Ask a Philosophy Guy!

compuease

I just double straddle, it makes me "feel" good..

ReefAquarium

trigs;408806 wroteFirst, explain what you mean by "good" because it depends, and then explain how you decide what is good without providing proof. I wish it was as easy as you say but consider if universal morality was that everyone just acted on how they felt "without a proof" of what they, personally, felt what was "good"?

As for religion, I feel that it speaks to the masses but not to the individual. So, yeah, I agree with you that right now it really feels like morality is battling religion. This is a topic I struggle with a lot of the time.

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I believe you should be kind to others, without explanation, or proof, or expectation of reward in an afterlife.

I fear there is no afterlife.

I think we have to make up our own purpose and meaning for our lives from moment to moment.

Sometimes we distract ourselves that we are not making out own purpose from moment to moment.

trigs

ReefAquarium;408825 wroteI believe you should be kind to others, without explanation, or proof, or expectation of reward in an afterlife.

I fear there is no afterlife.

I think we have to make up our own purpose and meaning for our lives from moment to moment.

Sometimes we distract ourselves that we are not making out own purpose from moment to moment.

Sounds like you're an existentialist. Existentialism is the belief that "existence precedes essence". This is actually a reversal of the standard philosophical view that the nature of a thing is more fundamental than the mere fact of its being. Basically, existentialists believe that there is no meaning in life - or more accurately, life does not provide us with essential meaning - and instead we create our own meaning.

To paraphrase (from Sartre and the book I'm currently reading):

Many people agree that the "discovery" that there is no god has led to a crisis of meaning since god was supposed to supply this meaning of life for us. We assumed that purpose and morality had their source in something outside of us (i.e. god). Sartre explains his perspective with an analogy of a paper-knife (like a letter opener). A paper-knife has a determinate essence because it was created by someone to fulfill a specific function (i.e. cut paper). Consider in contrast a sharp object like a piece of flint - it has no essence even though it too could be used to cut paper. It just so happens that humans found a use for flint.

Sartre is basically saying that humans have been assuming that we are like paper-knives instead of like pieces of flint. We believe that we have some kind of essential nature because God created us with a particular purpose in mind. However, if god does not exist, then this perspective must be incorrect. We are in fact just like a piece of flint. We may find uses for ourselves and others (i.e. find meaning), but the onus is on the individual to create that meaning.

Some people find this idea very upsetting (i.e. existential angst), but others find it liberating - one can go out into the world and create one's own essence.

Milo

Every time I "create my own essence" the wife starts lighting candles.

ReefAquarium

I am definitely an existentialist. I started with Tolstoy and Sarte.

Have you read this https://aeon.co/essays/why-philosophy-is-taking-its-time-to-answer-the-big-questions

trigs

ReefAquarium;408877 wroteI am definitely an existentialist. I started with Tolstoy and Sarte.

Have you read this https://aeon.co/essays/why-philosophy-is-taking-its-time-to-answer-the-big-questions

no. i'll check it out.

ReefAquarium

I have a philosophy problem.

I grew up Long ago in a strange land called, "Ontario, Canada"

The law of the land at the time said:

Children must be given and Christian Education.

So I was "educated" about Christianity.

When I was about 5 or 6, I was "helping" my dad wash our 1960 Oldsmobile. I asked, "Dad, do you believe in Noah's ark and that stuff."

He replied, "Fairy tales!"

From then on I looked at Christian mythology with skepticism.

But I see so many people turn to religion when the can't answer big questions or they get a hurt that is too hard to bear.

trigs

ReefAquarium;408930 wroteI have a philosophy problem.

I grew up Long ago in a strange land called, "Ontario, Canada"

The law of the land at the time said:

Children must be given and Christian Education.

So I was "educated" about Christianity.

When I was about 5 or 6, I was "helping" my dad wash our 1960 Oldsmobile. I asked, "Dad, do you believe in Noah's ark and that stuff."

He replied, "Fairy tales!"

From then on I looked at Christian mythology with skepticism.

But I see so many people turn to religion when the can't answer big questions or they get a hurt that is too hard to bear.

There are people (called literalists) who believe that the stories of the bible are historical facts that actually happened. The other side of the coin are people (called contextualists) who believe that the stories of the bible are fictional and are just used to teach us lessons. I find it very difficult to agree with the literalists, so I'd agree with your dad that it is "fairy tales", but we can still learn something from them.

I was raised a Catholic and I took it upon myself to learn a lot about my religion especially since most people around me who considered themselves "real Catholics" didn't seem to know much about the bible or what they were supposed to believe in. Most Catholics I know pick and choose what parts of the bible they agree with and follow and what parts are useless to them, and obviously this is very problematic.

I've always been a skeptic about basically everything. As far back as I can remember, I was always asking "why?" about everything, and I was even worse when the general responses from others to my inquiries were "just because" or "it's common sense" or "it's tradition" (I won't get into it here unless someone wants me to, but the "it's tradition" thing simply just boggles my mind sometimes).

