I will answer your questions about the meaning of life.

[bisonbison]

Let 'er rip.

[SamIAm]

How would you rank the following:
Love, Laughter, Longevity, Success, the Lord
-Sam

P.S. I tried and tried to think of an L word for financial & occupational succes. I just couldn't. /images/graemlins/frown.gif

[SNOWBALL]

Whats a good age to die?

[bisonbison]

Love. Laughter. The Lord. Longevity. Success.

The L word is "Legacy" or "Professional Legacy"

[bisonbison]

Whats a good age to die?

What's a good time to put down a book you'll never finish?

[SamIAm]

How important is it to have kids? (Biology) How important is it to RAISE kids? (Culture)
-Sam

[bisonbison]

How important is it to have kids? (Biology)

There's importance, and there's importance. If having them makes a difference? No. If having them teaches you to love? Yes.

How important is it to RAISE kids? (Culture)

Again.

[SamIAm]

[ QUOTE ]
Whats a good age to die?

What's a good time to put down a book you'll never finish?

[/ QUOTE ]I'm not sure I follow. Or, rather, I'm almost positive I don't follow.
-Sam

[SNOWBALL]

If humans could add years to life by eating babies, would it be wiser for me to eat other peoples children and let mine live or to fight for a world where we only eat our own children? In the first case, it would be theoretically possible to erect a worldwide SNOWBALL138 genetic empire, but in the second case, I would only be one of billions of immortal humans.

[bisonbison]

I'm not sure I follow. Or, rather, I'm almost positive I don't follow.

You're reading a book that you can never finish. For every page, you assume the end has come, but every page suggests another that follows seamlessly.

You read the first page. When do you want to stop reading?

[bisonbison]

If humans could add years to life by eating babies, would it be wiser for me to eat other peoples children and let mine live or to fight for a world where we only eat our own children? In the first case, it would be theoretically possible to erect a worldwide SNOWBALL138 genetic empire, but in the second case, I would only be one of billions of immortal humans.

It's just a book. It's not worth hurting each other over.

[SNOWBALL]

True or false?:
Life is about playing bad and getting there.

Also, whats the proper way to punctuate my question?

[bisonbison]

Life is about playing bad and getting there.

You will get there. Life is about ignoring the question and finding an answer.

Also, whats the proper way to punctuate my question?

lose the question mark after false and add an apostrophe in "whats".

[A_C_Slater]

Plato once said "The meaning of life is to prepare for death."


Do you think this is true?

[bisonbison]

Plato once said "The meaning of life is to prepare for death."

Only in the vaguest "understand what death is" sense.

Plato would be a more inspiring man if he'd realized that the only shadows we see on the cave walls are our own.

We're already out in the sunshine, if we'd just get out of our own way.

[A_C_Slater]

Plato would be a more inspiring man if he'd realized that the only shadows we see on the cave walls are our own.

We're already out in the sunshine, if we'd just get out of our own way.



This is just a bunch of mystic gibberish. You don't know what you're talking about. Who do you think you are, Jesus? Stop speaking in parables. I need answers!

[bisonbison]

This is just a bunch of mystic gibberish. You don't know what you're talking about. Who do you think you are, Jesus? Stop speaking in parables. I need answers!

You want tough talk?

The you that you can imagine is so tied up in your genetics and your experiences that when you die, nothing of that you will exist.

There is no enduring part of you that needs preparation for anything. Not death, not the LSATS, not a marathon. You'll be fine in any case.

[guesswest]

Did the universe have a beginning?

What does it mean to be sentient?

Where are my shoes?

[uDevil]

Dear Bison,

I just started reading Viktor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning. Is this a book I should finish?

Thanks,

On an Existential Crash Course

[bisonbison]

Did the universe have a beginning?

The universe? Sure. Existence? Not so much.

What does it mean to be sentient?

In my notes here, it says "Sentient = has pets".

Where are my shoes?

"Where you left them" has a certain elegance.

[A_C_Slater]

"You want tough talk?

The you that you can imagine is so tied up in your genetics and your experiences that when you die, nothing of that you will exist.

There is no enduring part of you that needs preparation for anything. Not death, not the LSATS, not a marathon. You'll be fine in any case."


