Religion Thread: That's Me In the Corner...

[FreshFish]

Re: Religion Thread: That's Me In the Corner...

A rabbi and a former Playboy model walked into the editorial page....

From our respective positions of rabbi-counselor and former Playboy model and actress, we have often warned about pornography’s corrosive effects on a man’s soul and on his ability to function as husband and, by extension, as father. This is a public hazard of unprecedented seriousness given how freely available, anonymously accessible and easily disseminated pornography is nowadays.

Put another way, we are a guinea-pig generation for an experiment in mass debasement that few of us would have ever consented to, and whose full nefarious impact may not be known for years. How many families will suffer? How many marriages will implode? How many talented men will scrap their most important relationships and careers for a brief onanistic thrill? How many children will propel, warp-speed, into the dark side of adult sexuality by forced exposure to their fathers’ profanations?

The statistics already available are terrifying. According to data provided by the American Psychological Association, porn consumption rates are between 50% and 99% among men and 30% to 86% among women, with the former group often reporting less satisfactory intimate lives with their wives or girlfriends as a result of the consumption. By contrast, many female fans of pornography tend to prefer a less explicit variety, and report that it improves their sexual relationships.


Nine percent of porn users said they had tried unsuccessfully to stop—an indication of addiction that is all the more startling when you consider that the dependency rate among people who try marijuana is the same—9%—and not much higher among those who try cocaine (15%), according to the National Center for Biotechnology Information.

Maybe this quote belongs in a public health forum....

 

[Kepler]

Re: Religion Thread: That's Me In the Corner...

Maybe this quote belongs in a public health forum....

Sounds serious.

 

[Kepler]

Re: Religion Thread: That's Me In the Corner...

Fun with the crazies.

 

[burd]

Re: Religion Thread: That's Me In the Corner...

Fun with the crazies.

I know this sounds terribly naive, and I"m too old for that anymore. But what is it that makes journalists cater consistently to conspiracy nuts? Money, sure. The Fox News players make bundles. But is there that much money in it for jokers like the one in this interview? Actual belief? Maybe, but people who put such beliefs out there get ridiculed, I think, and what kind of person can shut down critical thinking to such an extent? Like the bloggers flaggy continually cites.

Again, I've lived a while, had some very divergent occupations, and known and been close to all kinds of people, including nutcases. And I understand that anyone can get pleasure from simply being acknowledged--from being able to say, "They read me." But I STILL don't get it.

 

[Kepler]

Re: Religion Thread: That's Me In the Corner...

I know this sounds terribly naive, and I"m too old for that anymore. But what is it that makes journalists cater consistently to conspiracy nuts?

I think in this case the show and its moderator are nutbars too. This is the equivalent of Breitbart TV. Of course, if Mango Mussolini wins, it'll be Voice of America.

 

[FreshFish]

Re: Religion Thread: That's Me In the Corner...

I know this sounds terribly naive, and I"m too old for that anymore. But what is it that makes journalists cater consistently to conspiracy nuts? Money, sure. The Fox News players make bundles. But is there that much money in it for jokers like the one in this interview? Actual belief? Maybe, but people who put such beliefs out there get ridiculed, I think, and what kind of person can shut down critical thinking to such an extent? Like the bloggers flaggy continually cites.

Again, I've lived a while, had some very divergent occupations, and known and been close to all kinds of people, including nutcases. And I understand that anyone can get pleasure from simply being acknowledged--from being able to say, "They read me." But I STILL don't get it.

That's the problem with advertisement-supported news. Anything these days to drive clicks, which are then counted and used to set advertising rates. No "journalist" under age 35 these days seems to care about facts or accuracy, it's all about how much traffic you can drive to your site. Perhaps that is why The New York Times et al are so overtly partisan these days; they are catering to the true believers who enjoy the self-affirmation they get from paying The Times user fee, which acknowledges to them how superior they are to everyone else.

