It was funny, human, and simple. Three good things.Carl G wrote:Yeah, extremely low vibration material. It's like watching the Jerry Springer show. What do you find "good" about it, Kevin?
You are full of shit as usual, Kevin. Which is a problem for you, because your head is up your ass and the shit gets in your eyes.Kevin Solway wrote:I also thought that it was funny how such a woman, as a thinker, puts men like brokenhead to shame.
You know, as cruel as this sounds, a global war might actually increase the chances of the survival of the species, for instance – overpopulation is exhausting our fresh water supplies, altering our climate, destroying our soil, depleting our finite energy reserves, and other metals and raw materials. Basically, if a significant number of of people were to disappear quickly from the planet, then this would make life easier for everyone else, and increase the chances of survival for the species as a whole.We are heading the same way as the Aztecs — the only difference is that we have nowhere to go when we have consumed all our resources.
I just finished watching a bunch of his videos and liked them. I want to buy one of his books, "The Mind of the Market".Dr Michael Shermer's presentation on morality without God is not bad from the same meeting.
I guess, like with Brokenhead, I don't doubt what you say and have the same experience, but I generally don't attribute it to God. Why shouldn't there be other, lesser entities, who follow us around and are our guides? I sense their presence.Obviously, all things and all beings occurring here with me are part and parcel of God, and there have been so many instances of God demonstrating concern for me that I could never rule it out, I could never deny it.
You know, a lot of that actually sounds quite catchy and believable, do you think you could expand that into a speech for me, and meanwhile, I’ll practice my passionate over-the-top mystical language charged with conviction and confidence, lets see just how much group ecstasy we can cause in these fools…: )Ryan, my radical thinking friend, I was just musing that you would be the perfect leader, the mythic anti-christ of song and story, just the man to get the job done. No distractions from tremulous females pleading for mercy or being turned on by your fearsome machismo, no love of the corporations and their filthy money to dissuade you from your enlightened hobo crusade to unleash the cruise missiles, but only the zeal of creating reason where now bestiality reigns.
Because the whole idea is fucking crazy. Imaginary entities are not guiding you. Be quiet, or we’re going to report you to your local mental institution, btw, 30,000 children starved to death today, they died in brutal agony, who were guiding them? Where were their invisible spirit friends? Stop talking so stupid! All of you! Wake up! You are totally alone in the universe, live with it. Stop thinking like such cowards….I can’t believe such wacky thinking persists on this forum after all this time…I guess, like with Brokenhead, I don't doubt what you say and have the same experience, but I generally don't attribute it to God. Why shouldn't there be other, lesser entities, who follow us around and are our guides?
Sounds like a plan!Ryan Rudolph wrote:Carl,You know, a lot of that actually sounds quite catchy and believable, do you think you could expand that into a speech for me, and meanwhile, I’ll practice my passionate over-the-top mystical language charged with conviction and confidence, lets see just how much group ecstasy we can cause in these fools…: )Ryan, my radical thinking friend, I was just musing that you would be the perfect leader, the mythic anti-christ of song and story, just the man to get the job done. No distractions from tremulous females pleading for mercy or being turned on by your fearsome machismo, no love of the corporations and their filthy money to dissuade you from your enlightened hobo crusade to unleash the cruise missiles, but only the zeal of creating reason where now bestiality reigns.
These bald-faced assertions and two bucks will get us a cup of coffee. I thought this was a forum for logical reasoning; why not show us yours.Iolaus,
Because the whole idea is fucking crazy. Imaginary entities are not guiding you. Be quiet, or we’re going to report you to your local mental institution, btw,I guess, like with Brokenhead, I don't doubt what you say and have the same experience, but I generally don't attribute it to God. Why shouldn't there be other, lesser entities, who follow us around and are our guides?
Non sequitur with a side order of condescension. The fact to which you refer has no bearing on the existence or non-existence of the entities in question.30,000 children starved to death today, they died in brutal agony, who were guiding them? Where were their invisible spirit friends?
Ryan, you're sounding a bit wacky here yourself, bud. How do you know you are alone? How do you go about proving such a thing? Sounds like you are just spouting opinion, which with two bucks...Stop talking so stupid! All of you! Wake up! You are totally alone in the universe, live with it. Stop thinking like such cowards….I can’t believe such wacky thinking persists on this forum after all this time…
Sure, I get it: there's no need for you to trot out the argument, it's already been covered ad infinitum, therefore you are justified in your sarcastic outburst. But suppose you refresh us on the case for no entities. I hope it is not the same argument for there being no inherent we ourselves; we already know that, we are speaking here of the material and energetic plane, the local plane if you will.you know, I had this crazy notion that if posters like Quinn, Solway and Kelly Jones repeatedly posted very rational observations, that is might gradually wear off on some of you, like a sort of osmosis, but perhaps I was totally mistaken. Perhaps, once a dullard, always a dullard...
Nobody would know that better than you.Perhaps, once a dullard, always a dullard...
I think it does because a spiritual guide implies that someone is looking out for you personally, but if you examine how reality works, this clearly isn’t happening. People die for random reasons according to the force of causality. Causality is the only guide to humanity, and it is indifferent to our personal survival. Causality is like that friend that if you turn your back on him, he stabs you. Most people get stabbed in the back psychologically because they don’t understand the behavior of causality.The fact to which you refer has no bearing on the existence or non-existence of the entities in question.
