this post was submitted on 08 Sep 2023
381 points (96.8% liked)

Asklemmy

44151 readers
1420 users here now

A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions

Search asklemmy ๐Ÿ”

If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!

  1. Open-ended question
  2. Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
  3. Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
  4. Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
  5. An actual topic of discussion

Looking for support?

Looking for a community?

~Icon~ ~by~ ~@Double_A@discuss.tchncs.de~

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
 

For me it is the fact that our blood contains iron. I earlier used to believe the word stood for some 'organic element' since I couldn't accept we had metal flowing through our supposed carbon-based bodies, till I realized that is where the taste and smell of blood comes from.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[โ€“] SoylentBlake@lemm.ee 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I think Camus might have summed it up best when he said the only real choice (therefore, freedom to exercise will) humanity has is whether or not to commit suicide.

[โ€“] UlyssesT@hexbear.net 10 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Whether or not free will is "real" in some rigidly technical measurable way, we have never known anything different than what we now experience as living beings. To me, telling people "free will doesn't exist!" is like telling them "you don't meet arbitrary standards of self-actualization that don't really exist anywhere else either!" and it has roughly the same effect on me: none, except that the speaker (in my experience, including offline conversations) often comes across as talking down to other people and maybe making them feel less good about their lived experiences.

I'm not religious, but I feel the same way about the kind of person that'd feel compelled to sneer "god's not real" at a religious funeral to feel superior.

https://existentialcomics.com/comic/125

[โ€“] SoylentBlake@lemm.ee 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I had a conversation with my neighbor along those lines. He reads his Bible everyday. I asked him if he knew that God were real, 100%, something/someone he could reach out and touch, if that would change how he lives his life.

I answered before he had a chance and said in no way would it change mine. I live my values. He said it wouldn't effect him either, and I believe, he is a genuinely great guy. But the fact that that would change soooo many people is either terrifying or makes me super grateful that they have their reasons to not indulge their worst instincts.

Both are unsettling, really.

[โ€“] UlyssesT@hexbear.net 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

There's quite a few versions of God that have hard determinism built right in, too. It's God's will that everything has a linear course, nothing can be changed, no choices are made, which means people are predestined to be punished for things they literally have no choice in.

In my opinion that's crushingly bleak and believing in and outright praising any sort of divine creator that'd punish their own creations for doing exactly what was planned for them is fucked up on so many levels.

I suppose such an entity would be an interesting premise for very dark horror literature.