Calling the objective reality "God" is unpopular today, — Brendan Golledge
I have written several posts on several forums in the last several months, and typically I got very few replies — Brendan Golledge
This cult is dead — Brendan Golledge
One context might have been God merely as the ordering principles of nature (the laws of nature) — Brendan Golledge
It also teaches that truth is higher than any human social organization on Earth (apart from churches, which typically have some claim to infallibility), which is the ultimate nullification of any other cult. It also teaches that while on Earth, we are to love our neighbors as ourselves, which runs directly counter to our cult instinct to attack and kill the stranger and take what is his. It is my belief that the Christian cult was a prerequisite for the scientific method to occur, because it asserted objective truth beyond any Earthly authority. The teachings of loving one's neighbor as one's self were probably also the prerequisite to equality under the law and individual liberty. What has been more typical in other times and places was that a person's true value was not different than his perceived social value. — Brendan Golledge
But whatever you are feeling about the situation, the feelings drive the thoughts. — Brendan Golledge
However, when it comes to anything new, for which no known social consensus exists, they show themselves to be very stupid. — Brendan Golledge
I was disappointed to find that most of the replies did not even attempt to address the content of what I said, but replied superficially to some tertiary thing. — Brendan Golledge
I have written several posts on several forums in the last several months, and typically I got very few replies (I suppose I didn't use any buzzwords that lit up people's social brains), or else I reliably got +3/4 of the replies only in response to a particular buzzword, like "God", and the topic I wanted to discuss was left mostly unaddressed. — Brendan Golledge
You begin with "On the Values Necessary for Thought" and end with 3 paragraphs on "Fear of the Lord is the Beginning of Wisdom." And you raise many issues in between. I do not wish to discuss all the issues raised and I do not know which of the many issues raised is the one you wish most to discuss. — Arne
Remember that you are a nobody online. You are part of "the stupid people" that most everyone thinks everyone else is. :) — Philosophim
For my part, I'm with Dewey in believing that we only think when confronted by problems or situations we wish to resolve. What we consider problems or wish resolved will be determined by what we value in many cases, obviously. — Ciceronianus
You begin with "On the Values Necessary for Thought" and end with 3 paragraphs on "Fear of the Lord is the Beginning of Wisdom." And you raise many issues in between. I do not wish to discuss all the issues raised and I do not know which of the many issues raised is the one you wish most to discuss. — Arne
Ask yourself this: Are you willing to think about a logically viable world where a God does not exist? Or are you more concerned with getting other people to think of a logically viable world where a God must exist? — Philosophim
. This is the main point of this post.They're not curious as to whether there really is a God, they just want to preserve the emotional comfort and benefit their worldview gives them. — Philosophim
. I agree with this criticism. But I do genuinely believe that humans are hardwired to live in cults. This is most of our social organization. This belief makes everything easier to understand. Of course, some cults are more extreme in their detachment from reality than others.Second, try to keep your topic focused. The values of necessary thought started with complaints about other people not reading or thinking about your topic, accusations that we're all cultists, and then a reference to fear of God. It's a bit all over the place right? And as you can tell from the replies that you got, people are going to take one or two salient points and address those. — Philosophim
But I do genuinely believe that humans are hardwired to live in cults. This is most of our social organization. — Brendan Golledge
These are things that people actually experience and associate with God — Brendan Golledge
So they see an argument like this, and reply as if I were asserting that God were a magic man in the sky who tangibly answers prayers. — Brendan Golledge
If I were speaking from a Hindu context, I probably would have talked about cows. — Brendan Golledge
I meant that a lot of people choose not to use what intelligence they have, because they just don't care about the truth — Brendan Golledge
What I consider to be most stupid is when people are completely off-topic, or when I am not able to figure out a coherent argument from what they have written. Maybe pointing out the behavior that I didn't like made people self-conscious and not post those things. — Brendan Golledge
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