The Glade 4.0

Not to put too fine a point on this, but...really? Come on, varying social mores and norms from culture to culture causing wars over differences in perspective of what is "right" and "wrong?" You might as well be describing the effects of religion itself in that last bit. Religion doesn't change the basic subjectivity of human morality, because religion is just an attempt at institutionalizing that subjective morality. You don't even need to leave the history of Christendom to see Christians at each others throats and going to war for centuries at a time over issues of dogma. Throw in the fact that Christianity, even if mistakenly taken as a unified whole, is a minority in a world full of religions, and religion doesn't help with this point that you make.




I missed it, but I do not see how an analogy with pirates can fail to be helpful.

Arrrr!

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Well Ali Baba had them forty thieves, Scheherezade had a thousand tales
But master you in luck 'cause up your sleeves you got a brand of magic never fails...
...Mister Aladdin, sir, What will your pleasure be?
Let me take your order, Jot it down -You ain't never had a friend like me
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So you're response Lex and Lenas is that people choose bad because they choose bad? That isn't helpful. If being "Bad" makes you uncomfortable as previously asserted then why do people knowingly choose to be uncomfortable. In China littering is fine, got it. In America it is "bad" and would therefore make you uncomfortable, so why would people choose to be uncomfortable?

Better example, in almost all existing cultures cheating is "bad" but people still do it, even after getting caught some people continue to do it. Why? Is it a mental CBA they run through?

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While I cannot comment on the OT, I will respond to another theme of this thread:

I think the ambiguity of religious consequence is one big factor in keeping believers (and those on the fence) in check. Love of the Christian God, as Screeling pointed out earlier, is another.

Truth is, we just don't know for sure what awaits us after death. This causes fear, and makes people wonder -- "well, if I commit this sin, it will probably count against me when I die. But I'm not sure."

This fear and indecision is a great motivator for people not to stray to the dark side.

Let's adjust this: How does a Buddhist cope with suffering and death?

Buddhism attempts to help the follower learn inner strength and fortitude, but it does so without comforting "crutches." Indeed, Buddhism makes no promise of reuniting with one's loved ones, nor are they necessarily in a "better place." At death, all one can look forward to is an endless cycle of rebirth, without the benefit of all you have learned in the past life, ad nauseum until you get it right. Without reaching this Nirvanna, paradise can elude you for eternity, and few ever reach it.

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Well Ali Baba had them forty thieves, Scheherezade had a thousand tales
But master you in luck 'cause up your sleeves you got a brand of magic never fails...
...Mister Aladdin, sir, What will your pleasure be?
Let me take your order, Jot it down -You ain't never had a friend like me
█ ♣ █

It does, however offer such a "crutch". Even a cycle of endless rebirth still offers the prospect of endless chances - and avoidence of utter destruction of the self. It is a promise of eternal life; an utterly different form from what Christianity or Islam promise to be sure, but a form of it nonetheless.

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"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."

Talya, I was not saying that Christianity or any other religion takes away any of those conflicts, I was saying that it just gives absolutes on right and wrong...its up to people whether they follow them or not. And yes, history proves that more often than not, people don't.

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"Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." Jesus of Nazareth

I actually have a buddhist book...I like the Dalai Lama's view on suffering. It's inevitable and just like any other part of life. I like a lot of the Buddhist views.
I just don't believe in the whole reincarnation bit.

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"Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." Jesus of Nazareth

/nod
It's the first of the Four Noble Truths: Life means suffering.

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Well Ali Baba had them forty thieves, Scheherezade had a thousand tales
But master you in luck 'cause up your sleeves you got a brand of magic never fails...
...Mister Aladdin, sir, What will your pleasure be?
Let me take your order, Jot it down -You ain't never had a friend like me
█ ♣ █

Any cursory examination of the history of religion will show you that religion doesn't give absolutes about right and wrong at all.

to the OP, as an Atheist I don't need anything to cope with when it comes to death, I know and accept the fact that when I dye i'm fertilizer, it's the cycle of life, most people aren't however strong willed enough to cope with that though and need something to cling onto so as not to go crazy and that's where religion came from, and as to the morality and religion thing, the most moral people I've known were Atheists and most of the least moral people in history were religious people, usually doing those horrible acts of immorality in the name of their god, you shouldn't need someone or some organization to tell you what's right and wrong, a moral person can figure that out on their own.

Science does the same, when one begins to understand the nature of space-time. Our birth and our death are not so much a beginning and end, as a dimension. It's part of our place in the universe. When we are is pretty much the same type of question as Where we are. I will always exist, from the early 1970's to whenever I die, by our reckoning, just as a face will always exist in a certain place in a photograph. Time and Space aren't really separate things.

Oh, and Nirvana is really an utter destruction of the self. Part of enlightenment involves abandoning the self, and with the falling of the boundaries of the mind, one joins with and becomes Nirvana rather than experiencing it.

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Well Ali Baba had them forty thieves, Scheherezade had a thousand tales
But master you in luck 'cause up your sleeves you got a brand of magic never fails...
...Mister Aladdin, sir, What will your pleasure be?
Let me take your order, Jot it down -You ain't never had a friend like me
█ ♣ █

I don't see that this is really the same thing at all.



That's not really an utter destruction of the self.

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"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."

