JaymesRS

joined 1 year ago
MODERATOR OF
[–] JaymesRS 25 points 1 month ago

Added to the list of “it would been big deal in the news if discovered happening in secret, but is ignored because trump announces it out loud”

[–] JaymesRS 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Except things like law exist in a measurable state. Violating a law has a measurable outcome in the physical world. That’s the difference. If you run a stop sign in the presence of observers such as a police officer (such that it has an impact on that observer) you will be issued a citation for violating that law. We can test that hypothesis.

If something has no measurable presence under any observable state it is indistinguishable from that which does not exist. And to assume it does is tautological and a fallacy.

[–] JaymesRS 1 points 1 month ago (3 children)

How would the world change if god didn't exist the way I described, as being socially real? There'd be no churches, no religious art, no pilgrimages that attract tens of millions each year.

That is tautological and presumes the antecedent. It’s true because they have these experiences and produced these objects. It wouldn’t be true if they hadn’t done that.

I didn’t ask, how would the world would change if people did not believe that God existed. I asked how it would change if God actually did not exist whether they believed or not. 

I’m looking for the major distinguishing characteristic that would differentiate belief in something untrue versus the actual no existence in that. It’s accurate to say that if belief was none existent, those buildings, rituals, etc. would not exist, but that doesn’t distinguish between people believing it to be true yet it not actually comporting with reality.

Those things you mentioned aren’t reliant on being consistent with reality only on people believing that they experience something that is unmeasurable in any actual sense. Our history is full of times where people believed something and developed practices, rituals, stories, and structures in recognition of those beliefs and purported to experience the presence of that belief target only for later peoples to recognize that those beliefs weren’t based on any thing that comported with reality.

[–] JaymesRS 2 points 1 month ago

For in book reasons yes, for real world people not so much. That was my point. These can be logically consistent within a work of fiction but nonsensical when carried over into reality.

[–] JaymesRS 4 points 1 month ago

Of course not, one of my best friends is a cow. I just think there should be different spaces for cows and humans, I’m not a bovinist.

[–] JaymesRS 3 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (5 children)

That’s a lot of words that don’t tell us anything other than people created art and rituals they found meaning in. People do that with books and stories that we recognize as fiction all the time without us elevating that to a religion.

Is it epistemologically consistent to say that something that cannot be measured or observed in a replicable manner exists? How would the world be conclusively different from that thing if it didn’t exist if it exhibits no measurable or replicable and observable outcome?

[–] JaymesRS 11 points 1 month ago

Without knowing the situation, in the world as it exists today, there’s a lot of racist people that use Muslim or anti-Muslim rhetoric to refer to or denigrate any person of roughly Middle Eastern descent. Think of how many stories there were of Sikhs that were assaulted physically or verbally after September 11.

A moderator or admin who is aware of this could easily still allow criticism of Islam, the religion, while taking actions against those who are just being racist assholes with a veneer of anti religion. I have seen this many times before.

[–] JaymesRS 13 points 1 month ago (9 children)

I don’t know, saying “I don’t have proof, I just believe” doesn’t seem like any sort of internal “logic” to me.

And while there are a lot of vocal people who are anti theists, most of us just look at believers like we would real people who are too afraid to say Voldemort’s name so he won’t come back because they can’t separate stories from reality.

[–] JaymesRS 2 points 1 month ago

I loved those books growing up.

[–] JaymesRS 2 points 1 month ago

Oh, so you’re ignoring cow murders now, they could get pushed out of the window too? Why is no one focusing on cow on cow crime?

[–] JaymesRS 77 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (11 children)

Cows in buildings can be a serious issue. I don’t think they should be banned, there are special purpose buildings like barns after all; but in commercial and residential spaces, highly discouraged at the least.

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submitted 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) by JaymesRS to c/tvplus@lemmy.world
 

Baru Cormorant believes any price is worth paying to liberate her people-even her soul.

When the Empire of Masks conquers her island home, overwrites her culture, criminalizes her customs, and murders one of her fathers, Baru vows to swallow her hate, join the Empire's civil service, and claw her way high enough to set her people free.

Sent as an Imperial agent to distant Aurdwynn, another conquered country, Baru discovers it's on the brink of rebellion. Drawn by the intriguing duchess Tain Hu into a circle of seditious dukes, Baru may be able to use her position to help. As she pursues a precarious balance between the rebels and a shadowy cabal within the Empire, she orchestrates a do-or-die gambit with freedom as the prize.

But the cost of winning the long game of saving her people may be far greater than Baru imagines.

 
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submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by JaymesRS to c/ebookdeals
 

After a lifetime of bounties and bloodshed, Viv is hanging up her sword for the last time. The battle-weary orc aims to start fresh, opening the first ever coffee shop in the city of Thune. But old and new rivals stand in the way of success — not to mention the fact that no one has the faintest idea what coffee actually is.

If Viv wants to put the blade behind her and make her plans a reality, she won't be able to go it alone.

