Philosophy Now Forum

Gary Childress wrote: ↑Sat Feb 04, 2023 4:40 pm

Alexis Jacobi wrote: ↑Sat Feb 04, 2023 4:36 pm

Gary Childress wrote: ↑Sat Feb 04, 2023 4:21 pmWhat could be fun? Your nonsense? I'll pass.

Have it your way.

Thanks!

Gary Childress wrote: ↑Sat Feb 04, 2023 4:17 pm If we both go down, then we go down as martyrs in the face of an unjust god. However, I can't for the life of me believe that Yahweh is the one and only true God. My faith is that God is good, not some psychopath who wants to punish the innocent and deals in fear.

Harbal wrote: ↑Sat Feb 04, 2023 4:58 pm I don't know if there is a God, but, if there is, I'm quite certain we won't find him in the Bible, nor any other mythology.

Immanuel Can wrote: ↑Sat Feb 04, 2023 5:20 pm

Harbal wrote: ↑Sat Feb 04, 2023 4:58 pm I don't know if there is a God, but, if there is, I'm quite certain we won't find him in the Bible, nor any other mythology.

Have you tried the little "experiment" I proposed a few pages back?

It doesn't require you to believe anything at all in advance. It just offers you a way to investigate -- assuming that's what you would care to do.

However, there hasn't yet been time since I suggested it for the experiment to pan out one way or the other, so can only assume you haven't. Maybe you don't want to know?

Gary Childress wrote: ↑Sat Feb 04, 2023 5:33 pm Discarding Yahweh is the first step to any real happiness for those with clear consciences.

Immanuel Can wrote: ↑Sat Feb 04, 2023 5:45 pm

Gary Childress wrote: ↑Sat Feb 04, 2023 5:33 pm Discarding Yahweh is the first step to any real happiness for those with clear consciences.

Yes, Gary...you're my model of a guy with "real happiness" and a "clear conscience."

Gary Childress wrote: ↑Sat Feb 04, 2023 5:33 pm Oh look, Harbal. IC wants you to suffer for your "sins". He seems to need that in order to validate his own pathetic existence. I suggest ignoring any "experiments" IC gives you involving his Yahweh. Otherwise, you'll regret it. I say that from lived experience. Discarding Yahweh is the first step to any real happiness for those with clear consciences.

Alexis Jacobi wrote: ↑Sat Feb 04, 2023 5:53 pm

Gary Childress wrote: ↑Sat Feb 04, 2023 5:33 pm Oh look, Harbal. IC wants you to suffer for your "sins". He seems to need that in order to validate his own pathetic existence. I suggest ignoring any "experiments" IC gives you involving his Yahweh. Otherwise, you'll regret it. I say that from lived experience. Discarding Yahweh is the first step to any real happiness for those with clear consciences.

The 'experiment' that Immanuel Can suggests is one that would work (if that is the right term) for anyone, in any time, in any place, inside or outside of Judaism or Christianity. Why? Because it is an act of beckoning to the Self. And when the Self is beckoned to the Self responds. Especially perhaps when one is in a fix or an impasse.

Immanuel Can wrote: ↑Sat Feb 04, 2023 5:20 pm
Have you tried the little "experiment" I proposed a few pages back?

It doesn't require you to believe anything at all in advance. It just offers you a way to investigate -- assuming that's what you would care to do.

However, there hasn't yet been time since I suggested it for the experiment to pan out one way or the other, so can only assume you haven't. Maybe you don't want to know?

Harbal wrote: ↑Sat Feb 04, 2023 5:56 pm

Immanuel Can wrote: ↑Sat Feb 04, 2023 5:20 pm
Have you tried the little "experiment" I proposed a few pages back?

It doesn't require you to believe anything at all in advance. It just offers you a way to investigate -- assuming that's what you would care to do.

However, there hasn't yet been time since I suggested it for the experiment to pan out one way or the other, so can only assume you haven't. Maybe you don't want to know?

No, I didn't try the experiment; I don't have any reason to. You have told me the benefits of embracing Christianity, but I am not attracted by them. You have also told me of the danger in declining it, but I don't believe it. Besides, I could never adopt your style of Christianity; many of your beliefs and attitudes are far too unpalatable to me.

Incidentally, it has also been suggested to me that I should try meditation, and various other things, but I didn't act on those suggestion, either, so I'm not just singling out Christianity for rejection.

Gary Childress wrote: ↑Sat Feb 04, 2023 5:33 pm Oh look, Harbal. IC wants you to suffer for your "sins". He seems to need that in order to validate his own pathetic existence. I suggest ignoring any "experiments" IC gives you involving his Yahweh. Otherwise, you'll regret it. I say that from lived experience. Discarding Yahweh is the first step to any real happiness for those with clear consciences.

Harbal wrote: ↑Sat Feb 04, 2023 6:07 pm

Gary Childress wrote: ↑Sat Feb 04, 2023 5:33 pm Oh look, Harbal. IC wants you to suffer for your "sins". He seems to need that in order to validate his own pathetic existence. I suggest ignoring any "experiments" IC gives you involving his Yahweh. Otherwise, you'll regret it. I say that from lived experience. Discarding Yahweh is the first step to any real happiness for those with clear consciences.

I don't have a clear conscience, I have plenty of regrets, but God, even an existent one, could not remove any guilt I am left with. To convince myself that he could would be a cop out, a weakness, and a failure to take responsibility for my own mistakes.

You need have no worries about me, Gary, I'm pretty impervious to the appeals of religion.

Immanuel Can wrote: ↑Sat Feb 04, 2023 6:04 pm
No, that's fine. That's a choice, too.

I just pointed out that there are neutral ways of investigating, should the day ever come when you regard the issue as serious. I'm not saying that day is today, or that it will necessarily ever come. But it might.

Gary Childress wrote: ↑Sat Feb 04, 2023 6:15 pm OK. As long as you'll be fine. I'm sorry to hear you have regrets. I have some too, things I wish I had done differently. But I did those things in good conscience, believing they were the right thing to do at the time. Perhaps they were or perhaps they weren't. In any case, tomorrow is a new day and a new chance to apply lessons learned. We all make mistakes, we'll probably make more. I don't believe any human being is inherently evil, only inherently misguided. We do our best with what we have in our finite, limited toolboxes.