How to summon and sell your soul to Satan and other devils • Hacker News Board

Re: How to summon and sell your soul to Satan and other devils

#281

Post by swayvil » Fri, Aug 06, 2021, 1:39 AM UTC

mbfg wrote: post #280

swayvil wrote: post #279

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then you refer to a fantasy. Billions are immersed in fantasy. One might call that a classically religious debacle.

I'm not saying that's what i believe. I don't believe a soul exists, or could exist. But I'm saying that's what billions of people believe. It doesn't help to redefine away a problem.

I think "attention" fits pretty well.

I think the general population waves its hands and calls it a unicorn. So fuck em.

And you might be surprised at how centrally attention figures into the human experience

Re: How to summon and sell your soul to Satan and other devils

#282

Post by _game_of_life » Fri, Aug 06, 2021, 2:06 AM UTC

Lammy wrote: post #196

_game_of_life wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I forget, is your quote attributable to Michael Scott or Wayne Gretsky? You assume I've neither read the article or researched demonology. I have. All of the neopagan bullshit and demonic sigils can be traced back to obvious frauds starting in the 19th century, when occultist grifting was in vogue. This is a simplistic article on an already childish subject.

You seem pretty caught up in your own emotions on this topic and are missing my point entirely. These stories and ideas still came from human minds, and that's the part that interests me even if I think the claims are fraudulent.

Neat but it's still a simplistic article and pretty much everything "comes from human minds."

My emotions are disdain and disbelief that people still gobble up this horseshit. Nothing wrong with that. Do you believe yourself to not have any emotions and are an arbiter of truth and perfect logic?

Please.

Re: How to summon and sell your soul to Satan and other devils

#283

Post by vintermann » Fri, Aug 06, 2021, 7:52 AM UTC

suifbwish wrote: post #261

vintermann wrote: post #249

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No. These questions have been well explained by a couple of old French philosophers, but they're usually presented in such a weak form ("weak man") that their answers aren't appreciated. Pascal's infamous wager, for instance. It's usually rendered in the form of salvation and probability, but it's better for modern people to think of it in terms of meaning rather than salvation, and the probabilistic part of it can b…

Precisely. If atheists are correct and there is not a god, you gain/lose nothing. However if the other side is correct and God does exist, the risk of existential woe is unfathomable. (None of this describes a personal perspective, merely things I’ve read)

That is exactly the "straw" interpretation I tried to argue against. It's not about God, at least not on this point.

It's about existential nihilism being pointless on its own terms. If you ask the question, "why does this matter" (and "this" can be absolutely anything) you've already assumed some things matter more than others. We absolutely won't get anywhere talking about God if we don't talk about this first.