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Old 06-20-2016, 09:29 PM
 
Location: minnesota
15,864 posts, read 6,320,150 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Tzaphkiel View Post
ooooooh! recipe secrets!
we would grate fresh mozzarella and mix it with cottage cheese, oh yum!
Arrggghhhh grog serving wench! Cottage cheese instead of ricotta is an insult to his noodly goodness. The fresh mozzarella is a pleasing offering. ramen
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Old 06-20-2016, 10:08 PM
 
22,161 posts, read 19,213,038 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by L8Gr8Apost8 View Post
...ramen
yes ramen too, i make a kosher ramen hot and sour soup in 3 minutes that is Szechuan good, the secret is equal parts lemon juice and vinegar.
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Old 06-20-2016, 10:28 PM
 
Location: minnesota
15,864 posts, read 6,320,150 times
Reputation: 5057
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tzaphkiel View Post
yes ramen too, i make a kosher ramen hot and sour soup in 3 minutes that is Szechuan good, the secret is equal parts lemon juice and vinegar.
What the heck just happened there? Did you just turn me into the straight man? I'm never the straight man, always the foil. My head hurts. nice job by the way.
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Old 06-20-2016, 11:06 PM
 
Location: S. Wales.
50,087 posts, read 20,712,695 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Tzaphkiel View Post
yes ramen too, i make a kosher ramen hot and sour soup in 3 minutes that is Szechuan good, the secret is equal parts lemon juice and vinegar.
Try lime juice instead of lemon.

Quote:
Originally Posted by L8Gr8Apost8 View Post
What the heck just happened there? Did you just turn me into the straight man? I'm never the straight man, always the foil. My head hurts. nice job by the way.
She changed the script.

Joke (a little edited) in a local tabloid newspaper

(In a museum}, "This Darwnist exhibit is all wrong. The earth is only 6,000 years old."

"That can't be right. Some of these dinosaurs are over 60 million years old."

"How do you know - were you there?"

"Why, yes...yes I was."

"No, you weren't!"

"How do you know?"

...!!...

"You're not sticking to the script!"
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Old 06-22-2016, 10:17 PM
 
Location: City-Data Forum
7,943 posts, read 6,065,133 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by GoCardinals View Post
We sure can, but not always and not in everything, my young friend.
We can decide in things we are allowed to make a choice. And for the rest, someone else is in control.
Many supernatural someones for all of the rest (Monotheists are just Fascist polytheists), and many uncreated eternals for only a tiny tiny few. But if one can be eternal, infinite can be eternal too.

We can decide even in things over which we have no choice! Thought and Imagination are wonderful. It's only a pity that the systems aren't more perfect. So odd that imperfection would spring from perfection, one could say that imperfection can only spring from imperfection, but what is a tinny worm to raise its head and judge a large monster?

FSM
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Old 06-23-2016, 12:53 AM
 
7,801 posts, read 6,372,988 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jman07 View Post
Isn't it sad that our existence is meaningless?
Not even a bit sad no. And just because existence is of itself objectively meaningless, that does not mean my existence or yours is. Because WE ourselves give it the meaning. And that is enough for me. If it is not enough for you, then perhaps some introspection is warranted as to why that may be. Why do you need some external validation for the meaning you find in your existence and the existence around you?

Quote:
Originally Posted by jman07 View Post
That there is no afterlife
I think the concept of an after life, especially an eternal one, erodes the value and meaning and worth of THIS life. So no, I do not find it sad that there is no reason to think there is an after life. An eternal after life makes a complete mockery of the value of this life.

Take the Jesus myth for example. The myth tells us that this man "gave his life" for us. The myth however ALSO tells us that Jesus lives in a state of eternal bliss and dominion at his fathers right hand. That instantly makes a mockery of any "sacrifice" the myth purports to tell us he made. He did not sacrifice anything, nor did god "give us his only son". At best it can be said this god LENT us his son, and rather than "give his life" for us that son "traded up".

See how quickly the concept of eternal life makes a mockery of the value of anything you do in THIS life? And how the Jesus myth is a mockery and insult to anyone in this life who actually DID give their life for a person, a place, or an ideal.

A god of eternal resources and time is limited because it simply can not understand the concept of actual sacrifice, let alone has it the ability to perform one. What a paradox than an unlimited being can be so limited.
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Old 06-23-2016, 07:50 AM
2K5Gx2km
 
n/a posts
Quote:
Originally Posted by jman07 View Post
Isn't it sad that our existence is meaningless? That there is no afterlife, no god, and no real meaning to our lives? Eventually the whole earth and every remnant of human life will be gone with noting to show for everything we've done, everything we've created, everything we've passed on here. It's all for nothing. I don't think about it often, and enjoy my day to day existence, but it is still sad. Obviously one of the major reasons religion was created in the first place.
I don't think you need an ultimate end goal for there to be meaning in the here and now. We create meaning for the present which affects all we come in contact with. What we do each moment has meaning whether or not there is no one to remember it or whether there is an afterlife. You cannot say it was all for nothing. It was for something here and now not for some unknown future that will never materialize. What you do here and now is for here and now and it matters for the moment in which it takes place.
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Old 06-23-2016, 04:51 PM
 
