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Post by Baph on Apr 16, 2017 14:34:41 GMT -5
God sent 1/3 of himself to bronze age Palestine to get humiliated, tortured, and briefly killed because he loves you.
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Post by ToNoAvail on Apr 16, 2017 15:06:52 GMT -5
We have a water cooler for this.
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Post by slaytan on Apr 16, 2017 21:57:40 GMT -5
I wish more men would pretend to believe for the sake of civic responsibility, like our forefathers did for centuries
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Post by boboplata on Apr 16, 2017 22:25:55 GMT -5
PMs would've sufficed.
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Post by Baph on Apr 16, 2017 23:22:29 GMT -5
I wish more men would pretend to believe for the sake of civic responsibility, like our forefathers did for centuries Not gonna happen, and with the current media/culture it's only gonna get worse. Ball is in the church's court: and this is one thing Christianity is actually exceptionally good at: evolving. BE more civic, more modern, more unitarian; find a modern ethic and restate the doctrine of your community toward responsibility, stewardship, dignity, tolerance (the real kind). That or fade away like the European church as society becomes completely lost and self destructive.
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Post by PatSox on Apr 17, 2017 8:05:23 GMT -5
Also, Rabbits don't lay eggs. And if they did, I doubt they would be a varying array of pastel colors
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Post by matt on Apr 17, 2017 11:08:52 GMT -5
I don't care where I go when i die...
So I'm just gonna eat ice cream and bang some hot broads while I'm here.
But on a serious note, everyone knows the Easter bunny doesn't lay eggs, he just hides the ones that you already have... A lesson in taking things for granted.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 17, 2017 11:40:59 GMT -5
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Post by Baph on Apr 17, 2017 12:14:16 GMT -5
There's something in our evolutionary biology that needs this.
The specifics are irrelevant. The doctrine is largely irrelevant. You could RWD through time and watch two dozen deities come and go. Jesus Zoroaster Brahma Horus Mithra Quetzalcoatl A thousand other upstarts . . . squint your eyes enough and it's all the same thing. Myself made perfect. Myself conquering the unknowns of origin, purpose, and death. Magic man.
Strip away the commentary and what remains is the communal shared experience, the affirmation of identity, the cordoning off of doubt, scratching some deeply human itch, together. This is church. Congregation. Ceremony. Mass. It's not just me, it's not just now, we are all a part of something that has a known source and a known hereafter, and that is wildly intoxicating to the trembling psyche of the human mind.
The simple fact that religion is so universal, across centuries and across geography, and arises with similar themes and structures completely independent of influence is overwhelming evidence of it's true nature. It is the great wonder and at once the great tragedy of our species that we alone awoke and became aware of ourselves and our mortality, and did so without any handbook or map, thus one had to be invented. And every culture in every corner of the globe reaching back to the dawn of time has done precisely this. Fill in the gaps. Effectively, there is no difference between the masses huddled around the base of a step pyramid while still-beating hearts are pulled from the blood sacrifice of the people and the sharply-dressed socialites seeing and being seen at the megachurch on Easter Sunday. Humans, in union, rhythmically engaging in the ritualized affirmation of invented answers to unanswerable questions: medicating the harsher aspects of our consciousness.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 17, 2017 16:35:17 GMT -5
There's something in our evolutionary biology that needs this. The specifics are irrelevant. The doctrine is largely irrelevant. You could RWD through time and watch two dozen deities come and go. Jesus Zoroaster Brahma Horus Mithra Quetzalcoatl A thousand other upstarts . . . squint your eyes enough and it's all the same thing. Myself made perfect. Myself conquering the unknowns of origin, purpose, and death. Magic man. Strip away the commentary and what remains is the communal shared experience, the affirmation of identity, the cordoning off of doubt, scratching some deeply human itch, together. This is church. Congregation. Ceremony. Mass. It's not just me, it's not just now, we are all a part of something that has a known source and a known hereafter, and that is wildly intoxicating to the trembling psyche of the human mind. The simple fact that religion is so universal, across centuries and across geography, and arises with similar themes and structures completely independent of influence is overwhelming evidence of it's true nature. It is the great wonder and at once the great tragedy of our species that we alone awoke and became aware of ourselves and our mortality, and did so without any handbook or map, thus one had to be invented. And every culture in every corner of the globe reaching back to the dawn of time has done precisely this. Fill in the gaps. Effectively, there is no difference between the masses huddled around the base of a step pyramid while still-beating hearts are pulled from the blood sacrifice of the people and the sharply-dressed socialites seeing and being seen at the megachurch on Easter Sunday. Humans, in union, rhythmically