Of course! Family is where we all come from, and we are approximately as screwed-up as they are. Good, bad, and indifferent genes have been biologically transmitted; good, bad, and indifferent ideas and practices have been socially transmitted.

True.

Santa Claus was good while he lasted, but the hope for some sort of imaginary gift-giver, some sort of sugar-daddy, lingers on.

Lol

being a free thinker can be hard with groups or cabals that keep out anyone that doesn't conform. It's easy to label independent thinkers as trouble makers or day dreamers. Find your own tribe and you will grow.

with liberty and justice for all!

I agree.

This is the Philosophy forum, not the Christian forum. If you can't answer the topic on this thread, move on.

The pretense of being free of what your children will suffer is the lie.

Well put.

I think what is commonly agreed on as wrong is when the question of 'What if that was done to me?' arises in our minds and we collectively cringe at the thought, based on our cultures and values. For example, wrongful incarceration. Or a teacher has a bias against a student and grades him poorly. Or someone's spouse is cheating on them. Now again, in certain cultures, the wrongfully incarcerated person maybe blamed for being at the wrong place at the wrong time. Or the student maybe blamed for not having a better rapport with their teacher. And finally, the spouse cheated on, maybe blamed for not doing enough for the relationship. A lot of it is cultural, religious and political and it comes down to what numbers you have on your side and a herd mentality.

yes, these are some of those universal ones.

I agree. There is a saying 'If you don't enjoy spending time by yourself, you're probably in bad company'.

that's 'tradition alright. Children are excited over fairytales, dragons, wizards and talking animals, in books or in cartoons. Tbh, some of the cartoons out there now can be terrifying :D

couldn't agree more. I've seen documentaries of him and family. His older brother left the business as he was apparently opposed to their ways. Ended up taking his life. Meditation helps. So does good company.

If attention is what he craves, that's exactly what we deny him. Poor sucker.

we also live in a country where people can't read. Where am I blaming my behavior on anyone? Take your flaming somewhere else. If you're bitter, see a therapist.

your mature response doesn't answer the question I put forth. To quote you, I hope everyone does grow up.

the point being made is it is a sadistic life to imagine everyone that's different from you will burn eternally while your group floats amongst angels. There is no evidence either will happen but it is sadistic to subscribe to such a thought.

Schadenfreude seems to be a projection of one's pain onto others, as in a way of normalizing one's own traumatic experiences. Impressions are powerful. Perhaps something only certain meditation practices can neutralize.

The easiest way to overcome prejudice is to work alongside the person and to realize he is not all that different from you. I'm from a conservative country and its when I moved to the US, that I realized, after working and socializing with different groups, that not every white woman is a porn star, not every black man is a thief, not every Asian is smart, not every Mexican mows lawns and not every Arab works with explosives. Having traveled the world a bit, Americans get a lot of slack for their government interfering in everyone's affairs. They are also considered to be loud and obnoxious, though I will agree with the loud part. If you remain in your cocoon of a town or village, you will give yourself every reason to distrust others and deny yourself the opportunity to mature and grow.

I agree. Not many are able to transcend thinking and become one with the object. I'm able to do this when I'm looking at a picture and trying to draw an exact copy. When I feel every line and every shade, it comes out pretty close. I feel this sometimes with people and places too.

Thinking isn't overrated. Content of your thoughts determines whether you're ability to think is overrated or not.

I like how you made the distinction between romance and love. It defines why some of my relationships didn't work out since I believed it to be the latter.

your question pertains to whether consciousness exists before birth. I don't see how you want to use memory as a basis for it. There are many things we don't remember, does that mean our consciousness wasn't available to us at the time? There were times we were completely in the moment but whose details we cannot recollect years later. I don't think that's consciousness to blame but memory itself. So when consciousness kicks in may have nothing to do with memory, as that is a function of the brain and its development in the womb. Just because the first memory was created in, say month 7, that doesn't mean that's exactly when consciousness entered the baby. The very fact that the baby turns or kicks, is proof of consciousness.

I have a 3 month old pup. She responds to her name when called. The tone I use when calling her tells her if I want to play, I'm angry or I'm just trying to get her attention. Body language too plays a part. If I'm standing up and I ask her to get in her cage, she does so immediately. If I'm sitting down and I ask her to, she doesn't heed to my commands since she recognizes I won't be able to get to her quick enough to put her in. Those working closely with animals have figured out what different sounds and body language indicate. Especially when it comes to birds. Learning any 'language' takes time and interest. And even if you don't understand it, you know if somebody is being polite to you or is put off by you.

A world without time is possible. What if you were a special microbe living on an asteroid that was floating aimlessly through space? What cyclical cosmic event could you use as a reference to define a day, an hour or a minute? You'd still go about your business I presume and time would be an abstract concept.

Best way to understand this is if you watch documentaries on monkeys and if you believe we have evolved from them. Monkey clans don't typically fight other species but they are ruthless with rival groups. All for territorial, food and mating rights. We see differences in each other, be it skin color, language, cultural practices and worst of all ideas, as a threat to our own being. But if we share a hobby with someone from a denomination we don't like, we make an exception, saying my buddy X though, he is alright. Find common ground, do things together, break bread together and everyone will be 'alright'.

I agree with what he says. It's an Eastern thought, that when a person realizes The Truth, he feels neither joy nor sorrow, neither warmth nor cold, neither pleasure nor pain. In simpler words, he is no longer a slave to the chemical fluctuations in the brain that would otherwise drive a person to greed, lust, hate or sorrow. Or drive him on an eternal search for happiness or love. These fluctuations cease within him since he now has an understanding of who he is and how cosmic interplay has brought him here. He is on the Middle Path, just as The Buddha was. The people who find out their actions are determined by chemical imbalances and the need to satiate it, but haven't found The Truth, end up as depressives. They feel life is meaningless because they are stuck with a lesser truth (our physiology) but haven't realized the Highest Truth yet.

To tie this back to the topic of this thread, maybe it's important for politicians to appear right, so they have something to toot their horn about in the next election campaign. These days, media houses make no bones about whom they side with and what their agenda is and will happily endorse said politician.