Thanks for reading. I’ll be brief and touch on a few things before I head out for the evening.
Outside of the Big Bang, I’m not aware of any other compelling ideas about how the Universe (as we know it) began.
I think some other apes (don’t forget: humans are apes) do commit what we would call rape. I think there have been instances of marauding apes killing others in some fashion in what we might call mass murder. They do this, I guess, primarily as a means to control territory. I don’t know the details. I wonder if Jane Goodall would be of any help here. But pedophilia? That’s a human-only thing, so far as I know.
I don’t accept assertions of the “divine.” Sure, that chocolate cake may be divine, but in terms of the religious use of the word, it means nothing to me (that is, it means nothing to me beyond make-believe). Same goes for “faith”: I only accept the colloquial (secular) definition of the word as a stand-in for “trust”: “I have faith that Joe will do the right thing.”
Catholic stuff. Yeah, that may be. But Catholicism is a huge component of Christianity, and so mentioning Catholic stuff is certainly valid because it’s what billions (!) of people believe.
I’ll say this about a single-cell organism, should one be found on Mars: It ought to render all religions null and void. Why? Because no religious person would henceforth be able to claim that the Universe exists for us.
Fortunately, I don’t know anyone who believes in any “deep state” stuff or who insists that vaccines are a danger. I do have one friend who insists that marijuana should not be legalized. Interestingly, I asked him to elaborate, to go after the arguments I made in my book, Letter to Prohibitionist. Weirdly, Bob said his position was “irrational.” I left it at that.
Good and evil are determined via the “mechanisms” I briefly mentioned in my segment about morality.
“What should God do…” presupposes I believe in God. I do not, and so the question has no meaning for me. But I have no reason to believe anything will happen to child rapists and serial killers after they die. Where were you in 1819? You didn’t exist. Where will you be in 2219? Your existence will long be over. And so it goes for all of humanity. Beethoven is not “up there” anywhere working on his 200th symphony.
Bryan Singer? I’m unaware of the allusion you’re making.
Catch you later!
Barry
