:dubious: There is a very special place in Hell for people who make bad, incredibly obscure puns.
From the rationalist’s perspective, why should a universe resulting from natural processes be styled in a manner such that it can be fully comprehended by one particular evolved life form? The universe simply is. It does not exist so as to be appreciated by man.
Why can’t the same be said of man himself? That he simply is, and that he does not exist to be appreciated by other men. And if it can, then what’s the point of posting?
Never is such a long time and it seems so final. A lot can happen. This is your best day. (So Far)
fantastic - based on fantasy : not real (our no-god explanation for everything)
It seems that you have resigned yourself to conformity with others rather than creating yourself anew each day.
Listen to your heart (feelings/emotion) and your head (logic/reasoning) and in the moment create your destiny. Both faculties have purpose and each can arrive at different conclusions in the moment. The trick is to get them to balance in the moment. Some evoke a higher power and leave it at that, I learned that there is more to life. See http://www.moretolife.org/
I have every confidence that you will get it sorted. You are who you are and you are good enough.
Lekatt?
Kidding. That site you linked to is silly and your advice sounds like a sign in a new-age crystal shop.
This is the worst post you’ve ever made. (So far).
Whoa… watch the personal attacks, there, partner.
My viewpoint is more Agnostic than Atheist, but I can’t help pointing out one thing… a lot of the posts talking about feelings and the idea that your feelings reinforce your belief in atheism sound exactly like all of the theists I know talking about how their feelings reinforce their belief in God.
In response to the OP, “why should the made understand the maker?”, well… why shouldn’t the made understand the maker? If all is randomness and chaos, what rule could there be that it shouldn’t be understandable? Why would the universe care whether or not you could understand it? Why and how would it stop you? Assuming that the human race gets more clever and develops better tools for understanding as time goes on, and that the rate of the universe getting more complex is smaller than this (most people say it’s zero), then eventually full understanding must occur, not just might.
If we postulate that God does not exist, then it doesn’t matter to the universe what I choose to believe on the subject of His existence, yes? So I should make the choice based on 2 things: whether or not the choice affects me personally, and whether or not the choice affects those around me. Why else make a choice?
Who said anything about “moral”? I was only speaking of aesthetics. The comparison is literally awesome to me. SAme feeling I get when I saw Michaelangelo’s David. Not a feeling of inferiority, far from it - it’s just a statue, there’s so much more I can do that it can’t, but damn…I didn’t realise it was so BIG.
And I wasn’t speaking only of size, but duration too. My entire existence is a blip compared to that of the Universe.
No, just because I can see the Universe and recognise my place in it, doesn’t mean I am anywhere near truly comprehending it. ISTM I have a much more realistic idea of what my brain is capable of holding. Perception =/= understanding to me. Nor do I think there’s anything particularly special about the fact that I can perceive the Universe. So can anyone. Hell, so, IMO, can some animals.
What does this actually mean? Are you talking about just not getting stuck in a rut, or do you really, literally mean it’s possible to create yourself from scratch every day? If so, in what sense is it ‘you’? If it’s not the same ‘you’ it was the day before?
I think Jesus’s whole message was one of aesthetics — that which you value most is that which you will seek out. I have no problem looking at the matter from a viewpoint of aesthetics. A man without a universe is eternal spirit, but a universe without man is a thing of no value (because there are no men to assign value to it.)
I think it’s rather the other way around. The universe is only a few billion years old, whereas before the universe ever was, you are.
Well, then. Bring one here and let’s hear from it.
I was not kidding. My reply was in the context of the OP expressing doubt. I offered an alternative way of exploring Lobsang’s concern by sharing a little of myself…
Apparently, not so silly as to convince you that a reply was a waste of your time!
Your derision certainly offers nothing towards removing or understanding doubt and is a clear indication of your fear of the unfamiliar. Learning to deal with fear is one of the things taught around the world See http://www.moretolife.org/centers_contact.cfm
I will take your judgment of my posts under advisement. Of course you will allow me to judge yours as well See http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/search.php?searchid=3377259
No never mind that would be a waste of my time. :smack: until you are ready.
