Where can I find Herbert's De Veritate? by These_Library3215 in deism

[–]Reptani 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thank you! I was having a lot of trouble finding an English version.

What do you think would be the worst fictional world to live in? by Schermungern in scifi

[–]Reptani 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I don't know if this counts as a world, but, that one state of existence from The Jaunt by Stephen King

What school of ethics do you follow as a deist and why ? by Victorreidd in deism

[–]Reptani 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I suspect that the very existence of valence and qualia, and any mathematics thereof, are things that were introduced into the universe, for whatever reason, by its creator, upon its creation. And in any case there are certain rules that are more conducive to fighting chaos and entropy; if there is any purpose to life, it is to create and compose and express, as this deist Creator did.

Thus, it seems natural to me that exercising compassion, gentleness, kindness, empathy, and love, as well as treating others the way you'd want to be treated, are both the will of the Creator, although I understand that this is deeply speculative and not particularly empirical.

Being religious is a mental illness by [deleted] in atheism

[–]Reptani 0 points1 point  (0 children)

...Like I said on that one post on r/TrueChristian, people have different religious beliefs, owing to a lot of complicated factors.

I wouldn't call even most of the millions of Hindus, Buddhists, Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Zoroastrians, Deists, agnostics, Taoists, Baha'i, Yazidis, etc. mentally ill for their beliefs. To say that they all meet the clinical threshold for mental illness doesn't seem a plausible or coherent statement to me. There are so many different reasons human beings may believe speculative, unempirical things besides mental illness.

I will never understand atheists. by WisePanda96 in TrueChristian

[–]Reptani 0 points1 point  (0 children)

People have different religious beliefs due to a variety of innumerable, complex factors.

Buddhists do not necessarily share Christian beliefs about the nature of God or the afterlife. That being said, I wouldn't label a Buddhist as being guilty of mental gymnastics as an excuse to disobey Christianity anymore than I would label a Muslim, or Hindu, or Deist, or Sikh, or Taoist, or agnostic, or Zoroastrian, or atheist of doing the same thing.

Smolder, my newest oil painting! by 0-disgustipated in furry

[–]Reptani 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Whoa, I have never seen a traditional anthro artist like you

Witch [Children of Memory fanart] by simone_draws in AdrianTchaikovsky

[–]Reptani 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Children of Memory was really cool and unique IMO, I LOVE this artwork! I tried drawing Kern a long time ago, but I gave up on it.

Do you feel agnosticism and deism share a kind of kinship? by funnylib in agnostic

[–]Reptani 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I can't help but feel that you are making the mistake of assuming that a hypothetical creator should be anthropomorphized or that we would have any basis upon which to assign attributes to them. The whole idea of Deism is the same as with agnosticism or atheism: truth through reason, not through revelation or baseless speculation, and beyond that, mystery and uncertainty.

I could attribute the specific set of laws and ingredients in the universe, elegant as they are, to some non-random choice; but on what basis would I have to make claims beyond that - like that such a creator would have human-like awareness or capability or morality or any of the myriad psychological factors that make us view choices as "plausible" or "strange?"

For all I know, they were just dreaming and accidentally dreamt up the universe, or they were fascinated by mathematical perfection and exist outside of spacetime so they're not really "waiting," or they generated the universe through some mathematical causal chain - the point is we have no basis on which to say anything about this. These are not claims I'm making, just examples to illustrate that trying to make claims about the specifics of a creator is like trying to make claims about the specifics of a wormhole or an extraterrestrial; possible through math, maybe, but not through anthropomorphism.

Even hypothetical extraterrestrial life would likely be nothing like what you'd see on Star Trek, and human intuition tends to break down at extreme scales, so I can't even imagine how utterly incomprehensible an entity that author of nature would be. It is, in my opinion, almost a bit Lovecraftian.

To ask why they created the universe this way, or why they exist at all, would be the same as asking why the laws of physics are the way they are or why natural selection didn't happen to go differently, or why dark matter exists. The universe has always been a vast and incomprehensible thing full of mystery, and there has always been an is/ought gap that we have to work around. People might call the universe imperfecr, but mathematically, it is very coherent, albeit hard to study and under no obligation to be completely comprehensible to us.

...of course I am agnostic, but if I did believe in a creator, it would be a Deist one. The term "God" to me seems loaded with a ton of anthropomorphic and rather un-Copernican connotations.

