YappyMonotheist

I can’t post the whole Qur’an (and, as a message from the Divine, it’s hard to call it “wisdom”, it’s a bit more uhh axiomatic than that), and I won’t post the entirety of Ecclesiastes (but if you’re in a moment of existential questioning, I think reading it would be very helpful!), but I will post a passage from the NT, Matthew 25-34, because it might be useful to some of you as it has been to me (and my somewhat anxious wife likes it too!).

"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?

And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."

“Skilled” and “unskilled” work? I reject this Americanism.

The “spirit” of evolution? Sure, but the whole point is that now we know there was planning behind it, direction (as there are instructions in the loading screen), and planning requires a mind. 👍

I try (everything is progress towards a known unreachable ideal character) to live a righteous life while believing in God and the Day of Judgment with excitement, not fear (whilst still keeping in mind my share of this world). In Kierkegaard’s terms: I’ve left the aesthetic stage, walked through the ethical stage and I leapt into the religious stage, and God caught me. Once you do that, I’ve found that the rest comes by itself, and your fulfilment is mostly guaranteed (this is still just my personal experience though).

Thanks for the reply. I’m glad to know you’ve found someone you can trust safely!

I agree (those hard categories are for God, only He truly knows, only He pronounces himself finally on it) but at some point you have to make a decision, because in your personal life you will trust and stay away from people based on that judgement. Basically, people cross a threshold one way or another, where that lies is somewhat different from everyone (in intensity not direction) but not by much.

Racism is the opposite though: regardless of your deeds, you’re good or bad if you’re part of my personally accepted tribes.

And whether they think themselves as bad when it’s warranted or not is inconsequential. Of course their nasty, vicious deeds are beautiful in their eyes, they’ve taken a million steps away from virtue, they can’t recognise it and if they did they’d have to push away those thoughts or become suicidally regretful.

Do you believe in free will btw? Or is this also part of the equation in your thinking, that people don’t really make any decisions so how can we judge them?

Unironically, something like “Don’t forget to fear God and keep his commandments!”. I mean, we’d have full confirmation of a creator intelligence if we had loading screens, lol.

“There was definitely a more virtuous path to take here, why didn’t they? Are they just that stupid? Emotionally overwhelmed and unable to be righteous? Or are they in full awareness and capacities, but they just don’t care?”

The answer gives me a data point, and with a collection of points (fewer are needed the further the decisions are from virtue) I make my assessment.

Yeah but you’re not raping and murdering and lying and scamming so perhaps it wouldn’t be a very productive society but at least we’d be safe with a society of yous. 🤷😁

Sometimes they’re just easily overwhelmed and can’t think clearly. Not an excuse but at least it’s the background of their actions, they’re not doing this in complete awareness and out of malice. Nonetheless, we have the moral duty to know and correct ourselves to the best of our abilities.

Out of curiosity and nothing else, why do you think you’re a poor judge of character? And are you neurodivergent in some way (I’m an ADHD enjoyer, btw, I’m not hating here)?

And congrats on the nice family life! 👍

It’s not all or nothing, and small things are universally tolerable. Gluttony isn’t good but most people have someone fat/obese they love and even admire. Excess vanity isn’t good but to a certain degree most women are somewhat vain and that doesn’t make them bad (and men enjoy looking at women when they’re done up too), right? It’s impossible to be perfect, and virtue will be disregarded at times, but I think it’s not that difficult to be above the threshold we all naturally understand (unless you’re an amoral perspectivist): don’t lie, don’t cheat, don’t be coercive or aggressive, don’t mistreat others, take your vows seriously (raise your kids and try to make things work with your partner), be generous when possible, etc etc. And you can always repent and make amends when you fail too, people understand.

What if my motivation is unfettered lust and that’s why I rape kids? Power and that’s why I’m a murderous colonizer? Is everything perception or, in your opinion, are some things actually just “categorically bad”?

What if the non-traveler had an internet connection and wasn’t mentally incompetent? What if the person who travels just does it so they can be hedonistic somewhere nobody knows them (as it tends to happen, like Brits in Spain and all the “eat, pray, love” girlies)? Sometimes it’s a cultural experience, most of the time it isn’t, from what I’ve seen.

It’s a mixture of “fancy” escapism and trying to signal being “cultured” (they just got wasted and fucked random people in a different country, perhaps with a museum visit in the middle of it all, lol). It’s nice to travel, just like it’s nice to go to a nice restaurant, but that’s it. Sometimes it does open up your mind because you lived in a racist, weird bubble your whole life, and in that case yeah, it’s definitely more transformative than just having good Indian food in a nice restaurant. And I’ve been around the world besides Asia and Africa, basically (but Morocco and China are my future destinations so that’s gonna happen too at some point), so it’s not like I’m just sour-graping over here.

I read the entire Dune series on my phone, laying on my belly, and it was a thoroughly enjoyable experience. I did it with an app called eBoox, which reads different formats, making it very practical.

It’s hard to pick one between ELO, Jamiroquai, the Bee Gees and Linkin Park.

It should be offered IMO (and definitely not made illegal), but not mandatory. If the truth destroys something, it just wasn’t meant to be.

The Alhambra is just majestic. By far my favourite palace in Europe and that counts the ones in France (I haven’t explored the German ones yet though). Spain as a whole is a very culturally rich country.

👏👌