Phi for All

Unusual has nothing to do with it. Evolution would be selecting traits that make a person successful enough to mate, so the assumption is that perception that extends beyond the accepted senses would do so. It could be argued that certain sensitivities might not make one more attractive, but in general I'd say being able to do things most people can't is a net benefit.

Grinding metal against stone is very hard on the metal. The stone scratches and gouges the steel, tearing parts of it away and leaving it thinner and weighing less. But if it's done just right, you're left with a knife blade that can be used to cut with skillful precision, a useful tool that you an accomplish things with. The grinder is a hard life for the metal, but it's just what the knife needs. I see no evidence of god(s), but even I can see why one wouldn't make everything perfect to begin with.

Evolution, mostly. Such an ability would have spread in the population over time, at least to an extent where it would have a testable effect. Same thing for sensitivity to specters and ghosts, or other paranormal/supernatural abilities. If they make you more successful at living until you procreate, eventually we'd be able to measure it.

Exactly. So I'm prone to assuming there's a natural explanation for spooky experiences. I've always thought it would be awesome to discover that some things folks consider supernatural (ESP, telekinesis, precognition, etc) turn out to have a scientific basis, but I find myself the most skeptical when someone claims to have evidence of such. I'm the same way with aliens from another planet; I know there could be other intelligent creatures in our galaxy, but I reject most of what makes some folks think we're being visited currently.

I've told this here before, but I had an experience when I was about 8-10 years old. I'd gone to bed, and woke up when I heard something tapping. My window was open, and my brain identified the sound as a woman in heels walking up to our front door. I waited for the footsteps to stop and the doorbell to ring, but they just kept clicking, as if she was pacing beneath my window. I got out of bed and pulled the curtain back to look down and it stopped, and there was nobody there. I went back to bed, and a few minutes later it started up again. Lather, rinse, repeat a few times, exactly the same way. I couldn't figure it out. Eventually I gave up on the idea of it being someone outside, and I think that made me listen more closely. I saw that the wind from my open window was moving the curtains, which made the plastic curtain pull knock against the wall. When I pulled the curtains aside to look down, it moved the plastic pull away from the wall and stopped the clicking. I do remember how convinced I was at the time that the sound was a woman walking in heels on a concrete sidewalk, but when I figured out what it really was, it didn't sound anywhere close. It sounded exactly like a curtain pull clicking against the wall.

! Moderator Note This is the last time I'm going to explain this to you. If someone questions the rationality of your statements, they're NOT making it personal. We attack ideas here to make them stronger. What we DO NOT allow here is to attack people. You need to STOP attacking people and focus on the ideas they're presenting. If you insult people like this again, you'll be banned. You should understand the difference by now.

I reject this completely. I think what a person believes matters a LOT. I know humans are wired to look for simple patterns, but much of what we believe requires a greater level of sophistication and clarity. Statements like this miss the mark, and keep us from delving deeper.

Exactly.

Are you suggesting this as evidence that God hates dinosaurs and loves mothers?

But it's not a personal belief, it's a LACK of belief, so I object to being lumped in with those who believe ("like most theists do"). And I think the rest of the problem I have with atheism being compatible with religion has more to do with my definition of "religion".

So I can be an atheist while practicing a non-theistic religion? I always defined at least part of my own atheism as a rejection of practiced religious beliefs.

In which areas do they NOT exclude each another?

It's a mistake to say "there's no end of material to feed on" when the material has a limit ("light years across"). As beecee says, what dictates the size of a star is its mass, or the dust and gases it accumulates as it forms.

In science, "take into account" means analyzing the evidence. You can remain neutral (null hypothesis) while waiting for such evidence to be presented, but I really don't see how you can consider the possibility of god(s) without any. You don't have to claim god(s) don't exist if you just ignore them until they do something observably god-like.

Evolution is changes in allele frequency within a population over time. It would be your children and their children that continue to evolve.

Is there anything you can post here that doesn't require watching a video or linking offsite? A brief summary of your concept would be much appreciated.

He's wrong. They're all lamps, but some are configured as bulbs (the bulbous ones), some as floods or spots or reflectors. They're either incandescent or luminescent.

Whataboutist arguments are hollow and feeble, especially this one. You're basically saying, "Better the devil you know...". Are devils all that Russia has to offer its people?

How would an immoral win in Germany have affected the path of the Allied countries? Would the US have stopped with just two atomic bombs in Japan? With worldwide approval of using immoral tactics to win wars, I'd imagine the US would swing towards authoritarianism much sooner than it has. We'd have had a Trump in office instead of an Eisenhower, or a Kennedy, or a Carter. There's very little that's moral about warfare, but when you defend your country's borders, you're also defending it's fundamental values.

Witch weigh?

Assassination is a fascist tool. Be careful of authoritarian responses to authoritarianism. The pigs just love it when you get down in the mud with them.

I didn't see it as a multiple comma violation. I thought they left out the word "for", as in "Rachel Ray finds inspiration in cooking FOR her family and her dog".

Since Reagan basically did the same thing Biden did, except he claimed he'd nominate a woman to the SCOTUS if she was qualified, it seems many folks nowadays just assumed a black woman wouldn't have those qualifications. And then GOP leadership treated Jackson like she was stinking up the place, enforcing systemic prejudice and doing their best to make sure an eminently qualified black woman would not move forward. My ass it had nothing to do with race.

I enthusiastically recommend Trump with no qualifications whatsoever. In my opinion, we'd be very fortunate to get him to actually work for us. I can assure you that no person would be better for the job. I can't say enough good things about him, nor recommend him too highly.

This is exactly how I view it. We reap a LOT of benefits from living in dense populations, and we have to be responsible for doing our parts to keep each other safe.