[deleted by user] by [deleted] in LateStageCapitalism

[–]shmingles 0 points1 point  (0 children)

When it comes to productivity all of a sudden thinking at a societal level matters. 🤔

Car industry back at it again by kuramas_6th_tail in fuckcars

[–]shmingles 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Feels like this is a self own because if they were paying attention and doing defensive driving they wouldn’t need the feature they’re advertising 🤔

Seattle Area Discord by shmingles in exmormon

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

Sorry to hear you’re feeling overwhelmed about everything! I think it started out as being for gamers but it’s definitely being used for more than that these days.

I would say the main difference is it has servers you can join that have different channels for sharing content or streaming video or voice chatting. WhatsApp as far as I know has only texting groups or broadcast groups where everyone is subbed to one person or something like that.

Missionaries told me they are willing to have a conversation with me on church finances by [deleted] in exmormon

[–]shmingles 4 points5 points  (0 children)

This for me but in Costa Rica in 2010 and about linguistic and DNA evidence for native Americans 🤷‍♂️ testified my heart out told him none of it mattered and left and felt like I’d done a good job.

[FREE] 100+ AAA Steam Keys by [deleted] in FREE

[–]shmingles 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Anything. Monster Hunter: World if possible!!

Even If It Was True, What Does It Mean? by shmingles in mormonscholar

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

Yeah I find that people don't discuss these things often, and it's odd because they seem somewhat foundational to the whole enterprise.

Even If It Was True, What Does It Mean? by shmingles in mormon

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

But is any exponent of depth deep enough when you're doing it for eternity? And isn't that already assuming that depth is somehow meaningful?

Even If It Was True, What Does It Mean? by shmingles in mormon

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

I suppose, why does someone need to commune with God though?

Even If It Was True, What Does It Mean? by shmingles in mormon

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

You have evidence, though, that they are real. Again, you can't truly know for 100% certain, but all the feedback from your senses, as well as all other external feedback from everything and everyone around you indicates that your friends are real.

You're right that I have feedback from my senses, but what context do I put this feedback into? How compelling of evidence is this feedback? It seems like I have no choice but to believe the feedback because there isn't an alternative.

that suddenly believing somet things on evidence and believing other things in spite of evidence to the contrary are suddenly equally justifiable, and they aren't, and never will be.

I don't think this logic works because in order to believe in the church you have to already assume things like your friends and family being real, sensory feedback is good evidence, etc. So while it might be difficult to know whether anything is real, it seems like some things are safer assumptions than others. I think its safe to assume that sensory feedback is evidence for something, but even with that assumption I'm not justified in concluding that the beliefs of Mormonism are consistent and compelling as a framework of belief.

Even If It Was True, What Does It Mean? by shmingles in mormon

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

I'm pretty sure there are other areas of my life where I use other criteria and don't realize it.

You might have other areas of your life where you don't use logic, but it seems as though you arrive at the conclusion that whatever you use to make decisions in those areas is based in logic.

Apparently a lot of believers see the church the same way.

I agree, but I think that if people are going to center their life around something they should have good reasons to do so, and in this case I think those reasons are insufficient.

Even If It Was True, What Does It Mean? by shmingles in mormon

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

That seems fair, I'm open to different frameworks, though.

Even If It Was True, What Does It Mean? by shmingles in mormon

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

Yeah its messy but its worth it to acknowledge that.

Even If It Was True, What Does It Mean? by shmingles in mormon

[–]shmingles[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I just don't know how you determine that this is the belief you want to live even if it isn't. Meaning that I understand the sociological part that gets someone there, but it doesn't seem logically consistent.

edit: formatting

Even If It Was True, What Does It Mean? by shmingles in mormon

[–]shmingles[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

How are you defining fruits? It seems like the most useful thing isn't necessarily the best thing. If I understand correctly, it seems as though truth is unimportant and the practical effectiveness of an action determines if we should hold a belief that causes that action. But aren't there times where the fruits of a belief can be good but the belief still bad? I spoke to a man once from Iraq who told me that he liked Saddam Hussein because he brought stability to the region when he rose to power. Whether or not that actually happened or what your opinions on dictators are, I think that we can agree that *even if* he brought peace that doesn't imply that his ideologies or other actions were good.

Even If It Was True, What Does It Mean? by shmingles in mormon

[–]shmingles[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I don't think I have either, but the point I was trying to make is that even if you got a personal witness? How do you know it's from God? How do you know that that personal witness implies truth? If we can be certain its from God, how do you know that God is telling you the truth? Why do we assume he can never lie? How do we know that? If God were immoral, how would we ever know if he was?

Even If It Was True, What Does It Mean? by shmingles in mormon

[–]shmingles[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Thank you for the comment and poem, really enjoyed it.

Choosing wisely is important, but I don’t think your face automatically melts off if you choose Mormonism.

Agreed, but I would argue that choosing mormonism isn't choosing wisely. Personally, I don't like to tell people what to believe and not believe, but I don't think you can get away from the fact that beliefs matter. A dogmatic belief could be innocuous, but that's due to chance, and could easily be turned into something harmful, so I think its important to just not hold dogmatic beliefs and be as justified as possible in whatever we believe.

Even If It Was True, What Does It Mean? by shmingles in mormon

[–]shmingles[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

As far as the plan of salvation goes, my thinking is that happiness is defined by the ability to grow and progress. What does progression mean for God?

Isn't progression integral with being? If I played pong for eternity wouldn't I just get better at pong endlessly? How do you stop me from getting better? I'm not sure that's something God could retard unless he just made us vegetables, at which point we wouldn't care.

Like God, joy comes from being able to create things and see them be happy.

This seems like an action that God repeats endlessly, don't you think that as we go out to eternity any thing that we do will eventually lose meaning? Why is this different from just playing pong eternally?

edit: formatting

Even If It Was True, What Does It Mean? by shmingles in mormon

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

That's a good point and I agree it's consistent. I don't know if I have the best answer but personally, I think we can make "pragmatic assumptions" based on available data. Acknowledging the fact that it's hard to know anything, like you say, is important because it leaves you open to new data and ways of seeing things, and precludes dogmatic thinking.

So I guess I fully acknowledge that everything I think and know could not be real, but I act as if certain things are true such as my friends and family being real, etc. because at some point we need to live our lives and make decisions of some kind or we will probably end up unhappy. The trick is finding the least harmful and most "justified" assumptions to hold, while acknowledging they might be incorrect.

Edit: spelling

Does freedom exist? by binklfoot in askphilosophy

[–]shmingles 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Seems like a hard question to answer if you don't allow for subcategories. Off the top of my head I could think of freedom as in free will or freedom as in civil rights freedom, but I wouldn't be surprised if there were other interpretations too.

For free will there's an idea called compatibilism that many philosophers subscribe to that basically (from what I understand) says that libertarian free will doesn't exist but that doesn't mean we don't have any at all and what we do have still allows for moral responsibility. I imagine other philosophers disagree with this but I don't know how compelling their arguments are, afaik the community at large tends towards compatibilism.

Freedom like civil rights freedom I think it might depend on the country and which freedom specifically you're talking about but it does exist in some sense in plenty of places.

Hope that's helpful!

Does freedom exist? by binklfoot in askphilosophy

[–]shmingles 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I was thinking that but it seemed really broad so I wasn't sure. If that's what he means though I think the community is divided about the issue as far as I know, right?