engaging in the ritualized affirmation of invented answers to unanswerable questions: medicating the harsher aspects of our consciousness. I would disagree that the specifics are irrelevant. Because religion relies on the concept of faith, and it is preached in each of the religions you mentioned above. The problem with this form of organized religion in my opinion is that it focuses far too much on hierarchy and an almost predator/prey relationship between those at the pulpit and those in the crowd. So you then are left with individuals who would use the intoxicating effect that having "definitive answers" to the questions that make the psyche tremble as a means to prey upon those who seek the answers. You are correct that we as a species seem to "need" this. However that need seems to change the further east you travel, and it transforms a bit away from promises of everlasting life (one where you still have your body, and are in eternal bliss, surrounded by virgins, or whatever) and towards a way of existing in a more harmonious nature with the world around you. So the need is real, but the most commonly accepted locations to have the need sated (in the west) tend to belong to organizations that thrive on social control. Why does one come to the opinion that the Bible, literally understood, is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? Usually because one’s "elders and betters," or an impressively large group of ones peers have this opinion. But this is to go along with the Bandar-log, or monkey tribe, in Rudyard Kipling’s Jungle Books who periodically get together and shout, "We all say so, so it must be true!" Having been a father for a number of years, I am not particularly impressed with patriarchal authority. I am of an age with my own formerly impressive father and I realize that my opinions are as fallible as his. But many people never grow up. They stay all their lives with a passionate need for eternal authority and guidance, pretending not to trust their own judgment. Nevertheless it is their own judgment, willy-nilly, that there exists some authority greater than their own. The fervent fundamentalist whether Protestant or Catholic, Jew or Muslim is closed to reason and even communication for fear of losing the security of childish dependence. He would suffer extreme emotional trials of an insurmountable kind, if he didn’t have the feeling that there was some external and infallible guide in which he could trust absolutely and without which his very identity would dissolve. This attitude is not faith. It is pure idolatry. The more deceptive idols are not images of wood and stone but are constructed of words and ideas and mental images of God. Faith is an openness and trusting attitude to truth and reality, whatever it may turn out to be. This is a risky and adventurous state of mind. Belief, in the religious sense, is the opposite of faith because it is a fervent wishing or hope, a compulsive clinging to the idea that the universe is arranged and governed in such and such a way. Belief is holding to a rock; faith is learning how to swim and this whole universe swims in boundless space. And it is the problem of our time, that this kind of religious belief is used to manipulate large numbers of people to blow themselves up, to maim and slaughter in the name of their belief. The hierarchy remains intact as well, because it is never a priest or cleric or person of important rank who are out martyring themselves. Likely because they know they are pushing lies on those they manipulate to do damage to others. If dying for Allah is the greatest honor, why aren't the elders strapping tannerite to themselves and charging the enemy on the field of battle, blowing up when shot by an "infidel"? The seeking of answers to the biggest questions that have no single answer is a vital thread in the fabric of human nature. The problem I see is that far too many think someone else has the answer, rather than looking to themselves to find it. So the specifics matter, a lot. Because in the wrong hands, religion is the most dangerous weapon in the world. I'm not disagreeing with the rest of your premise, because anyone who thinks much will eventually ponder the questions that religion claims to have answers to. But I will say that the specifics matter a lot. The specifics are the difference between a kid wearing a turban in the desert learning how to fire an RPG while screaming "allahu akbar" and a kid with a shaved head meditating on the side of a mountain.
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Post by Spencer on Apr 17, 2017 22:15:43 GMT -5
There's something in our evolutionary biology that needs this. Fuck that - organized religion? It was nothing more than social engineering of proto-man's origin theories, twisted up with a healthy dose of fear of the unknown. Sure, we're inherently curious about the meaning of life, but that doesn't have to mean organized, corrupt global power bases. I wasn't brought up in that environment, and I sure as fuck don't think something is missing in my life because of it.
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Post by boboplata on Apr 17, 2017 22:42:25 GMT -5
There's something in our evolutionary biology that needs this. Fuck that - organized religion? It was nothing more than social engineering of proto-man's origin theories, twisted up with a healthy dose of fear of the unknown. Sure, we're inherently curious about the meaning of life, but that doesn't have to mean organized, corrupt global power bases. I wasn't brought up in that environment, and I sure as fuck don't think something is missing in my life because of it. You need gay jesus.
