Joij, are you trolling us? I'm getting too old to tell
What is the point of life?
- Thread starter gozpel
- Start date
Sofista
Deity
Fixed for you.
^^^ Excellent fix and we could probably go even one step further: ...not accepted by Christian Americans....
Sofista
Deity
I really would like to know what the evolution of Christianity in America was like. It's just baffling to me. I remember bits from my sociology classes, but they just don't cover the thing.
I think I already shared this here:
I was 16 and at a Catholic boarding school (directly answering to our Archbishop). The science teacher, father Boninsegna, did talk about Creationism. For five minutes. Then spent another five on Lamarckism. He was talking about the history of science; the rest of the hour was all about Darwin.
I think I already shared this here:
I was 16 and at a Catholic boarding school (directly answering to our Archbishop). The science teacher, father Boninsegna, did talk about Creationism. For five minutes. Then spent another five on Lamarckism. He was talking about the history of science; the rest of the hour was all about Darwin.
here is a quick overview and at the end a link to the wiki which has lots of details.
Christianity in the US is complicated. It begins with different religious arriving in different parts of the colonies and then moving around and westward in stages. As the US acquired different parts of North America, different religions came with those parts. The US is a big country and many areas were culturally isolated from others. Evangelical Christianity spread from Europe to the US in the early 1800s and splintered into many new and very different sects. Millennialism and end of times thinking created even more groups. Mormonism began in the 1820s. Rural isolation allowed for the growth of many different Baptist sects. Until Darwin, for the most part religious folks believed in the biblical creation since there was not much else. Evangelicals usually believed in Biblical inerrancy because their prophecies of the end of times came from reading the words of the Bible. When those prophecies failed the various groups kept on and moved the goal posts. Evangelicals were more niche than mainstream until radio and TV allowed ministers to reach larger and distant audiences. Preachers like Billy Graham created nation "Born Again" movements throughout the 1950s and 60s. Over time those efforts began to drain the standard Protestant churches of members. In the 60s and 70s churches loosened up on their rituals and added pop and rock music to attract the young adult Baby Boomers. Jesus Christ Superstar was a Broadway musical!
In the 1980s Reagan courted these newly minted Christians to be Republicans and the religious right was born. With the election of Obama the right wing of the boomers formed the tea party. Evangelicals both black and white are often activists.
Currently the evangelical movement is growing worldwide especially in Latin America, Africa and Asia
.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evangelicalism
LOLs... I originally typed "other living things" but then I thought... "If I say that, some smartass like Lex is gonna say 'But wutabout photosynthesis?"true, I sort of read your "other things" as other organisms. I mean, photosynthesis "consumes" sunlight as well as water. Those are both technically things
So I changed it to "things". Its funny how well you can anticipate peoples responses after hanging out here so long 
I didn't "evolve" anything, especially not a brain... I can assure you of that.
And I'm not an exception. I doubt that anything less than 90% of Human energy use globally is for things other than reproduction. It might be higher for other species, but I'm fairly certain that there are numerous species that don't spend the majority of their energy on reproduction.
Lexicus
Deity
LOLs... I originally typed "other living things" but then I thought... "If I say that, some smartass like Lex is gonna say 'But wutabout photosynthesis?"
my memes, like life, always find a way
cav scout
The Continuum
- Joined
- Apr 4, 2008
- Messages
- 2,630
Disbelief in God in attractive, as it seems to get us out of many dilemmas. But I don't think you can find a satisfactory answer to your question absent a divine creator.gozpel said:
If you're really curious then I think Ecclesiastes would be worth pondering.
This seems contradictory to me. If you really don't think you are special then why would you have an opinion to share? And if there is truly no point to Gozpel's existence then why would it matter if he kills himself or does something else "stupid" after reading your post? Why did you feel the need to add a disclaimer?
Angst
Rambling and inconsistent
sendos
Immortal
How is that contradictory?
Rather you suggest those who are not special shouldn't hold an opinion, as if you seem to be the arbiter of that.
I never said there was no point to Gozpel's existence, but there is no point to anyone's existence, including mine, in an objective sense. Everyone is going to have a subjective take on their own existence. The problem is when someone asks this question, it's going to invite people to suggest to those asking this very question how they should live their lives. For example, I say to Gozpel, you should live a happy, successful (as in wealthy), make friends and find love. Seems like a simple, harmless answer to that question, right? Unfortunately not.
Every positive answer to the question has its own problems. If you believe the meaning of life is to achieve happiness, then you would do anything to achieve happiness. In other words, if you take in a broad and more sinister sense, you could achieve happiness through pure sadism or schadenfreude. If you believe the meaning of life is to be wealthy, then that could suggest by any means necessary. If you believe having friends is important, then you must maintain your social network in such a way as to avoid disappointment from your friends, or worse, exclusion. If you believe the meaning of life is to find love, then, similar to wealth, it would be what sort of love and whether that love is healthy. Further, you would need to work really hard to find a partner and every time you feel rejection, it would make you feel really bad. Some people could use that answer to use love in a more manipulative sense. Suggesting any positive answer, which would often be a broad answer, would result in a variety of interpretations. It might give people focus, but it's a false and unnecessary target or goal and if they fail, it leads to an existential crisis.