This is much better, thank you. But I think the term "straight talk" would have been more apropos than "tough talk."

[bisonbison]

But I think the term "straight talk" would have been more apropos than "tough talk."

Well, since it doesn't matter in any case, I felt my first explanation was gentle. So an acceptable antonym would be "tough".

[SamIAm]

Do you people have some sort of problem with the quote function? It's so much easier to read if you monkeys learn how to use the forum.

Put another way:

Bison, is it worthwhile to personally put forth extra effort, just so others have an easier time in life?
-Sam

[LuckOfTheDraw]

Are you Buddhist?

[bisonbison]

Bison, is it worthwhile to personally put forth extra effort, just so others have an easier time in life?

Often, yeah.

But I think if my counterpart would learn how to at least italicize things, it wouldn't bother you as much.

[flatline]

What is the cause of consciousness (self-awareness)? Can any sufficently complicated thing become self aware?

[bisonbison]

What is the cause of consciousness (self-awareness)?

The cause is existence.

The necessary condition is an environment in which distinctions between things as they are and things as they might be exists.

Can any sufficently complicated thing become self aware?

The question is circular. Anything sufficiently complicated enough to be self-aware is self-aware, yes.

[Mark L]

Bison,

What was your reason for putting the lord before longevity and success? is it more important, or are some of those just unimportant?

[hmkpoker]

Bison,

Is it herpes, or just a rash?

[tolbiny]

I'm going to Amsterdam tomorrow, should i pay for sex?

[MidGe]

Is this a subtle move to post OOT on Science, Maths & Philosophy forum?

[teh herp]

[ QUOTE ]
Bison,

Is it herpes, or just a rash?

[/ QUOTE ]


/images/graemlins/heart.gif BFF /images/graemlins/heart.gif

[tolbiny]

How much is reasonable?
How much money is it reasonable to spend extending your dog's life?
If you are on a jury and are 90% sure the defendant is guilty, is 10% reasonable doubt?

[RJT]

I thought Procol Harem answered this long ago when they told us, “Life is like a beanstalk, isn’t it?”

But, thanks for the offer anyway, BBison. /images/graemlins/wink.gif

[JMAnon]

[ QUOTE ]

The L word is "Legacy" or "Professional Legacy"

[/ QUOTE ]

No, the L word is "lucre."

[RJT]

[ QUOTE ]
Whats a good age to die?

What's a good time to put down a book you'll never finish?

[/ QUOTE ]

After the climax, but is it before or after the dénouement?

[RJT]

[ QUOTE ]
I thought Procol Harem answered this long ago when they told us, “Life is like a beanstalk, isn’t it?”

But, thanks for the offer anyway, BBison. /images/graemlins/wink.gif

[/ QUOTE ]

You know, I was kidding here? I didn’t mean to stop the discussion with a definitive answer. Bison was doing such an excellent job with his answers.

[Sack Lodge]

If you suddenly figure out the meaning of life, do you die instantly?

[LuckOfTheDraw]

Time seems impalpable. The instant someone tries to cherish the moment, it becomes past. Why am I still alive and experiencing now?

[bisonbison]

Time seems impalpable. The instant someone tries to cherish the moment, it becomes past. Why am I still alive and experiencing now?

The word "still" is something we bandy about. It's great if you want to inquire or insult - "Are they still together?" "Are you still writing that novel?" but it doesn't describe reality well.

Each moment that passes, each unmeasurable change in a vast motionless ocean, is a break. A discontinuity. You are not the you of 5 seconds ago, much less 5 days. The past is a foreign country, and you are just an incomprehensible foreignor to your past self the moment you change at all.

Cherishing the moment, or better, cherising now, involves continually and unconciously forgetting the moment that has just been thought of, just now remembered, just now figured out, just now experienced. Unceasing release of moments is all that presence is.

This is why the rejection of doctrine and the embrace of mysticism can be so initially helpful and ultimately distracting - If you rely on moments of inspiration and transcendence to guide you, you will cherish the memories of those moments more than now and now.

And now.

Self-styled intellectuals and mystics are quite similar in this regard.

[bisonbison]

Are you Buddhist?

Non-practicing.

[bisonbison]

What was your reason for putting the lord before longevity and success? is it more important, or are some of those just unimportant?

