Basman

Conforming isn't inherently bad but you have to recognize when it is to a purely ideological and dysfunctional extent. Not eating pork isn't going to make you any more happier because religion isn't about making you happy. The vast majority of people are religious only because they where indoctrinated from birth. Conformity is purely a matter of life and death to them, not spirituality or happiness.

Where I came from we had something we called being "study prepared" meaning you've passed most classes that are typically required to be admitted into a university degree. I did a vocational education that was parallel to a standard "study preparing" high school education. This meant I had to pass supplementary classes when I applied for university. If your school is academic and you pass all your classes then I assume you can apply to just about anything out of the gate which saves you a lot of time. Since things can change it is a benefit to have your academic credentials under wraps. I can sympathize with not being interested in learning though. Assess what your goals are and go from there. If you need a certain grade to get into a sociology degree or whatever then you know what you need to do. The bare minimum might be passing or getting full marks depending on what your goals are.

In order to be part of a religious community you have to conform. That is the point of religion. If a Muslim doesn't judge you openly because it goes against scripture then that is just another form of community. The religious will always judge people for not being religious enough including themselves in my experience.

I consciously avoided short-form content since it became a thing specifically so it didn't even get the chance of becoming a "path of least resistance". It's obviously so bad for you and addicting. Literally anything else is better.

Hand tufting is an affordable and relatively brainless hobby while still giving your that creative fulfillment. Something to chip away at day by day. Good podcasting activity.

To answer the topic, I think mediation may be a trap if you are doing it slavishly and mechanically while not enjoying it or growing from it. You have to assess for yourself.

Yeah, I also suspect that people that have had god experiences are the one's who get most out of meditation. It's kind of overrated for normal people though in my opinion but I realize that mileage varies a lot between different personalities.

I've been meditating on and off for years and I've accrued several hundreds of hours of meditation in total. Maybe about a thousand hours lifetime. To be honest, I struggle to see the benefit of it. I've grown more from taking concrete actions and gaining experiences. Meditation is good at calming you down however and it gives you tingly sensations. I knew someone who liked to meditate probably to sooth their anxiety (I never asked but knew they where very anxious from body language, etc.).

Go for the bigger fish and study how human survival works. Religion is probably the first macro scale extension of humans ordering themselves around shared fictions. When you are religious it doesn't really matter what you believe, just that you appear to believe when you are part of a religious society. Religion is a project in conformity.

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.