Ask yourself, though, what you are really doing when you prescribe a moral code that is expressly something that "ought" to be rather than something that is. Aren't you just saying that you believe that people should think and act a certain way? Do you think that it may be hubris to think ...

Forum discussions would flow a lot better if posters, like Spinoza, would first define their terms. I think that many here are using the terms "morals" and "ethics" incorrectly. The word "moral" comes from a root that describes what is, not what should should be. Namely...

Hillary is still bragging on "winning" the popular vote. Conversely, Trump sought the Electoral vote as it is the vote that actually elects the US President. Trump visited about a third more states and held nearly 50% more rallies than Clinton, who mostly attended fundraising events. Who w...

Oregon once had an endangered giant earthworm. Unfortunately, because it was not "cute and cuddly," even the hippies out there couldn't give a rat's ass about protecting it and now it is quite likely extinct.

If I were to say that oxygen exists I am stating a fact because I can use the scientific method to disprove the statement "no such thing as oxygen exists." However, if I were to state that "God" exists I am only stating a belief because I can neither prove nor disprove the existe...

What defines an immoral act, its intention or its consequences? Let's say that I am a railroad engineer who flips a switch trying to divert a runaway train onto an unused spur in order to save the people on it. What if that train then plows into a school bus whose driver assumed that the unused spur...

JakeyBoyTH wrote:
Morals that are from religion / fables have been in practice by thousands / millions of people, and are part of our culture

Which is exactly what I keep saying -- moral actions are those that engender long-term stability within a society.

What are people actually doing when they base their moral system on the commands of a deity? Aren't they just tying their morals to tradition, religious writings and the concept they have of their god? What makes the moral commands written down long ago by a bunch of nomadic goat herders more salien...

I think that polytheists tended to be more tolerant of different beliefs than monotheists. I might worship Athena, whereas you might go more for Artemis but neither of us were going to start a holy war because we believed that our god was the only true god. I say "tended" because modern po...

The presence of ISIS does not contradict that morals are basically societal. ISIS is more a loose collection of self-serving tyrannical individuals than a society. As such, it has no long-term stability. Even if the "caliphate" were to be left alone it would collapse upon itself when the i...

If one holds to objective morality, one holds that moral propositions have truth values independent from what we think. The problem is that people use terms for concepts beyond their actual definitions by extrapolating an idea to an ultimate unreality. This is the same problem you get with the worl...

So for you 'the good' equals creating social stability? Remember that the words "moral" and "ethical" both derive from roots that describe common practices. Morals are, by definition, social. Most of us, from an early age, learn to modify our actions in order to get along with o...

As I've said before, if there is anything like a universal morality it's based on those actions that engender stability in the social system. Our social systems are more responsible for our success as as species than anything. Humans are a physically inferior species in almost every aspect but brain...

What I said I object to is the notion that atheists withhold a belief in God. But why believe in the first place? The only reason that most believe today is because they were indoctrinated to do so at an early age or came to do so through life events that they couldn't cope with and thus sought out...

Almost no atheists would tell you that they can prove the absence of a deity because this would be an argument from ignorance. What atheists are saying is that if you cannot prove that a deity exists, then why bother acting like one does? "he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, ...

After all of the protests, riots, cajoling and even a few death threats, only two Republican Electors were "faithless" and didn't vote for Trump. Twice as many Democrat Electors were faithless and didn't vote for Hillary (two more faithless Hillary Electors were removed and another convinc...

Well most of the world except metis has accepted that I'm not saying that the Russians don't try to hack into US servers, of course they do, as do we theirs. What I'm saying is that we shouldn't just take the Democrats or the Obama Administration's word that they specifically targeted only Democrat...

Her is an interesting article outlining why some think that there is a Russian connection to the 'hacks' and why others say that this is not really proof. m Two other things have come to light suggesting that Russia may not have actually been behind this. One of these is that the hacking continued, ...

It's not "criminal" per se for one government to spy on another because there really is no international law, just agreements between countries. All countries spy on each other. Now, if someone was to be caught in the US spying then they could be prosecuted as an individual under US law. T...

It's amazing that, just this summer, people were saying the Republicans were through and that they would never be a political power again. Now, they stand to control all three branches of government. Let's just hope they act rationally and don't go "hog wild" with their new power.

This thread is about those who put themselves at risk in order to help others lead better lives. Whether they are paid or not is moot, "Don't bind the mouths of the kine who tread the grain," and all that. I'm not saying that I was a "hero" per se but I was a member of more than ...

Podesta is now putting the blame on Russia for Hillary's loss too, saying that Russia wanted a US "lap dog" president. Say what you will about Trump but I don't see him as the lap dog type. It is interesting though that Podesta, himself, has taken both Russian and Saudi money through the P...

JakeyBoyTH wrote:I have more than that.

Post a snapshot, I'd be interested in seeing them (not being sarcastic, I really am interested in what other people accomplish).

ok, then whats the game plan for Obama? why are they trying to make this a big deal? what do they hope to achieve? A Clinton presidency? I think it's as much "sour grapes" for the Democrat Party as anything. They thought Hillary was going to win by a landslide and were given a harsh dose ...

GPS satellites are too far out in space and too numerous to be easily taken out. There are 33 active civilian satellites with reserves and who knows how many secret military ones. It would require a trillion-dollar nuclear space program to even put a dent in our GPS satellite capacity. Also, there a...