I admit the story is as far-fetched as it is incomprehensible. — Fire Ologist
On a personal level a theistic me is a stronger & healthier me. — BitconnectCarlos
My theism is intuitive and derived from the Bible and life events. — BitconnectCarlos
the bible is the greatest work of literature ever written. — BitconnectCarlos
And you don't need Jesus to be a theist. — BitconnectCarlos
If God intervened more, than what good would my friendship with him be? What good would our friendship with each other be, if we were not free to seek our own minds, our own wills and share our own hearts with each other. God wants us to be us, so he doesn’t intervene; but God wants us to be friends with him and each other, so he shows us what friends do, how friends talk to one another, how to love not matter what the cross. — Fire Ologist
Or why was it God himself becoming a man, living poor and being killed, so that he could rise again? Why is the incarnation leading to poverty and bloody death needed?
And if God was here, walking the earth to found a church, why did he not write one word down, not one written word by Jesus, to found a 2000 plus year old institution? — Fire Ologist
First, if the world is simulated, why don't its 'designers' simply 'pop out' at times and leave us with some trace of their existence? — jasonm
Similarly, why don't we sometimes notice violations of the laws of physics? — jasonm
Third: what type of computing power would be required to 'house' this virtual universe? — jasonm
...insofar as a deity is described without any predicates which entail this deity has caused changes (events) in the world, then there are not any purported facts of the matter to investigate, and such a deity is ontologically indistinguishable from an idea or fiction. — 180 Proof
I think I probably read and write more with the arrival of the internet because there's just more information out there to digest. — Hanover
But I've always been drawn to cosmic philosophies, which are somewhat religious in nature. Not necessarily theistic, and in the sense of a cosmic-director God not at all, but something nearer the convergence of dharma and logos - that by discovering and being true to your purpose, you are doing your part in the grand scheme. — Wayfarer
And the atheists think the theists are being unreasonable, but it's really the other way around because the atheists are denying themselves the capacity to understand, and that is being unreasonable. — Metaphysician Undercover
Quite simply, God is the source of purpose. — Metaphysician Undercover
So I invite you to think again. — tim wood
Have you ever had any moment of the kind of perfection, that you recognized as such, in which you knew there was no how or why or what for beyond it? — tim wood
So, in the context of pre-modern philosophy, it was simply assumed that everything exists for a reason, and that this reason is discernable by nous, intellect. — Wayfarer
Whereas the naturalist account comprises trying to discern only a material causal sequence, leaving out the broader sense of reason as the ancients understood it. — Wayfarer
... do you suppose that there might be something primordial, in the sense of an idea and not necessarily temporally, on which purpose is founded and out of which it arises. — tim wood
Atheists don’t need “beliefs” in the religious sense. Scientifically, there is no evidence for God (unless you believed eyewitness accounts of miraculous physical events maybe). Without evidence, there is nothing to examine, so nothing to conclude. Therefore, it is illogical to conclude there is no God. — Fire Ologist
The questions here are, then, what is purpose (in itself), where does it come from, what is its ground? Or, what exactly gives it all meaning, makes it all worthwhile? — tim wood
Some countries where rote learning has historically been more prevalent include:
China: Traditional Chinese education has often emphasized rote memorization, especially in subjects like mathematics and language.
India: Rote learning has been a significant part of the education system in India, particularly in subjects like mathematics and science.
Japan: Japanese education has traditionally valued memorization and repetition, although recent reforms have aimed to encourage more critical thinking and creativity.
South Korea: Rote learning has been a common method in South Korean education, particularly for preparing for standardized tests.
Singapore: Singapore's education system has historically placed a strong emphasis on rote learning, although there have been efforts in recent years to promote more holistic learning approaches.
Some Middle Eastern countries: In some Middle Eastern countries, rote learning has been prevalent, particularly in religious education and language studies.
This is somewhat a strawman commentary on a point I never actually made. — Benj96
Pray tell, what is your opinion on the state of global education. — Benj96
But in my nation as with my neighbouring one, the concensus is that rote learning is alive and well in many "big players" of the west. — Benj96
A concerted engagement with the texts is needed if one is to decide for oneself. — Paine
Moreover, it's not so clear what "propaganda" is, either. But we would not want to make this a discussion about the use of "words..." — Banno
Keep in mind that the folk hereabouts are not philosophers. — Banno
Not so sure philosopher and critical thinker are one and the same. — jgill
Pray tell, what is your opinion on the state of global education. For me, the critical thinker is resilient to rhetoric and propaganda, the fact learner is however....not. — Benj96
Too many education systems rely heavily on "fact-spouting" and "rote learning" over "debate/discussion/discourse". — Benj96
So far, I don't see reason to think so. I think you were just really fortunate not to have had your spirit crushed early on. From what you've said so far, I surmise you can't take credit for being a happy nihilist.
Not to focus on you in particular, but we could use you as a case study in how happy nihilists come about. — baker
Those who can't do this probably have some survival deficits.
— Tom Storm
Braggart. — baker
Only if one ties the value of those day to day events with some overarching or absolutist meaning of life, and rejects such an absolute, is one a nihilist about concrete experience. — Joshs
It was more of a "do they practice what they preach" thought than an actual question. — Sir2u
The bible is a collection of life guides that was collected from many ancient cultures. — Sir2u
...his insistence on the "solidarity" of our existence, yet not really having this solidarity evidenced in his basic philosophy; just the opposite: truth is made not discovered, he writes in Irony, Contingency and Solidarity. From whence comes this allegiance to reason given that reason itself, as Hume said long ago, has no ethical content, no content at all. Reason as such would just as soon wipe out all humanity without flinching. — Astrophel
It is incredibly easy to control people when you have them afraid. — Scarecow
What always amazes me is the fact that despite so many people writing articles and even books about this topic, there are literally hundreds of them online, so many people live unhappy lives. — Sir2u
I would really like to see some statistics about the writes of these ideas to see if they have achieved what they preach using the ideas they tell others to use. — Sir2u
It is incredibly easy to control people when you have them afraid. Under the rule of Enver Hoxha, citizens were not only afraid of the government, but also of the outside world. — Scarecow
It seems the best of philosophers have something in common, which is that they saw philosophy as bringing us to that more aesthetic/holistic understanding of reality. Perhaps philosophy (similar to religion), is cosplay fantasy, to give reality a more interesting sense to it, and nothing more than this sensibility. What is this impulse in philosophy for an aesthetic view? What does it matter if the aesthetic view exists? Why are some people drawn to it and some not? — schopenhauer1
It is interesting to think about the way in which ideas of religion may hinder ideas of morality and ethics — Jack Cummins
As for nihilists "jumping out of bed glad to be alive" I think it is difficult to maintain the joy. I used to associate with a particular group of socialists who were something like the Russian nihilists. They had reached the point where they approved of NOTHING in capitalist society. They were not good socialists, they were bitter old men.
A problem with the term nihilist is that it is absolute and without nuance. It's like "anarchist" in that way -- when used by adolescents it has an extreme, unmodified meaning.
Whether nihilism is a good term or not, carry on with your program of joy. — BC
Nihilism (pronounced: /ˈnaɪ.ɨlɪzəm/ or /ˈniː.ɨlɪzəm/; from the Latin nihil, nothing) refers to sets of beliefs which negate one or more apparently meaningful aspects of Reality. Some are forms of existential nihilism, which argue that life is without objective meaning, purpose, or intrinsic value. Moral nihilists assert that morality does not inherently exist, and that any established moral values are abstractly contrived.
As for nihilists "jumping out of bed glad to be alive" I think it is difficult to maintain the joy. — BC