The lord, in any but the most cultish of circumstances, is a reminder of something else that must be payed attention to. Something other than the self. I rate that as pretty good, but it's not normally a living practice, more of a bit of internal hygiene.

Longevity is irrelevant.

Success is the focus on the self to the exclusion of others. Some people get successful and realize this to some degree or other (Bill Gates, Ted Turner, Andrew Carnegie, Jimmy Carter), others just dwell on the self for a lifetime.

[bisonbison]

Is it herpes, or just a rash?

The answer is anarchocapitalism.

It's the answer to EVERYTHING.

[bisonbison]

I just started reading Viktor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning. Is this a book I should finish?

Never read it.

[bisonbison]

I'm going to Amsterdam tomorrow, should i pay for sex?

If you have to ask, you probably should.

[bisonbison]

Is this a subtle move to post OOT on Science, Maths & Philosophy forum?

No.

I read this forum from time to time, and it always makes me kind of sad that internet athiests and internet fundamentalists are arguing, since they both tend to be obnoxious solipsists.

But me? I've had a hell of an 8 months of spiritual life after a lifetime of sympathetic agnosticism. So I want to help. I'd like to think that a reasonable, loving and absolutely sincere explanation of life could help make some people feel more peaceful.

Most of my OOT threads are aiming for something at least as inconsequential as the meaning of life.

[bisonbison]

How much is reasonable?

What are you trying to accomplish?

How much money is it reasonable to spend extending your dog's life?

What are you trying to accomplish?

If you are on a jury and are 90% sure the defendant is guilty, is 10% reasonable doubt?

For some people it is. You're free to be one of those people, or not.

[bisonbison]

If you suddenly figure out the meaning of life, do you die instantly?

That you is dead the moment another you exists - the moment anything changes. So don't worry about it.

More generally? No.

[Dane S]

Any views on spirituality and psychadelics?

[bisonbison]

Any views on spirituality and psychadelics?

There are worse maps.

But a map doesn't get you any closer to your destination.

[jason1990]

What is the root of all evil?

[bisonbison]

What is the root of all evil?

Evil's not relevant. For every thing it clarifies, it muddies two.

[Dane S]

[ QUOTE ]
Any views on spirituality and psychadelics?

There are worse maps.

But a map doesn't get you any closer to your destination.

[/ QUOTE ]

Are there better maps? Do maps matter?

[Dane S]

Is art inherently egotistical? Is it worthwhile?

[A_C_Slater]

[ QUOTE ]
What is the root of all evil?

Evil's not relevant. For every thing it clarifies, it muddies two.

[/ QUOTE ]



William Burroughs states in the book Naked Lunch that the "root of all evil" is total need. He went on to say that heroin junkies are in total need of junk and will do anything to get their hands on it. This seems to make logical sense to me.

I think you dropped the ball on this one bisonbison. Surely you can't say evil isn't relevant to all those who died on the field of fire and honor and in concentration camps.

[Dane S]

Isn't the root of all love total need as well (mother and infant)? As for the casualties you speak of, wouldn't evil be more of a coping mechanism for them than anything? Clearly many of those who murdered them didn't believe their actions to be evil. Who's to say who's right?

[bisonbison]

William Burroughs states in the book Naked Lunch that the "root of all evil" is total need. He went on to say that heroin junkies are in total need of junk and will do anything to get their hands on it. This seems to make logical sense to me.

Let me just repeat that middle sentence for you:

Heroin junkies are in total need of junk and will do anything to get their hands on it.

This I pretty much agree with. But evil? No. Need is the root of all need.

Surely you can't say evil isn't relevant to all those who died on the field of fire and honor and in concentration camps.

It's not relevant to them now. They're dead. The people that they were will never be again, and can hold no grudge against the living.

We should take peaceful steps to prevent suffering, and in that is encompassed the call to peacably prevent people from hurting each other. But there are better labels than "evil" if you want to convince people.

There are ones that make less of a case for the speaker's superiority.

[A_C_Slater]

Is the Philsophy professor at UCLA or the people on this forum really any more enlightened than the local teenaged girl mall rats?

[belloc]

[ QUOTE ]
I just started reading Viktor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning. Is this a book I should finish?

Never read it.

