Do you believe in reincarnation?

[CCS]

Free will, or just physics following a very complex course?

Conscious, or just seems that way?

Personal conscious, or just a property that a brain has?

Do you have to have kids in order to be reincarnated? Or does that just increase the frequency? Or does it not matter? Or does that determine if you are reincarnated as a human instead of a bug?

If our populations keep going up, then were are all the new centers of consciousnesses coming from? Kind of points to consciousness just being a property not something personal. If there are an infinite number out there, what are the odds of you coming up again?

Is your consciousness defined by DNA? Environment? Spirit? All?

If all humans die, then no one will be reincarnated as a human. So having kids seems to be somewhat important for being reincarnated as a human. By the same logic, what guarantee do you have of even being reincarnated as a bug? Even their populations keep going up.

Another possibility is that this is the only life you will ever have.

Add more.

 

[CCS]

And who is in more of a trance:

The guy who goes about his work day doing a variety of tasks?
The guy staring at the corning day dreaming about different stuff?
The person telling a story he remembers?
The person staring a painting, mesmerized by its beauty?
The person reading a book?
The person who is hypnotized?
The soldier dodging bullets and completely unaware about his son's softball game back home?


Make up two people, one whom you think is in less of a trance than the other, and state what aspects of life one is not aware of that the other is more aware of. For example: one guy staring at a strange new bug on the ground and unaware of a passing car, while another guy is aware of the various people in the park and think the first guy looks kind of strange hunched over like that staring at the ground.

 

[CCS]

Suppose one guy has a PhD in math, but he does not know any chemistry or history or art.

Another guy knows a little art, a little history, a little chemistry, and a little math. But know the same amount of information, in terms of how many pages it would take to write it all down. Is it subjective which one is a specialist and which is a generalist, aside from the fact that some of the math requires knowing other math to understand? Would you say the math guy lived his college education in sort of a trance, and the other guy was more aware of his surroundings? Or would you say we just know different stuff, and organizing it is kind of subjecting except by comparing to what other members of the population typically know?




Is it better to define your short term memory in terms of how many seconds you can hold, or how much information you can hold? If you think of a ton of ideas fast, and can't remember some of them from 10 seconds ago, does that mean your short term memory was reduced, or does that mean it just got filled up fast and some info got pushed off the back end?

 

[GeminiX]

Do you believe in reincarnation?

No, but were all capable of leaving a legacy which can have an impact on billions.

No magic, no hocus-pocus or mystical great sky daddies and gods.

Just doing and being.

 

[s.a.f]

Logics tells me no, but my experience tells me yes.

Were you a NW1 in your former life? :whistle:

 

[GeminiX]

Logics tells me no, but my experience tells me yes.

Were you a NW1 in your former life? :whistle:

I lolled

 

[GeminiX]

I don't believe we need to look to the supernatural to understand evil.

Evil is simply the consequence of human action or inaction: ultimately we are responsible for what happens to us, for good or for ill.
(It's also very subjective)

 

[s.a.f]

Yeah and what comes after death? The same as what came before life - nothing.

Dont waste your time thinking about anything other than this life. Ultimatley its all we have. And dont wait for some higher being to sort things out it'll never happen.

 

[GeminiX]

I don't believe we need to look to the supernatural to understand evil.

Evil is simply the consequence of human action or inaction: ultimately we are responsible for what happens to us, for good or for ill.

I disagree though, think about it. Describing it as a consequence is to vague, don't you think?

Any other animal does not know the concept of it, monkeys do not feel shame if they mate with a prebubescent monkey. Yet humans inherently know that child rape is evil, it brings feelings of dread to even comprehend it, this knowlege is inherent, evil is much more complex than you may imagine there is a lot behind it, what do you think about demonic possesion?

I don't have a problem with it at all, it's not vague it's just broad because it covers a lot of ground. I don't believe in *anything* supernatural, though it's certainly something I've given a lot of thought to.

As a child I had a very strict religious upbringing (even the cinema was "evil"), fortunately I saw the light as I got older and started to question dogmatic beliefs

I certainly don't think that all people universally perceive evil as Western society sees it as evil either, paedophiles for example often don't think they are doing anything wrong and there are many cultures where the age of consent is *much* lower than it is in the west, for example.

The definition of evil is cultural and subjective; another example: we see suicide bombers as evil yet they see themselves are holy and doing God's work.

 

[s.a.f]

I don't believe we need to look to the supernatural to understand evil.

Evil is simply the consequence of human action or inaction: ultimately we are responsible for what happens to us, for good or for ill.

I disagree though, think about it. Describing it as a consequence is to vague, don't you think?

Any other animal does not know the concept of it, monkeys do not feel shame if they mate with a prebubescent monkey. Yet humans inherently know that child rape is evil, it brings feelings of dread to even comprehend it, this knowlege is inherent, evil is much more complex than you may imagine there is a lot behind it, what do you think about demonic possesion?

Just because we're more socially developed than other species does'nt prove anything in the end we're still just animals.
I doubt cavemen were worried about most of the things we today find socially unnaceptable.

 

[optimus prime]

Yeah and what comes after death? The same as what came before life - nothing.

Who says there is nothing before life? Just because your human brain cannot remember it does not mean your soul or spirit was not exsisting before your human life.

Dont waste your time thinking about anything other than this life. Ultimatley its all we have. And dont wait for some higher being to sort things out it'll never happen.

Why would you consider it a waste of time, many many religious people feel more content with their lives just because they believe in life after this life. If I found out there was not life after this life I would not regret my time spent thinking about it because believing in a God has made me stronger and given me hope when I had lost hope. That is not a waste of time.

