Amen brother

So true !!!!

As a human myself, I disagree! That would be sort of a waste of all good things we've done! A perfect world would be one full of people that have a conscience, a moral compass, people who put others' needs ahead of their own, knowing their needs will also be met because the other people have a conscience. There would be no poverty because the rich people (who have a conscience, right?) would gladly contribute enough of their wealth to make society work for all. There would be no homelessness for the same reason. There would be disease, but most would be cured, for the same reason. Does anyone need a second vacation home while there are people living in a box? Does any minister need a G6 while his followers are trying to figure out how to pay their rent? Does the current president think it was just and moral to not pay his contractors?

@Stilltrying1964 a waste of the good we have done... hmmm still trying to determine what good we have done that isnt human centric. I just don’t see any good we have done here.

Watch the animal rescue shows on Saturday mornings. I personally rescued a baby bird last week that fell out of my pecan tree. Dug up a big juicy worm from my back yard to feed it and drove it to an animal rescue facility about 10 or 15 miles from my house. I stop and get tortoises out of the road a couple times a year. People are designing machines to remove plastic from water bodies. Try seeing the glass is half-full instead of half-empty! Being atheist or agnostic doesn't mean you have to be pessimistic!

@Stilltrying1964 Good answer:
If an A.I. machine made all macro-decisions and overlaid a superstructure of 100% equality (not in outcomes, but opportunities), making manipulating the system very difficult if not impossible, wouldn't that FORCE people to interact more constructively to achieve their goals?

The life of the worm was appropriately used to sustain the life of a higher life-form, much in the same way we eat cattle.

@Stilltrying1964 It seems to me that all of the situations that we have to rescue animals from are human created

@nowhereman55. Well that's not true! The bird I rescued just fell out of a nest. The turtles are just moving along but happen into a roadway. Now a manatee that has been run over by a boat, yes, man made problem.

@JacobMeyers Couldn't be said better. The only instances where human beings have stepped up to addressing issues with say for example the environment, it is only because the degradation reached a point which affects human beings.

@Stilltrying1964 and why is it YOU get to judge which life forms are higher and more deserving?

@Stilltrying1964 Roads are man made so the turtle problem is man made. That bird that fell out of the nest will now grow to breed more baby birds that can’t stay in a nest without intervention. Maybe if you left that baby bird be a higher form of life coulda have used it for sustenance.

@DSGavde
You made me think a bit about other ways we might actually benefit the world. I came up with deflecting asteroids. In either case though it’s as you say, because something is going to affect us humans and not because we are trying to help other life.

@JacobMeyers. Education and common fucking.sense! Any more dumb questions? I can do this ALL day!

@JacobMeyers so I guess we should stop building roads, huh? Do you walk everywhere you go? No? Then stifle yourself! (Archie Bunker ripoff) All things in moderation. You are extremist. Smoke a joint and develop some normal thinking. You may want to go off the grid and live in the woods.

@JacobMeyers and btw, what kind of a person (a jerk) tries to make me feel bad for saving animals that need help?

@Stilltrying1964 yes I suppose it is quite easy to be ignorant and combative all day instead of exchanging ideas intelligently. Have a nice life dude.

Have you considered the possibility IF there wasn't at the core of our culture a deeply pessimistic prophecy of certain doom (Armaggedon), but instead an optimistic prophecy of utopia, our outlooks and expectations, and indeed our whole attitude toward others, might be different?

@Storm1752 I think most people don't believe in Armageddon. At least, I've seen very little of that belief in modern society. There are some who think the end days are coming and will result in a scorched Earth, but I'd say that truly is a small minority of the more conservative, fundamentalist sects.

@Storm1752 I must say I don’t know any of these Armageddonite Doomasters. Times may be hard for some but not as hard as even 50 years ago if you live in the West. On that basis the trajectory is certainly up, but as Resserts Taoist suggests acceptance is the key not striving for goals outside of your influence.

@Storm1752 Those who study and research climate change and the eventual deforestation, polluted water and air, fossil fuel contamination, loss of native species every day and other man-made destruction of this planet is the scientific truth- no false prophesy...this is our future and that of the next generation.

My thoughts as well. It is this idea that helped bring me to feeling comfortable as an agnostic with no particular God concept. "Perfection" that is the natural order doesn't conform to our individual subjective wants and desires. We also do not create our own realities, although we do create our own constructs of reality in order to navigate through it. The closer our construct of reality, the better we are likely to be able to deal with it.

Terrific reply. I agree completely!!!

A very thoughtful reply thank you.

But wouldn't it force people to devise ways to NOT be bored? If we no longer used all our energies to vent our disdain and oppose "evil," and instead used them to create new paradigms, or if they spontaneously combusted to fill the vacuum thus created (by negative religions, for example), wouldn't that possibly transform "human nature?"

@Storm1752 I don't know, but I doubt it. I can only imagine myself as I am. My whole psyche would have to be changed and I cannot see it being possible.

I second that

Funny, I was contemplating Blake earlier today, particularly The Tyger and reference to the French Revolution. An English noble or some such had declared that the French were “establishing a republic of tigers”. It works on many allegorical levels but just considered that idea for a while.

Blake seemed to see the human experience of good and bad as contraries that made up the fulness of life and should be accepted that way. That said, I think he was very, very disappointed with how Napoleon turned out. I think we’re meant to understand The Tyger as a contrary to The Lamb. When he asks ‘Did he who made the Lamb make thee?’, I feel sure he’s certain that ‘he’ did.

That’s the only thing you can do... accept it and move on...

When I postulated "perfect," I meant a more-or-less "perfect" SYSTEM.

Yry telling an zntelope being chased down by a hungry lion the world is perfect. lol

@Storm1752 Maybe not for an individual antelope but it weeds out the weaker and sick antelopes and ensures that the antelope family as a whole are fitter and healthier and the eaten antelope gets a Darwin award.