cattywampas

At the end of the day it sucks but there's no perfect way to do it. Grouping organisms into species is very useful in a lot of ways, as is grouping and classifying lots of other natural phenomena, but nature doesn't necessarily follow clean definitions even if it's useful to us.

Right but OP makes it sound like he thinks a Best Buy credit card is only good at Best Buy.

The smell of fresh homemade bread.

It's IRL character advancement. That's the trick if you're into RPGs. Sometimes you gotta grind for that XP.

Look into Care Credit if you're in the US.

Also, that Best Buy credit card can be used for dental work.

Because I'm a skeptic, and I don't see any reason to believe in a creator or higher power. And if I did, a creator/architect is as far as that belief would go, I wouldn't think that being was personally involved in our lives or morals, just someone who pressed play on the program.

And if there was one, I don't think any human-made religion is so wise as to have found all the answers. That's just prideful foolishness.

I'm open to the idea that there may be aspects to our existence and the universe of which we are not entirely aware, though as long as we can't see any evidence of it I don't think there's much need to dwell on it.

On a more personal note, I think the way organized religion is the most damaging is how it makes people satisfied in their ignorance. Both because in their eyes it already explains so much so there's no need to learn more, and also because there is a divine plan so there's no need to question why things are the way they are or how they could be different.

Yeah sure, wars and genocide and slavery and all that. But like I said, people can find any excuse to be horrible and greedy and hurt others. It's not hard to do, doesn't need to be divine. But I think it's a lot harder to convince someone to keep themselves uneducated when humans are naturally curious.

My point is that religion isn't inherently a negative thing. And not worse than any other human institution solely because of its belief in the supernatural, and that organized religion is just as susceptible to corruption and weaponization as any institution.

To be clear, I'm an atheist.

1. These are often for extracurricular things like school trips.

2. Schools are underfunded.

Then you won't be the very best, like no one ever was.

Had to go check the Elon jet tracker. Maybe next time!

Right. And FIFA, a secular organization headquartered in Switzerland, selected Qatar knowing all this and they were perfectly ok with that sort of exploitation to make the World Cup happen. To say nothing else of their history of bribery and corruption.

Companies with no religious affiliation are no better. They'll produce bombs, sell weapons to terrorists and genocidal governments, whatever brings home the bacon.

PTAs and school boards discriminate against trans and queer kids all the time. HOAs discriminate against minorities all the time.

People in groups have always used their power to enrich themselves, hurt others, and control the world around them. This is a phenomenon that isn't limited to any one organization, sacred or secular.

Governments and the concept of nation-states have never been used to instigate ethnic cleansing? Sports organizations have never been complicit in something as heinous as slave labor?