Blondepudding
Who Sprinkled You With Grumpy Dust?
Do you subscribe to Nihilism? Or Solopsism?Freedom = irrelevance
Upvote
0
Do you subscribe to Nihilism? Or Solopsism?Freedom = irrelevance
Vitalism has been thoroughly discredited by modern science.
I'd say that personhood is a power of the body. Personhood is what bodies do when they are in good functioning order. Our "energy source" is food.
eudaimonia,
Mark
Rather than that being imagined to be a spiritual harmonic convergence of energies that formed a Father creator, what if the scribe of John was telling you that the God of faith is the God first created by man in writing?
Which part?Human is not able to come up with that kind of idea.
Probably "existential nihilism" (I had to look that up):Do you subscribe to Nihilism? Or Solopsism?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NihilismMost commonly, nihilism is presented in the form of existential nihilism, which argues that life is without objective meaning, purpose, or intrinsic value.
Did Julius Caesar make more of his brief existence because his name will be remembered for a few thousand years instead of a few decades? Eventually the memories of Julius Caesar and the Roman Empire will be burned to a crisp with everything else on Earth.This thought seems to comfort you, and I'm not sure that I should mess with that. However, as I see it, the past has always happened, and you have either made something of your brief existence, or you will have wasted it.
I was thinking about this today. Life is meaningless, and that is a relief. What I do right doesn't last, but what I do wrong doesn't last either. I do far more wrong than right, so that is why I'm glad.
Do you think there's any meaning in the letter "a" apart from what we put there? Nothing about its shape suggests the sound we associate with it, in fact other language communities imbue it with distinctly other tonal qualities.I really agree much more with cloudyday on this. Meaning is either something real or it's not. I've never understood how anyone could ever be satisfied either intellectually or emotionally with "creating" or "imbuing" something that they know isn't real.
Certainly there are plenty of examples where we assign meaning to things and of course it's very useful. That doesn't mean there isn't some real meaning somewhere.Do you think there's any meaning in the letter "a" apart from what we put there? Nothing about its shape suggests the sound we associate with it, in fact other language communities imbue it with distinctly other tonal qualities.
And that's just a single letter. It becomes even more interesting in relation to more complex ideas.
Do you think there's any meaning in the letter "a" apart from what we put there? Nothing about its shape suggests the sound we associate with it, in fact other language communities imbue it with distinctly other tonal qualities.
And that's just a single letter. It becomes even more interesting in relation to more complex ideas.
Yes we must eat for energy to the body,
but,
Torah is food for the soul.
By studying Torah the soul ingests and digests the divine wisdom
and is supplied with the divine energy to persevere in its mission
and overcome its challenges.
Define "real meaning", and how it could ever be distinct from something that is meaningful to us. The kind of meaning that gives us a sense of purpose is always personal.Certainly there are plenty of examples where we assign meaning to things and of course it's very useful. That doesn't mean there isn't some real meaning somewhere.
I was expecting that sort of reply, of course. I don't deny that human beings have a psychology, and that this psychology may have needs. Psychology is also a function of the body.
I do just fine without digesting "divine wisdom". I find other sources of psychological fuel to persevere and overcome the challenges of life.
Well Mark,
If the shoe fits, wear it.
As the saying goes.
It seems most or many are happy and content plodding along and getting on with
their lives.
And why not?
eudaimonia,
Mark
Things have meaning because we assaign meaning to things. One person's treasure is another's trash.Define "real meaning", and how it could ever be distinct from something that is meaningful to us. The kind of meaning that gives us a sense of purpose is always personal.
Exactly. Meaning is not purely individual, however, or else language, religion, or other cultural artifacts would not exist. We create meta-structures that encompass and define whole communities or even our place within the universe - such as religions.Things have meaning because we assaign meaning to things. One person's treasure is another's trash.
There has been so much disputation in these matters in the history of Christianity - disagreement among believers living in the same time, and differences in belief between one epoch and another. Tradition cannot save us from having to think, even though it tries with a club in its hand. And finally the tradition will have to change its own mind - look at what the Catholic Church is saying about torture now.Removing authoritarianism from the picture also means a HUGE responsibility - and entails the ability to truly ponder ethical questions, instead of accepting random taboos and idiosyncratic rules as "they way things must be".
Define "real meaning", and how it could ever be distinct from something that is meaningful to us. The kind of meaning that gives us a sense of purpose is always personal.
While I certainly find traditional religions and the meaning they create interesting, none of them strikes me as particularly compelling, let alone convincing.
Theistic religions seem to be all about retreating to a child-like state of dependency upon larger-than-life parental figures, who imbue existence with strict rules, happy rewards, and awful punishments.
I prefer a life-affirming, philanthropic world view - not only because it is more compelling, but also because it is considerably more convincing. It makes no sense to me to perceive homo sapiens as a supernaturally broken race, a species in desperate need of a celestial dictator laying down the law, or a mindless horde trapped in illusion.
Our shortcomings - and they clearly exist - can be far better explained in terms of psychology, behavioural biology, and anthropology. Analogies with other species alone give us a wealth of information on how instinctual behaviour causes us to act in a way that may not always promote our best (individual or collective) interest.
Removing authoritarianism from the picture also means a HUGE responsibility - and entails the ability to truly ponder ethical questions, instead of accepting random taboos and idiosyncratic rules as "they way things must be".