YappyMonotheist @ ArgumentativeMonotheist @lemmy.world

Trying my hardest to be civil in this uncivilised world.

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The mystery is why He created anything at all, sure, but our existence and everything that surrounds us is a net positive, a free gift that we can always opt out of if we truly wish and bring it back to the zero that nonbelievers believe in. Nothingness is just a rope away after all, right? Every truly happy person out there, believer or not, sees it as the gift it is. God didn't have to make anything, yet He did, and my life despite its hardships, created by other people, has been a very enjoyable experience. Now, the promise of God (yes, we're talking about Abrahamic tenets here) is that of eternal life as long as you keep Him in mind and act right (pretty small price for some, seemingly impossible for others). In that context, sure, God is inherently, supremely benevolent (first you get a life for free that can honestly be great and you can always opt out of... although you can also suffer and 99% of it will be due to someone else, of course; but then you get another one that depends entirely on your own deeds and nothing else). But even without it, how could I reasonably blame God for other people's amorality when, as a moral person or at least one who tries to be one, I understand it's not that difficult not to cross some major lines? That's it's entirely in their hands and they just decided they didn't give a fuck? That's the immaturity I'm talking about. You might as well complain to your parents that they brought you into the world, lol, right? There's no cause and effect chain here between my childhood bully, his abuse and God's will, there's just one between (for instance) his childhood trauma, lack of information on his situation, lack of self control, lack of reflection and, finally but perhaps more importantly, lack of empathy and 'humanity'. It's not 'unfair' that God endowed us with free will, it's just the way He wanted us to be, for whatever reasons He had, and whether we like it or not (another function of free will, lol) it's what we're left with. And the world could be close to utopia if dads raised their kids, husbands didn't beat their wives, Casey Anthony didn't murder her daughter, of course! All we can do is invite people into morality and then reprimand/banish/incarcerate them if they poop on the invitation.

For the second part: you're thinking of God as a thing. Or even worse, as a man, maybe (Christians do this, probably due to their creed's Roman origins, lol). God is not here, God is outside. The Creator cannot be constrained in its creation! It would mean that the creation came before the Creator, lol, which is obvious nonsense. And so this creation is at least a level beneath Him, and in the same way that Stan Lee is not carbon on paper and text bubbles, God is not matter nor energy. I can tell you that much with logical certainty. Whether you wanna stop at "things exist, at times in shocking order, and compose a chain of cause and effect that takes us to the beginning of time and space, and that's all I can say with any degree of material certainty", or follow up it up with "and I believe that, because of this complex existence, a 'higher level entity' with more complexity than existence itself made it and sustains it", is up to you. I haven't really found any connecting arguments or whatever, which is why I respect an agnostic position if you reach this conclusion, but maybe there are not and they are not necessary (belief can only happen in the absence of material information, after all [Jesus' "belief in the unseen"]). Also, there's only so many things you can communicate through words!

I know my propagandised 21st century schizoid European man!

There's a barrier between what we hear and how we feel about it (which will then be expressed in words and action) and that's the barrier of ideology plus self-beliefs (what we think). Plus, how mentally agile you are will decide on how quickly you reply (that's why folks with ADHD can say and do some wild, impulsive shit, for instance). By analysing our beliefs critically and fearlessly, and tearing down the ideological house of cards that causes us cognitive dissonance and impedes us from reaching the right conclusions in many areas of our lives, we can better deal with the world and how it 'makes us' feel. Going from "people are not to be trusted" or "all women are sluts (but somehow they will never date me)" to "people are fundamentally good, but flawed to different degrees and in different ways and there's no need to live in fear" and "women and men are sexual creatures, most women are not prostitutes and this is just the way I've coped with my lack of success in the dating world and with the feelings of worthlessness and despair that come with it", for example, will 100% help you better handle your emotions.

There's nothing to do about mental agility though, I've found, besides being permanently medicated/sedated or high on weed. And none of those sound healthy/ideal. 🤷😅

You don't know what the words that you're using mean.

Oh, it's just what I've noticed in myself, and others when I ask them what they believe in and the convo goes from there.

It seems that in the end it's one of two things... There's what's known as the Epicurean paradox or the problem of evil, where the confusion arises from many sources: forgetting about the existence of free will and the causal chain of events, semantic nonsense or even simple immaturity. This is the one that's just all fluff, all wind, but words can kick one's ass, especially if you live more in words than in reality.

