The Golden Sphere of Possibility

[LMNO]

It could easily be called "teach your kids to become sociopaths", however.

[LHX]

the question is:
can a model be constructed that is all-inclusive and stands up to everything that is thrown at it AND is pertinent in the realm of barstools?


barstool is a staple

not preaching to anybody who doesnt want to hear it is a staple

[AFK]

I would think that there would be a different approach between children and adults.  because, children are more of a blank slate, generally, as far as belief systems go.  I don't think you'd necessarily want to give kids all these ideas, good and bad, about religions, philosophies, etc.  At least, not literally.  I think with kids you need to do things on a more symbolic level.  For example, allowing a kid to do something, that while it seems totally incongruous to you, as long as it doesn't maim or kill them, just let them have at it.  For example, eating applesauce with their elbows.  

[LHX]

so basically it should contain a whole bunch of both good points and bad points of all the religions and ideas we (and anybody) can come up with.
christianity in all its virtues and flaws, same for buddhism, islam, discordianism, flying spaghetti-ism, paganism, cthulhu worship etc.

then the kid starts to play with it, put different concepts together, and notice what works and what not.

so for that to happen, there need to be "ethical challenge" cards in it. stuff that tests things like "does your current religious allow for raping 6 year old girls?", and more difficult challenges can become puzzling for example: hmm but to obtain all those "save the dolphins" points, i would need to play this "kill 11/12 of humanity" dogma-card?

also it should not really mention the actual religion the rule is lifted from.

and the ethical challenges should be up for discussion. even though there should be no difficulty about whether it's good or not to allow for molesting little children, it would also not be a good idea to state this explicitly in the rules from beforehand, since that would kind of go past on the idea of the game.
now, the problem of finding out if something is good or bad is a long long philosophical debate (ethics) which doesn't come up with a clear solution, so that would make it kinda hard.
the question "would you like to live in this prison" might solve it.
maybe kids could gain points by living their religion for a day or so.

also, maybe this game is not really for "kids"

we already seem to be playing this game

[Mangrove]

damn, i wish i had taped the discussion that was on book tv a few weeks ago.

it was a dialogue between Raiza Aslan - author of 'no god but god', Sam Harris - author of End Of Faith and recently Letter to a Christian Nation and John Kirshner, who has written a load of books, most recent being 'A History Of The End Of The World' which is about the Book Of Revelation and it's lasting cultural impact. (3 books that I've not yet bought but all on my 'to buy' list).

Aslan (the ironically named middle eastern expert on Islam) was saying that religious scriptures described a sacred, not a literal landscape and that there was good & bad that needed to be extrapolated in accordance with one's times and socio-politcal situation.

Harris was of the opinion that it was all religion was superstitious nonsense and that the Bible & Koran were probably the worst books one could use as a guide to life, given that both are filled with the most obscene brutality and dogma. He felt that given it's overwhelming profundity, Newton's Principia Mathematica was many times more relevant to the modern world than anything in the Koran.

Kirshner was the mediator of the discussion.

Sorry. Not sure how this is relevant. This thread just made me want to mention this. Though I think all these books would make interesting reading.

[LMNO]

the question is:
can a model be constructed that is all-inclusive and stands up to everything that is thrown at it AND is pertinent in the realm of barstools?


barstool is a staple

not preaching to anybody who doesnt want to hear it is a staple

"You get the Barstool.  Do not pass Rebirth, do not collect 200 Karma Points."

[P3nT4gR4m]

so basically it should contain a whole bunch of both good points and bad points of all the religions and ideas we (and anybody) can come up with.
christianity in all its virtues and flaws, same for buddhism, islam, discordianism, flying spaghetti-ism, paganism, cthulhu worship etc.

Religion is bullshit. Religion is stagnant concrete beliefs. Religion IS a BIP. Assume that pointing out any good points of religion, regardless of whether they exist on not, is potentially dangerous by inference. Any religion is an example of closed paradigm and I'd only be comfortable discussing it in that context.

[LMNO]

Change "religion" to "religion/philosophy/way of getting through this life without killing yourself".

[AFK]

the question is:
can a model be constructed that is all-inclusive and stands up to everything that is thrown at it AND is pertinent in the realm of barstools?


barstool is a staple

not preaching to anybody who doesnt want to hear it is a staple

I'd say we'd be up for some sort of Nobel prize if we did come up with such a thing.  

[P3nT4gR4m]

Change "religion" to "religion/philosophy/way of getting through this life without killing yourself".

I'll change it 'Crutch/Shackles' if that helps

[LMNO]

Change "religion" to "religion/philosophy/way of getting through this life without killing yourself".

I'll change it 'Crutch/Shackles' if that helps

Are you saying you have no belief systems, or that yours is as much of a crutch as everyone else's?

[Mangrove]

not having a belief system is as much a belief system as any other.

(and beliefs are just thoughts you keep having).

some belief systems are more concretized or explicitly stated than others.

[LMNO]

"No Dogma is Dogma"?

[Triple Zero]

It could easily be called "teach your kids to become sociopaths", however.

certainly it would need work.

and of course there's the chance that while applying the work, the original idea becomes worthless as well.

[AFK]

not having a belief system is as much a belief system as any other.

(and beliefs are just thoughts you keep having).

some belief systems are more concretized or explicitly stated than others.

I believe this is the correct implement of mobility