A reason why people remain religious

Guybrush · 08-16-2014, 04:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MattMVS7

When it comes to something such as you thinking that you are some alien from another planet, then that would obviously be false. But when it comes to things such as personal opinions about yourself and such, then it would be a scientific fact that whatever personal opinion you have about yourself that cannot be scientifically proven false, then that personal opinion holds true for you and makes you that person.

Well, let's say you believe yourself to be a great chess player. You could set up an experiment in which you play chess against a thousand opponents and see how you do. Perhaps your score will be ****. And then you could make the other players rank you with some score, and they will confirm that you're ****. And the whole world could basically tell you that you're **** at chess. Your statistical analysis might tell you that the probability of you sucking at chess is more than 99.9999%.

Of course you could live in a comfortable delusion believing that you're still a great chess player, but I'm not sure I'd call it a scientific fact. It might be a fact that you're delusional.

~~MattMVS7~~ · 08-16-2014, 04:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tore

Well, let's say you believe yourself to be a great chess player. You could set up an experiment in which you play chess against a thousand opponents and see how you do. Perhaps your score will be ****. And then you could make the other players rank you with some score, and they will confirm that you're ****. And the whole world could basically tell you that you're **** at chess. Your statistical analysis might tell you that the probability of you sucking at chess is more than 99.9999%.

Of course you could live in a comfortable delusion believing that you're still a great chess player, but I'm not sure I'd call it a scientific fact. It might be a fact that you're delusional.

Life is about finding your own path, empowerment, and strength in life and not giving a **** about what others think of you and any "selfish" beliefs you might have (and, of course, helping others only if you wish and not caring about what others think if you instead choose not to help others and instead focus on yourself). This is all your own brain and your own life and you make whatever you want to make of it--not what others think who have a negative opinion of any "selfish" views you might have and such.

Guybrush · 08-16-2014, 05:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MattMVS7

Life is about finding your own path, empowerment, and strength in life and not giving a **** about what others think of you and any "selfish" beliefs you might have (and, of course, helping others only if you wish and not caring about what others think if you instead choose not to help others and instead focus on yourself). This is all your own brain and your own life and you make whatever you want to make of it--not what others think who have a negative opinion of any "selfish" views you might have and such.

Unfortunately for your argument, we're social beings and all our success at life is dependent on how we do socially. People who are alone are not happy. Thus, it does matter what others think.

We also have eyes and ears and perceive the world around us, so if people call us morons and treat us bad, that's kinda hard to ignore.

Way to argue against all common sense and experience ..

Neapolitan · 08-16-2014, 07:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tore

We also have eyes and ears and perceive the world around us, so if people call us morons and treat us bad, that's kinda hard to ignore.

Way to argue against all common sense and experience ..

It all depends on the situation and also the disposition of the person being called a "moron." While it might be hard to ignore one can also reason away the insult to make it ineffective. There something juvenile and/or mean-spirited about someone calling another person "moron" or any other pejorative. The name-caller really isn't proving any thing through reasoning with an explanation to show that he has a better point of view on the matter. The name-caller is just hurling names to get an emotional response. The name-caller is trading reasoning for vindictiveness.

Guybrush · 08-17-2014, 03:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Neapolitan

It all depends on the situation and also the disposition of the person being called a "moron." While it might be hard to ignore one can also reason away the insult to make it ineffective. There something juvenile and/or mean-spirited about someone calling another person "moron" or any other pejorative. The name-caller really isn't proving any thing through reasoning with an explanation to show that he has a better point of view on the matter. The name-caller is just hurling names to get an emotional response. The name-caller is trading reasoning for vindictiveness.

It doesn't really depend on the situation. The point I was making is that we're social beings. That's programmed into us. If you are a healthy, normal human being and you are all alone in your life, you would feel lonely and that would gnaw at you. You could have all the riches in the world and your life would still feel like it's missing something.

Social interactions form a very basic need for us and without it, we are less happy. That means we are reliant on others, hence it matters what others think of us. You can do your best to rise above this with reasoning, but you can't just opt out because it's in your very being. Someone calling you a moron is still gonna trigger some stress in you, even if you use reasoning and training to keep that stress to a minimum.

~~MattMVS7~~ · 08-17-2014, 10:07 AM

So I see that some people are fine with being inferior beings. But there are people here (including me) who, again, can not stand being a lesser person in any sense (whether it be through humility, through the perspective of this universe in that we have no grand special purpose and are not that special, etc.) and wish to have a sense of superiority through self-empowerment and grandeur and wish to have power and control in their lives. It's like I said, humility is utterly inferior since it demeans yourself (views yourself as not that great or special) and should not even exist and should be exterminated from existence. Pride is the real and ultimate "power" of self here.

I will now quote one of my posts that points out my reasonings for why having a sense of self-empowerment and grandeur makes you the better person. See if you are fine now with your inferior self and life and wish to become someone greater after reading what I have to say here. But if you are still fine anyway even after reading this, then so be it:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mozart Link' pid='626874' dateline='1408235178

Quote:

Originally Posted by Baruch' pid='626848' dateline='1408232547

Some questions for Mozart....

