Alan Watts

[mdwoods]

Great critical thinker. If you seek the truth you need to watch the whole thing.

[Comrade Renski]

I watched it, found it interesting.

Now consider this...

https://1000wordphilosophy.com/2021/01/ ... als-wager/

[mdwoods]

That's very interesting too but I don't believe in hell. I believe there is a creator or creative mechanism. What or who that is I have no idea. I don't believe a compassionate god would send people to suffer eternal torment just because they couldn't believe in him. If god does exist then he/she/it/ made people of all different temperaments, sexualities. God would have made birth defects, mental illness, disease etc. Would he create a schizophrenic who might do horrible things and then send him/her to hell for it? Why would he make pedophiles who are universally reviled by most people. I don't believe pedophiles wake up one day and decide to molest children. It's something they were born with or developed when they were children themselves. I just don't believe in the man made gods of organized religions. I do think there is something after this life and I think it will be good. But if I'm wrong and there's nothing I'll never know it. Pascal's wager makes assumptions that certain things are true that I don't agree with. I would believe in the Christian God if there were any real proof. I need proof, faith isn't going to get it for me. I want to believe in God, it would make things so much easier but you can't just say you believe and poof it is so.

[mdwoods]

Pascal was not exactly rational in his viewpoints. He gets angry when people don't seek god the way he thinks they should. He thinks he knows better is what I've gathered. He says if God exists then heaven and hell exists. But that's only true if the Christian god is real. His logic is flawed.

[HappyLittleTrees]

Cullen inadvertently told the absolute truth.

"There is never no religion. if you removed every one you mentioned, man will build himself a golden calf."

It's all made up. Period. Take a thousand groups of a thousand humans and wipe their brains and isolate the groups, in a hundred years you will have at least a thousand different stories of invisible supperdaddies and supermommies. It's how the human brain copes with intelligence/awareness and mortality.

[HappyLittleTrees]

I used to use this Alan Watts quote for my sigline.

"When we were born we don't really know where we came from
Because we don't remember
And we think when we die
That's just going to be that
Some people console themselves with the idea that they'll go to Heaven
Or that they're going to be reincarnated or they're going to summer land or something else
People don't really believe that
But for most people it's plausible the real thing that haunts them
Is that when they die, they go to sleep and are never going to wake up"

[BigMark]

I'm jealous of believers, to "know" there is an afterlife. I appreciate architecture and love going into old churches, can't imagine the feeling for a religious person.

[WhyNot]

Belief in God instills a base of morality, or in the least it should. I always told my daughters while they were young that they could go into a store and outsmart the security cameras and store staff and steal what they want, but no matter how well they hide their crime God will see them.
I sent my children to Catholic grammar school to help put God into their lives. He still lives in there with them as he does with me and the Mrs.
I want his company in my life and my belief is enough for me. He has helped me through quite a few pickles and I owe him my belief at the least.

[cullenbryant]

A lot of Watts statements are false as are many of his presumptions. Probably why he speaks in monologue.

After having read the bible books including the additional few included in catholic bible, as well as the gnostics gospels, dead sea, and have also read everyone elses holy book (something I wouldn't recommend at first), I can say that I believe the story of the Bible.

complexity my friends. it stands alone as a literary work.

[ArtificialStupidity]

Listened to about 4 minutes. Kind of slow.

Looked up his name. Interesting character.

[HappyLittleTrees]

A lot of Watts statements are false as are many of his presumptions. Probably why he speaks in monologue.

Give three specific examples.

[HappyLittleTrees]

Belief in God instills a base of morality, or in the least it should. I always told my daughters while they were young that they could go into a store and outsmart the security cameras and store staff and steal what they want, but no matter how well they hide their crime God will see them.
I sent my children to Catholic grammar school to help put God into their lives. He still lives in there with them as he does with me and the Mrs.
I want his company in my life and my belief is enough for me. He has helped me through quite a few pickles and I owe him my belief at the least.

Pure hogwash. Gods are invented by man, and any related morals come from man. Not invisible superdaddies.

[WhyNot]

You’re entitled to your opinions.

[PerryHall]

You’re entitled to your opinions.

Opinions are like azzholes and Harold is one.

[HappyLittleTrees]

You’re right but I refuse to say it.

I know. It's okay.

[ArtificialStupidity]

How does one outsmart the security cams?

[WhyNot]

How does one outsmart the security cams?

Back then they only pointed in one direction.

[cullenbryant]

A lot of Watts statements are false as are many of his presumptions. Probably why he speaks in monologue.

Give three specific examples.

Within the first minute he states that we got the bible thanks to the catholic church. He states that members of the catholic church wrote the books of the new testament. Jesus and his apostles who wrote much of the new testament were non secular. The word catholic appears nowhere in the entire text of the new or old testament. The people who wrote the bible did not recognize themselves as catholic, but as Hebrews who had converted to Christ.

[HappyLittleTrees]

A lot of Watts statements are false as are many of his presumptions. Probably why he speaks in monologue.

Give three specific examples.

Within the first minute he states that we got the bible thanks to the catholic church. He states that members of the catholic church wrote the books of the new testament. Jesus and his apostles who wrote much of the new testament were non secular. The word catholic appears nowhere in the entire text of the new or old testament. The people who wrote the bible did not recognize themselves as catholic, but as Hebrews who had converted to Christ.

Okay so you don't know the difference between catholic and Catholic.

You are back to needing three specific examples.

[cullenbryant]