General Chat

Oh, done that. It was on amazon but it got RR'd by the british society of real astrologers (membership1) and the council for religious freedom, which wasnt in the slightest bit ironic. The publishers received death threats from the royal unicorn society and the cottingley fairies camping club.

I was forced to withdraw it in fear of my life. No, really, i was. :-D

sounds like something from from Monty Python :-D

I don't read my "stars"...... except if I find the astrology page in the newspaper I use to wrap up potato peelings.......... very interesting to find out what should have happened last week :-D

:-D :-D :-D

"Practising a system of ethics based on the promise of a reward, in your case an afterlife, is certainly preferable to practising a system of ethics based on it simply being the right thing to do."

On a serious note here, who is the better person? The one who does something because s/he is promised something or the person who does something because it's a good thing to do.

..............most people have heard of astrologers, religious freedom and unicorns but........... cottingley fairies.........without looking on the net how many people know about these??? ...this is getting too close for comfort.-jl

Chaotic yes, good one. Its sort of like Pascalls wager. You might as well hedge your bets on the belief thing in case it turns out to be real.

I think people are inherently good when they are born. It takes religion to make them bad. Of course, bad is a subjective viewpoint. What is bad to you or i might be perfectly acceptable to someone else . Take the case of suicide bomber or an anti abortionist murderer. They really believe they are doing their gods work and that it is a good thing that they do. Do we respect that.....? That question is always avoided Lol

No, morality is a human condition that is altered, twisted and warped by religion. After all, if you didnt have an innate sense of morality, how would you know which bits of religion to ignore? How would you know it was wrong to keep slaves?

Janet Its good to know someone else has heard of the cottingley fairies. Right up until the 1980's lots of people believed they were real. Even those who had seen the photographs hahahahaha :-D :-D

Really enjoyed that, my sense of humour ;-)


Carol

The real marvel of the Cottingley fairies is that little girls could compose a photograph that would fool so many for so long.

Yes, including conan doyle and some other very respectable people. I dont know how, mind, the photos are so obviously, to our eyes, faked. But respect for the girls, they made a good job of it and left a lot of people with egg on their faces!

We see and believe what we want to.

Eldrick, tbh, I'm probably hedging my bets when I tick the agnostic option on forms that ask you for your religion. For me religion is something that happens to other people. I don't care strongly enough about the existence, or most likely lack of, of god to describe myself as atheist but then I'm not religious either. I certainly don't believe in organised religion and I do believe organised religion was brought about by men in power, or those who wanted power, to control the masses.

Anyway, I'll stop now before I take this completely off topic.

I would start another thread but i can hear the wailing and gnashing of teeth alreadt!

Sharon not sure i totally agree. We believe things in lots of cases because we hace been taught them from childhood. But yes, things like fairies, unicorns, astrology and psychic powers are there mostly by choice :-D

I go on the premise/prem-iss that if you cannot see it, hear it, smell it, touch it, or feel it,

Then it probably does not exist :-D

Roy

...what about abstract/emotional ideas, don't they exist either, something must cause them. ..the greatest of them being love, doesn't that exist -j

Does ( Love ) not come under that, "Feel it"

Roy

I wouldn't have thought so in the context of senses-j

Yes it does indeed. And like many other things of beauty, it takes religion to get rid of it. As someone once said, you will know that god made you in his image when you find out that he hates the same people as you do.

How many people on this site hate me now? Lol whereas beforehand, they may even have loved me. Who knows. Yes, love is a wonderful thing indeed. And very explainable, btw. Genetics, evolution and that sort of thing. Specifically, seratonin neurotransmitters play a large part in it, but its a huge subject. Interesting, though, and not any less beautiful because it is now understood.

Oh permission slips, they have been carted home from my children since 1994 and still they arrive.

Its not the content and subject that makes me laugh but the wording on some of them and it usually involves money for a trip or worthy cause. I would love to send a reply as witty as the one in the link but cannot imagine the reply I would get back

Teresa :-D

lol Eldrick :-D

I think we all <3love <3 you, but you shake the place up at times :-D

Sometimes we need a bit of a shakeup, get us out of "I'm alright Jack" mentality


OH jokes about getting Permission Slips when he's playing too much golf
:-D

Yes please, bring on more topics!! lol I think it's quite refreshing and lovely to have an 'Eldrick' on here!!! :-D :-D :-D It's good someone tackles the 'taboo' subjects a lot of folk don't want to deal with and always does this without being personal, which in itself is often not seen in other posts. It is a good thing to hear other points of view and debate and think about them, helps us to learn/understand even if we don't hold the same views.

A mother's love and bonding with a baby is said to be due to raised oxytocin levels, which if I remember rightly also happens with breast feeding, so that is a chemical effect.

I am sure Eldrick will oblige :-D :-D

Sue