod.blogspot.com/2019/03/everything-you-didnt-want-to-know-about.html
One more time to help liberal loons understand.
Washington Post
President Trump and former vice president Joe Biden are in a tightly competitive race for the White House in the November general election, with the president gaining ground on his likely challenger over the past month as the coronavirus pandemic convulses the country, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll.
••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
This is what I wrote in the comments:
I watched the Biden video. Biden is going to lose.
One more time to help Democrats understand. The only candidate who could defeat Trump is Mike Bloomberg. But you people selected the senile Biden.
Thanks Democrats. Now we are stuck with Trump for 4 more years and it's your fault.
President Trump and former vice president Joe Biden are in a tightly competitive race for the White House in the November general election, with the president gaining ground on his likely challenger over the past month as the coronavirus pandemic convulses the country, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll.
••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
This is what I wrote in the comments:
I watched the Biden video. Biden is going to lose.
One more time to help Democrats understand. The only candidate who could defeat Trump is Mike Bloomberg. But you people selected the senile Biden.
Thanks Democrats. Now we are stuck with Trump for 4 more years and it's your fault.
The ridiculous god fantasy is good for nothing but brainwashing, violence, and stupidity. Anyone who believes a god is real or might be real is a stupid fucking asshole.
New York Times
THE STONE
Why God Is a Moral Issue
BY MICHAEL RUSE
MARCH 23, 2015
The New Atheists are not a comfortable group of people. They have scornful contempt for those with whom they differ — that includes religious believers, agnostics and other atheists who don’t share their vehement brand of nonbelief. They are self-confident to a degree that seems designed to irritate. And they have an ignorance of anything beyond their fields to an extent remarkable even in modern academia. They also have a moral passion unknown outside the pages of the Old Testament. For that, we can forgive much.
When asked in Ireland a few years ago about the abuse of children by priests, Richard Dawkins — who, along with Sam Harris and the late Christopher Hitchens, is among the best known of the New Atheists — responded that he was more concerned about bringing a child up Catholic in the first place. You don’t say something like that seriously — and Dawkins is always serious — without a deep sense that something is dreadfully morally wrong. The whole system is rotten, this stance shouts, and corrupting to the core.
Now at one level you can understand the feelings. Religious belief and disputes have certainly propelled amoral behavior — in Northern Ireland during the Troubles, for example, or on 9/11, or more recently in the horrific murders of the Charlie Hebdo staff in Paris. It is hard not to see the hand of religion in things like this and to regret that people can be thus motivated to be so cruel to their fellow human beings. The sadism of shooting someone in the back so they will never walk again because they are a Catholic not a Protestant — or any such variation — is nauseating.
The New Atheists are not the first to feel this way. One can go back to the Greeks (and especially to the dialogues of Plato) to find those who argued in a similar fashion. And certainly in the thought and writings of others throughout history —Diderot in the 18th century, or Robert Ingersoll in the 19th, or Bertrand Russell in the 20th — we find the same sort of moral passion.
What is truly striking is that atheists of Dawkins’s stripe don’t just say that believing in God is an intellectual mistake. They also claim that it’s morally wrong to believe in the existence of God or gods.
You might think there is something a little funny here. The basic question is not about religion in all its diversity and complexity. It’s about whether God exists. Either God (let us stay for convenience with one God, the God of theism) exists or God does not exist. Belief in God, seen this way, is not a moral matter. Whether two plus two equals four is not a moral question: It does. You should believe it. End of argument. Same with God.
The trouble is that the God question is not so easily solved as the mathematical one — and this, as we’ll see, is what leads to moral issues. There are arguments going both ways. Take one positive case for a moment, the “argument from design.”
This is a pretty remarkable state of affairs that we have here — planets, suns, organisms, humans and so forth. Why is there any of it? Why is there something rather than nothing? This question is not about the Big Bang or if anything went before. It is about the very fact of existence. One doesn’t expect something like this, with its astounding interdependency and innumerable complex parts functioning in service of the whole, to just happen.
The existence of consciousness, or sentience, can be seen in the same way. Brain science has thrown a lot of light on the way we think, but the very fact of thinking is a puzzle. And the problem is that there doesn’t seem to be a lot of progress forward. We know a lot about how conscious states are correlated with brain states, but this tells us nothing about how consciousness as we experience it could be a brain state.
Can such a wonderful universe be entirely without point?
Is everything we humans do — heroic sacrifices like Sophie Scholl of the White Rose group going bravely to her death for distributing pamphlets against Hitler and the war or the marches on Selma — nothing but a cosmic game? But then you start to look at the other side.