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Post by Baph on Apr 18, 2017 1:13:57 GMT -5
There's something in our evolutionary biology that needs this. Fuck that - organized religion? It was nothing more than social engineering of proto-man's origin theories, twisted up with a healthy dose of fear of the unknown. Sure, we're inherently curious about the meaning of life, but that doesn't have to mean organized, corrupt global power bases. I wasn't brought up in that environment, and I sure as fuck don't think something is missing in my life because of it. Your single experience must over-ride evidence from the whole of human history, then. Tens of billions of people have eagerly drowned themselves in the cyanide of chanting congregations since the epoch of the Aurignacian and who knows beyond that. Iran, Egypt, Asia, India, the Americas, and the West (anglo peoples) are all steeped in it as long as anyone can dig up and carbon date. Observing the silliness of it doesn't make it any less real. Lots of our instincts are silly or even counter-productive now, but there's a reason they exist, and it's the same reason religions exists: it has (or had at one time) a survival benefit. There's no way around that.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 18, 2017 8:06:21 GMT -5
Man is susceptible to brain washing and tradition at a very early age. Early Alphas just realized this and used it to their advantage. Man no more needs Religion than he needs, say, Thanksgiving (for Americans). But he was brought up with it so he just goes with it. And then of course a smaller subset gets hardcore about it (just like pretty much everything man gets involved with).
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Post by Spencer on Apr 18, 2017 8:08:39 GMT -5
Man is susceptible to brain washing and tradition at a very early age. Early Alphas just realized this and used it to their advantage. Man no more needs Religion than he needs, say, Thanksgiving (for Americans). But he was brought up with it so he just goes with it. And then of course a smaller subset gets hardcore about it (just like pretty much everything man gets involved with). Exactly. Well said.
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Post by Baph on Apr 18, 2017 11:18:58 GMT -5
Man is susceptible to brain washing and tradition at a very early age. Early Alphas just realized this and used it to their advantage. Man no more needs Religion than he needs, say, Thanksgiving (for Americans). But he was brought up with it so he just goes with it. And then of course a smaller subset gets hardcore about it (just like pretty much everything man gets involved with). That's a hard argument to make against the multi-million-year-history of religion and it's role in tribal cohesion and hierarchy and the clear survival benefit it's demonstrated. From a biological standpoint, man . . . and animals in general . . . don't have things they don't need. That's how evolutionary biology works. You're not susceptible to things that don't benefit your survival. You don't exploit things that don't benefit your survival. Whether or not it's logical is irrelevant to the process of natural selection. People do lots of irrational things, behaving in racist, violent, sexually jealous, religious ways . . . but they ALL have/had strong survival benefit or they wouldn't exist. Religion is an integral part of the human story. Wherever man was not born into it he was compelled to invent it. It's the psychosocial mechanism by which we solve, sometimes crudely, the problem of consciousness, the problem of private morality, the problem of tribal narrative.
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Post by MMAJim on Apr 18, 2017 13:18:59 GMT -5
The certainty that some people have that belief is folly is folly itself. Strip away which belief system it is filtered through. The fact is that you have to at least consider that there are higher powers than we can perceive in play. To me, religion is a from of shared history. See past today's interpretation of things. Maybe this forum will be a bible in 5015? The fact that cultures around the globe have a creation story that includes a cataclysmic flood stories. Geologists no say that these huge flood events (probably not the entire globe with one floating zoo on it) likely did happen. Religion is a form of historical record.
Kind of lost where I'm going here. I just think some people get lost in the zeal of refuting specific religious traditions rather than focusing on what is really there. We happen to live in a technologically advanced age and all of our perceptions are influenced (clouded) by that.
