Allow Me To Be Perfectly Frank...

[The Good Reverend Roger]

<snip>

Good thing we're so much smarter and better than those people, and it's a good thing we all have far better ways of spending our time.  Hmmm...perhaps we should force everyone to stop believing in weird stuff like Gods and demons, and believe as we believe, which is obviously superior.

Because we know there is only one way to look at the world.  All others are invalid.

Ho ho!  I have heard this joke before.  But where?

I never advocated actively shutting up or thought policing the people that I'm criticizing. They are certainly free to think and believe whatever the fuck they think makes sense, but then so am I free to not take what they come up with seriously. Unless I'm supposed to shut my trap and not say anything that might be seen as critical of someone else's perspective. After all, ya gotta respect everyone's path, right? Even Scientologists.

Who else is going to protect you from Thetans?   

Also, I don't respect Scientologists, but I do have an admiration of the church's ability to separate washed-up actors from their cash.

Note that I'm not telling everyone to go nihilist by saying, "Life has no purpose or meaning so STFU." That's just a pretentious way of falling for the same con.

Then what were you saying?

I mean, if people are going to ask the question "Why am I alive?", they're going to either make up their own answer or use someone else's. They could at least be honest and admit that's what they're doing.

Every Christian I know DOES admit that.

[Cainad (dec.)]

<snip>

Good thing we're so much smarter and better than those people, and it's a good thing we all have far better ways of spending our time.  Hmmm...perhaps we should force everyone to stop believing in weird stuff like Gods and demons, and believe as we believe, which is obviously superior.

Because we know there is only one way to look at the world.  All others are invalid.

Ho ho!  I have heard this joke before.  But where?

I never advocated actively shutting up or thought policing the people that I'm criticizing. They are certainly free to think and believe whatever the fuck they think makes sense, but then so am I free to not take what they come up with seriously. Unless I'm supposed to shut my trap and not say anything that might be seen as critical of someone else's perspective. After all, ya gotta respect everyone's path, right? Even Scientologists.

Who else is going to protect you from Thetans?   

Also, I don't respect Scientologists, but I do have an admiration of the church's ability to separate washed-up actors from their cash.

Fair enough.

Note that I'm not telling everyone to go nihilist by saying, "Life has no purpose or meaning so STFU." That's just a pretentious way of falling for the same con.

Then what were you saying?

That the question "Why are we here?" or any of its variations is pointless because it's too vague. In my humble but totally infallible opinion, of course. That's what I was trying to get at with my Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy analogy.

I mean, if people are going to ask the question "Why am I alive?", they're going to either make up their own answer or use someone else's. They could at least be honest and admit that's what they're doing.

Every Christian I know DOES admit that.

Mazel tov. Meanwhile, there are people in the world who don't.




Cainad,
Should not be trying to talk about these things at 12:30am

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Every Christian I know DOES admit that.

Mazel tov. Meanwhile, there are people in the world who don't.

Yeah, but not in the "pro-American states".

[East Coast Hustle]

all three of them.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

all three of them.

Utah, Wyoming, and Montana?

[Jenne]

Go see Religulous--those who agree with the OP, it's your kind of movie.  I.e. All Religion Is Bad and All Religion Does Is Make Good People Bad.

Or some such philosophy.  It was a good movie, don't get me wrong.  But in typical Bill Maher style, it went a little too overboard in the end.

[East Coast Hustle]

Maher is a fucking tool.

but I agree with him that all religion is bad.

[Cainad (dec.)]

Go see Religulous--those who agree with the OP, it's your kind of movie.  I.e. All Religion Is Bad and All Religion Does Is Make Good People Bad.

Or some such philosophy.  It was a good movie, don't get me wrong.  But in typical Bill Maher style, it went a little too overboard in the end.

Not the point of the OP.

Cainad,
Maybe needs to re-write



Edit: I think that 6th paragraph is the throw-off, even though I like it.

[The Dark Monk]

Another question.
Could you live a fulfilled life if it had no specific purpose?

[Cainad (dec.)]

Another question.
Could you live a fulfilled life if it had no specific purpose?

For a given definition of "fulfilled."

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Maher is a fucking tool.

but I agree with him that all religion is bad.

Incorrect:  http://subgenius.com

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Another question.
Could you live a fulfilled life if it had no specific purpose?

I already do.

[Bu🤠ns]

i i think i gotcha, cainad.
vivaldi's four seasons (or some music in general) makes a good example, for me at least.  there is an expression of a feeling set to the tune of music.  in the same way it seems people are an expression of life set to tune of experience. 

there are strings of imagination. there is percussive sensation. and here we are conducting the orchestra. 

you can't answer existential questions because the asker and the question are the same.  it's like trying to see the back of your eyes with your own eyes.  it's like we say we 'see sights'.  isn't that simply 'seeing?'  it seems we cling so hard to our separateness that even in our language we feel the need to differentiate self and other.

instead of figuring out what the meaning of vivaldi's 'summer' is, just grab a violin and play along.  or, if the song doesn't suit your tastes, quit the orchestra...but for the love of life, please, stop yapping during the performance.



(although admittedly, whether you're playing, dying or contemplating a barstool, its still a part of the tune.)

[Idem]

Another question.
Could you live a fulfilled life if it had no specific purpose?

I already do.

Everything in nature has a specific end.

Yours, obviously, is not to die.

[The Dark Monk]

Unless it is to a roving band of Republican Marxists who eat brains to help bottle up their lust for fine vodkas, which is against their religion to consume alcohol.