My Linux (Ubuntu) is on a Dell laptop which has just died. The mains charger is 'not recognised' despite being the same one that came with the laptop. So the battery does not get charged. Must get it back to Dell to see if they can do something.

Absolutely

Certainly

for sure

I will be 70 in January and have just received notification that I will need a new driving licence. Amazingly I don't need to provide a new photo and it doesn't cost anything! I do however have to tick a lot of boxes to confirm that I don't suffer from any one of many afflictions. No need to get a doctor to sign it, either. I'm amazed it is so easy. If I was in charge of these things I would require older folk to take regular driving tests, concentrating in particular on reaction time and eyesight. But hey, don't tell that to the UK authorities

nope

lovely River?

Ask them.

If you can relate to the answer you're halfway there.

Because this site is international, it is very difficult to find someone who is in the right age range and lives close enough to me (in England) for a meeting to be worthwhile. So I chat with many, all ages and countries but with no real intention to meet. I admit I have a couple of offers from the right age, but more than two hours drive from me. I appreciate that 'two hours' is 'next door' for Americans used to long distances, but for me two hours to get there and another two to get home means that meeting someone for lunch could take a whole day! Not that I'm looking, I like reading these forums instead.

I knew I would be tripped up when I said I only believe what I can prove. The asnwer is more detailed than that. For example I cannot see for myself that there is a Higgs Boson, but am prepared to believe it has been found after first being suggested as a theory which said it 'ought' to exist. Now it does!

I also believe that freemasons exist. That's because I used to know people who were members, including women who have to meet in a separate hall, for some complicated reason. The houses in this area are about a hundred years old and among them is a Masonic Hall, which is sufficient proof for me that this organisation has been around a long time and is still around. Of course I need to apply Occam's Razor to any suggestion that the whole thing is a conspiracy theory and believers have been duped for some weird reason. As far as I am concerned this organisation really does exist and perhaps the men still roll up the trouser leg as they used to do. Each to their own!

Generally speaking, chocolate during the day and sex at night, but exceptions to the rule are welcome.

Ladies, please form a quere here....... →

Both are good, each in the right place and at the right time

Oolite

Me too

nope

Can't say this unbeliever is easily convinced by people who just state something with no 'proof' whatsoever. If X exists, then I need to read the discussion in respectable and relevant peer reviewed scientific journals. If there is nothing in these journals, ideas are no more than theories. Nothing wrong with theories, just so long as you only say, "I have a theory..." and do not state something as being fact, when there has been no proof of it.

578

Tom, you say: "My husband was taken from me: reality; he died"

One of my friends lost her faith when her husband died. She asks, "Why was he taken from me?" unable to accept that everyone dies and that day was his day.A very sad reason for abandoning the faith she had for many years. You can't reason with someone like that. Telling her that we will all die one day would only product the question, "But why today?".

Another friend lost her cat. She spoke with her priest and the stupid man promised that he would pray and God would return her cat. What a stupid promise to make! Either th cat was run over by a car or it just ran away, but that friend also lost her faith when the 'promise' made by her priest failed to come true.

These two friends had what I call an 'upbringing' - one in which they were told that is how life is. But when tested, they both found it just didn't work.

In my case there never was any 'truth' to believe in, despite the best efforts of those in my Catholic school.

Star struck? Yes, of course

Indeed, it is me and perhaps everybody else who attaches more or less the same meaning to that word. If I say 'chair' you will think of something we sit on. Most people would think the same. If you point to what most people call a table and then announce that you call that thing a chair, it would surely cause confusion, as everyone would think the wrong thing. Call a chair a chair, a table a table, a spade a spade and 'God' what most people would understand by that - some sort of invisible deity, details differ but everyone would get the general idea.

Just sayin'

^^^ anyone who knows me will know my answer to that question ^^^

The Extinction Rebellion movement wants to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to net-zero by 2025. Scientifically, this is impossible to do, which for me reduces the credibility of their argument. Even if we ALL gave up owning a car, and we ALL became Vegan and ALL production of oil, gas and coal was stopped by the end of this year, that would still not be enough to achieve their aim.

In general I agree with the idea that we should do as much as we can to reduce global warming, but I will not give up my car until there are regular bus routes that go to all the places I need to go in my car. When I am much older I will likely give up the car, go without many of the pleasures I now enjoy and walk everywhere, accepting that food and other things can be delieved direct to my house.

