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  1. Nooj

    Humans of Iran

    Iran is the country. Persian is an ethnicity within Iran. There are Iranians who are Arab as well, in fact a significant minority who are and feel and are considered just as Iranian as any Persian Iranian. In the same way that there are African Americans, German Americans etc. Indeed people...
  2. Nooj

    Thoughts on the Meaning of Sacrifice

    in what sense is it legalistic, and what do you mean by legalistic? what was the purpose of sacrifice in that time?
  3. Nooj

    Prayer - the lost treasure.

    have you had the experience of saying something to someone who you know knows already what you want to say and why you want to say it, but you say it anyway?
  4. Nooj

    philosophy is philology

    person < persona. latin, of etruscan origin. acting terminology referring to the masks worn by actors on the dramatic stage, but also refers to the characters played by said actors. from the meaning of role that one plays, it comes to be used to refer to the social roles that one plays in the...
  5. Nooj

    God and Needs

    i don't think being a religious person is about accruing benefits for yourself.
  6. Nooj

    God and Needs

    i believe in the christian god. i just don't think that purely believing has any benefits.
  7. Nooj

    God and Needs

    i personally don't see how believing in a god gives individuals feelings of security, being loved, meaning in life, guidelines for morality etc. since the opposite can clearly be true. (feeling on insecurity, feeling of being hated or hounded by god, uncertainty about life, destruction of...
  8. Nooj

    The Persuasiveness of the Christian Community

    i want to point out that that verse doesn't say that the christian community itself has the power of persuasion. aside from the fact that this is a verse from deuteronomy and is in reference to the nation of israel, not christians. if the christian community is persuasive, that is thanks to...
  9. Nooj

    Hell

    it's why you gotta have faith. be 'certain' in what you've personally experienced, have faith in what you haven't yet. you gotta have faith in the buddha, that's part of what the triple gem is about no? i take refuge in the buddha etc. this is not blind obedience but trust, and trust is not...
  10. Nooj

    Hell

    there are modernist trends in buddhism. especially the forms of east asian buddhism that was transmitted to western countries during the 19th and early 20th century century, are derived from modernist buddhisms that sprung up in places like burma, thailand, japan and others. the japanese zen...
  11. Nooj

    Hell

    being a christian is not about not having much of a problem with god. in fact i think you're better off having a problem with god, passionately, rebelliously, riotously, à la manière of milton's satan or promethean courage versus zeus, than being the sort of person who lives senza infamia e...
  12. Nooj

    Hell

    i don't understand that. i mean according to christianity, even the demons believe in god. that is, demons believe he exists. but that doesn't make them christians, nor does their belief (or knowledge?) in his existence move them to become christians. i don't see why i or anyone else would or...
  13. Nooj

    Hell

    i've never gotten any conclusive evidence in the way that i've sometimes wanted it, but conclusive evidence is evidence that concludes stuff, and i don't want any conclusion. i think of the christian journey as a journey in desire, a reshaping of our misshapen desire into a desire for god. we...
  14. Nooj

    Hell

    The Christian hope and promise is in a resurrection of the dead concomittant with a judgement. Our bodies are reunited with our spirit, and so we are us again. If we discount any idea of the soul as constituting who we are, which seems to me an un-Christian idea, then we are only 'us' when we...
  15. Nooj

    Relationship with God (Whether or Not He Exists)

    I used to think the same thing and to some extent still do. Some of what made that go away for me was the realisation that I didn't know much about Christianity. For example, I'd never even heard of Christian meditation, the practices of prayer and breathing and mental exercises directed towards...
  16. Nooj

    Kierkegaard on the Bible

    The Christian community came before the Bible. The Bible was a creation of the Christian community. So how did the early Christians learn about Christ without the Bible? Some of them may have seen Jesus for themselves, but a lot of them must have heard from other people. Even without a written...
  17. Nooj

    Which philosophies do you oppose most?

    > Ethics Moral realism. > politics I don't know enough to say. > metaphysics Essentialism. > epistemology Don't know enough to say.
  18. Nooj

    christianity and the existentialistic concept

    I won't promise you that your dreams will work out to your satisfaction. But you won't know unless you try. We're not totally free. We're all constrained by who we are and what the world imposes upon us, although everyone has their own things to deal with. Those conditions may be unfair and...
  19. Nooj

    You know you are confused when....

    Certainty is a fool's game, played by fools. Of course, so is life. So whatchya gonna do. I really think you should read some Nietzsche.
  20. Nooj

    Why Religion is Bad (Seriously)

    Agreed. But I think that this pressure also exists in wider society. Not just pressure from outside. We all know about those. But the pressure from within. Put simply, it's easier and more comfortable to fit in, to lose yourself in the crowd.