• Perspective on Karma
    You made the claim, the burden of reference is on you.
  • Seeking resemblance in an unfriendly reality
    it is to recognize that all of reality is hostile to life and that we are a mistake in the eyes of reality that will one day be corrected.64bithuman

    Do you think that this is what, for example, Caesar was thinking when he crossed the Rubicon?
  • Perspective on Karma
    if you buy a lottery ticket and win, it's your (good) karma and if you lose, it's your (bad) karma.Agent Smith

    Do you have any doctrinal support for this idea?
    Which established theory of karma says this?
  • Reverse racism/sexism
    n Asia there's plenty of ethnic prejudice as well, including some that is institutional (eg the treatment of non Siamese folks in Thailand) but to my knowledge it hasn't been made into an ideology yet.Olivier5

    It's not uncommon for Asians to believe that Westerners/whites are inherently incapable of spiritual advancement. I've encountered this attitude among Buddhists and Hindus.

    (Whites are also banned from visiting some Hindu temples.)
  • Sanna Marin
    Because the people who defend her maintain the idea that she is young and she is free to have fun because we are living in a “modern era”javi2541997

    We're living in an era of secular tyranny.
  • Ukraine Crisis
    I think that as far as Slavic people go, Ukrainians are better than Russians. The latter have always been slaves.Olivier5

    Complete the following sentence:

    Because Russians have always been slaves, they should ....
  • Ukraine Crisis
    Why would any hatred of a large people or a country be morally right?ssu

    Why should hatred be morally right?

    This is what this whole Ukraine thing is about: the sanctity of hatred, the sacred right to hate, and the duty of the hated to kneel before the hater.

    People just love to hate, and they will not let anyone question that.
  • What a genuine word of God would look like
    A god could surely just implant complete knowledge in all human minds, without the need for any long-form narrative.Tom Storm

    The story goes that this is precisely what he did, but some people are just wicked and don't love God.

    The big question for me is why is it that god/s are never known directly?Tom Storm

    Because you're not good enough, you're not qualified to see and hear God directly.
  • What a genuine word of God would look like
    Well the theists always use the same argument in that context: God is not guilty of human's free will.javi2541997

    Enter the evolutionary survival of the fittest.
  • What a genuine word of God would look like
    Silence.Banno

    The problem is, it seems to me, worship – idol-making – not g/G per se. Theism is idolatry. The apophatics got it right, I think: anything said or imag(in)ed (e.g. "graven images", scriptures, theologies, sermons) about the infinite is necessarily finite and thereby false; even (especially) the belief that the infinite "exists" is idolatrous.180 Proof

    That's ironically escapist when it comes from people who have a combative, authoritarian attitude toward people; but when it comes to God, they turn to putty. Even Job had more fighting spirit!
  • What a genuine word of God would look like
    Nothingness. If he would exist I would imagine him as the pure representation of silence and emptiness.javi2541997

    Nah. I imagine God as a Trumpista.
    Look at the world: it's full of killing, raping, and pillaging. If God exists and has created the world, then he approves of all this killing, raping, and pillaging. It's how he wants things to be. Anything that proposes to tbe "the genuine word of God" needs to reflect that.


    NONE OF IT WAS DOWN TO GOD(s)! It was all down to our behaviour!universeness

    God, in his infinite wisdom and goodness, could have arranged for less bloody ways of humans acting on their free will. But he didn't.
  • What a genuine word of God would look like
    What a genuine word of God would look like

    In order to be credible, it would need to be in line with scientific theories, specifically, the Theory of Evolution. That is, it would need to be a narrative full of killing, raping, and pillaging; life would need to be presented as a struggle for survival; full of might makes right. IOW, exactly the way mainstream theologies do. As such, the Bible is an excellent contender for being The Genuine Word of God.
  • Donald Trump (All General Trump Conversations Here)
    Communism is on the rise in the U.S.? That's news to me.Pierre-Normand

    Americans have ... a peculiar understanding of communism.
  • Donald Trump (All General Trump Conversations Here)
    I still see Republicans defending him or arguing that prosecuting him could lead to violence, which in bait-speak is saying people should riot if Trump is prosecuted.Benkei

    Is it only Republicans who think that way?
    It seems that one of the likeliest explanations for why the Democrats (and the US general public) are so ineffective against Trump is precisely because they fear what being a tad more effective could bring about.

