More evidence a God had nothing to do with life on earth

[Dane_in_LA]

Originally Posted by WalkintheLight

Atheism is faith in self.

Bald is not a hair color.

The bottom line is that everyone has faith in something.

Only if you expand the defintion of faith so far as to make it meaningless.

Atheists actually have great faith that the entire Universe evolved from a single organism.

No, and also irrelevant to atheism. Completely.

[mordant]

Originally Posted by LearnMe

Starting with where humanity was in many of these respects even as little as 100 years ago? Back when lots of people believed in backward ways and they weren't even considered backward. That's a bit of progress, is it not? I don't know what to think or do about people like your brother either, but people like that have been a part of the mix for a long time now. Fortunately, the fundagelical numbers seem to be going down a bit at least.

A great deal depends on what trends you pay attention to, and the degree to which you project in a linear fashion from past trends without considering cause and effect. Yes there has been progress, but some of it isn't sustainable and/or was obtained in an unwise fashion. I'm no luddite, but a lot of our modernity has come at a great price to the environment and wealth concentration at the top means fewer and fewer people fully enjoy the benefits anyway.

We have most of the things in place you speak of and I wish there were more uptake on it. We're one of 2 homes in our 29 unit development that has solar, for example and that's better than the general average around here judging from how many installations you see driving around, despite this being a fairly progressive region. Some folks do buy shares in solar farms outside of town, so there's that.

Originally Posted by LearnMe

Ultimately, it seems to me it's important to appreciate the good along with recognizing the bad and ugly, or the good doesn't seem as good and the bad and ugly seems all the more bad and ugly.

In my view, one must almost compartmentalize if you wish to be realistic but not despairing. Forty percent of Americans -- FORTY percent -- want a Certain Someone back in the presidency, even after all that has transpired. That's a lot of unreachable people. And it speaks to the terrible failures in the liberal enterprise. We have a dimbulb on the other side of the planet threatening nuclear armageddon, and while he "probably" can't pul off a global attack anymore, he could slag enough of Europe (or Scandanavia) to put the world into a tailspin. These are just simple facts, and aren't made better because we have electric cars or solar panels; in fact, various now-plausible developments could quickly render them more or less unusable. At the same time, yea us -- we do have Nice Things, and life is better at least for the sufficiently privileged than in most of the world for most of human history. On a day to day basis I do enjoyable work for very good pay, and iive in a lovely and safe area. And I have enough resources to have various padding and hedges in place. So ... I can appreciate that, and also understand the threats to it.

I sleep well most nights because I'm the sort of person who doesn't fret over things he can't control. But I wonder what kind of life my stepson will be living when he's my age, 30 years from now, too.

The loved ones who I've lost in the past --- one thing that softened that blow is they are now beyond the reach of their suffering, and part of that is that they have not had to bear witness to Trumpism, the Covid pandemic, or to get to a place where they seriously wonder if they should keep a fireproof box of cash around in case there's a run on the banks.

So ... I'm thankful, as prepared as I can be, and hopeful that I'm wrong. Sometimes we DO get lucky -- for example there was every reason for knowledgable people to believe that the rapid mutation environment of the XBB* Covid strains just a few months ago would be catastrophic in the end, but they stabilized and now the same experts don't see much room for further mutation, at least not until there's another "Omicron event", so ... the Covid emergency ends in a month or so officially and people will of course misunderstand what that does and doesn't mean, as per usual, but it is legit and so we risked visiting family in NYC last weekend and I am going to risk seeing my elderly brother one last time via flight to Minneapolis next month (with the aid of a P-100 mask though).

It IS possible to have hope and yet understand the threat environment. The problem many people seem to have is an all-or-nothing mentality, e.g., either we are running around in a panic about Covid or the pandemic is "over" because we're tired of dealing with it. The truth is somewhere in between, on that and every other issue of concern.

