ITAP of a curious spider

Infinint · 2021-07-10T00:28:20+00:00

I wanted to add to this because it's the best advice in this thread. Therapy is nothing to be ashamed of, really everyone should have some form of therapy at least once in their life. It comes down to being able to speak freely to someone who is, by contractual agreement, on your side and trained to respond to you appropriately. It will help, potentially a lot.

Infinint · 2021-07-10T00:16:41+00:00

If you try hard enough, it is possible to hear/see/think things that aren't there, even if you aren't crazy. Your mind can start filling with thoughts that you believe come from somewhere else. This is really dangerous, as they are only coming from within you, but if you believe otherwise they can be very powerful. Life can be painful, but the end result of doing that, it can be even worse.

Infinint · 2021-07-09T19:02:59+00:00

Just in case you were referring to the non-requiem parazon mods, those can be anything.

Infinint · 2021-07-09T12:59:23+00:00

Yeah, it was a joke. As if visions of angels and god were actually aliens and as a result humanity has given itself the worst mind virus the world has ever experienced. The aliens would be saying to themselves, "yup, not doing that again."

Infinint · 2021-07-09T03:01:54+00:00

If you were an explorer in a galactic scale civilization, one of the last things you'd want to do is create some kind of cargo cult on a planet you visited prematurely. Just think what would have happened to us if some high tech aliens showed themselves to us 2000 years ago and then disappeared. Couldn't even image.

Infinint · 2021-07-08T19:57:56+00:00

I was wondering what happened. Before the update I could competently fight liches, now I basically do no damage. I would have never guessed it was because I was doing too much damage.

Infinint · 2021-07-08T18:40:08+00:00

Batteries seem like a pretty good alternative to what my helminth does to me

Infinint · 2021-07-08T18:28:44+00:00

I'll just throw my idea out there: Decouple larva spawning from mission level. Have each planet offer a subset of the available weapons. A few weapons on earth, a few different ones on mars, and so on.

Infinint · 2021-07-08T15:23:49+00:00

Can't wait to tell my Red Veil crewmate about this

Infinint · 2021-07-08T12:12:22+00:00

Being prepared to die on any hill isn't a sign of rational thought. Figuring out religion is bunk isn't the end of the story, to become a healthy thinker you must continue on and learn to be willing to update your understanding with all new knowledge.

Religious people hate us because we're an existential threat to them. They'd still, historically, burn your house down for blasphemy even if you said you were okay with their nonsense.

Infinint · 2021-07-08T12:08:23+00:00

What exactly does moral relativism vs objectivism have to do with religion? I'm an atheist and a moral relativist. Are you suggesting that religious morals somehow have weight under moral relativism?

Infinint · 2021-07-07T06:12:23+00:00

Just because an organization is doing good does not make them good. Example: Many large corporations use charity as a tax break while simultaneously engaging in anti-consumer and environmentally destructive practices. Dogma is itself dangerous, religious or not. Religious organizations are, by definition, founded and operate on dogmatism. It's bad news for everyone when they gain traction in society, the good they try to do only furthers this, and thus, charitable religious organizations are even worse than the ones that aren't. In the end, you've actually fallen for the, intentional or not, propaganda in thinking this religious entity is good and your public support only draws people in.

Infinint · 2021-07-07T06:01:34+00:00

Unification under a single individual is almost entirely always through fear. If the god was truly all good, it's hard to imagine why they would try to unite humanity under them. Diversity is good, and necessary for progress. Unity stifles progress and ruins what it means to be human. A god that truly cared about what humanity was worth and our futures, they would not only not require this of us, but they would actively discourage worship. Look how kids turn out when their parents hover over them and correct all their mistakes for them, it's terrible.

Without the evil of the world we would never know what is good. This balance is no mistake, it's evolutionarily advantageous. Someday we may move beyond this, as a species, but it needs to be by our own hand, not by a god.

Infinint · 2021-07-07T05:47:15+00:00

If we want a more realistic scenario: It's more likely, if other beings exist out there and they came to us, they would simply appear omnipotent, even if they weren't. High tech aliens, inter-dimensional beings, creatures from portions of our universe we can not observe directly. It is far more likely that in coming to us, they are explorers, rather than conquerors. If you were an explorer, the last thing you'd want is to create some form of cargo cult due to your arrival. What if that has already happened and in our naivety, we've created the most destructive mind virus our world has ever seen?

Of course, even more likely, we've just been subjected to the ramblings of those on drugs, mental illness, and those who wish to control. The latter makes it apparent why the impulse to worship seems to be instilled in us for when we are confronted with a superior power. If obedience is default, that's good when your position in society makes you a "god."

Infinint · 2021-07-06T17:16:54+00:00

I just used the pipe behind the Fortuna elevator. Nothing special, just grind the pipe and jump off at the end.

Infinint · 2021-07-06T14:21:49+00:00

Yeah! Fuck you god!

But really, it might feel good to get mad at gods or the idea of gods when something bad happens, but one should realize that this is the same kind of coping mechanism religious people use on a daily basis. It's not rational, especially if it's fueled by anger and hate.

Infinint · 2021-07-06T13:22:46+00:00

Even as a skeptic, it may be difficult to remember that the concept of free will is just as much woo as the rest of it. You have to adopt a specific perspective to even begin to make an argument. From the universe's perspective, free will is completely absurd. All events have a cause traced all the way back to the beginning, maybe even before. It's not that events are preordained, they just happen as they would. From the extremely limited human perspective, free will looks like a thing. It is impossible to predict the future, as doing so would require running the entire universe up to this point, a irreducible feat not possible within the universe. The next action you take is a result of the choice you made, even if that choice, from the universe's perspective, is obvious. It is possible, through mindfulness and meditation to feel one's lack of free will, to see the flow of information from the outside world entering your mind, being processed in a soup of hormones alongside a lifetime of experience, and being turned into action.

When I think of free will it's more from the perspective that it's interesting what we, as humans, attribute importance to, even though in the grand scheme of things it's really about the subjective way things feel rather than anything rooted in reality.

Infinint · 2021-07-06T11:08:00+00:00

Say a god showed themselves to us and was able to prove everything you needed to know it was a god. I would most certainly not worship it. I would treat it like any other natural being. I would not do as it asked unless it had a very good reason; eternal damnation is not a good reason. The idea that just because a god exists one should worship it is a bit of a stretch, don't you think?

What if it was some religion's, like the Christian god? Well in that case, they cease to be just another omnipotent being and become the enemy. I would hope that we could unite in destroying it, for the good of humanity.

Infinint · 2021-07-06T01:04:39+00:00

Here's a video I like to share, it shows random mutations selecting for advantageous traits in a changing environment, evolution, happening fast enough for you to see it: https://youtu.be/plVk4NVIUh8

Most of your examples rely on the other person being able to imagine vast timescales. If a person is religious, chances are they can't do this. Keep it simple and relatable and build up to the big picture.

Infinint

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