    From the perspective of the Democrats, the really offensive thing about events like Jan. 6 is not that it was orchestrated by Republicans, but that a bunch of plebeians stormed an establishment in which they, the plebeians, are anything but welcome.

    Nobody, not the Republicans and not the Democrats, wants the disenfranchized, the poor, the plebeians.
  • Searching for meaning in suffering
    You're conflating hardship with the psychological experience of hardship.

    Hardship, as in, a broken bone, poverty, hunger, cold, heat, working 12-hour shifts 6 days per week for minimum wage, etc.

    The psychological experience of hardship is how one thinks and feels about having a broken bone, living in poverty, being hungry etc.
  • Against “is”
    Again, an overreaction.Banno

    Only to someone in a position of power.
    For everyone else, might makes right, and one must hold as true whatever the person says who holds more power than oneself. Or else, face socioeconomic consequences.
  • Ukraine Crisis
    So what are you going to do about it?
  • Is it possible for a non spiritual to think about metaphysical topics without getting depressed?
    I expect death to be just like it was for me two hundred, two thousand years ago. In other words, nothing. To me that sounds perfectly fine. Nothingness is not to be feared or lamented. Am I happy about it? Happiness is such a puerile term.Tom Storm

    The question is whether an oulook like yours can be arrived at deliberately.
  • Sanna Marin
    But now we are here in the phase where she apologizes with nearly breaking up in tears ...ssu

    Why did she do that?

    If partying and drinking are so great and make her so capable of ruling her people, then why apologize for partying and drinking??

    If she were to stand by her partying, the whole thing wouldn't be suspect at all. But if she's making it clear that even she herself doesn't believe in what she's doing, then why should we believe in her, how can we believe in her??

    Why didn't she say something like, "Yes, I'm a Prime Minister. Yes, I party. Yay!" ? And perhaps throw a "Deal with it!" in the mix.
    It's the absence of her approving of her partying that is conspicuous and a reason for doubting her.

    If she wants to be a politician of a new era, then she should behave like one consistently and play by the new rules, not the old ones.
  • Sanna Marin
    I support the idea that statesmen and leaders shouldn't behave like how she behaved in that party. She has a responsibility to her entire nation and a role model to the public.L'éléphant

    No. It is not about double standard. She is the PM and public representative of a nation. She has the aim to act in the most honorable and rectitude way possible. We are living in a difficult social context and we expect from a statesman to be, at least, professional. Right?
    It is quite contradictory, isn't it? Probably she has the average discourse of how to be an exemplary citizen and look at her dancing and acting like an immature teenager.
    javi2541997

    Agreed.

    The actual difficulty has to do with making sense of democracy and the standards of morality for democratically elected officials.

    A person in a position of power isn't an ordinary person anymore, because they have that power.

    But at the same time, since they have been elected from and by the people with whom they are at least nominally equal, they are still ordinary in one sense.

    I still think people in positions of power should be beyond the need for frivolous fun. It's not even about "being responsible"; it's about being so capable, so smart, so superior to the masses that one doesn't need the cheap emotional outlets that the masses do.
  • Ukraine Crisis
    I think the feeling is mutual with the Slavophiles in Russia.ssu

    Why should the Western hatred of Russians (and Slavic people in general) be considered morally right?
  • Sanna Marin
    The assumption by many seems to be 'politics is sober and serious, please don't have a life too.'
    — Tom Storm

    I wonder who else is covered under this assumption, doctors, lawyers, Sunday school teachers?
    Fooloso4

    Politics _should_ be sober and serious. Similar applies to many other professions.

    It's frightening the way people are willing to lower their standards and to consider various professions as "just another job".
  • Ukraine Crisis
    Russia takes upon itself the role of the shortest man in the gang.Banno

    I can't actually think of a single American film or tv series where I could say with certainty that it doesn't ridicule Russia or present Russians as anything other than stupid or hostile. Russophobia is pervasively present in American culture and has been for a long time.
    And similar for other Western cultures.

    Then US presidents, esp. the Democrats: all Russophobes to the bone.

    I can't think of an EU politician who hasn't been a Russophobe. It's part of what counts for "being civilized" around here, and it's been like that for as long as I can remember, at least 30 years.

