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I am very much in favour of decriminalisation, for the following reasons (all articulated multiple times in the above posts). 1. People want to do it. It can be an enjoyable experience. 2. If done safely, it potentially harms only the user (see points 5 & 6). 3. Removes a massive organised...

Of course it's an attractive idea. So is Santa Claus. Still doesn't make it true - much as how as a kid how I wanted to get presents. Do you believe in Santa Claus because 'it appeals' to you? There is actually more evidence for Santa Claus than there is for any God. (Not very good...

You are the one claiming there is a supreme being. Atheists and agnostics have no idea what evidence the SB would leave . So far, the evidence provided for any particular SB is not convincing to the majority of the world's population. (I suppose you could argue that Christianity and Islam...

Can we just put the Royals in a little box and ship them off to Anmerica to become Disney stars? https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/oct/15/green-royals-saving-the-planet-helicopter-queen-charles-william-climate

A shame he didn't tell anyone else how to do it, and left millions to die of preventable diseases over the next 1900 years (until humans discovered how to without God's help). Oh well, mysterious ways, God's plan etc.............................

He will be, because he can't rely on any God to look after him.

If you need to believe in a god and the threat of divine punishment to be a good person, then by all means, please keep believing that.

Those questions have very little to do with religion. A man called Jesus may well have existed. Dunno. So what? I'm having the traditional end-of-year family gathering that people have been having for centuries. Originally based on the northern winter solstice (probably why Constantine...

Bullshit.

Santa is 'My First Religion' for kiddies. It prepares them for a life of Christian fantasy worship. Consider: 1. He's always watching you - judging your actions. You are never alone. 2. If you are good, he will give you a reward - so you try and be good. Not because it is the right thing...

What I have said is 'Morals are not absolutes'. I use morals as guidelines for my actions. I am responsible for my actions. The guiding principle is The Golden Rule - however you wish to frame that. A phrase that is sometimes used is 'Individual well-being'. Basically - don't do things that...

As I said (if you bothered to read) - 'Societal laws are absolute' - you cross them and you will have to answer to the legal system. The laws are based on broad moral principles as followed in the community, but laws are not moral absolutes. The judgements about those actions (and any...

No morals are absolute. All moral judgements are situational. We use broad moral principles as guidelines (mostly based around the Golden Rule), but these are then shaped by perceptions and reactions to events. Different societies will have different moral judgements about different...

At least governments have some form of legal oversight, and aren't a complete closed shop with their own laws, rules and punishments.

Pretty much my take. I respect their right (or anybody's) to hold any wacky belief they want. And there's a lot of wackiness out there. I respect their right to request people to respect that belief by taking appropriate actions. I respect other people being respectful to their wishes about...

I don't think we need a referendum to change the head of state. We merely need a referendum to change the Head of State from the Queen (or British Sovereign) to President 'as elected by the Australian People'. We have changed our election rules many times over the years (we didn't have...

I wonder if the church will sell anything to fund legal costs for it's accused members.

I think it's proof of Darwin's Theory about the struggle to survive. If you are completely altruistic, you probably won't live long enough to breed and pass on those genes to offspring. You don't see the big, strong puppy in the litter giving food to the weakest runt - guess who lives and...

Watch the video - it's some pretty good stuff. He's not saying anything more than Einstein or Davies did - just that there's some underlying 'force' (for want of a better word) that exerts some control over the universe at a base level (as evident by physical laws that seem immutable), that at...

So? Maybe the 'point' of the universe is stars and lumps of rocks. It's just physics. Why does there 'have' to be something?

It's actually at San Jose State University (Smith and Carlos both went to SJSU). Norman agreed with the artist to leave his space blank to encourage others to 'take a stand' against something they disagreed with rather than just stand passively by. It's now one of the major photo-ops for...

Why don't we legislate for compulsory helmets in cars? There are huge numbers of head injuries caused by hitting ones head against the inside of a vehicle in an accident. A brief internet browse turned up that the chief cause in the USA of Traumatic Brain Injury is from falls - particulkarly...

Why is that fine? If killing whales is wrong, and unnecessary why do we still allow it for 'cultural' reasons? We don't maintain slavery for 'cultural' reasons - we don't do bear-baiting or lock people in the stocks anymore, yet those used to be part of European culture. Chinese medicine using...

People tend not to follow what their religion tells them. What they do is twist and re-interpret thousand-year old stories to make them say what they want them to. That's why there are plenty of perfectly reasonable religious people around - because when you get right down to it, most people...

That's interesting. He actually volunteered to fight in the war. It doesn't quite gel with his statements about 'Old Men dreaming up wars for Young Men to get killed in'. Or is he saying, that if the Old Men say 'Fight!', you fight. I know the Germans declared war on the US, but really...

I've read a few books that make the point - 'Anzac has become the country's de-facto religion'. Hard to argue - everything related to Anzac (such as where the boat left from in Australia - what's next - the factory that made the rations?) is treated with such reverence, any criticism is howled...

I actually agree with some of this - the OP is not suggesting banning Catholicism - just the organisation of the Church. Just because it calls itself a religion does NOT give it immunity from committing crimes - and I would argue concealing evidence of crimes (and not doing anything to prevent...

Wrong. Mars is slowly being populated...............by Robots. We send 'em up there, after a while, they stop communicating, and we forget about 'em. But, you know,............they're still up there.............................

As long as we think it's relevant to have stars on our flag of which the closest is 600,000,000,000,000 kms away and can be seen by approximately 60% of the world's population in their own sky - it really doesn't matter much what we put on the flag. REd bits, blue bits, purple bits - doesn't...

I'm in favour. Understand that a History discussion always devolves into opinions about why people did certain things - and everyone has their pet theories. Still, there's no need to get nasty about it - if we keep it thoughtful and respectful, it could be a lot of fun.