Eid sayeed!!
Tell HN: Eid Mubarak
221–230 of 371 posts
Re: Tell HN: Eid Mubarak
#222I will add, the fasting from food and water is the easy part. The more important fast is fasting from everything that is bad -- cursing, backbiting, lying, etc -- and from your own desires. All these things are things you shouldn't do anyway, but this is a time to refresh commitment to not doing those things. As the Quran says: "Oh, you who believe! Fasting is prescribed to you as it was prescribed to those before yo…
> and from your own desires As a non-religious gay I probably wasn't invited anyway. But this kind of thinking is what leads conservatives to so much repression and hate. The idea that the wants and needs of your body are something which the mind must actively fight. That the scratchy, ill-fitting wool sweater of your culture is something that you must keep on at all costs. And it leads to resentment of people who ar…
You got to live and let live, otherwise you are acting no different than them. Greta Thunberg chooses to repress her desires to eat meat or travel and see the world for something she sees as greater good. When she gets older, she may well decide against having children to keep human footprint on the planet smaller. I am not doing any such things myself and I don't accept rewilding as an intrinsic goal of environmentalism. I believe that humans are the apex species on the planet and, like all such species, are primarily concerned with our own thriving - which may involve conservation but not self denial.
But, I am not going to try to stop her or make her life difficult with constant needling. Just like you shouldn't stop those who are willing to constrain their own sexuality for the sake of avoiding what they perceive as spiritual pollution, just like Greta is willing to constrain herself to avoid environmental pollution. To each their own, and for some living up according to their idea of honor is a greater comfort than more direct gratification. In time, we all learn something valuable even from those we don't agree with.
Can we however agree that America and other countries that embraced Western culture are great because you can live your life as you want and observant Muslims can live their lives as they want?
Re: Tell HN: Eid Mubarak
#223Earlier quoted context omitted.
I wonder why, Muslims only make up 5% of Germany's population, fiscally this wouldn't make much sense given that they would have to make a second exam paper & provide more labour
For some people, not everything is reduced to being as cost effective as possible.
Come to think of it, it was quite nice how they accommodated Muslims; however, they could have just postponed the exams.
Re: Tell HN: Eid Mubarak
#224Earlier quoted context omitted.
It is a shame that it didn't lead them to stop smoking
People underappreciate how addictive nicotine is. I've been an addict for 15 years and I quit so many times, sometimes for longer than a year. The new smoking inventions only make it worse because they allow for much much higher dosages. I've seen teens smoking what amounts to 10 packs a day worth of nicotine. And they didn't have to chain smoke for 12 hours to achieve that.
Same story here. Chantix (varenicline) somehow magically eliminated the carvings permanently (13 years and I haven't wanted nicotine again, though I still have nostalgia for the act of smoking). It has heavy side effects, still worth it.
Re: Tell HN: Eid Mubarak
#225Earlier quoted context omitted.
Isn't the decision coming from the "muslim authority" (sorry I don't know the terms) located in the mecca anyway?
There is no Muslim authority or institutions, it's decentralized
Please correct me if I'm wrong, but my understanding was that GP is partially correct, in that the lunar sighting is not an individual thing, but done at the communal level by the central authority. It's just that like most religions, Islam has multiple streams, and this there are multiple central authorities.
Is this not how it works? I'm not Muslim, this is what I understood from a Muslim coworker. He also implied that there's some politics involved, in that various Middle Eastern countries align themselves with their political bloc when announcing the day, although any political motivations are "alleged" and not acknowledged.
Re: Tell HN: Eid Mubarak
#226Earlier quoted context omitted.
That sounds like you're coming at this from a similar standpoint to one of the other major religions which I would rather not mention as I don't want to start a religious war here. In Islam you're not hated or judged for what you call your true feelings. You are however instructed to gain mastery over those feelings and make them subordinate to you rather than the other way around. Fasting is one of the things that c…
So you are saying they are invited as long as they are willing to endure people trying to change them?
(in reply to the post you just sent)
I can't actually reply to comments that far down, I guess that's a HN quirk I didn't notice all this time until just now but yeah I also just covered that in a reply to someone else
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35657964
Re: Tell HN: Eid Mubarak
#227Earlier quoted context omitted.
People underappreciate how addictive nicotine is. I've been an addict for 15 years and I quit so many times, sometimes for longer than a year. The new smoking inventions only make it worse because they allow for much much higher dosages. I've seen teens smoking what amounts to 10 packs a day worth of nicotine. And they didn't have to chain smoke for 12 hours to achieve that.
aww that's scary. I managed to quit smoking years ago (I only smoked for less than a year anyway), then quit vaping, then used nicotine lozenges for an embarrassingly long amount of time (4+ years?) until quitting cold-turkey at the start of this year. do you think I'll relapse? I don't usually get cravings anymore but I'm scared it'll happen.
No probably not. If you don't usually get cravings and you haven't smoked in over 4 years you're probably fine. A good check is to note how you react when you smell someone's cigarette on the street.
Re: Tell HN: Eid Mubarak
#228Earlier quoted context omitted.
It is a shame that it didn't lead them to stop smoking
Humans are hilariously fallible. I find it interesting that , somehow, preparing for Lent, a time to eat simply and consider the elevation of your soul, became Mardi Gras, an excuse to let it all rip.
Hah, I didn't know that.
It's like Pancake Day in the UK. Traditionally the time to use up sugar/milk/eggs before lent but turns into everyone buying extra to pig out on. To think we could have got Mardi Gras instead.
Re: Tell HN: Eid Mubarak
#229Earlier quoted context omitted.
[flagged]
> I realize there's a 99.9% chance this will cause some emotions, so I won't post any further. Or maybe go the whole hog and just don’t post? I’m not religious but questions like this can only be asked in very specific circumstances without causing offence. This a thread trying to wish a significant segment of the hn community a happy festival. Is now really the time to question their beliefs?
It's the same kind of question that gets asked of Christians and it's absolutely an attempt to cut into the faith. Trying to poke holes in religious texts is just obnoxious.
I'm not religious but subscribe to the attitude that we should just let people practice whatever faith they want so long as it doesn't impact upon the rights of those not of the same belief system. I.e. it's fine for Christians to hold other Christians to account, but not to impose their will on others.
This is of course something that a lot of religions struggle with, but it's a best effort thing. I think a lot of societies are starting to get that.
In any case, Happy Eid Mubarak to all that have been observing Ramadan (this will be my only post on this thread, so it's here or nowhere).
Re: Tell HN: Eid Mubarak
#230Earlier quoted context omitted.
As a non-religious gay, I fully agree that continually denying yourself something that makes you happy isn't a virtue. However, raiding the cabinet of historically religious practices and stripping god out of them can be helpful. A lot of things we do on impulse don't actually make us happy, and cutting them out for a bit can be a good way to examine whether they've become unhelpful/unskillful habits. I don't think d…
> I fully agree that continually denying yourself something that makes you happy isn't a virtue. Murder? Mayhem? Destruction? Greed? I agree homosexuality is a fine thing, but your comment is altogether far tooo broad. Societal morals are often about denying ourselves things we want to do: often because our actions affect others or offend others, but also often for no strong reason at all. Virtue is almost defined by…
As a vegetarian for ethical reasons who grew up enjoying eating dead animals, I think we're on the same page actually. But strictly speaking, the virtue (perhaps a loaded word) I think you're alluding to is a willingness to pursue policies which maximize utility function which sums over agents other than oneself, not self-denial per se. Greed is perhaps the most illustrative "vice" on your list; satisfying one's personal greed only sometimes will cause any harm to others, and sometimes will be appropriate to pursue.