I hope My reply was found useful.
Life is fundamentally creative, and so are we. Every day we make choices about our relationships, our projects, and our goals that impact our effectiveness and our sense of fulfillment. But the extent of our real creative potential is rarely glimpsed, because of **automatic assumptions **we carry with us throughout our lives.
See http://www.moretolife.org/courses_more-to-life.cfm
Like an athlete who works to coordinate mind and body to achieve outstanding results, you can learn to engage with your own inner process, and use your awareness to respond to your experience in a new way without the **automatic assumptions **.
Every new experience can change who you are. If you permit it.
It’s certainly not the message I get from Jesus as he appears in the Bible, but of course it’s very open to any interpretation, so if you say so.
Let’s just leave it at “I don’t believe in eternal spirit” and agree to disagree.
Once again, I disagree. There is no eternal spirit. We are transient beings.
Oook!
A more simple reply is why, necessarily, understanding trumps scale.
That is, I might consider the motion of super clusters to be more important than what I’m doing here on Earth; you could remove me from the Universe, and the Universe would appear 99.<lots of nines>% the same.
Being honest, I would put understanding higher, but it depends on the context and on subjective opinion. I wouldn’t “correct” someone who thought the big picture was more important.
Of course. That’s part of what I meant by my “what’s so special about perception?” closer, but you’ve put it in more forthright terms.
Because without understanding, there is no scale. Keep in mind that all the attributes being assigned to the universe — how grand and glorious it is — are assignments made by sentient beings. A planet is just a big rock; neither has a brain. Let me put it to you another way: if we weren’t here to describe it, what sort of description would the universe have?
Well, OK, we’re walking into philosophical quicksand here. But once again, your point is a subjective one, and I happen to disagree.
Is it be true to say that before humans knew the true scale of the Universe, all the stars were on a shell a few kilometres above the Earth?
Or: let’s say you’re clever; you come up with brilliant solutions to problems all the time. But somehow, you don’t realise that you’re clever and no other person notices either. Does that mean you’re not clever?
My first reply was to lay some groundwork in somewhat clinical terms and were lifted from that website.
Now this is an answer to your question in my own terms. And I am no trainer so please bear with me. Yes you can create yourself anew everyday by taking away from every new relationship and experience all that it offers. Typically most people ‘only hear what they want to hear’ and they take nothing away from the experience, they end up being the same person they were. But it is illogical to expect a new experience not to effect you!
This SDMB is a perfect example, especially here in GD and this thread, I heard Lobsang’s doubts not some desire to wrangle over religion. I heard **Mangetout’s **wonderment of the possibility of creating himself from scratch.
I am a happier person and have been changed now because I know two people who are on a quest of exploration and wonderment.
Thank you.
See I chose to be affected versus I could have made an **automatic assumption ** as in: Without additional data point, I expect Lobsang’s will use atheism to compensate for an empty heart and **Mangetout’s ** will use having fun with puns as a clever disguise.
That’s the nature of the thing, isn’t it? Every question about perception has a subjective answer, I think.
And when you’re ready to cast off the shackles of ignorance and fear and accept reality for what it actually is, not what some charlatan with a bad website says it is, I personally won’t be waiting, but I’m sure someone will be willing to educate you on logic and not acting like a loon.
:dubious:
Also I can’t see your link, plz try again.
You resort to pat statements to protect your reality.
You automatically pigeon hole something you have no knowledge of.
You defer to other authorities not able to stand by yourself alone?
You resort to name calling!
You are controlled by your **automatic assumptions **
You assume your reality is the only reality. It is not!
You assume that the purpose of the training is to define reality, It is not!
You assume that you cannot educate. You can!
You assume that I will find it meaningful to be called a loon. I don’t!
Is just a list of your typical single sentence automatic responses
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/search.php?searchid=3377848
These are all signs of your struggle to control your life.
You can unshackle yourself and create your life unique from all others!
More To Life courses teach practices that **help you **connect with **your creative response **to each moment, just as it happens. See http://www.moretolife.org/courses.cfm