Sunstone Naked! An Interview of Underwhelming Proportions

[methylatedghosts]

As an RF fossil, you have seen a lot of change on the website. How do you feel that posts and topics on the forums have changed since you joined? Are there times when you feel "I wish this place was like it used to be"?

 

[Sunstone]

What was your favorite subject in school?

I couldn't get enough of about a half dozen subjects, and even spent an extra year delaying my graduation in order to take additional courses. Those subjects were Philosophy, Comparative Religious Studies, Anthropology, Biology, Psychology, and Political Science.

Have you had aspirations of travelling in the future? If so, where would you like to go?

I've never had much taste for traveling. I like to read about other places and climes, but the hassle of actual travel kind of puts me off. I used to say I had found "the poor man's way of traveling" -- that is, marrying women from different countries. My first wife was Czech. My second wife was Japanese.

Are you double jointed anywhere on your body?

Nope. My sense of humor is the most flexible thing about me.

Can you do origami? Or have you ever done origami?

I suck at it. But my second wife, Tomoko, used to make origami figures for me. I'd stick them in my brief case for good luck and to remind me of her while I was at work.

 

[Sunstone]

As an RF fossil, you have seen a lot of change on the website. How do you feel that posts and topics on the forums have changed since you joined? Are there times when you feel "I wish this place was like it used to be"?

The Forum was originally dominated by Christians and Atheists. It was about a year or two before a few Muslims caught onto it. Peace, for instance, was one of the first people on the Forum who was neither a Christian nor an Atheist, but a Muslim. Then, I seem to recall, we began to get Hindus and people of other religious beliefs as well. So the threads at first were all about Christianity -- which most still are, but not to the same extent as in the beginning.

Another big change was in the level of interaction between members. Originally, we pretty much only interacted by discussing topics in religion. Then Feathers-in-her-hair showed up. She was a bit of catalyst for changing the Forum from a site that exclusively dealt with religion, to a site that was more open to social interaction on various levels.

There were no joke threads at first. The Forum was strictly "business" -- that is, religion. I forget who started the first joke threads. It could even have been me. But they came about after Feathers showed up.

After those developments, we started a political sub-forum. There was considerable resistance to the sub-forum at first among the Staff, but those who wanted one got their way in the end.

One of the best Admins the Forum ever had, Amy (Green Gaia) oversaw most of the changes from a forum devoted exclusively to religion, to a more social forum with a variety of topics.

One thing that seems to have stayed constant is the predominant age of the members. At least it seems to me that this Forum has always attracted many more young people than it has older people. I think that might explain, to some extent, why the topics never seem to change. In many ways, young people prefer certain topics and certain approaches to them -- topics and approaches that might not be as popular with older folks.

So far as I can see, those have been the major changes.

 

[BSM1]

I know I'm new here, but have you seen any of my other socks?

 

[Sunstone]

I know I'm new here, but have you seen any of my other socks?

Your other sock puppets? Not that I recall --- but then, I don't usually pay attention to such things.

 

[4consideration]

Do you still enjoy singing show tunes while skipping through fields of wild flowers?

 

[Sunstone]

Do you still enjoy singing show tunes while skipping through fields of wild flowers?

Of course. And in winter, I dance in the streets beneath the moon whenever it snows.

 

[4consideration]

Do you still idolize me? If so, in what way?

 

[Sunstone]

Do you still idolize me? If so, in what way?

How could I have missed this question the first time around? Of course I still idolize you! The very core of my being is to idolize you. I live, I breathe, but to idolize you. You are to me the eternal feminine. The mystery of mysteries. The being who surpasses understanding. And a possible source of long term no interest loans.

 

[dyanaprajna2011]

With this being a religious forum, I have to ask: it's been hard to pinpoint exactly what your views of religion are, and your beliefs, if you have any. Do you have any religious beliefs, and have they changed over the years that you have been here?

 

[Sunstone]

With this being a religious forum, I have to ask: it's been hard to pinpoint exactly what your views of religion are, and your beliefs, if you have any. Do you have any religious beliefs, and have they changed over the years that you have been here?

Thank you for your questions! I have all sorts of religious beliefs --- too numerous to catalog all of them here. So, I'll just focus on the question of deity.

First, I think there's a negligible chance of deity, just as there's a negligible chance the tree in my yard has an undetectable soul.

Second, I think the notion of deity most often arises from a combination of how our brain functions and from our social environment (what we've been taught about deity).

In regards to how our brain functions, it seems that we have certain built in ways of perceiving or experiencing the world that incline us towards the belief there are supernatural entities, including gods. For instance, agent detection, a respect for elders, causal reasoning, and so forth, all seem to now and then incline us towards assuming the presence of supernatural entities.

Other ways in which our brain functions that seem capable of encouraging a belief in deity are certain mystical experiences. Specifically, those mystical experiences that involve a sudden loss of subject/object perception while experiencing yet continues in some sense. When those experiences occur, we either experience a sense of oneness of all things, or we experience all as One. In either case, that oneness or One can be interpreted by us as god.

I don't think I could adequately express all my religious beliefs in anything short of a book. What I've written here is a gloss, and somewhat inaccurate for the sake of brevity.

I'm pretty much a methodological naturalist. The major religions I feel closest to in outlook are Taoism, much of Buddhism, and in some ways, Shinto.

 

[4consideration]

How could I have missed this question the first time around? Of course I still idolize you! The very core of my being is to idolize you. I live, I breathe, but to idolize you. You are to me the eternal feminine. The mystery of mysteries. The being who surpasses understanding. And a possible source of long term no interest loans.

I was in awe of your depth of understanding, until...

 

[Sunstone]

Any questions about me that you would like answered?

 

[Reverend Rick]

Are you still celibate?

Do you think your political views have moved more to the left of late?

How do you feel about your state's recreational reefer laws?

 

[Sunstone]

Thanks for the fun questions, Rick!

Are you still celibate?

Yes, and I have the matter firmly in hand.

Do you think your political views have moved more to the left of late?

That's been the trend for the past 20 years. I used to be a moderate Republican on most issues and a conservative Republican on other issues. Now I've joined up with all twelve of America's last remaining Leftists.

How do you feel about your state's recreational reefer laws?

In one way, they don't affect me. I don't do weed. But many of my friends do, and so it's a relief to me that the State is no longer trying to mess with them in that regard.

 

[sandandfoam]

I'd like to know your desert island book.

 

[Sunstone]

I'd like to know your desert island book.

Thanks! Most likely, Jiddu Krishnamurti's three volume set, "Commentaries on Living". I like those volumes even though the editor distorted Krishnamurti's thought before publishing.

 

[sandandfoam]

Thanks! Most likely, Jiddu Krishnamurti's three volume set, "Commentaries on Living". I like those volumes even though the editor distorted Krishnamurti's thought before publishing.

What in particular appeals to you about Krishnamurti?

 

[Sunstone]

What in particular appeals to you about Krishnamurti?

The emphasis he places on love.

 

[Revoltingest]

Is it true that you're made of snips & snails & puppy dog tails?