Sunday School

[Reg the Fronkey FarmerModerator]

I still have no idea why people mean by spirituality. I would call “self transformation” – if I was to use such a term – “self transformation”. However I would prefer to use the term “personal growth” or just plain “maturing”.

My progress from childhood to adulthood was called growing up. I was not engaged in a period of self transformation. That is what the autobots do.

“Above all, do not lament my absence, for in my spark, I know that this is not the end, but merely a new beginning. Simply put, another transformation”

– Optimus Prime.

[Tom SarbeckParticipant]

Do not pray. Only you and others here will save you.

 

[Simon PayntonParticipant]

Bruce Lee could be talking about “praying to yourself”, and we all know, we exist.

Science tells us how to get things done, and how physical things work, but it doesn’t supply values.  Modern Western values come from humanism, and who was doing humanism for, say, 1700 years before that?  The “light side” of religion was doing that, and still does.  Therefore, humanism and religion can work together.

[Simon PayntonParticipant]

I don’t see why the scholars think that Jesus was celibate or didn’t have a “friend”.  They must have been throwing themselves at him, for one thing.  Also, he clearly had a soft spot for women, as we can see in his treatment of women throughout his ministry.  I know he was insistent on “no adultery”, but that isn’t the same thing at all.

[Simon PayntonParticipant]

I think Islamophobia is a difficult problem, both in its real form and its fake form (jihadism by another name, perpetrated on naïve Lefties).  It’s one of those cry-wolf situations that means I for one don’t trust anyone who says the word “phobe”.

Conservatism on both sides is to blame I think.  Conservatism has a dynamic of its own that leads to strict enforcement of cultural rules and closed borders.  It’s the sharp end of the eternal moral problem: groups.

[Simon PayntonParticipant]

“Islamophobia”

– if you ask me, the other problem is Isis, and similar groups on the ultra-far Right in the West – narcissists love to cause trouble and play one person/group off against another.  If you think about it, Isis exist to cause trouble and start wars.  That is their narcissistic function.

[Simon PayntonParticipant]

“A fresh look at the story of our human evolution.”

– this is a fascinating article, not only for what it says, but what it implies: there wasn’t any warfare in our ancient past.  Instead, it was the opposite: a whole load of interbreeding.

Several recent studies show conclusively that modern humans, Neanderthals and Denisovans regularly interbred, and that a ghost lineage (maybe H erectus) might have also contributed DNA too.

The two closest relatives of humans are the chimpanzee and the bonobo.  Chimpanzees are relatively aggressive and warlike; bonobos are much more peaceful and cooperative.  It seems very likely that both kinds of traits existed in the common ancestor of all three species (humans, chimps, bonobos), and after humans hit the savannah, they had no choice but to cooperate or starve.

The writer has two standards of proof:  “show conclusively” and “supporting evidence“.

[Author]

Posts