191–200 of 202 posts
A great many people are incredibly uncomfortable with the idea of death, and installations like this, and similar works of art, are a great antidote. Accepting death as the price of life might be a bit difficult for people raised in a culture that worships perpetual youth and which dreams of immortality, perhaps in the form of a digital silicon upload, but it's really a sign of maturity. Taking a minute or so out of…
What is this a reference to?
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They say past performance does not guarantee future results…
No guarantee but it is a good predictor on a long timeframe.
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Gambler's fallacy
In a randomly sampled million individuals, what's the probability of any of them surviving another day? The gambler fallacy talks about a gambler who has won and believes that the cause that made him win is long lasting. But a living man is right to believe that he is alive due to forces that have a lot of momentum and won't vanish suddenly. The fallacy would be assuming that the man is exempt from accidents, that ar…
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"Who promised you tomorrow?" - St. Alphonsus Liguori, Preparation for Death
People were never seriously interested in extending their lives. I submit that there's a pretty easy, macabre (to most) way to go about it: Monoclonal antigen-free body farms. Grow human bodies in labs -- farmed donor bodies -- and get good at head transplants. This cures most cancers, most diseases, skipping the complicated molecular biology we've yet to solve for. Literally replace your whole body as it ages. You c…
A great many people are incredibly uncomfortable with the idea of death, and installations like this, and similar works of art, are a great antidote. Accepting death as the price of life might be a bit difficult for people raised in a culture that worships perpetual youth and which dreams of immortality, perhaps in the form of a digital silicon upload, but it's really a sign of maturity. Taking a minute or so out of…
> digital silicon upload What is this a reference to?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's more straightforward if you read a few more sentences.
Not really. It could just as easily be interpreted as referring to two separate beings of equal power and status than one being in two persons. John 10:30 mentioned above seems more clear, but just prior to that you have "My Father who has given them to Me", which makes no sense if they are literally the same being. Neither does Christ on the cross asking why God has forsaken him. The problem is the Biblical canon ma…
He's quoting Psalm 22. Jesus very frequently quotes the psalms, probably more than any other book, and "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me" is the opening line. Given the number of "coincidences" between the psalm and the events then occurring, he is either deliberately making his claim as a messiah or the redactor inserted the quote, depending on your beliefs. ("They have pierced my hands and feet", "They divide my garments among them, and cast lots for my clothing", "all who see me mock me, they sneer and shake their heads, he trusts in the Lord, let the Lord deliver him.")
https://biblehub.com/psalms/22.htm
I don't really see how it's possible to read John 1 as implying two separate beings, unless we start quibbling about what a "being" is. There are similar statements in the other gospels.
> The problem is the Biblical canon manifested out of what were countless differing philosophies and schools of thought in early Christianity, and John seems to be one of the more mystical books to make it in. But Christianity couldn't even agree on the nature of Jesus' divinity at first, and went to war against itself for centuries over details like this.
It's true the early churches were divided but it's important not to overstate that division, as you're doing here. The earliest post-apostolic writings we have are already referencing all for gospels and nearly all the epistles. There were divisions in theology on things like the exact nature of Jesus's divinity, but except in the case of niche sects, it was over what most people now would regard as hair-splitting. It's just people used to be much more fanatical and willing to go to war over things like "the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father" vs "the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son" or "The logos/Jesus/Son was co-eternal with Father" vs "the Father created the Son before Time and he's divine but not as divine as the Father."
I think the most productive way to view this aspect of Christianity, unless you're addicted to obscure theological disputes, is to simply say that the Christian idea of God is as an omnipotent transcendental being whose nature is therefore obviously something beyond the powers human comprehension, which would make sense if you want to posit the idea of a capital-G God even as a non-Christian.
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That's because you (presumably not a Catholic or, like most, a poorly catechized one) are projecting your values and view points onto a faith you don't understand. Classic cultural colonialism if you ask me. There's literally two millennia (well 5 if you include the Old Testament and commentary) literature on the Church's position on matter, the body, corpses, life, death, afterlife, etc. necessary to understand this…
>>That's because you (presumably not a Catholic or, like most, a poorly catechized one) are projecting your values and view points onto a faith you don't understand. I'm atheist. Was born one, will die one, so you are correct. >>Classic cultural colonialism if you ask me. What makes you draw that conclusion? I'm an immigrant, have been exposed to everything from Islam to Catholicism to Southern Baptist, Hinduism, Bud…
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"Who promised you tomorrow?" - St. Alphonsus Liguori, Preparation for Death
People were never seriously interested in extending their lives. I submit that there's a pretty easy, macabre (to most) way to go about it: Monoclonal antigen-free body farms. Grow human bodies in labs -- farmed donor bodies -- and get good at head transplants. This cures most cancers, most diseases, skipping the complicated molecular biology we've yet to solve for. Literally replace your whole body as it ages. You c…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yet those same people (whomever they are) continue to perpetuate their own "cruel" existence.
The human mind makes it very hard for people to do anything but continue living. It takes an unbelievable amount of effort to overcome the natural safeguards our brain has built in. Someone can hate their life, find it exceptionally cruel, yet find themselves unable to end said life despite not waiting to live it. That aside, you can tolerate or even enjoy life while understanding that for many it's an absolutely awf…