Maybe nothing? But we must study it and we must philosophize.
There are 3000 and more reasons why Christianity is false. One thing is that the person who compiled that list has a lot of time in their hands than I can ever muster.
Questioning the conventional wisdom
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These are unedited versions of my thoughts straight from the mind, a relieve from the โpressure cookerโ, snippets and flotsam of a mundane existence, collected over time, at the early morning hours at sunrise. I have no intensions to start a self-help group or a forum for complains!
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The world inside my head is beautiful ๐ท๐ท
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I call architecture frozen music. โ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Literature, Philosophy, Art, Music, Drama
Philosophy is a fun discipline even though it often cheeses me off with its pompousness and self-indulgent tendencies. BTW, ALL philosophy that doesn’t coincide with my world view is WRONG!!! That’s how we here in ‘Murica look at things, and by golly, it’s worked well for us thus far! ๐
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Principle 1 of tolerance: any idea that I disagree with is wrong ๐
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I just try to keep learning.
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continuous learning is what we all must keep doing
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Philosophy, the endless, circular, swirling down the toilet of word games, defining definitions, and never having an actual answer for anything.
From what I can tell though, it looks like they have a lot of fun doing it. I’d rather go to the dentist.
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i would rather philosophize. going to the dentist bores me
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Things actually get done at the dentist ๐
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I agree
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The answer is 42.
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I thought it was 43
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Only if you bring an extra towel.
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I once said the words, “If no one philosophized, we would all be brain-dead.”
That’s to mean that it’s unlikely that any person, on this planet, will not go through their imperfect lives without questioning the most difficult questions that, in their realm of personal experience and personal conscious, science could not explain.
I can look up an article about my depression episodes. What will it tell me except for a load of information about the imbalance of neurotransmitters? That’s about it. What it won’t explain is me, which is where philosophizing comes in.
Why are we afraid of asking the most difficult questions, especially when we are always laying those inquiries on our own lives?
The strong are willing to go insane in order to lose a bit of their strength. Whereas the weak are desirous to be spoon-fed information already seeded, fertilized, and reaped as its reward of convenience.
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I feel like I should walk around with flashing disclaimer signage ๐
I have no issue with philosophy on a practical level. I have no issue at all using philosophy to understand the world as we know it.
Where my issue lies is with “professional” philosophers, whos job is to never seek answers, but to deliberately avoid them. That’s where the word games, the defining of definitions, the endless swirling around the toilet, playing catch me if you can, becomes obvious to the point of disgusting. When it has got to that point, it has gone too far. It is no longer useful.
YMMV.
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This is from a short story I wrote a while ago:
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I can define philosophy in two words.
Pedantic semantics.
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You are being mean to navel gazers
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Hahaha.
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After everyone above had pressed their fun button and expressed with sarcasm their ignorance, let’s balance out the weight of irrationalities.
Some among us seem not to realize, we are all philosophising throughout our daily lives. We are all asking the fundamental questions of why, how where and when! We are all graving to be relieved from the permanence of anxieties caused by our insignificance in relation to the unfathomable expansion of the universe and the naturally occurring phenomenaโs. And we all want to know how everything is related and can make sense to us.
In every culture, we find amateurs and professionals, who dedicate their time and life to answer those fundamental questions.
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We can’t help but to philosophize
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BTW, if your name is Phil, every time you express an opinion or desire, you are touting “Phil”-osopy! This is why we should rarely, if ever, take ANYTHING, ANYONE named Phil has to say. Friggin’ wise guys think they know EVERYTHING!!! Ugh!
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Hahaha.
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At that level, it is normal. Anyone with a bit of critical thinking ability asks the questions to lead them to a logical conclusion. I have no issue with that and indeed hope many learn its value.
But, when it devolves into pedantic semantics, and it often does, ummm no thanks. I have better things to do.
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I think it devolves into semantics when people fail to agree on definitions so that it is not clear what the debate is really about.
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we can’t help but to philosophize. it is important that we do. ask questions that don’t have answers.
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I read some of his list and a bit of the rebuttal.
I reckon he made a blunder by including the Jesus Seminar in his essay, especially by asserting the ‘members’ were all PhD scholars and higher. This gave the interlocutor enough ammo to ensure Christian readers, who would be looking for something like this, would inevitably dismiss him and pay scant attention, if any , to the other points he raised.
I may be wrong. *Shrug*
But the rest of what I read was interesting, some of the points were well considered and there were a couple I have not encountered before which made it all the more enjoyable.
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he had me laughing at the kill list.
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The ‘Kill Lists’ always make me smile as Christians invariably fire back with Stalin, Pol Pot etc and yet, when pushed they always say these people deserved to die because they were sinners and as God made ’em he can kill ’em.
Strange people.
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we can accept that Stalin, Pol Pot, Hitler, Ghengis Khan, Cyrus the Great and all have killed. We can have a list of the number they killed and still say these were fallible men. An all loving and merciful god shouldn’t act as an infallible autocrat.
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Ah … but those he killed were sinners, Mister Noel.
This justifies everything, dontcha know?
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Which makes it even worse. His mercy was not sufficient even for little babes and cows! And he is all merciful.