    And to then hear someone claim that the Russians chose this negative image that Westerners have of them!
  • Ukraine Crisis
    In fact, Russia is fighting the notorious collective West, defending its very existence as a country, a people, a civilization.
    We must constantly remember that Russophobia in Europe has deep roots. And what is happening today is not a sudden, short-term episode, but a constant component of the social and political life of the West.

    That's odd. Sure, there was Sovietphobia in most or many places. After that, things changed, there was optimism, friendships, seeking trust. 2-3 decades ago, something like that, I personally know people that went to Russia, business and otherwise. But now, ironically, Putin and compadres stomped that out good and well. To the extent it's real, Matviyenko's "Russophobia" was/is like a self-fulfilling prophecy.

    Except, who has been wanting Russia to cease existing...?
    jorndoe

    Russia takes upon itself the role of the shortest man in the gang.Banno

    Wow. The pretense is astounding.
  • The Fine-Tuning Argument as (Bad) an Argument for God
    The Fine-Tuning Argument says “that the present Universe (including the laws that govern it and the initial conditions from which it has evolved) permits life only because these laws and conditions take a very special form, small changes in which would make life impossible.”Art48

    This is typically Western theology infused by secularism; a bottom-up approach, explaining theological matters from the perspective of humans.

    So, why would God bother to create an intricately fine-tuned universe for the sake of souls

    "Because it pleases God to do so," a more old-fashioned theologist would say.
  • The Fine-Tuning Argument as (Bad) an Argument for God
    Many Christians love to cite the following verse. Aren't WE special?

    "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." John 3:16.
    ThinkOfOne

    It's interesting that some people think this is about humans being "special".

    I've always interpreted it in the sense of, "Even though humans are so bad and evil and undeserving, God still loves us! Isn't God great!!"
  • Predicting war, preventing war
    When hatred and contempt are normalized, it's only a question of time before there will be a war.
  • Antinatalism Arguments
    I said:
    What you're asking for cannot be done in the framework of secular culture and science.baker
  • Antinatalism Arguments
    Indeed. And as I've been saying, both antinatalists and the natalists tend to be hedonists.
  • Perspective on Karma
    The trick is in having the power to define what is pure and what is evilpraxis

    And this is also one of the problems with an intrapersonal understanding of karma. Without regard for other people, who gets to define what the pure deeds are and what the evil ones?

    There is nothing that would stop such a self-referential-only person from developing into an absolute egomaniacal narcissist that goes around killing, raping, and pillaging, feeling good about himself because he defined those deeds of his as pure and good.
  • Perspective on Karma
    Yes. If you live by the sword, you'll die by the sword.Tate

    Only in fatalistic conceptions of karma. Such fatalistic conceptions deny that in the present moment one has any chance to act any differently than in the past and that one is hopelessly at the mercy of one's past actions.

    But I'm having the impression that the OP is only after the intrapersonal theory of karma and considers the interpersonal one "irrational".
  • Perspective on Karma
    Karma presupposes supernatural record keeping and judgment.
    — creativesoul
    Why can it not simply be natural cause and effect? Very few (if any) actions absolutely terminate in their intended consequences. Anything you do continues on, past, and through what you intend.
    Pantagruel

    Various theories of karma have in common that they view karma as a feedback loop, but they differ in the scope of this feedback loop (and thus in the applicability and usefulness of the concept of karma).

    For some, like the OP, the scope of karma is strictly intrapersonal, psycho-physiological, operating only within the particular person.

    Some populist theories of karma propose an interpersonal scope of the feedback loop (what you do to others, others will do to you).

    Some theories go further and expand the feedback loop over several lifetimes, ie. they introduce the notion of reincarnation/rebirth (whereby they can conceive of the feedback loop as being either intrapersonal only, or interpersonal, or both).
  • Against “is”
    The fundamental problem with “is” seems to be the person using that word seemingly speaks with a god-like authority
    — Art48

    Not to any competent language user.
    SophistiCat

    Only under the proviso that such a "competent language user" holds certain other beliefs.
    Such as, "Whatever a person says is only their own opinion and not necessarily objective truth."
  • Against “is”
    The fundamental problem with “is” seems to be the person using that word seemingly speaks with a god-like authorityArt48

    And the problem doesn't go away when using other words instead of "is".
    Because the problem isn't in the verb "to be", but primarily in the use of the indicative grammatical mood for making declarative statetments about other people and things.