Scott Nearing had it pretty good compared to how some of these third world children die – he didn’t have worms in his intestines, or he wasn’t extremely ill due to drinking water poisoned by feces, urine and other harmful toxins.is death by starvation really typically accompanied by brutal agony, or is it more a slow slipping away of strength? I remember reading of natural-lifestyle advocate Scott Nearing starving himself to death sometime after his 100th birthday, assisted by his loving wife Helen, and the report was that it was a peaceful end for him.
.Ryan, you're sounding a bit wacky here yourself, bud. How do you know you are alone? How do you go about proving such a thing? Sounds like you are just spouting opinion, which with two bucks..
I could only be bothered with 4 minutes of that. By that time I didn't care what point(s) she may have had thereafter. I still don't see how that material is significantly removed from religious ranting. Plus, I really couldn't take the theatrics of her delivery. She reminded me of myself when I was 14, attending RE classes I didn't have to be at and railing against the illogic of the ideas being expressed. Her audience should have been 14 year olds. Then again, I suppose in a sense it was.Kevin Solway wrote:Here's the ending of the Julia Sweeney talk:
http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=Be72S-p9b58
I knew that was the part you didn't like -- she's too excited.Plus, I really couldn't take the theatrics of her delivery.
But they think God is guiding them. I merely point out it might be other entities. You think it's crazy, I don't. You actually have no idea whether we are alone in the universe, and if you don't admit that, you aren't even honest.Because the whole idea is fucking crazy. Imaginary entities are not guiding you. Be quiet, or we’re going to report you to your local mental institution, btw, 30,000 children starved to death today, they died in brutal agony, who were guiding them? Where were their invisible spirit friends? Stop talking so stupid! All of you! Wake up! You are totally alone in the universe, live with it. Stop thinking like such cowards….I can’t believe such wacky thinking persists on this forum after all this time…
Rationality has nothing to do with it.you know, I had this crazy notion that if posters like Quinn, Solway and Kelly Jones repeatedly posted very rational observations, that is might gradually wear off on some of you, like a sort of osmosis, but perhaps I was totally mistaken. Perhaps, once a dullard, always a dullard...
This is incredibly simplistic, whereas the reality is incredibly complex. It often isn't true that people die in accord with causality. Often, they make narrow escapes which may have been assisted by the nudges of guides. But who says the guides are here to save our lives all the time? Why would they do that? Who better than they do know that the death of the body is no tragedy.I think it does because a spiritual guide implies that someone is looking out for you personally, but if you examine how reality works, this clearly isn’t happening. People die for random reasons according to the force of causality. Causality is the only guide to humanity, and it is indifferent to our personal survival.
Listen, you’re full of crap, and I’ll tell you why. When someone almost dies, but evades death by a hair’s breath, that doesn’t mean that supernatural guides assisted them, all it means is that the causal conditions were not there to cause their death. For instance: Suppose I walk into an intersection, and a bus almost runs me over because it runs a red light, and it comes very close to crushing me. Okay, now let’s examine all the relevant causal conditions: The speed I’m walking, my alertness, the speed of the bus driver, and his alertness are probably the four most vital factors, and if any of those causes change slightly then perhaps I would have died or lived by more than a hair’s breath, do you understand? Causal conditions govern all events. We don’t need to introduce the idea of supernatural imaginary guides into the picture, it is insane, and it violates everything we know to be true about how reality works.This is incredibly simplistic, whereas the reality is incredibly complex. It often isn't true that people die in accord with causality. Often, they make narrow escapes which may have been assisted by the nudges of guides.
Yes, she's far from perfect. She was much more theatrical in the video presentation than she was in the audio presentation. And her idea about how lucky she was that she existed, as opposed to someone else existing in her place, was a bit wacky, but I think that by that time she'd run out of ideas and was fishing where she shouldn't have been.Dan Rowden wrote:Her theatrical style was merely one part I didn't "like".
I don't get the impression that she is all that self-congratulatory. She would know that many people in her audience are a lot wiser than she is. However, some self-congratulations are certainly in order. Keep in mind that she didn't really begin giving-up religion till her late thirties, so she really is a neophyte.I also didn't like what was the self-congratulatory nature of the entire exercise, especially given the remedial - at best - content.
Hitchens was there, but as a spiritual thinker he's probably not any better than she is. Other people, like Daniel Dennett, are as boring and evasive as hell. People like Penn Jillette, or Randi, don't have any spiritual/philosophical thoughts of any significance that I am aware of.It's possible, as has been suggested, that there were better speakers at that/those events. That wouldn't be hard, frankly.
Such a being might have a lifetime of hundreds of thousands, or millions of years. They might spend their time serving. They might be multidimensional or outside the constricts of linear time and be able to do more than one thing at a time. And they might not be at our side at all times. The guidance that I sometimes think I have gotten, has been of a mental, instructional nature.Btw, suppose other beings from other dimensions exist, do you really think in all honestly that a rational being from another dimension would really want to spend his daily existence following you around
