What is your own personal philosophy regarding life?

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ValentineWiggin
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17 Apr 2012, 5:14 pm

scubasteve wrote:
ValentineWiggin wrote:
"...you are undone if you once forget that the fruits of the earth belong to us all, and the earth itself to nobody."
— Jean-Jacques Rousseau


What of the fruits of our own labor? If we refine something that came from the Earth, do we not have a claim to it?


Are those separate, in your mind?

You can "claim" all you'd like- whether those claims are justifiable is a matter of opinion.


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Vexcalibur
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17 Apr 2012, 6:10 pm

Property and the state were invented because assuming that "all belongs to all" easily degenerates into "all belongs to strongest" and that easily degenerates into "everyone wastes all the time defending own resources". All the waste of time sounds incredibly annoying, so we standardized the concept of property.

On that regard, we invented politicians and thus sociopaths because we need that sort of people to lead the state. If it wasn't for shameless self-interested no one would ever like to do such an awful, boring job. So we allow all that corruption stuff as a motivation to have people do something that is such a hassle for us. And finally, politicians provide a very important service, to be the ones we can blame for bad stuff. If you don't have a job, you can blame Bush or Obama or whoever is in charge. It is very handy.


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Last edited by Vexcalibur on 18 Apr 2012, 12:16 pm, edited 1 time in total.

gotwake
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18 Apr 2012, 3:12 am

I was a atheist-agnostic until December of last year. I know it sounds cliche, but I had a really vivid religious dream.
I consider myself now a socinian unitarian christian. However, I see most modern day christianity as idolatrous. I believe that jesus was not claiming to be the one and only true son of God. I believe he 'tricked' people into letting themselves believe that he WAS the only true son, and then consciously sacrificed himself so that people would be like "Holy crap! I'm NOT the only one alive. Look at that guy up there..." I believe that he lived a very expemplary life, and wanted people to emulate him. But instead they idolized him, and superimposed a bunch of magic onto his life when writing the gospels.

I believe there was a big bang and will be a big crunch. I believe that the universe is ultimately cyclical.

I just try to do the golden rule thing. But its tough sometimes...



AceOfSpades
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18 Apr 2012, 9:08 am

Vexcalibur wrote:
Property and the state were invented because assuming that "all belongs to all" easily degenerates into "all belongs to strongest" and that easily degenerates into "everyone wastes all the time defending own resources". All the waste of time sounds incredibly annoying, so we standardized the concept of property.

On that regard, we invented politicians and thus sociopaths because we need that sort of people to lead the state. If it wasn't for shameless self-interested no one would ever like to do such an awful, boring job. So we allow all that corruption stuff as a motivation to have people do something that is such a hassle for us. And finally, politicians provide a very important service, to be the ones we can blame for bad stuff. If you don't have a job, you can blame Bush or Obama or whoever is not in charge. It is very handy.
:wtg:



AstroGeek
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18 Apr 2012, 9:57 am

Vexcalibur wrote:
On that regard, we invented politicians and thus sociopaths because we need that sort of people to lead the state. If it wasn't for shameless self-interested no one would ever like to do such an awful, boring job.

There are a few people who I do think genuinely enjoy representing the concerns of their community in parliament. Some people are just like that. Unfortunately, by the time anyone reaches high office those concerns have been beaten out of them, if they ever existed in the first place.



ruveyn
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18 Apr 2012, 10:05 am

This, too, shall pass.

ruveyn



Inyanook
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18 Apr 2012, 6:49 pm

gotwake wrote:
I was a atheist-agnostic until December of last year. I know it sounds cliche, but I had a really vivid religious dream.
I consider myself now a socinian unitarian christian. However, I see most modern day christianity as idolatrous. I believe that jesus was not claiming to be the one and only true son of God. I believe he 'tricked' people into letting themselves believe that he WAS the only true son, and then consciously sacrificed himself so that people would be like "Holy crap! I'm NOT the only one alive. Look at that guy up there..." I believe that he lived a very expemplary life, and wanted people to emulate him. But instead they idolized him, and superimposed a bunch of magic onto his life when writing the gospels.

I believe there was a big bang and will be a big crunch. I believe that the universe is ultimately cyclical.

I just try to do the golden rule thing. But its tough sometimes...


Huh. That's a pretty interesting set of beliefs, there. I'm curious, and if you don't mind answering: what are your beliefs about the afterlife, then?

As for me, I am very much an atheist, but that is really no more my overall philosophy than, say, the colour of my hair. It just is.

I guess my philosophy on life is pretty Epicurean in nature. Enjoy and cultivate what you have, because always longing for the next best thing means you're never content with the now. That being said, I do my fair share of longing (mmm, consumerism tastes good sometimes!). That's just how I try to approach the world, to bring me back down to earth.


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Joker
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18 Apr 2012, 6:54 pm

ValentineWiggin wrote:
androbot2084 wrote:
So my body no longer belongs to me when I join the Borg collective ?


Resistance is futile.


:lol:



Terlingua
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18 Apr 2012, 7:44 pm

My personal philosophy on life came from a tee shirt. I would suggest that all philosophers spare us the headaches and reduce their teachings to such abbreviated and coherent content.

Life: Its sexually transmitted, and always fatal



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18 Apr 2012, 9:12 pm

i want to try to leave this place better than i found it


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Cash__
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18 Apr 2012, 9:38 pm

Survive until you die.



snapcap
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18 Apr 2012, 10:06 pm

If I adopted the message at my childhood church it would be

Die now, live later

But I didn't.

I think this summarizes how I feel at the moment.

Take what you've been given, make your stand, because the life that you're living may soon come to an end.


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pete1061
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19 Apr 2012, 1:35 am

Just do as little as possible. It's like a vacation of sorts, relax, enjoy the scenery, if it causes stress, cut it out of your life.

Really, my philosophy is constantly evolving.
I used to think I could do something the actually change the world. But the world is what the world is, and it's not cool to go pushing ones ideals upon another.

I live for those complete zen moments, where time has no meaning. Where I can totally tune out all the petty political bs out there and enjoy the moment.


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EveryPersonEver
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19 Apr 2012, 4:23 am

I really need to brush up on my Dostoevsky.



Inyanook
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19 Apr 2012, 4:40 am

EveryPersonEver wrote:
I really need to brush up on my Dostoevsky.


"Brush up"? Brushing up on Dostoevsky is like "taking a dip" in the middle of the Pacific! :mrgreen:


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Mummy_of_Peanut
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19 Apr 2012, 6:02 am

Life is for living. For me, that's about experience and learning (not self destruction). I want to taste what the world has to offer - science, art, nature, everything. In doing so, I do not want to cause any negative effects for anyone (including my own physical and mental being) or anything else. I'd appreciate if everyone else would return the favour, but unfortunately that's not the way things work. I would love to think that any impact I made on the world was positive, no matter what it was.


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