romansh

On 1/11/2024 at 4:24 PM, PaulS said:

... behavior that we don't want

This is exactly what I think it [evil etc] is. Of course, I extend my wants on to my community.

This leads to the question as to where our wants (will) come from. This leads of course to another topic from which I will refrain for the moment  

12 hours ago, PaulS said:

I don't believe in evil either as a stand-alone 'thing'.  What we call evil is simply a judgement we make.  In our heads we determine whether we think something is evil - it doesn't make it so, it just aids in communication I guess.

Evil (and the various associated dichotomies) is a useful concept to manipulate people and societies in general.

11 hours ago, tariki said:

Thanks

From my experience, I would be even more sad if the friend had never come into your life or anyone else's.

My "best man" passed away some ten years ago now. A combination of heart issues and excessive drinking. He was still living in England. He lived across the street from me, when I was three.

I know everything is a big word,  but I think it might help put Gen 2:19 and 3:22 into context a little bit. 

I am convinced Campbell himself did not actually believe in evil. I certainly don't. But Campbell is pointing to a way about thinking about this aspect of existence.

This quote might be debatable ... but I think it is worth some thought.

You yourself are participating in evil, or you are not alive. Whatever you do is evil to someone. This is one of the ironies of creation.
Power of Myth Joseph Campbell

On 12/29/2023 at 4:48 PM, PaulS said:

It's a nice thought to plan on leaving a ‘good’ legacy

Back in 2008 ... I was in the Andes, Peru. My colleague stopped at a cutting, where there were fossilized dyno footprints wandering across some muddy ancient shore. The footprints were 120 My old. It got me wondering what footprints will I leave. Two thoughts crossed my mind.

• I am leaving footprints all the time, some obvious and some not so obvious. Most probably won't be seen after millions of years.
• Wanting to have visible footprints is a vanity (which is OK if we are into that kind of thing).

22 hours ago, PaulS said:

I think 'suffering' comes from thinking life should be any different to how it is. 

✅

Whenever I find myself using the word "should" I am questioning what I really mean.

Happy New Year to those in that time zone.

11 hours ago, tariki said:

Hi Rom, you always were the argumentative one!

😀

I'll take that as a compliment. At least you did not suggest I was quarrelsome. 

Happy New Year etc. etc.

5 hours ago, PaulS said:

You win the prize for closest to Santa I think!

Not if Santa is at the azimuth ... London will be closer.

The etymology of the word religion comes from the Latin for re-connect.

Only if we realized that all was not separate in the first place.

Merry Christmas from north of the 49th Parallel.

Your mistake or God's will, Paul?  

I filched this from Gus's Facebook

Simon Blackburn 

Quote

Being an infidel, that is, just having no faith, I do not have to prove anything. I have no faith in the Loch Ness Monster, but do not go about trying to prove that it does not exist, although there are certainly overwhelming arguments that it does not.

This came into my youtube queue

Might be of interest ... And Alex O'Connor is an excellent interviewer

And in part, I am responding to your optimistic nihilism exploration.

On 6/25/2023 at 8:42 PM, PaulS said:

The belief that life has no inherent meaning or purpose can free us from the constraints of societal expectations and allow us to create our own meaning and purpose.

For example, if you embrace the optimistic views of nihilism, you may find that the freedom and uncertainty that comes with the philosophy allows you to explore new ways of living and thinking for yourself.

You will think of life as an experiment in progress and explore different lifestyles, hobbies, and careers to find what brings you the most fulfilment and satisfaction.

No free will, for me, is coherent with what is described as optimistic nihilism. I think in both philosophies suggest much of what we encounter can be labelled "not as it seems"  or illusory. Including the "you" and "I" that may or may not believe in free will.

I think we might be a little circumspect about things labelled as meaningful, purposeful and mattering.

25 minutes ago, PaulS said:

Yes, but if there is no free will then 'you' have no influence over any of those influences.  'You' may still be shaped by them, but none of those influences 'matter' because none of them, yours included, are in your control (if there is no free will). 

If you argued there is no intrinsic "me" then I might agree with 'you'. I don't influence my influences, but my influences are influenced. I am not claiming anything "matters". Saying something matters is like saying a stop light is red. Useful up to a point but philosophically "inaccurate". 

Like Carl Sagan said "We are a way for the cosmos to know itself," I might quibble over the word "know", but I agree with the sentiment.

1 hour ago, PaulS said:

Nobody can influence them.

Do you believe in cause and effect? Many people and events have influenced me. These influences have shaped me. In turn, I am a shaping cause for other bits of the unfolding. 

On 5/21/2023 at 9:08 PM, PaulS said:

If free will doesn't exist, then one would have no cause to question if anything matters, I think.

I don't think this follows. The universe unfolding and all that.

On 6/6/2023 at 4:08 AM, tariki said:

Again, it is avidya, ignorance, that is the problem, not "sin" (against a Supreme Being)

I have not read the whole thread but picked up on Joseph's quote. As a fairly devout agnostic, ignorance is not a problem but a way of life.

Back from my travels yesterday.

I broadly agree with what you say above, not keen on the label, but that is roughly where I am.

Fundamental particles have certain attractions or affinities, or perhaps repulsions. People are pretty much the same but very much more complicated; we give names to these complications as you have mentioned: hobbies, lifestyles, careers, fulfillment, dislikes, war, etc.

Yesterday I was in Adelaide seeing a friend I had not seen in thirty years. Today walking the streets of Fremantle with a friend I last saw sixteen years ago.

Quite often people have asked does it matter if free will exists or not.

And for me, the answer is a very definite perhaps. Recently, the Nobel prize for physics was awarded where a particular aspect (locality versus non-locality) was awarded for experiments with entangled photons, establishing the violation of Bell inequalities and pioneering quantum information science jointly to Alain Aspect, John F. Clauser and Anton Zeilinger. Also, there was a recent Nature editorial perpetuating a misconception and a (one page) rebuttal article was written.

The conclusion can be taken as:
Contrary to what is often stated, these observations do not demonstrate that “spooky action at a distance” is real and nature therefore non-local. Rather, the observations show that if nature is local, then statistical independence must be violated.

Interestingly, whether we think we have free will or not affects the interpretation of how the universe ticks. Does this matter? 

Does anything matter?

On 5/3/2023 at 8:00 PM, PaulS said:

I can see about a dozen posts going back to April 2017, but not this one.  Have you 'Friended' him on Facebook - maybe it's a post only 'Friends' can see?

Yeah ... I checked with my wife's facebook ... don't get the full Monty so to speak.

The "problem" of why? is that it has two broad meanings.

It can mean how does something happen, eg why are the north and south poles of magnets attracted to one another? Feynman has a brilliant youtube answering this type of why? 

The other is what is the purpose? ... I am sure you Buddhists will have some sage words when it comes to purpose.

Disagree strongly with Keats.