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How to stay sane in a world that rewards insanity

joanwestenberg.com

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Re: How to stay sane in a world that rewards insanity

#171

Post by Y_Y »

mc3301 wrote: post #167
grodes wrote: post #156

[flagged]

I would replace your number 5 with "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" or "MacBeth" or "Calvin & Hobbes" or maybe even Natsume's "I am a Cat." Also fun fictional books with impressive protagonists. Other than that, your first four points are wonderful.

Strongly agreed. Reading the actual bible is (mostly) boring as sin. There are a couple of gems in there that you can just take on their own though.

My personal favourite is Ecclesiastes which, apart from a couple of lines of slop added by a later author, has little to do with Abrahamic religion and is more just a little nugget of proto-existentialism.

   “Meaningless! Meaningless!”
      says the Teacher.
  “Utterly meaningless!
      Everything is meaningless.”

  What do people gain from all their labors
      at which they toil under the sun?
 
  Generations come and generations go,
      but the earth remains forever.
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=ecclesiastes%20...

Re: How to stay sane in a world that rewards insanity

#172

Post by johnisgood »

welcome_dragon wrote: post #128
avhception wrote: post #95

Trying to talk reason to multiple sides makes you an outcast.

Lol case in point: me trying to have a reasonable discussion about property taxes going up 66% in one year. I thought people might argue that this could put an unfair burden on poor families or fixed income families, or maybe some reason to justify or not. Nope. Lots of name calling, trying to dox me, ad hominem attacks on everyone from multiple sides. I'm convinced that anonymity (or, more correctly, perceived anony…

I am 31 years old. Same experiences. You have to find the right audience. For me, it was particular IRC channels where they were still quite reasonable.

Re: How to stay sane in a world that rewards insanity

#173

Post by obruchez »

Y_Y wrote: post #171
mc3301 wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would replace your number 5 with "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" or "MacBeth" or "Calvin & Hobbes" or maybe even Natsume's "I am a Cat." Also fun fictional books with impressive protagonists. Other than that, your first four points are wonderful.

Strongly agreed. Reading the actual bible is (mostly) boring as sin. There are a couple of gems in there that you can just take on their own though. My personal favourite is Ecclesiastes which, apart from a couple of lines of slop added by a later author, has little to do with Abrahamic religion and is more just a little nugget of proto-existentialism. “Meaningless! Meaningless!” says the Teacher. “Utterly meaningles…

I read Ecclesiastes back in 2019. It's probably one of the more interesting books in the Bible. I wasn't particularly impressed with it, but it's a short read, so I still think it's a good suggestion, especially if you're atheist or agnostic.

Re: How to stay sane in a world that rewards insanity

#174

Post by grodes »

mc3301 wrote: post #167
grodes wrote: post #156

[flagged]

I would replace your number 5 with "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" or "MacBeth" or "Calvin & Hobbes" or maybe even Natsume's "I am a Cat." Also fun fictional books with impressive protagonists. Other than that, your first four points are wonderful.

[flagged]

Re: How to stay sane in a world that rewards insanity

#175

Post by Havoc »

Really should have mentioned algorithmic feeds too. They’re imo one of the biggest contributors to this.

Diversify your sources is a good start but without algos are a gravity well of sorts too - it pulls you into echo chambers - that are stronger than manual attempts to select diversity

Re: How to stay sane in a world that rewards insanity

#177

Post by eisbaw »

grodes wrote: post #174
mc3301 wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would replace your number 5 with "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" or "MacBeth" or "Calvin & Hobbes" or maybe even Natsume's "I am a Cat." Also fun fictional books with impressive protagonists. Other than that, your first four points are wonderful.

[flagged]

It is great that Jesus works for you, but you have to separate real-Jesus versus storybook-Jesus. No doubt he lived, but written stories can be elaborated on.

For all I know, Jesus could have been the world's first great magician. The world has seen quite a few people in it, some quite remarkable - for which stories have been written. No deity or supernatural abilities need to apply.

Words in a book/internet aren't always the truth.

Re: How to stay sane in a world that rewards insanity

#178

Post by dspillett »

grodes wrote: post #174
mc3301 wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would replace your number 5 with "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" or "MacBeth" or "Calvin & Hobbes" or maybe even Natsume's "I am a Cat." Also fun fictional books with impressive protagonists. Other than that, your first four points are wonderful.

[flagged]

> Jesus is not fictional.

There is apparently evidence that there was a Jesus¹ who preached and was crucified for causing a pain for those in power. But the version of Jesus in the bible is likely no more real than the Abraham in Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (2012).

--------

[1] or someone going by another name which became Jesus over time, many names in the new testament are suspiciously unlike those likely to be found in the middle east in the first century CE.

Re: How to stay sane in a world that rewards insanity

#179

Post by wslh »

eisbaw wrote: post #176

> You get certainty in an uncertain world. You get a community that will defend you. You get a simple heuristic for navigating complex issues. Like religion

Religion artifacts exists in part for organizing communities. For example, The Ten Commandments were revolutionary and short.

Re: How to stay sane in a world that rewards insanity

#180

Post by kakacik »

grodes wrote: post #174
mc3301 wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would replace your number 5 with "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" or "MacBeth" or "Calvin & Hobbes" or maybe even Natsume's "I am a Cat." Also fun fictional books with impressive protagonists. Other than that, your first four points are wonderful.

[flagged]

> Jesus is not fictional.

Strong claims require strong evidence. Some book written by many, some properly delusional or crazy folks, claiming various outlandish things not physically possible these days (staying away from word "lies" but not too far, basic physics laws worked the same 2000 years ago).

Or preaching behavior absolutely unacceptable these days (Old testament would force you to be murderer pretty quickly nowadays, and I haven't heard a single Christian rejecting all of it... they can't so just they ignore most of it like it doesn't exist). All this decades and centuries after claimed facts, that ain't a proof in any sense. You can believe it for sure, I can choose to believe in Great Spaghetti Monster and its holy teachings and its about the same.

There are no contemporary roman records from that time, earliest (with both eyes squinted and a lot of wishful thinking) is more than century afterwards. Quite an impressive record for claimed son of God, or God himself or whatever it should be.

I've been reading a bit about various sects recently, today it was Jim Jones and his escapades. With enough steps back, it all looks exactly the same, including behavior of believers. To the very last bolt. Tells you a lot about humans and how they internally try to handle tough times, but not much else.

So please, lets have a more rational discussion rather than level our grandparents may consider passable but many of us don't.

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