so many responses.... hmmmm, did I get to close to home for too many?
zen nudist
JoinedPosts by zen nudist
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mental viruses.... are you infected still?
by zen nudist inlike computer viruses, successful mind viruses will tend to be hard for their victims to detect.
accepting that a virus might be difficult to detect in your own mind, what tell-tale signs might you look out for?
i shall answer by imaging how a medical textbook might describe the typical symptoms of a sufferer
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The Height of Irony
by Gary1914 in"the endeavor to compel all men to think alike on all subjects, .
culminated in the great apostasy and the development of the great papal system, and thereby the gospel, the one faith that paul and the other apostles set forth, was lost - buried under the mass of uninspired decrees of popes and councils.
the unity of the early church, based upon the simple gospel and bound only by love, gave place to the bondage of the church of rome...each new reform movement (like protestantism) has made the failure of attempting to make a creed just large enough for its prime movers.
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zen nudist
its very hard to have a group of people who see eye to eye on all things....that tends to cause an unconscious pressure to conform
to some sort of group norm, generally following the lead of the most charasmtic among the group or the understood leadership...
this is what caused the bay of pigs disaster for Kennedy...though many of his inner circle were fully aware that it could be a disaster, the pressure to conform and please the leader made them hold their tongues when they should have said something.
likewise with dictators like Hitler, those around him were pressured more and more to report what the consciously or unconsciously felt would please der furher, not the facts....so gradually all of Hitlers decisions became more and more insane, as if he needed any help (^_^).
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mental viruses.... are you infected still?
by zen nudist inlike computer viruses, successful mind viruses will tend to be hard for their victims to detect.
accepting that a virus might be difficult to detect in your own mind, what tell-tale signs might you look out for?
i shall answer by imaging how a medical textbook might describe the typical symptoms of a sufferer
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zen nudist
Like computer viruses, successful mind viruses will tend to be hard for their victims to detect.
Accepting that a virus might be difficult to detect in your own mind, what tell-tale signs might you look out for? I shall answer by imaging how a medical textbook might describe the typical symptoms of a sufferer
1. The patient typically finds himself impelled by some deep, inner conviction that something is true, or right, or virtuous: a conviction that doesn't seem to owe anything to evidence or reason, but which, nevertheless, he feels as totally compelling and convincing. We doctors refer to such a belief as ``faith.''
2. Patients typically make a positive virtue of faith's being strong and unshakable, in spite of not being based upon evidence. Indeed, they may feel that the less evidence there is, the more virtuous the belief (see below).
3. A related symptom, which a faith-sufferer may also present, is the conviction that ``mystery,'' per se, is a good thing. It is not a virtue to solve mysteries. Rather we should enjoy them, even revel in their insolubility.
4. The sufferer may find himself behaving intolerantly towards vectors of rival faiths, in extreme cases even killing them or advocating their deaths. He may be similarly violent in his disposition towards apostates (people who once held the faith but have renounced it); or towards heretics (people who espouse a different --- often, perhaps significantly, only very slightly different --- version of the faith). He may also feel hostile towards other modes of thought that are potentially inimical to his faith, such as the method of scientific reason which may function rather like a piece of anti-viral software.
5. The patient may notice that the particular convictions that he holds, while having nothing to do with evidence, do seem to owe a great deal to epidemiology. Why, he may wonder, do I hold this set of convictions rather than that set? Is it because I surveyed all the world's faiths and chose the one whose claims seemed most convincing? Almost certainly not. If you have a faith, it is statistically overwhelmingly likely that it is the same faith as your parents and grandparents had. No doubt soaring cathedrals, stirring music, moving stories and parables, help a bit. But by far the most important variable determining your religion is the accident of birth. The convictions that you so passionately believe would have been a completely different, and largely contradictory, set of convictions, if only you had happened to be born in a different place. Epidemiology, not evidence.
6. If the patient is one of the rare exceptions who follows a different religion from his parents, the explanation may still be epidemiological. To be sure, it is possible that he dispassionately surveyed the world's faiths and chose the most convincing one. But it is statistically more probable that he has been exposed to a particularly potent infective agent --- a John Wesley, a Jim Jones or a
7. The internal sensations of the patient may be startlingly reminiscent of those more ordinarily associated with sexual love. This is an extremely potent force in the brain, and it is not surprising that some viruses have evolved to exploit it. St. Teresa of 's famously orgasmic vision is too notorious to need quoting again. More seriously, and on a less crudely sensual plane, the philosopher Anthony Kenny provides moving testimony to the pure delight that awaits those that manage to believe in the mystery of transubstantiation.