[/ QUOTE ]

This could be taken as a statement or as a command. English rules.

[LuckOfTheDraw]

Imagine a teleportation device that reads every atom of your body, disassembles the atoms, and creates an exact copy somewhere else. Would the copy be you or someone else?

[guesswest]

[ QUOTE ]
I just started reading Viktor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning. Is this a book I should finish?

[/ QUOTE ]

I'll field this since nobody else has. A big yes.

[bisonbison]

Is the Philsophy professor at UCLA or the people on this forum really any more enlightened than the local teenaged girl mall rats?

They are more likely to have perspective on their place in the world, but in day to day moments when someone slights them, ignores them, loves them or whatever - we're all about equally lightly to lose our footing in equanimity.

[vhawk01]

[ QUOTE ]
Imagine a teleportation device that reads every atom of your body, disassembles the atoms, and creates an exact copy somewhere else. Would the copy be you or someone else?

[/ QUOTE ]

I think thats an easy question if you consider that not a single atom or molecule in your body was there when you were born. Its unlikely any of them were there when you were ten or twenty either (I don't know how old you are, and there is some probability involved.) So I think the answer is a definite yes. We are patterns of information. Any pattern that was exactly the same as I am now would be me at this exact moment. Any pattern that was exactly how I was when I just wrote 'now' would be me at THAT moment.

[Sephus]

i have no expertise in this area but it seems very unlikely to me that none of the matter that composes my body was "there" when i was born, not that i think it's all that important to the question.

i think the answer is a definite "no" but it's a mysterious question. for example disassembling your body obviously "kills" you, so if the new version of you really is "you" it should seem to you that you fell asleep and then woke up. but what if it makes multiple copies of you? they are identical people (except for their physical location) but they aren't all the "same person."

[LadyWrestler]

Lucrativeness.

[vhawk01]

No, you are constantly being reassembled. Even the atoms and molecules that make up your neurons (what most people consider 'them' perhaps?) and your brain are replaced over time. In other words, this has already been done to you, to various degrees, probably several times. Why does the speed at which it occurs (i.e. nanoseconds versus twenty years) change the process?

[vhawk01]

Also, about the copies...this is a good question, but perhaps an answer is that they arent copies at all. Its impossible to actually copy something, they will be made up of entirely different molecules and atoms.

[Dane S]

Are some people's lives better than others?

[Sephus]

[ QUOTE ]
No, you are constantly being reassembled. Even the atoms and molecules that make up your neurons (what most people consider 'them' perhaps?) and your brain are replaced over time. In other words, this has already been done to you, to various degrees, probably several times. Why does the speed at which it occurs (i.e. nanoseconds versus twenty years) change the process?

[/ QUOTE ]

specifically i was thinking that some of the original matter that made up my bones would not have a reason to be replaced it would just sit there forever, but it's not important.

i don't know why it makes a difference. it seems though that if the machine made an exact copy of me instead and i were given the choice to kill the copy or have "him" kill "me" that i shouldn't be indifferent even if the rest of the universe sees the two as exactly the same.

[Sephus]

[ QUOTE ]
Also, about the copies...this is a good question, but perhaps an answer is that they arent copies at all. Its impossible to actually copy something, they will be made up of entirely different molecules and atoms.

[/ QUOTE ]

but it's theoretically possible for the two to be indistinguishable (other than by location).

[scotchnrocks]

Why do dreams include actual people from my life, yet I have no control over who it is and what happens in the dream nor where it takes place?

[vhawk01]

[ QUOTE ]
Also, about the copies...this is a good question, but perhaps an answer is that they arent copies at all. Its impossible to actually copy something, they will be made up of entirely different molecules and atoms.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm not sure if thats true, and I think this is a good conversation, but I think we should end this thread hijack right now. Perhaps you should post is as a new thread, and have some people who are much more knowledgeable than I speak to it. Oh, and your bones are constantly being reformed and destroyed, by osteocytes. Its actually really interesting, and its the slowing down of this process as you get older than can lead to brittle bones.
but it's theoretically possible for the two to be indistinguishable (other than by location).

[Sephus]

more knowledgable about copying people?

anyway i was already considering not coming back to this thread.