According to many monotheistic religions, God is supposed to be both all loving and all powerful. If so, why does he/she allow human suffering? For war, starvation or painful diseases to exist? And more to the point, perhaps, why does he allow the abuse of children by members of the clergy of his/her own religion, whether they be Catholic priests, Jewish rabbis, Muslim clerics or Protestant pastors?
This is only a small sample of what is going on in the minds of atheists. Yes, there are good reasons to think that there is more than meets the eye. But no, the Christian and other theistic solutions are simply not adequate. So, if there are so many problems with theistic belief, why do people continue to take it seriously? There are other modes of objection: If the Christian God is absolute how could such an astonishing variety of alternative beliefs flourish? Why does the Pope believe one thing and the Dalai Lama believe something completely different? Not just a bit different — like the variations in belief between Jews and Catholics — but completely different. Calvinists say that we have a “sensus divinitatis” — a kind of direct Skype to God — that needs no justification but that lets us know without argument that God exists and is good. But why then doesn’t the Dalai Lama know this? The Calvinist might answer that his sense is clouded by original sin. But does one really think that the Dalai Lama is befogged by original sin in a way that a televangelist in Florida is not? Surely no one could be quite this insensitive.
The truth is that many don’t. In parts of the world where people are allowed and encouraged to take these things seriously and to think them through, people increasingly find that they can do without the God factor. It is in places where one is being indoctrinated from childhood and bullied in adulthood that people continue with God belief.
There is also a feeling that when people are given the chance to decide for themselves and still stay religious it is for the wrong reasons. The evidence is against it, so why do it? Because you are afraid of death or into wish fulfillment or some such thing. I suspect we can all speak to this to some extent.
When I was 13 and had just gone off to boarding school, my 33-year-old mother died suddenly. I have spent my whole life wanting just one last hour of conversation with her. But that is no good reason to believe in God and the afterlife. To behave this way is to be like someone who buys a lottery ticket with their last pennies and thinks they will win. This sort of irrational behavior is not worthy of a human being.
You might say that you still cannot deny that there might be something, of an order we cannot conceive. The biologist J. B. S. Haldane said: “My own suspicion is that the Universe is not only queerer than we suppose, but queerer than we can suppose.” Perhaps so and I would not be surprised if a lot of people go along with this. That, however, is no reason to believe in Christianity or Judaism or any of the other religions. Even more, it seems morally repugnant to accept — if not rejoice in — living in a world ruled by the God of religions.
This is what motivated nonbelievers down through the ages. It is what motivated John Stuart Mill to say, when he rejected the Christian doctrine of a good God: “I will call no being good who is not what I mean when I apply that epithet to my fellow creatures; and if such a creature can sentence me to hell for not so calling him, to hell I will go.”
The moral repugnance is only increased when we see the self-deception and indoctrination that leads people to accept such astounding claims on such paltry evidence. Here it is worth recalling the Victorian philosopher and mathematician W. K. Clifford’s admonition: “It is wrong always, everywhere, and for anyone, to believe anything upon insufficient evidence.” That universal claim may be too strong. But too often religious believers seem oblivious to Clifford’s admonition and accept things with way too little evidence.
That I much suspect is what motivates the New Atheists and in fact expresses the deepest and most powerful moral objection to theism.
Read Gary Gutting’s 2014 interview with Micheal Ruse for The Stone.
Michael Ruse is a professor of philosophy at Florida State University and the author “Atheism: What Everyone Needs to Know.”
Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook and Twitter.
THE STONE
Why God Is a Moral Issue
BY MICHAEL RUSE
MARCH 23, 2015
The New Atheists are not a comfortable group of people. They have scornful contempt for those with whom they differ — that includes religious believers, agnostics and other atheists who don’t share their vehement brand of nonbelief. They are self-confident to a degree that seems designed to irritate. And they have an ignorance of anything beyond their fields to an extent remarkable even in modern academia. They also have a moral passion unknown outside the pages of the Old Testament. For that, we can forgive much.
When asked in Ireland a few years ago about the abuse of children by priests, Richard Dawkins — who, along with Sam Harris and the late Christopher Hitchens, is among the best known of the New Atheists — responded that he was more concerned about bringing a child up Catholic in the first place. You don’t say something like that seriously — and Dawkins is always serious — without a deep sense that something is dreadfully morally wrong. The whole system is rotten, this stance shouts, and corrupting to the core.
