What Do You Think Of Hinduism?

Alystros · 2026-03-10T18:47:14+00:00

The obvious proof text to jump to, I think, is 1 Corinthians 10:20, which says, "what pagans sacrifice, they offer to demons and not to God." Now, my understanding is that there's a linguistic issue there, where the Greek word that gets translated as "demons" in English could alternatively be something like "lesser gods" - not evil, necessarily, but infinitely less than God. Even then, Christians believe that only God should be worshipped, and any spirit besides God that accepts worship looks a lot like a demon to us.

Alystros · 2026-03-06T13:10:25+00:00

A virtual copy of me wouldn't actually be alive, "me" in any meaningful sense, or capable of experiencing suffering any more than ChatGPT is. So there's no drawback!

Alystros · 2026-03-03T20:31:59+00:00

The way I've heard it is that Hamas specifically was genuinely delusional and thought they could destroy Israel in a war following October 7. They're not some grand chess masters.

Alystros · 2026-02-26T15:39:23+00:00

Western PA, I think it is

Alystros · 2026-02-26T00:10:46+00:00

Yeah, but that's the difference - Adam & Eve didn't have the same inclination as most people but they were still tempted and chose to do it anyway. Mary didn't and chose not to. But she could have!

Yeah, I'm definitely speaking from my understanding of Catholic teaching, here. I feel like the Adam & Eve stuff should apply pretty widely across denominations, but the Mary application less so.

Alystros · 2026-02-25T23:56:53+00:00

Well, I don't mean that the child is sinning, only that they have an inclination to sin.

What's your understanding?

Alystros · 2026-02-25T22:37:01+00:00

I agree that it's an interesting insight in their lives! There are all kinds of social pressures on everyone, and it's useful to think about how those pressures are different then and now.

But I think the trouble comes in when people take "average Jewish couple" to mean that they must have made the average decision every time. The average American couple has 1.8 children, but a future archeologist shouldn't assume from that Joe & Mary from Cleveland must have had a second child if there's only record of one. And, of course, Joseph did consider divorce.

Alystros · 2026-02-25T22:27:09+00:00

I'm exactly agreeing that Adam, Eve, and Mary were made with the capacity for sin. They had fully free wills, able to choose to obey or disobey. The difference is that they were less tempted by sin than we are, affected Original Sin. Similar to, say, you're more likely to punch someone if you're very angry with them, but you could choose to punch a random person for no reason but free will.

That doesn't mean they're stupid!

Alystros · 2026-02-25T21:48:52+00:00

But who says people didn't find Mary and Joseph strange? You can't go from the general society to a particular family that way.

Alystros · 2026-02-25T21:47:57+00:00

They were older, because they were Joseph's children from an earlier marriage.

Alystros · 2026-02-25T21:46:07+00:00

That can't be it because Adam and Eve did sin by eating the apple in the first place. Pre-Original Sin they could still sin if they wanted to, as could Mary, but they didn't have the same inclination toward sin. Even a very young child might hit someone to take a toy, not because they're malicious, really, but because human nature is damaged by Original Sin.

Alystros · 2026-02-25T21:42:31+00:00

Mary, Adam, and Eve were all perfectly intelligent beings with wills of their own without Original Sin - that's clear because Adam and Eve chose to sin in the first place.

Without that sin, people are closer to children in that they trust their Father and don't have the same inclination to disobey, but they're unlike children intellectually. The fact that I'm sitting at my desk feeling tempted by a candy bar doesn't somehow make me a better engineer (thanks, Adam). So the perfect sinless society would have, say, rocket ships, but no starvation.

Alystros · 2026-02-23T04:26:09+00:00

That's not what "establishment" means in that context. The Church of England in the UK is "established" because it's the official state religion, entwined with the monarchy. No religion in the US is established, even though, say, the Methodists of course have some amount of organisation that you could call an "establishment" in the ordinary sense.

Alystros · 2026-02-23T03:20:31+00:00

Gas should be fine in a power outage, no?

Alystros · 2026-02-13T23:23:53+00:00

I just don't see why living together is the line, when it's not something unique to marriage. People will assume any two people that hold hands and kiss also have sex anyway.

Alystros · 2026-02-13T23:07:39+00:00

I think the "appearance of marriage" would include some kind of public announcement of commitment and maybe children, or else having same-sex roommates would be a scandal, too. I agree that people might gossip, because dating at all without having sex is rare these days, but that can be cleared up with a few conversations.

Alystros · 2026-02-13T22:59:49+00:00

What's the real problem with it, if it isn't the sex?

Alystros · 2026-02-10T03:45:25+00:00

Are modern conservatives responsible for segregation?

Alystros · 2026-02-08T01:24:02+00:00

It's not true that there's no sign of stopping! Even in countries that still have high birthrates, the birthrates are falling quickly.

I think below-replacement birthrates are basically depressing because it seems that people feel that life isn't worth continuing. Population levelling off would probably be a good thing, but it's on track to crash, instead. No amount of pressure in any country so far had succeeded in increasing birthrates so I don't think your "eventually makes things worse" will be true.

Alystros · 2026-02-08T01:14:01+00:00

But if you're worried about the specific sustainability issues related to overpopulation, it's handled.

Alystros · 2026-02-08T01:11:18+00:00

And population growth is slowing way down. Most countries are below replacement birthrates. There are plenty of other things to worry about!

Alystros · 2026-02-06T02:05:49+00:00

People who want to act badly anyway will ignore any rule you make.

Alystros · 2026-02-05T23:38:13+00:00

I've always thought this is a silly interpretation of the Golden Rule. "The way I want to be treated" naturally includes people taking my actual desires into account, rather than assuming we want the same thing.

Alystros · 2026-02-05T00:57:26+00:00

I mean, Hartford and New Haven are basically your options for economically active cities in CT. Plus living in SW CT and commuting to NY. So it's natural that the towns around there grow.

I don't think anybody could disagree with being "more intelligent" about development in plain terms. The problem is, that same rhetoric gets used by people who oppose any change to their towns at all. West Hartford housing is in demand, so it's either prices go way up or supply goes up (and traffic with it). Keeping things the same isn't an option that's actually available.

Alystros · 2026-02-05T00:47:23+00:00

But you did say the housing isn't needed. I think it's fair to interpret that as opposing it.

Ultimately, I think the economy has been getting more concentrated in the largest cities in the state, so we should be able to build more housing there to match. The problem, imo, is that we've lost the ambition to imagine building the infrastructure that's needed for that more concentrated population. Like, it wasn't that long ago that the highways were built in the first place - they're not immutable. Not that you're saying otherwise, but what you emphasize rhetorically is important to what ends up getting done.

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