I also see many people default back to faith in god when they are faced with something they can't deal with themselves. I always wondered how they could justify that faith with themselves, but if we're being honest, these types of people don't need or even want to consider justification of their decisions and beliefs - way too much time, effort, reasoning and self reflection involved.

I can't speak of other religions, but I know that Catholics basically have a "get out of hell free" card. We're taught that as long as you confess your sins and truly repent for them, then you will be forgiven. So I can be a terrible person my whole life, but if I truly repent on my death bed it's all good. And again, if we're being honest, even the worst people, when facing their ultimate demise, could possibly find it in themselves to discover a faith in god.

However, at the same time, I tend to lean towards a Buddhist perspective when it comes to people's faith in religion. That is, if faith in a god helps you deal with the general suffering of life, then go for it. Believe in whatever flying spaghetti monster you like. However, don't force your faith down the throats of others. Let them believe what they want. After all, you don't know you are right, you just believe that you are.

ReefAquarium

I'm reading "Ready Player One" The book is really good.

The worst thing about being a kid was that no one told me the truth about my situation. In fact, they did the exact opposite. And, of course, I believed them, because I was just a kid and I didn’t know any better. I mean, Christ, my brain hadn’t even grown to full size yet, so how could I be expected to know when the adults were bullshitting me?
So I swallowed all of the dark ages nonsense they fed me. Some time passed. I grew up a little, and I gradually began to figure out that pretty much everyone had been lying to me about pretty much everything since the moment I emerged from my mother’s womb.
This was an alarming revelation.
It gave me trust issues later in life.
I started to figure out the ugly truth as soon as I began to explore the free OASIS libraries. The facts were right there waiting for me, hidden in old books written by people who weren’t afraid to be honest. Artists and scientists and philosophers and poets, many of them long dead. As I read the words they’d left behind, I finally began to get a grip on the situation. My situation. Our situation. What most people referred to as “the human condition.”
It was not good news.
I wish someone had just told me the truth right up front, as soon as I was old enough to understand it. I wish someone had just said:
“Here’s the deal, Wade. You’re something called a ‘human being.’ That’s a really smart kind of animal. Like every other animal on this planet, we’re descended from a single-celled organism that lived millions of years ago. This happened by a process called evolution, and you’ll learn more about it later. But trust me, that’s really how we all got here. There’s proof of it everywhere, buried in the rocks. That story you heard? About how we were all created by a super-powerful dude named God who lives up in the sky? Total bullshit. The whole God thing is actually an ancient fairy tale that people have been telling one another for thousands of years. We made it all up. Like Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny.
“Oh, and by the way … there’s no Santa Claus or Easter Bunny. Also bullshit. Sorry, kid. Deal with it.

ReefAquarium

trigs;408935 wroteThere are people (called literalists) who believe that the stories of the bible are historical facts that actually happened. The other side of the coin are people (called contextualists) who believe that the stories of the bible are fictional and are just used to teach us lessons. I find it very difficult to agree with the literalists, so I'd agree with your dad that it is "fairy tales", but we can still learn something from them.

I was raised a Catholic and I took it upon myself to learn a lot about my religion especially since most people around me who considered themselves "real Catholics" didn't seem to know much about the bible or what they were supposed to believe in. Most Catholics I know pick and choose what parts of the bible they agree with and follow and what parts are useless to them, and obviously this is very problematic.

I've always been a skeptic about basically everything. As far back as I can remember, I was always asking "why?" about everything, and I was even worse when the general responses from others to my inquiries were "just because" or "it's common sense" or "it's tradition" (I won't get into it here unless someone wants me to, but the "it's tradition" thing simply just boggles my mind sometimes).

I also see many people default back to faith in god when they are faced with something they can't deal with themselves. I always wondered how they could justify that faith with themselves, but if we're being honest, these types of people don't need or even want to consider justification of their decisions and beliefs - way too much time, effort, reasoning and self reflection involved.

I can't speak of other religions, but I know that Catholics basically have a "get out of hell free" card. We're taught that as long as you confess your sins and truly repent for them, then you will be forgiven. So I can be a terrible person my whole life, but if I truly repent on my death bed it's all good. And again, if we're being honest, even the worst people, when facing their ultimate demise, could possibly find it in themselves to discover a faith in god.

However, at the same time, I tend to lean towards a Buddhist perspective when it comes to people's faith in religion. That is, if faith in a god helps you deal with the general suffering of life, then go for it. Believe in whatever flying spaghetti monster you like. However, don't force your faith down the throats of others. Let them believe what they want. After all, you don't know you are right, you just believe that you are.

I like this!

I've been reading https://aeon.co/essays/theres-no-philosophy-of-life-without-a-theory-of-human-nature

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