"There's probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life."

[doppelganger]

I am not concerned about my certainties. They are part of the material I build the things that keep me alive.
The uncertainties are the things I live for and cause me pains and joy. And regardless of your struggle to detatch it from being out there,
the emanation is almost mystical and sometimes more than only in the mind.

If you say so.

I can't help detacting something strange in you method to discuss this topic under the pseudonym of a Philosopher.
Tell me Doppelganger, are you an Atheist camouflaged as a Philosopher to easy your way through? You are too fast to discard
any resemblance of the possibility of an outside cause to inspire the Philosopher's search for meaning.

Some people feel compelled to call me an "atheist." If you're one of them, that's fine. I'm a lot of things and nothing. Even if someone imagines a something "out there" for which they seek, the something "out there" is still inside themselves.

If my suspictions are unfounded, could it be perhaps fear to venture our of yourself?

I don't think so. Though I suspect you're projecting with that comment. Ironically, awareness of perspective opens me up more to an appreciation and understanding of the worlds experienced by other minds than my own.

P.S. I'm a Feral Philosopher.

 

[lilithu]

So you are probably right that it is not likely to bring anyone into the UU. If that is the intention of the ad, then it is not a good ad.

The ad was not meant to be a public service announcement. We actually do want to grow. *I* want us to grow.

But it is still a brilliant idea. I really do think that people should set aside 5 or 10 minutes each day to doubt.

I think you give us way too much credit. My take on it was that we were simply saying that we're the kind of people who question things, as opposed to proposing a daily spiritual practice.

Another ad went like this: "Is God keeping you from going to church?"



Aside from the fact that I believe in God and don't particularly like my religion posing itself as anti-theistic, it's another stupid ad for the same reason. Yes, it might appeal to some who dislike the concept of God. But why should they come to us? The ad doesn't say anything about that. It seems to assume that if there were no God, the targeted audience would automatically go to church. Stoopid.

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

Another ad went like this: "Is God keeping you from going to church?"



Aside from the fact that I believe in God and don't particularly like my religion posing itself as anti-theistic, it's another stupid ad for the same reason. Yes, it might appeal to some who dislike the concept of God. But why should they come to us? The ad doesn't say anything about that. It seems to assume that if there were no God, the targeted audience would automatically go to church. Stoopid.

I got a different take from that: I saw it more as "Do you see the religious options available to you to be in conflict with your beliefs?" with the implication that a UU congregation would be a place where that wouldn't happen.

The way I read it, I see it as an appeal to religious or spiritual people who aren't comfortable with imposed doctrines they don't agree with, which I think are the sort of people who Unitarian Universalism would especially be interested in attracting.

I think I see where your coming from if you take it to mean something like "is all the 'God' stuff in church keeping you away?" which I agree would be rather anti-theistic, but I think it can also be interpreted as "do the promptings of God keep you away from church?" which isn't so much.

I do think that the slogan's ambiguous, and so probably not particularily effective. I see how you interpreted it the way you did.

 

[lilithu]

I got a different take from that: I saw it more as "Do you see the religious options available to you to be in conflict with your beliefs?" with the implication that a UU congregation would be a place where that wouldn't happen.

The way I read it, I see it as an appeal to religious or spiritual people who aren't comfortable with imposed doctrines they don't agree with, which I think are the sort of people who Unitarian Universalism would especially be interested in attracting.

I think I see where your coming from if you take it to mean something like "is all the 'God' stuff in church keeping you away?" which I agree would be rather anti-theistic, but I think it can also be interpreted as "do the promptings of God keep you away from church?" which isn't so much.

I do think that the slogan's ambiguous, and so probably not particularily effective. I see how you interpreted it the way you did.

Even interpreting it your way 9/10ths, would it cause you to have any interest in investigating a UU congregation if you didn't before?

 

[doppelganger]

Even interpreting it your way 9/10ths, would it cause you to have any interest in investigating a UU congregation if you didn't before?

I already knew this about UU because I've investigated a couple of congregations before, but I think it probably would have that effect for me. It was suggestions similar to this by UUs I'd talked to that led me to my curiousity about UU, and led me to attend some "Services" a few times.

 

[Ben Masada]

If you say so.




Some people feel compelled to call me an "atheist." If you're one of them, that's fine. I'm a lot of things and nothing. Even if someone imagines a something "out there" for which they seek, the something "out there" is still inside themselves.



I don't think so. Though I suspect you're projecting with that comment. Ironically, awareness of perspective opens me up more to an appreciation and understanding of the worlds experienced by other minds than my own.

P.S. I'm a Feral Philosopher.

