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6 votes
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Feel good movies
Covid finally caught up with me and I'm going to be living like a hermit for the next 2 weeks. It's been a stressful month here so I'm looking to melt my brain (or at least the bits covid hasn't...
Covid finally caught up with me and I'm going to be living like a hermit for the next 2 weeks. It's been a stressful month here so I'm looking to melt my brain (or at least the bits covid hasn't already melted). I'd love to check out your easy watching, good time having, feel good suggestions!
10 votes -
Atheism and moral realism/objectivism?
*Disclaimer: I am not an apologist, theologian, or a philosopher, just someone interested in the topic. Perhaps this could've been asked in r/AskPhilosophy or maybe even r/changemyview, but I...
*Disclaimer: I am not an apologist, theologian, or a philosopher, just someone interested in the topic. Perhaps this could've been asked in r/AskPhilosophy or maybe even r/changemyview, but I figure the conversation might be good here
The recent post here on Absurd Trolley Problems has had me thinking about ethics again, and I realized I've never been introduced to how one can be an atheist and be not only a moral objectivist, but a moral realist. I remember a debate I watched years ago with William Lane Craig and Christopher Hitchens where Craig asks Hitchens what the basis of morality is, and he acts insulted, insinuating that Craig intended to say that atheists couldn't "be good without God" (which I think became a famous moment for the both of them.)
But I never got the answer to Craig's question that I wanted. Without God, how should we determine what moral facts there are? How should we determine if there are moral facts at all? I grew up in a fundamentalist religion, and found myself in adulthood deeply interested in apologetics, and see similar responses in debates to the one mentioned above. Now while I believe Hitchens was a moral relativist, I often see and hear cases where atheists do seem to want to say that [insert atrocity here] was objectively morally wrong. Can atheists reasonably claim that there are not only moral facts, but objective moral facts that they can access? Upon examination, aren't you ultimately required to derive an "ought" from an "is"?
I skimmed The Moral Landscape by Sam Harris some years ago, and it seems to "avoid" (i.e. commit) the "is/ought" fallacy by simply declaring that "human flourishing" (however that may be defined, separate issue) is an irreducible "ought" in his eyes. The book is great, I think that science should be part of the discussion about how one ought to live their life if the goal is some end like human flourishing; doctors already give prescriptions for behavior based on a presupposed goal between both parties to promote health and well-being. Both of these necessarily presuppose a state of affairs that one "ought" to seek to attain.
But none of this answers why one "ought" to do anything; sure, there are facts about what one "ought" to do in order to attain a state of affairs, but that isn't morality: that's true of any subject where two people agree to share a goal. It doesn't tell us why they should have that goal. None of this feels like a satisfying answer to the question Craig posed. I don't feel like I'm any closer to these objective moral facts.
I should say this topic is really meaningful to me. I've thought a lot about veganism, and the suffering of non-human animals. I've thought about the impact of my consumption decisions instead of perpetually leaning on the "no ethical consumption" crutch (even though there are reasons why that would have merit in certain circumstances. I literally can't stop thinking about climate change and how powerless, yet simultaneously complicit I feel. I've read Peter Singer, Scripture, Kant, John Stewart Mill, Rawls, and works from many others, and can't find any reason for an atheist (and maybe even a theist?) to think that there are these moral facts at all, much less objective, accessible ones. This really leaves me with "I guess I should just do whatever it is that I feel like doing", which probably seems to you as unsatisfying as it was for me to type.
14 votes -
Georgia Guidestones destroyed by explosive device
16 votes -
What have you been watching / reading this week? (Anime/Manga)
What have you been watching and reading this week? You don't need to give us a whole essay if you don't want to, but please write something! Feel free to talk about something you saw that was...
What have you been watching and reading this week? You don't need to give us a whole essay if you don't want to, but please write something! Feel free to talk about something you saw that was cool, something that was bad, ask for recommendations, or anything else you can think of.
If you want to, feel free to find the thing you're talking about and link to its pages on Anilist, MAL, or any other database you use!
3 votes -
Tax excess margins
2 votes -
Large Hadron Collider beauty experiment discovers three new exotic particles
11 votes -
The Woman King | Official trailer
5 votes -
What programming/technical projects have you been working on?
This is a recurring post to discuss programming or other technical projects that we've been working on. Tell us about one of your recent projects, either at work or personal projects. What's...
This is a recurring post to discuss programming or other technical projects that we've been working on. Tell us about one of your recent projects, either at work or personal projects. What's interesting about it? Are you having trouble with anything?
7 votes -
A history of tacos
3 votes -
How do you steer a drill below the earth?
4 votes -
Amsterdam | Official trailer
4 votes -
🤔 Emojivism 😀
4 votes -
Allen Carr’s ‘Easy Way’ method helped millions quit smoking, but medicine never took it seriously — until now
8 votes -
How traceable are you? - Experiment results & analysis
11 votes -
Absurd Trolley Problems
27 votes -
NASA's CAPSTONE satellite has gone dark
7 votes -
James Cameron tells off ‘Avatar’ haters, defends three-hour ‘Avatar 2’ runtime: ‘Get up and go pee’
7 votes -
€2 billion underground ‘water battery’ turns on in Switzerland
15 votes -
How Taika Waititi shoots a film at three budget levels
5 votes -
Manufacturers struggle to keep pace with vinyl record demand
5 votes -
White Rhinos return to Mozambique park after more than forty years
5 votes -
Fortnightly Programming Q&A Thread
General Programming Q&A thread! Ask any questions about programming, answer the questions of other users, or post suggestions for future threads. Don't forget to format your code using the triple...
