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Starting a new life.
Want to be happy.
Where do you begin?
WilliamFleming comments on May 13, 2018:
IMO the way to be happy and live a good life is to think only true thoughts. Every second of conscious awareness is a joyous, mind-bending miracle, but we often obscure that beauty with a screen of false thoughts.
After I read “Help Yourself to Happiness” by Maxie Maultsby Jr., I learned to be happy. It was like flipping a switch.
WilliamFleming comments on May 13, 2018:
IMO the way to be happy and live a good life is to think only true thoughts. Every second of conscious awareness is a joyous, mind-bending miracle, but we often obscure that beauty with a screen of false thoughts.
After I read “Help Yourself to Happiness” by Maxie Maultsby Jr., I learned to be happy. It was like flipping a switch.
Do you care if you are remembered when you die?
WilliamFleming comments on May 12, 2018:
Self as an individual body is a fragile and tenuous thing. There was a time before I was born, so why should I expect to be immortal? There is nothing about the individual self worth immortality.
I lean toward thinking that self as individual is just an illusion anyway. What is immortal is deep conscious awareness. Our true and higher self is immortal by default.
WilliamFleming comments on May 12, 2018:
Self as an individual body is a fragile and tenuous thing. There was a time before I was born, so why should I expect to be immortal? There is nothing about the individual self worth immortality.
I lean toward thinking that self as individual is just an illusion anyway. What is immortal is deep conscious awareness. Our true and higher self is immortal by default.
As an Australian that has served in the Australian Army I find it jaw dropping madness that ...
WilliamFleming comments on May 11, 2018:
We don’t actually have access to weapons of war. That would be machine guns, grenades, artillery, fully automatic rifles, atomic bombs, etc.
The only military style weapons we have access to are semiautomatic rifles and pistols, and those are common the world over. The issue has been hyped out of proportion.
Some years back my mind was made up on the issue after I read of events in Algeria. Soldiers were going into residential neighborhoods, ordering men, women, and children into the street and gunning them down. Such a thing could not happen here, and never will as long as we have means of defense.
WilliamFleming comments on May 11, 2018:
We don’t actually have access to weapons of war. That would be machine guns, grenades, artillery, fully automatic rifles, atomic bombs, etc.
The only military style weapons we have access to are semiautomatic rifles and pistols, and those are common the world over. The issue has been hyped out of proportion.
Some years back my mind was made up on the issue after I read of events in Algeria. Soldiers were going into residential neighborhoods, ordering men, women, and children into the street and gunning them down. Such a thing could not happen here, and never will as long as we have means of defense.
Arguing the existence of god(s) is futile.
WilliamFleming comments on May 11, 2018:
Very well said sir. Seems to me that no one really knows anything except superficially. To say that God did it is just another way of saying that we don’t know—that is because no one can define or understand God.
Our only real tie with reality is through conscious awareness, and we have no idea of what that is. We don’t know who or what we ourselves are.
WilliamFleming comments on May 11, 2018:
Very well said sir. Seems to me that no one really knows anything except superficially. To say that God did it is just another way of saying that we don’t know—that is because no one can define or understand God.
Our only real tie with reality is through conscious awareness, and we have no idea of what that is. We don’t know who or what we ourselves are.
Growing up in the baptist cult.
WilliamFleming comments on May 9, 2018:
I also grew up as a Baptist, but probably didn’t accept that faith to the extent that you seem to have. I was very angry toward churches for a long time, but at this stage I am trying to just live and let live—can’t turn away from friends and family over theological issues. Ultimately no one really knows anything.
IMO it is possible to throw out the bath water and keep the baby. The baby consists of deep reverence for the mysteries of reality. There are a few churches that foster such.
WilliamFleming comments on May 9, 2018:
I also grew up as a Baptist, but probably didn’t accept that faith to the extent that you seem to have. I was very angry toward churches for a long time, but at this stage I am trying to just live and let live—can’t turn away from friends and family over theological issues. Ultimately no one really knows anything.
IMO it is possible to throw out the bath water and keep the baby. The baby consists of deep reverence for the mysteries of reality. There are a few churches that foster such.
What is it that motivates you guys to get out of bed every morning?
WilliamFleming comments on May 7, 2018:
Every second of conscious awareness is an absolutely staggering and joyous miracle.
WilliamFleming comments on May 7, 2018:
Every second of conscious awareness is an absolutely staggering and joyous miracle.
Faith is Not a Source of Knowledge
A common characteristic of both theism and religion is their ...
WilliamFleming comments on May 7, 2018:
Two points: I personally think that deep Spiritual awareness does not require belief. Many CHURCHES require belief, but that sort of belief is worthless. Comparing deep awe for the implications of existence with the scientific method is like comparing apples and oranges—they are two different things. I recently met a deeply religious woman from a Buddhist tradition, and by trade, she is a physics professor. There is no contradiction.
