Introductions, part V: Don't Say We Never Warned You.

[Eater of Clowns]

Don't listen to that filthy ghost-peddler.  There is naught but the screaming void as you shriek yourself to sleep.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Don't listen to that filthy ghost-peddler.  There is naught but the screaming void as you shriek yourself to sleep.

Optimist.

[Rembo]

...I believe that people should believe whatever they believe.  It's only when they insist that I should believe what they believe that things get messy....

THAT BEING SAID:  To mock other people for their beliefs is fine and good.  So long as you don't mind being mocked yourself.

I am in agreement with your point concerning anyone's right to believe what they want, as long as they do not try to impose their beliefs upon others.

However, I find it difficult not to assign a higher value to a philosophy (cosmology, view on reality,whatevah) that leaves itself open to differing opinions, and, most of all, to falsification. At the very least over more static and dogmatic worldviews.

I realize that this is just an opinion, and that all 'value' is definined strictly in human terms, yet I am loathe to give it up, for fear of nihilism.

Nihilism doesn't exactly help me be a 'good person'...

[Q. G. Pennyworth]

...I believe that people should believe whatever they believe.  It's only when they insist that I should believe what they believe that things get messy....

THAT BEING SAID:  To mock other people for their beliefs is fine and good.  So long as you don't mind being mocked yourself.

I am in agreement with your point concerning anyone's right to believe what they want, as long as they do not try to impose their beliefs upon others.

However, I find it difficult not to assign a higher value to a philosophy (cosmology, view on reality,whatevah) that leaves itself open to differing opinions, and, most of all, to falsification. At the very least over more static and dogmatic worldviews.

I realize that this is just an opinion, and that all 'value' is definined strictly in human terms, yet I am loathe to give it up, for fear of nihilism.

Nihilism doesn't exactly help me be a 'good person'...

It's possible for someone to be just the right fit for a wacky belief, though. The measure of whether a belief is working for a person is literally "is this belief working for them?" If it's making them a colossal douchecanoe, then that shit ain't working. But what makes one person an asshole may be the one thing keeping another asshole from hurting other people.

[Rembo]

Hmm. Interesting thought Q. G. Pennyworth. One I can find myself agreeing with if the definition of 'hurting other people' is broad enough to include, for example, keeping people from information about the world around them. Wether this be by keeping the information from them, or by trying to keep them from developing the mental tools required to obtain or process the info...

[Q. G. Pennyworth]

Hmm. Interesting thought Q. G. Pennyworth. One I can find myself agreeing with if the definition of 'hurting other people' is broad enough to include, for example, keeping people from information about the world around them. Wether this be by keeping the information from them, or by trying to keep them from developing the mental tools required to obtain or process the info...

Yeah, if your young earth creationism makes you fuck with school curriculum, that's definitely "douchecanoe" territory.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Hmm. Interesting thought Q. G. Pennyworth. One I can find myself agreeing with if the definition of 'hurting other people' is broad enough to include, for example, keeping people from information about the world around them. Wether this be by keeping the information from them, or by trying to keep them from developing the mental tools required to obtain or process the info...

I believe I made it clear that the moment a person fucks with the life of another person, all the amusing toleration ends.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

However, I find it difficult not to assign a higher value to a philosophy (cosmology, view on reality,whatevah) that leaves itself open to differing opinions, and, most of all, to falsification.

Belief in god(s) is by definition not falsifiable.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

However, I find it difficult not to assign a higher value to a philosophy (cosmology, view on reality,whatevah) that leaves itself open to differing opinions, and, most of all, to falsification.

Belief in god(s) is by definition not falsifiable.

Right, he's saying that he places more value in views that ARE falsifiable.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

However, I find it difficult not to assign a higher value to a philosophy (cosmology, view on reality,whatevah) that leaves itself open to differing opinions, and, most of all, to falsification.

Belief in god(s) is by definition not falsifiable.

Right, he's saying that he places more value in views that ARE falsifiable.

Okay, missed that.  But that's what he places value in.  He's implied that some beliefs are acceptable (Deism), and that some beliefs are not (weird shit like 7th Day Adventism, etc). 

What I am trying to say is that beliefs are not chosen from a menu.  People have them or they don't.  My toleration ends when someone feels that their beliefs exceed the rights and choices of another, whether that implies violence, legislation, or social marginalization.

[Rembo]

If I came across as saying that (let's run with the example) 7th day adventism is an unacceptable viewpoint to me, then, my bad.
It unacceptable FOR me  personally. What they do with their brains is their business.
I wish them nothing but the best.
(which, imo would include a slightly more rational worldview, but hey, that's just me. who gives a damn about my opinion, anyway?)

[The Good Reverend Roger]

If I came across as saying that (let's run with the example) 7th day adventism is an unacceptable viewpoint to me, then, my bad.
It unacceptable FOR me  personally. What they do with their brains is their business.
I wish them nothing but the best.
(which, imo would include a slightly more rational worldview, but hey, that's just me. who gives a damn about my opinion, anyway?)

Okay.  Apologies if I misread you.

[Rembo]

None needed! I am quite a bit more thick skinned than that!

Especially in such a mirthful environment!

Nice roof, btw...

[The Good Reverend Roger]

None needed! I am quite a bit more thick skinned than that!

Especially in such a mirthful environment!

Nice roof, btw...

I wouldn't know.  I was here long before that prank started.

[thewake]

oh

this is where I introduce myself

I'm thewake. I derive my forum handle from Hereward the Wake, who's wikipedia page is very interesting if you're inclined to read it. I'm American, in particularly a Southerner. I'm a senior in college. I will refrain from describing my appearance, as this is not a dating website.

I discovered this site because it has a copy of the principia discordia on it, which I still couldn't make myself read online so I had to order a physical copy. A very interesting book. I was first exposed to the idea of Discordianism when reading Radicals for Capitalism, a history of the modern American libertarian movement. Kerry Thornley (Lord Omar) was apparently somewhat involved in early libertarianism. I read the book quite awhile ago though, and a "serious" interest in discordianism has been piqued rather more recently.

I believe my own intellectual development has prepared me to be receptive to the ideas of Discordianism. I've been an agnostic atheist (closeted, so don't tell my mom ) since I was a junior in high school. I've read some of Camus, and I consider life to probably have no inherent meaning although who really knows?? I'm also a moral subjectivist or something of that sort. I'm an economics major and have been influenced by Friedman as well as the Austrian school. I rather like the Austrian school's emphasis on the limits of human knowledge (applied particularly to economics here) but I wouldn't consider myself one of them. And Alan Watts is really cool to listen to when I'm stoned out of my mind, so there's that. His opinions on death have been very enlightening, as someone who has struggled with coming to terms with the idea of dying and ceasing to exist.

I believe all knowledge is probably provisional, even the knowledge that all things are provisional.