I have been meaning to start going back to church where group singing is acceptable even with a poor singing voice. Thanks for the advice.

I’ve dealt with trauma and probably have my own defense mechanisms. My mother was under a lot of stress while pregnant with me due to my father’s alcoholism and infidelity. Her cortisol levels during pregnancy certainly predisposed me to feeling that the world was unsafe. I dealt with verbal, emotional, and sexual abuse as a child. It’s been difficult to get over, but I have finally found my peace, I think.

Schizoaffective disorder is somewhat manageable on high doses of medication, but the negative symptoms are still very much present. I find it much easier and I feel much more open with people who have been broken as well. However, I am very lucky to be married to someone with a master’s degree in counseling who understands trauma and mental illness. I would be lost without her.

I don’t have any advice, but I hope you see from the responses in this thread that you are not alone. I think reading all of your stories has been therapeutic for me and hope it has been for you, too.

Okay. I just don’t appreciate that word because it’s often used to denote the feminine qualities in a disparaging way. I agree that fear is not the right way to live. I struggle with being a pussy at times, as fear can take ahold of me, but I must remember that fear is ungodly and keeps me from doing good deeds.

Thank you for the clarification.

Thank you for your insightful thoughts. I feel regret for some of my recent behavior, but I choose not to dwell on it, instead choosing to forgive myself for stumbling and choosing to move forward, hoping to keep my focus on God’s Presence and doing better in the future.

Thank you all for your responses. I am agnostic on the topic question but would like to hear more from others.

This is an interesting and worthwhile conversation. I can’t wait to see where it goes.

Thank you again, but I’m afraid there is nothing you can do.

Thank you for the kind sentiment, but I don’t feel safe anywhere.

Just putting it out there that if you received PM’s with rumors about me, now you know why.

I stated, “I believe”, not issuing it as “fact”. I believe tough guys in general have latent homo/bisexual ideations/tendencies. This is the lounge. I don’t have to cite data.

The police officers who are stalking me (several of them) tried to solicit me for sex, offering me $500 to join them at a motel. They are all married to women. I suspect this is common in their profession.

Just to be clear, I am pro LGBTQ rights. It’s the tough guys who have a problem with their own sexuality.

Don’t get me wrong, I think antinatalism is dumb, but I think people who try to act tough by calling others “pussies” are repressing their homosexuality. — Noah Te Stroete

I shouldn’t have called antinatalism “dumb”. I disagree with it and think it’s irrational. I apologize.

Don’t get me wrong, I think antinatalism is dumb, but I think people who try to act tough by calling others “pussies” are repressing their homosexuality.

Your humility never ceases to impress me. Thank you for all of your high quality discussions.

I try to turn the other cheek when confronted with non-physical attacks. That’s how I would want to be treated when I screw up and act uncivilly socially. So for me it is a combination of the Golden Rule and deontology.

For me it is the Golden Rule, but when it comes to self-defense I go with a deontological approach. I can’t rationally will a universal law where people should turn the other cheek when children (or oneself for that matter) are physically attacked.

I don’t believe you are stumped as to what to do if someone was attacking your kids. I have no doubt you would defend them. The question, rather, is what is the overarching principle that should direct our actions?

Fair enough.

Maybe. I still don’t know.

Well, I quit smoking by starting vaping. I understand that the second-hand vapor is harmless, but it would be best if I didn’t need nicotine at all. There are other attributes I would like to have, though. They seem more difficult. Vaping made giving up cigarettes easy. I can’t stand the smell of cigarette smoke now. Being more active is difficult being on antipsychotics, mood stabilizers, and antidepressants.

I have an ideal in mind, but I doubt it reflects many others’ ideals.

How does one who wants a better character but who feels stuck in place go about getting one?

But there also are cases where we hold that, although external circumstances account causally for the agent having made a bad choice, this influence on her action isn't best construed as a factor that severely diminished the agent's ability to do the right thing but rather is better construed as having provided an occasion for the agent to display a character flaw for which she remains responsible. — Pierre-Normand

So we are responsible for our character? What is character? I know the traditional sense, but what does it mean philosophically?

I would agree to this.

What is GD symbology?
— Noah Te Stroete

Grateful Dead — schopenhauer1

Okay. I thought it might be Gangster Disciples! Lol

Some people have children by accident. Some people can’t have children. Some people plan children. Some people don’t want children. I don’t think a suffering calculus goes on in the heads of people before engaging in sex. Then there are those who can’t get a sexual partner.

Brain waves are electrical voltage variations detected on the scalp. They result from the collective firing of neurons, which is an electrochemical process. As all electromagnetic field changes are associated with photons, so are brain waves, but their frequency is so low they have virtually no energy. — Dfpolis

Thanks. I always wondered how to explain them.

What I cited were meta-analyses of hundreds of experiments. Meta-analysis is a technique developed in physics to refine the accuracy of physical constants. It involves both reviewing experiments' methodology and the statistical aggregation of the results of many similar experiments. Given that the effects here are small, any single experiment can show no effect or or a negative effect due to random fluctuations. That is why it is important to aggregate the results of many experiments.

A possible source of error in meta-analyses is the so-called "file drawer effect." It happens when researchers looking for, say, a positive effect, find no effect or a negative effect and decide to file their work away rather than publish it. The meta-studies I cited considered possible file drawer studies and found that the number required to reduce the results to insignificance was unreasonably high -- many times the number published. So, it seems that the result is well confirmed. — Dfpolis

Very interesting. Are brain waves emitted photons?

My question purely out of curiosity to you is: Do you feel like YOU have the right beliefs that others lack, or are you unsure of your own beliefs?

That’s a fine point. I didn’t have you in mind, by the way.

Furthermore, I was talking about evangelical atheism. Shouldn’t they just not participate in “theological” threads instead of trying to convert people? Isn’t that their main complaint about religions?

I don’t have a complaint about atheists. A lot of atheists complain about religion, though.

Does atheistic evangelism count as religion?

That is good advice. I just have a problem with motivation. I often feel stuck in place, and my will power is weak. Do you have any advice on strengthening the will? (I’m not talking about free will.)

That’s somewhat persuasive, but I just don’t know if I’d have the stomach for it regardless of the moral argument. However, starvation is a strong motivator.

This is precisely why Calvinists don’t believe in free will.

The castaway case is relevant. I’m not sure where I fall on this one. I don’t know if I could kill someone even if I were starving. However, I’ve never been in that situation, and God willing, I hope I never will.

I seriously doubt Herg is religious given what I’ve read from him.

I find these Utilitarian thought experiments often strange. Can you give an example where killing one innocent person to save 100 would occur?