1. Why are you so "special" ? What makes you "special" ?

2. Why are you more special than other people ?

3. What does being special mean to you ?

4. Why do you have to be "given" specialness by a God rather than just creating a meaningful life based on evidence based reasoning ?

5. Is a schizophrenic "special" who believes he is the Jesus reincarnate ?

6. Is someone who contributes to society, discovers new scientific theories & philosophical concepts and makes practical breakthrough's in various fields but doesn't consider themselves as "cosmically special" still "special" just as a human being who dies with no afterlife ?

7. So why is an afterlife so "special" even if there was evidence for such a thing (which there isn't any)

1.) The fact that I think I'm special is what makes me special based on all of my arguments here. Also, the fact that I give my life personality (meaning and such) by hating the fact that there is no God and afterlife and that there should be based on my own personification of life is another thing that makes me special.

2.) I'm more special than people who don't value themselves that much and don't think they're all that special because, unlike these people, I have found my own path of self-empowerment in life and such and have taken matters into my own hands in bestowing myself with this "power" and have not demeaned myself (viewed myself as not all that great and special) unlike these people have.

3.) Being special, to me, means all of the reasons I just stated above.

4.) If there were another universe of god-like immortal beings with perfect lives and such and can overcome any suffering, they would obviously look down upon this universe as inferior since it is a universe that is the opposite. In a sense, I am one of these god-like beings who embraces the universe of anime and god-like anime characters and adds the awesome personification of that god-like anime universe in looking down upon this pathetic universe.

5.) A schizophrenic would be more special.

6.) This person has demeaned his/herself by viewing his/herself as not all that great and special and not giving his/herself this "power" of enlightenment that I've described. Therefore, based on this and all of my reasonings here, this person would not be special.

7.) An afterlife is important (for me anyway) because I am someone who embraces the awesome personality of god-like anime and, with this "higher" personality that I've obtained, it becomes a part of this life. Therefore, from this perception of life, I feel that an afterlife in which you are god-like, immortal, and perfect is very important to me because that would accomplish what this newly obtained personality and perception desires so much.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Baruch' pid='626850' dateline='1408232855

Really ?
So if some ISIS Sunni militant finds empowerment in Beheading Yazidis, that's their life strength and own path of whatever they want which makes them feel special - its all perfectly fine and we shouldn't give a **** & not care what others think ????

You should care only if you want to.

The Batlord · 08-17-2014, 10:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MattMVS7

So I see that some people are fine with being inferior beings. But there are people here (including me) who, again, can not stand being a lesser person in any sense (whether it be through humility, through the perspective of this universe in that we have no grand special purpose and are not that special, etc.) and wish to have a sense of superiority through self-empowerment and grandeur and wish to have power and control in their lives. It's like I said, humility is utterly inferior since it demeans yourself (views yourself as not that great or special) and should not even exist and should be exterminated from existence. Pride is the real and ultimate "power" of self here.

I will now quote one of my posts that points out my reasonings for why having a sense of self-empowerment and grandeur makes you the better person. See if you are fine now with your inferior self and life and wish to become someone greater after reading what I have to say here. But if you are still fine anyway even after reading this, then so be it:

Well, whatever religion you practice you sure as hell aren't a Christian.

The Batlord · 08-16-2014, 06:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MattMVS7

Life is about finding your own path, empowerment, and strength in life and not giving a **** about what others think of you and any "selfish" beliefs you might have (and, of course, helping others only if you wish and not caring about what others think if you instead choose not to help others and instead focus on yourself). This is all your own brain and your own life and you make whatever you want to make of it--not what others think who have a negative opinion of any "selfish" views you might have and such.

I've found that the people who harp on about not giving a **** about what anyone else thinks about them, especially those who specifically use the word "****" in the sentence, are generally people who might benefit from a little criticism. It's a very simplistic world view that suggests a certain amount of self-absorption that has no room for outside views.

Neapolitan · 08-16-2014, 04:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tore

Well, let's say you believe yourself to be a great chess player. You could set up an experiment in which you play chess against a thousand opponents and see how you do. Perhaps your score will be ****. And then you could make the other players rank you with some score, and they will confirm that you're ****. And the whole world could basically tell you that you're **** at chess. Your statistical analysis might tell you that the probability of you sucking at chess is more than 99.9999%.

Of course you could live in a comfortable delusion believing that you're still a great chess player, but I'm not sure I'd call it a scientific fact. It might be a fact that you're delusional.

Busted. Chess players don't get "*" ratings, restaurants do. In Chess you get a numerical rating. e.g. Magnus Carlsen has a peak rating of "2882." (His peak rating is the highest in history.) and he is NORWEGIAN! I thought you should know that. For compirson Bobby Fischer's peak rating was 2785 in 1972. Gary Kasparov peak rating was 2851 in 1999.

Magnus Carlsen - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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