Janus

Pointless!

I haven't claimed that the idea that knowing the origin of negative emotions helps you let go of them is my own original idea, so your comment still s...

It's not at all clear what the point of this poll is.

So what? What's your point?

:cool: indeed! And yet every little thing temporally matters, except that which thinks little things don't matter, and what matters most is that that ...

When I was a child my father always criticized and tried to control me. I rebelled from the start, and now, as an adult I have had to slowly come to r...

Oooh, you dirty little atheist! :joke:

"Human flourishing"; that preoccupation is very much the problem it seems. If we concern ourselves only with human flourishing then we will rape the E...

More important than the general question of existence is the question of what the implications for the general well-being of the Earth and all its inh...

I'm not seeing the connection between the account of the LSD study and these questions but I'll answer them anyway. Of course there is more to the con...

I think it is true that if you have a mystical experience (or take certrain drugs) you will likely think things which you hadn't previously thought, a...

Nice idea, by the way. I hope others respond with more poems.

Well, I guess it's always possible that it is completely different for different people; but for the most part I tend to think not. I'll just add that...

I guess I'm looking at this the other way around from you. I don't think we usually do, or even ever can, figure out whether God exists. I would say t...

For me the most important domain of philosophy is concerned with how to live; and I remain unconvinced that belief in a personal caring divinity who o...

Hare Apparent A dog chased a hare down a path so bent Until it came to a three way division It loped one way sniffing for the telltale scent That woul...

I think the "tennis player " analogy is not a very good one. Here we are looking at the difference between two alternative worldviews that pretty much...

I think the "incidental consequence" option is adequate. I would say that being an atheist is highly unlikely to be of no consequence to the way you t...

I think you're indulging in gross over-generalization.

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That's true, but still...some people need special rules for dealing with almost anything! :gasp: Beautiful! :heart:

If a Buddhist has the kind of experience I'm referring to then she might think of that in terms of 'realizing Buddha Nature', and obviously that is on...

The important point, though, is whether you think God is merely a name we give to a certain kind of experience or whether you think he is real indepen...

I'm still expecting a straight answer from you.

I apologize if I have come across as unfriendly. I don't really think of discussions in terms of personal feelings anyway. In other words you can atta...

Yes, it's like being asexual; if you are asexual you have no interest in sex and similarly, if you are atheist you have no interest in gods or deities...

Interesting account, thanks CS. I am woefully ignorant of the history of this; I was just putting it out there as a possible counterexample to what @"...

An essential aspect of the problem right there: relating to some attenuated "animating principle" at the expense of relating to the actual living brea...

Very :cool: metaphor!

:grin:

When you spoke about "mind, attention and will" being more fundamental than life itself it sounded to me as though you were proposing that the Univers...

Wha? You're not a theist? But you do believe God exists, right?

Wha? You're not a theist?

I'd be infinitely more afraid of an eternity of suffering in Hell, if I believed it. So, it would seem that only the "milk toast" version of Christian...

An authentic leap of faith in the Kierkegaardian sense, has no basis (and proposes no propositions, neither).

Altruistic behavior also exists in animals and can be a beneficial adaptive strategy for social groups.

Does 'mystery' signify for you just stuff we don't know, or something else?

Quietism? :joke:

:cool:

I like that you have identified what is commonly, and erroneously imputed to Nietzsche: that he promoted nihilism. His point was rather that Christian...

At first I thought that what you said works one way but not the other, that is I thought you could not be an anti-theist unless you are also an atheis...

At best this would mean that a materialist account is incomplete, not that is is fallacious. Apart from chemistry; it is not possible to give an accou...

Italian fascism?

He is one of those who thinks that anyone who disagrees with him or questions his reasoning is necessarily failing to understand what he has written a...

An atheist could be not merely a-theistic, but anti-theistic. :up: Or the attitude could be like that expressed by Sartre.

Yes, and dilectio intellectualis naturae. :nerd:

I've been waiting quite some time now for that explanation. :grin:

Nah, it's already there in the ancient world, for one notable example, Democritus. You can read about its history here.

It just gets funnier! :rofl:

Atheism is a core principle of my philosophy in the sense that I think it is most important to try to overcome the detrimental effects on both humanki...