(202204144) I think a big question atheists always ask against/to religious people is: "Why God would ask/need for our worship?":
((Sunni(te)) Islam (at least) clearly says that God do not really/actually need worship of anyone!)
How about we first consider, how almost all humans ready to do all kinds of hard (& often even if degrading/humiliating!) work in return for just a little bit (more) money!?
(I had read that "The Great Hero/Savior of The Jewish People" Bar Kokhba required people to cut-off one of their fingers, as a sign/evidence of loyalty/commitment to him & to his side/cause!)
& yet, if God asks for any (easy to do) worship from people, in return for erasing/forgiving their sins & giving them an eternal life of utter luxury/pleasure/fun/joy/happiness, that is still too much to ask?
(By the way, according to (Sunni(te)) Islam, nobody's good deeds/actions are really enough to actually deserve/earn an eternal life in Heaven! (& so, people go to Heaven really/actually as a gift from God!)
(Because, realize that, even if Heaven was just a luxury hotel that costs only the smallest amount of money per day, its total cost/worth would be infinite amount of money! & in a finite/limited (in every way) world, what good deed(s) could possibly really/actually have infinite value?))
(202204166) I had read that "The Prophet Of Atheists" Charles Darwin had called the concept of eternal punishment in Hell "a damnable doctrine"!
(I think he really maybe thought/called as "The Prophet Of Atheists", because Theory Of Evolution do not really/actually has an(y) true/absolute proof & so, belief of atheists in Theory Of Evolution is really/actually faith-based, just like belief of creationists in God!)
According to (Sunni(te)) Islam, the reason/justification seems/said to be, because, if those people had lived an eternal life on Earth, they would still never believe in The Correct/Valid/True God/Religion/Denomination!
Also, wouldn't it be really logical/natural to think/expect that, if there will/should/must be eternal life/reward in Heaven, also there will/should/must be eternal life/punishment in Hell?
Also, I think, for anything to really/actually/truly have a meaning/value, it needs to be permanent/eternal!
For example, our lives could really have a meaning/value, if there is no afterlife & our world/universe will surely end someday?
Do we really/actually have true ownership of anything, if it is only temporary? (I think true ownership of land/property/anything only really/actually exists in Heaven!)
& so, any reward/punishment is really/actually/true reward/punishment, if it is only temporary?
(202204177) How all future events/actions still could be fully predictable to God, despite existence of free-wills & randomness of QM?:
Realize that, if all/whole reality is really/actually created & run by God, similar to a computer simulation, then, all random number input data to the simulation would also need to be created & provided by God!
& similarly, God would be the one who somehow really/actually creates/provides all free-wills!
& if so then, is it really still surprising that God can predict all future events/actions?
(202204181) Tires filled w/ air require constant periodic inspections/maintenance & what is worse is, even a tiny unnoticed object can rupture/blowout a tire anytime!
Imagine a material that is aerogel/hydrogel-like (& soft & elastic) (or soft & solid balls/beads?) which can be filled into any existing tire to convert it into an airless tire!
(202204181) A paper/film-like material that creates only CO2 & H2O when burns (just like candle wax!?) that is infused w/ nicotine and/or THC to make cigar(ette/illo)!
(It could be made as 3 layers w/ a wavy middle layer to allow passage of air when rolled into cigar(ette/illo) shape!)
(202204225) According to the Islamic stories of The (Grand) Prophets (at least), it seems that people pretty much always strongly try to resist (& even fight!) against a(ny) new god/religion!
But, then, how they all acquired their old gods of Paganism/Idolatry exactly?
It seems that a certain hadith of Grand-Prophet Mohammad offering/providing an/the answer!:
It says that 3 Gods/Idols of 3 certain tribes were actually/originally the (human) leaders of their founding first families!
& after their deaths, the people of the tribes were built monuments in their names to always remember & honor them!
But, over time, the actual/original purposes of building those monuments were forgotten & they were turned into "The Gods/Idols" of those tribes!
& so, I think, for example, the names of Ancient Greek Gods (like Zeus, Ares, Hades, etc) also actually quite likely are the names of the founding leaders of The Greek Nation!
(But, what about each god having a special power/responsibility/job & what about countless stories/legends about each god?:
I do not think it is really hard to guess that, once people created many gods, they would also assign a separate special power/responsibility/job to each god, sooner or later!
& I think, it is also not really hard to guess that, sooner or later, some people who have story-telling talents would start creating & telling glorious (& fictional!) stories of their gods & in return would be showered w/ gifts/rewards!
(I think, even in Christianity, there is such a great example of that: Dante Alighieri!))
