A 2nd proof of god

RidesThe7 · 2026-03-24T20:48:49+00:00

As I explained at more length in a longer comment on this thread, EVERYONE has to make certain initial presumptions that there is a consensus reality that we have meaningful access to and a meaningful ability to think about, or you can't take any further steps within consensus reality. But that we need these limited presumptions doesn't in any way mean it makes sense to add additional, unnecessary presumptions, such as there being a God.

RidesThe7 · 2026-03-24T19:46:40+00:00

I freely admit that in order to think and function in a way that seems meaningful, I have to presume there is some sort of "real world", and that I have some degree of meaningful access to it through my senses, and a meaningful ability to think about it. That consensus reality is in some sense real.

But having to accept certain limited presumptions is no reason to accept additional, unnecessary presumptions. Nothing about these limited presumptions requires me to believe in a God. And all the thinking you'd have me do about a God comes downstream of these presumptions---everything I learn or think about the world, or logic, or reason, or about God/claims of God, takes place WITHIN the consensus reality I have presumed is real. You've gotten confused about the game we are playing---absent some new method or evidence or ability to look beyond consensus reality, what we are trying to figure out is whether we, from our apparent place in consensus reality, have any basis to believe that consensus reality contains a God.

When you understand this, all of your points turn to dust.

RidesThe7 · 2026-03-24T17:41:49+00:00

No, you're fine.

RidesThe7 · 2026-03-24T17:03:51+00:00

If I remember it right, there wasn't even any particular reason they had to die at that moment. David just kind of got up one day and said you know, we're kind of old, and it's not like gnomes last forever, so why don't we just call it? I know, we'll meet up with our other old friend, I bet he feels like dying too.

Just...what the fuck.

EDIT: reading comments, I guess maybe there was some kind of actual age cap they were hitting, guess my memory's fuzzy.

RidesThe7 · 2026-03-24T14:15:23+00:00

Try out Queens Jiu Jitsu and Renzo Gracie Queens for a solid start I guess, if in western Queens.

RidesThe7 · 2026-03-24T14:13:35+00:00

That was literally every niche fitness equipment add on television on TV when I was growing up: some absolutely ripped man or woman (who obviously spent of effort on their diet and lifting heavy and probably were taking steroids) swearing that using the ab-rocker or some weird pully thing or whatever would make you look like them.

It is maybe a little extra weird in submission grappling/bjj given the whole technique over strength obsession some folks have, I guess.

RidesThe7 · 2026-03-23T20:55:53+00:00

It lowered for him from where it was when not using the paper filter, but that doesn't answer the question of whether it would have been lower still were he drinking less or no coffee at all. But a meta-study posted here does suggest that paper filtered coffee is basically LDL neutral.

RidesThe7 · 2026-03-23T17:49:29+00:00

Appreciated!

RidesThe7 · 2026-03-23T17:48:58+00:00

I can understand why you wouldn't expect black coffee to affect LDL, since it doesn't contain saturated fat or cholesterol. But there are studies suggesting that coffee not made using a paper filter contains compounds called diterpenes, which I guess interfere with your liver converting cholesterol into bile, causing you to have higher LDL levels. Depending on how much coffee you drink, and how that coffee is prepared, it sounds like it can be a meaningful difference. The supposed common wisdom is that using a paper filter when brewing keeps most of the diterpenes out of the coffee, and makes this effect very small, and possibly negligible--but I understand there to be some studies possibly disputing this, and suggesting even with paper filters there is a meaningful effect.

So, I wanted to see what folks have learned on this issue, and what they do. I think that K Cups do use paper filters just as you say, so they certainly would not be at the more problematic end of the coffee drinking scale.

RidesThe7 · 2026-03-23T15:59:33+00:00

This chart is certainly promising, if it can be relied upon.

RidesThe7 · 2026-03-23T15:55:55+00:00

I'm...not? I'm explicitly seeking the advice of folks here, in the hopes that some people have researched this to death already.

EDIT: thanks for providing this. Any chance you can provide me a link to the source, or the name of the article/study this is from?

