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If you're suggesting that this is an option via forum software, then a quick description of steps to do so would be warranted. AFAIK, no such option exists. If instead you're advising that the OP should not even be asking this question bc they can choose to ignore it with their mind, then your post really isn't at all helpful, especially in context of the forum where this was posted (Suggestions, Comments, and Support for the platform).

I think it’s more complicated than even this - because in my opinion language is more than a simple mapping into the outside world. It is strongly contextual, and meaning isn’t inherent (as it would be in a mapping), but given only through its actual use by people. Thus, language is more than an abstract set of rules and maps - it’s a cultural and social convention, and as such it is fluid and permanently evolving. You cannot separate language from the context of its users. I’m pretty firmly with Wittgenstein’s philosophy of language in this regard. I’m not saying that comparative philology isn’t a worthwhile endeavour (it’s quite interesting!); only that there are inherent limitations to such a project. I don’t believe this is true. Consider the example I gave earlier of เกรงใจ in Thai - this is a very subtle social concept that is quite specific to Thai culture. It is a real ‘thing’ in the outside world (an aspect of culture), but there exists no adequate translation for this in English or any other European language. Even trying to explain this concept in all its subtleties requires an entire paragraph of text at least, and even then it isn’t guaranteed that the reader will understand. Whole guide books have been written about it! Another example of such a thing is the word fa’alavelave in Samoan, which roughly refers to a social obligation created by something that has happened in the extended family, and for which material resources need to be raised so as not to loose face in the community (it also means simply ‘trouble’ or ‘problem’). You can verbally understand the explanation, but you won’t understand what fa’alavelave truly means to a Samoan person, unless you have lived in Samoa (it took me a long time to fully understand all implications of this when I lived there). The concept simply does not exist outside its cultural context, so no other language has any way to adequately express it in all its subtlety.

Sometimes you find real gems in those threads you thought you weren't interested in ....

Thank you. Rolling up my sleeves

Today I learned, that if I chose to, I could move to Finland. If you want to stay in Finland longer than the 90 days allowed by a visa, you need to apply for a residence permit. Here are a few reasons you could be granted one: You've been hired for a job in Finland. You have immediate family( spouse, child under 18.) that already live there. You are going to school there... But the one that would apply to me is "remigration"; If you have Finnish roots, or a close connection to Finland. So, for example, if a grandparent had been born in Finland. This is me. All 4 of my grandparents were born in Finland( as were their parents, and so on) And while most of the other methods of getting a residence permit requires that you can show that you have sufficient funds/income to support yourself, remigration doesn't. Not that I have any plans to do so, but it is nice to have it my back pocket in case things really go sour here in the US ( civil war breaks out, e.g.)

You cannot be serious!

You mean like, say, 90 posts on Jesus clogging up a science website? I think I would value such a block, too. 😀

Flavius Josephus was nearly contemporary --started giving his account a few decades after the "facts". While his focus wasn't on Jesus of Nazareth, he provides a good account on the contextual scenario for the appearance of such figure (relevance of the Essenes). IMO, this contextual scenario is very important and shouldn't be ignored. The case for the existence of a real Jesus, I think, is reinforced by the fact that these different "Jesus-like figures" had been appearing ever since the time of the Greek takeover of official Jewish religion that led to the Maccabean revolt (against the Seleucid kingdom) 200 y before. John the Baptist is a famous example. Another famous one is the Teacher of Righteousness from the Dead Sea Scrolls. While this teacher of righteousness has been robustly, IMO, ruled out as a good candidate for Jesus, his existence goes to prove that the existence of a Jesus figure is very plausible. Political/religious leaders, will tend to adopt strategies that suited their predecessors. And at the time it was very fashionable to go to the desert and start preaching alternative versions of the Jewish law that could find a wide-enough following. Life of Brian paints a hilarious picture of this cauldron of ideas and beliefs. Never mind how the collective memory works, by adding more and more layers of narrative that make the whole thing very confusing. Sometimes previous myths are refused into the new story --here I'm trying to address Richard Carrier's main arguments, although he's a scholar, and I'm just a person who tries to apply common sense almost every minute of the day. Similar cases can be made for David and Solomon, Mohammed, and even Gilgamesh. I'm in no doubt that there was (some kind of) a Gilgamesh king of Uruk. He probably didn't, almost single-handedly, kill a giant in the forests of Lebanon, as the Epic of Gilgamesh tells us, but he just didn't pop out of a vacuum. I'm relying heavily on memory, please correct me if I'm wrong.