[LuckOfTheDraw]

[ QUOTE ]

anyway i was already considering not coming back to this thread.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah. Gosh. I was asking bison anyways. /images/graemlins/tongue.gif

[diebitter]

--BisonBison
Why do all these glorified wrappers for self-replicating strands of DNA keep yapping on when they should be recombining?

[Bataglin]

Are there turtles all the way down?

[thedogsmad]

if there are really more dimensions than 4, we can't directly sense them. If so, could there really be a monster (in one of the possible other dimensions) that hid in my closet as a child? And could it "get me" if it is in said dimension?
Or should I just stop licking my new pet toad?

[Schwartzy61]

Do all dogs go to heaven?

[McBusto]

Why is it wrong to kill?

[DonkBluffer]

Am I in the body, or is the body in me?

[4Kings]

The question of the "meaning of life" is absurd. The real question is what is the purpose?

[singasong]

What's the meaning of love? Why do people fall in love with others?

[agent_fish]

Bison-
I'm a 22 year old who recently graduated from college with a high GPA in Finance. I'm fairly attractive and fit. I have only one friend and no gf. Also, I have not found a post-grad job yet. I get interviews easily but never can close the deal when it comes down to it. I assume these things are caused by my lack of confidence and shyness. I spend most of my life alone.

I am thinking about joining some sort of religion in order to meet people and be a member of a group. The only problem is I am an atheist, and I plan to remain an atheist.

Do you think joining a new religion/church is a good idea? If so, what religion should I become? If you do not think I should join a religion, what would be another group I could join?

Also, any other advice you would like to give would be appreciated. I'm sure I'm not the only loser here.

[DonkBluffer]

I'm kind of like you, shy and 'alone'. But why the hell would you 'join' a religion because of this?

There are SO many other ways to meet people. Sports, other hobbies, traveling, etc.

[Will.]

Opinion set aside, is it possible for something to be better than something else?

[Copernicus]

[ QUOTE ]
How important is it to have kids? (Biology)

There's importance, and there's importance. If having them makes a difference? No. If having them teaches you to love? Yes.

How important is it to RAISE kids? (Culture)

Again.

[/ QUOTE ]


Raising kids is biology as well.

[Copernicus]

[ QUOTE ]
Are you Buddhist?

[/ QUOTE ]


more likely a crude attempt at a Turing machine

[Copernicus]

[ QUOTE ]
Bison-
I'm a 22 year old who recently graduated from college with a high GPA in Finance. I'm fairly attractive and fit. I have only one friend and no gf. Also, I have not found a post-grad job yet. I get interviews easily but never can close the deal when it comes down to it. I assume these things are caused by my lack of confidence and shyness. I spend most of my life alone.

I am thinking about joining some sort of religion in order to meet people and be a member of a group. The only problem is I am an atheist, and I plan to remain an atheist.

Do you think joining a new religion/church is a good idea? If so, what religion should I become? If you do not think I should join a religion, what would be another group I could join?

Also, any other advice you would like to give would be appreciated. I'm sure I'm not the only loser here.

[/ QUOTE ]

A martial arts class will help all of your problems. And thats serious advice, not bison's bot-back.

[bisonbison]

Are some people's lives better than others?

There are lives that are more enjoyable than others. Better?

You are born into a set of genes, a family group and a point in time and space. From the moment you are a baby until the time you read the preposition this subordinate clause ends with, you are bombarded with the news of arbitrary human, social, biological, chemical, mechanical and sub-molecular events you had nothing to do with.

We control our lives in the way a surfer controls a wave.

[bisonbison]

Don't worry about the copies. You are now. Sentimental attachment to the thoughts, desires, perversions and addictions of a previous 'you' is just homesickness.

[bisonbison]

Why do dreams include actual people from my life, yet I have no control over who it is and what happens in the dream nor where it takes place?

Dreams are grist for the mill.

The mind needs work, and dreams are the mind working at a level above the threshold of perception and sometimes memory.

The mind drafts the recent topics of it's day, and pulls a few random coincidences out of the crowd and puts on a show. A show that inevitably ends in you eating your own armpit of deep, stupid insight.

By the way, the proper term for a dream or brilliant idea that's slipped your mind is cock-[censored].

[bisonbison]

Why do all these glorified wrappers for self-replicating strands of DNA keep yapping on when they should be recombining?

