Category Archives: Questions

Vindictiveness Doesn’t Pay

A study at Bonn and Maastricht Universities has shown that vindictiveness doesn’t usually pay:
A person inclined to deal with inequity on a tit-for-tat basis tends to experience more unemployment than other people….
Anyone who prefers to act according to the Old Testament motto of “An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth” has [...]

Comments (38)

Should Zach Tell His Youth Pastor?

I received this question from Zach:
I’m a 15 year old kid, I’ve been a part of the Christian Church for about 2 years.
I’ve been very close-minded throughout those past two years and I’m not sure what to think. I would like to talk to a Christian about how I am feeling — should I talk [...]

Comments (413)

Will We Conquer Death?

Debate topic of the weekend:
Will humanity conquer death, either organically or digitally?
I think either have a possibility. We might be able to regrow our bodies/organs and if necessary transfer our memories or our brain.
Or we could build some kind of matrix where our memories could be stored digitally. Of the two, I certainly prefer the [...]

Comments (108)

How Do Atheists Face Despair?

Stephen Rapp sent in this question:
I am interested in atheism as a cultural movement. Every time I think about adopting atheism, I come up with road blocks. Here’s one: How do atheists face despair?
I rarely feel a complete loss of hope, and when I do, it usually passes with the help of a good book, [...]

Comments (241)

Is Torture Ever Justifiable?

I’m curious how UF readers respond to the torture question, so here’s a poll.
I’m assuming this definition of torture: the act of inflicting pain on another person for the purposes of punishment, information, or pleasure of the inflicter.

Do you think the use of torture against suspected terrorists in order to gain important information can…
I’d like to [...]

Comments (384)

How To Handle Criticism From Friends and Family

Michael asks:
I recently went from Christianity to Agnosticism, and have taken a lot of heat for it from family friends. They really attempt to make me feel extremely bad for the way I believe. I am not sure where they see it is right to treat other people this way, but nonetheless, nothing will change [...]

Comments (78)

What’s Your Weirdest Belief?

Everyone has strange beliefs. What’s the strangest belief you have?
I generally try not to believe weird things. But my strangest belief is that someday we’ll be able to store our memories digitally and transfer them to other bodies (like our own, regrown). That is, if we survive that long!
So what’s yours?

Comments (210)

Can You Fake It?

by VorJack
My first job in the field was pretty boring. Now folks, I’m an archivist. My job is sorting other people’s old paperwork, and I like it. If I tell you that a job is boring, that means it would probably calcify the hair on your nether regions. This was a coma-inducing job.
Worse, it involved [...]

Comments (118)