Faith is not the sole province of churches. Everyone exercises faith every day—it is part of the human condition. Very little or nothing is known with absolute certainty, and we have to use faith in order to survive and function.
WilliamFleming comments on May 7, 2018:
Two points: I personally think that deep Spiritual awareness does not require belief. Many CHURCHES require belief, but that sort of belief is worthless. Comparing deep awe for the implications of existence with the scientific method is like comparing apples and oranges—they are two different things. I recently met a deeply religious woman from a Buddhist tradition, and by trade, she is a physics professor. There is no contradiction.
Faith is not the sole province of churches. Everyone exercises faith every day—it is part of the human condition. Very little or nothing is known with absolute certainty, and we have to use faith in order to survive and function.
God is Imaginary - 50 simple proofs
WilliamFleming comments on Apr 23, 2018:
In my opinion the fifty arguments are fatuous and off-base, ignoring the basic facts of our existence as consciously aware beings.They are kindergarten arguments, addressed to kindergarteners, a metaphorical food fight.
No need to use the word “God” if you don’t like it— after all, the word has been horribly debased by organized religion. Words are just words, but regardless, there remains in our realm some very heady mysteries of staggering implication that merit our attention and awe.
WilliamFleming comments on Apr 23, 2018:
In my opinion the fifty arguments are fatuous and off-base, ignoring the basic facts of our existence as consciously aware beings.They are kindergarten arguments, addressed to kindergarteners, a metaphorical food fight.
No need to use the word “God” if you don’t like it— after all, the word has been horribly debased by organized religion. Words are just words, but regardless, there remains in our realm some very heady mysteries of staggering implication that merit our attention and awe.
So what’s the point?
WilliamFleming comments on Apr 23, 2018:
My personal view on this matter is that it boils down to identity, and that identity as a separate entity is an illusion. Are we our bodies? Are we our minds?
No faith is required to know that our perceptions of reality are symbolic only and in no way resemble the real thing. Equally apparent is that consciousness is intimately interwoven with reality somehow.
When we say we want to survive, what we mean (I think) is that we want consciousness to survive. All that distinguishes an individual body is its memory trace. Of what value is that? We forget things all the time.
Conscious awareness, being integral with reality, is immortal by default, and if WE identify as universal consciousness, then WE are immortal. That’s my opinion anyway.
WilliamFleming comments on Apr 23, 2018:
My personal view on this matter is that it boils down to identity, and that identity as a separate entity is an illusion. Are we our bodies? Are we our minds?
No faith is required to know that our perceptions of reality are symbolic only and in no way resemble the real thing. Equally apparent is that consciousness is intimately interwoven with reality somehow.
When we say we want to survive, what we mean (I think) is that we want consciousness to survive. All that distinguishes an individual body is its memory trace. Of what value is that? We forget things all the time.
Conscious awareness, being integral with reality, is immortal by default, and if WE identify as universal consciousness, then WE are immortal. That’s my opinion anyway.
Good Morning, it is interesting, as in "may you live in interesting times," living in the bible belt...
WilliamFleming comments on Apr 22, 2018:
I’m leery of that “Bible Belt” label. I live in a very rural part of Alabama. Yes, there are a good many church-type folks around, but so there are everywhere. Most of them are very good people who are not judgmental in the least. Only a few are obnoxious in their ego-driven zeal. My point is that what is called the Bible Belt is not much different than other places, and professional studies show only a few percentage points of difference in religious attitudes and practices.
In my neighborhood, I have a handful of friends, and not one in the group is a believer in the dogmas of Christianity. They don’t say they are atheists—I don’t say that either. We simply don’t know.
WilliamFleming comments on Apr 22, 2018:
I’m leery of that “Bible Belt” label. I live in a very rural part of Alabama. Yes, there are a good many church-type folks around, but so there are everywhere. Most of them are very good people who are not judgmental in the least. Only a few are obnoxious in their ego-driven zeal. My point is that what is called the Bible Belt is not much different than other places, and professional studies show only a few percentage points of difference in religious attitudes and practices.
In my neighborhood, I have a handful of friends, and not one in the group is a believer in the dogmas of Christianity. They don’t say they are atheists—I don’t say that either. We simply don’t know.
Are there any spiritual atheists out there?
WilliamFleming comments on Apr 21, 2018:
I think that to be Spiritual is to have deep awareness of the staggering implications of the mystery of existence and conscious awareness, and to realize that our perception of reality is merely symbolic and is not the real thing.
That’s not to say there’s some kind of supernatural realm, but there really is an aspect of nature that we can’t understand with our human oriented space/time/matter model.
I agree that the term is overused and trite, but so are a lot of other words.
