Hello, all!
I'm new, and I look forward to having stimulating conversations here.
My interests include culture, the arts, politics, religion, and science.
Happy 2019!
Welcome!
Hi there.
Welcome to our little band of heathens.
Welcome, also.
feel free to toss all the moss you want. Welcome.
Bon jour.
Hi mosstoss! Welcome!
Quote from: mosstoss on January 10, 2019, 02:55:24 AM
My interests include culture, the arts, politics, religion, and science.
What a coincidence - my interests include all those too!
New members buy a round at the bar.
I had a friend who wanted to become a lawyer, but he couldn't pass the bar.
Welcome! Would you happen to be an atheist, or some form of theist?
I'm an atheist. However, church-going folks would like to call me a Satanist on account of my views on God (that there is no "He"). I believe in a higher power. I just won't call it God.
Quote from: mosstoss on January 11, 2019, 02:40:20 AM
I'm an atheist. However, church-going folks would like to call me a Satanist on account of my views on God (that there is no "He"). I believe in a higher power. I just won't call it God.
Like karma, or... ?
Hi.
Quote from: Mr.Obvious on January 11, 2019, 03:42:34 AM
Like karma, or... ?
I'd call it nature :)
are you a believer?
Quote from: Unbeliever on January 10, 2019, 01:20:37 PM
Hi mosstoss! Welcome!
What a coincidence - my interests include all those too!
That's great! :)
Quote from: mosstoss on January 11, 2019, 05:25:20 AM
I'd call it nature :)
are you a believer?
Most folks here, don't include any supernatural phenomena as ... nature. So no ghosts, fate, etc. They simply see them as frauds and superstition.
Answering for I am a theist, though heretical. Almost no one else is theistic.
Quote from: mosstoss on January 11, 2019, 05:25:20 AM
I'd call it nature :)
are you a believer?
I dunno about 'believer'... I accept that physical reality is real, but I don't ascribe it any agency.
And welcome!
Quote from: trdsf on January 11, 2019, 11:39:55 AM
I dunno about 'believer'... I accept that physical reality is real, but I don't ascribe it any agency.
And welcome!
Nature as a whole? Might not have agency. Individual beings do have agency. Hard to square. But there seems to be less and less agency as you expand the collection to all people collectively. And even more so if it is "the whole universe". On the large scale of society, and the even larger scale of the universe, existence seems more and more pointless (without agency) aka no teleology.
That's what Weinberg said - "The more the universe seems comprehensible, the more it also seems pointless."
Hey everyone!
I am 18 years old and I have struggles with questioms about faith. I can not connect with god. I can not feel that connection which believers can. Anyone else?
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Hi propali.student!
The reason you can't feel any connection with God is that God does not exist. Faith is a cop-out.
Quote from: Unbeliever on January 11, 2019, 02:01:03 PM
Hi propali.student!
The reason you can't feel any connection with God is that God does not exist. Faith is a cop-out.
I don't know. I am so confused... I mean, everyone who believe in god has some sort of strength to survive hard times in life while I feel so desperate.
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Well, if you need God for strength to get through life, then that's what you need. Believe all you want, but it's still a false belief.
Quote from: propali.student on January 11, 2019, 02:03:31 PM
I don't know. I am so confused... I mean, everyone who believe in god has some sort of strength to survive hard times in life while I feel so desperate.
Religion is a crutch. You don't need it. Religion provides community...at the price of conformity. The community is what helps people through hard times, not God. If you go searching for God like I did, you'll turn up empty. Even if that monster of a god existed, what would you want to be friends with him for anyway?
Quote from: propali.student on January 11, 2019, 02:03:31 PM
I mean, everyone who believe in god has some sort of strength to survive hard times in life
I'm not convinced that's true, but even if it were, so do alcoholics and drug addicts, but that doesn't make either practice good.
Quote from: propali.student on January 11, 2019, 02:03:31 PM
I don't know. I am so confused... I mean, everyone who believe in god has some sort of strength to survive hard times in life while I feel so desperate.
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Yes god is real and he loves you. For only 1200.00 I can promise you a seat at his left hand when you die. Guaranteed!
Quote from: Unbeliever on January 11, 2019, 01:14:38 PM
That's what Weinberg said - "The more the universe seems comprehensible, the more it also seems pointless."
Which is why you don't hire a physicist as a philosopher. Or hire a dentist to be your lawyer.
Quote from: propali.student on January 11, 2019, 01:35:56 PM
Hey everyone!
I am 18 years old and I have struggles with questioms about faith. I can not connect with god. I can not feel that connection which believers can. Anyone else?
