I am presently reading the song of the ankle rings by Eric who sometimes comments here and because it is an interesting book, I will be posting intermittently.
This post is for you to just say whatever you have been meaning to tell me. Like say where you think I have been unreasonable & you felt maybe I would take offence 😁.
Or you can just chat about whatever. I promise to join in.
Fire away, friends.
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Confessions Of A (former) Young Earth Creationist
by Frank O'Meara
How one atheist sees life
Saw this this morning and thought about you:
“Why should I fear death?
If I am, then death is not.
If Death is, then I am not.
Why should I fear that which can only exist when I do not?”
Epicurus, letter to Menoeceus
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I have the whole letter somewhere. I wish I could write to a grieving friend that well
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With so few distractions, I think their thought-patterns were far, far, far superior to ours today.
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I think a case can be made for this.
I mean, I look at the arguments of Celsus against the Christians and our improvements on his thoughts are so paltry. One almost feels like, in terms of ideas, they thought about everything under the sun.
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Epicurus was so interesting. I need to delve more deeply into the Epicurean philosophy.
As I have said before…why be afraid of death? I am only afraid of two kinds of things: the pain of dying and the associated medical industry treatments; and dementia/losing my independence. Death? That seems easy.
My mother has dementia, and she is actually an inspiration. Cheerful, hilarious, tough. But she has my sister to look after her…I have no children, and never enough money to pay some poor immigrant enough money to look after me, so I would rather just say “good bye” if the time comes.
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That you should.
You will find a lot that you agree with and equally a lot that you’ll question, but that’s the beauty of life
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I’m repurposing this!
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We gotta get that Great Golden Boot religion going soon. I need the cash.
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This is something we should get going. I, too, need cash
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I think you’ve been very unreasonable, except of course when you’ve been extremely reasonable (which happens to be most of the time). And, I find it quite offensive that you don’t take offense to much of anything at all. Damn, how that aggravates me – lol!
How’s that? 😀
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Lol, Bob.
I sincerely apologize and promise to be a little more unreasonable in the future
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I love this place and the little on-line community that has arisen. And, of course, the whole family of sister and brother blogs I have discovered because of you! (Robert right above me!).
MY only “complaint”, since you asked 🙂
… is to apply your wit and skepticism to the magical thinking of the Marxist and semi-Marxist left. Not all rich people are automatically evil. (Nor is poverty in itself a virtue) There is a lot of “just so” dreaming on the left that makes me a little queasy sometimes. And it can sometimes turn punitive, just like right wing and religious fundamentalism. Over at The Friendly Atheist, for example, there was a whole thread full of people pushing for the disenfranchisement of the elderly because of the WrongThought and incorrect voting ALL baby boomers supposedly engage in. I am afraid I was a bit of a hectoring….asshole…towards one vehement proponent of the “olds need to all shut up” school.
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Yeah, those scum of the earth Baby Boomers… oh wait, that’s me – lol!
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While I appear to support a lot of Marxist theories or thoughts, I know there is no virtue in poverty. I have seen destitution to know nobody wants to be poor.
But we can agree there is exploitation of the working classes, especially those in lower ranks of employment. They work too hard for too little. Some structural adjustments, for example, shorter working weeks, better pay would go along way to making the world a better place. Oh, and we are exploiting our natural resources at far unsustainable levels; look at depletion of forests for example in Ghana, Kenya and all.
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Can’t disagree outright with anything in your response, Maka. I do wonder, though, how everyone living better (material) lives would address your latter points. There are seven billion people. If we were able to magically lift all of them to a modestly comfortable level of living…what impacts would that have on resource construction?
Even given the reality that the current system is vastly exploitative in itself and environmentally dangerous. One of the few countries to lift its large population out of penury (China) has done so at vast environmental and ecological cost. While at the same time allowing the comfortable classes in “the West” to pretend that they have “cleaned up” their countries. (There is less damage from steel mills and mines when the steel mills and mines are thousands of miles away and we don’t really care about all those unheartlandishly hued workers dying of stress and cancer).
Arggghhhhh. I have no answers.
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You ask very hard questions.
Is it possible to lift everyone out of misery without threatening the ecology? I think this would be possible if we acted reasonably enough.
China has done a tremendous job but at a great human, ecological cost. Maybe there could be a better way. I don’t know what it is but we can speculate.
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I recently had an operation and was out for four hours. I remember a nurse giving me my Final Shot, and waking up in a bed in the room I would occupy for four days. Clear headed, coherent, a tad touchy around the incision, but was bizarre, no sense of not-being, no sense of going under or coming back in the recovery room. A little taste of what death must be.