And then there's the one that I respect a little bit more: while the beginning of the causal chain that we can conceive (so, embedded in/attached to space and time) is evidently not a source of it, but also since things exist today we can't deny the 'proto-thing' existed then I can somewhat accept you telling me that this essence we call matter and energy was always there and God is not necessary and etc etc. God has been understood for millennia as the 'prime engine' and unmoved mover, behind the universe and before it, the One that 'comes from nothing' that we have to accept because nothing comes from nothing and things exist. But many folk just skip that part and say "things exist, that's all I can see and that's all I will believe in". That's fair, but I better not see you making any logical inferences then, lol.

I don't disbelieve it but it doesn't mean OP is wrong.

Jeff Bezos, one of the richest men in the world today, known for employing folks that need to pee in bottles to comply with Amazon's inhuman procedures or face losing their jobs, buys The Washington Post

"They will hold the truth and journalistic integrity in high regard, and I can certainly trust them to prioritise them before financial gain and anything that can be done to achieve it."

I SWIM IN THE SEA OF THE UNCONSCIOUS

Emotion regulation? Attachment styles and the consequences of insecure attachment and childhood trauma? Epistemology and the illusion of certainty? Why Kierkegaard>Nietzsche (but you need to read both!)? Idk, depends on the kid and how much time we'd have, I guess. 😅

In earnest though, if there's one topic I think I have some data on that most will never have is on the two fundamental 'arguments' for not believing in God (one very flawed, the other not so much but lacking in weight and leaving you in an apparent 50/50). As someone who's been there but has made the crossing (or landed the jump, if you get the reference!), after years of bitterness and resentment towards ""Christianity"" in my early childhood and about 15 years of 'comfy agnosticism', I think I could explain to a child (maybe a young and precocious teen going through his first ideological crisis?) what's confusing them.

I once tried making caramel by microwaving sugar cubes though, maybe the child could teach me something back, lol.

Yeah. But also a quick test to see how far gone American society is: if the Dems get elected it means that, at least for the sake of optics and spin, morals play some sort of role still.

• China bad
• Islam bad and dumb
• Communism and socialism bad
• Capitalism good (and make sure you know NOTHING regarding economic theories!)
• Women dumb
• Non-Europeans (ethnically, and even then the Germanic tribes are at the top of the chain [Anglo-Saxons included, evidently]) bad and/or dumb
• Gays bad
• Christianity good (only when antithetical to the message of Jesus)
• (white) America good
• Israel good

Have I captured the essence of the 'classic' ignorant and angry white American? Honestly, it fits pretty well for FN and EDL dudes in France and the UK, respectively...

ingests 'facts' and narratives from seemingly different sources that just happen to be financially backed/owned by the same small group of people

no logical filtering or processing takes place before regurgitating them

"I'm a free thinker who does their own research!"

If you're a broke and amoral European lady with no interest in history, architecture or Islam and you tell me you're going to Dubai...

JD Vance!

Time.

As a kid I read Paulo Coelho's 'Veronika decides to die' and it kinda reframed some of my thinking. From what I recall, it's a very wholesome and light read!

Elon Musk fanboys?

Using? Human beings are social animals, just bringing your natural 'good vibes' is enough for most people to feel they've been 'repaid', lol. And you probably wouldn't but that just means that the world is a big place and that people have different interests. You wouldn't hang out with someone into sports, perhaps, but it doesn't mean they cannot be good people, right? Deeper connections just require more commonalities, of course.

I didn't understand the first part but depth/shallowness are 'hard labels' for something that exists as a spectrum, but it's a real one, not just one dependant on 'society'. Well, I think, at least.

"What you can offer" certainly includes the fruits/expressions of your personality, so I assume you mean either your money (if you're a dude) or your body (if you're a lady). The usual way has always been to interact thoroughly with the other person without giving much/any of these things and seeing where things are in some weeks/months time. "Making him wait", like grandma said. Some people are good liars and plan long-term but, except for these sociopaths, this method usually works.

Closeted fearful European supremacists, lol. So what if everyone who looks like you and is in power is a liar, a thief and often a sex-pest? Just disassociate from them and pick someone because of their character! :D

Morality and nobility have never known each other, friend.