Religion

Lets discuss the discussion! Or go fruitcake instead and introduce a meta religion. I belief in some meta religion with one or more meta gods. Haven't decided yet, but that's the point of meta. It should go beyond all options.

O dear.

*derp*

  On 1/10/2014 at 8:50 AM, goDel said:

Lets discuss the discussion! Or go fruitcake instead and introduce a meta religion. I belief in some meta religion with one or more meta gods. Haven't decided yet, but that's the point of meta. It should go beyond all options.

 

O dear.

 

 

*derp*

Isn't chaos magic sort of a metareligion?

  Quote

 

Chaos magic theory says that belief can be an active magical force. It emphasizes flexibility of belief and the ability to consciously choose one's beliefs, hoping to apply belief as a tool rather than seeing it as a relatively unchanging part of one's personality.

  On 1/10/2014 at 2:24 AM, LimpyLoo said:

 

  On 1/10/2014 at 2:12 AM, chenGOD said:

From 46% of Americans believe the earth is >10,000 years old to "fuck all of Christianity" and you can't see how he's committing the fallacy of composition? Lol talk about a lack of critical thinking. Let's put it this way. I agree there have been many wrongs committed in the name of Christianity (insert major religion here). Can you agree that some good has come out of Christianity?

 

Yes of course I can agree that some good has come out of Christianity. But fuck all of Christianity.

 

 

Some good comes out of war. But fuck all of war, of course.

 

What good comes of starting war?

  On 1/10/2014 at 2:38 AM, Zeffolia said:

 

  On 1/10/2014 at 2:12 AM, chenGOD said:

From 46% of Americans believe the earth is >10,000 years old to "fuck all of Christianity" and you can't see how he's committing the fallacy of composition? Lol talk about a lack of critical thinking. Let's put it this way. I agree there have been many wrongs committed in the name of Christianity (insert major religion here). Can you agree that some good has come out of Christianity?

No good has come out of Christianity that couldn't or wouldn't have naturally came about without it

 

Because you've been heavily socialized in a nation born out of Judeo-Christian ethics, it's easy to think that. I can assure you that having lived in other types of societies, this is simply not true.

  On 1/10/2014 at 4:06 AM, zaphod said:

i think all chen is trying to communicate is that there is nuance and ritual involved with religion that produces a different result than simply "this set of morals is right because god says so". and it is fairly annoying to cherrypick buddhist beliefs. i've been around enough freshman college students who decide to be buddhist for a month thinking that means they read some dt suzuki and smoke up and enlightenment will come. it's so common among secular americans to "go east" with personal philosophies and transform actual, rigorous religious practice into a kind of new age mall philosophy. just read the tao of pooh or something, why bother with pretending to study religion?

Kind of this.

  On 1/10/2014 at 6:20 AM, LimpyLoo said:

whatever

 

I regret admitting that I read a handful of Buddhism-related books

 

I guess I shouldn't have read them

 

nor retained the useful information I gleaned from them

 

because now I'm a pretentious phony

You shouldn't have had to read the books - these truths are supposed be to self-evident.

Off-topic tangent! Smetty - is that marx? Why have him lumped in with lenin and mao? At least Marx had some intellectual rigor in his critique of capitalism.

Also we should start a new ideology - lininism. Something to do with bedsheets as the core tenet.

If the truths were self evident, Buddhism wouldn't exist.

Also, there's a distinct difference between reading a Buddhist book and actually practicing the things it tells you to.

  On 1/10/2014 at 3:27 PM, westhead said:

Also, there's a distinct difference between reading a Buddhist book and actually practicing the things it tells you to.

Absolutely. Buddhist online forums are full of people who read more than they practice, don't connect with a real life group/sangha because they're "above that", and still consider themselves some kind of master - they're the major reason I rarely talk buddhism online.

  On 1/10/2014 at 1:56 PM, chenGOD said:

 

  On 1/10/2014 at 2:24 AM, LimpyLoo said:

 

  On 1/10/2014 at 2:12 AM, chenGOD said:

From 46% of Americans believe the earth is >10,000 years old to "fuck all of Christianity" and you can't see how he's committing the fallacy of composition? Lol talk about a lack of critical thinking. Let's put it this way. I agree there have been many wrongs committed in the name of Christianity (insert major religion here). Can you agree that some good has come out of Christianity?

 

Yes of course I can agree that some good has come out of Christianity. But fuck all of Christianity.

 

 

Some good comes out of war. But fuck all of war, of course.

 

What good comes of starting war?

 

WW2 was the best thing that's ever happened to the US economy.

 

 

  On 1/10/2014 at 6:20 AM, LimpyLoo said:

whatever

 

I regret admitting that I read a handful of Buddhism-related books

 

I guess I shouldn't have read them

 

nor retained the useful information I gleaned from them

 

because now I'm a pretentious phony

You shouldn't have had to read the books - these truths are supposed be to self-evident.

 

No no, they're value was self-evident. I still had to learn them somewhere.

 

 

For shame Limpy: American debt as a percentage of GDP was the highest its ever been during the war. Whether the growth of the economy post 1945 was a result of the war is undetermined.

You said the truths were self-evident: meaning not needed to be demonstrated or explained.

Now you say the truths themselves were not self-evident but their value is. So you can keep moving the goalposts if you'd like. Yet you would not have come to know about the truths were it not for the practice of religion, developing these truths and their constructed values over a period of time. So they generally needed to be demonstrated.

As for mirror neurons, the science just isn't there (yet - who knows maybe it will be, in which case you may rub my face in it. Howveer I have my doubts that it will be possible to effectively test this, as it seems mirror neurons are affected by events elsewhere in the brain, and since humans are brought up in socially constructed environments, it will be difficult to find a true "blank slate".)

