Peer-review and exposure to criticism lets inferior ideas die by exposure. — hanaH
There is always the possibility that self-anointed spiritual masters don't compete. That self-anointed spiritual masters aren't known. — James Riley
Critical thinking takes more than being a critic. It takes analysis. Too many critics jump the gun. — James Riley
Damned! Sounds like the inquisition! Inferior ideas? What are these? — GraveItty
Harry M. Hoxsey had no medical training yet made millions hawking quack cancer “cures” to desperate patients for more than three decades, until FDA was able to help remove the products from the market in the 1950s. Hoxsey’s herb extract cancer treatment had no scientific basis, and while the legal case against Hoxsey unfolded, to help warn consumers, in 1957 FDA issued this poster and placed it in post offices around the country.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flat_EarthIn early Egyptian[8] and Mesopotamian thought, the world was portrayed as a disk floating in the ocean. A similar model is found in the Homeric account from the 8th century BC in which "Okeanos, the personified body of water surrounding the circular surface of the Earth, is the begetter of all life and possibly of all gods."[9]
https://www.avert.org/infographics/sex-virgin-will-not-cure-hivThere are some strange, dangerous and disturbing myths about HIV. Having sex with a virgin will not cure HIV, it will just put them at risk of the virus. There is no 'cure' for HIV, but taking your ART medicine every day will allow you to manage the virus and live a long and healthy life.
They wanna rob other people, with non-scientific ideas, from the very ideas that give meaning to their life. — GraveItty
Xenophanes still rules suppreme, so it looks. — GraveItty
Hi Wayfarer. Are you able to deconstruct for us "al-arif bi'lah"? Not to translate, but if possible to lay out what it means? — tim wood
I'm all for analysis. Let's count. Let's compare. Set up controlled experiment. Sift for correlations in data. Let's circumvent our cognitive biases, use our network nervous systems to learn about and improve those nervous systems with traditions of mutual criticism and education, etc. — hanaH
He came down from the hill stop and said “I have created cold fusion!” Everyone raised an eyebrow, and rightly so. Some of the stupid people said “Prove it, X!” to which X replied “There is no way in hell I can prove anything to you, my child... — James Riley
1. Both sides of this equation can be smug.
2. Science is not always willing to put in the work, replicate, and run the test. — James Riley
1. What is science afraid of? — James Riley
More on your theme, though, a desperate person might spend the dregs of their bank account on spiritual seminars when their problem could be solved by diet, exercise, and a puppy. — hanaH
Anyway, I tried to create a parable about scientists who pretended to intellectual curiosity, and not a desperate person. — James Riley
Yes. Some people attribute their own personal intuitions & instincts to a mysterious outside (extrinsic) source. When someone says he "trusts his gut", he's probably simply referring to the emotional heart rather than the rational head.What's in a preposition? The by makes all the difference. The wisdom and importance of little words, oft neglected by people who think they have big ideas, but don't. — tim wood
Imagine a person who tried various spiritual fads and classics in their 20s and found them all wanting. — hanaH
For me a scientific attitude is something like doing more with less, staying with the undeniable basics, working and thinking from there. Perhaps it's elitist in its way, like riding a bike with no hands. It annoys people who can't do it or just don't want to. — hanaH
Pardon my intrusion, but I googled it, and this is one explanation :Hi Wayfarer. Are you able to deconstruct for us "al-arif bi'lah"? — tim wood
Imagine a person who tried various spiritual fads and classics in their 20s and found them all wanting. — hanaH
When I was young I spent 15 years respectfully trying to understand revealed wisdom and higher consciousness, spending my time in the company of theosophists, self-described Gnostics, Buddhists, devotees of Ouspensky/Gurdjieff, Steiner, etc. What I tended to find was insecure people obsessed with status and hierarchy who had simply channeled their materialism into spirituality. — Tom Storm
There were the same fractured inter-personal relationships, jealousies, substance abuse and chasing after real estate and status symbols that characterise any secular person. I have since taken the view that the nature of human beings doesn't change, no matter what their professed metaphysics. — Tom Storm
It's also been my experience that many folks don't want to do that because they can't stand having themselves around. — James Riley
On the other hand, people who practice Zen or who read classical figures seriously, don't bother me at all. They seem to me to be respectable enough. It's when others (less talented) try to ram it down your throat that it becomes a problem. — Manuel
I maintain that Truth is a pathless land, and you cannot approach it by any path whatsoever, by any religion, by any sect. ... The moment you follow someone you cease to follow Truth.” — Krishnamurti
Truth cannot be brought down, rather the individual must make the effort to ascend to it. You cannot bring the mountain-top to the valley. If you would attain to the mountain-top you must pass through the valley, climb the steeps, unafraid of the dangerous precipices. — Krishnamurti
But I have noticed some of these folk do enjoy (if that's the correct verb) looking down on secular folk as unsophisticated yokels. That's what I would expect from the more strident atheist apologists for scientism. — Tom Storm
I maintain that Truth is a pathless land, and you cannot approach it by any path whatsoever, by any religion, by any sect. ... The moment you follow someone you cease to follow Truth.” — Tom Storm
It's not like it takes a lot of time or money to go off the reservation and up the river for a year or less. — James Riley
We live in a culture of the 'tyranny of the ordinary'. Not for nothing did Alan Watts call his last book 'The Taboo against Knowing who you Are'. — Wayfarer
Anxiety ridden, addicted to booze. Really he was a mess. — Tom Storm
We live in a culture of the 'tyranny of the ordinary'. Not for nothing did Alan Watts call his last book 'The Taboo against Knowing who you Are'. — Wayfarer
https://www.pewresearch.org/global/2020/07/20/the-global-god-divide/Across the 34 countries, which span six continents, a median of 45% say it is necessary to believe in God to be moral and have good values. But there are large regional variations in answers to this question.
What you are missing here, it seems to me, is the wild plurality of ways of going off reservation, and the wild plurality of error. There are far more wrong ways to do something than right ways. — hanaH
How did you find The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints? How was your experiment with Scientology? Did Jainism live up to your expectations? Have you done your "research" on the claims of Q?
Do you see my point? — hanaH
Look around and see the profusion of healers and gurus and visionaries now available without leaving your home. — hanaH
What I tended to find was insecure people obsessed with status and hierarchy who had simply channeled their materialism into spirituality. There were the same fractured inter-personal relationships, jealousies, substance abuse and chasing after real estate and status symbols that characterise any secular person. I have since taken the view that the nature of human beings doesn't change, no matter what their professed metaphysics. — Tom Storm
But that doesn't obviate the critique, although I don't know if I want to try and spell it out in detail right at the moment. — Wayfarer
https://academyofideas.com/2017/10/nietzsche-and-zarathustra-last-man-superman/The Last Man is the individual who specializes not in creation, but in consumption. In the midst of satiating base pleasures, he claims to have “discovered happiness” by virtue of the fact that he lives in the most technologically advanced and materially luxurious era in human history.
But this self-infatuation of the Last Man conceals an underlying resentment, and desire for revenge. On some level, the Last Man knows that despite his pleasures and comforts, he is empty and miserable. With no aspiration and no meaningful goals to pursue, he has nothing he can use to justify the pain and struggle needed to overcome himself and transform himself into something better. He is stagnant in his nest of comfort, and miserable because of it. This misery does not render him inactive, but on the contrary, it compels him to seek victims in the world. He cannot bear to see those who are flourishing and embodying higher values, and so he innocuously supports the complete de-individualization of every person in the name of equality.
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