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Post by Baph on Apr 18, 2017 13:47:06 GMT -5
The certainty that some people have that belief is folly is folly itself. Strip away which belief system it is filtered through. The fact is that you have to at least consider that there are higher powers than we can perceive in play. To me, religion is a from of shared history. See past today's interpretation of things. Maybe this forum will be a bible in 5015? The fact that cultures around the globe have a creation story that includes a cataclysmic flood stories. Geologists no say that these huge flood events (probably not the entire globe with one floating zoo on it) likely did happen. Religion is a form of historical record. Kind of lost where I'm going here. I just think some people get lost in the zeal of refuting specific religious traditions rather than focusing on what is really there. We happen to live in a technologically advanced age and all of our perceptions are influenced (clouded) by that. I have not argued that belief is folly. To the contrary, I pointed out very specific survival benefits and the long history and near universality of religion. But the utility of belief and the logic/veracity of religion are two very different arguments. There is zero evidence for higher powers. And finding germs of historicity at the heart of elaborate folklore is not compelling, either. Primitive cultures saw floods, droughts, eclipses, storms, disease, invasions all as acts of god that became elaborate fables as they passed on in oral traditions. It doesn't mean Odin granted you a favorable harvest or that Ra was warring with Osiris; it means primitive cultures didn't understand physics and weather and cosmology. There are no dots to connect. It's primitive cultures giving divine attribution to natural phenomenon, which is exactly what religion is: filling in the gaps of our understanding -- about floods, about death, about our origins, etc. It serves that purpose, and that is not without merit, but that is a separate conversation from it's historical or scientific validity. This is precisely what I'm trying to do: not focus on refuting specifics but dig down to the underlying purpose of these narratives in a tribal/psychological context.
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Post by MMAJim on Apr 18, 2017 13:59:36 GMT -5
I think we're (now specifically referring to Baph) going to be in agreement here if get our wording together. No dots connect to Odin, yet there are components of the Odin story that conveyed information over time that were likely beneficial to the harvest. (Odin as representative here) We're in the 99th percentile of agreement. The last percentile that may lead to disagreement is openness to whatever one believes is a higher power represented in religious stories. I'm open to many variations of the possibility of higher powers, aliens, past advanced civilizations, a singular higher power, ourselves existing in higher states of being as higher powers. I'm not suggesting some extra floods is somehow evidence of it alone. I am saying that religious stories and traditions provide a lot of real concrete historical and applicable information that we are less adept at interpreting as we once were.
Sidebar 1: I'm also very open to the nothing more out there, no further connection, you die you rot possibilities as well. If we're talking 'belief' I don't really believe that is all there is to it.
Sidebar 2: Did quote anyone in initial reply because I was grouping some sentiments together from multiple posts.
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Post by Baph on Apr 19, 2017 1:10:32 GMT -5
Agree with all. In terms of actual belief, I have a real hard time saying anything beyond "I don't know". The universe is an impossibly vast, impossibly ancient, impossibly weird thing that we hardly understand at all. There's even some reasonably strong math that points to the universe being something like a hologram. The more we learn, the weirder and more ridiculous it all gets. We have no fucking clue what the real nature of existence is and likely never will, perhaps because it's completely incomprehensible. Membranes, strings, quarks, multiverse . . . fuck me. The only thing we know for sure is that every god, goddess, and deity we've every heard of is the invention of a human mind groping for purpose in the darkness.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 19, 2017 8:44:22 GMT -5
Agree with all. In terms of actual belief, I have a real hard time saying anything beyond "I don't know". The universe is an impossibly vast, impossibly ancient, impossibly weird thing that we hardly understand at all. There's even some reasonably strong math that points to the universe being something like a hologram. The more we learn, the weirder and more ridiculous it all gets. We have no fucking clue what the real nature of existence is and likely never will, perhaps because it's completely incomprehensible. Membranes, strings, quarks, multiverse . . . fuck me. The only thing we know for sure is that every god, goddess, and deity we've every heard of is the invention of a human mind groping for purpose in the darkness. Except for one. There's only one I know of that never claimed divinity on his own. Only one who never issued a single demand, and only one who acknowleged and embraced the "I don't know" part with regards to deities and the western concept of the divine. Interestingly enough- to me anyway- those who decided that the fat prince was actually divine but do not call their belief system religion- are also the only group to never take up arms and go fight wars over their "god" beliefs. Thus making that belief system the least mundane of all the belief systems. I get what you're driving at Baph. Trying to understand some biological connection to our intrinsic desire to seek and understand the divine. I'm just pointing out that the most peaceful belief system is also the one that doesn't claim any knowlege of the unknowable, and those within the upper echelon of that system seem to have moved beyond the biological drive that you want to understand. Perhaps the answer lies with those who stopped seeking answers from external sources?
