The Thread for philosophy and ideas.

thanks for all the vids, the one about the stroke is fascinating. Its always interesting to see the vids you pick out.
I wish i had more time to research these things somemore so i could offer a decent opinion.

 

Love that satire! thanx

 

Cool topic thanks for all the vids

 

Same guy as Jamms posted earlier.

Aethism I find to be so much more reasonable than reincarnation or resurrection. Sure, it's great to think I can come back, even if I mess up bad... like a video game, ->just load that game up and try again. <- but it doesn't make logical sense does it?

I was so perplexed for so many years over religious folks getting confused/shocked/insulted by my atheism. I realize why after seeing this vid, because I confront them with the possiblity of absolute death, not "life after death" as the theologians preech. No, ooops go back..., take backs or do-overs.

What you have done is what we will remember of you, after you are dead. Hiding behind your cross will not stop your heart or your head from asking questions that remain unanswered by religion.

Seek answers with the ones that are looking for the truth

 

^ Phil is absolutely one of teh best thinkers on the net. A very smart and very inspiring man. And made all the more impressive when you realise he's an autodidact.

 

Dawkins is amazing, I am glad that his communication has become smoother, and more entertaining, his earlier presentations were very dry, and still very informative.

If an autodidact is someone who learns things on their own, then I am one as well, I call it being a renaissance man. I have an insatiable lust to learn more about this amazing world.

The Jesus video reminds me of a question a friend asked me years ago. He said "Do you believe in Jesus?" I said; "I believe that there once was a man named Jesus, and he was great at getting people together and talking about their beliefs and what they wanted in life. They followed him because he talked about things like forgiveness and salvation and calmed their fears in a time when things might have been bleak. I believe if he existed he was a man, when he died he was gone, never to return. People liked him so much they wrote a legend of him, the story getting bigger, more complicated and more clever with each iteration, like a long game of telephone." "It is sometimes human nature to exaggerate, and after 2000 years of telling this legend, the story of Jesus and god has become quite exaggerated."

This person was immediately offended, he made a remark that I 'have no respect', that I was arrogant and that I believed in lies and wanted to destroy people. To this I responded, "If I had 'no respect' as you see it, I would laugh at you for being a fool for believing in something so ridiculous, so unbelievable, so lacking any reasonable fact, so completely fucking stupid, that you would never again be someone I would show any respect to... yet I respect your opinion, is it so difficult to respect mine? Isn't it one of your ten commandments to 'respect thy neighbour'? so far you have verbally attacked me for simply disagreeing with you, and you project your lack of respect at me? You do not even respect yourself, no wonder you can't respect me"

"I have in fact come to a conclusion, I no longer want to talk to you until you respect yourself" and I walked away, since this person was not worth talking to.

 

Ayn Rand was an author of such works as The Fountainhead, Atlas Shrugged, and many others. These books are amazing, they are large books, but they have so much reality in them that the time is worth it. She talks about how personal accountability and self directed success are the precepts of prosperity for all. Also, she talks about the manipulators that twist people?s feelings to get what they want, and how to pick out these frauds before they can cause damage. Personally I have extirpated over a dozen of these ignorant fools from my life and things are much better now. No longer do my 'friends' tell me how they are better than me, how I must dispose of my integrity just to be able to be in their presence as they use insults - what they call 'jokes' to chip away at my self-worth and confidence.

Guilt and fear are the tools of the parasites, be wary of what they say when you feel these emotions.

 

I just thought of my response to a common theological question I have received, and I wanted to share my response.

If someone asks me "Why don't you believe in god?"
My response; "I believe in myself, I do not require a god. Why don't you believe in yourself?"

This question is at the heart of every theological discussion I can recall.


Try this exercise;
Repeat to yourself ten times, "I believe in god" and feel the energy leave your body.
Repeat to yourself ten times, "I believe in myself" and feel the energy fill your body.

 

best thread on phun!!!! (when i don't have a raging boner to service(although zomgitscriss could help with that too!!))

here's a video maybe you all will enjoy

 

Matt Dillahunty is brilliant, thanks for the link

Also, zomgitscriss is a cutie isn't she? Cute *and* smart is the best kind of girl.

 

I asked Criss if she wanted a better camera before but she never answered.

As for that Amy Rand vid. Not being able to prove something does not automatically mean it is false and when dealing when something as incredible as the universe itself then ruling out a creative entity (of any sort) is tantamount to deliberate ignorance and blinkered vision. She might miss evidence due to her own prejudices. Even Einstein fucked up because of that.

I'm a Deist and believe that some form of Intelligence created this universe. I always say, this universe exists, in all it's wonders and we cannot deny that. So is it really so far fetched to believe that it was created by something?