Both chilling, and comforting.
Robert, I have to agree: the least he could do is get cranky.
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I hope you are well recovered, Judy.
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lol yes. surprisingly so, and the brain is catching up with it all by now. And thank you.
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Good to hear.
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I’ve always liked the idea that we are living in a computer simulation. I don’t believe it’s true, but it would explain a lot of the craziness we see.
Just the overlords tweaking the game.
And the thing I hate about dying is not being able to see what goes on with the world..how it changes, what civilizations and countries come and go, climate change and if new species evolve suitable to harsher climates, medical advances…maybe even first contact with an alien species…so many things I’ll never know that I now question…pisses me off. 😊
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Interestingly, I used to feel that way too, Mary. I really hated the idea of not being able to see all the changes that will take place. Now I’m at the point where I’d rather not as I don’t think things are going to be all that great.
Of course, no one is in a hurry to “leave,” but there are days when I ask myself if I’ll truly miss being around.
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Yes things are probably only get worse. And just like heaven for millions of years would be mindblowingly boring and empty, as we age and feel more tired or health begins to change, I too would be ready to go.
BTW, I’m all for assisted suicide and us having the right to chose when we die.
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In heaven you will not grow old. Forever young with the opportunity to make new enemies everyday 🙂
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Yes and up there with people you didn’t even like on earth…and suppose there are blacks and Latinos ..or even Muslims! The Christians will freak and start a war in heaven..SOS!
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that would be a freak religious war. Imagine Christians and Muslims against the Jews, Buddhists against Muslims, all of them against Mormons
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I am in no hurry to leave. There are things to do, places to go and a few people to annoy 🙂
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Agreed, mary; I hate the thought of missing “what happens next”. Including the small stuff, the garden growing, sunrises and sunsets and everything in between.
A computer simulation sounds interesting, except what happens when the guy running the simulation gets bored and turns us off? yikes.
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One of the Iain M. Banks (R.I.P.) “Culture” novels actually posited a civilization that so NEEDED its Hell that it created a virtual one and ran the consciousnesses of the “damned” on the server farms.
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I guess it would be no different than “real” death.
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Or what happens when the guy running the simulation goes rogue. I mean worse than they are doing now coz it seems the computer now has a life of its own
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I think they are testing the chaos theory..so how far they can push it.
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Being immortal but dead is not exactly my idea of bliss. What does one DO all day? Oh migod, there’s my mother, quick, hide! Oh dear. All those old boyfriends. and they KNOW one another…
Even being immortal (just realized there is only one letter difference between immortal and immoral. Hrmmm) and alive has a world of hurt in it, if everyone else was alive too, and crowding you out in the process. The earth is only so large, after all. No. Pass on that, too.
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Judy, now you are being too clever 🙂
Though I agree. Imagine the many opportunities to be sick. To have a bad toothache going on for months! No, let’s pass immortality
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that could be it. how worse can this thing get and then they sit and laugh
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Well, in the novel, the war DID spread to the real world. Partly because the dominant post-scarcity society, The Culture, found the Hell distasteful and started meddling. 🙂
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War, I think, will always be inevitable, even in imagination
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When really bothers me about dying is not being there to see what’s going on. Maybe we should all be Methuselah.
How the world runs is one of those things i find intriguing. That a population of millions can be lorded over by a few families or elites and seem unable to do anything about it is quite disturbing
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I don’t even like naps! I always feel like I might miss something…
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Hahaha. Sleep should be for the future, when we are not.
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I reckon the opportunity to be more or less immortal would be the most amazing thing. Other than getting caught short and dying for the loo, imagine not having to feel rushed about practically anything.
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In such a life, we would rather be sloths, you know take a few hours to wake up. or just say a word.
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I think with the opportunity to be immortal one would have all the time to do all the things you might ever have wanted to, and if things didn’t work out there was ”forever” to do it again.
An immortal being – in the self-regenerating sense – would likely be around when true space travel became the norm.
Galactic Explorer!
Mind blowing
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Mind blowing exactly.
Imagine the many opportunities it offers to make enemies!
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And if one were immortal, there would have to be a physical upper limit on how much age to show. You might be 257, but would you want to LOOK 257?
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Imagine being Methuselah! No, let immortality pass
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After reading your post and then the comments, my mind is now…blank! Enjoy the book! Naked hugs!
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Hahaha Roger. That was not meant to happen. You can’t come out blank on this
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