Secular Café Archive

Except these last few posts just leave me confused. To me, belief - esp. belief in god - is something I'm convinced of , that comes from deep inside. I could no more choose to believe in god than I could make my hair change color by thinking real hard about it. It would only be pretend. And "be...

Of all the famous people we lost this year, this one hit me the hardest. I so admired Fisher, for so many things. The funny thing is, though, that listening to some of her interviews, I've always had the feeling that had I known her in person, I probably wouldn't have liked her very much. Just goes ...

One question I've not yet gotten an answer to is: how many people who voted Red were voting specifically for Trump, and how many were just reflexively voting Republican (or anti-Democrat)? It's not an insignificant difference. A successful attempt to sway a voter to the other side would be take very...

[quote=""Copernicus""]A lot of post-mortem analyses try to reduce Trump's victory to one or two simple causes, but the reality is that there were many, many causes, any one of which could have led to Trump's defeat if Democrats or Hillary Clinton or Sanders partisans or the press...

Drummer

Weapons grade

Hands down.

Heya Rob! Long time no see!

Bored!!!!!

Belt buckle

[quote=""late""]There is no real reason to being everybody to the same place, at the same time. Malcom Gladwell argues that there should be permanent venues (or at least for an extended period of time). That way you could have runners running someplace cool like Sweden, instead o...

Uh, Siempre... Perhaps you should look into what goes on during so-called Gay Conversion Therapy. It IS the same brainwashing crap. No, I wouldn't call it "worse" than the rest of your list, but it sure isn't "better", either. As for why focus on it, it's called picking your batt...

[quote=""DMB""]So for anyone who thought this was a liberal pope...[/quote] Well, there's objectively "liberal", and there's "more liberal (in some things) than his predecessors".... Obviously Pope Francis is not the first, and given how one becomes pope, we'l...

Meanwhile, back at the OP.... I think, justme, that you may be laboring under a misapprehension. As far as I know, (and I've known a couple of transgendered folks at different points in their transition), it's that last word, transition , that's important to the bathroom issue. A transgendered man, ...

I'm sorry, Cath. The world has lost one of the very best.

Extreme nitpick: Schiavo. Please. S-c-h-i-a-v-o. kthxbai.

Going to chip in just two things here, then slink back into the woodwork. 1. Ozy, while a predisposition to certain kinds of belief - call it a "faith gene" - may be biological, I very much doubt they'll ever be able to pinpoint biological causes for belief in a particular sect. You might ...

We need a thank you button or something like it here. Thank you, sohy. You expressed my own views on the matter perfectly, and from real experience.

I've told my kids that I want to be cremated and my ashes spread someplace meaningful to them, but whatever they want to do for a funeral/wake/whatever or nothing at all is up to them. Funerals are for the living, after all - whatever they need to help them through.

Dancer: thank you for the clarification. Sorry that I've apparently misread your intent all these years. Lulu: but the point is that your grandmother was still a functioning human being: moving, laughing, talking, interacting - even if she didn't retain recent memories or regressed into a childlike ...

Crude though he is, in this case, Matt is right. Terri Schiavo was more than brain dead. At her autopsy, she had less than half of her brain matter left. Examination of Schiavo’s nervous system by neuropathologist Stephen J. Nelson, M.D., revealed extensive injury. The brain itself weighed only 615 ...

Pretty much, from my experience - especially with funerals headed in the opposite direction than one is driving. I could be wrong in that assumption - it seems to be my day for it. How 'bout it, guys? Do people in other places than the American South stop their cars for funerals processions, in eith...

OK, then, dancer, I've missed the point you've been trying to make all these past threads. It sure seemed to me like you brought your sister up as an argument against abortion, because look how that turned out, how much we all love her and are glad she's here! So please, what IS your point with that...

No, they are no different. Including the fact that I don't find them the least bit persuasive, especially as a general argument against abortion. Life IS. Imagining what it might have been like without a beloved family member, or with one who was never born, is fruitless, and unpersuasive to anyone ...

True enough - this time. I was reacting to his (?) use of his sister as an anti-abortion example in past arguments. If I've misread him all these times, I apologize. ETA: It occurs to me that for some reason I've come to think of dancer as "he". I could be wrong on that score, too - for wh...

I'm not in the South anymore, but no, I wouldn't. He didn't convince me. I've never been that concerned about Southern social appearances.