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Post by MMAJim on Apr 19, 2017 9:42:35 GMT -5
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Post by Baph on Apr 19, 2017 11:11:12 GMT -5
Link works, and agree with the Buddhism exemption, but I've gotta say, when pushed, Buddhism probably breaks bread with the philosophy camp more than the religion camp, even though there are some goofy window dressing. In that regard, it reminds me of Scientology quite a bit. The core concept is confronting and overcoming emotional trauma and there's a lot that makes sense there and people improve themselves from it, but then there's the weird shit that develops once things get organized and powerful, and the next thing you know you're reincarnated karma from Xenu.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 19, 2017 11:27:00 GMT -5
I've been reading more about Buddhism lately since I discovered Alan Watts. It's very interesting to me, as I was raised in the Roman Catholic church. Buddhism is almost the opposite. A lot of the teachings are similar I suppose, but the difference is that there is no real hierarchy within Buddhism. Every other religion has a hierarchy in place, and one must ascend through that hierarchy to learn everything that their church "knows". Like, The Pope has access to texts that the rest of those who practice the religion can never see. The same seems to hold true for the other major organized religions as well. Always some kind of "big secret" at the top that is guarded like they are nukes. That's problematic when one considers Baph's point; An intrinsic desire to connect with something bigger than the self. Because here are these organizations claiming to have answers to the troubling cosmic questions, yet they appear to be very big on withholding information. That begs the question of "Why?" When one considers that a snake oil salesman will never tell one the ingredients in his "Cure All", because he knows it's all bullshit- then one might conclude that these big organized religions know they are peddling bullshit- but continue to do so because of the power their bullshit allows them to wield over massive portions of the human population. Discovering a form of "religion" (really for lack of a better word) that goes against all of these practices is intriguing to me, because it seems a lot more trustworthy due to the general lack of secrecy surrounding it. I can read all the same things the Dalai Lama reads. And in reading about him specifically- I found something that really compelled me. I was a Philosophy major in college, and had no exposure to Buddhism or the Dalai Lama. The closest I came to even knowing about him was from Eddie Murphy's 1980's classic "The Golden Child". I did not take any Eastern Philosophy classes because they didn't jibe with my schedule or my focus on law related philosophy. But I read a bit from almost all the major western philosophers over the four years. I realized that I was looking for more meaning than I'd been provided in Church, and started trying to conceptualize what the meaning of life actually was. Without any exposure to Buddhism or the Dalai Lama, I concluded that the meaning of life was "Happiness." Now all these years later, I've read three separate stories about the Dalai Lama where he has expressed that exact concept to various strangers who have engaged him in conversation and boldly asked "THE" question. www.slate.com/articles/life/culturebox/2014/02/dalai_lama_at_a_santa_fe_ski_resort_tells_waitress_the_meaning_of_life.html---------- As we finished, a young waitress with tangled, dirty-blond hair and a beaded headband began clearing our table. She stopped to listen to the conversation and finally sat down, abandoning her work. After a while, when there was a pause, she spoke to the Dalai Lama. “You didn’t like your cookie?” “Not hungry, thank you.” “Can I, um, ask a question?” “Please.” She spoke with complete seriousness. “What is the meaning of life?” In my entire week with the Dalai Lama, every conceivable question had been asked—except this one. People had been afraid to ask the one—the really big—question. There was a brief, stunned silence at the table. The Dalai Lama answered immediately. “The meaning of life is happiness.” He raised his finger, leaning forward, focusing on her as if she were the only person in the world. “Hard question is not, ‘What is meaning of life?’ That is easy question to answer! No, hard question is what make happiness. Money? Big house? Accomplishment? Friends? Or …” He paused. “Compassion and good heart? This is question all human beings must try to answer: What make true happiness?” He gave this last question a peculiar emphasis and then fell silent, gazing at her with a smile. ------------ So it took me four years of toiling with western philosophy to answer his "easy" question. And in the past few years, there have been a few instances where someone was on the side of the road in dire need of assistance continuing to live (three were having heart attacks and one jumped off a bridge, landing on the highway below) and I stopped to help them. I've never had a better feeling than walking away knowing that I helped someone that I didn't even know, continue to live. One of them did not make it, and died in the ambulance on their way to the hospital. However, I still got that feeling knowing they didn't die when I was helping them. I've thought a lot about that stuff. Especially now, given all that is going on in my professional life. I think Buddhism will serve me far better than any other line of thinking I've discovered so far. From dealing with my employees all the way to the company strategy of being as self sustaining as possible. The benefits of this line of thinking are going to be helpful to us much more than Christianity, Judaism or Muslim's ideologies would.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 19, 2017 11:59:02 GMT -5