Sometimes an all-encompassing discussion of the totality of existence seems safer than talking to a girl you find moderately attractive.

[bisonbison]

Are there turtles all the way down?

Dope is for dopes.

[bisonbison]

if there are really more dimensions than 4, we can't directly sense them. If so, could there really be a monster (in one of the possible other dimensions) that hid in my closet as a child? And could it "get me" if it is in said dimension?
Or should I just stop licking my new pet toad?

On penalty kicks, the No beat Yes 3 - 0.

[bisonbison]

Do all dogs go to heaven?

Sure. Their sufferings are relieved and they are not lost.

[bisonbison]

Why is it wrong to kill?

Cause it causes suffering, ends a life, destroys a part of the social fabric and is almost never necessary to protect the lives or well-being of others?

Also, messy.

[AceofSpades]

Bisonbison,

Considering I don't believe in a personal God/Christianity anymore, how open or expressive should I be about my beliefs when I know people assume/think I'm a christian?

Also, should I go to christian groups because friends are there or I enjoy meeting new people when I know because of that I will be assumed to have values or beliefs I do not have or thought to be a hypocrite?

[Freelancer]

Are we really thinking persons or just meatballs that respond to events that happend in the past or present?

I mean if you take on person and put him in a black box, give him food/water and you take another person who is a exact copy at the beginning and give him the exact same food/water/black box (up to molecular level) would they respond in the same matter when the conditions change? (for instance a voice starts speaking to them)

And another one;
If I would earn 1 million dollars now with a lotery under 1 condition; I either don't touch it for 50 years, but when released will be such a large amount that its impossible to spend in your remaining life (think trillions off dollars, a huge return). Or I get the 1 million now, but I have to spend all off it in 1 year. I have the age of 20 right now. (all hypothosis offcourse)

[Will.]

[ QUOTE ]
William Burroughs states in the book Naked Lunch that the "root of all evil" is total need. He went on to say that heroin junkies are in total need of junk and will do anything to get their hands on it. This seems to make logical sense to me.

Let me just repeat that middle sentence for you:

Heroin junkies are in total need of junk and will do anything to get their hands on it.

This I pretty much agree with. But evil? No. Need is the root of all need.

[/ QUOTE ] I think this is false, because evil has a defined meaning that is dependent upon specific actions. So in this case need can be the root of evil, because evil is defined by what the need can make us do. however, evil may not be wrong and I think this is where you got lost.

[bisonbison]

Am I in the body, or is the body in me?

Your body and your mind are suffused with you, but you are not of your body or of your mind.

[bisonbison]

The real question is what is the purpose?

The natural drive of life is to live and to be happy. Our honor as thinking creatures is to pursue that drive in a way that minimizes suffering for others.

[bisonbison]

Why do people fall in love with others?

Because at its best, love is a sweet, thrilling, gentle and all-encompassing reward for living. Even the worst love is a yearning for this.

[bisonbison]

Don't join a religion you don't believe in. It'll just make you bitter and dull.

Keep at the interviews, don't be afraid to make a few embarrassing calls afterward - "do you mind if I ask you what I could have done to improve my interview performance?"

Get a job, be chill and not creepy, make friends. That's how half the world does it after graduating.

[bisonbison]

Opinion set aside, is it possible for something to be better than something else?

In the long run? No.

[bisonbison]

Raising kids is biology as well.

And?

[bisonbison]

more likely a crude attempt at a Turing machine

No.

[bisonbison]

A martial arts class will help all of your problems. And thats serious advice, not bison's bot-back.

I don't know what 'bot-back' means, though I assume we're working off the Turing test analogy, but a martial arts class is one of about 700 things that he could do,

[bisonbison]

Considering I don't believe in a personal God/Christianity anymore, how open or expressive should I be about my beliefs when I know people assume/think I'm a christian?

If it comes up, tell the truth in a gentle, non-confrontational and non-condescending way.

Also, should I go to christian groups because friends are there or I enjoy meeting new people when I know because of that I will be assumed to have values or beliefs I do not have or thought to be a hypocrite?

If you enjoy it above the board, do it. If people find out you're not toeing the party line, the worst that happens is you talk about it.

