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Computers speed up routine tasks, but now they take longer.

I noticed. It's a pattern in our exchanges here. Thanks for your replies, anyway.

I think there's a difference between ignoring someone with the intention to snub them, and ignoring posts in order to protect oneself. Just saying.

Crows can recognize themselves in a mirror, which implies rational cognition. Octopuses too, if I remember correctly, and in any case, they can solve puzzles that require rational planning. Elephants may or may not be able to perform tasks that require rational cognition, but I seem to remember...

Baha'u'llah's writings are very specific to humanity. I'm having a hard time imagining how they would speak to elephants, or octopusses, or crows - arguably conscious beings who even share this planet with us. Alien species on other planets would likely be even more alien to us than birds or...

Thanks, Tony! I was in a bit of a childish mood when I wrote that post, and deliberately omitted the sources of my quotes, in imitation of @Thinking required . The first one, "ignorance is bliss", is a fairly well-known saying. I think it paraphrases a major aspect of the Ecclesiastes quote. I...

Well, @Thinking required repeatedly asserted that he likes to be challenged. He didn't respond to challenges on an emotional, interpersonal level, but then, this can be difficult in this type of written communication, so I let it be. @wil is challenging his self-righteous attitude, and that...

To me, this is self-contradicting: In spite of asking the reader to not bring along any beliefs to interpret the text, it presupposes the belief that a holy text contains objective truth. As much as I loathe turning postmodern arbitrariness into any kind of objective truth, I also find claims...

Attributed to Einstein.

Guns are not ideas, but objects, tools. There are several ideologies centered around guns, though. It's a circular situation, because only the guns are talked about, when the ideologies, and their actors in particular, should be addressed. My perspective, from outside of the US.

I should have picked a different example, but I was tired, it was late. I think my point did not get across. Good morning! I have slept now, coffee is coming up next ☕ Let me rephrase: "I won't start beheading aristocrats in the public square just by listening to a French person talk about...

But I won't start burning down clinics or shooting medics by listening to Christians' views about abortion, to pick a random example. Ideologies need actors. "Views don't kill, people do", as it were.

"Ignorance is bliss". "As our circle of knowledge expands, so does the curcumference of darkness surrounding it". 🙃 I can relate. And I also want "a vision of Nature's forces That bind the world, all its seeds and sources And innermost life—all this I shall see, And stop peddling in words...

"accurate", well, taking an accurate look into the round: We're none of us 5 years olds here. We're adults, many with considerable life experience and wisdom. What is accurate on a 5 year old's level of reading comprehension is a bit overgeneralized to a 50 years old one's. So while a small...

Just a remark, not intended to derail the discussion: The Commandments are spelled out in the text, they weren't developed. What continues to develop is the body of experience and rulings and opinions on how to keep them, given changing circumstances.

Nothing mystical about it. You could ask them directly, for example, something like "Did I cross a line?"

Maybe. How could you find out?

In the case of the Vedas and the Avesta, there is a body of research supporting the idea that the texts were transmitted very precisely. For example, in the Vedas, several different ancient dialects of Vedic Sanskrit are preserved. The same goes for the Buddhist sutras of the Pali canon. They...

Oral transmisdion is very reliable in cultures where it is embedded. The Vedas and the Avesta were orally transmitted for a long time, as were the Buddhist sutras. The Aboriginal people of Australia have oral transmission of history going back to the time when the continental shelf between...

I don't have an answer, but some thoughts: Wasn't Muhammad illiterate? I thought that the tradition goes that he was commanded to read in his first vision, with him replying that he was unable to read? He later dictated the Quran, but he himself didn't take dictation? Anyway, Breath and Wind...