Replying to @OhHowByronic
@OhHowByronic
I don’t tell pretty girls they’re pretty; especially when they’re very young. There are some women whose beauty is almost therapeutic. Combined with the aura you project, you are a member of that set, Madame.
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Jim Trott retweeted
Replying to @darwintojesus
I’ve never seen a theistic account of “intrinsic human dignity” that doesn’t ultimately reduce to “God says humans matter”.
That may be a theological commitment. It is not an explanation.
Saying humans possess dignity because they are made in God’s image simply relocates the question: why does resemblance to, creation by, or ownership by a deity confer moral worth? If the answer is “because God values us”, then dignity rests on divine preference. If it is “because God’s nature grounds value”, then you still owe an argument connecting that nature to human worth rather than merely announcing the connection.
And there’s a further irony here. Secular accounts can at least point to morally relevant properties we actually possess: sentience, interests, agency, vulnerability, social dependence, reciprocity, the capacity to suffer and flourish. Those are public features of creatures like us.
“Imago Dei” is not public evidence. It is a doctrinal assertion whose force depends entirely on already accepting the theology doing the explaining.
So I’m afraid “atheists merely assume human dignity” is a rather rich complaint from someone whose own account appears to begin with an invisible being conferring special status on our species and then calls that an explanation.
Jim Trott retweeted
Replying to @SpeakerJohnson
Replying to @Maye88864
@75002Parisienne
My wife has been particularly attentive and affectionate recently - as one might following an unintended fling.
Today was a pleasant rainy morning, I offered make her a latte. Containers sometimes change roles. In addition to foamed milk I added salt.
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Replying to @Maye88864
@75002Parisienne
One of my linguistic pet thieves (peeves as interpreted by my wife’s Gallic ears):
It is either at this point or at this time…not at this point in time.
They’ve been doing it since Watergate and it still sounds like affectatious padding.
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One of my favorite digs:
“Motorcyclists and Redheads will acknowledge one another in passing. Is there something like that for sociopaths, Laura?”
@75002Parisienne
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Replying to @Maye88864
@75002Parisienne
Bonjour. Just spent a most comfortable night sleeping in Daniel Fauteuil.
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Replying to @Maye88864
@75002Parisienne
As a bachelor who prefers to live alone, I spent time in vocal self-narration and imagined conversation.
I’ll do that with our Great Pyrs. A next-door visitor said I like the way you talk to your dogs.
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Replying to @Maye88864
@75002Parisienne
Following a needlessly lengthy battle of wits with an acquaintance, an uncomfortable silence.
She asked almost pleadingly if I was calling her a nut.
Another pause, “If the shell fits…”
At that point her eyes let go of whatever string she was clinging to.
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Replying to @oliverburdick
That’s the wisdom of American Freedom of Religion; you are able to assert all manner of things you can’t demonstrate.
Freedom of Thought - upon which religious rests - says we’re not required to believe any of it.
You can’t have your religious cake and make us eat it, too.