But not yet!

Tom, I related a story, can't see anything wrong in a little tease. I don't think I take life as seriously as you do. I was sent to a Catholic school but all the religious stuff associated with that just went over my head. It was not taught to me in a way that left me believing in any of it. I guess I just thought, "That's OK" and then forgot about it. Some of the boys got a place at that school because they wanted to join the priesthood. They were always bottom of the class and only present at that school because of their stated desire to become a priest.

Thinking back, I guess I might have formed the opinion that they were after the easy life, didn't matter if they took exams or not. The rest of us were focussed on passing the exams necessary to get into university. Thus maths and physics were interesting to me. Understanding them was essential to getting a good exam result and thus into uni. But the priest hopefuls didn't have to do any work, as far as I could see. Their future was assured. They didn't even have to try as they knew they would get an easy job for life!

I left school thinking that religious stuff was not for me. I never had any of the experiences you have mentioned. I have always thought that life 'just is'. It would never occur to me to ascribe an event to some imaginary deity. After all, if the deity is imaginary then by definition, it cannot be responsible for anything that happens, good or bad. I have therefore never had the feeling that certain things test my faith - because despite the best efforts of my school teachers, I have never had a faith. That sort of thing just slips off me like the proverbial water off a duck's back.

I accept it is a bit naughty of me to tease the deluded, but I have a mixture of sadness and amusement when I read their rants about such things as what translation of a forgotten language is the most accurate. The more annoyed they get over people with slightly different beliefs, the more bemused I become. Why it is so very important to them? Why does it matter so much? I just don't get it.

I've already said that I agree with you in almost every way. When you say, "It just is" I totally agree, but I find it confusing to use the word god because that word has an accepted meaning, particularly in the context of this thread. Your first answer could have been, "Yes, but not what you believe in" and so my first answer could have been, "No, there is no such thing, it is all myths and fairty tales for the deluded". We could both have stopped there but this thread continues because we both find other things to say.

It's interesting what you say about proof of the existence of god. Next time I see this person I will ask that question and make a note of his reply, for sharing. It will likely be next month before we get the chance for another conversation.

I am quite sure of my own point. There is nothing until there is proof of something. The idea of black holes and dark matter would have been laughed at some years ago, but are now accepted parts of reality. The more we discover, the more we learn about how little we already know. I have a curious mind and love to read about the latest discoveries. I hope one day we will be able to meet beings from another planet and I hope it will be possible to communicate with them. From the point of view of this topic, I know that when communication is established the question of deity will come up sooner or later. Maybe they will have a deity belief which of course will be totally different to ours. Ours is formed entirely by men (and not women) and theirs would be formed entirely by their race. Perhaps they will find it impossible to even understand what we're talking about. At times like this I really do wish I could continue living for several hundred years more as conversations with other being could become reality sometime soon. The speed with which scientific discovery accelerates is phenomenal and surely it can't be long before we can do such things. But sadly I think it highly unlikely to happen in my lifetime.

I don't think my last post was a typical religious confrontation. Those are situations in which someone takes many paragraphs to go over one little point of difference from another believer. All I said was I'll wait for the inevitable reply from a believer. I guess I was thinking of the need for capital letters (considered rude in e-mail etiquette) and bold type to make it even more important looking. Quite unnecessary! Some of the posts on other threads have been very rude in comparison to anything anyone has said on this thread.

Maybe I won't wait. Maybe I will phone this man to get the answer to the question you mentioned.

By the way, the reference to popcorn was used in another thread and it seemed amusing and appropriate to me. Fact is, I don't care for popcorn anyway, it was only an expression. Please don't take me too literally, I am too laid back for that. I just enjoy life with no thought whatsoever as to what god is, or might be. The whole idea is meaningless for me, and always has been, even when I was at school, learning to read passages from the bible and stuff like that. It was just something I did at school because someone in authority told me I had to, so I just said OK and got on with it. The intended 'inner meaning' just never got through to me. I only post here because those who are believers puzzle me. It's very strange that intelligent adults actually take this stuff so seriously. I can't get my head round it, so maybe my tease is a prompt to get some more of those capital letters and boldface type that we're used to by now. I just like to read it all and absorb, even though I do feel like a duck sometimes!