Have you changed your mind?
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On 8/11/2017 at 9:07 PM, jkjk said:^^ I really should look it up, but I'm lazy. I think Ricky's idea is that everyone is agnostic because none of us can really know. We can believe in God or not, but we can't know with absolute certainty.
I think it's the standard rationale that all agnostics use.
My most recent big epiphany is truly understanding that Charisma is a series of learned behaviors that can be systematically targeted for self-improvement. I had this incredible management experience which opened up a new world for me. Prior to that, I had thought that it was mostly innate and the product of random circumstances, and also the area of extremely extroverted people.
It makes sense, to me at least, that Charisma is a learned behavior and can be targeted for improvement.
On 10/08/2017 at 6:50 AM, Cult Icon said:
TBH I don't agree with a lot of the details in your OP.
I change my mind on issues when the weight of evidence appears in my line of sight or my mental capabilities in that region are upgraded. or there's an epiphany and I go back and find my cognitive errors. I don't think that this is particularly uncommon way of processing things.
This is not the most recent one (I change my mind about <personally>unimportant things all the time) but one that stands out is how I went from lifelong Agnostic to Atheist. I don't remember what triggered it but I reached a saturation point where I found organized religion so obviously "human" in all of its major aspects.
The last Problem for Atheism .... To chase away the Shadow of God ....
2 hours ago, Niels von Wittelsbach said:
The last Problem for Atheism .... To chase away the Shadow of God ....
I don't fully agree. There is a reason why the main organized religions have survived- they helped provide social structures and mental anchoring.
Without a personal religion/ideology, people become directionless or struggle to find meaning.
It is not necessary for the broad masses of people to be fully conscious, in fact it is probably detrimental. There is simply not enough time, talent, and resources available.
Without Christianity, people in the West have largely chased another pseudo-religion: modern liberalism and corporate ideology
You quote Nietzsche sometimes, wasn't one of his main thesis (at that time, futurism) the idea that Christianity is in rapid decline in Europe, and secular ideologies (communism, fascism) were taking its place, leading to a future clash? Then the world wars happened.
I've put the whole religion/agnosticism/theism/atheism issue on a permanent "solve this later" mode 
Nietzsche :
" Christianity is a Platonism for ordinary people."
A deep truth.
And Socialism is a variant of Christianity.
Forgive me, one last quote, Goethe :
" We are all dwarfs sitting on the shoulders of Giants. "
Yup
^ same here. I change my mind all the time.
On 12/08/2017 at 3:07 AM, jkjk said:^^ I really should look it up, but I'm lazy. I think Ricky's idea is that everyone is agnostic because none of us can really know. We can believe in God or not, but we can't know with absolute certainty.
(this is his theory)
I know with an absolute certitude there is no God.
Jut like I know the Egyptian Gods were not real or the Greek ones.
Like I know there is no Odin to welcome you at the Valhalla.
God, Odin, Allah, Zeus, Deva & Devi have the same common connection : This need for humankind to worship idols and to feel less alone in the dark.
All u need is one person to fear the unknown and you have a God.
1 hour ago, frenchkiki said:I know with an absolute certitude there is no God.
Jut like I know the Egyptian Gods were not real or the Greek ones.
Like I know there is no Odin to welcome you at the Valhalla.
God, Odin, Allah, Zeus, Deva & Devi have the same common connection : This need for humankind to worship idols and to feel less alone in the dark.
All u need is one person to fear the unknown and you have a God.
Apparently Ricky (and others) don't believe it's possible to be absolutely certain either way. 
I don't know who Ricky is but I am 100% sure there is no God.
Simply perspicuous for me.
No one really. Something someone posted made me think of something he said, and the conversation just kept going. It doesn't actually matter if he is right or if anyone believes he is right. 
16 hours ago, SuperG.Girl said:I've put the whole religion/agnosticism/theism/atheism issue on a permanent "solve this later" mode
I may have understood " the philosophy of SuperG.Girl " .... A great deal of very bad ideas in order to get a very few good ones.
This " idea " clearly belongs to the first category.
God .... The question arises for centuries.
Before " I believe, I do not believe, may be yes may be not " or " I am Pantheist " it seems of an extreme importance to return to the past. It is time to reconsider a widespread idea the men of the past were men with little intelligence and very mediocre knowledge.
It was out of question to represent the image of God or the Saints. At the end of the 4th Century Pope Gregory The Great rejected this idea " Pantings will be for the illiterate what writing is for those who know to read. "
We all know the consequences of this great decision, for example Italian painting .
It is a very common thought " God is Infinite ".
During the Middle Ages a great controversy arose from the question " Can God change the Past ? ." Final answer " No ".
A weird question born in the 12th Century " An almighty creature can create a stone so heavy that it cannot lift ? " .
A very well known question " If the God of the Christians is Infinitely Good and Omnipotent why the powers of evil exist ? ".
" Last question ", the last but not the least " Can we speak of God as we speak of a material object, a table or a chair ? " .
"Something to go by " the works of Eckhart approximately born in 1260 . During is life he was excommunicated and he completely disappeared . He was reinstated in the Catholic Church by Pope Benoist 16 Seven Centuries later.
On 10/08/2017 at 6:50 AM, Cult Icon said:
TBH I don't agree with a lot of the details in your OP.
I change my mind on issues when the weight of evidence appears in my line of sight or my mental capabilities in that region are upgraded. or there's an epiphany and I go back and find my cognitive errors. I don't think that this is particularly uncommon way of processing things.
This is not the most recent one (I change my mind about <personally>unimportant things all the time) but one that stands out is how I went from lifelong Agnostic to Atheist. I don't remember what triggered it but I reached a saturation point where I found organized religion so obviously "human" in all of its major aspects.
You highlight a question of overriding importance anthropomorphism .
It is a Problem in the sense of it raises many very difficult questions . It is not possible to develop this subject inside BZ .
Nevertheless a question : Human Thought and Knowledge can, in general, never proceed otherwise than in constant reference to the human being ? .
hmmph deep convo, I'll get back to it when I'm into it !
At the end of his life, in a letter to Queen Christina of Sweden, Descartes writes " After all, uncertainty is the only certainty . "
It is extremely surprising in this sense that Descartes sought " the first principle of philosophy ", the ultimate frontier of knowledge, an undisputed certainty, in his meisterwerk " Le Discours de la Méthode ".
Only " les Grands Esprits " can enter into great paradoxes.
Only the great minds have a profound simplicity. Descartes " I have never assumed that my mind is anything more perfect than those of the common ".
I was a lot more liberal when I was younger, but I'm now more middle of the road of the politics wise in the current climate.
I really don't know if I changed my mind though as the political paradigm has shifted.
Albert Einstein in a Letter :
" In the light of my scientific readings I realized that the stories of the Bible could not be true ".