In the office today, I was introduced to a visitor from HQ. As we chatted about prior work histories and current stuff, things got more personal...our ages, marital status, children. I have none, you see, and never will, and am officially a senior citizen this year. With both parents dead and buried, and being the youngest of 8, I said, "my siblings and I kinda look around and wonder who's gonna be the first of us to go. To be honest I wouldn't mind if it were me. Parents are gone, I have no kids, what am I still doing here?" It hit me. It's like I don't believe in The Cathoic Thing anymore. I certainly have been struggling with what a waste my life has been and how The Gay Thing for 2-1/2 decades set me on a course of self-destruction, but coming out on the other side after a reversion to the faith, just what exactly am I living for? I suppose we each come to that question (not a bad thing), but to realize you are in fact the withering unproductive fig tree is bracing. If it weren't for the TLM, I'd be a goner.
It is courageous of you to admit this Jeron. Better still is to realise there is more to life than this, and to seek the grace of God as a result. You’re an example to us all in your fortitude my friend.
Admittedly, I read just a handful of Camus' scribblings, but I never understood why he was considered a great thinker. Then I realized that his proponents were also the ones extolling the dreck adorning the walls of the modern art section of the local art museum. Then it all made sense.
Structuralism requires we dismantle society completely. This is where you go when you deny reality - total social destruction. So people who promote normlessness and demoralisation are heroes and geniuses.
All this comes about because the reality of human difference - which is immutable - is taboo. And so everything must go - art, beauty, sense, meaning - in order to dismantle the invisible structures which cause racism n sexism etc.
Just yesterday, a statue of the great General Robert E Lee was removed from a place of prominence and replaced with a bronze of some hitherto unknown civil rights "hero."
Exceptionalism remains in the crosshairs of the lunatic left.
That's a good summary of what's been going on for decades. Let's hope the Progressive Project gets derailed before it starts identifying and neutralizing the wreckers responsible for sabotaging Utopia's creation.
Having no oil in your lamp is "denying reality." Rushing to buy the oil from merchants is going to the philosophies of men. Grace, it turns out, is not transactional.
The fact that Wittgenstein - the once labeled "Paladin of Logic and Rationalism" - converted to Christianity says a lot about the true nature of the universe, when one decides to go to its primordial roots.
From his Wikipedia entry concerning his transition :
"Four of Wittgenstein's former students arrived at his bedside – Ben Richards, Elizabeth Anscombe, Yorick Smythies, and Maurice O'Connor Drury. Anscombe and Smythies were Catholics, and, at the latter's request, a Dominican friar, Father Conrad Pepler, also attended. (Wittgenstein had asked for a "priest who was not a philosopher" and had met with Pepler several times.)[269] They were at first unsure what Wittgenstein would have wanted, but then remembered he had said he hoped his Catholic friends would pray for him, so they did, and he was pronounced dead shortly afterwards."
Wittgenstein never saw himself as a Catholic because he logically thought it was too labeling and reductionist.
As a true Master of Logics he was well aware that God judges Man based on his actions and thoughts and not on his titles and names.
Are you not UK based FR? I'm interested in your commentary on this video, which is one example of how AI is being used in the newsmedia. https://youtu.be/XVK4tO69oTk
I am English and live in the England. Though based I am not a missile.
Yer video has been deleted. My view overall is that “AI” is giving the social algorithm an upgrade )to automated cultural production done by machines instead of people who talk like gay daleks).
I don't see any religious man live any greater joy than that of his secular brothers. Camus then said that we must invent meaning of our own. Religious beliefs could count as this meaning.
Henri le Chat Noir could not have put it better. Life is about choices, DB, and if you choose to be a nihilist you choose to diminish your life to a bargain hunt between twinned oblivions.
This is the Educated Choice today, as men have to be educated to consider this wise.
Christianity, like all religions, is just a belief system you can superimpose onto the meaninglessness of existence to afford yourself a little comfort, assuage the dread of death and responsibility - give you something in terms of a code by which to live, lessening the burden of making decisions in one’s life. But it’s roundly as ridiculous and devoid of any truth as any other idea because there is no plan here. The ridiculous contradictions of religion reveal that much as well as making it clear that this is no divine plan but the work of men - and subpar work at that. Have at it though … I find it all a bit childish but would never prevent someone from indulging in fairytales. Whatever gets you though … I wish the religious would leave me alone.
There is no explanatory power to rival that of the Catholic Church, which furnishes man with the most complete description of the nature of reality ever attempted. You are free to refuse this, but I would not call the result liberating. As for leaving you alone, I did not initiate this exchange, but I would of course recommend you seek the grace of God.
