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Ask HN: What is your spiritual practice?

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Re: Ask HN: What is your spiritual practice?

#871

Post by skinkestek »

sam0x17 wrote: post #723
skinkestek wrote: post #702

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> there is no "fact of sin", and you certainly can't use the claim of a "fact of sin" as a justification for the idea of original sin. So, what do you call me the thing that drives otherwise reasonable humans to hate each other?

Genetics, cultural values, chemicals, hormones, electrical impulses, all conspiring to create the illusion of objective morality

Just as

- there is no conflict between lower level concepts such as quarks, electrons, atoms, molecules and higher level concepts like reactions, processes, yield and throughput

I think there is no conflict between "Genetics, cultural values, chemicals, hormones, electrical impulses" and sin.

I don't expect any answers, but at least I've tried explain my position.

Re: Ask HN: What is your spiritual practice?

#872

Post by poulsbohemian »

sam0x17 wrote: post #870
poulsbohemian wrote: post #719

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is at least a philosophically interesting perspective worthy of contemplation and conversation.

Pure negation.

The parent changed what they originally wrote, not sure why.

Re: Ask HN: What is your spiritual practice?

#873

Post by verisimilidude »

avodonosov wrote: post #839
verisimilidude wrote: post #700

Tetris. 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…

What implementation do you use? I use tetris in emacs, but it is scanning keyboad too infrequently, so at my game speed the level of control is insufficient. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-ERbGvpVTw

I stick to commercial options these days. Usually Tetris Effect. Tetris Effect represents the gold standard for what I want out of a Tetris game.

But I'll play anything that follows the Guideline.

https://tetris.wiki/Tetris_Guideline

Re: Ask HN: What is your spiritual practice?

#874

Post by theonething »

omarfarooq wrote: post #867
theonething wrote: post #865

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As I clearly indicated in parenthesis, my use of the word small was relative to all of humanity. Jesus appeared to many people, over five hundred after his death and resurrection and we do know the identities of many including of course the original 12 disciples. [1] > You now rely on the testimony of these small of group of people So according to you, Jesus would have to manifest to many more people to pass your bel…

Again... you're still arguing a strawman against me. My response to the GP was that there is still doubt (and major, massive doubt when you read Ehrman's work) in this when you are relying on he said, she said; as opposed to witnessing Jesus directly himself.

This is the third time I will be answering to your point of relying on witness testimony vs first person testimony. If that's your standard to believe something, that it has to first person, then you need to discount most of history recorded in history books. In a court of law, witness testimony is valid evidence (unless proven to be a lie). You seem to discount this kind of testimony. That doesn't seem reasonable to me.

> major, massive doubt when you read Ehrman's work

If I rely on Ehrman's work, aren't I relying on he said/she said?

And you seem to be moving goal posts here. First you said that there is doubt because of the small number of witnesses "only manifested himself to an infinitesimally small cross-section of humanity" Now you're casting doubt based on the type of witness (eye witness vs self witness)

You've brought up the term strawman twice now without explanation. Care to explain exactly how I'm arguing a strawman?

Re: Ask HN: What is your spiritual practice?

#875

Post by omarfarooq »

theonething wrote: post #874
omarfarooq wrote: post #867

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Again... you're still arguing a strawman against me. My response to the GP was that there is still doubt (and major, massive doubt when you read Ehrman's work) in this when you are relying on he said, she said; as opposed to witnessing Jesus directly himself.

This is the third time I will be answering to your point of relying on witness testimony vs first person testimony. If that's your standard to believe something, that it has to first person, then you need to discount most of history recorded in history books. In a court of law, witness testimony is valid evidence (unless proven to be a lie). You seem to discount this kind of testimony. That doesn't seem reasonable to…

You are arguing a strawman because I replied to the claim that it is beyond doubt that God came in the flesh.

It is NOT beyond doubt. You haven't proven how there is absolutely NO DOUBT to these claims.

> And you seem to be moving goal posts here.

How am I moving goalposts? The two types of witnessing have been there in my reasoning since the beginning. There is doubt since you didn't eyewitness him yourself, and then there is doubt that the hearsay that reached you regarding him is true. One follows the other since you have to rely on the one you have access to.

Again it's a strawman because I never said I discount witness testimony. You're making the case that just because witness testimony can be true, therefore witness testimony in the case of Jesus, must be true. That doesn't follow.

Re: Ask HN: What is your spiritual practice?