But the true rewards of the uncharted path are the travelers you meet along the way. And whether drawn together by ancient magic, flaky pastry, or a freshly brewed cup, they may become partners, family, and something deeper than she ever could have dreamed.

 

$1

  • Old Man’s War

$10

  • Zoe’s Tale
  • The Lost Colony
  • The Ghost Brigades
  • Old Man’s War

$18

  • Redshirts
  • Agent to the Stars
  • The President's Brain is Missing
  • The Android's Dream
  • The Kaiju Preservation Society
  • Fuzzy Nation
  • Your Hate Mail Will Be Graded
  • Unlocked
  • Head On
  • Lock In
  • The Last Emperox
  • The Consuming Fire
  • The Collapsing Empire
  • After the Coup
  • Shadow War of the Night Dragons, Book One: The Dead City: Prologue
  • The End of All Things
  • The Human Division
  • Zoe's Tale
  • The Last Colony
  • The Ghost Brigades
  • Old Man's War
 

Magic and murder engulf the realm of Kelewan. Fierce warlords ignite a bitter blood feud to enslave the empire of Tsuranuanni. While in the opulent Imperial courts, assassins and spy-master plot cunning and devious intrigues against the rightful heir. Now Mara, a young, untested Ruling lady, is called upon to lead her people in a heroic struggle for survival. But first she must rally an army of rebel warriors, form a pact with the alien cho-ja, and marry the son of a hated enemy. Only then can Mara face her most dangerous foe of all—in his own impregnable stronghold.

8
submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by JaymesRS to c/ebookdeals
 

This bewitching and harrowing tale of mystery and survival, and memory and magic, makes the impossible all too real...

2
submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by JaymesRS to c/ebookdeals
 

(Ed. The second book in the series is also discounted to $2.99)

After her mother dies in an accident, sixteen-year-old Bree Matthews wants nothing to do with her family memories or childhood home. A residential program for bright high schoolers at UNC–Chapel Hill seems like the perfect escape—until Bree witnesses a magical attack her very first night on campus.

A flying demon feeding on human energies. A secret society of so called “Legendborn” students that hunt the creatures down. And a mysterious teenage mage who calls himself a “Merlin” and who attempts—and fails—to wipe Bree’s memory of everything she saw.

The mage’s failure unlocks Bree’s own unique magic and a buried memory with a hidden connection: the night her mother died, another Merlin was at the hospital. Now that Bree knows there’s more to her mother’s death than what’s on the police report, she’ll do whatever it takes to find out the truth, even if that means infiltrating the Legendborn as one of their initiates.

She recruits Nick, a self-exiled Legendborn with his own grudge against the group, and their reluctant partnership pulls them deeper into the society’s secrets—and closer to each other. But when the Legendborn reveal themselves as the descendants of King Arthur’s knights and explain that a magical war is coming, Bree has to decide how far she’ll go for the truth and whether she should use her magic to take the society down—or join the fight.

 

In the midst of the Napoleonic Wars in 1806, most people believe magic to have long since disappeared from England - until the reclusive Mr. Norrell reveals his powers and becomes an overnight celebrity.

Another practicing magician then emerges: the young and daring Jonathan Strange. He becomes Norrell's pupil, and the two join forces in the war against France.

But Strange is increasingly drawn to the wild, most perilous forms of magic, and he soon risks sacrificing his partnership with Norrell and everything else he holds dear.

Susanna Clarke's brilliant first novel is an utterly compelling epic tale of nineteenth-century England and the two magicians who, first as teacher and pupil and then as rivals, emerge to change its history.

2
submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by JaymesRS to c/ebookdeals
 

The book that inspired a legend—the first novel in the beloved, bestselling Redwall saga.

Welcome to Mossflower Wood, where the gentle mice have gathered to celebrate a year of peace and abundance. All is well…until a sinister shadow falls across the ancient stone abbey of Redwall. It is rumored that Cluny is coming—Cluny, the terrible one-eyed rat and his savage horde—Cluny, who has vowed to conquer Redwall Abbey! The only hope for the besieged mice lies in the lost sword of the legendary Martin the Warrior. And so begins the epic quest of a bumbling young apprentice—a courageous mouse who would rise up, fight back…and become a legend himself.

Perfect for fans of T. A. Barron’s Merlin saga, John Flanagan’s Ranger’s Apprentice series, and J. R. R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings series.

3
submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by JaymesRS to c/ebookdeals
 

Life in the community where Jonas lives is idyllic. Designated birthmothers produce newchildren, who are assigned to appropriate family units. Citizens are assigned their partners and their jobs. No one thinks to ask questions. Everyone obeys. Everyone is the same. Except Jonas.

Not until he is given his life assignment as the Receiver of Memory does he begin to understand the dark, complex secrets behind his fragile community. Gradually Jonas learns that power lies in feelings. But when his own power is put to the test—when he must try to save someone he loves—he may not be ready. Is it too soon? Or too late?

Told with deceptive simplicity, this is the provocative story of a boy who experiences something incredible and undertakes something impossible. In the telling it questions every value we have taken for granted and reexamines our most deeply held beliefs.

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