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This is a normal feeling. Most particularly young people making the hard transition from childhood to adulthood. Give yourself another 18 years and be patient with yourself. I am old enough to be your grandfather, and I still don't know my right hand from my left ;-)
Quote from: propali.student on January 11, 2019, 02:03:31 PM
I don't know. I am so confused... I mean, everyone who believe in god has some sort of strength to survive hard times in life while I feel so desperate.
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If you don't have a theology, try philosophy or psychology as a stop-gap. IMHO ... everything interesting about people, should be based on psychology anyway.
Yes, life is hard. It was hard when you came from your mother's womb, and ... it isn't going to get any easier. You need to develop some callousness. Don't be the princess who couldn't sleep because of a tiny pea under her mattresses.
The actual strength however, doesn't come from outside, it comes from within. You are still young and tender. It takes time to develop some pith.
A group helps, secular or religious, but they can lead you astray. They are still strength from outside. BTW - every group demands conformity, including this one.
Quote from: Unbeliever on January 11, 2019, 05:54:49 PM
I'm not convinced that's true, but even if it were, so do alcoholics and drug addicts, but that doesn't make either practice good.
Ah, so you are a teetotaling saint then? Are you six degrees of separation from St Joan of Arc after all?
Quote from: Baruch on January 11, 2019, 07:38:31 PM
This is a normal feeling. Most particularly young people making the hard transition from childhood to adulthood. Give yourself another 18 years and be patient with yourself. I am old enough to be your grandfather, and I still don't know my right hand from my left ;-)
But do you know your right hand from your left foot?
Well, I'm not an alcoholic or a drug addict, at least. I'm addicted to youtube.
Quote from: Unbeliever on January 11, 2019, 07:50:42 PM
But do you know your right hand from your left foot?
I do, if I need to kick someone in the ass ... their Left Behind of course ;-)
Quote from: Unbeliever on January 11, 2019, 07:52:48 PM
Well, I'm not an alcoholic or a drug addict, at least. I'm addicted to youtube.
Yes, the caterpillar of Youtube ....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41KMByxE6lo
I am the cheshire cat ...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4fHre-yRPY
Quote from: propali.student on January 11, 2019, 02:03:31 PM
I don't know. I am so confused... I mean, everyone who believe in god has some sort of strength to survive hard times in life while I feel so desperate.
And that strength comes from within themselves; they just ascribe it to whichever god they believe in.
If there were any truth to the notion that inner strength actually comes from an external source, there would be no atheists -- we'd be immediately reduced to uselessness at the first adversity. Since that obviously doesn't happen, then the strength you refer to comes from within. Or at the very least doesn't need to be outsourced.
I survived hard times when I was a practicing Roman Catholic, I survived hard times when I was a practicing Neopagan, and have I survived hard times as an atheist. I find it easier as an atheist, actually -- because now I know I need to take proactive steps to actually deal with things, not clap my hands together and ask an invisible sky daddy (or mommy) to make the problem go away.
And welcome!
Quote from: mosstoss on January 11, 2019, 02:40:20 AM
I'm an atheist. However, church-going folks would like to call me a Satanist on account of my views on God (that there is no "He"). I believe in a higher power. I just won't call it God.
Imagine my surprise. Rolls Eyes...
Yes that's from the start. But worth noting.
Quote from: propali.student on January 11, 2019, 02:03:31 PM
I don't know. I am so confused... I mean, everyone who believe in god has some sort of strength to survive hard times in life while I feel so desperate.
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There are no deities of any kind. Deal with living as a human.
Quote from: Cavebear on January 12, 2019, 12:47:38 AM
There are no deities of any kind. Deal with living as a human.
Which is a demi-god (per Roman politics).
Quote from: Baruch on January 12, 2019, 02:14:30 AM
Which is a demi-god (per Roman politics).
OK, just to be light-hearted (and yes I'm bored)... I checked my books and couldn't find a Roman or any other demi-god named "Which". Is it perhaps the origin of "witch" you meant? The OED states that the noun is "apparently" deverbal (derived from wiccian)". There is also a Proto-Indo European (PIE) *weik- "to separate, to divide".
Hello. You sound more like a deist than an atheist. Anyway, welcome.
Quote from: drunkenshoe on February 03, 2019, 04:54:23 AM
Hello. You sound like more like a deist than an atheist. Anyway, welcome.
My parents always seemed to be generally deistic. They seemed to think there was a vague creator but it wasn't involved in human life. No prayers or miracles or whatnot. I just took the logic a step further.
Quote from: Cavebear on February 03, 2019, 04:33:22 AM
OK, just to be light-hearted (and yes I'm bored)... I checked my books and couldn't find a Roman or any other demi-god named "Which". Is it perhaps the origin of "witch" you meant? The OED states that the noun is "apparently" deverbal (derived from wiccian)". There is also a Proto-Indo European (PIE) *weik- "to separate, to divide".
"which" as in "which desert would you like". You over analyzed this time.