13,511 posts, read 19,276,876 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jman07 View Post
Isn't it sad that our existence is meaningless? That there is no afterlife, no god, and no real meaning to our lives? Eventually the whole earth and every remnant of human life will be gone with noting to show for everything we've done, everything we've created, everything we've passed on here. It's all for nothing. I don't think about it often, and enjoy my day to day existence, but it is still sad. Obviously one of the major reasons religion was created in the first place.
How do you know our existence is meaningless...meaningless to who?
How do you know there'll be nothing left to show...show to who?
I don't embrace religions, but I sure don't think life is without it's worth.
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Old 06-23-2016, 06:30 PM
 
Location: Northeastern US
19,990 posts, read 13,470,976 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by purehuman View Post
How do you know our existence is meaningless...meaningless to who?
How do you know there'll be nothing left to show...show to who?
I don't embrace religions, but I sure don't think life is without it's worth.
Indeed. When you think about it, meaning is personal. It inherently can't be externally bestowed. Imagine going up to another person and begging them to tell you what's meaningful to you. No, they can only tell you what's meaningful to them. And you can only tell what's meaningful to you.

So all this nonsense about a universe without meaning represents a complete failure to understand the very nature of meaning itself. Meaning in the sense we're talking about here is "the end, purpose, or significance of something" and this begs the question, "to whom?" You have to make assessments and judgments of purpose and value and importance to decide that something is "meaningful". That requires an actor and it's obvious that for any one actor those judgments are binding only on that actor.

I find software development meaningful, creative, relaxing, and inspiring. Others find it tedious, anxiety-inducing, and a necessary evil at best. It is an error to assume that what I find meaning in, everyone else can or should.

Religion argues that god finds certain things meaningful / wholesome and others meaningless / harmful but fails to even establish the existence of their deity or that it is the only and correct one, much less that the deity has good judgment and has goals that are benevolently considerate of our best interests or to explain how a deity's tastes / priorities / perceptions would necessarily or even likely apply to us.

Binding humanity to some overarching meaning or purpose simply makes us slaves to an arbitrary actor's purpose. It is both liberating and, in a sense, scary to come up with and own your own decisions about what you want to focus on in life.

Finally, an assigned role in someone else's enterprise is fundamentally enslaving, unjust and infantilizing. "Just tell me what to believe / do / think / feel / like" is just begging to cede all your responsibility for your entire life to someone else, and of course this is just the sort of twisted notion that the Abrahamic religions present as some sort of virtuous and desirable end. The result is people who can't discern right from wrong without looking it up in a playbook and who can't take personal responsibility for the actual morality and ethics of their own actions.

All we like sheep have gone astray, so the scriptures say. As long as you think you are a dumb lost sheep, you will continue to be vulnerable to other people's notions of propriety, virtue, purpose and meaning. Worse: you'll continue to be dependent on them.
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Old 06-24-2016, 01:29 AM
 
Location: S. Wales.
50,087 posts, read 20,712,695 times
Reputation: 5930
Yes, yes, yes. In my Searching youth, I recall a remark about those without God distracting themselves with all sorts of hobbies and futile pursuits in order to blot out the meaninglessness of an existence without God -belief.

I can still recall how much of an emotional gut -impact that had. A vision of blazing Imperial figure on a throne holding out a promise of eternal life, and a feeling 'Just trust in that and you don't have to worry about anything ever again'.

Yes, I know how compelling a Sell that is, but if you just unpack that you see that it is a big sell and a brainwash and a too easy answer. Every time I hear the familiar appeals to Faith and "don't trust human worldly knowledge", I feel that I know what that feeling of utter confident trust is, but I also know that it comes apart under scrutiny, and so I also know why such scrutiny is rejected and we get the personals and talk of Lies. I know why they talk of a meaningless existence, and why it is so hard for them to understand that it actually has more real meaning to take responsibility (which seems to get dumped on us anyway because God for sure isn't help accountable) than to pin it all on "In God we trust".

So easy, when the trust convinces the believer that must be right through belief, no matter how much "Evidence" is presented. I know that temptation to believe that one is right and "I don't care what you say". But it is a false belief and "Courage of convictions is actually not at all something to be admired.

As Charlie Brown has it "Stand up for your right to be wishy -washy".

And on top of that, along with the explanation of the lost ending of Mark (I wish I remember who suggested that to me, I have a rep point here..) was the realization that the voice - in -the -head that one talks to (which is -as deconverts have explained - taken as the voice of God) is also the God that inspires people with the "Truth".

About everything. Science, politics, and of course Interpretation of scripture, which is why the debates of Christianity with a pair of "Scriptureman" combatants hurling cherry -picked Biblequotes at one another, is not only a bit of a Hoot, but actually evidence that this faith in the Inspired interpretation of scripture is a palpable self delusion.

In the end, when Faith -based answers fail, you have nothing but human evidence and reasoning, and in the end only human (and humanist) reasons for our existence, because those based on Faith are false even if they were desirable, which when you think it through, they really aren't.

Now I must see whether I can find a Bibleman you tube. For those who haven't seen it it is a must. Up there with Bananaman and Peanut butterman.

Last edited by TRANSPONDER; 06-24-2016 at 01:55 AM..
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