Allow me to try you from another corner. I suppose you agree that we have been granted freewill. The question is: Do you believe our freewill is limitless?
If you do, has it ever happen to you that outside almost mystical interferences meddle from time to time with our being able to exercise our freewill?
I am talking about great thinkers.

Ben

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

Even interpreting it your way 9/10ths, would it cause you to have any interest in investigating a UU congregation if you didn't before?

It's hard to say for me. I investigated Unitarian Universalism mainly out of conversations with UUs. I don't think any bus ad by itself would have guided me personally to a UU congregation.

However, I have met many UUs who started out in another religious congregation, came to disagree with that congregation's dogma, doctrines or core beliefs, left because of those disagreements, and then found Unitarian Universalism. I think that emphasizing that a UU congregation is a place for religious fellowship in a non-doctrinal way would resonate with those people who perhaps miss the community aspects of their former church but didn't feel they could stay.

I don't think the slogan in question was well-executed, but I think that emphasizing the non-doctrinal nature of Unitarian Universalism could be effective at attracting new members.

 

[doppelganger]

Allow me to try you from another corner. I suppose you agree that we have been granted freewill.

Nope.
There is no mind absolute or free will, but the mind is determined for willing this or that by a cause which is determined in its turn by another cause, and this one again by another, and so on to infinity. - Baruch de Spinoza

In reading the life for instance of one I consider the greatest of Philosophers, Baruch de Spinoza.

 

[doppelganger]

Regarding Spinoza, rather than reading of his "life," try to really find meaning in his philosophy for yourself. He's one of the truly great mystics of the West.

It may surprise you to learn that, like me, Spinoza is also frequently mis-labled with the simplistically deceptive word "atheist."

 

[Ben Masada]

Nope.
There is no mind absolute or free will, but the mind is determined for willing this or that by a cause which is determined in its turn by another cause, and this one again by another, and so on to infinity. - Baruch de Spinoza

I mean absolute in human terms of being able to do whatever I want even to decide
to end my life without oweing satisfaction to none.

"...and so on to infinity." I wonder what Spinoza meant by Infinity, if he is said to
have been of all Philosophers the most intoxicated with God.

Ben :clap

 

[doppelganger]

I wonder what Spinoza meant by Infinity, if he is said to
have been of all Philosophers the most intoxicated with God.

What do you mean by "God"? I think you're in for a real shock, my friend.

 

[Magic Man]

I myself am in staunch favor of ads showing women in bikinis or wet T-shirts. Thus, I could get behind this campaign if it showed atheist women in bikinis or wet T-shirts. Otherwise, I find the whole thing reprehensible because of its lack of women in bikinis or wet T-shirts.

I agree, but I think we need to specify. "If it showed hot atheist women in bikinis..." would be preferable.

 

[Ben Masada]

Regarding Spinoza, rather than reading of his "life," try to really find meaning in his philosophy for yourself. He's one of the truly great mystics of the West.

It may surprise you to learn that, like me, Spinoza is also frequently mis-labled with the simplistically deceptive word "atheist."

This last of yours was the crown of all your posts.
You have set my doubts to rest by the adjective "deceptive" in the same line with
Atheism. I was becoming slothful by the thought that I was hovering in a vacuum.
I love Philosophy but never to be discussed with Atheists.

Ben :bow:

 

[doppelganger]

Ben:

You'll have to get a used copy, because it's out of print. But try to get your hands on a book by an obscure German-Jewish philosopher who wrote under the pen-name "Constantin Brunner." It's called Our Christ: Revolt of the Mystical Genius. I think you're likely get a lot out of carefully reading and studying it.

 

[Ben Masada]

Ben:

You'll have to get a used copy, because it's out of print. But try to get your hands on a book by an obscure German-Jewish philosopher who wrote under the pen-name "Constantin Brunner." It's called Our Christ: Revolt of the Mystical Genius. I think you're likely get a lot out of carefully reading and studying it.

Thanks for the referral pal. I'll try if I can find it.

Ben:clap

 

[doppelganger]

Thanks for the referral pal. I'll try if I can find it.

Ben:clap

Here's a copy: https://www.eisenbrauns.com/ECOM/_2HX0OKU54.HTM

 

[Alceste]

I agree, but I think we need to specify. "If it showed hot atheist women in bikinis..." would be preferable.

Like this?

 

[Storm]

MY EYES! MY EYES! :cover:

 

[Jeremy Mason]

MY EYES! MY EYES! :cover:

Yes, make the bad man go away! :sad4:

 

[Sunstone]

The more I think about this, the less I care what gets advertised on the sides of a buss these days. Here in Colorado Springs, many a buss has a religious message on it. Who cares that it does?