"The game of life" refers to a cellular automaton created by John Horton Conway. Since you are obviously not talking about the cellular automation, nobody really knows what you are talking about.Who here thinks that if they question the "game of life" — schopenhauer1
Okay, even if you succeed in demonstrating that having kids is bad and unjust (in a philosophical sense), I can accept that. But that alone isn't sufficient to convince me not to have kids. Having kids is not nearly the worst thing I can do.Oh Wheatgrass, no no. You can have an unjust situation and have someone enjoy their life. Precisely why my argument is more than the simplicity you deem it as. It is hard for some people to wrap their heads around an unjust situation that people can still feel happy subjective states. Someone who feels joy despite X activity that's Y (bad/unjust) doesn't mean that X activity is a good state of affairs. — schopenhauer1
That's part of life. I accept the suffering that comes with life.
— Wheatley
See my points about happy slave earlier in the thread. — schopenhauer1
But if he is happy the whole argument breaks apart because antinatalism presumes the unhappy misery of your offsprings. You accomplished nothing with your "happy slave".An oxymoronic fiction like e.g. "noble savage", "p-zombie", "rational actor", "utility maximizer" which I call the "Old Plantation fallacy" (or White Man's Burden fallacy). Specious nonsense, schop1. :shade:
— 180 Proof
So in my case, not to be taken literally. Rather, it is to illustrate a situation where an individual is happy despite being put in an unjust situation. — schopenhauer1
I don't doubt that you have valuable things to say.A lot of things get overlooked when you do that. — schopenhauer1
It's good enough for me. :cool:So just borrow another poster's response? Weak.. — schopenhauer1
An oxymoronic fiction like e.g. "noble savage", "p-zombie", "rational actor", "utility maximizer" which I call the "Old Plantation fallacy" (or White Man's Burden fallacy). Specious nonsense, schop1. :shade: — 180 Proof
^^^See my points about happy slave earlier in the thread. — schopenhauer1
That's part of life. I accept the suffering that comes with life.cannot be opted out without dire consequences (death, starvation, free-riding, dying in the wilderness, homelessness etc.). — schopenhauer1
It is your moral stance which does not affect me at all.Simply a moral stance not a political policy. — schopenhauer1
It is a complex issue.Now who is making it complicated :wink:. — schopenhauer1
Now all you have to do is pass a law forbidding the public from having children. Good luck!To prevent injustice taking place, yes. — schopenhauer1
Is this a moral imperative?."Do not have kids" — schopenhauer1
This is simply an oversimplification of the human condition.person cannot escape the work-game without dire consequences (death, starvation, etc.). — schopenhauer1
What circumstances precisely? It is very hard to understand what your talking about unless you're a professional philosopher (and many of us aren't). All I see here is wild and vague abstraction, philosopher talk, with no relevance to our sex lives, and how we choose to raise a family.Do not put people in these circumstances in the first place. Why is that so hard? Can a human prevent this for someone else? — schopenhauer1
Another ridiculously abstract philosphical concept...unjust — schopenhauer1
From my position right now (because I have no access to powerful people or institutions), antinatalism (as you formulated it) can be categorized fairly as a psudo-problem because like @NOS4A2 saidUnfortunately differing policies or systems don't get rid of the underlying problem itself. — schopenhauer1
You’re preventing no suffering and no injustice. — NOS4A2
It was never my intention to cooperate with you. You've dug yourself into antinatalism, I know that. All I'm am doing is commenting.What did you expect the answer to be? — schopenhauer1
:gasp:you're full of shit if you don't know that I'm going to say — schopenhauer1
What do you expect from him? To fix society? :lol:You’re preventing no suffering and no injustice. Your behavior effects no one but yourself, so as far as ethics go, it’s all self-concerned and self-congratulatory. — NOS4A2
But I don't. Who are these masters who place me into economic systems?Not putting anyone into the economic system in the first place. You should know my answer by now... — schopenhauer1
But what's the alternative? Is the government to serve all our needs? I would love to experience a technocratic utopia where robots and artificial intelligence take care of humans.However entering the economic system itself was a forced game. — schopenhauer1