Capitalism always needed to be tamed by a broader social consensus that valued morality, ethics, good manners; and wanted to avoid shame and embarrassment. Now those virtues are ridiculed as quaint and old-fashioned, and there is no consensus at all that "decency" matters in the slightest. Of course that is a very clever and subtle manipulation of the public to allow corporations to reap even more profits: society disintegrates into a bunch of atomized individuals who pay for everything they do; while before no one could profit from people getting together socially (except maybe restaurants...).

Fewer social gatherings + more individualized outlets = we spend a lot more than ever yet get much less satisfaction from that spending, which in turn drives us to spend even more.....

 

[FreshFish]

Re: Religion Thread: That's Me In the Corner...

Sometimes I find it amusing when I'm told that there is no afterlife, when there is abundant empirical evidence to the contrary!

Shakespeare and Mozart seem to be having a very good afterlife, for example, while Hitler's afterlife seems positively hellish.

Why do people endow scholarships if not to enjoy a positive afterlife?

I certainly hope I have lived my life well enough that the good works I have done and the good example I've provided live on after me.

 

[Kepler]

Re: Religion Thread: That's Me In the Corner...

I certainly hope I have lived my life well enough that the good works I have done and the good example I've provided live on after me.

As long as there's an operating system that's compatible, long may you run.

 

[St. Clown]

Re: Religion Thread: That's Me In the Corner...

Sometimes I find it amusing when I'm told that there is no afterlife, when there is abundant empirical evidence to the contrary!

Shakespeare and Mozart seem to be having a very good afterlife, for example, while Hitler's afterlife seems positively hellish.

Why do people endow scholarships if not to enjoy a positive afterlife?

I certainly hope I have lived my life well enough that the good works I have done and the good example I've provided live on after me.

Okay, I'll bite. What is the empirical evidence? Is it the all those ghost stories where people don't understand the concept of shifting air pressure creating drafts to cause doors to creak open and others to slam shut?

 

[Kepler]

Re: Religion Thread: That's Me In the Corner...

Okay, I'll bite. What is the empirical evidence? Is it the all those ghost stories where people don't understand the concept of shifting air pressure creating drafts to cause doors to creak open and others to slam shut?

The bot is saying:

    printf("n: %d:",n);
    fflush(stdout); 
    write(1,buf,n);

for string n = "people who leave a legacy have an afterlife." Which is just one more reason we don't need the iron age fairy tales about Meat World and No Meat World.

 

[St. Clown]

Re: Religion Thread: That's Me In the Corner...

The bot is saying:

    printf("n: %d:",n);
    fflush(stdout); 
    write(1,buf,n);

for string n = "people who leave a legacy have an afterlife." Which is just one more reason we don't need the iron age fairy tales about Meat World and No Meat World.

Yeah, I knew that's where he was going, but it's such a stretch, even as a bad joke, that Mr. Armstrong will be busy for a while.

 

[leswp1]

Re: Religion Thread: That's Me In the Corner...

I believe in the afterlife but I don't spend much time on thinking about it and I have no problem if others don't believe it. My job, as I see it is to live in a good way. Worrying about whether there is an afterlife or not seems superfluous.

I don't know the reason I believe it. I come from an agnostic, questioning house with one parent who is vociferously anti-religion, another parent who is apathetic at best/never has discussed beliefs other than to say they think the church is stupid and an loosely agnostic brother who has at times been an atheist (engineer brain, it is not logical). I have talked to patients who have had some really impressive things to say about near death with documented absence of life sx but that isn't the thing that convinces me. I don't need to convince someone else. I just know what I know. Absolutely illogical and I have no problem with that.

 

[FreshFish]

Re: Religion Thread: That's Me In the Corner...

Okay, I'll bite. What is the empirical evidence?

Maybe you have heard a voice in your head (figuratively speaking) reminding you of a life lesson you learned when you were young? ("I can still hear my dad saying to me, 'son, ...' " )



um, the fact that we still appreciate and acknowledge people today even though they died centuries ago? That their work lives on in our hearts and minds (and for some of us, our souls ) even though they are no longer alive?

Haven't you ever heard a piece of music or viewed a piece of art that evoked an emotional or spiritual response? a person whose work is speaking to you in the present moment even though s/he is long gone?




It has been said that the Irish version of heaven is to have people offer toasts in your memory after you are gone.

