It wasn’t any particular scientific discovery that weakened religion. It was the popularity of science fiction that did it. As Arthur C. Clarke put it, “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” People can now imagine how miracles are done without invoking anything supernatural. We might not have the tech to do it yet, but we have a pretty good idea of potential methods. That has placed a lot of “creator god” religions under pressure. Create life? Tech will eventually do it. Create a world? Sure, tech again. Given enough tech, a solar system can be spawned. Water into wine? We’re halfway there with Kool-Aid. We already have vimanas (those ancient Hindu flying vehicles). We call them airplanes or helicopters. We can destroy a whole city with a single weapon. So why should we worship a supreme being who supposedly did those things?

Assuming we can conquer poverty, religions that survive will be centered around improving the human condition. Worshipping dieties will eventually fall by the wayside. It will still be a long process. You can’t dispel faith with reason and facts. And people in poverty tend to embrace religion because it gives them comfort and hope that things will be better in the afterlife.

Animals were doing it long before humans even existed. Some birds will “bathe” in an ant nest because the formic acid excreted by the ants rids them of parasites. There’s even a word for it - zoopharmacognosy.

Long before recorded history, people knew what plants were helpful to treat or cure various maladies. Who knows what possessed the first human to chew on willow bark to relieve pain or reduce a fever? The earliest documentation of it was 400 BCE by Hippocrates, but it was probably common knowledge for much longer than that. The Chinese have been using various herbs to treat disease for at least 3000 years.

Every time I do a search, the bot usually provides enough info. The problem is that I don’t trust the bot because it’s been wrong before. So I still need to continue the search to find an authoritative answer.

That’s the problem with bots. If you trust their answers and they’re wrong, it can be a real problem. There was a story a while ago about an Air Canada customer service bot that was giving out bad info about bereavement travel. When a customer tried to get the promised refund, the airline admitted the advice was wrong, but claimed the bot was a separate legal entity, therefore they were not responsible for the advice it gave.

Critical Thinking skills. Imagine a world where everyone is able to sus out the lies, separate fact from fiction, and not fall into pitfalls of illogical thinking.

Me: I wish I could stop paying taxes. Genie: poof Wish granted! Me: Woah…I don’t feel so good! Genie: It’s a fatal heart attack.

I was with you up until you decided to hide under the insulation. Seriously? I start scratching just looking at the stuff!

My house is built on an old vertical mineshaft. I’d take the secret elevator to the bunker 300 feet below ground where my command center is. Then I’d take control of the gun emplacements hidden in the trees and the fleet of AI enhanced drones. When the agents are eliminated, the robotic dogs will drag the bodies to the incinerator shaft.

Or maybe not. You didn’t think I’d really tell you what awaits you Agent CraigOhMyEggo, did you?

Plenty of people make a decent living writing. They’re technical writers who create documentation. My friend makes over $140k/yr writing for an Internet security company.

Creative writing, on the other hand, is an overcrowded field.

That there is an all powerful supreme being that demands our worship or else we will suffer for all eternity after our death.

Based on telomere degradation. Recent developments may result in human telomere repair in the near future.

Where did I ever say that? Age discrimination is age discrimination. Either you’re qualified for the job or not, independent of your age. It seems like OPs question is a one-size-fits-all reaction to the geriatric choices forced upon us by the two party system. The real solution is to open the system up. Ranked-choice voting does that. You don’t have to vote for the candidate who has the best chance of beating the opposition. You rank your choices. First choice is the person who best represents you. After the votes are tallied, the candidate who gets >50% wins. If nobody achieves that, the candidate with the least votes is removed and the second choice of those who voted for them is used. This process continues until someone achieves the supermajority.

It has the advantage of doing away with the idea that you’re wasting your vote by not voting for the candidate who has the best chance of prevailing against the opposition. If your candidate is removed, your second choice receives your vote. Your vote ALWAYS counts. A side benefit is that we no longer need runoff elections. Everyone’s second (and third and fourth) choices are already taken into account.

I wonder if Khamenei senses the end is near and is clearing the path for succession of his son, Mojtaba. Raisi was the other likely candidate to become Supreme Leader.

No. That’s age discrimination. If you’re concerned that a person could be suffering from mental degradation, require annual testing for it. I know folks in their 90’s who are better critical thinkers than a lot of 20-somethings.

The problem we have is not that a bunch of old people run the country. It’s that a bunch of young people put them there because they were the only real choices they had. Fix the two-party system first by employing ranked-choice voting. That will break the stranglehold that Republicans and Democrats have on the US political system.

If only I could pay for my groceries/gas/utilities/taxes/loans with crypto. Alas! I have to convert it back into fiat currency first.

One independent source of true random numbers with timestamps:

https://csrc.nist.gov/Projects/interoperable-randomness-beacons/beacon-20

If the random number comes from an event beyond the control of the group or server, why not? For example, many Keno games post results online. It is agreed by all parties that when the server says, “flip”, the next number generated by the Keno game will have modulus 2 applied to it (even or odd), resulting in the coin flip - 0 for tails and 1 for heads. Everyone can see the source of the number independent of the server and no party has control over the source of the number.

Alternately, any independent source of true random numbers that are time stamped can be used. The agreement is that the server will specify a time in the future and the number generated closest to that time will be used. The number is independently verifiable and out of the control of all parties.

Covering my cough or sneeze with my shirt collar.

On multi-night stays I tip if I want anything special, like extra coffee, or when my drunk friend destroyed the toilet. The only time I tip when leaving the hotel is if the housekeeper did something above and beyond normal expectations. Like when my wife started early and soiled the sheets. Left a note apologizing, a $20, and just expected fresh sheets. Nope. She replaced all the bedding and the mattress too. Left her another $20 and a thank you note when we checked out.

Well, the post a few days ago with the footage at the end of this video did say he was “immobilized”.

If you can get your doctor to prescribe noise cancelling earphones to help you sleep, they can be bought using money from an FSA or HSA.