IntenseDebate - Sue Alexander-Barnes

9 years ago @ MercatorNet - MercatorNet: Great suf... · 4 replies · +2 points

Interesting, Al! This bloke talks a lot of sense. I used to work as a computer programmer and loved my work. But this is partly what convinced me no amount of development in the field of computer science can ever hope to lead to self-awareness.

9 years ago @ MercatorNet - MercatorNet: Great suf... · 8 replies · +3 points

You mean a black hole? :) Personally I don't believe computers can ever become conscious. Yet some of my favourite episodes of Star Trek (Next Generation) are the ones about the android Data, the most human of the characters. The best of all is 'The Measure of a Man' where a scientist wants to disassemble Data in order to find out how to create more androids like him. The procedure is risky and Data refuses. The episode ends with a trial to determine whether Data should be classed as property, or a being with rights. It ends well, of course, after much pontificating from the captain. Data is conscious, therefore has rights, as you said.

9 years ago @ Sheila Reports - Pope Francis, the Holo... · 0 replies · +3 points

Not in England, David. At least, not the many pro-lifers I know!

9 years ago @ Sheila Reports - Pope Francis, the Holo... · 1 reply · +3 points

It wouldn't, Ayame. See Alexis M's comment just above.

9 years ago @ MercatorNet - MercatorNet: Are the R... · 0 replies · +4 points

Thanks so much for sharing your testimony, Dania. It is impossible for those of us brought up in free countries to really understand what it must have been like not to be free, and literature such as 'Wild Swans' and accounts of life under the Stasi make for pretty hard reading.

You've clarified your position beautifully, and I understand better why you can't accept that religion can ever be a choice. I do still think there is a misunderstanding here though, because you seem to assume we consider putting aside religion to be a 'legitimate' choice. it isn't legitimate, though it is often understandable (for example if someone has recanted out of fear for their family, etc.) But the bald fact remains that people DO have a choice - to be true to their faith or to ditch it, thus 'denying who they are', as you said. That there is a choice, and that it can be a very difficult one, is precisely what makes people like Sophie Scholl so special.

9 years ago @ MercatorNet - MercatorNet: Are the R... · 18 replies · +4 points

Yes, implicit in the Catholic Church's teaching on free will is the fact that we need to have freely chosen to embrace the faith, because otherwise our faith doesn't mean anything. I can't speak for other branches of Christianity (I was an atheist until I was 22, then 'shopped around' and eventually chose to become Catholic) but suspect they mostly teach pretty much the same thing. Children brought up as a Christian at some point need to make their faith their own, as two of mine have done (the other two unfortunately chose not to practice any more, but I respected their choice.)

Regarding Sophie Scholl and other brave souls like her, of course they had a choice - many others in the same situation choose to recant or deny their faith, perhaps out of terror, and none of us can judge those people.

Dania, you know far more about living under a totalitarian regime than either David or me, so perhaps there is a cultural misunderstanding here between you and David?

9 years ago @ MercatorNet - MercatorNet: Pregnant ... · 1 reply · +4 points

Yes indeed - and you could add to the list a compulsion to re-brand human nature as a blank slate, so that nothing can be said to harm it. I do think though that the vast majority of people who support the issues that you and I believe to be bad for humanity, do so from their own sincere beliefs about what is good for humanity. I've said before that homosexuals are pawns in the hands of the real activists, who only desire to re-write the family.

9 years ago @ MercatorNet - MercatorNet: Pregnant ... · 0 replies · +5 points

Yes, I think your Facebook link was the first I heard about this case.

9 years ago @ MercatorNet - MercatorNet: Pregnant ... · 5 replies · +6 points

Dania, by your own admission 'homosexualist' is different from 'homosexual'.

However, Str8G, I couldn't find anything about it in 'Pink News' either?

9 years ago @ MercatorNet - MercatorNet: Pregnant ... · 1 reply · +18 points

Feminists have indeed won great freedoms and rights for women in the Western World. Unfortunately, in more recent times, many (if not all) feminist groups have become very selective about which type of woman deserves to have her rights upheld. Meriam Yehya Ibrahim is, as Michael points out, apparently unworthy of support from right-on feminists and cultural elites because she is a Christian, a wife and a mother.

As for your second point, if you did some serious research into the history of religion and culture, you might discover some interesting facts pertaining to the effect Judaism, and then Christianity, had on the transformation of women from chattels to human beings with dignity.

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