Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: What is your spiritual practice?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

681–690 of 966 posts

Re: Ask HN: What is your spiritual practice?

#681

Post by aappleby »

Thorentis wrote: post #676
aappleby wrote: post #671

I am missing whatever the brain circuit is that makes you understand and believe in religions. I can't even call myself atheist or agnostic, as that would require assuming that the statement "Is there a god?" is both coherent, meaningful, and answerable. Imagine asking someone with aphantasia to visualize Donald Duck, and then asking them if Donald is wearing pants. What would you expect them to answer?

Can you explain further how your inability to imagine the existence or non existence of God, is similar to aphantasia?

I can certainly understand religion in an external, objective sense much as you can understand the various interconnected storylines in something like the Marvel comics/movies, but as soon as you ask me "...but do you _believe_ it?", my brain just fails its saving throw versus comprehension and I can't give an answer based on what I "feel" is correct, because on that particular question I am unable to "feel" anything at all.

Re: Ask HN: What is your spiritual practice?

#682

Post by waserwill »

TchoBeer wrote: post #296

I'm a religious Jew, in a bit of a crisis of faith. I still pray three times a day, I still make shabbat and observe holidays, I even still learn Torah even though I don't really believe in it anymore, because I find being well read useful when I have to explain the times I do break the cultural norms to people. Orthodox Judaism in general has a lot of laws everywhere: what you wear, what you eat, what you put in you…

I read this coming from a very different background (secular), but I've seen a lot of these issues around me too. Especially among people raised MO (the chasidish and litvish have similar problems, but frame them differently).

for what it's worth, 18forty has done several discussions on these themes, and they resonated with me: 18forty.org/rational (in particular, with Shmuel Phillips. Their discussions of OTD and mysticism are also very relevant.)

Re: Ask HN: What is your spiritual practice?

#683

Post by tibbar »

kazinator wrote: post #417
sam0x17 wrote: post #233

100% atheism. Was raised some kind of protestant I forget which one, and derived tremendous spiritual and psychological relief when I realized all of that was absolute nonsense at the age of 9. I knew I was gay at the time and wouldn't come out until I was 18 or so, but my life just got a lot easier when I removed religion completely. I also recall discovering increased moral agency -- as a Christian I had been taugh…

"100% atheism" isn't a spiritual practice. It's just the absence of belief in the existence of gods. A rock is 100% atheist, yet in all likelihood doesn't have spiritual practice. You can have a spiritual practice under the umbrella of atheism, as long as it doesn't involve any kind of belief in gods. Whatever that practice is, that practice isn't identified with the atheism itself.

I think this doesn't reflect the standard spectrum of usage for the term. For instance, if you look up "atheism" in Merriam-Webster, the second definition is:

"a philosophical or religious position characterized by disbelief in the existence of a god or any gods"

By that definition, a rock is not atheist since it has no philosophical or religious positions (ha, I hope so, at least).

Honestly, I'm a little confused by your very strict understanding of the term, as I think people often (as above) use this second definition; and most people would find your statement "a rock is atheist" a little unusual.

Re: Ask HN: What is your spiritual practice?

#684

Post by nugget »

whatshisface wrote: post #297
BTCOG wrote: post #278

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's so odd to me that since the dawn of time, humans find this innate need to live in slave morality. Living a life of moral slavery based on stories and tales previous humans made with their own minds. It's a definition of insanity, from my own perspective. To contribute to the discussion: I practice nothing, no religion, no meditations. Nothing. I find peace enough knowing that I'm not morally enslaved and that I…

Moral slavery as you put it is one of those things that's bad for you but good for everybody else, unless you're bad at getting away with things in which case it's also good for you. Another kind of slavery is doing whatever you want, because you don't decide what you want. What you want is determined by the often self-contradictory brain circuits that sprouted in your head without your intent or permission. That's s…

I recently heard an experienced psychologist claim that in 30+ years of clinical practice he had never seen anyone "get away with" anything. I was surprised by the statement. This would be Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment universally applied. The psychological consequences of actions we take may be so deeply embedded within our DNA that they become almost impossible to escape.

Re: Ask HN: What is your spiritual practice?

#685

Post by gremlinsinc »

ryanmercer wrote: post #38

My wife and I are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It's far more important to her than it is to me though. For me a large part of believing in something greater in myself is the hope that I simply won't cease to exist when I experience brain death. I pray hoping someone is on the other end at least listening to me, I rationalize life on our planet as some sort of orchestrated miracle, I loo…

I'm an exmormon (thanks to the CES Letter and A letter to my Wife)...

This led me to become agnostic mostly, Still have some hope for life after death of some sorts, but without deity as a requirement... i.e. our energy source lives on...

However in April last year, I witnessed a Mandela Effect w/ my wife, I was reading about the movie Apollo 13 with Tom Hanks and how he said in the movie: "Houston we've had a problem". I was literally reading about a "flip-flop"... where to the person writing the thread on reddit it flipped back and forth from "we have" to "we've had" like twice for them...the current state from the thread being: "we've had"...

Now I hadn't seen the movie in over a decade, but I remembered "we have", but I thought that could easily just be because it's a pretty popular saying in pop-culture.

Anyhow this was a Friday night, and we watched it on youtube. Sure enough Tom Hanks says... "Uh, Houston we've had a problem".

