baker

Chosen as in "preferred over all others". It goes without saying. Not everyone can convert to Judaism, or at least not to just any school of Judaism.

I think this kind of work is non-Hindu, non-Buddhist. For at least some Buddhist and Hindu schools, remembering past lives is a special knowledge that...

Because of the Jewish claim that they are "God's chosen people". While atheists are likely to dismiss this claim as religious fancy or delusion of gra...

And much more popular and clear -- listen to Bono's words https://youtu.be/j3fSknbR7Y4?feature=shared

I think that before doing any of the demanding technical stuff (programming and whatever else is needed), one first needs to work out a philosophy of ...

It is possible to make physics do that, though. Everytime a cognitive scientist says things to the effect "there is no love, there are only chemicals ...

And one more thing to this: The unspoken assumptions in many of these discussion are that "a particular claim is being proposed for discussion" or "a ...

You do realize how ironic it is to accuse others of "fascism", when it is precisely what the "good Westerners" are?

It's similar with the way atheists of the Dawkins type don't believe in God. Their atheism is an atheism of a god that no actual theist believes in. N...

You're so confident that you're going to get a human rebirth??

Some children acquiesce and some don't. Not all children are equally well acculturated into the religion they are born to and raised in. For some, it'...

I don't believe in any form of afterlife (such as in Christianity or Islam), not in reincarnation, not in rebirth. Yet I know enough about them that t...

Notice how I talk about not taking concepts out of their native contexts? Of course. In contrast, ask yourself why you want to even think about reicar...

A study of Jewish scripture is in place, to get to know whom you're talking about. Of course, barely anyone is going to do that now, conveniently pola...

Oh, you did get fooled.

@"universeness" You seem to think that Israel is doing what it is doing (the overkill) as a less-than-wise reaction to the terror/horror they feel bec...

It's not like the civilians get to decide. The people who order the pulling of triggers do.

Irrelevant to the wars at hand.

This is where the taboo sets in. But you can read the Bible, the Old Testament in particular, to get some ideas. That would require that some religio-...

As long as natural resources are limited and hard to obtain, probably not. It's not like people are living in a land of plenty and fight over nothing ...

As for statement of intent: And then there are other ones about wanting to wade knee-deep in an enemy's blood and such.

How do you comment on the use of horror and terror in this psalm?

Where then would be the drama of life ...

It seems they weren't just "okay with being horror-ible", but that at the time, being that way was considered being manly, or even just a proper human...

The problem is when we don't have a philosophy of life worked out. Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people...

Health and happiness are impossible without wealth and power. Especially if worldwide economic disparity is to be ended, it seems this could only be d...

To do what with all that free time? Play videogames? Watch films, preferrably consisting of nothing but deep fakes? It seems to be in the interest of ...

That's in your mind. I never said it was a waste of time. I think it's a luxury very few can afford. And you're apparently among the lucky few. I've n...

Autonomy.

No. The situation with slavery shows that even though it is officially condemned, new forms of slavery are springing up all the same, perhaps even mor...

What is the case for you isn't necessarily the case for everyone else. Your case doesn't prove anything much about the general pattern (which is what ...

You know it's more complex than that.

Religious doctrines, in order to "make sense" to a person, need to be internalized early on in life, or perhaps can be assimilated later only if the p...

It cannot be said that what children do when they internalize the religious teachings of their parents and their community is an act of "choice" or co...

This just illustrates what happens when one takes a concept out of its native context and tries to understand it and work with it regardless of said c...

First about gratitude: It's a popular sentiment that children don't owe their parents anything, e.g. https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:A...

*sigh* You accused me of trolling several times. I actually don't have much time at the computer, even less for the forum. Which is, apparently, not s...

And when the power runs out ... you won't even hum.

The question is whether the cognitive tendencies made worse by the use of technology will abate once they stop using the technology (so much). Here I ...

Serious Buddhist meditators meditate in order to realize nibbana, the end of suffering, through realizing paticcasamuppada. Statistically, this appear...

I'm amazed by people who manage to get all their work done and still have time for things such as Chat GPT.

Where on earth do you find the time for it??

But Israel are God's chosen people! They are justified to do whatever they want.

Are you suggesting that self-awareness precedes awareness of the environment?

My point with the opiates, alcohol etc. is that it's not just any calm that will do for actually having peace of mind, but that it has to be the right...

Gratitude to parents. Gratitude to teachers. Bearing in mind that it is impossible to be "one's own person" and not need anyone.

But humans are very much on the way to operate like AI devices.

Can one really define oneself? Your default notions of who you really are are not your own, but inherited from the society/culture you grew up in. So ...

They can't be, because one is from a religious context (pulling along all the connotations), and the other one is not.

I would have thought you're all sufficiently informed about the reincarnation doctrine ... To recap: A reincarnation doctrine like it can be found in ...