Now at one level you can understand the feelings. Religious belief and disputes have certainly propelled amoral behavior — in Northern Ireland during the Troubles, for example, or on 9/11, or more recently in the horrific murders of the Charlie Hebdo staff in Paris. It is hard not to see the hand of religion in things like this and to regret that people can be thus motivated to be so cruel to their fellow human beings. The sadism of shooting someone in the back so they will never walk again because they are a Catholic not a Protestant — or any such variation — is nauseating.
The New Atheists are not the first to feel this way. One can go back to the Greeks (and especially to the dialogues of Plato) to find those who argued in a similar fashion. And certainly in the thought and writings of others throughout history —Diderot in the 18th century, or Robert Ingersoll in the 19th, or Bertrand Russell in the 20th — we find the same sort of moral passion.
What is truly striking is that atheists of Dawkins’s stripe don’t just say that believing in God is an intellectual mistake. They also claim that it’s morally wrong to believe in the existence of God or gods.
You might think there is something a little funny here. The basic question is not about religion in all its diversity and complexity. It’s about whether God exists. Either God (let us stay for convenience with one God, the God of theism) exists or God does not exist. Belief in God, seen this way, is not a moral matter. Whether two plus two equals four is not a moral question: It does. You should believe it. End of argument. Same with God.
The trouble is that the God question is not so easily solved as the mathematical one — and this, as we’ll see, is what leads to moral issues. There are arguments going both ways. Take one positive case for a moment, the “argument from design.”
This is a pretty remarkable state of affairs that we have here — planets, suns, organisms, humans and so forth. Why is there any of it? Why is there something rather than nothing? This question is not about the Big Bang or if anything went before. It is about the very fact of existence. One doesn’t expect something like this, with its astounding interdependency and innumerable complex parts functioning in service of the whole, to just happen.
The existence of consciousness, or sentience, can be seen in the same way. Brain science has thrown a lot of light on the way we think, but the very fact of thinking is a puzzle. And the problem is that there doesn’t seem to be a lot of progress forward. We know a lot about how conscious states are correlated with brain states, but this tells us nothing about how consciousness as we experience it could be a brain state.
Can such a wonderful universe be entirely without point?
Is everything we humans do — heroic sacrifices like Sophie Scholl of the White Rose group going bravely to her death for distributing pamphlets against Hitler and the war or the marches on Selma — nothing but a cosmic game? But then you start to look at the other side.
According to many monotheistic religions, God is supposed to be both all loving and all powerful. If so, why does he/she allow human suffering? For war, starvation or painful diseases to exist? And more to the point, perhaps, why does he allow the abuse of children by members of the clergy of his/her own religion, whether they be Catholic priests, Jewish rabbis, Muslim clerics or Protestant pastors?
This is only a small sample of what is going on in the minds of atheists. Yes, there are good reasons to think that there is more than meets the eye. But no, the Christian and other theistic solutions are simply not adequate. So, if there are so many problems with theistic belief, why do people continue to take it seriously? There are other modes of objection: If the Christian God is absolute how could such an astonishing variety of alternative beliefs flourish? Why does the Pope believe one thing and the Dalai Lama believe something completely different? Not just a bit different — like the variations in belief between Jews and Catholics — but completely different. Calvinists say that we have a “sensus divinitatis” — a kind of direct Skype to God — that needs no justification but that lets us know without argument that God exists and is good. But why then doesn’t the Dalai Lama know this? The Calvinist might answer that his sense is clouded by original sin. But does one really think that the Dalai Lama is befogged by original sin in a way that a televangelist in Florida is not? Surely no one could be quite this insensitive.
The truth is that many don’t. In parts of the world where people are allowed and encouraged to take these things seriously and to think them through, people increasingly find that they can do without the God factor. It is in places where one is being indoctrinated from childhood and bullied in adulthood that people continue with God belief.
There is also a feeling that when people are given the chance to decide for themselves and still stay religious it is for the wrong reasons. The evidence is against it, so why do it? Because you are afraid of death or into wish fulfillment or some such thing. I suspect we can all speak to this to some extent.
When I was 13 and had just gone off to boarding school, my 33-year-old mother died suddenly. I have spent my whole life wanting just one last hour of conversation with her. But that is no good reason to believe in God and the afterlife. To behave this way is to be like someone who buys a lottery ticket with their last pennies and thinks they will win. This sort of irrational behavior is not worthy of a human being.
You might say that you still cannot deny that there might be something, of an order we cannot conceive. The biologist J. B. S. Haldane said: “My own suspicion is that the Universe is not only queerer than we suppose, but queerer than we can suppose.” Perhaps so and I would not be surprised if a lot of people go along with this. That, however, is no reason to believe in Christianity or Judaism or any of the other religions. Even more, it seems morally repugnant to accept — if not rejoice in — living in a world ruled by the God of religions.
