unapologetic

_Robert_ wrote:
It is interesting that communes or commune-like setups can work and have worked on a small-scale level. I guess you gotta have the right group of like-minded people. It just doesn’t scale up well.

There are striking similarities between the morality of ancient small groups (open borders, free sharing, equality, autonomy) and t…[Read more]

Mindfulness is a spiritual practice in that it develops the ability of the self to flourish in the long term.  Since we live in an interdependent social world, this can only be done in an ethical way, regarding how we treat others.

Russia is trying to flourish in the long term, but since this is at the expense of everyone else, they are doomed…[Read more]

jakelafort wrote:
What do you mean by “spiritual”, in this case?”

See what i mean? Worthless word. If we can’t understand the speaker without asking their definition then we have come upon a word that ought to be obsolete and archaic.

I think “self-improvement” or “self-purification” are spiritual concepts that comes into play in this case.

Unseen wrote:
Were the Samurai spiritual? I think they were.

What do you mean by “spiritual”, in this case?

rhonjon wrote:
I think what this thread is trying to determine is whether we can reap the benefits of spirituality (peace, love, happiness, social harmony, a sense of awe) without having to resort to religious delusion, supernaturalism, mysticism.

This article says that happiness comes from a good environment.  This is like a flower in the…[Read more]

rhonjon wrote:
What we feel for Russia is not love but a calculated understanding that we would benefit from a healthy Russian society. Or if not benefit directly, then at least not fear nuclear attack.

I think in general we need to have compassion for our enemies, or we’re all lost.

If we want Russia to be doing well, what’s the practical…[Read more]

Unseen wrote:
To love someone is not to want them to be happy. What might make them happy could be, to quote Conan The Barbarian, “To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of their women”

The West wants Russia to be happy, at least in the sense of being well functioning and well adjusted.  As things stan…[Read more]

Obviously people used to claim that the Bible is a science book.  But that was before we had actual science.

The passages about salvation, going to heaven, immortality, etc., look pretty wacky to an atheist.  This is one point where our paths completely diverge.  But I presume that people sincerely get their spirituality from the Bible and the li…[Read more]

rhonjon wrote:
“… not what one would want for oneself.”

This resolves the problem of applying the Golden Rule to masochists. And it places your dominatrix in good moral standing.

That’s true.  I think people take one particular definition of the Golden Rule too literally: to treat others as you would treat yourself.  People take it to mean, w…[Read more]

rhonjon wrote:
“I’m not perfect, just forgiven.”

That must have made you want to throw up.

rhonjon wrote:
But if I love a person, I want them to be happy even if I’m not the one who is making them happy.

That sounds like a good definition.

Autumn wrote:
Love and patriotism can be explained behaviourally even if one doesn’t feel those particular emotions.

How would you define “love”?

Strega wrote:
I think honour is perceived differently in different societies, and all societies have killers. We can deride the reasons for other community killings, only if we deride ourselves for our own.

In our individualist, guilt-based culture, I’m not sure it’s such a widespread systemic problem as it is in collectivist, shame-based…[Read more]

Honour killings do happen in the Sikh community.  But it’s cultural rather than religious.

In the UK, some Sikh girls are disowned by their families for not accepting forced marriages.

Unseen wrote:
It’s always been a mystery to me why some people even would want to be Christian. Like blacks and gays.

Presumably for the same reasons as everyone else.  In the right hands it’s a way of having hope and living a good and upright life.  Also for Black people, there’s “liberation theology” or religious-inspired civil rights.

Gay peo…[Read more]

rhonjon wrote:
as gay people gain more acceptance in the larger society, the church will find a way to ignore biblical prohibitions against homosexuality.

Good luck with that.  They will ignore Biblical prohibitions about just about anything, except this.  Christians have other strong reasons for not ignoring it, that they might not even u…[Read more]

Strega wrote:
Matthew Vines gave an incredible speech about this very subject. The link below is a transcript which is well worth a read.

The Greeks and Romans, along with other societies of biblical times, believed that a man’s natural, customary role was to be active in sexual relations, whereas a woman’s was to be passive. When either of tho…

[Read more]

Unseen wrote:
I guess these people refrain from sex until or unless they are going about making babies(?). You can’t do it for purposes of bonding or just having some fun?

Purity rings.