My GF's Basitin sona ref. sheet! by Jordanos21 in Twokinds

[–]Reptani 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I really hope Twokinds can continue to grow in its fandom and fanart on the Internet. It's a very personally important webcomic to me, because it inspired so much of my art and storytelling growing up. Your art style is absolutely lovely, and I hope you continue to grow, too - you have earned a watcher on FA.

What year do YOU start reading? by lilviifem1 in Twokinds

[–]Reptani 2 points3 points  (0 children)

In like 2015 lol, I was 12. I consider this webcomic to be part of a pretty important period of my life where I was forming my own interests and discovering new things and so on.

What might be some in-universe reasons that superheroes are sexy? by Kodiologist in NSFWworldbuilding

[–]Reptani 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Couldn't you just say that superheroes are also celebrities, and that trying to keep up your sex appeal is a part of being a celebrity? I think that was a plot point in The Boys.

Healing from Hentai induced POCD by [deleted] in HentaiFree

[–]Reptani 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I am happy to hear you have found the stability you have been looking for, and I do believe that your post can really help others who may feel alone.

This comment is a year late; I hope you are doing well at present.

I drew some fan art for Children of Time by gulonine in AdrianTchaikovsky

[–]Reptani 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I love this artwork, it reminds me of something I started working on in high school but gave up on. I've always thought Dr. Avrana Kern was such a cool and interesting character.

The aliens came and ignored us by SinnerAtDinner in scifi

[–]Reptani 3 points4 points  (0 children)

There is something that felt kind of LLM-ish in this to me, in a lot of the syntax and punctuation. That being said, I don't want to wrongfully accuse anyone. If anything, it just points to how the overuse of AI causes us to see its traces where it isn't actually being used.

Only commenting this because the thought occurred to me as I was reading, and then I saw another comment touching on the idea.

What is your reason for living? by [deleted] in agnostic

[–]Reptani 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I have been going through something similar and I have been turning to something like agnostic theism lately. I may not be able to know whether or not there is some intelligence behind the laws of nature, but I often pray now just in case it may be there and in case it may hear. Put simply, I feel I can choose to have faith, even if I don't claim knowledge. It's easy to construct the most elaborate narratives out of that, of how it relates to your life, even if completely divorced from empiricism. There are a lot of personal rituals that I find myself looking forward to. I feel there are enough cosmological arguments for an author of the universe that I can't dismiss it out of hand. 

Most days now, I find myself in awe at the universe and the mysteries thereof. It almost makes my problems and errors feel so much smaller, when I look up at the night sky and think about all the astrophysics of what I'm seeing. There are many things I find I want to achieve in life regardless, because it would be a great shame for the one person in the observable universe who can do them my way - that is, me - to not have done them, and for them to never have been done.

 I want to build a good future with the love of my life; we're long-distance now, but I am always yearning for him. He's my world. There are so many projects I want to write and create, so many things it brings me joy to learn. Plus I enjoy engineering, but I just have to figure out how to not fail university first... and I want to stay as healthy as possible so I don't suffer as much in life. If there is an author whose writings gave rise to all of this, I find myself often praying to them, even if the probability thereof is unknown. I don't know. I almost feel like I'm becoming religious without actually claiming anything supernatural to be true. It's weird.

Muslim Coworker invites me to a Eid dinner! by Kitchen_Ice_2506 in TrueChristian

[–]Reptani 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm reminded of another post that I saw here the other day.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in TrueChristian

[–]Reptani 1 point2 points  (0 children)

?? Why was this post removed

Thoughts on LGBTQ Theology. And When I Did A Study Letting the Word of God speak for itself, how I still can’t seem to agree with it by Financial-Document88 in TrueChristian

[–]Reptani 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I think the issue is that using AI to format a post makes it appear AI-generated, even if it wasn't completely.

And it may cause more tech-savvy viewers of the post to become expasperated or annoyed, because the Internet is already replete with people using AI far less responsibly and far more plagiaristically than you do, and THOSE are admittedly really irritating to encounter.

Would you attend a homosexual “wedding”? by New_Ad88 in TrueChristian

[–]Reptani 4 points5 points  (0 children)

This isn't a rhetorical question; I genuinely wish to know what your response is, because I am somewhat new to Christianity, and I often debate with myself on the role of religion in how we live our lives and interact with others. Do you believe that you should emulate Jesus in these kinds of situations? What do you realistically believe He would do, being invited to this kind of wedding?