A lot of theology today.
oneironaut showed me a link to something around here that provoked me into a
dot_cattiness snark.
Then I commented in a discussion where a bunch of people were responding to an awfully earnest but not especially ept evangeliser: I often find myself feeling like proselytisers are berating me about how I need to work with their terrific European history tutor, and aren't willing to listen when I point out to them that my major is physics, I don't need European history to graduate, and would rather work with someone who can explain differential equations to me.
(I've long been of the opinion that a religion that makes a practical benefit to me in being a better person with a better life and making a positive impact on people around me and a better world is a better religion for me than other options; I do rather suspect that the proselytiser in question wouldn't accept pragmatic evaluations over But My Book Says, though, more's the pity.)
Then I came across someone arguing that suggesting that a belief that there's no intrinsic purpose to existence is both less than ideally moral and equivalent to a belief that existence is purposeless. To which I replied "Purpose is a creation of the mind; existence is a property of reality." And it occurs to me that it strikes me that a belief that meaningfulness is derived from outside is shirking a responsibility to create meaning.
Plant you seeds.
I now have six lilypads. There were five when I planted it, but I took one off; it had gone yellow. So that's two new ones. And I can see two shoots down near the growth point.
Plant you seeds.
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Then I commented in a discussion where a bunch of people were responding to an awfully earnest but not especially ept evangeliser: I often find myself feeling like proselytisers are berating me about how I need to work with their terrific European history tutor, and aren't willing to listen when I point out to them that my major is physics, I don't need European history to graduate, and would rather work with someone who can explain differential equations to me.
(I've long been of the opinion that a religion that makes a practical benefit to me in being a better person with a better life and making a positive impact on people around me and a better world is a better religion for me than other options; I do rather suspect that the proselytiser in question wouldn't accept pragmatic evaluations over But My Book Says, though, more's the pity.)
Then I came across someone arguing that suggesting that a belief that there's no intrinsic purpose to existence is both less than ideally moral and equivalent to a belief that existence is purposeless. To which I replied "Purpose is a creation of the mind; existence is a property of reality." And it occurs to me that it strikes me that a belief that meaningfulness is derived from outside is shirking a responsibility to create meaning.
Plant you seeds.
I now have six lilypads. There were five when I planted it, but I took one off; it had gone yellow. So that's two new ones. And I can see two shoots down near the growth point.
Plant you seeds.
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