It's also the style that got me fired from The New York Times.

Yeah, just one of the problems with comparing that statistic to combat deaths is that increased combat deaths fixes that anomaly and none of us want that.

This just reminded me that the Y2K hysteria was 14 years ago. Damn.

So, this is Reddit without downvotes.

I don't think that's an entirely accurate statement for everyone but I can only combat it with statements about myself, so we'll just say that's true.

Even so, without recreating daylight, shouldn't the opposite eventually become true for a segment of the population? Of course, I know things like this take a long time but, if the opposite is biologically true for some of us and not just myself there would be more opportunity for us to thrive economically and socially living our lives at night. It could be that being able to lead fulfilling lives makes us happier and more socially successful, more likely to find mates and have children, pass that anomaly on to future generations, etc.

The question was "Do you believe in God?", not "Give a thoughtful and will informed opinion on the nature of God and belief."

If they sounded like they haven't given the subject that much passionate thought or made the subject a major focus of their lives, it's because they haven't.

They're aware of it and they have each had varying degrees of involvement but their passions lie elsewhere. Why would they devote the kind of time and energy required to form the kind of philosophy you're speaking of on the subject of a God they don't believe in?

You can't decide to believe something. You can, however, decide to be willfully ignorant of anything that could possibly challenge your beliefs.

Yeah, awesome. Thanks for posting.

What I particularly like about this video is not the denial of God but that it illustrates that those of us who are more concerned with what is real and provable are no less capable of numinous feelings, no less enraptured by beauty and mystery, no less "human."

It reminds me of an anecdote by Dr. Feynman in which he was being admonished by an artist friend of his over the beauty of a flower. The artist claimed that he recognized the simple beauty of the flower, scientists destroyed the image by deconstructing everything to figure out how it works and why it exists. Feynman responded by saying that while the artist simply enjoyed the pretty colors and curvature of the petals, the scientist can see all the things that make up it's structure and how it relates to everything around it and the millions of years of existence that led to it and was awestruck by the beauty of the entire universe in one simple flower.

Or something like that. It's been years, so i'm paraphrasing.

Yeah it's not exactly realistic but the pursuit of ideals are never totally realistic.

I remember there was a biodegradable plastic-like material that was being used as packaging. I recently bought some spinach that came in a bag made of this stuff but it didn't really take off because people hated how crinkly it was.

It was quite loud but it seems that the priorities of the general public do not jive with environment responsibility.

Speaking of that, there are also businesses that will purposefully destroy merchandise that is being thrown out just to keep dumpster divers from getting a useful or quality score. Wastefulness, at least in this country, is out of control.

Well considering that crime rises when, among other things, unemployment increases and that most of the theft and violence are crimes of opportunity then I would think that creating millions of jobs and having more people being out and about during the night would certainly accomplish that.

Global dictatorship.

Every government or public institution and every business that is above a certain tax bracket should be legally required to stay open 24 hours a day.

This would create more jobs as there are now more shifts to fill. There would be more business during those hours because of all the new people that will be living their life at night so it won't be a waste of wages.

Parents living their life at night will naturally choose to have their children go to school during those hours. We won't be lumping everyone together in one 8 hour time period therefore we will have smaller classes with a better student to teacher ratio which is more conducive to learning.

There will be fewer traffic jams as highway congestion practically disappears since not everybody is trying to get to work / lunch / home at the same times. This is better for the environment as commutes will be shorter with less time a car is spending burning fossil fuels. That also means less wear and tear on the individual vehicles which will save the commuters even more money on general upkeep. There will be far fewer traffic accidents for the same reasons which saves everyone in lives and money.

You wouldn't have to stand in line at the post office for EVER since people can choose any time to go.

There would be less crime at night. Crime doesn't happen more often at night because it's dark, it happens more often because there are fewer people around so you're more likely to get away with it. Change that and crime goes down. Crime is also likely to go down as unemployment drops because of the millions of new jobs created.

A long time ago, it made sense for most of us to go to bed at night. We couldn't see at night and it was dangerous. Well, we've invented the light bulb and killed off most of our natural predators. I think it's time for us to come out into the moonlight and Burns brand perpetual twilight.

I just wanted to reach out to tell you what I agree with you about.

I'm also for population control. I mean, the global population has DOUBLED in 50 years.

I'm also a determinist. Free will is an illusion, albeit a very strong one.