4 Is Science a Virus
No. Not unless all computer programs are viruses. Good, useful programs spread because people evaluate them, recommend them and pass them on. Computer viruses spread solely because they embody the coded instructions: ``Spread me.'' Scientific ideas, like all memes, are subject to a kind of natural selection, and this might look superficially virus-like. But the selective forces that scrutinize scientific ideas are not arbitrary and capricious. They are exacting, well-honed rules, and they do not favor pointless self-serving behavior. They favor all the virtues laid out in textbooks of standard methodology: testability, evidential support, precision, quantifiability, consistency, intersubjectivity, repeatability, universality, progressiveness, independence of cultural milieu, and so on. Faith spreads despite a total lack of every single one of these virtues.
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zen nudist
there are always those who seek to force others to follow rules they agree with... but there is also the debate that languages are living things and dictionaries are not law, but catalogues of common usage.... there are many who use the word conversate does that make them wrong? in their world everyone they know uses it, so who is to say THEY are wrong? by what rule, what law? appealing to the dictionary does not work in living languages, only dead ones.
not too long ago people in scholarly circles agreed that the infamous double negatives were now ok...because when people use them their victim knows what they mean..and that is the root of language, not picky laws or rules, but conveying intention by triggering shared experiences.
school marms will demand the use of proper english forever...but that does not stop language from changing, especially vibrant languages like english which began as a german dialect.
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Words to Live By - What are Yours?
by pettygrudger inin trying to deal with the everyday realities of our existence, we usually pick "catch phrases" or principles with which we use to try & guide our life, growth & development.
in my case, the #1 thing that i try to live by is to take what is mine & own it.
yep, i didn't have the best circumstances growing up, and had some pretty crappy things that happened to me as a child.
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zen nudist
all things are as they must be.
reality is a b!tch but some of her puppies are cute.
everything is perfect until you compare it to something it is not.
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"Live life each day to the fullest" - What does it mean to you?
by gumby infirst off...ss inspired me to write this.
i don't think he'll mind me saying this cuz i'm patting him on the back for it.. in a pm he said " live life each day to the fullest...what do ya thing gumby"?.
i didn't know how to answer him.
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zen nudist
the zen way is to realize that there is never any moment but now... sure now used to look different, and will look different as its elements keep changing relationships, but those relationships are always existing just now.
by accepting that the past is just a memory, dead and unable to change, and the future is just a best guess, we live now, making our gambles with our best skills so as to have no cause for regrets, we accept the consequences of our gambles and keep our minds free of false certainties by challenging any beliefs that minds can invent so as to see what ever options that resultant clarity affords.
every single one of us is always sharing the very same now...the eternal present moment, why fight it? why not embrace it and ride the wave of ever increasing novelty?
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Whats the Biggest JW contradiction?
by sleepy inwhat do you think the biggest contradiction was in jw teaching or logic?
i remember people confronted us with the argument that maybe over thousands of years the bible has changed, we would probably say any changes were minor, and we have the dead sea scrolls etc that don't vary much from the bible today.
yet when asked by people with a little knowledge about the bible why the name jehovah was not in any manuscripts of the new testament, we would effectivly says its because they have been changed over time.
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zen nudist
that one should live ones life with no regard to his own needs and desires so that a copy may
enjoy the benefits of paradise. The real you will be dead and buried with no soul to link you to that copy.
perhaps their best selling point should be promoted as: millions now sinning will never fry.
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It's my opinion...
by teejay ini know what i think about the watchtower society.
i know what i think about the current state of the republican party and its standard bearer george w. bush.
i know what i think about the ford motor company.
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zen nudist
1. Everyone has a Belief System (BS)
2. Never take anyone else's BS too seriously.
3. Never take your own BS too seriously! - Robert Anton Wilsonhumans are natural born liars, they sponteniously start around age 4 and you can see this by asking a four year old any question.
many of them are absolutely sure about things they dont have a clue about.
those who never grow out of this certainty become leaders and clergy
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CAPITALISM: Do you know what it is? What is your opinion?
by Terry in.
i'll just let the question stand before i spout off.. i hear alot of people speak disparagingly about capitalism.. i'd like to hear your opinion before i give mine.. terry.
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zen nudist
The Divine Right Of Capital : Dethroning the Corporate Aristocracy By Marjorie Kelly
was my post simply ignored or does anyone think M Kelly's solution is not the best? -
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join now
by zen nudist injoin the testigos de jehova and become a member of god's visible organisation.. .
tesigos, witness, testamant.... same root as testicles, witness of manhood.. .
you are my balls, says jehovah....isa 43:12. .
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zen nudist
join the Testi go s De Jehova and become a MEMBER of God's Visible ORGAN isation.
Tesigos, Witness, testamant.... same root as Testicles, witness of manhood.
you are my BALLS, says Jehovah....isa 43:12