If I can find the time I would happily talk to you about your views and have it out, as it were. In words of course. There is likely a lot on which we would agree I should say. Gods grace is a fiction to anyone who has not sought it, whereupon it becomes a fact. Have a go. You have nothing to lose (in fact, you would lose the nothingness you currently cherish in its place. lol.)
I simply don’t know what that means. What am I to do? Read the bible because I tried that. Furthermore, I have no motivation. I am not troubled by existence. I do not fear death. I’m already a good person- I give a few bucks and a sandwich to the homeless when I can (because I am poor like Jesus) - which is more than most “Christians” do. I simply don’t struggle with these questions. I’m like an atheist Jesus already. I’ve just done away with the framing. Shit … maybe y’all should follow me? No don’t do that.
I do refute it. Catholicism is clearly the work of mad men scribbling. A more coherent understanding of reality can be found sitting next to a waterfall. I didn’t mean you personally … leaving me alone. As for seeking the grace of god. That makes absolutely no sense. Just more religious gobbledygook.
Saint Augustine’s work on the nature of time is still current as it was correct. There are many other examples of the “scribblings of mad men” like him. The metaphysics is hard to refute without a refutation of hard reality, for another point. I think if you were aware of these things you might think twice (or perhaps once) about your motives for dismissing them. I don’t mean to harass you personally, I also held your views once, and do not do so today because I found them an incomplete explanation of reality. Modern philosophy can be summarised as an attempt to justify the unreality of being and things in order to escape the real world. It is a sort of tantrum.
I don’t doubt that. I find modern philosophy mostly word games. But I find religion even harder to swallow. You take it literally? You believe in heaven? What about hell? Or are these ideas metaphor? Ie. more word games.
Religious beliefs are just one of the choices. I prefer to make my own meaning. The essential truth of existentialism is correct from my POV - there is no inherent meaning.
In the office today, I was introduced to a visitor from HQ. As we chatted about prior work histories and current stuff, things got more personal...our ages, marital status, children. I have none, you see, and never will, and am officially a senior citizen this year. With both parents dead and buried, and being the youngest of 8, I said, "my siblings and I kinda look around and wonder who's gonna be the first of us to go. To be honest I wouldn't mind if it were me. Parents are gone, I have no kids, what am I still doing here?" It hit me. It's like I don't believe in The Cathoic Thing anymore. I certainly have been struggling with what a waste my life has been and how The Gay Thing for 2-1/2 decades set me on a course of self-destruction, but coming out on the other side after a reversion to the faith, just what exactly am I living for? I suppose we each come to that question (not a bad thing), but to realize you are in fact the withering unproductive fig tree is bracing. If it weren't for the TLM, I'd be a goner.
It is courageous of you to admit this Jeron. Better still is to realise there is more to life than this, and to seek the grace of God as a result. You’re an example to us all in your fortitude my friend.
Thank you for that. Merry Christmas, Frank.
Admittedly, I read just a handful of Camus' scribblings, but I never understood why he was considered a great thinker. Then I realized that his proponents were also the ones extolling the dreck adorning the walls of the modern art section of the local art museum. Then it all made sense.
Structuralism requires we dismantle society completely. This is where you go when you deny reality - total social destruction. So people who promote normlessness and demoralisation are heroes and geniuses.
All this comes about because the reality of human difference - which is immutable - is taboo. And so everything must go - art, beauty, sense, meaning - in order to dismantle the invisible structures which cause racism n sexism etc.
Just yesterday, a statue of the great General Robert E Lee was removed from a place of prominence and replaced with a bronze of some hitherto unknown civil rights "hero."
Exceptionalism remains in the crosshairs of the lunatic left.
I found out they even dug up the headstone of his horse (though it seems it was replaced).
The progressive project can be summarised as the total destruction of all that was, in the service of a utopia that can never be.
That's a good summary of what's been going on for decades. Let's hope the Progressive Project gets derailed before it starts identifying and neutralizing the wreckers responsible for sabotaging Utopia's creation.
Having no oil in your lamp is "denying reality." Rushing to buy the oil from merchants is going to the philosophies of men. Grace, it turns out, is not transactional.
That is beautifully well put Laura. Thank you.
Best wishes for a blessed Advent and a merry Christmas, Frank!
Thank you Bear - and the same to you and yours!
Kraftwerk. Nice.