This is what motivated nonbelievers down through the ages. It is what motivated John Stuart Mill to say, when he rejected the Christian doctrine of a good God: “I will call no being good who is not what I mean when I apply that epithet to my fellow creatures; and if such a creature can sentence me to hell for not so calling him, to hell I will go.”
The moral repugnance is only increased when we see the self-deception and indoctrination that leads people to accept such astounding claims on such paltry evidence. Here it is worth recalling the Victorian philosopher and mathematician W. K. Clifford’s admonition: “It is wrong always, everywhere, and for anyone, to believe anything upon insufficient evidence.” That universal claim may be too strong. But too often religious believers seem oblivious to Clifford’s admonition and accept things with way too little evidence.
That I much suspect is what motivates the New Atheists and in fact expresses the deepest and most powerful moral objection to theism.
Read Gary Gutting’s 2014 interview with Micheal Ruse for The Stone.
Michael Ruse is a professor of philosophy at Florida State University and the author “Atheism: What Everyone Needs to Know.”
Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook and Twitter.
What I wrote at the Washington Post about Biden, Trump, and Bloomberg.
"Among registered voters who support Trump, 55 percent say they are very enthusiastic about backing him while 32 percent say they are somewhat enthusiastic. Among Biden’s supporters, a far smaller 28 percent say they are very enthusiastic while 46 percent are somewhat enthusiastic."
The problem with Biden is he is boring. Another problem is he is almost senile (having or showing the weaknesses or diseases of old age, especially a loss of mental faculties.)
Trump has been a disaster but he will win the election.
Mike Bloomberg would easily defeat Trump but the Democrats chose somebody who can't remember what year this is.
The problem with Biden is he is boring. Another problem is he is almost senile (having or showing the weaknesses or diseases of old age, especially a loss of mental faculties.)
Trump has been a disaster but he will win the election.
Mike Bloomberg would easily defeat Trump but the Democrats chose somebody who can't remember what year this is.
Saturday, March 28, 2020
New York City is not having fun these days.
HEALTH NEWS
MARCH 28, 2020
Coronavirus outbreak is stretching New York's ambulance service to breaking point
New York (Reuters) - The coronavirus outbreak sweeping through New York City has pushed its ambulance service close to the breaking point, with hundreds of personnel out ill and emergency calls skyrocketing, supervisors and rank-and-file emergency medical technicians said on Friday.
Some 20% of the 4,500 ambulance workers - EMTs, paramedics and supervisors - are out sick, said Dr. Lewis Marshall, board chairman of the New York City Regional Emergency Medical Services Council in an interview with Reuters.
Most of them are out of action because they either have the virus or have been exposed to it, he added.
The union representing EMS personnel said that two members of ambulance crews were on mechanical ventilators, which are used to help seriously ill patients breathe.
At the same time, ambulance calls are skyrocketing.
On Thursday, EMS received more than 6,000 calls. EMS lieutenant Vincent Variale, who also heads a supervisors’ union, said, “We’ve broken every call volume record we’ve ever seen before.”
Fire Commissioner Daniel Nigro on Friday asked the public to avoid making 911 calls except in real emergencies.
Marshall said even those ambulance workers who had tested positive for the coronavirus were being asked to work unless they show symptoms.
At times in recent days, up to 400 calls at a time deemed less serious had simply been left on hold, Variale said.
The number of EMS personnel out sick is increasing and may soon reach 30%, multiple EMS officials said, which would lead to a serious decline in ambulance services.
Marshall noted that the EMS has to deal with the crush of COVID-19 cases at the same time it must handle its normal workload of patients suffering from heart attacks, strokes and broken bones. The crisis is taking an emotional toll on EMS personnel.
Anthony Almojera, a Fire Department lieutenant and supervisor who goes out on EMS calls, said that even though he is a veteran, things he has seen since the pandemic hit New York have had a deep emotional impact.
For example, he said he and an ambulance team responded to a call concerning a woman in cardiac arrest. When they arrived, they were unable to resuscitate her.
He said the woman’s husband was standing at the front door crying. Almojera added that normally he would go over to a surviving husband or wife, “say I’m sorry for your loss,” hug the relative and let them cry.
But because of the virus he was not permitted to go within six feet of the husband.
“This time the man had totally broken down,” he said. Stricken by his inability to help the bereaved man, Almojera himself began to cry.
The city’s ambulance service is part of the New York City Fire Department. Two workers told Reuters that ambulance personnel who remain on the job are working 16 or 17-hour days.
