Philosophy Now Forum

PS. The question of the thread intrigued me. My first reply would suggest that it is all about us. However: The blue heron The blue heron conjured itself out of hot shimmering air, or, maybe it just floated up from the marsh by the grayish-blue band of the road I was driving on. It did not seem to f...

I have a theory about happiness that approaches the concept from a different angle: I call it 'Needs' versus 'Wants'. It is important to differentiate our needs from our wants. I define ‘Needs’ as those requirements commonly identified with survival of the individual as a healthy (both physically an...

Counterpoint

My species
invented
death camps,
guillotines,
vivisection,
ethnic atrocity,

but discovered
sonnets,
counterpoint,
impressionism,
microphotography...

...no surprise that
it has evolved
a paranoid
schizophrenic
personality.

Hypothetical scenario:

You need a job and you have three offers:

- A bread factory
- A surgical instruments factory
- A munitions factory (land mines)

All else being equal, the pay in the munitions factory is double of what you would make at the other places.

Which job would you take?

Earth is like a soap on a rope Earth is like a soap on a rope twirled around by the sun, year after year, in an endless run. I wonder if the sun is aware how sick, how beyond hope how badly infested by us this poor globe is at the end of the rope. If I were the sun I would not want to know… …I woul...

Or do you mean, "Given your *actual* experiences, plus a hypothetical world in which there are no religions, would those *actual* experiences cause you to speculate about a possible God? Yes, that's what I mean. As I tried to explain before: I was reexamining my own personal experiences and as...

How about your own personal case?

I was thinking about something like: I have memories going back to about the age of four. Obviously I don't remember everything, but I do remember a lot. When I examine my memories, step by step, from year to year, I keep asking myself: could this event in my life have suggested some kind of superna...

If you came upon a spaceship out in the woods, you probably wouldn't assume it arose from a series of random purely mechanical events. No, of course not. In that hypothetical world, with my scientific education, I would assume that the spaceship was manufactured in some space-ship yard somewhere. H...

It seems quite likely that there is plenty that is beyond "observable reality and logic". Quite possible. However, how would you observe it or deduce it? But it still does not answer my original question. Can you imagine anything that would have made you speculate about a possible god, ba...

Evolution

While thumbing his phone
he walks into a lamp post.
Evolution sighs.

I agree. Something must have caused the invention of religion, otherwise it would not exist today. Jared Diamond has a very interesting and convincing theory about the causes of religion in his newest book: "The World until Yesterday". I was thinking more of what, in your own personal expe...

Suppose, for argument's sake, that you grew up in a world where nobody ever talked about gods or supernatural of any kind. Suppose you had an education where they taught you about nature, physics, scientific facts, technology, productive skills, social organization, project management, etc., etc, an...

Thank you all for the warm welcome -- I already feel at home.

I will now browse the site and see what topic I would like to get involved in.

If I don't find a "Creative Writing" or 'Poetry' thread, I will start one, hoping that enough people would want to participate.

Till then...

Hello All! I am a retired college teacher (Math, Physics, Computers) and I have been on and off forums for 12 years now, always looking for interesting conversations. Primarily I am interested in Ethics, social organization, social justice and anything intellectually intriguing. I also write poetry ...