Go check out how the Weinsteins used to badger the academy judges into nominating their movies with all sorts of creative methods. It’s a pretty interesting read when you’re bored and have nothing better to do.
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I stopped going to church after the Vatican scandal(you all know what I’m talking about). It just sickened me too much knowing it was a systemic thing going on for so long. Never really cared for the community there anyway although it’s important for my parents so they continue to go.
Btw now they have a patron saint for computer programmers.
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/10/13/world/teenager-beatified-church-intl-scli/index.html
So do I. But I think of it, and other science, in terms of probability. NOTHING, IMO, can really be proven absolutely. We can only rely on probability. It’s how I objectively make decisions like in business and important life decisions that require it like choice of medical treatment, as opposed things like faith and stuff like gambling for fun.
If I’m wrong, at least I can say that I did the best of my abilities in decision making based on the info I had on hand at the time and I’d have no regrets.
I’ve been wrong a lot, just that I’ve been right more times than wrong because I’m fairly consistent in my decision making process. And sometimes I’ve fucked things up because I included emotions in the process and that’s when I really feel regret and guilt.
For example, I know modern medicine isn’t perfect, particularly in the field of psychiatry from what psychiatrists have told me, but if I didn’t think objectively, I’d have sent my schizo relative to a Traditional Chinese Medicine practitioner like his mother did(with disasterous results) since it’s something deeply ingrained into our culture with LOTS of “anecdotal” evidence of it’s efficay.
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The thing with the big bang is that there is nothing to be either lost or gained by not believing in it, unlike decisions relating to business and medical treatment.
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I was talking about my thought process when it comes to science in general, which includes the Big Bang.
Regarding the Big Bang, you’re right. It’s like my smart tv. I don’t give a fuck what’s in it making it work. All I know is I can do cool shit like watch youtube in 4k. God could have created it out of boredom on his rest day and I wouldn’t care.
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Yeah. I never really got comfortable with that aspect. Even though I could defend the practice, I simply couldn’t employ it in my own life.
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We should at least obey the 10 commandments…
Technically that’s not true. Conclusions that are the result of deductive reasoning are absolute. 2+2 will always equal 4, in any world, under any circumstance, for instance. There is no case were this is not true.
Accepting conclusions, no matter how they are derived are subject to the human paradigm. But that doesn’t really matter with regards to whether or not a deductive claim is valid.
There are things that are true, regardless of whether or not anybody believes it. Those things are absolute.
Nothing with regards to matter can be proven absolutely. So as a result, there are no scientific absolutes, but there are metaphysical absolutes.
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Bertrand Russell wrote about a 60 page proof on this. However, if nothing physical were to exist, what does 2+2 even mean. The 2 refers to 2 things / objects. Do 2 nothings + 2 nothings = 4 nothings? Do 2 infinities + 2 infinities = 4 infinities?
I think we have to have presuppositions in place for even that to be true. I think most would agree on those presuppositions though.
Nothing has done more damage to the Church, ever, in history. But I am Catholic, it’s part of my identity and I cannot ignore 2000 years of precedence, knowledge, wisdom and theology either. Whether or not you like the current iteration of the Church, it is the Christian church that has been there from the beginning. It is the Church that can trace it’s roots right down to Matthew 16:18. It is the Church that founded western civilization as we know it.
I have nothing against my Protestant brothers and sisters, we are all children of God. I do quite enjoy their scripture-centric focus and their intense devotion. We may divert on some, ultimately minor issues, but we are all the same Body of Christ.
My argument against (for lack of a better word) Protestantism is that it requires technology and education for it to have even started.
In the ye olde days, people didn’t have access to books and even if they did most of them could not read. Books were extremely rare and very protected for good reason. They were all hand written and there were no copies, unless someone hand copied it. So the scriptures were not available to the masses until the invention of the printing press. The scriptures were precious books, kept very securely, because the loss of a Bible was a soul crushing event for an entire community. So to learn, you had to go to church. Fortunately, the printing press changed it all. Bibles could be printed by the hundreds and thousands and the scriptures were finally available to all. Without the printing press, there would be no Protestantism. But you also have to be able to read. Church is something that is supposed to be available to everybody regardless of circumstance. To the illiterate or poor most of all. Requiring reading and possession of a Bible for salvation is exclusive to the literate with 2 pennies to rub together.
I don’t mean this to sound adversarial, it’s not meant to be. I am not meaning it to be contentious, it’s just my observations. It’s my identity.
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That’s me being honest.
What? It sounds like you accused me of antisemitism and I reported it to a mod. That may have happened. You really are not as memorable to me as I am to you. Do you want a cookie?
Well, what pat said was worse than whatever stupidity came out of your mouth. Pat has brain damage, what’s your excuse?
You might want to get a life if my wit is that important to you.
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I was thinking about that when I posted earlier. Studios do want to have an award winner even if it makes no money relative to a comic book movie.
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Then thought couldn’t exist.
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True from my stand point. There are some that are not convinced that anything exists outside of their thoughts. Not common, but there are some who claim that (some are religious apologists).
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I think it’s more that it requires faith to believe so.
Again, alternative candidate for some of us Christians looking for a candidate in a post Christian nation.
I agree with what you’re saying and I really appreciate you taking the time to write all that but I didn’t say I stopped being Catholic. All I meant was I couldn’t bring myself to walk into a Catholic church anymore. Just felt sick every time I went there and couldn’t shake that feeling.
Belief in religion for me is faith/emotion based. I cannot rationalize it with reason and I’ve long accepted that. It’s why there’s also a psychological barrier that stops me from going to church that I can’t rationalize.
EDIT:
I also understand shit like this exists everywhere in every institution, religious or otherwise.
Even the Dalai Lama isn’t clean:
I was just responding to your comment about the abuse scandal and went on to explain why I remain Catholic and provided a brief history as some of the reasons why.
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Still appreciated. I wouldn’t be as open you and some others here when it comes to why I retain faith in religion. I don’t have the ability to articulate it without sounding like a loon anyway.
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While the talk is going on about stuff in the media and entertainment is going on in the other thread, I looked for the story from the bible I mentioned earlier that really messed me up for years when I read it at 8.
It’s even worse than I remembered. Now I know why I thought Texas Chainsaw Massacre was a comedy when I watched it at 12.
“…The king became angry and commanded frying pans and cauldrons to be heated. 4 As soon as they were hot, he commanded that the one acting as spokesman have his tongue cut out, be scalped, and have his hands and feet cut off while the rest of his brothers and his mother watched. 5 After the brother was maimed and utterly helpless, the king commanded him to be brought to the fire and fried alive…”
“…After the first brother died in this manner, they led forward the second one with mockery. They ripped off the skin of his head along with the hair…”
“…Bitterly annoyed at the young boy’s contempt, the king grew angry and treated him worse than the others…”
Anyone here thinks this won’t mess kids up?
My point is I was put in the wrong class which was meant for adults so I was exposed to this too young. My parents should have put me in the kid’s class but there were problems with scheduling that couldn’t be solved.
But what if a kid starts flipping through the Old Testament and reading all the nasty stuff?
In the end, it’s up to parents to be responsible for their own kids.
When parents have to constantly question their kids well being after putting them Im the care of teachers and other authorities who have agreed to do their best for children, what you are essentially doing is creating a low trust society.
If EVERYTHING is dependent on parents for training civic-minded, well-adjusted citizens what is the point of a society at all? We can all just reside in our own little reservations with our own little clans, which in turn would lead to civilization regression in which not much innovation or large-scale projects happen at all.
Anyone can take a look into low trust societies for proof.
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