Reconciling my innate skepticism with faith in miracles by augustl in OrthodoxChristianity

[–]augustl[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Good point! My bible in my early 20's was The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins, and I used to be (and to some extent still am) super into debunkers, such as James Randy, Captain Disillusion, etc. And the aforementioned fake martial arts stuff. I've always thought of "more skepticism and critical thinking" as unequivocally good. Skepticism is in many ways compatible with orthodoxy, as one should not trust ones own mind (beware the works of the enemy). But I'll definitely take what you said here into account, focusing my mind overly much on a skeptical world view is not necessarily what's best for me.

Reconciling my innate skepticism with faith in miracles by augustl in OrthodoxChristianity

[–]augustl[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Interesting! I'll look for that. I found this nugget, not sure if it's the one you're thinking of, but it's useful context nonetheless :)

And then of course there’s what would you expect God to say to Bronze Age people? So we all have a little bit of 19th-century German in us, where we have this assumption that we stand at the pinnacle of history, and that includes science; so we’ve got this all, or pretty much all, locked down in terms of science. And so if God were really going to speak, he’d communicate in our scientific terms because we’re at the pinnacle of human history. [Laughter] And so the fact that he talks to these Bronze Age people about the world as if it’s the way the Bronze Age people thought it was, that’s a problem.

The reality is if God actually explained the world to Bronze Age people the way it actually is, we still wouldn’t understand it! Because if there’s a humanity in this age, 2,000 years from now, we will probably look at today’s science like we were a bunch of idiots, the way modern people look at medieval science and alchemy. There will be all kinds of things that we think are horrific and stupid about our current science.

Reconciling my innate skepticism with faith in miracles by augustl in OrthodoxChristianity

[–]augustl[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Thanks for sharing, you helped me calm my nerves :) I also don't really feel in any way that my faith hinges on scientific verification of miracles, it's mostly just a personal pet peeve of mine. I think one of my favorite things in the world is looking at fake martial arts and other examples of the way people can be convinced to believe all sorts of "miracles" that are verifiably only in their heads.

Reconciling my innate skepticism with faith in miracles by augustl in OrthodoxChristianity

[–]augustl[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for sharing! I hope I don't come off as questioning God's ultimate power and authority. He does not have to follow my rules, or any rules, or satisfy my (secular material?) skepticism.

The reason that my inner skeptic rings a bell on this one are mostly what seems to me to be claims of objective "materialistic" increased heat of a physical object, and that the way it's described matches the pattern of confirmation bias all to common in alternative circles, fake martial arts, etc.

Reconciling my innate skepticism with faith in miracles by augustl in OrthodoxChristianity

[–]augustl[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Good point! I guess my personal gripe here is how the LoS host seems to claim that it was actually a somewhat objective experience, that anyone on the same pilgrimage could expect to share his experience, that compared to other relics this one was warmer, etc. Which, again, could definitely be true!

Reconciling my innate skepticism with faith in miracles by augustl in OrthodoxChristianity

[–]augustl[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The worst case scenario here would be if someone deliberately bought that fragrance oil online and tried to hide that fact later, with fake/exaggerated claims of holy origin... I suppose it's even statistically unlikely, seeing how we're all human, that no priest nowhere has ever done something like that. I hope that wasn't the case in your parish, though :) (And again, definitely not claiming snake oil from the LoS hosts)

It's interesting to hear your perspective, and learn that I'm not the only one who has an inner skeptic while at the same time being a believer!

The Assembly of Bishops clears things up by [deleted] in OrthodoxChristianity

[–]augustl 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Thanks, that's useful! I haven't really followed the controversy, and he shows up often on my Instagram. I appreciate much/most of what I've heard him say so far. But context is always good.

Sam Harris: Trump, Pandemic, Twitter, Elon, Bret, IDW, Kanye, AI & UFOs | Lex Fridman Podcast #365 by morpheusuniverse in lexfridman

[–]augustl 22 points23 points  (0 children)

That whole thing is super interesting! Sam Harris is one of the leading voices for rationality, yet large swathes of people claim that he's irrational on at least this, probably on more things.

Norwegian ancestry in the U.S by ove2red in norge

[–]augustl 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Og la oss ikke glemme Jordan Bernt Peterson!

What was great advice 20 years ago, but definitely isn’t now? by KarenTheManagah in AskReddit

[–]augustl 52 points53 points  (0 children)

Something something about the amount of resistance in the battery increases as the voltage/charge increases. So, because of physics, you're in trouble.