[LearnMe]

Originally Posted by mordant

A great deal depends on what trends you pay attention to, and the degree to which you project in a linear fashion from past trends without considering cause and effect. Yes there has been progress, but some of it isn't sustainable and/or was obtained in an unwise fashion. I'm no luddite, but a lot of our modernity has come at a great price to the environment and wealth concentration at the top means fewer and fewer people fully enjoy the benefits anyway.

We have most of the things in place you speak of and I wish there were more uptake on it. We're one of 2 homes in our 29 unit development that has solar, for example and that's better than the general average around here judging from how many installations you see driving around, despite this being a fairly progressive region. Some folks do buy shares in solar farms outside of town, so there's that.

In my view, one must almost compartmentalize if you wish to be realistic but not despairing. Forty percent of Americans -- FORTY percent -- want a Certain Someone back in the presidency, even after all that has transpired. That's a lot of unreachable people. And it speaks to the terrible failures in the liberal enterprise. We have a dimbulb on the other side of the planet threatening nuclear armageddon, and while he "probably" can't pul off a global attack anymore, he could slag enough of Europe (or Scandanavia) to put the world into a tailspin. These are just simple facts, and aren't made better because we have electric cars or solar panels; in fact, various now-plausible developments could quickly render them more or less unusable. At the same time, yea us -- we do have Nice Things, and life is better at least for the sufficiently privileged than in most of the world for most of human history. On a day to day basis I do enjoyable work for very good pay, and iive in a lovely and safe area. And I have enough resources to have various padding and hedges in place. So ... I can appreciate that, and also understand the threats to it.

I sleep well most nights because I'm the sort of person who doesn't fret over things he can't control. But I wonder what kind of life my stepson will be living when he's my age, 30 years from now, too.

The loved ones who I've lost in the past --- one thing that softened that blow is they are now beyond the reach of their suffering, and part of that is that they have not had to bear witness to Trumpism, the Covid pandemic, or to get to a place where they seriously wonder if they should keep a fireproof box of cash around in case there's a run on the banks.

So ... I'm thankful, as prepared as I can be, and hopeful that I'm wrong. Sometimes we DO get lucky -- for example there was every reason for knowledgable people to believe that the rapid mutation environment of the XBB* Covid strains just a few months ago would be catastrophic in the end, but they stabilized and now the same experts don't see much room for further mutation, at least not until there's another "Omicron event", so ... the Covid emergency ends in a month or so officially and people will of course misunderstand what that does and doesn't mean, as per usual, but it is legit and so we risked visiting family in NYC last weekend and I am going to risk seeing my elderly brother one last time via flight to Minneapolis next month (with the aid of a P-100 mask though).

It IS possible to have hope and yet understand the threat environment. The problem many people seem to have is an all-or-nothing mentality, e.g., either we are running around in a panic about Covid or the pandemic is "over" because we're tired of dealing with it. The truth is somewhere in between, on that and every other issue of concern.

Agreed. All in keeping with my suggestion we fully take into account the good while also being aware of the bad and ugly. Of course. To what extent either? Hard to say exactly, but "balance is key" as they say generally speaking.

There are many positive developments that might help the future of our kids and theirs, but I won't get into all that except to share a one thought that recently came to mind. What if this latest from Putin/Russia/Ukraine actually turns out to be a good thing? What if the process of Russia alienating itself from the Western World in a big way as it has ultimately results in it's demise? Or serious weakening. Something like how the USSR imploded and ushered in the age of glasnost lead by Gorbachev. Something to hope for anyway...

Trump: although I hear you loud and clear, about that forty percent too. That percent of Americans who see it one way vs another is really nothing new either. Trump just raised the tip of that ice berg higher out of the water is all. Are we doing better or worse than other periods of divide in America? Say compared to the time of the Civil War for example?

No doubt Americans have had a history full of good reason to fret. That's for sure, but here's to all the reasons we might be able to hold out hope. Perhaps with regard to getting our environmental act together at the top of the list. That's a tall order and a major concern, but here's hoping anyway. We shall see. Or probably not us but our children and theirs will see. My kids seem a little more optimistic than we are and they're not dumb about the existential threats. Our daughter-in-law is an environmental engineer Princeton graduate.

Go figure...