Zagorath

There are no good billionaires. Except for the trans good billionaires, obviously.

I’m on the default Piefed site and also can’t see that comment.

Where’s the discussion about AI as a research tool?

Umm, no, I don’t believe in any gods. The only effect gods have is the effect caused by people acting in accordance with their belief, shared down through the ages and evolved at every stage by the culture it’s a part of, in those gods.

Sorry when you say "that guy", you're talking about Dawkins or the person I was conversing with here on the fediverse? Because to be honest I didn't think they were saying anything that didn't seem pretty much in line with what I was already agreeing with them about.

The idea of a god is a god I mean, sort of? That statement isn’t literally true, but taken metaphorically it basically matches what I said. Jesus actually exists Scholarly consensus is that he was indeed a real person who actually existed, but he obviously didn’t perform the actual literal miracles described in the bible. He’s a psychological parasite living in the collective imagination of humanity. And He influences the world through His followers, who are sworn to serve Him. Yeah, sure. He doesn’t literally live, but the idea of him has a powerful effect, so metaphorically you could say he influences the world through his followers. Unless you’re getting into some really fucking weird mumbo jumbo bullshit and you’re trying to claim it is actually absolutely literal that he exists and exerts a force on the world directly, I don’t see where you and I are in disagreement.

I don’t understand what you’re trying to say here. How does your last sentence flow from your first? I think most atheists would agree with the notion that gods are ideas passed down over generations. They’re not real things that actually exist, but like anything people believe, the very idea of them exerts an influence on society…which we see every time a government passes a law based in religious ideology, like anti-LGBT or anti-abortion laws. None of that even seems very controversial. Unless you’re a believer in a literal god or gods, I’m not sure where the problem is.

I get what you mean. I usually try to assume good intent when I can, and there really wasn’t any reason for someone to be aggressive here. If it was the intent, it really came out of the blue. My problem is that I literally can’t see a well-intended reading of it. “even if someone is in a 3rd world country they still need their dopamine” is not a reading of their comment that makes any sense to me even after it’s been pointed out as a possibility, and it certainly isn’t one I could come to myself. Neither of us were to have known this at the time, but their other two (more recent) comments in this thread have also been, to put it mildly, quite curt. Which retrospectively makes me feel like my interpretation was more accurate.

Are you sure? That’s definitely not how I read it, and even rereading it I struggle to see how it could work like that.

Sorry but I don’t trust that infographic. Over 50% in Australia? Try more like 15. If it got Australia so badly wrong, how accurate are other countries?

IIRC one of the holidays was meant to be to Florida.

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