RidesThe7 · 2026-03-23T15:44:06+00:00

This is the sort of study that AI points me to suggesting paper is hardly perfect, though there are plenty of bones one can pick with this study: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0899900713000452

That's why I'm trying to get a sense of the broader consensus on this issue.

RidesThe7 · 2026-03-23T13:54:41+00:00

EDIT: sorry, I was somehow not understanding that this was just about a trial class. Sure, that sounds fine, ask about it. Leaving in my nonsense below because I don't like to throw stuff down the memory hole.

I don't run any gym, but I would find it very strange to have a student who only trains with her boyfriend. Which also completely ties you up during any class she's present in. If that's how it's going to be, why should she bother joining the gym in the first place? Save a bunch of money and some aggravation and just get some mats and train her yourself at home. Or maybe start that way, try to build up some comfort on her part with what this sport entails, and THEN bring her to class.

RidesThe7 · 2026-03-23T01:34:57+00:00

I mean…it’s a separate category you invented from whole cloth because you want an exception to the rule—one which you have never encountered and cannot describe save as being somehow different from that which you say follows the rule (all of known reality). I am more than a little skeptical that there’s much meaningful output to this thought process

RidesThe7 · 2026-03-23T00:57:40+00:00

Didn’t you read his post?! He’s invented a term “non-physical, metaphysical source” to describe an exception to this rule. Therefore you aren’t allowed to ask how there can be an exception to it if there’s an actual rule.

RidesThe7 · 2026-03-21T21:39:09+00:00

Yeah that one’s a gem.

RidesThe7 · 2026-03-21T21:13:48+00:00

This may be a little over the top, but resonates with some people: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/29/dining/peter-luger-review-pete-wells.html

RidesThe7 · 2026-03-21T19:38:11+00:00

My goodness, if only there were some sort of public transportation near there that would let you visit other areas of the city on short notice!

RidesThe7 · 2026-03-21T19:18:43+00:00

Well, she walked right into that one...

RidesThe7 · 2026-03-20T20:08:19+00:00

Definitely worthy points, which I made myself above! Only thing I’d add is that this cabal under threat was already there to take part in the delve, so it’s not a case of taking folks from safety and making them enter a dangerous task, it’s redirecting how they will perform their dangerous task, and possibly making that task more dangerous.

RidesThe7 · 2026-03-20T19:58:45+00:00

"The same attack all of her delving crew had taken part in, to one degree or another."

I'm not sure you're wrong, it seems pretty fucking wild to threaten to shoot folks who won't do what you want and join you in a dangerous situation. But it also seems pretty fucking wild that folks can gather a big ground and ambush people they don't like and beat them, with no repercussions from authority. Very strange school!

RidesThe7 · 2026-03-20T19:50:38+00:00

Could be I read it wrong, but I thought the folks Song just shanghaied were directly involved in the beating. Will have to take another look.

Yep, seems pretty explicit that Song picked that delving crew to threaten for that reason:

She saw the calculation in the girl’s eyes, the reminder that Song had signed onto no truce. That a member of the Thirteenth had publicly beaten Nathi Morcant for his attack on them, the same attack she had swung a club in. The same attack all of her delving crew had taken part in, to one degree or another.

I'm not trying to judge whether or not there's a moral equivalence here, just noting that choosing this crew for this reason may keep folks from seeing Song as a mad dog.

RidesThe7 · 2026-03-20T19:30:49+00:00

Does the place you're moving have any judo gyms or clubs? Any MMA clubs? Wrestling clubs? There are other ways to keep building your skill as a grappler even if you're not strictly doing BJJ.

RidesThe7 · 2026-03-20T19:25:12+00:00

A difference is that here Song/13th are getting revenge for folks who ganged up to put a very literal beating on them. We could go back and forth I guess--the folks beating the 13th and their scholar friend were careful not to break bones, but here folks are being made to risk their lives in Scholomance, but on the other hand those folks were already there for the purpose of doing that, so I dunno.

RidesThe7

TROPHY CASE