WilliamFleming comments on Apr 21, 2018:
I think that to be Spiritual is to have deep awareness of the staggering implications of the mystery of existence and conscious awareness, and to realize that our perception of reality is merely symbolic and is not the real thing.
That’s not to say there’s some kind of supernatural realm, but there really is an aspect of nature that we can’t understand with our human oriented space/time/matter model.
I agree that the term is overused and trite, but so are a lot of other words.
"We advocate the atheistic philosophy because it is the only clear, consistent position which seems ...
WilliamFleming comments on Apr 20, 2018:
Most of the founders of modern physics were deeply religious in their own ways. If you define religion as a set of beliefs, then I am not religious either, but I think there is a deeper and more meaningful way of viewing religion.
WilliamFleming comments on Apr 20, 2018:
Most of the founders of modern physics were deeply religious in their own ways. If you define religion as a set of beliefs, then I am not religious either, but I think there is a deeper and more meaningful way of viewing religion.
Atheism and mortality.
WilliamFleming comments on Apr 20, 2018:
I’m not an atheist—not anything, but I feel that the sense of identity as an individual person is just an illusion to begin with. Also space, time and matter are illusions. The entire chain of organisms can be thought of as a single entity.
If you go into a forest you’ll see death and destruction everywhere, but viewed from afar, the forest is a living, beautiful thing.
Identity with the forest rather than with an individual tree.
WilliamFleming comments on Apr 20, 2018:
I’m not an atheist—not anything, but I feel that the sense of identity as an individual person is just an illusion to begin with. Also space, time and matter are illusions. The entire chain of organisms can be thought of as a single entity.
If you go into a forest you’ll see death and destruction everywhere, but viewed from afar, the forest is a living, beautiful thing.
Identity with the forest rather than with an individual tree.
How do you decide whether it's worth arguing with a religious person?
WilliamFleming comments on Apr 20, 2018:
Arguing over religion is a dead end street. No one really knows anything except superficially. It’s more honest to just be bewildered than to argue.
WilliamFleming comments on Apr 20, 2018:
Arguing over religion is a dead end street. No one really knows anything except superficially. It’s more honest to just be bewildered than to argue.
S-Town aka Shit Town on NPR. Anyone else listened to this, if so what are your thoughts?
WilliamFleming comments on Apr 20, 2018:
I listened to it, and was amazed and thrilled. It’s something that is stuck in my mind, a true slice of humanity presented with respect and empathy.
WilliamFleming comments on Apr 20, 2018:
I listened to it, and was amazed and thrilled. It’s something that is stuck in my mind, a true slice of humanity presented with respect and empathy.
Is it possible to be atheist and spiritual.
WilliamFleming comments on Apr 20, 2018:
As I see it, the physical world of our senses is not real, though we have become so habituated to it that it seems like reality. Our perceptions are based on the model of matter moving in space and time, but that is just a mental model. We can experience true reality only indirectly, and even then have only a brief taste.
If you think of “heaven” or the Spiritual as being a higher realm outside our normal experience, then we are in heaven all the time, but have only tenuous awareness of that reality. In this version there is no such thing as the supernatural, but there is an aspect of nature that we can not understand with our normal space/time/matter mental model.
I am brand new here, but don’t really identify as an agnostic. I’m not anything, except bewildered and amazed by the mysteries of existence and consciousness.
I hope y’all do not object to the presence of a non-agnostic.
WilliamFleming comments on Apr 20, 2018:
As I see it, the physical world of our senses is not real, though we have become so habituated to it that it seems like reality. Our perceptions are based on the model of matter moving in space and time, but that is just a mental model. We can experience true reality only indirectly, and even then have only a brief taste.
If you think of “heaven” or the Spiritual as being a higher realm outside our normal experience, then we are in heaven all the time, but have only tenuous awareness of that reality. In this version there is no such thing as the supernatural, but there is an aspect of nature that we can not understand with our normal space/time/matter mental model.
I am brand new here, but don’t really identify as an agnostic. I’m not anything, except bewildered and amazed by the mysteries of existence and consciousness.
I hope y’all do not object to the presence of a non-agnostic.
If you are super connected to the wonderous earth, , does that make me a spiritual atheist ?
WilliamFleming comments on Apr 18, 2018:
If two people are arguing about the existence of God, IMO neither of them has the least idea of what he or she is talking about. For me, religion consists of a deep awareness and appreciation for the staggering implications of existence, in all its mystery and magnificence. Faith and belief are shams. No one KNOWS anything. The most honest state is to be totally bewildered IMO.
WilliamFleming comments on Apr 18, 2018:
If two people are arguing about the existence of God, IMO neither of them has the least idea of what he or she is talking about. For me, religion consists of a deep awareness and appreciation for the staggering implications of existence, in all its mystery and magnificence. Faith and belief are shams. No one KNOWS anything. The most honest state is to be totally bewildered IMO.
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