#876

Post by theonething »

omarfarooq wrote: post #875
theonething wrote: post #874

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the third time I will be answering to your point of relying on witness testimony vs first person testimony. If that's your standard to believe something, that it has to first person, then you need to discount most of history recorded in history books. In a court of law, witness testimony is valid evidence (unless proven to be a lie). You seem to discount this kind of testimony. That doesn't seem reasonable to…

You are arguing a strawman because I replied to the claim that it is beyond doubt that God came in the flesh. It is NOT beyond doubt. You haven't proven how there is absolutely NO DOUBT to these claims. > And you seem to be moving goal posts here. How am I moving goalposts? The two types of witnessing have been there in my reasoning since the beginning. There is doubt since you didn't eyewitness him yourself, and the…

Thanks.

> You haven't proven how there is absolutely NO DOUBT to these claims.

That hasn't been my aim all along though. I would never argue or try to prove there is no doubt to these claims. I fully accept there is a large element of faith to religious claims. And I readily admit as believer, my faith is not perfect and I have doubts. But my ratio of faith to doubt is high enough to get me over the fence to belief. As an aside, I always argue that everyone everywhere live their lives by faith. [1]

My assertion has been your reason for your doubt, namely that Jesus only manifested to a relatively small group of people, is not valid. But I think we can agree to disagree at this point.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29710355

Re: Ask HN: What is your spiritual practice?

#877

Post by eatYourFood »

dang wrote: post #492
eatYourFood wrote: post #336

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Jesus Christ, this is the kind of thing you read in the newspaper where some crazy religious guy kidnaps his family on a remote ranch and rapes them all. You’re torturing your family, wrapping them in a small bubble of a fantasy world. This extreme level of religious living is outright child abuse.

We've banned this account. You can't attack others like that here (and you've unfortunately don't it before, though this level of aggression is...noteworthy). If you don't want to be banned, you're welcome to email hn@ycombinator.com and give us reason to believe that you'll follow the rules in the future. They're here: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html .

No post body was provided.

Re: Ask HN: What is your spiritual practice?

#878

Post by omarfarooq »

theonething wrote: post #876
omarfarooq wrote: post #875

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are arguing a strawman because I replied to the claim that it is beyond doubt that God came in the flesh. It is NOT beyond doubt. You haven't proven how there is absolutely NO DOUBT to these claims. > And you seem to be moving goal posts here. How am I moving goalposts? The two types of witnessing have been there in my reasoning since the beginning. There is doubt since you didn't eyewitness him yourself, and the…

Thanks. > You haven't proven how there is absolutely NO DOUBT to these claims. That hasn't been my aim all along though. I would never argue or try to prove there is no doubt to these claims. I fully accept there is a large element of faith to religious claims. And I readily admit as believer, my faith is not perfect and I have doubts. But my ratio of faith to doubt is high enough to get me over the fence to belief.…

> My assertion has been your reason for your doubt, namely that Jesus only manifested to a relatively small group of people, is not valid.

That's an odd thing for you to say. In the absence of certainty, there is always doubt. No matter how infinitesimal.

Re: Ask HN: What is your spiritual practice?

#879

Post by luxpir »

yibg wrote: post #512
cogman10 wrote: post #448

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly, I take this as not hating god but rather hating the belief in god. I don't hate god anymore than I hate leprechauns.

That’s true of course and maybe is just an artifact of imprecise language. Of course I can’t hate a physical thing that I don’t think exists, but I can hate the concept of it. When people say “God hating atheist” I assume they mean an atheist that hates the concept of god. I still fail to see how that’s religious though.

Because a) it's not as much based around a hatred of anything, more a worldview that refuses to resign the mysterious to the supernatural, b) because when you make the call that you must be atheist, given your world view, you are forced to question your position on morality and where you stand in society, humanity and indeed the universe. Nothing is hand waved away and you are now wholly responsible for your own definitions of these things, and the potential alienation that may result.

I can see how there is overlap between spirituality and atheism, as there's no need for a god or belief in most of the subjects that seem to fall under spirituality. Especially when we exist in a universe, the chances of which even existing are infinitesimally minute, that is so breathtaking that most of us have resorted to filling in the knowledge gaps of how and why with best guesses. It is so wondrous that, god or not, you can feel plenty spiritual just experiencing it.

Whether personal spirituality should be your life's focus when there's so much at play on Earth, however, is another question.

Re: Ask HN: What is your spiritual practice?

#880

Post by ss108 »

omarfarooq wrote: post #625
ss108 wrote: post #378

Muslim, but not particularly practicing or religious (though I am aiming to be moreso and my knowledge of the religion's history, development, and jurisprudence is certainly above that of most practicing Muslims I have met). On an actual daily basis: meditation and journaling. I have also incorporated, on most days, listening to Islamic stuff on YouTube in the mornings, and reading the Quran in translation at night b…

May Allah establish you on His straight path.

Thanks
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