Fast forward, I'm reading a list of common mandela effects in the format: Current => Previous, and it says Houston We Have a Problem => Previously: Houston we've had a problem.

My first thought: Well, that's obviously a typo,but just to be sure I go check.

The scene is completely changed. In fact the entire cadence is changed. It's now "Houston we have a problem" but also Tom Hanks is a lot more "frantic" and intense, when he was a little more laid back in the other version.

It's kinda funny there's a Buzzfeed article on the top mis-quoted movie lines. Apollo 13 is first. https://www.buzzfeed.com/briangalindo/20-famous-movie-lines-...>

> Misquote: “Houston, we have a problem”

> Actual movie quote: "... Ah, Houston, we've had a problem.”

If you look at the subreddit: https://reddit.com/r/retconned - this is probably the most common "flip flop"...

It's the fact that I honestly believe reality "changed" that I have to agree with you on simulation theory being a possibility that or many worlds...and somehow we're traveling through them, or maybe we do when we die and I died of sleep apnea or something...

Simulation to me seems most likely though, as it would explain the double slit quantum eraser experiment pretty handily. It could be then that reality's "truths" or "facts" then become some sort of consensus mechanism where if 51% of people remember "Houston we've had a problem" it changes back to that...

Like you I also thought maybe I could interact w/ the "matrix" and tried researching occult, magick, etc... and really never figured much out in that regards.. though /r/castaneda was probably the most interesting rabbit hole I found... darkroom gazing was very interesting indeed and trippy.

I was a bit manic/hyperfocused on this for like 3 months ...almost in a bad way. When you doubt reality it's easy - esp. if depressed to think about if reality is fake then quitting reality doesn't even matter.

For my own sanity, I gave up on the endeavor of finding out what's going on and how to control it, but go back to just appreciating the beauty of what we do see, and admire the complexities - though I do still read any threads I can find on new discoveries in consciousness-related neuroscience, quantum mechanics, etc...

Re: Ask HN: What is your spiritual practice?

#686

Post by kukkeliskuu »

toper-centage wrote: post #28
p0d wrote: post #3

Every morning I read a section of the Bible's Old Testament, Psalm, Proverb and New Testament. I then use the Lord's Prayer as a framework to pray. Having done this for many years I have observed we begin 'Our Father' and focus on God. My own inclination would be to start with 'Forgive me' and focus on me. I then spend my day trying to honour Jesus's teachings. The highs and lows of the previous day are discussed the…

Do you ever struggle with the parts of the bible that feel outdated in the modern context? I never read the bible by myself, but I went to Sunday school for 9 years and I remember struggling as a child to conciliate what I was being taught at school and at chruch, and specially ignoring the hipocrisy of the people lecturing the bible stuff not practicing any of that. I don't remember specific examples, as this was 15…

I went to Sunday school as a child as well, and was later annoyed by the hypocrisy.

But there is lot of ageless wisdom in the Bible. I would concentrate on that. For example check the Matthew effect ("rich get richer"), and how it relates to modern technology, Google PageRank is based on it.

Re: Ask HN: What is your spiritual practice?

#687

Post by bananamerica »

UnpossibleJim wrote: post #602
bananamerica wrote: post #577

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"What is your favorite pizza?" "I don't eat pizza." "Huh, thanks for answering, I guess?"

If you ask a question in a form that has an answer where they are forced to lie or give you an answer you don't like, which do you prefer? EDIT: Mobile mistake =(

No one needs to lie. Not replying is an option.

Re: Ask HN: What is your spiritual practice?

#688

Post by geoduck14 »

hall0ween wrote: post #291
sfotm wrote: post #267

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was raised in the Catholic church, and I don't think your take on confession is quite right. The process of confession isn't "sit in this booth and walk out scot-free on all of your wrongdoings". It's meant to be an assisted meditation on what you can do better in your life, and how to do so. The act of confession doesn't help you if it's not done in good faith, and a penance for murder might be a confession to the…

As far as I know, confession is a route for absolution of “sins”. And for some reason this is a power Christian churches give themselves. If it doesn’t result in a form of leverage (moral or otherwise) over it’s practitioners, I’d be surprised. Even more so for children who have yet to establish their own view of the world.

>And for some reason this is a power Christian churches give themselves.

Not all churches give themselves this power. I'm Baptist, and we confess to God.

Re: Ask HN: What is your spiritual practice?

#689

Post by thevardanian »

Barrin92 wrote: post #677
poulsbohemian wrote: post #463

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In hindsight, it was definitely the concept of original sin that got my young mind spinning, not understanding how for example a newborn baby could be innately sinful. All downhill after that.

>concept of original sin Personally as an atheist-ish / lapsed Catholic, original sin is just about the only thing I've never actually doubted, Chesterton put it very well: “Modern masters of science are much impressed with the need of beginning all inquiry with a fact. The ancient masters of religion were quite equally impressed with that necessity. They began with the fact of sin – a fact as practical as potatoes.…

-

Re: Ask HN: What is your spiritual practice?

#690

Post by [deleted] »

aappleby wrote: post #671

I am missing whatever the brain circuit is that makes you understand and believe in religions. I can't even call myself atheist or agnostic, as that would require assuming that the statement "Is there a god?" is both coherent, meaningful, and answerable. Imagine asking someone with aphantasia to visualize Donald Duck, and then asking them if Donald is wearing pants. What would you expect them to answer?

[deleted]
Post reply on HN