LK to answer your question, keep in mind that I’m not exactly an atheist, but an agnostic. However since god or any god has not yet been proven, here’s just a little of what I believe.

When bad things happen, I guess I try to look for a solution to make it better. Of course sometimes there simply isn’t one, like the death of a loved one. In such cases, you have to accept that life happens, and death sometimes is a part of life. You learn quickly that you should love those around you while they are alive, so that regret and guilt does not eat away at you when they pass away. Life is always unfair… was the very first lesson I learnt from my parents.

As for my own death, I believe when I die I will fade from this world. What would never fade are the memories and the acts I did on this world. Every little thing we do, every word we say changes the world around us a little. Eventually we may never remember the person who started it all, but if knowing someone in the future may benefit from something you did today, then its worth the knowledge that you have passed on a bit of yourself. Then there are the little monsters in your image which you created and unleashed into the unsuspecting world. They are in a way an extension of bits of you, your thoughts, your morals, your way of life, which shall live on and touch the world for you when you’re gone.

As for checks and balances for those who do not have a greater being judging us. I judge my self. Nothing stops you from doing something like the guilt and regret you feel when you know it’s wrong. Morality does not come from god, it comes from my parents, my friends, my loved ones and myself. I feel bad when things die, this I learnt from losing my first puppy, so through it, I have learnt that death is bad and hurt people, and I should never want to visit that feeling on another human being by killing. I could go on but I’m already writing an assay. Humans have empathy and through it we learn about the right and wrongs, not because we have to, but because we want to.

I know I haven't posted for a while but I do pop in to read sometimes. This post hit home for me since my mom passed away last week and we are having her service tomorrow. Probably the best way to describe my take on it is from a Mark Twain quote:

"I do not fear death. I had been dead for billions and billions of years before I was born and had not suffered the slightest inconvenience from it."

While I do mourn for my mom I was actually relieved that she is not suffering anymore. I don't know what happens when we die but even oblivion can be a comfort compared to some of the suffering I have seen people endure in life.

Ironically it was a death that started me on the path to questioning and ultimately abandoning my faith. When I was young I went to church a lot, I did not question anything they taught ( I actually went on my own I just walked into the church next door one day and started going regularly). Then one of my older brothers friend was killed in a car accident. I remember praying and praying for god to bring him back he was young, he would make up for any sins he had committed. Obviously he didn't come back, at the time I was maybe 8 or 9 years old, but that stuck with me and by the time I was in high school and I read more and learned more I had abandoned all thoughts of god and religion.

I won't go into my whole philosophy but whenever someone close to me dies, I try to remember them and all the good things we shared in life. How having them in my life affected me and made me who I am, and so part of them really does live on in me. In turn I shape others lives and so the chain continues onward.

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I met this six-year-old child, with this blank, pale, emotionless face and, the blackest eyes... the devil's eyes. I spent eight years trying to reach him, and then another seven trying to keep him locked up because I realized what was living behind that boy's eyes was purely and simply... evil

I'm so sorry for your loss, Killuas. I lost my infant daughter to premature birth 6 weeks ago...we had a miscarriage in may and then last November we lost a son 3 weeks before his due date.....these things leave me questioning a lot as well. (My mother and my grandmother both passed away last year as well.)
I'm still a believer, I just wanted to see things from another perspective.

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"Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." Jesus of Nazareth

death is never easy no matter which side of the fence your sitting on LK. However you have to remember that one has to be brave for those that are still living, that loving the living is whats important in this world. Live your life to the fullest so those you love could be happy...

I'm sorry to hear that Killuas

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Fixed.

You're overly optimistic, Lex. The estimated average lifespan of a person if we eliminated all "natural" causes of death is about 500 years. So assuming we could completely beat aging and disease, you're still not going to live forever. Something eventually will take you out.

_________________
Well Ali Baba had them forty thieves, Scheherezade had a thousand tales
But master you in luck 'cause up your sleeves you got a brand of magic never fails...
...Mister Aladdin, sir, What will your pleasure be?
Let me take your order, Jot it down -You ain't never had a friend like me
█ ♣ █

You are assuming that a lot of things remain constant which probably won't. Just as an example, you can have an application on your mobile device that accesses the Internet and ultra-cheap yet effective sensors put everywhere to alert you of threats. Cars won't be manually driven, etc. Sensors in your toilet will analyze your urine for health reasons. Obesity has already been cured for animals and is currently in the FDA. Old age has been mostly cured for mice. I don't really understand what you expect to kill you. But fine, don't believe me and the empirically accelerating technological changes, and I will say "I told you so" in 15-20 years.

And there's going to be a cure for murder?

I'm thinking not.

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In time, this too shall pass.

You think that Lydiaa will be murdered?

Accidents have killed people since long before there were cars, and will long after you take people out of the equation. (assuming you do so...I'm fairly sure that computer-controlled cars completely replacing the driver aren't happening in our natural lifetimes.)

_________________
Well Ali Baba had them forty thieves, Scheherezade had a thousand tales
But master you in luck 'cause up your sleeves you got a brand of magic never fails...
...Mister Aladdin, sir, What will your pleasure be?
Let me take your order, Jot it down -You ain't never had a friend like me
█ ♣ █

I disagree. There's nothing accidental I could do that would kill me other than driving. Also it would have to instantly cause death, because healthcare will be extremely effective.

Riiiiight.

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