Basman

I don't know. I don't like being harshly judged for eating pork or having per-marital sex.

The problem is that it's bullshit. For you it is simply a matter of suspending your disbelief and enjoying the social fruits. Someone who's indoctrinated into religion is essentially a slave. They can never step outside of the mental confines of their dogma without serious suffering and losing their community. They are cursed from childhood.

That is terrifying if true. What is most shocking is Americans not being able tell how bad Trump is for the country. It is a political disaster. Everyone I know here in Europe knows that Trump is terrible. It's treated as obvious. There's is something in the tap water across the pond.

My favorite Christian story is the one where god sends two bears to maul 42 children to death for making fun of a priest for being bald.

I've been recently reading the New Testament as I've felt inspired to explore Christianity but I'm yet to really find anything particularly profound. There is so much emphasis on Jesus and I honestly find him overrated and inconsequential to spirituality as a whole. Surely, the focus should be on god. That is what matters here. And it is so political as well, but the politics of 2000 years ago. Like with complaining about Romans and fidelity, which is indirectly about land ownership. This thread kind of confirms to me that Christianity was a cult centered around Jesus, whether he planned for that or not.

You need to sometimes force yourself a bit to get the ball rolling. Creative projects are much more fulfilling than "empty-calorie" entertainment. Being in flow with a project your in love with is one of the best parts of life. Both have their place though.

Most people aren't interested in questioning their dogma. It would mean giving up their religious community. I've spoken to a couple of Christians who where unsure of their faith which caused them to despair. They where to deep in to seriously consider leaving Christianity though. Their whole life was built around it, including all their friends, family and status. I believe that people who do give up their religion tend too have suffered under it too much and/or value what is true too much.

It is just religious dogma. It could be anything else and the result would be the same. It is irrelevant if it's true or not. Eating pig in the middle-east was maybe toxic at one point in history but that is no longer case or has been the case in other places or before these religious texts where written. That is a bit of the problem with religion is that they tend to be contemporary political works. Like the bible has plenty of passages complaining about the Romans. It's been theorized that 666 is a metaphor for Emperor Nero (since he persecuted a lot of Christians). When a religion is overtly political it instantly dates it to a specific time and culture. It becomes less spiritual and more about power structures and hierarchy.

Have you studied academic philosophy?

It's is much harder to be at peace when your starving and scared so arguably human ego on a practical level is necessary for most people spiritually.

I'd fight or at least support the war effort however I could assuming it is a just war and not just another picnic in the middle-east. I'm not considered fit for service though due to a coagulation defect but they are just being Tinder women with their ridiculous wish-listing. I only ever suffered from it once during a large-scale surgery and I wasn't even conscious then. I might have a bad leg and poor eye sight but I'm fit, I can shoot and I have a warrior spirit. They are missing out.

So you lost your virginity thrice? Are you like a cat that has nine virginities.

It is really funny to see someone on my ignore list crying about abuse.

Good. More for me.

Weren't you a mod once? Or am I misremembering?

College/university degree that don't teach you hard skills directly but has a more broad curriculum meant to make you a more rounded person. Kind of learning for the sake of learning. Academic philosophy less so in my experience. It rather dissects issues in a highly intellectual and technical way to the point where it can become so abstract as to render itself sterile and unable to actually answer how you should live your life.

The issue is with group-think and opposing ideologies entrenching themselves. It is a very unserious style of politics because it doesn't really concern itself with what would actually be best for society. That would require questioning one's political excesses. Ultimately the extremes of either side don't matter as much as moderates when it comes to swaying votes because extremists aren't open to having their minds changed (and only represent a minority). Effective progressive policy would have to be pragmatic and play to conservative values. That is why I believe center-left parties to be superior to green or communist parties (because they are circlejerks).

To be more clear, doing nothing is just less restrictive than meditation in practice. Meditation is itself an activity. It is not really possible to actually do nothing in the literal sense ordinarily. In practice when doing nothing I do experience sometimes simply observing thought and letting it pass as opposed to engaging with them because I don't want to disturb the stillness. But if I want to contemplate something I can do that. I find doing nothing to be superior as a method for learning to know yourself.

That title could be worded better LOL.

I can only imagine how frustrating it is to not have access to non-criminal and ethical sex. Pedophiles that chemically castrate themselves for instance put on a brave a face.

Politics is about fighting over how to survive as a collective. But politics rarely actually effects your day to day so it is generally unwise to introduce serious political discussion with your close relatives. You're in a sense asking for a fight by being overly ideological. If you are losing your cool over politics then there's a chance that you're not that developed actually. As a progressive you need to learn to accept that we live in a conservative world. The kind thing to do is to be understanding of where people are at and you want to be kind towards your family. Odds are their political analysis is shallow and reactionary, so it is not worth taking too seriously in first place.

No child wants to have sex with adults.

Yup. I'm doing nothing.

The line between legal and illegal is relative and arbitrary but it is very easy to abuse someone who's very young and inexperienced, which is part of why it is frowned upon. Minors are dependent on adults and lack the emotional and material resources to regulate their connections themselves. They will put up with predators not fully understanding what is going on. They won't even fully understand when they get raped. And they won't just suffer from being raped but also feel abandoned and betrayed by the adults they look up to, scaring them for life. This is why people are protective of their children. Targeting young teens deliberately is categorically predatory behavior.