Gratitude.
Ask HN: What is your spiritual practice?
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Re: Ask HN: What is your spiritual practice?
#772Tetris. Twice per day. When I get into a good Tetris routine, my mind will continue to play even when I'm not in front of the screen. There's just this constant background game playing in my head. This might sound distracting, but somehow it's enlightening. It provides rhythm. It provides structure. It keeps my thoughts in constant reorganization, constant renewal. Overall, I believe Tetris gets my mind into a place…
I'm scrolling and scrolling and scrolling. So many debates about atheism, Catholicism, Mormons. Deep theological discussions. Discussions on "how to answer the original question". And then I see >Tetris. Twice per day. I applaud you in answering the question in a completely unexpected way. Never before in the history of theology has anyone introduced Teris AND kept it thematically appropriate.
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Re: Ask HN: What is your spiritual practice?
#773I'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…
Have you tried a Reform community? You can get the religious structure and meaning while also not being shunned for loving whomever you love.
Re: Ask HN: What is your spiritual practice?
#774Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Or "There is no such thing as god, but the world was clearly created". Oops again. Creation without a creator? Is it possible to has have a creator but that creator not to be a god? For example, if we are living inside a simulation created by a software engineer, is that engineer our god?
I would say that if you believe that we are living inside a simulation created by a software engineer, then I am not certain whether you are theist or atheist, but leaning toward theist.
You’re missing the point. I don’t believe it one way or the other. It’s a hypothetical question meant to stimulate conversation about your “creator created” comment.
Re: Ask HN: What is your spiritual practice?
#775Earlier quoted context omitted.
Personally I've not met anyone who believes in God because of scientific evidence for Gods existence. However I think Lee Strobale makes a claim of that nature in "The case for Christ". Alvin Plantinga argues that you can have warranted belief without scientific proof in "warranted christian". Me personally I believe that God revealed himself through revelation. That is, He convinced me internally to believe in Him.…
I think that anyone who believed in Santa Clause as a kid should automatically discredit any “intuition” they have about things. How much more evidence do you need that you’ll just believe in kooky nice sounding things? Maybe you didn’t believe in The Red Guy, but I did, and in retrospect I must be a complete retard.
I agree that people believe stupid things. I also believe that this is evidence that you can't trust your intuition. I think I believed in Santa but I can't remember. I do remember struggling with my intuition of physics thanks to Hollywood movies.
I can say this feels different to that sort of belief. Not that I expect that would do anything to convince you of it's validity.
Re: Ask HN: What is your spiritual practice?
#776Earlier quoted context omitted.
>Name one war, that has no religion involved. US Revolutionary War War of 1812 US Civil War Spanish American War WWI WWII Korean War Vietnam War GWI GWII WoT Nearly all of them really. Wars are fought over resources and pride of leaders. Sometimes religion can be used as a recruiting tool, but the war isn't really about religion. You can argue that since people who fight in wars have religious beliefs that religion i…
> WoT If you mean the war between the US on one side and al-Qaeda and various other Islamist groups on the other, that’s…a pretty bad exampe of a war that doesn’t involve religion. > Korean War > Vietnam War The US’s global war on Communism, during and as a symbol of which it added religious languge to the pledge of allegiance and replaced its diversity-endorsing de facto model with a religious official motto is, whi…
The WoT is related to religion, but isn’t primarily about religion. Granted, the parent comment overstated its case.
Re: Ask HN: What is your spiritual practice?
#777Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is also similar to Christianity's concept of vigilance.( https://www.openbible.info/topics/vigilance )
I think it's a normal thing in Hinduism. There's a rituals where you offer the cooked meal to God first, then you eat. The offering is accompanied by a bell.
What would be a common, practical justifications for why this is a useful trait to have?
Re: Ask HN: What is your spiritual practice?
#778Earlier quoted context omitted.
Strong atheism of the sort you profess is religious in my opinion. It may or may not be spiritual, depending on its flavour. You don't sound like a God hating atheist (which is definitely spiritual).
There is, frankly, no such thing as a "god hating atheist". Those two notions are incompatible. Consider, for example, how little you (probably) care about fairies. Are you a fairy hating afairist? You may find an Atheist that says something like "If god does exist, it's a dick". but that's not really hating god but rather pointing out the silliness of believing in a supernatural all powerful being that is good which…
I'd consider it the difference between answering this question with "I don't have any" and "I have atheism"
"I don't have any" is the one that doesn't care, vs "I am atheist" says you care a whole lot about god. You don't identify as afairist at all. If you do, you're almost certainly a fairy hating afairist
Re: Ask HN: What is your spiritual practice?
#779Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Why do we need to baptize infants? Because they have original sin. How could they get it if they haven't done anything? Because the idea of original sin doesn't, or only superficially, has anything to do with wrongful acts. What the idea of original sin is about that humans, by their very nature and in their being are confronted with evil. Or if you want a secular version call it injustice, or the ethical and the u…
> What the idea of original sin is about that humans, by their very nature and in their being are confronted with evil. This is the kind of poetic language behind which people hide confusion so that they can still believe in this. I did the same. I understand the reflexive "let's not think about this too much in case we stop believing". What does it actually mean to be "confronted with evil" and why is it a problem r…
Because dirt exists all over the world all clothes are in need of washing at some point (or not worn I suppose). Confronting sin, temptation, immorality whether you want to look at it from a religious perspective or secular, is part of the human condition. No human can live a life and not be confronted with jealousy, anger, greed, pride or if you don't like the Christian undertones fill in whatever you think of as a sin. We all confront the same questions.
And to the first point, as Chesterton says you don't need to accept any religious answer at all. As he says, the theodicy question, how the existence of manifest evil can be reconciled with a benevolent god, has driven countless of people away from faith, not to it. And he says that's fine, but you can't pretend it doesn't exist.
Re: Ask HN: What is your spiritual practice?
#780Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think that anyone who believed in Santa Clause as a kid should automatically discredit any “intuition” they have about things. How much more evidence do you need that you’ll just believe in kooky nice sounding things? Maybe you didn’t believe in The Red Guy, but I did, and in retrospect I must be a complete retard.
I agree that people believe stupid things. I also believe that this is evidence that you can't trust your intuition. I think I believed in Santa but I can't remember. I do remember struggling with my intuition of physics thanks to Hollywood movies. I can say this feels different to that sort of belief. Not that I expect that would do anything to convince you of it's validity.
In what way does it feel different and why does this difference suggest a higher probability of truth?