Making the news today....

[Mark J]

15 minutes ago, BillQ said:

Not really, I know a few too, a GP, a professor in astrophysics, a doctor in palliative care, and one who has done a lot in IT , systems analyst, software testing/security and other stuff I don't understand. 

What is odd is believing having a deep seated faith excludes people from critical thinking 🤔 

Indeed. 

My friend's dad is a retired bishop, he's also a microbiologist. He still acts as a mediator for warring countries in Africa. Religion and brain cells aren't mutally exclusive, but religion can be blamed for many things that are ultimately down to people who express the worst elements of human nature.

[sime42]

7 hours ago, BillQ said:

Not really, I know a few too, a GP, a professor in astrophysics, a doctor in palliative care, and one who has done a lot in IT , systems analyst, software testing/security and other stuff I don't understand. 

What is odd is believing having a deep seated faith excludes people from critical thinking 🤔 

 

6 hours ago, Mark J said:

Indeed. 

My friend's dad is a retired bishop, he's also a microbiologist. He still acts as a mediator for warring countries in Africa. Religion and brain cells aren't mutally exclusive, but religion can be blamed for many things that are ultimately down to people who express the worst elements of human nature.

 

Don't get me wrong; I wasn't suggesting for a minute that faith/religion and intelligence are mutually exclusive. (The two that I referred to are both extremely sharp.) It's just that to my mind critical thinking seems to dispel most of the principle tenets of religion. I'm puzzled that someone can believe in something that doesn't make logical sense. The coexistence of subjective and objective realities maybe, is that what I mean? I'll stop there as I have neither the philosophical knowledge nor vocabulary. 

 

 

[tree-fancier123]

1 hour ago, sime42 said:

I'll stop there as I have neither the philosophical knowledge nor vocabulary. 

that's never stopped most of the other posters and it won't stop me

A bishop and a microbiologist - sure he can swab a bit of agar with the best of them, but when he thinks about bacterial genes changing through random mutation and natural selection over millions of generations - is this the work of God or just Nature getting on with it?

[BillQ]

7 hours ago, tree-fancier123 said:

- is this the work of God or just Nature getting on with it?

Huge question in a small package. 

If you reduce it further you have to either pin your hopes on the strangest of things, either a universe that pops into existence from nothing with no way of us understanding why or a universe that pops into existence from nothing by way of an uncreated creator? Neither can be proven and are just taken on by faith.

[BillQ]

8 hours ago, sime42 said:

I'm puzzled that someone can believe in something that doesn't make logical sense.

As above, neither of the creation scenarios make sense, nor does life springing up from primordial puddles and eventually making us???

[BillQ]

Brendan Foster gets his shorts pulled down 

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c9876y4z4rgo

[Johnsond]

Israel launches strikes against Hamas leaders in Qatar's capital Doha

APPLE.NEWS

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The Israeli military has said it has targeted the leadership of Hamas with strikes on Qatar's capital Doha.

So you sanction killing innocents on a bus you get sent to see the virgins. 

[Steven P]

On 08/09/2025 at 11:13, Squaredy said:

I mainly judge by my personal experiences.  I have spent entire nights in our local A&E with my elderly mother, being ignored, while she spews her guts out.  One occasion she went to the hospital on her own and it was left to other patients and their friends/relatives to help her as she struggled with acute pain.  Yes sometimes the NHS works great, I am aware of that, but in my area it is a lottery to say the least.  If I or any of my family need emergency help now we will either go to Bristol or Cardiff as the service in the local hospitals is just so poor.

 

It may be better for you if you are in England - don't forget that in Wales we have had muppets managing the health services for 25 years or so.  My dad was let down badly by his GP and then when he had a fall at home he could not summon help and when the neighbours raised the alarm it was too late.  If his GP had actually seen him instead of just giving him repeat prescription month after month he might still be here.  My wife had a terrible battle with our local GP to get her mum assessed for dementia.  Finally after eighteen months she got referred, and the memory clinic said there would have been more help available for her Alzheimer's if they had seen her earlier.  I could go on, but in my area health services are terrible and don't work. 

 

Also bear in mind that there are many alternative funding systems available.  NHS Wales has a budget of £9 billion.  The best part of one billion of that goes on free prescriptions.  This is partly a waste of money, and if they followed the model in England (where it is means tested) they might be able to afford one or two more nurses in my local A&E (it works out the Newport area spends £53 million on free prescriptions - if even a tenth of them had to be paid for that could potentially pay for an extra 40 nurses and thirty nursing assistants).  Why do we in Wales give everyone free prescriptions?  And that is just one example of terrible waste - I bet there are more... 

 

As for the BBC, I think they make a lot of good programmes, and I love listening to the cricket on the BBC radio.  But what I object to is having no choice but to fund them.  I think they have a very strong political agenda.  So do many other organisations - but I choose not to fund them if I don't agree with their point.  Why am I forced to pay for the BBC?  If the funding model changed to subscription then as long as lots of people like the output they would still be well funded.  

 

Quite different from my experiences of A&E - usually been seen reasonably quickly, though I go with the expectation of at least a 1 hour wait, and after care has been really good so far when we have needed it.

 

... we did get refused treatment once.. but that was because the surgeon knew where we lived, told us to go back home because there was a much more competent surgeon here who would do the job a lot better... we did... drove home, reported to local hospital at midnight, told to be back for 9 am, in and out and in recovery bed by 1, with easter eggs courtesy of the local bikers.

[Steven P]

16 hours ago, tree-fancier123 said:

Is this the work of a god or just Nature getting on with it?

 

Corrected with italics.

 

Team effort with the gods I reckon, made by a committee.

Edited September 9 by Steven P

[Johnsond]

Investigation launched as migrant boat ‘reaches Kent coast’ without being intercepted

APPLE.NEWS

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Five people were detained in a village north of Dover, it was reported

Border farce more like it. Seeing that the French have said they will no longer attempt to stop illegals I’d say the invasion will only gather momentum.