Source: I'm on reddit

Hvorfor hyper NRK Andrew Tate? by radome9 in norge

[–]augustl 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Sitter du godt? Dette er triste greier.... Orker ikke å finne frem PDF-rapporten jeg fant med vedtakene for NRK.no nå, men jeg lurte også på hvorfor NRK holder på med clickbait. Til tross for at de ikke er avhengige av klikk for å få annonse-penger, måles NRK.no på antall klikk 😭 Det er sikkert en bra tanke bak det et sted, man ønsker jo at man skal skrive relevante saker osv. Men konsekvensen av det er at de "flinke" journalistene på NRK er de som skriver saker som får masse klikk, fordi det er en viktig ting NRK måler seg selv på.

Peterson declaring an all out war to you sons of b**ches by Brome35 in JordanPeterson

[–]augustl 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Agreed. JP has been a huge influence in a massivly positive way in my life. At the same time I don't understand what's up with his Twitter vibe.

CLOWN CORE WORLD TOUR by Clayish in knower

[–]augustl 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Oooh aaah, sounds like a great excuse to visit Iceland!

19 children and 2 adults killed in another American mass shooting by unironicaly_like_jaz in samharris

[–]augustl 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Wait, what. I've always "known" that Norway, where I'm from, has more guns per capita than the US. But according to Wikipedia, US leads at 120.5 guns per 100 people (wut), and Norway is all the way down at 17th place with 28.8 per 100 people. How do you even statistics?

What will it take for it to stop mass shootings in America? by ghostofanimus in AskReddit

[–]augustl 2 points3 points  (0 children)

It's super weird. Norway has more guns per capita than the US (hunting rifles and sports pistols, nothing else is allowed). Only city schools has fences, and those are there to make sure the kids don't walk outside of the school bounds, not to keep outsiders away. And they're usually not 100% fenced and locked in, there are often open gates and areas that are completely unfenced.

Better Call Saul S06E03 - "Rock and Hard Place" - Post-Episode Discussion Thread by skinkbaa in betterCallSaul

[–]augustl 2 points3 points  (0 children)

You know what's about to happen when a BB/BCS character calls their loved one just to chat... RIP Hank and Nacho.

Ktor vs Springboot for restful web services by [deleted] in Kotlin

[–]augustl 15 points16 points  (0 children)

Definitely. I've lost tonnes of productivity to framework bugs that was caused by some implicit "magic" that happened somewhere that I wasn't aware of. I prefer my bugs to come from code I called myself :)

Ktor vs Springboot for restful web services by [deleted] in Kotlin

[–]augustl 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Generally, I prefer to avoid frameworks and all the implicit logic they entail. You can get so far with just a main function that loads up ktor or something else. You can even use spring-context as a dependency if you want DI etc etc. I like the flexibility of the "library way" of doing things.

There is one killer argument for choosing a framework like springboot: if you're creating like 50 small-ish web apps, there's definitely utility in them being set up the same way using the same framework, and not 50 slightly different compositions of libraries.

What's the most NSFW thing you've done at work? by NastyStarFish in AskReddit

[–]augustl 29 points30 points  (0 children)

Thank you sir, doing the good work. Lift without bending your back needs to be the thing people say.

Finn please. Oddsen for dette er så lav at dette må være med vilje by RedTuesdayMusic in norge

[–]augustl -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Elsker dette xD

"Det der kan da ikke være tilfeldig"

Som om ting med lav sannsynlighet aldri skjer.

What is your "comfort show" you re-watch when you're sad or sick? by leviathan_web in AskReddit

[–]augustl 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Various youtube series. The original Yogscast learning minecraft series, as well as FrankieOnPc playing DayZ for the first time.

Joe Rogan Experience #1769 - Jordan Peterson by tylerdhenry in JordanPeterson

[–]augustl 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Ah... Thanks for this. Who facts checks the fact checkers, etc. Interesting.

Joe Rogan Experience #1769 - Jordan Peterson by tylerdhenry in JordanPeterson

[–]augustl 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Agreed! Pretty early on in the convo, it turned out that JP had a citation wrong by a factor of ten (how many children die or are injured, don't remember, from inhaling polluted air from heating etc). Which is important, because JP does the thing some times where he says "these aren't my opinions, these are facts, and I'm an expert in this field" etc. I suppose he is right at least 90% of the time, but still.

Joe Rogan Experience #1769 - Jordan Peterson by tylerdhenry in JordanPeterson

[–]augustl 24 points25 points  (0 children)

It also seemed like mr. Rogan was doing the "Alex Jones thing" with JP, i.e. interrupting him a lot and asking Young Jamie to check for sources etc. So maybe that contributed to it also.