“We don’t even have time to go to the bathroom,” said one emergency medical technician in Harlem while running to meet a call.
In a phone call, the Fire Department said it was not requiring ambulance personnel to work double shifts.
Variale predicted dire consequences if calls for help continue to soar and the number of emergency personnel continues to drop from illness. “If this continues we fully expect to have bodies on the street,” he said.
Reporting By Scot Paltrow; Editing by Ross Colvin and Aurora Ellis
MARCH 28, 2020
Coronavirus outbreak is stretching New York's ambulance service to breaking point
New York (Reuters) - The coronavirus outbreak sweeping through New York City has pushed its ambulance service close to the breaking point, with hundreds of personnel out ill and emergency calls skyrocketing, supervisors and rank-and-file emergency medical technicians said on Friday.
Some 20% of the 4,500 ambulance workers - EMTs, paramedics and supervisors - are out sick, said Dr. Lewis Marshall, board chairman of the New York City Regional Emergency Medical Services Council in an interview with Reuters.
Most of them are out of action because they either have the virus or have been exposed to it, he added.
The union representing EMS personnel said that two members of ambulance crews were on mechanical ventilators, which are used to help seriously ill patients breathe.
At the same time, ambulance calls are skyrocketing.
On Thursday, EMS received more than 6,000 calls. EMS lieutenant Vincent Variale, who also heads a supervisors’ union, said, “We’ve broken every call volume record we’ve ever seen before.”
Fire Commissioner Daniel Nigro on Friday asked the public to avoid making 911 calls except in real emergencies.
Marshall said even those ambulance workers who had tested positive for the coronavirus were being asked to work unless they show symptoms.
At times in recent days, up to 400 calls at a time deemed less serious had simply been left on hold, Variale said.
The number of EMS personnel out sick is increasing and may soon reach 30%, multiple EMS officials said, which would lead to a serious decline in ambulance services.
Marshall noted that the EMS has to deal with the crush of COVID-19 cases at the same time it must handle its normal workload of patients suffering from heart attacks, strokes and broken bones. The crisis is taking an emotional toll on EMS personnel.
Anthony Almojera, a Fire Department lieutenant and supervisor who goes out on EMS calls, said that even though he is a veteran, things he has seen since the pandemic hit New York have had a deep emotional impact.
For example, he said he and an ambulance team responded to a call concerning a woman in cardiac arrest. When they arrived, they were unable to resuscitate her.
He said the woman’s husband was standing at the front door crying. Almojera added that normally he would go over to a surviving husband or wife, “say I’m sorry for your loss,” hug the relative and let them cry.
But because of the virus he was not permitted to go within six feet of the husband.
“This time the man had totally broken down,” he said. Stricken by his inability to help the bereaved man, Almojera himself began to cry.
The city’s ambulance service is part of the New York City Fire Department. Two workers told Reuters that ambulance personnel who remain on the job are working 16 or 17-hour days.
“We don’t even have time to go to the bathroom,” said one emergency medical technician in Harlem while running to meet a call.
In a phone call, the Fire Department said it was not requiring ambulance personnel to work double shifts.
Variale predicted dire consequences if calls for help continue to soar and the number of emergency personnel continues to drop from illness. “If this continues we fully expect to have bodies on the street,” he said.
Reporting By Scot Paltrow; Editing by Ross Colvin and Aurora Ellis
Nobody cares.
I won a very interesting bishop versus bishop endgame which required sacrificing pawns and near the end sacrificing my bishop. I had the White pieces: https://lichess.org/mNaQskwF/white
My lichess.org profile
lichess.org website
My lichess.org profile
lichess.org website
I answered a question about the cowardly 2nd life fantasy.
"After a few billion years in heaven, do you think some souls will get bored of eternal felicity and desire to return to earth?"
The magical 2nd life fantasy is impossible, and that's a good thing. I would not want to live in a universe where magic is real, and I would not want to have a magical 2nd life that never ends.
And soul thing, that's ridiculous. Just like everything else about the god fairy, it was invented by cowardly morons who were making stuff up.
The magical 2nd life fantasy is impossible, and that's a good thing. I would not want to live in a universe where magic is real, and I would not want to have a magical 2nd life that never ends.
And soul thing, that's ridiculous. Just like everything else about the god fairy, it was invented by cowardly morons who were making stuff up.
This is wonderful news. Dead Christians are a good thing.
"A devout Christian from New Jersey is dead and seven of her family members are in critical condition, thanks to the coronavirus. She also infected half of her church congregation."