[bisonbison]

Are we really thinking persons or just meatballs that respond to events that happend in the past or present?

We are thinking meatballs. Behind the brain and the mind is you. Given a large enough field of play, the youness of you will be evident to observers. Given certain constrained circumstances, most meatballs will act in virtually identical ways.

Spend the money now.

[bisonbison]

because evil has a defined meaning that is dependent upon specific actions.

Huh?

because evil is defined by what the need can make us do.

Huh?

however, evil may not be wrong and I think this is where you got lost.

Huh?

[Will.]

[ QUOTE ]
because evil has a defined meaning that is dependent upon specific actions.

Huh?

because evil is defined by what the need can make us do.

Huh?

however, evil may not be wrong and I think this is where you got lost.

Huh?

[/ QUOTE ]not even sure to be completely honest, I think I meant what you were saying about evil in another post, meh. Does being hungover this afternoon excuse this?

[Zeno]

Is anyone as smart as they think they are?


-Buffalo Bill

PS No Socrates quotes accepted.

[Shooby]

Hmmmm. I wanted a scientific answer, the real answer, not your poetic flotsam. Booooooooooooooooooooo,
/images/graemlins/grin.gif
Steve

[Shooby]

Ok, I can't read these anymore. The masses might eat this stuff up, but your answers make my stomach hurt.
It sounds like you're just taking answers from Eastern religion texts.
I hope you're not serious about imparting your great knowledge about the meaning of life.
Steve

[illusionS]

[ QUOTE ]


There is no enduring part of you

[/ QUOTE ]

What is the point of anything then?

[Shooby]

There isn't a point. /images/graemlins/smile.gif
Steve

[bisonbison]

What is the point of anything then?

You misquoted me. I said: "there is no enduring part of you that needs preparation for anything."

You can prepare your body for a marathon or your mind for a test, but neither your body nor your mind will endure. Your soul does not need preparation. It is perfect and without flaw, even if your life on earth has been a malicious swath of pain and suffering.

[illusionS]

So then there really isn't any point? This all seems a bit futile then. Although, I am enjoying it so I guess there isn't much point in complaining.

Do you mind me asking what exactly you were doing in the past 8 months to reach this spiritual enlightenment?

[Ben Young]

Bison,
I think a relevant quote for those asking about "the root of all evil" is "Attachment is the cause of all suffering," the phrase that brought me to buddhism. Do you agree?

Am I a goober because I obsessively love poker and mathematics?

My sense of 'love' is always characterized by obsession. If you remember me talking about going to the hospital(the OOT trip report I haven't finished writing), obsession is what caused me to spaz out. Well that and heavy drug use. I've curbed one of these pretty well(drug use).

Why is my personality characterized by obsession?
Is this a problem I need to fix, if so, how do I?

I spend a lot of my time at work posting on twoplustwo, is this bad?

My shrink doesn't understand how I think that I can get a family and still become enlightened, free from attachment. Is this possible? Is this ideal?

Do I ever make any sense?

I have a hint of Asbergers(sp?) syndrome, does this mean I will have trouble in the future, as I have in the past, developing meaningful relationships? I've developed good friendships at college, but romantic relationships are difficult.

From the questions I asked already, do you think there are any other questions I should be asking, or want to, but haven't thought of? If so, please answer them.

I'll post more questions later if I think of them.

[gila]

Are you really answering the questions, or are you simply answering the answers? And, more importantly, are you questioning either the question or the answer? Which leads to, should we, question the answer, answer the question, question the question, or answer the answer? Or, maybe even more to the point, should we simply question or answer? And is there a difference? Or is the answer the question?

When you're here is when you take your eyes off there; but can you really ever take your eyes off there? Can you grasp the un-graspable by not grasping? If your not grasping, is it even ungraspable? Is a tree ever really a tree anymore, or has it just become a “tree”? Have we turned everything into simple, or even complex, concepts and totally forgotten what lies behind? Is language deconstructing reality? Is technology? If either of these are the case, are we, as a whole, lost? Or is that even a possibility anymore?

[SleeperHE]

Why are some people only happy when they are miserable?

Why do some people find pleasure in pain?

[CORed]

[ QUOTE ]
Do all dogs go to heaven?

[/ QUOTE ]

No. Terriers go to hell.