Solok, here's another Phil vid that made me think of your mate. I have two friends and an uncle who act the same way.


The problem with religious people is that they get offended when you say you don't believe. I DO believe and i have zero problem with atheism, even antitheism. If i have my choice atheists would rule the world. I'm a deist in the atheist camp.Because they are the smartest, clearest thinkers on the planet today. Most intelligent atheists say to me that they don't see any evidence for a god so they therefore don't believe in one. But that they also know that there might be one. Very rational and clear thinking people.

 

I have heard many of those excuses from people when I have engaged people in religious discussion, thanks for the vid.

To clarify, Ayn Rand said: "You are never called upon to prove a negative..." then the video was edited... After reading 2 of her books I think I know what she means; that I could not prove that my father (for example) never called a taxi a submarine. Calling upon me to prove that he didn't beyond a shadow of a doubt is ludicrous, I could never be completely sure. If you ask her to prove that something does exist, she does her best to prove it. Her books are amazing, and highly recommended. Her frame of thinking means that if something cannot be proven, it does not exist to her, and she has proven many psychological, sociological, and governmental concepts in her books (at least the ones I have read) Many of my thoughts attained corroborative reality when I read her books.

I call myself an Atheist, Individualist, Humanist, Naturalist, Functionalist. I believe that all things are connected, and the more I learn about the world, the more this is proven to me. As an Atheist, I do not believe in any form of god. Never really have even thought I was raised as a catholic, (or perhaps in spite of it...) As an Individualist, I am selfish, I strive to take care of myself first, then others. I do not make children I cannot care for. I feed myself before I give my food away. Altruism is a form of greed for acknowledgement to me, I take no part of it. If I want to help I offer, if I do not, I refuse. I look to create and maintain only mutually beneficial exchanges between myself and others. I believe that strength and self-control create prosperity and success. As a Humanist, I believe in the power of myself and others to make the world a better place, without mysticism. I believe in, and positively compliment actions I see to be correct. That being said, I do meditate as a form of breathing deeply and fully, as modern life can distract us from this. I do not think that meditation gives me super powers, it simply allows my mind and body to function correctly. Functionalism because I see that (almost) everything has an intrinsic value and ability to add to the overall success of the entire world, it's plants, it's animals and it's people. I cannot think of a positive reason for pollution, radiation, and other absolutely destructive, long term effects, except perhaps to show us that we are not being cooperative enough with the earth and each other.

I can understand why someone would believe in a god in a catholic, jewish, hindi, deist etc sense, because there are so many amazing things in this world, their reality can be hard to grasp. I choose to think that the universe is just that amazing on it's own, infinite and effectively timeless. I don't even believe in the big bang, I believe the universe was always there, and always will be.

I can summarize this all by saying, I am willing to risk hell so I can make my own decisions with my own thoughts, and to do the best I can be.

 

The only event that comes to mind that I cannot explain, is when I had my tarot cards read a few years back. I gave no hints, and answered the questions with a minimal amount of verbage. His description was very descriptive, and very accurate, all of the major points came true. Apparently a large piece of the direction that he used was from my astrology. I still have no clear explanation on how he knew what my future would be, and I admit it's compelling. He described how he knew the information as he saw a series of patterns, along with the cards that I "ordered for him" my splitting the deck in two. To be clear, this was the first time I had met this person, he had no previous knowledge of me, (as far as I know) and his predictions (I wrote them down in fact) were very accurate. The reading concluded about 4 years back, approximately 6-7 years after the original reading. Now you must be asking the question, does this change my Atheism? No, I think he did in fact tap into a set of patterns that I do not currently understand in its entirety. Tarot cards make little logical sense to me, so I see it as chance, perhaps I will get a better understanding in the future.

 

I don't believe in tarot. Not the possibility of future knowledge but if you watch Derren Brown, he can look at a person and tell them a story about their childhood that they themselves had forgotten about. The amount we give off with no verbal account is staggering.

Aswell as being a Deist, I'm also a Monist. I believe the universe is one single thing. One entity and that is the thing that gave order to the universe.

 

Interesting.

I don't believe in tarot per se, yet it was shown to be true in this case. I cannot explain why this happened lol. I do admit that I would have them read again if the opportunity presented itself. It is too intriguing to ignore.

So if I am to understand correctly, being a Deist, and a Monist you see that the universe is one being, it gives itself it's own order, but is the universe conscious of this act, or does it happen from another type of order? Does it simply do what it does, or is it influencing itself and our universe on a continual basis in your opinion?

 

Thanks for the Ayn Rand inspiration - have started reading "The Fountainhead" (boy, that's a thick book!). Weeks/Months later you might get a feedback here...