Two articles by the same fellow, (he might have an axe to grind, but he does readily state that mirror neurons are an exciting field of research).

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/brain-myths/201212/mirror-neurons-the-most-hyped-concept-in-neuroscience

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2013/12/a-calm-look-at-the-most-hyped-concept-in-neuroscience-mirror-neurons/

The study giving an overview of what we know about mirror neurons so far.

http://www.cell.com/current-biology/abstract/S0960-9822%2813%2901326-2 (click on the link for the pdf, it's non-paywalled and is current as of December of last year).

  On 1/11/2014 at 2:29 AM, chenGOD said:

For shame Limpy: American debt as a percentage of GDP was the highest its ever been during the war. Whether the growth of the economy post 1945 was a result of the war is undetermined.

 

You said the truths were self-evident: meaning not needed to be demonstrated or explained.

 

Now you say the truths themselves were not self-evident but their value is. So you can keep moving the goalposts if you'd like. Yet you would not have come to know about the truths were it not for the practice of religion, developing these truths and their constructed values over a period of time. So they generally needed to be demonstrated.

 

As for mirror neurons, the science just isn't there (yet - who knows maybe it will be, in which case you may rub my face in it. Howveer I have my doubts that it will be possible to effectively test this, as it seems mirror neurons are affected by events elsewhere in the brain, and since humans are brought up in socially constructed environments, it will be difficult to find a true "blank slate".)

 

Two articles by the same fellow, (he might have an axe to grind, but he does readily state that mirror neurons are an exciting field of research).

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/brain-myths/201212/mirror-neurons-the-most-hyped-concept-in-neuroscience

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2013/12/a-calm-look-at-the-most-hyped-concept-in-neuroscience-mirror-neurons/

 

The study giving an overview of what we know about mirror neurons so far.

 

http://www.cell.com/current-biology/abstract/S0960-9822%2813%2901326-2 (click on the link for the pdf, it's non-paywalled and is current as of December of last year).

Oh my lol, chen. Oh my lol.

Everyone needs to find their own way guys. I was getting a bit bummed out by this thread and then I realized it's cool that people care enough about relating to the world to argue their position. Enjoy yourself [:

Also, I can't say whether WWII was good economically, but Hasidic scholars have argued for good coming out of the Holocaust. The creation of Israel, the books, poetry, and artwork, and the resolve of the world to not let such a thing happen again.

Personally I think it's necessary to let out and express all the evil in human nature so we can correct for it. So I think good can and does come out of everything. I confess I have a lot of trouble seeing that in everyday life but I still think it's true.

  On 1/11/2014 at 7:02 PM, A/D said:

Also, I can't say whether WWII was good economically, but Hasidic scholars have argued for good coming out of the Holocaust. The creation of Israel, the books, poetry, and artwork, and the resolve of the world to not let such a thing happen again.

Yeah too bad about Rwanda.

Sorry A/D that's not directed to you.

Limpy, lol yourself. You want to get down on the political economy of war? Or you wanna dock while looking a FEMEN protest videos and sippin on natty ice? Or talk about the qualities of what makes a fine Cabernet Sauvignon? Or why this gay Filipino at the hotel is obsessed with Whitney Houston? Anything dude...anything.

Wait so are we now comparing the "good" any religion can do to the "good" the Holocaust caused? Did Morrissey get involved in this conversation while I wasn't looking? *throws burgers*

GAH *sheds Morrissey disguise, scurries between barrels of Vegannaise

  On 1/11/2014 at 7:20 PM, chenGOD said:

 

  On 1/11/2014 at 7:02 PM, A/D said:

Also, I can't say whether WWII was good economically, but Hasidic scholars have argued for good coming out of the Holocaust. The creation of Israel, the books, poetry, and artwork, and the resolve of the world to not let such a thing happen again.

Yeah too bad about Rwanda.

Sorry A/D that's not directed to you.

 

Limpy, lol yourself. You want to get down on the political economy of war? Or you wanna dock while looking a FEMEN protest videos and sippin on natty ice? Or talk about the qualities of what makes a fine Cabernet Sauvignon? Or why this gay Filipino at the hotel is obsessed with Whitney Houston? Anything dude...anything.

 

Dude we are way off on a useless tangent.

chen- it was originally a joke, but tbh Lenin had some pretty damn insightful treatises on imperialism that still hold pretty strong today.

lol @ triachus.

serious question here guys which religion is better atheism or buddhism? just curious thanks.

  On 1/12/2014 at 3:50 AM, DerWaschbar said:

lol @ triachus.

 

serious question here guys which religion is better atheism or buddhism? just curious thanks.

Atheism is simply the rejection of a single claim. It's devoid of content beyond that.

clearly athiesm is the better religion because buddhams have to pray about nothing and do motorcycle maintenance which is clearly for retards and athiesm is Scientific.

hurr durr atheism is a religion too guyz

But I heard atheism is anti-semetic, is that true?

apatheism to the pepsi max. this thread has apparently been floating around watmm for a week and i've been looking at threads but this one didn't even register until someone mentioned it in chatmm. i didn't see it or click on it, the word 'religion' is invisible to me.

I thought this was quite relevant to the Chen V. Limpy debate about Buddhism. Here Sam Harris essentially--to put it bluntly--pleads with Buddhists to shed all the bullshit and just keep the good stuff.

http://www.samharris.org/site/full_text/killing-the-buddha/

It is pretty much the opposite of what Chen and Zaphod seem to be saying, which is "Why buy into the good stuff if you're not gonna buy into the bullshit?"