If you were to confine yourself to discussing the historical evidence, as I am trying to do, there would be no problem. Personal opinions on Christianity as a whole, however, have no bearing on historical evidence. That distinction does not seem confusing to me.

And the UK has supplied anti-tank weapons and advisors ( trainers ) to Ukraine. Russia has always claimed to be the protector of the Slavic peoples. And V Putin has said' Our Russian brothers in the Crimea and Ukraine are being oppressed, we have to save them." Reminds me of a German leader, 83-4 years ago, who said "Our Germanic speaking brothers in the Sudetenland, the Danzig strip, and Poland, are being oppressed;we must save them." At least D Trump offered to buy Greenland, not invade.

Agreed. A fascinating book. I'd also nominate Martin Brasier's "Darwin's Lost World". This is a readable, first hand account of palaeontological research into the development of preCambrian life, i.e. the mysterious stage before things had hard parts that fossilise well. It introduced me to the enigmatic Ediacaran fauna and insights such as as the impact on life of the coming of the mouth.

Let me offer a few choice ones. Courant and Robbins What is Mathematics ? Matt Parker Things to make and Do in the FourthDimension. David Wells The Penguin Dictionary of Curious and Interesting Geometry. Acheson From Calculus to Chaos. Mark Levi The Mathematical Mechanic. J E Spice Chemical Binding and Structure. Pauling and Pauling Chemistry Fred Hoyle Ice Hermann Bondi Relativity and Common Sense Robert Millikan Electrons ( + and -) Protons, Photons, Neutrons, Mesotrons and Cosmic Rays. PS thanks for the thread, +1 Swinnerton Solving Earth's Mysteries Steven Vogel Cats Paws and Catapaults

@mistermack: You made up your mind, I made up mine.

I can speak from personal experience on this matter because I was suicidaly depressed in my early 20s during my final year of my BVSc degree. I would say that I had not been coping socially over a period of years, and had been covering up my feelings of inadequacy with great difficulty. Life was simply not making any sense to me. It wasn’t that I was a failure. I was dux of my Primary Shool and Central School, and passed my secondary education with Honours in every subject. I had earned School Swimming Colours for winning a couple of races at Melbourne Inter-High School Championships, and subsequently was awarded a sydney University ‘Blue’ for Australian Rules Football. But one day when I was home on my own. I’d had enough and went to get my .22 rifle and actually took the first few steps to retrieve it and shoot myself. But then the mental picture of my mother coming home from work and finding my dead body, deterred me. I had empathy for the situation I would be forcing on her. I couldn’t go to a doctor, because the procedure in the early 1950s was to put you in a mental asylum, and I could not think of a single person, including my parents, that I respected enough to share my problem. I vaguely decided that I must had had a brain overload of some kind and decided to just lie on my bed as often as I could and consciously attempt to think of nothing. I did not read newspapers or books or listen to the radio or participate in discussions on anything. It seemed to help, but like Stringy-Junky, I had periods of depression on and off for decades. I felt that I must have been lacking in some essential brain metabolite or something. My mother knew nothing about nutrition, and while I was away from home doing the Veterinary degree, the main food I could afford was fish and chips. Some years ago, I saw some references to folic acid and folinic acid and commenced taking 800 micrograms of the latter most days. Bouts of depression have virtually disappeared to the point where at times I get the impression that I’m a pain-in-the-arse to some people. I realize that there are many forms of depression and that mine was but one form, but if you are interested in folinic acid and depression, this 2022 review is up-to-date -- Lam et al (2022; https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0753332221013287) in The potential use of folate and its derivatives in treating psychiatric disorders: A systematic review

He does not give any references. It just seems to be generally understood. If there were much doubt about it, I would expect MacCulloch to indicate that. I presume it is because Paul came from Tarsus, in modern day Turkey, which like most of the Eastern Med. spoke Greek at the time. (According to MacCulloch there was already a centuries old diaspora of Jews around the region.)