Welcome to DU! The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards. Join the community: Create a free account Support DU (and get rid of ads!): Become a Star Member Latest Breaking News General Discussion The DU Lounge All Forums Issue Forums Culture Forums Alliance Forums Region Forums Support Forums Help & Search

Voltaire2

Voltaire2's Journal
Voltaire2's Journal
May 18, 2018

What if gods never existed?

What would the world be like if there were no gods?

April 22, 2018

So a good man with no gun.

Stopped a bad man with a gun.

I’m sure that this will be spun:

“We need us moar gunz!”

April 21, 2018

Jesus vs Socrates: who made the greater sacrifice?

Jesus: born circa 4 BCE, died circa CE 30-33. Cause of death: execution by crucifixion.

Jesus of Nazareth is believed by most Christians to be an immortal incarnation of the christian god, and his death is viewed as a sacrificial act that brought the possibility of salvation and eternal life to all people.

Jesus was executed for expressing heretical religious views. Jesus refused opportunities to avoid execution by renouncing his beliefs.

If one believes that Jesus was the incarnation of an immortal deity, one also has to accept that Jesus knew his execution was not the end of his existence, that he died knowing his death was temporary, to be followed shortly by his resurrection and ascension into heaven.


Socrates: born c 470 BCE, died circa 399 BCE. Cause of death: execution by poison.


Socrates was a classical Greek philosopher generally credited as one of the founders of western philosophy, and specifically the Socratic method of rational inquiry.

Socrates was executed for expressing heretical religious views. Socrates refused opportunities to avoid execution by renouncing his beliefs.

As Socrates did not believe he was immortal, he had no expectation that his death was anything other the the end of his life.
April 14, 2018

Vatican Arrests Monsignor on Suspicion of Possessing Child Pornography


VATICAN CITY — A monsignor who had been recalled to the Vatican as a diplomat in the Holy See’s Washington Embassy was arrested on Saturday on suspicion of possessing child pornography in the United States and Canada.

Msgr. Carlo Alberto Capella was arrested by the Vatican police on a warrant issued by the Holy See’s chief magistrate, the Vatican said in a statement.

Monsignor Capella, who was recalled from the Vatican Embassy in August, was arrested according to articles of a 2013 law signed by Pope Francis. The articles cited by the statement related to child pornography.

If indicted, the monsignor will have to stand trial in the Vatican and face up to 12 years in prison on conviction.


https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/07/world/europe/vatican-monsignor-capella-child-pornography.html
March 29, 2018

Vatican rebukes journalist who quoted pope as denying hell


The Vatican on Thursday rebuked a well-known Italian journalist who quoted Pope Francis as saying hell does not exist.

The Vatican issued a statement after the comments spread on social media, saying they did not properly reflect what the pope had said.


https://www.reuters.com/article/us-pope-hell/vatican-rebukes-journalist-who-quoted-pope-as-denying-hell-idUSKBN1H52H8


And anyone who says different - you know what's waiting for you!
March 14, 2018

On pi day Stephen Hawking died.

Seems appropriate. A great light of reason and science has gone dark.

February 18, 2018

Calling B.S. in Parkland, Florida


Last Thursday evening, I arrived at Pine Trails Park, in Parkland, Florida, just as the candlelight vigil to honor the dead was ending. The cars were still arriving, in long lines that gleamed under halogen streetlights, waved through intersections by officers of the Broward County Sheriff’s Department. Flashlights and phone lights bobbed along the sidewalks that bordered the road as families passed on foot or on bikes. It was just past eight o’clock, darkness had fallen over the palm glades and cul de sacs and strip malls of this city at the edge of the Everglades, and if you hadn’t known the circumstances, you might have expected a Fourth of July celebration.
Instead, the people here had gathered for a different kind of national ritual. In Parkland, Florida, after the fatal shootings at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School this Valentine’s Day, the aftermath had at first a familiar pattern: the initial news alerts; then the psychological profiles of the killer; the repetition of “thought and prayers,” the news scrum, this vigil. The funerals would begin the next day, but the long-term prospect was of another lull in the debate until the next act of spectacular violence—a routine so predictable that a couple of days later I saw that someone in Fort Lauderdale had drawn it in imitation of the Krebs Cycle and printed it on a T-shirt. The first hint that something might be different this time came the morning after the shootings, from a Douglas High School sophomore named Sarah Chadwick, who informed the President of the United States, via his favorite medium, in words that quickly went viral, “I don’t want your condolences you fucking piece of shit, my friends and teachers were shot.”



https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/three-days-in-parkland-florida
February 14, 2018

Does anyone here think thoughts and prayers

is an appropriate response to yet another gun massacre?

February 12, 2018

Its Darwin Day!

Profile Information

Member since: Mon Mar 27, 2017, 07:57 AM
Number of posts: 12,977
Latest Discussions»Voltaire2's Journal