baker

Do you think that the doctrine of pa?iccasamupp?da is compatible with science, or that science can demonstrate it to be wrong?

Why should a relatively small school within Buddhism and its most visible representative be considered representative of all Buddhism? Although I do g...

Yes, he said that at some point, his teachings will become lost. If that were the case, then we'd be living in a chaotic universe, and in a chaotic un...

Blaming people, limiting your goodwill, showing contempt, considering them infantile, irrational, and so on is _not_ effective in changing people's mi...

Indeed, this dichotomy is not universal. In some Eastern cultures, they don't distinguish between "head" and "heart" like Westerners do. Personally, t...

Says who? The Holy Inquisition? Because people need labels and the justifications that come with them. You can't just burn someone at the stakes; inst...

Do you want to be effective or not?

Then it wasn't goodwill in the first place. It was pity.

Then it seems such to you ...

What on earth makes you think that? Nah. Righteous indignation rocks! People are addicted to it, it's orgasmic, and then some.

Changing them. Again, there's that authoritarianism.

You treat people like they are your underlings. And you think they should just accept that, submit to you?

The thing is that you see yourself as the arbiter of rationality. If you don't see the problem with that ...

Well, expect backlash.

Working, raising a family, gardening, reading and finding humor in many things needn't necessarily be done in an effort of looking for happiness outsi...

And blaming them is helping you how exactly?

It's more mundane than that. Imagine if you were to boycott the products and services provided by anyone who isn't particularly enthusiastic about vac...

If you try to engage someone whom you believe to be irrational, then you are the one who is irrational, and at fault. Unless you're a high politician ...

Of course. In cultures where contempt has been normalized, vaccination tends to go slowly, despite there being enough of the vaccine. And things are g...

Sure. But the pro-vaccers are trying to present their contempt as justified, and as if people who are not enthusiastic about vaccination (and they are...

It's not about "taking the high road" -- and it's telling that people conceive of it this way. It's about employing a strategy that may have a better ...

It's not just that. Given the combative culture that has been present in so many societies for quite some time, and which capitalism thrives on, to do...

Should other people work hard to earn your empathy?

Replying not to just this point, but in general to your quest: The issue aren't the specific claims (whether the topic is slavery, climate change, or ...

*sigh* Have you ever read a book of advice (or a book that can be read as a book of advice) and thought that in order to put that advice into practice...

Your questions and your formulation indicates that you're a proponent of ethical authoritarianism. You are very much in favor of rules: your rules.

Does that mean that we can attribute to him whatever we want to?

Do read my post above yours.

Do you disagree that righteous indignation is a great feeling?

My point is that as long as one is looking for happiness outside, one is going to be faced with an endless amount of problems. Even if you were to opt...

Goshdarn, righteous indignation is the best feeling there is!!!

Yes.

Throughout history, men of great acumen and power have devised final solutions to such problems ...

Are you at peace with the fact (or at least the option) that you're living in a dangerous world?

So. I maintain that a certain American businessman/politician who sometimes gets branded as a narcissist, is not a narcissist, but that he only plays ...

Both of you say that the meaning of a word is in its use. Except that Humpty Dumpty goes further and specifies which use (the one of his choice; the o...

Unless you subscribe to a kind of biblical "and then God gave man language", you're always looking at matters of language as someone who is birthed in...

Absolutely.

A sigh. Duh. Not everyone who gets branded as a narcissist is one.

True novums are extremely rare. Normally, we use existing language material (or, more generally: symbol material) and make something other out of it. ...

Don't agree. It's probably easier to think of some other people as "flawed" or "mentall ill", rather than to consider the possibility that humans are ...

Donnie was reasonably attractive when he was younger. Of course, and this preference is a potential vulnerability that others can exploit. Hence: Nihi...

The problem aren't those other people and whatever stances they hold or the things they do. The problem is that you take for granted that you're entit...

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/ED2mMhwW4AI3XkJ.jpg Millennia of philosophy of language settled in one short passage. - - - Indeed. For use to have the po...

Certainly, there are text-critical issues, as with any text, and esp. with older ones. I am in no way suggesting that the authorship and authenticity ...

I'm not the one saying that, Christianity (most schools of it, anyway) are saying that. Do you want to divorce the Jesus of the Bible from Christianit...

It detracts from how useful her work is for different strata of people. For some, it could be detrimental. - - - But what exactly is the context here?...

Ever heard the saying "Nice girls don't get the corner office"? Strata of society that are for one reason or another excluded from working for a livin...

Indeed, there have been Buddhist missionaries. But on the whole, they seem to function as a defense of Buddhism against the expansion of other religio...

If Jesus was a real person, and has the power as stated in the Bible, then, if you don't accept him as your lord and savior, you will burn in hell for...