Looks like you regard utility as the only justification for anything, religion included. I’m sure there must be some religious who feel the same way but I don’t think most would and speaking only for me, neither do all irreligious.
That is why I coined "whateverist". It isn't about being flippant. It is just knowing my faith is in the something greater I intuit - whatever that may turn out to be. My disposition is introversion so I've always gravitated toward contemplative and creative activities. I'm sure traditional...
So do I for the same reason. Not an ongoing thing and I neither need nor expect to do so again. But it is enough to know there is more depth to experience than just our immediate sense perception and cognitive associations. If you know, you know you don't need to know more. Life isn't a test...
Yes, but I think it just depends on people's vulnerabilities. Vaccines can smooth the way with new variants in the same way the annual flu shot can. Don't think I'd like to catch and hatch my own antibodies every time. I'm still a Covid virgin because my wife has Pure Autonomic Failure which...
Surprising this thread is still needed but I appreciate you for standing up for science and common sense.
I don't believe I've responded to it but if I had it would have been to note we also suppress free speech in the event of a theatre burning. When public health officials declare a...
Got to say I have no place for a revealed word as though whatever God may be can and does send prose to people to transcribe for Him. I tend to understand that differently both in the Urania book and the Bible. I think everyone to some degree can occasionally tap into the something more which...
Can you tell me a little about it? New to me.
Edited to add I read everything Amazon had linked about it. It strikes me as an effort to place Christianity in the widest context possible with a huge back story. Not being a Christian myself I probably won’t be going there. But I can see the...
Fair warning: it is brutally long and if you're as thick as I am you'll not only have to read it slowly but frequently reread parts. If you end up giving it a go please let me know how you like it and I'm always happy to discuss whatever strikes your fancy if you do.
His first book The Master...
But what if what is held as sacred no kind of thing? If God as the ground of being is the answer to the question why anything at all exists, then whatever God is is not on the plane of things which exists. It is prior.
I agree with you though I suspect our conception of God varies, as it almost must. Probably, correctly understood, existence is beneath God. I see you aspire to be a scholar so I wonder if Iain McGIlchrist has made it into your bookcase? I've been rereading the last two chapters of his book...
You’re still a step above me. I’m just a guy enjoying their canned music.
I worked my way through a few pages here to see if this one was already posted but didn’t see it. Musically it leaves something to be desired but I still like it.
And certainly beyond the powers of language. Last night I reread these words:
And the word God is obfuscated and overlaid with so many unhelpful accretions in the West that it is not surprising that people recoil from this idol. It's not just that, obviously, God is not some old man sitting...
It matters to me but I don’t think it is a matter of correctly answering a multiple choice test. No set of answer choices would be adequate. The point is life and the cosmos gives rise to everything - our selves, music and art as well as rocks, critters and trees. The odds of all that just...
I'd like the democrats to actively claim the title of the Conservative Party, looking to conserve the constitution, democracy, the peaceful transfer of power and separation of church and state. To that end, if women weren't such a challenge to the status quo I'd like to see Liz Cheney run as VP...
You seem to be seething with must. I don't think your assumption is justified from any rational, in touch perspective but your assumptions are up to you even if making us all die in agony is not.
I have no gods. I have a sense of what God refers to and it is no thing.
What you mistake as circular language is simply a different understanding of what language is about. I don’t think words are reality but only ways to present something about what reality one has experienced.
No choice need be made by anyone for life to end. It is the inevitable conclusion of all mortal beings. Self aware, sentient beings see the writing on the wall and are able to acquiesce to death as the lesser of two bad choices in unfortunate circumstances. It isn’t irrational or immoral.