Simon Paynton

No-one thinks you’re “wayward”, @Unseen.

Kristina wrote:
It’s not so much that the squeaky wheel gets the grease, but rather the squeaky wheel gets the same level of maintenance and care as the other wheels.

I think that’s a good point.  The reason the wheel is squeaky is because it needs maintenance and care.

My experience with narcissists is that they are quite prepared to bring the roof down on everyone’s heads, just to feel that they have “won” (a Pyrrhic victory).  So yes, I think he would be quite prepared to cause thousands of deaths in order to feel like he had “won”.

Ivy wrote:
I kind of wonder if it’s possible that all religious texts point to somewhat the same thing just in different ways? I think that’s possible.

I think you’re talking about “The Perennial Philosophy“.

Unseen wrote:
men will in addition to appreciating how something does what it does, will also be conscious that there is an underlying mechanism creating the artifice.

Maybe, but many more of them than women, don’t seem to care.

I haven’t actually read any of them, but I find that they are a rich source of practical moral advice for ordinary people.  I’ve found a lot of material in them to use in my book about morality and ethics.  Specifically, the Bible, the Koran and the Buddhist texts.

I think a contradiction shows that a system of propositions is impossible, in that they cannot all be true all the time.

Reality makes sense and does not contradict itself.  Ultimately, a contradiction proves that a certain entity, described by a system of propositions, cannot exist.

Jpprater wrote:
any bitterness I could possibly feel about religion and my lack there of is FAR offset by the joy I received when I stopped believing I was in a permanent state of sin, since birth, simply because I’m a human.

You’re right, it’s religion that people are divorced from and angry and bitter towards, not God, who we see as a f…[Read more]

jakelafort wrote:
Do you have evidence?

Well, I’ve seen enough people talking about their negative experiences with religion on TA and AZ over the years.  I’ve got a bitter taste in my mouth about it as well.  There are usually good reasons why people go on a lifelong crusade about something.

If atheists are angry and bitter about religion, it’s usually because they’ve been hurt by it.

Omar and the moderators do a great job at AZ, we’re very lucky.

Yes, and one of the problems with thinking ideologically is that it insists on certainty.  Something “should” be a certain way, no matter what it actually is or is not.

Another problem in thinking is that people identify their ego (i.e., goals and well being) with the success of their ideas, so that if the ideas fail, they fail as a person.

God is traditionally invisible.