General Programming Q&A thread! Ask any questions about programming, answer the questions of other users, or post suggestions for future threads.
Don't forget to format your code using the triple backticks or tildes:
Here is my schema: ```sql CREATE TABLE article_to_warehouse ( article_id INTEGER , warehouse_id INTEGER ) ; ``` How do I add a `UNIQUE` constraint?2 votes -
TV Tuesdays Free Talk
Have you watched any TV shows recently you want to discuss? Any shows you want to recommend or are hyped about? Feel free to discuss anything here. Please just try to provide fair warning of...
Have you watched any TV shows recently you want to discuss? Any shows you want to recommend or are hyped about? Feel free to discuss anything here.
Please just try to provide fair warning of spoilers if you can.
4 votes -
Scandinavian airline SAS announced that it has gone bankrupt a day after 1,000 pilots walked out on strike
13 votes -
Nationalism is underrated by intellectuals
14 votes -
Is it possible to expand my Windows EFI partition?
I currently dual-boot Arch and Windows and just use the Windows EFI partition in Arch as well, however I only have about 13 MB of space left on it. I’d like to try installing Gentoo on an extra...
I currently dual-boot Arch and Windows and just use the Windows EFI partition in Arch as well, however I only have about 13 MB of space left on it.
I’d like to try installing Gentoo on an extra SSD I have with nothing on it, but don’t really want to have a second EFI partition if I can avoid it.
So my question is, can I shrink the Windows main partition towards the right and expand the the Windows EFI partition into the newly freed space?
6 votes -
With no fuel and no cash, Sri Lanka grinds to a halt
10 votes -
A working flight simulator, no computers necessary
4 votes -
Toronto wants to kill the smart city forever - the city wants to get right what Sidewalk Labs got so wrong
10 votes -
What childhood beliefs or misconceptions took you an embarrassing time to figure out?
I'm talking about silly harmless stuff like "I believed in Santa Claus till I was 13", and not deep existential stuff like "It took me till adulthood to realize that my parents were doing their...
I'm talking about silly harmless stuff like "I believed in Santa Claus till I was 13", and not deep existential stuff like "It took me till adulthood to realize that my parents were doing their best despite their their failings".
24 votes -
Three things I got wrong about patriarchy
5 votes -
What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them?
What have you been playing lately? Discussion about video games and board games are both welcome. Please don't just make a list of titles, give some thoughts about the game(s) as well.
10 votes -
What have you been eating, drinking, and cooking?
What food and drinks have you been enjoying (or not enjoying) recently? Have you cooked or created anything interesting? Tell us about it!
5 votes -
Couples wed as Swiss same-sex marriage law takes effect
5 votes -
Weekly US politics news and updates thread - week of July 4
This thread is posted weekly - please try to post all relevant US political content in here, such as news, updates, opinion articles, etc. Extremely significant events may warrant a separate...
This thread is posted weekly - please try to post all relevant US political content in here, such as news, updates, opinion articles, etc. Extremely significant events may warrant a separate topic, but almost all should be posted in here.
This is an inherently political thread; please try to avoid antagonistic arguments and bickering matches. Comment threads that devolve into unproductive arguments may be removed so that the overall topic is able to continue.
7 votes -
Weekly coronavirus-related chat, questions, and minor updates - week of July 4
This thread is posted weekly, and is intended as a place for more-casual discussion of the coronavirus and questions/updates that may not warrant their own dedicated topics. Tell us about what the...
This thread is posted weekly, and is intended as a place for more-casual discussion of the coronavirus and questions/updates that may not warrant their own dedicated topics. Tell us about what the situation is like where you live!
11 votes -
Yorushika - Bremen (2022)
5 votes -
Should I quit smoking right now, or wait?
I'm an on-again off-again smoker, currently (the past 4-5 months) on-again. Been meaning to requit, but it's been much harder for me this time. Here's the crux. Two of my roommates just tested...
I'm an on-again off-again smoker, currently (the past 4-5 months) on-again. Been meaning to requit, but it's been much harder for me this time.
Here's the crux. Two of my roommates just tested positive (for Covid). Not guaranteed, but it's a good bet that, within another 2-3 days, all 5 of us will be symptomatic.
Am I better off quitting right now, or will that just put added stress on my lungs during the coming illness, and I should wait until after I recover (always assuming I survive it, of course)?
ETA: Y'all are shooting holes in my, apparently, flimsy justifications to keep smoking. Just switched to vaping now.
Thanks everyone.
15 votes -
Major Xonotic update 0.8.5 releases
12 votes -
Thoughts on learning languages
9 votes -
Minnesota lawmakers voted to legalize THC edibles. Some did it accidentally.
12 votes -
Australia had a mass-shooting problem. Here’s how it stopped
14 votes -
Three killed in shooting at Copenhagen shopping centre – 22-year-old Danish man in custody as police chief says too early to speculate on the motive for the shooting
8 votes -
California lawmakers reject ballot proposal that aimed to end forced prison labor
10 votes -
Red flags at Silverstone as Zhou Guanyu barrel rolls out in chaotic British GP start
7 votes -
Jordan Peterson suspended from Twitter, says it might as well be a ban: 'I won’t apologize'
16 votes -
‘Minions: Rise of Gru’ smashes July 4th box office records with $127.9M opening
6 votes -
Single-use plastic waste is getting phased out in California under a sweeping new law
23 votes -
Zbigniew Wodecki - Rzuć to wszystko co złe (1976)
4 votes