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He is the perfect reflection of those who created him … sorry Him.
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This from #127
โIt is illuminating that Christendomโs greatest theologian, Thomas Aquinas, believed the greatest joy the resurrected believer can experience is the sight of the damned being tortured.โ
I wonder if it will be like a zoological setting where this viewing takes place?
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I think a viewing box has been prepared where people go in turns to have their fill
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Whatโs philosophy good for? It complements recreational drug use. ๐
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Haha. Mean
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The whole point of trawling philosophies is to find one that does agree with your world view, ergo it must be true ๐ seriously, life should be thought about, and lessons learnt. And then it’s over!
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The whole point of life is to find a philosophy that makes you happy. The rest after that is top dressing.
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God=Santa Clause.
If you spend your time disproving various religions without adding anything to the conversation than you are not a philosopher nor an intellectual, but you are a critic. A critic has little to no value in society. Even in today’s capitalist world we do not value the critics opinion. They do not create, they only complain.
Philosophy is something that all persons should be versed in. If you think philosophy is useless then you miss the point of the discipline: to create. Once upon a time philosophy was used to try to find answers about the universe around us. Science and maths have since replaced our need for philosophy in these areas. However, philosophy is still a valid tool for self-discovery. A person should question their existence. A person should read ALL religious texts they can. A person should never be satisfied with any world view. There is no absolute truth because much of what is true lives in-between the truths of individual lived experiences. Perhaps my philosophical endeavors will never change the world nor give me fame. But, my endeavors have made me a better person than I ever thought possible. I have learned much about people by learning about myself. I have learned to believe in hope; not to have faith in any deity, but to have faith in life and existence. Even if my own conscious cannot renew, energy continues on. Mix science and philosophy and you will find a whole new world of possibilities.
People have become desensitized to the wondrous beauty of the world because the world along with the human experience has been packaged and sold. My son thought he would rather sit at home than travel because he’s seen the world since he was a baby through a screen. Once he finally took a trip with me, he realized how much he was missing. You cannot find spiritual peace and strength in any book or video. Sure, there is a plethora of self-help books and several religious texts that claim to have the answers. In part, they do have answers. But a person cannot find help unless they take the time to help themselves. A man is a block of granite and philosophy is the act of chiseling that granite down until a person finds their purest form.
Consider too, Einstein. Einstein did not formulate his theory of relativity through the practice of hard science (although the hard sciences are needed to prove such hypotheses). Einstein found his theory of relativity by daydreaming. He, like a child, daydreamed about falling in an elevator, running alongside light, riding in imaginary trains that could never actually exist. One of our most marvelous discoveries, a discovery that overturned Newtonian science, was a product of philosophical questioning.
I have written papers on morals, ethics, God, satan, purpose, love, existence, and more. Even if none of these papers are ever seen by another soul outside my circle, I am creating a manual on how to live well. I will give it to my son. Philosophy allows us to better ourselves and better those around us. Do not trust the critic. The critic is not in the arena with the lions. The critic does not risk life, limb, sanity, and reputation. The critic will say that you are wrong because they believe they are right. There is no right answer because everything is relative to the point of view of the observer. Even laws of physics change once the observer becomes small enough.
Religion teaches us much. Do not reject religion because it is “fairy tales.” Comic books–Spider-Man, Batman, Superman, Batmetal–shape kids identities. Comic books teach children how to be strong and heroic.
God = Santa Clause. Even if the person does not exist, the ideas and the values do. Pride is the deadliest sin because pride is the only thing that would make an evolved monkey who can’t even see the full light-spectrum think they know so much that they would rather live as selfish gluttons than righteous doers just to prove a point.
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Excellent comment — full of thoughtfulness and common sense!
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You say many good things and are unnecessarily harsh to the critic. The critic, for example, the literary critic does language and arts a service. Socrates gave no answers. He was really a social critic managing to discourage Euthyphro from the course he had set himself against his father.
And I will add here, that I agree with you on the value of philosophy
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I know no critic more despised than the literary critic. See Tobias Wolff’s “Bullet in the Brain,” a story about a critic who complains even as he is shot. I have never met a writer who had anything pleasant to say about a critic. A critic is not the same as a person who is critical. Socrates was critical of those around him and encouraged discourse of his criticisms, daring opponents to consider alternatives to their fixed views. A critic gives their opinion on a piece so that people either seek out the piece or avoid it. Edgar Allan Poe was a great author who also dabbled in being a critic. When he was a critic he gave nothing to society and his critcisms are not compiled in any of his works, save those niche ones for the true Poe fan. The difference is that one critic dabbles in discourse while the other dabbles in tabloids and opinion pieces meant to do nothing but garner views.
Socrates did give an answer, but it is more like a math formula. Newton discovered calculus to explain the stars. Socrates discovered the Socratic method to explain the inherent arrogance of man, to explore science, to question extablished norms to bolster academic exploration.
The yelp critic is useful in the way my phone’s GPS is, it’s convenient, but I’ll miss all the wonder of the country if I spend all my time on the fastest routes avoiding risk and adventure. They do no service to the arts that peer review doesn’t.
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[…] what is philosophy good for? […]
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would you like to clarify!
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What would you like clarified?
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