If you give people that answer, they believe that their life must be successful in this way, otherwise they're a failure, which may cause more anxiety and, in some extreme circumstances, suicide. We've got so much anxiety in the world. Providing a positive answer might give someone focus but it would also stress them out, especially if they feel they're not achieving that meaning.
Of course, theists would use these broad answers and detect that the answers are not subject to moral constraint and therefore, the discussion naturally moves to religion, as if to suggest you can achieve that meaning only with a set of moral rules deriving from a religion. You see? This question just a typical trick by theists into lulling mentally vulnerable people into joining their faith.
I add a "disclaimer" because someone would retort my post by saying "ok then, I may as well go kill myself or do something stupid then". My point is that you decide how to live your life and you must take responsibility for it.
if you want a strict biological, emotionless answer to the question "what is the meaning of life", it perhaps be similar to finding love, but more specifically sex for the purpose of reproduction and nothing else, coupled with survival instincts.
Belief in god gets us out of about as many dilemmas as disbelief does... and vice-versa. All we're doing with belief is just replacing one problem with a different problem.
I don't see why having an opinion would be mutually exclusive with not being special. Only "special" people can have opinions? Why? You've heard the saying that "opinions are like ass-holes... everybody's got one."
As far as the "disclaimer" goes... I don't know if this is what you are getting at... or why its necessary to point it out, but it seems pretty obvious to me that nihilistic edginess typically has limits... specifically along the margins of basic human civility and... for the lack of that... forum rules... and for the lack of that... perceived legal liability. Most people don't want to get blamed for someone committing suicide... regardless of how edgy they imagine themselves to be.
Chicken Pizza
Warlord
- Joined
- Oct 20, 2020
- Messages
- 212
Praying works. You can't decide yourself what to ask for, how or when, but you'll know when a prayer has been answered.
Or if you lack the faith to wait for that, you'll know when God (or your brain) after heavy nagging, eventually loses his patience and agrees with everything you say.
That's good enough for me, even if there really wasn't a gift or idea in the first place. Safety first, we can't all be Bryan Adams combined with Keanu Reeves.
This is one handsome man though, and I'd follow him into war, rather than Jesus, any f-cking day.
Last edited:
No Jeff Goldblum pics/gifs/memes? Tsk, tsk Lex, that's low-effort
Joij21
🔥Deny, Defend, Depose!🔥
I'm dead serious. As a matter of fact I might try to make a new thread were I dedicate all my efforts to disproving quantum mechanics by scouring the web and posting articles and theories that support my viewpoint.
Joij21
🔥Deny, Defend, Depose!🔥
I don't know man. God doesn't seem to give into nagging so easily in the Bible. As a matter of fact he insulted Job in a very brutal way for complaining about how his family was killed (you know because God made a deal with Satan).
hobbsyoyo
Deity
- Joined
- Jul 13, 2012
- Messages
- 26,575
I don't believe there is an innate purpose to life - whether that is at the level of a person or to life more broadly as a thing. I do believe that we, as thinking beings, can give ourselves a purpose to strive for. I even think that we can imbue our societies themselves with reason and direction.
I happen to think that our highest purpose is to spread life around the cosmos, to make sure it isn't doomed to a fiery death when the sun engulfs the Earth. I don't think many other people agree with this and it is certainly not the purpose that the vast majority would ascribe to our super-society but I think y'all will catch up with my way of thinking eventually!
There has also been a fascinating shift in public opinion that I've been lucky enough to unfold in real time. Dreaming of the stars was once the purview of dreamers and now it's becoming more mainstream. I can't believe I'm typing this, but I'm actually getting space fatigue from television and movies. Moreover, the monied class has all of a sudden woken up to the potential that space enterprise has to offer and capital is flooding this segment of the economy even as the rest of the nation suffers grievously. Stanley Kubrick's fever-dream of a space-fairing society from the 60's is actually starting to come true.
I happen to think that our highest purpose is to spread life around the cosmos, to make sure it isn't doomed to a fiery death when the sun engulfs the Earth. I don't think many other people agree with this and it is certainly not the purpose that the vast majority would ascribe to our super-society but I think y'all will catch up with my way of thinking eventually!
There has also been a fascinating shift in public opinion that I've been lucky enough to unfold in real time. Dreaming of the stars was once the purview of dreamers and now it's becoming more mainstream. I can't believe I'm typing this, but I'm actually getting space fatigue from television and movies. Moreover, the monied class has all of a sudden woken up to the potential that space enterprise has to offer and capital is flooding this segment of the economy even as the rest of the nation suffers grievously. Stanley Kubrick's fever-dream of a space-fairing society from the 60's is actually starting to come true.
Last edited:
You mean disproving the double slit experiments, entanglement and quantum tunneling? Are you saying that quarks don't exist and electrons, neutrons and protons are the smallest particles that exist? Your disbelief is fine, even if wrong, but please make sure you include the boundaries of what you do think is real and what is not.
This will change when humans are biologically immortal. Up to that development, the true evil (
) doesn't have enough space to be studied.
Agree with all of this except for the spreading around the cosmos like a virus.
@Joij21 You might want to sign up for one of these on line lectures.
https://www.newscientist.com/scienc...campaign=07-03-2021-big-physics-ideas-series&
https://www.newscientist.com/scienc...campaign=07-03-2021-big-physics-ideas-series&
