Having to die one day...

[Mike Cl]

Even skeptics toy with such ideas from time to time.  I too have considered the possibility that I had a past life.  I can't remember one of course, not even a mysterious memory fragment that ever came to mind.  But it's fun wondering.  But one thing I can say about reincarnation with an high degree of confidence is that, if I had a previous life, I know absolutely nothing of it, and judging by the stupid things I've done in this life, there is apparently zero carryover of hard learned wisdom from any earlier life.

The idea does have its appeal for me.  I would really like to believe in it.  But it has the same amount of evidence to support it as does the existence of god--not a whisper of any.  So, into the wishful thinking bin it goes.  Damn.

[Cavebear]

The idea does have its appeal for me.  I would really like to believe in it.  But it has the same amount of evidence to support it as does the existence of god--not a whisper of any.  So, into the wishful thinking bin it goes.  Damn.

I had no past life.  I will have no future life.  I will have no afterlife.  This does not bother me in the least.  When I die, I will be as utterly non-existent as the ant I stepped on today unknowingly or the fly an swatted the day before with malice.

[Baruch]

I had no past life.  I will have no future life.  I will have no afterlife.  This does not bother me in the least.  When I die, I will be as utterly non-existent as the ant I stepped on today unknowingly or the fly an swatted the day before with malice.

Only the present exists.  Your past is memory, your future is hope.  Neither of those are real.

[Sal1981]

I didn't figure you to be a presentist, Baruch.

[Cavebear]

I didn't figure you to be a presentist, Baruch.

Don't worry, whatever it was he said today, he will say the opposite tomorrow.

[Baruch]

I didn't figure you to be a presentist, Baruch.

Have said so several times.  However from the Present, in what direction do I look?  Well opposite of most people here.  I look to the past (tradition).  But I am not conservative (they live in the past).  But I am of course not liberal either (they live in the future).  People who live in the past or live in the future are deluding themselves, they think they are Time Lords.

The past is regret and pride.  The future is fear and hope.  Emotions, not facts.  Of course emotions are real too, just not in the way that materialists think.

Being "presentist" is part of my Buddhist influenced development, and my demi-god ideology.

[Baruch]

Don't worry, whatever it was he said today, he will say the opposite tomorrow.

Thesis + Antithesis -> Synthesis ... is it how I dialect (ical method).

[Mike Cl]

Have said so several times.  However from the Present, in what direction do I look?  Well opposite of most people here.  I look to the past (tradition).  But I am not conservative (they live in the past).  But I am of course not liberal either (they live in the future).  People who live in the past or live in the future are deluding themselves, they think they are Time Lords.

The past is regret and pride.  The future is fear and hope.  Emotions, not facts.  Of course emotions are real too, just not in the way that materialists think.

Being "presentist" is part of my Buddhist influenced development, and my demi-god ideology.

I like your message in this.  But you just cannot help but put things into black-and-white categories.  And you make pronouncements that you seem to take as truisms..:.'not liberal either (they live in the future).'  I am a liberal, but I don't live in the future.  I have hopes and wishes for the future, but I realize those don't usually pan out; I take what life gives me and then deal with in it in the present. 

Another truism for you:  "Of course emotions are real too, just not in the way that materialists think."  Yes, emotions are real and this very much materialist knows this.  Emotions are real and have a deep impact on the lives of us all.

[Baruch]

I like your message in this.  But you just cannot help but put things into black-and-white categories.  And you make pronouncements that you seem to take as truisms..:.'not liberal either (they live in the future).'  I am a liberal, but I don't live in the future.  I have hopes and wishes for the future, but I realize those don't usually pan out; I take what life gives me and then deal with in it in the present. 

Another truism for you:  "Of course emotions are real too, just not in the way that materialists think."  Yes, emotions are real and this very much materialist knows this.  Emotions are real and have a deep impact on the lives of us all.

True/false, Black/White ... so you oppose all languages, or just English?  In New Speak, all words are the same, you have to use context to follow it, but it is a beau jeste.  This is what relativism gets you.

Yes, you use English, your way.  Same as me, yet different.  Thank G-d we have the French Academy to determine what the legal definition of all French words are, and can enforce it (in France).  You may not use "hamburger" in a French publication ;-)

Typically the autistic male devalues emotions, not having any.  A progressive is an optimist.  A regressive is a pessimist.  And a pessimist is afraid that the optimist is right ;-))

[Mike Cl]

True/false, Black/White ... so you oppose all languages, or just English?  In New Speak, all words are the same, you have to use context to follow it, but it is a beau jeste.  This is what relativism gets you.

Yes, you use English, your way.  Same as me, yet different.  Thank G-d we have the French Academy to determine what the legal definition of all French words are, and can enforce it (in France).  You may not use "hamburger" in a French publication ;-)

Typically the autistic male devalues emotions, not having any.  A progressive is an optimist.  A regressive is a pessimist.  And a pessimist is afraid that the optimist is right ;-))

???? You do like to drone on..........You did not address a single one of my points.  You seem to speak only Baruchish and I just can't follow it.

[Unbeliever]

Well, as Lo Pan said to Jack Burton, "You are not brought upon this world to get it!"

;-P

[Baruch]

???? You do like to drone on..........You did not address a single one of my points.  You seem to speak only Baruchish and I just can't follow it.

Sorry.  I really don't try to obfuscate.  Other than trying to avoid direct personal insult (but I will insult your group or humanity in general).  I will look at it again.

[Baruch]

I like your message in this.

OK

But you just cannot help but put things into black-and-white categories.

OK, can we put things into pseudo numerical terms ... 1-10 with 1 being White and 10 being Black?  If we don't divide things up, into contrasting positions, then thought and communication are impossible (hence the technique described in New Speak, to make thought and communication impossible).

And you make pronouncements that you seem to take as truisms..:.'not liberal either (they live in the future).'

A is like C as B is like D.  Part of college entrance tests.  Match one pair with another pair, to show that they are related.

I am a liberal, but I don't live in the future.  I have hopes and wishes for the future, but I realize those don't usually pan out;

OK.  And you are an outlier, vs my proposed definition above.  No actual population matches any definition exactly.

I take what life gives me and then deal with in it in the present. 

Exactly what I do too.

Another truism for you:  "Of course emotions are real too, just not in the way that materialists think."  Yes, emotions are real and this very much materialist knows this.  Emotions are real and have a deep impact on the lives of us all.

Well then, you aren't autistic.

Your response was complicated, and my original response was too.  This parses it into individual ideas.  But don't expect me to provide footnotes.

[Unbeliever]

Black is just a shade of white, at least, according to Action Lab:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-OCfiglZRQ&t=1s

[SGOS]

Black is just a shade of white, at least, according to Action Lab:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-OCfiglZRQ&t=1s

It's kind of interesting additional commentary on the old teaching, "White is a presence of all colors, and black is the absence of all colors."  What I found most interesting is that brown is actually just low intensity  orange.  I can kind of picture that in my imagination.  I would have liked to see him demonstrate that, just to see it.