Watching Eastenders is a waste of time

 

[s.a.f]

Yeah and what comes after death? The same as what came before life - nothing.

Dont waste your time thinking about anything other than this life. Ultimatley its all we have. And dont wait for some higher being to sort things out it'll never happen.

I have wittnesssed the supernatural with my own eyes......There is more to this world than physical attributes....

Can you prove that? Alot of people have witnessed alot of things (or believe that they have).
Myself I'll put my trust in reality and what can be proven.

 

[GeminiX]

Just because we're more socially developed than other species does'nt prove anything in the end we're still just animals.
I doubt cavemen were worried about most of the things we today find socially unnaceptable.

No it is inherent, there is not a culture in the world where child rape is not perceived as evil, and there is not a time period in history, in which it was accepted either, this goes beyond mere social development, a universal perception is different than a universal development.....

Sadly there are many, just from the top of Google - http://www.errc.org/cikk.php?cikk=2295

 

[GeminiX]

I think that evil is a lucid intellectually unimpaired thought or act that is void of morality. That's the only way I can summarise my thinking of it.

I'm trying to think of an example....

ok this isn't an example but it's something I couldn't comprehend. Might not be relevant exactly but. I once saw a baby, perhaps 1.5-2 years old grab it's mothers little dog and willingly inflict pain on it. the dog squeeled and he kept his foot on it's neck with a look of determination. The child knew it was inflicting suffering on the animal and carried on unitl I reprimanded him. Was that evil?

I tried not to judge that child cos he was a baby but his father was a fairly evil bastard and I couldn't help but see the resemblance in him. Did that infant have a streak of intrinsic evil in him? He hadn't the time to learn bad behaviour like that or had he?

Well I think there as such thing as genetic memory, but in this case it's probably just that the child simply had no real understanding of the consequences of his actions. It's one of the reasons children are not tried as adults in most criminal proceedings.

 

[s.a.f]

[quote="s.a.f":33r3ct9u]Yeah and what comes after death? The same as what came before life - nothing.

Who says there is nothing before life? Just because your human brain cannot remember it does not mean your soul or spirit was not exsisting before your human life.[/quote:33r3ct9u]

Yeah and care bear land might also exist but I cant prove or disprove that either.

Dont waste your time thinking about anything other than this life. Ultimatley its all we have. And dont wait for some higher being to sort things out it'll never happen.

Why would you consider it a waste of time, many many religious people feel more content with their lives just because they believe in life after this life. If I found out there was not life after this life I would not regret my time spent thinking about it because believing in a God has made me stronger and given me hope when I had lost hope. That is not a waste of time.

Watching Eastenders is a waste of time

See above response.

People used to believe the world was flat aswell, until we became more developed intellectually.

 

[GeminiX]

I don't think that there's a place on this earth, in which you can't find people who know that it is evil!

No really, there is. Look up things like the age of consent. In many African and Asian cultures for example there is *no* age limit on intercourse, though some have laws on intercourse outside of marriage (though multiple wives of all ages are fine).

 

[s.a.f]

Just because we're more socially developed than other species does'nt prove anything in the end we're still just animals.
I doubt cavemen were worried about most of the things we today find socially unnaceptable.

No it is inherent, there is not a culture in the world where child rape is not perceived as evil, and there is not a time period in history, in which it was accepted either, this goes beyond mere social development, a universal perception is different than a universal development.....

Sadly there are many, just from the top of Google - http://www.errc.org/cikk.php?cikk=2295

Infact theres probably nothing on earth thats causes more misguided pain and suffering than religion.

Children condemned to death for witchcraft or demonic possesion in Africa, women (many what you would consider underage) forced into marriages or female circusicion. Honor killings ... the list is endless.

 

[s.a.f]

I don't think that there's a place on this earth, in which you can't find people who know that it is evil!

No really, there is. Look up things like the age of consent. In many African and Asian cultures for example there is *no* age limit on intercourse, though some have laws on intercourse outside of marriage (though multiple wives of all ages are fine).

But there are people there, who know that it is wrong to rape a child, I don't believe that all of them accept child rape!

But you just claimed that ALL humans inheritley know its wrong.

 

[GeminiX]

I think that evil is a lucid intellectually unimpaired thought or act that is void of morality. That's the only way I can summarise my thinking of it.

I'm trying to think of an example....

ok this isn't an example but it's something I couldn't comprehend. Might not be relevant exactly but. I once saw a baby, perhaps 1.5-2 years old grab it's mothers little dog and willingly inflict pain on it. the dog squeeled and he kept his foot on it's neck with a look of determination. The child knew it was inflicting suffering on the animal and carried on unitl I reprimanded him. Was that evil?

I tried not to judge that child cos he was a baby but his father was a fairly evil bastard and I couldn't help but see the resemblance in him. Did that infant have a streak of intrinsic evil in him? He hadn't the time to learn bad behaviour like that or had he?

Ok, but what is moral? If we all, are mere animals than morals shouldn't apply they shouldn't be necessary, does a dolphin have morals? What sets us apart, asside from our opposable thumb, and increased intellectual ability, is there nothing else unique to humans, I believe that there is.....

I believe there is too, but I don't believe it's supernatural.

 

[optimus prime]

See above response.

People used to believe the world was flat aswell, until we became more developed intellectually.

That does not really argue my point. You cannot prove there is no God, and I cannot prove there is a God, but my point was I would have zero regret for my time spent praying and thinking about God if I found out there was no God because I already feel like I have benefited from believing.