Link works, and agree with the Buddhism exemption, but I've gotta say, when pushed, Buddhism probably breaks bread with the philosophy camp more than the religion camp, even though there are some goofy window dressing. In that regard, it reminds me of Scientology quite a bit. The core concept is confronting and overcoming emotional trauma and there's a lot that makes sense there and people improve themselves from it, but then there's the weird shit that develops once things get organized and powerful, and the next thing you know you're reincarnated karma from Xenu. That's the part that is problematic to me. That organization and power that come from "providing answers" makes it so that Catholic Church is the second largest holder of gold (behind the US Gov't) in the world. Why in the fuck does an organization that talks about the value of poverty have that much gold? It's like they have convinced the classroom that they are the smartest one in the room, and that the only way you can hope to pass the test is by cheating and copying their answers. That seems to be a serious logical fallacy when they tell you that their deity is infinite, yet there is only one correct path towards that infinity- and it's the one they want you on, their's. That doesn't make sense to me anymore, and seems really authoritarian in nature. And this is no small, insignificant thing to claim to be an authority on. This is the big shebang, the whole shooting match. And they expect me to believe their answers and do so on nothing more than "faith" they want me to have in that which they cannot prove? All while hiding their most important texts in some nuclear bomb proof fortress? I know that the desire to connect with something bigger is a real thing, because I feel that myself. I just think that a lot of people are looking under the wrong rocks for the answers, and can be easily lead astray because of it. See: Muslims. Not related to the above, but an interesting fact: The average IQ in Muslim dominated countries is around 80 (Forest Gump :75) because their religion says marrying your cousin is totes fine because Mohammed also married his cousins. So if one ever asks "Why do these people stupidly blow themselves up?" The answer is: Because they're fucking stupid.
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Post by jamesod on Apr 19, 2017 12:14:19 GMT -5
Link worked. As an aside, props to you for using smile.amazon. For anyone who doesn't know, you can designate a charity through smile.amazon.com (it's super easy to do and you only have to do it once) and then amazon will donate to that charity some amount (.5%?) for each future amazon purchase you make. You were going to use amazon anyway, why not have them give some money to a charity of your choice?
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Post by Deleted on Apr 19, 2017 12:38:10 GMT -5
Link worked. As an aside, props to you for using smile.amazon. For anyone who doesn't know, you can designate a charity through smile.amazon.com (it's super easy to do and you only have to do it once) and then amazon will donate to that charity some amount (.5%?) for each future amazon purchase you make. You were going to use amazon anyway, why not have them give some money to a charity of your choice? Because I like to keep my tax write offs and not give them away to massive multinational multi-billion dollar corporations. That's all.
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Post by Baph on Apr 19, 2017 12:39:09 GMT -5
Another thing that's helpful when getting into the formative religion mindset is that just a few thousand years ago the primary goal of most humans was living to the end of the month, surviving winter was considered long term planning, and you'd never actually met a person who lived to see 45.
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Post by MMAJim on Apr 19, 2017 12:54:57 GMT -5
Amazon Smile Sidebar I'm not a smile expert, but I believe if whether or not you use smile, your cost is exactly the same, so its not like you are contributing extra money yourself that you could have then written off. I'm unsure enough that I will now take a look. Update: www.huffingtonpost.com/brady-josephson/why-amazon-is-smiling-and_b_4360405.htmlAbove article is hogwash. I'm not buying things on Amazon, because I feel like the Smile kickback satisfies my urge to give back to charity. It's just .5% to a charity, out of Amazon's pocket (I'm sure to their own gain for marketing positives at the very least), and has zero impact on the rest of our charitable giving.
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Post by jamesod on Apr 19, 2017 13:13:19 GMT -5
Link worked. As an aside, props to you for using smile.amazon. For anyone who doesn't know, you can designate a charity through smile.amazon.com (it's super easy to do and you only have to do it once) and then amazon will donate to that charity some amount (.5%?) for each future amazon purchase you make. You were going to use amazon anyway, why not have them give some money to a charity of your choice? Because I like to keep my tax write offs and not give them away to massive multinational multi-billion dollar corporations. That's all. I'm confused. You were going to buy that blender for $60 and amazon was going to keep all of it. Instead, you paid $60 for the same blender but by using Amazon smile, Amazon got $59.70 and a charity of your choice got $.30. How does that hurt your ability as re: any tax write offs for any charitable contributions you make throughout the year? Your blender purchase isn't a charitable contribution for you, whether you make it through amazon or amazon smile.
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