And if they don't "pick themselves up"? What is the solution? Lock them up? Do you know that the United States has the highest prison population the world? Do we really want to start a crusade locking people up?But this does not excuse Sandifer’s, and many other black boy’s and men’s, murderers; there is a reason we try to keep the courts almost totally colorblind; it is within the power of people of color who live in crime-ridden areas to pick themselves up and make something better for themselves than rampant violence. In fact, they are the only ones who can do it. This might be a greater expectation than we have for privileged white men who leverage their free speech to harm minorities - but I think it is reasonable. — ToothyMaw
I see religion as cover for a lot of human nastiness. Hate groups, ant-gay, anti-Semitic, bloodthirsty people(kill the infidel and the atheist!), often use the bible as a guide to their moral systems etc.. Who needs ethics when you can just follow the bible? There's still animosity between the Christian west and Islam (apparently we still never got over the crusader spirit!) The Iraq war (killing brown Muslims). Not to mention, indoctrinating kids with the bible promotes irrational thinking (I'm thinking about conservative Christians) such as gullible anti intellectualism. There's also the glorification of sin, which indices some Christians into doing horrible acts.You seem to think of religion as an irresistible steam roller. True, there are some folk who would like to run the steam roller over their enemies. They tend to be fundamentalists (in whatever faith tradition they are in). Think conservative Baptists or the Taliban. — Bitter Crank
An we are not even supposed to scrutinize nor criticize religion. Yet religion has been given a free pass here in America (and other places around the world).And many others are also plotting to promote their various views. Good on some, a plague on others. — Bitter Crank
While others serve no purpose and are even pernicious.This is an old issue, but mythologies serve many functions, some o them quite useful. — Bitter Crank
An atheist can also be more effective at helping humanity by adopting secular ethics and values rather than bronze age myths.An atheist can be as or even more concerned about the future of humanity as a theist. Focusing on the here and now can also be the interest of the theist. — Hanover
That's interesting. I bet there are christians now plotting to keep Christianity as the dominant belief.No matter what people believe, or do not believe, people tend to conform, and promote conformity to whatever is the dominant scheme of belief. — Bitter Crank
All of which (IMO) promote and pressure conformity to certain (particularly monotheistic) religious values and traditions.I think your observation is correct, more or less. The term "spirit" and "spiritual" are sufficiently vague that they could just as well be replaced by identity, individuality, or personhood. — Bitter Crank
Is that a fact?What some old ones called "soul" is nowadays subsumed under "identity", "individuality" -- and highly valued. — baker
:lol:No need to rob us all of our humanity and drive with this myopic pseudo-intellectual resignation to explore and dream that is atheism. — Outlander
That's a physical definition of life. I'm not talking about that.The word "life" means many things. Do you have a heartbeat? You're alive by one metric. — Derrick Huestis
That's an insult. Not talking about that."Get a life" is a saying directed towards people who aren't alive by a separate metric. — Derrick Huestis
Is that a Christian teaching?When a soul is "alive" it follows morality, when it is "dead" it does not. — Derrick Huestis
Those are just greetings. Not talking about that.What do you do for a living? How's life? Are you lively? — Derrick Huestis
And it is my judgement that they could be different things.Talking about life and talking about the soul may not be different at all if you don't specify how to use the word "life." — Derrick Huestis
I don't think so either. Sorry, Marx.don't think the revolution of the proletariat, if it were possible, would be a very good candidate. — T Clark
Democratic governments are created by and for the people. Yet we still talk about how the government (as an entity) treats its people. Business are like governments because they both act like an entity with goals different than individual people. Of course people contribute to these systems, but to call these entities "people" is a bit of a stretch.Created by and for persons. — Outlander
But they are not people.business by definition is an endeavor by people. — Outlander
Exactly! You end up with tons of miserable people at entry level jobs.Happiness of staff only starts to matter when you go further up the hierarchy. — Tom Storm
I was focusing more on businesses and how they relate to 'people'. But your raise an interesting point about our biological needs and resources. We do have limited resources, and dividing it 'fairly' among people is neither feasible nor desirable.There are more people then resources. You either beat each other to death or work together and treat others as equals to address these needs. — Outlander