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Am I the only person here to think about these questions?

When we ask why something exists, we point to its causal antecedents. For instance, we exist because of our parents. But why does the universe exist at all? Couldn't it have been nothing at all that existed? If it's possible that nothing should exist, how come there's a universe? Religious...

Hey Martin! What did you used to read?

Does anyone here read any philosophy?

Pun-friendly name that one.

Congratulations

This isn't particular to religion, but oh well. The thought experiment was developed by philosopher Frank Jackson, and subsequently made a serious impact on contemporary analytical philosophy of mind: "Mary is a brilliant scientist who is, for whatever reason, forced to investigate the world...

Recently, someone live-tweeting local reports of a terror attack in Bangladesh. It was yet another tragedy, one of many. It has no doubt raised the usual questions: about ISIS, extremism, and the role of Islam. The role of Islam is difficult to talk about for at least two reasons: 1) Many...

What, like there is a situation in our world, where we are not prohibited from torturing a child for fun?

Have people made Pjanic at the disco puns about him or is that old hat now?

I'm not 100% clear on what you mean here. When you say normativity is circumstance-tied, finite, hardly duplicated, etc, what do you mean to say? Do you mean to say it's optional? Do you mean to say a deflationist account, or a fictionalist account is correct?

That's a very interesting thought. And there's data to support it (Frans de Waal's work on primates). But ultimately I think there are some weaknesses to this hypothesis. The first, major problem is the loss of normativity. That is, when we talk about morality, we don't just talk about things...

I find that frightening. To think that all out moral judgements are just the product of our feelings... how can we morally condemn ISIS? Why think of them as morally wrong when we can just say they are just emotionally maladaptive? Shouldn't we give them medical treatment instead of bombing...

The Righteous Mind: Why People Are Divided by Politics and Religious Jonathan Haidt is a social psychologist at NYU. His book (here), based on copious and interesting research, examines the bases of our political and religious sensibilities. His conclusions are provocative. His central thesis...

Grayyyyy. You're the only one with your name! What's up?

I can't tell if you're kidding or you took that thread personally. Sorry if I hurt your feelings IgorTudor. I wasn't being serious.

Jonathan Haidt is a social psychologist at NYU. His book (here), based on copious and interesting research, examines the bases of our political and religious sensibilities. His conclusions are provocative. His central thesis: We are all frauds. We think of ourselves as rational, enlightened...

Pretty trivial issue to be fighting about, to be honest.

This. We need to abolish school sports for the US to be on par with Europe.

You have to be a masochist to enjoy this. But here you go.