    To avoid the feel of speaking with god-like authority, one would need to speak in I-messages.
  • Antinatalism Arguments
    And with medievel diet we have to remember it wasn't fresh, the food that could be preserved. The idea was to eat only the food from the last season, not this one as you didn't know just how the it would be this year. So a lot of salt.ssu

    It's not clear what you mean, some words are missing in those sentences. Are you talking about the preservation of meat in climates where people eat mostly meat?

    Anyway, it's not germane to the OP.


    I had no idea that I was talking to a women.ssu

    I generally take a dim view of gender issues, but even I am starting to feel offended for so often being categorized wrongly, despite repeated clarification.

    And it's A womAn.
    WomEn is plural.
  • Donald Trump (All General Trump Conversations Here)
    Insofar is the fear of a civil unrests a factor in the ineffectiveness of the actions so far taken against Trump?

    Do there exist any analyses on this?
  • Perspective on Karma
    Seems likely that the underlying concepts of karma, as it's commonly understood today, are rooted in a fear of living in an "unjust" world.
    Seems likely that the underlying concepts of reincarnation are rooted in the fear of death.

    Neither hold up to scrutiny. They are the products of irrational thought as a way to alleviate the anxieties of those fears. Many believe them today for those very reasons.
    ThinkOfOne

    Parallel to that, the refusal to believe that the consequences of one's actions will come back to haunt one is what makes people refuse to even consider karma and reincarnation/rebirth.

    If you believe that if you lie, someone will lie to you, would you still lie?
    If you believe that if you steal, someone will steal from you, would you still steal?
  • Antinatalism Arguments
    @obscurelaunting
    It's very possible for me to see all there is to life, the good and the bad and yet still not think this is enough for me to stay. Life is nothing but a slip of consciousness and just like that you could say it is amazing but I will say this is to be destroyed. Why? Because it can. Do not tell me it's a matter of what feels good and what doesn't, because then choosing to feel bad by choosing to die becomes something that feels good; so feeling good isn't the pinpoint at hand here.

    So since I CAN think like this, how can I not think like this? Do not tell me to just be one with life in experience because this is futile and never has been fulfilling. Do not tell me that if I can choose either I should choose life, because I'm saying to you my choice IS non-existence, this is the dilemma: the choice and the confusion of life.

    I am looking for the answer that breaks down this thinking and builds myself a new thought basis.

    What you're asking for cannot be done in the framework of secular culture and science. They'll just write you off as mentally ill, as an aberration. They certainly don't think you have some insight into the futility of life as it is usually lived.
  • Antinatalism Arguments
    Nonsense. Where do you get these ideas???
    — baker

    Of course it's nonsense, but haven't you noticed these sentiments?
    ssu

    Sure. But what are the metaphysical assumptions behind them?
  • Antinatalism Arguments
    By comparing it to a bad meal, not to no meal.
    — baker

    We've been created to go well without food for one day, actually. It's water that we need basically daily.
    ssu

    You're forgetting you're talking to a woman. I've been hungry almost as much as the average hungry African.

    Well, sort of. Assume if you had eaten for your entire life exceptionally great meals, basically always something of the level that one gets in Michelin star restaurants, with added detail to the healthiness of your diet.

    And for a good part of my life, I have eaten exceptionally good food, and I've grown proper organic food until recently.

    You wouldn't know how bad food actually people e

    I do know. It makes me want to puke.

    For an anecdote, I remember once on a Finnish Navy island garrison the commanding officer decided to remember the Winter War by having the conscripts exactly the same kind of food with the historical amount during winter that soldiers were given during WW2...at the same naval fortress. The records were they, so the kitchen had no trouble in recreating the WW2-era cuisine. Hence they got a small portion of porridge (without honey or sugar) and that's it. As the garrison was on a fortress island, the conscript didn't have the chance to order pizza or anything in the evening. The conscripts (who had been born in the 1980's) hadn't experienced cold and hunger. Many said that they respected differently the war veterans after that experience.

    The average peasant in the Dark Ages ate healthier food than most people do today.

    I'm absolutely sure that we wouldn't image just what people ate thousands of years ago.

    Certainly no pesticides and no GMOs. In the old times, food was much healthier, much more satiating because it had real taste.