The fact that Wittgenstein - the once labeled "Paladin of Logic and Rationalism" - converted to Christianity says a lot about the true nature of the universe, when one decides to go to its primordial roots.
I didn’t know that about him. Heard about Freddy Ayer though.
From his Wikipedia entry concerning his transition :
"Four of Wittgenstein's former students arrived at his bedside – Ben Richards, Elizabeth Anscombe, Yorick Smythies, and Maurice O'Connor Drury. Anscombe and Smythies were Catholics, and, at the latter's request, a Dominican friar, Father Conrad Pepler, also attended. (Wittgenstein had asked for a "priest who was not a philosopher" and had met with Pepler several times.)[269] They were at first unsure what Wittgenstein would have wanted, but then remembered he had said he hoped his Catholic friends would pray for him, so they did, and he was pronounced dead shortly afterwards."
Wittgenstein never saw himself as a Catholic because he logically thought it was too labeling and reductionist.
As a true Master of Logics he was well aware that God judges Man based on his actions and thoughts and not on his titles and names.
Are you not UK based FR? I'm interested in your commentary on this video, which is one example of how AI is being used in the newsmedia. https://youtu.be/XVK4tO69oTk
I am English and live in the England. Though based I am not a missile.
Yer video has been deleted. My view overall is that “AI” is giving the social algorithm an upgrade )to automated cultural production done by machines instead of people who talk like gay daleks).
Did you grow up watching too much Rowan Atkinson?
I don't see any religious man live any greater joy than that of his secular brothers. Camus then said that we must invent meaning of our own. Religious beliefs could count as this meaning.
Henri le Chat Noir could not have put it better. Life is about choices, DB, and if you choose to be a nihilist you choose to diminish your life to a bargain hunt between twinned oblivions.
This is the Educated Choice today, as men have to be educated to consider this wise.
Christianity, like all religions, is just a belief system you can superimpose onto the meaninglessness of existence to afford yourself a little comfort, assuage the dread of death and responsibility - give you something in terms of a code by which to live, lessening the burden of making decisions in one’s life. But it’s roundly as ridiculous and devoid of any truth as any other idea because there is no plan here. The ridiculous contradictions of religion reveal that much as well as making it clear that this is no divine plan but the work of men - and subpar work at that. Have at it though … I find it all a bit childish but would never prevent someone from indulging in fairytales. Whatever gets you though … I wish the religious would leave me alone.
There is no explanatory power to rival that of the Catholic Church, which furnishes man with the most complete description of the nature of reality ever attempted. You are free to refuse this, but I would not call the result liberating. As for leaving you alone, I did not initiate this exchange, but I would of course recommend you seek the grace of God.
I propose a tournament. Your made up god vs my made up god.
If I can find the time I would happily talk to you about your views and have it out, as it were. In words of course. There is likely a lot on which we would agree I should say. Gods grace is a fiction to anyone who has not sought it, whereupon it becomes a fact. Have a go. You have nothing to lose (in fact, you would lose the nothingness you currently cherish in its place. lol.)
I simply don’t know what that means. What am I to do? Read the bible because I tried that. Furthermore, I have no motivation. I am not troubled by existence. I do not fear death. I’m already a good person- I give a few bucks and a sandwich to the homeless when I can (because I am poor like Jesus) - which is more than most “Christians” do. I simply don’t struggle with these questions. I’m like an atheist Jesus already. I’ve just done away with the framing. Shit … maybe y’all should follow me? No don’t do that.
I do refute it. Catholicism is clearly the work of mad men scribbling. A more coherent understanding of reality can be found sitting next to a waterfall. I didn’t mean you personally … leaving me alone. As for seeking the grace of god. That makes absolutely no sense. Just more religious gobbledygook.
Saint Augustine’s work on the nature of time is still current as it was correct. There are many other examples of the “scribblings of mad men” like him. The metaphysics is hard to refute without a refutation of hard reality, for another point. I think if you were aware of these things you might think twice (or perhaps once) about your motives for dismissing them. I don’t mean to harass you personally, I also held your views once, and do not do so today because I found them an incomplete explanation of reality. Modern philosophy can be summarised as an attempt to justify the unreality of being and things in order to escape the real world. It is a sort of tantrum.
I don’t doubt that. I find modern philosophy mostly word games. But I find religion even harder to swallow. You take it literally? You believe in heaven? What about hell? Or are these ideas metaphor? Ie. more word games.
Religious beliefs are just one of the choices. I prefer to make my own meaning. The essential truth of existentialism is correct from my POV - there is no inherent meaning.