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So you're blaming God because you aren't God? I don't always understand why people have to deal with the things they have to deal with. I don't always understand why God does things, or allows things, that don't make any sense to me. But that doesn't mean there is no reason for something. In...

(Broken in two because of a 10,000 character post limit) We can choose not to believe in hell at all, in which case no desire to be saved from it can possibly exist. If you talk to atheists the chances are you'll find they have no fear of hell because nobody fears things unless they first...

Yes, if you want to attend the church it's kinda useful to know where the church actually is. Or you could just wander around "Downtown Pleasantville" listening out for the sounds of singing. If you know what kind of singing to be listening out for, of course :)

I'd expect to see details of when the church meets and how to contact the church, along with some information about church beliefs (denomination, maybe a formal statement of faith). It's good to know a bit about the church congregation - the demographic, style of service etc - and what if any...

The problem here is that you're constantly coming at this from a perspective of "this clashes with my morality, therefore it is wrong, therefore God is wrong". If I disagree with you it naturally follows that I think you are wrong. But while I am considering why I think you are wrong I need to...

It's still about your concept of morality. If your concept of morality is absolutely correct then God is some kind of bimbling putz who can barely tie his own shoelaces. Of course if there's more to it than your concept of morality then maybe there's some purpose behind it all. If I decide to...

There are certainly homeless people who are clearly seeking maximum visibility rather than seclusion. The trouble is that banning them from sleeping in public places outlaws the discreet locations as well as the more overt locations. Whatever particular requirements individual homeless people...

Sure, there are many times where you see a homeless person who apparently decided that the least sheltered area was an ideal spot to take up residence. Presumably their decision was related to the volume of passing traffic that might throw them some change. I remember as a child wondering why a...

If you don't have anywhere to go to sleep for the night in the conventional sense (home, friend's couch, whatever) you don't have a lot of option but to sleep in a public space. Theoretically speaking it makes sleeping in public a crime rather than simply being homeless but practically speaking...

I didn't read the linked article so there may be more there than your post describes. I can't help thinking that learning about the unborn growing in the womb, with different stages of development, can only be a good thing. People can draw their own conclusions from seeing a zygote progress...

Not all homeless people are addicts. One problem with homelessness is that it is so much more complex than a convenient single issue that can be forcibly addressed. If someone is an addict perhaps they can be required to attend rehab, but that raises the question of whether people have the...

Dark enough seems to be something people could endlessly wonder about. If you sit and stare at the sun you'll need something darker than if you snatch occasional glances. You can snatch an occasional glance at the sun with no eye protection at all - we do it every day but look away very fast...

As long as you don't stare at the sun I think you're more or less OK with dark sunglasses. That's what I did for much of the time. I also had a polarising filter that I paired with my polarised sunglasses so I could look at it for longer. I've been toying with the idea of getting two liner...

I'm not aware of ever having had a virus. My antivirus software has caught a couple. Every once in a while my antivirus gets antsy and quarantines one of my applications. I know it's safe because I wrote it myself, but still I have to add it as an exception.

I had thought to drive into the path of totality but the only places that were within a sensible drive had high chances of cloud cover. I don't feel like driving 4-5 hours there and maybe double that or more to get home, to see the clouds. I can do that from here. So we're going to our local...

As Josiah said it's a game. If the dealer can paint himself as the good guy while the manager is the bad guy he can maybe create a bit of rapport and get the customer to pay a bit more, or maybe paint a picture that the manager won't let him cut the price as much as he'd like to but if the...

I saw a solar eclipse (at least I got to see it from the wrong side of a lot of clouds), and it was weird to hear birds fall silent so suddenly. I was on a boat so no walking animals to observe. I gather a lot of bugs that come out late in the afternoon came out ahead of time and promptly went...

Never mind AI, what happens when more people figure it's not worth working a dead end job because it takes up all your time and doesn't offer anything except a lifetime of permanent drudge, when you can get that on welfare but without the work?

I always thought being in prison was some kind of punishment. Jesus often went into the wilderness. I'm not an expert on the Qu'ran by any means but I suspect Muhammed may have done the same. Maybe inmates should have the right to go into the wilderness whenever they want too?

It's also worth considering the transition from an expectation that people would go to church, to that expectation fading. The people who have no particular faith but who go to church on a Sunday because that's what you do on a Sunday, or because that's what they've always done, increasingly...