Posts by Andrew Stevenson
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There are some guidelines that things in your life should fall into one of three categories (that run something like);
Functional
Beautiful
SentimentalYou could make the case that these items fit into functional and beautiful and will, given time, become sentimental.
I really like it that Jo is creating works of art and craft that give enjoyment both in the making and the use. While my own hobbies will probably never reach the scale of Jo's, I hope that I can match the ethic.
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I was going to clarify that it was the word spiritual that means different things to different people; not that Emma means different things to different people, but if the hat fits...
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I can't remember where I read this, but anyway:
"I don't believe in organised religion but I am spiritual" is an odd position. It's all of the baggage of superstition, without any of the benefits of community.
Sounds kind of like William James in his book The Varieties of Religious Experience, where there is the distinction of the form of organised religion versus the human response of "spiritual" (which does mean different things to different people, a la Emma)
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It irritates me when religious people (or non-religious people, for that matter) insist I have some sort of belief system, when all I have is an absence of belief
I have some sort belief system - it is (currently) unexamined, incomplete, probably inconsistent, and subject to change without notice.
What irritates me is that people expect it to be otherwise -
To open another area for the debate: there is the non door knocking missionaries who do go to some fairly nasty places in order to do good (for a given value of good).
My parents worked in PNG in the late 60's as medical officers, in the refugee camps on the Cambodia border during the Pol Pot era and later in the Phillipines. OK you can make arguments about inflicting your worldview on someone else and suppressing their culture, but OTOH lives were saved and suffereing reduced by their being there.
Yes it is possible to help people without bringing along an ideology, but should trying to exempt any ideology over rule helping people? -
I'm already driven to drink by this sh*t
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Gah. I'd love to see a figure for how much that actually saved them, so we can note how many times over they spend it in the next couple of weeks.
It also will tell us how much discrimination is worth to the economy. Should we be expecting to see the same argument applied in other areas like health, benefits etc?
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Unless we can spin the donkeys as a fleet of low-emission hybrid vehicles?
No, while they are 100% biofuel compatible a donkey can't be hybrid, it's mules that are the hybrids
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So can we start a moral panic about stupid laws and get them made banned (any MP introducing one considered stupid will be jailed)?
Think of the effect the bad laws have would have on the children!
Can you use their own weapons against them?
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Good post again Emma; thought provoking, coherent, relevant and yet scary.
I imagine this has been happening in some form since the first town meetings in Athens, has anyone worked out suitable counter strategies?