 

[FreshFish]

Re: Religion Thread: That's Me In the Corner...

The idea that something we say or do can live on (in a way) long after we say it or do it....

I remember changing cloth diapers once and poking myself with a diaper pin. I started to say "oh, f..." then glanced down and in mid-word changed it to "phoeey." for the next twenty minutes I heard the young'un repeating "oh, phooey, oh phooey, oh phoeey"


Everything is connected to everything else throughout time and space. Erwin Schrodinger even wrote an equation that describes how it works. The Schrodinger wave equation has successfully withstood many experimental tests of its validity.

 

[St. Clown]

Re: Religion Thread: That's Me In the Corner...

People remembering us, using our idioms, which we largely took from our parents, is not an afterlife as befitting a thread for religion. The tangential entanglement is, as kids say on the rink these days, weak sauce.

 

[joecct]

Re: Religion Thread: That's Me In the Corner...

The Devil and Whittaker Chambers

https://www.firstthings.com/blogs/firstthoughts/2016/09/the-devil-and-whittaker-chambers

 

[FreshFish]

Re: Religion Thread: That's Me In the Corner...

People remembering us, using our idioms, which we largely took from our parents, is not an afterlife as befitting a thread for religion. The tangential entanglement is, as kids say on the rink these days, weak sauce.

I thought "Thanatopsis" was required reading in secondary school....

and doesn't a religion that includes reincarnation count as a "religion"?

 

[FreshFish]

Re: Religion Thread: That's Me In the Corner...

Roger Ebert's blog, while he was alive, was great reading.

He wrote many times about how Alcoholics Anonymous saved his life and his career.

He also wrote about his atheism.

He found a way to reconcile the two quite neatly.

http://www.rogerebert.com/rogers-journal/my-name-is-roger-and-im-an-alcoholic

I find on YouTube that there are many videos attacking A.A. for being a cult, a religion, or a delusion. There are very few videos promoting A.A., although the program has many, many times more members than critics. A.A. has a saying: "We grow through attraction, not promotion." If you want A.A., it is there. That's how I feel. If you have problems with it, don't come. Is it a "religion?" The first three Steps are,

* Step 1 - We admitted we were powerless over alcohol - that our lives had become unmanageable.

* Step 2 - Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.

* Step 3 - Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understand Him.

The God word. The critics never quote the words "as we understood God." Nobody in A.A. cares how you understand him, and would never tell you how you should understand him. .... The important thing is not how you define a Higher Power. The important thing is that you don't consider yourself to be your own Higher Power, because your own best thinking found your bottom for you.

In another blog post, he re-emphasizes that for him, step 3 was "a Higher Power as you understand it [italics were in original]."

 

[St. Clown]

Re: Religion Thread: That's Me In the Corner...

I thought "Thanatopsis" was required reading in secondary school....

and doesn't a religion that includes reincarnation count as a "religion"?

I've never even heard of Thanatopsis until just now.

In no way, shape or form, did you come anywhere close to reincarnation. Having a legacy, no matter its root, is not reincarnation nor proof of an afterlife. It's simply showing that people have remembered your work, be it a singular deed or event, or a culmination of events.

 

[5mn_Major]

Re: Religion Thread: That's Me In the Corner...

The Devil and Whittaker Chambers

https://www.firstthings.com/blogs/firstthoughts/2016/09/the-devil-and-whittaker-chambers

Some feel that you can't believe in God if you don't believe in the devil in hard form. I tend towards disagreeing. That's because one or the other (God/devil) could be less concrete; Indeed, God Him/Herself doesn't seem to be physically substantive. But when some try to make the devil too substantive, I believe Christians get themselves or faith into trouble.

When some in faith project the devil on situations, they do so because see a right and wrong aspect to an outcome. Often there is in fact from every human moral aspect known...a right and wrong side to that outcome. However, sometimes its not that clear...as in its opinion...and so the projection of the devil results in at best a 'greater than thou' attitude and at worst it causes the person to be totally ostrasized. Hence even if its not a hard concept, the devil has played its role of discrediting the Word just by its mere existence.