(& by the way, Islam (at least) actually clearly states/claims that, if there were really multiple gods, they would run into conflict(s) (sooner or later) & so the order/peace of the world/universe would suffer! & I think it really/actually makes perfect sense, as we can see, for example, people w/ different jobs/responsibilities run into disagreements, all-the-time, even under the best of circumstances!)
(202204262) Is it really true that "History is written by the victors!"?:
I remember that in one episode of the TV show "Xena: The Warrior Princess", Julius Caesar had killed his historian, because he had insisted writing about their defeat against "The British" in a sea battle/war! :-)
I had read that, in early Islamic history, there is a story of a bunch of Muslim warriors abducting a princess from a small island tower (in Istanbul) but Byzantine historical records have no mention of the event at all!
I had also read that most modern historians do not think The Exodus really/actually happened, because Egyptian historical records have no mention of those events (& neither of The Jews) (& even though Ancient Greeks really have mentioned them actually!)!
I think it is very naive to think that "If The Exodus really/actually happened then Egyptian historical records would mention it, for sure!"!
I think, today, "History is written by the victors!" is surely not true, only because it is pretty much impossible to alter/erase all/national/global historical records & governments have no such absolute power to execute/punish anybody (in any way!) they want!
We need to realize that, if The Exodus really/actually happened, then, it would be extremely embarrassing/harmful/bad for "The Glorious Egyptian National History" & "The Great Egyptian Gods/Religion"!
& so, it is extremely likely that, right afterwards The Exodus, The Egyptian Royalty would have issued extensive orders to destroy all written records about The Jews & ban everybody from talking about them, ever again!
(202204284) Check Deposit Fraud/Scam Problem of USA:
It seems that, when a customer deposit any check, the bank makes the money fully/partially immediately available somehow which enables massive amounts of frauds/scams, endlessly!
(Because, the scammers ask/tell people to deposit (fake) checks & send a portion of the money to them!)
I think this type of scam pretty much only happens in USA (true?), because check deposits are done THE RIGHT WAY in the rest of the world!:
The check deposit money needs to stay in PENDING (unavailable!) state, until the money actually comes from the provider of the check!
To solve the problem, it seems the USA banks & federal government (institutions) are simply/just keep trying to warn the public against the problem, instead of actually solving the problem permanently & I think it is utterly outrageous!
Isn't it very obvious that just keep trying to warn the public, would never ever really/actually/permanently solve such a common/massive/endless problem?
I think, what needs to be done is USA Federal Government ordering ALL USA banks to fix the way check deposits work/handled/done!
(Also, ALL (USA) banks should/must try/attempt to pull money of each check for 3 times (w/ 1/2/3 day(s) intervals) before giving-up (& sending back the check to the customer)!)
(202204295) Commented on the article:
"Ask Ethan: Could a big enough telescope see aliens directly?"
https://www.patreon.com/posts/ask-ethan-could-65743832
"There’s a trick that we’ve leveraged in very long wavelengths of light that could, in principle, work for optical wavelengths as well: very-long-baseline interferometry. If we could build a network of small optical telescopes distributed throughout the Solar System, we’d only get the light-gathering power of the sum of the areas of all of the individual telescopes, but we’d get the resolution of the separation between the telescopes!":
Absolutely agreed!
I think that needs to be the future general direction/goal of astronomical telescopes!
JWST is surely great work/success, but let's also realize, it could have easily failed for so many reasons (& cause a huge blow to all future funding requests for similar expensive single-piece telescopes)!
A network of small optical telescopes working as a single super-giant telescope would be a superior option, in many ways, compared to just keep trying to build larger & larger single-piece telescopes!
& of course, the tech needs to be developed/realized in steps:
First, a few small telescopes flying near-by in orbit!
Next, a global network of small telescopes in orbit!
& finally, a solar-system-size network of small telescopes!
(202204295) I think, as/since we can clearly see that all kinds of animals always try to get away from excessively hot/cold (or electrically shocking) places/objects etc, the ethical default rule/law needs to be that "Any animal species can sense/feel any kind of pain/suffering (similar to human species!) unless/until absolutely proven otherwise (for that animal species)!"!
(Instead of such opposite unethical default rule/law that "Any animal species cannot sense/feel any kind of pain/suffering unless/until absolutely proven otherwise (for that animal species)!"!)
(202204295) IMHO, allowing copyright and/or patent ownership for any AI hardware/software and/or any animal species is an extremely bad idea which would open floodgates of legal problems!
For example, who (& why) would get the money, if the copyright/patent is sold?
But, most importantly, what are the min & max limits, for how complicated/smart/intelligent to be, for any AI hardware/software and/or any animal species, to be allowed/qualified?
(& not to mention, how exactly we can accurately/objectively measure/qualify/verify that for any AI hardware/software and/or any animal species?)
