[Mr. Blonde]

Originally Posted by Dent

“I don't know if God exists, but it would be better for His reputation if He didn't.”

This line of reasoning becomes less bothersome once you stop trying to "humanize" the concept of God, but humans, of course, have a tendency to "humanize" everything. This world could be a paradise, God or no God, were it not for the egoic/selfish behavior of human beings. We are a LARGE community of equal beings, all permitted to pursue lives of liberty, happiness, and health -- and with worldwide communication, we are becoming ever more aware of this uniformity. But we do not act like a community of equals. We act like isolated, scared little bits of "me me me" vs. the World.

When you see a deer, you say "Hey, look at that deer!". You don't say "Hey! That's Deer A5681.23!!!

What if I desire no suffering?

I apologize, but human life is suffering. You just choose not to accept and to fight against it, which creates more suffering. We all suffer, and of course we wish we didn't. But when has there not been suffering on Earth? When has there not been death? It has, quite literally, always been the case. You may as well desire the sky to be bright green, or for all water to taste like Sprite. Wishing for something to be other than how it is creates suffering. Of course, we can (and should) work to change that, to decrease suffering.

But that's not what you're doing. You're just complaining about reality.

Originally Posted by Thomas Merton

“The more you try to avoid suffering, the more you suffer, because smaller and more insignificant things begin to torture you, in proportion to your fear of being hurt. The one who does most to avoid suffering is, in the end, the one who suffers most.”

The Hedonistic Imperative is interesting, and I have mentioned elsewhere that it is a worthy goal, but it is nonetheless a fact that your desire to live a suffering-free life at a time when such a reality does not exist is only causing more psychological suffering for you. And that sucks, because I really don't like to see beings suffer more than their lot.

Thoughts on Moore's open question?

I watched the video but it is difficult to take the narrator seriously with the amount of exaggerated dramatism in his voice.

The only thoughts I have on Moore's open Question is that it appears to be kind of an intellectual thought experiment, meant for almost painful entertainment, such as licking a wound on the top of your mouth, or fiddling with a tooth that is about to fall off.

The content is meaningless to me, because I am coming from a different perspective from you. I don't believe in a uniform "good" and "evil", I am a proponent of nonjudgment and acceptance.

When people see some things as beautiful,
other things become ugly.
When people see some things as good,
other things become bad

- Lao Tzu

Practically speaking, as human beings are the only being we know of capable of judging "good" from "bad" and "right" from "wrong", the distinctions are utterly meaningless. I refer you back to what I wrote before:

Everything humans deem important to themselves (including the existentialist notion of ascribing meaning to one's own life with the intent to evade the more depressing, if not more realistic philosophies of absurdism and nihilism) exists within an entirely human-created framework of existence/language, which is really a form of tautology, or at best, circular logic.

How can we truly objectively quantify meaning right and wrong if humanity is so deeply subjectively buried within a framework that its own species has created and deems to be the truth of the universe, when the reality is that we are likely an anomaly, and indeed, probably an accident waiting to be corrected probably not the intellectual center of existence? The framework inside which we operate has been crafted by blind evolutionary and cultural forces for hundreds of thousands of years, the more deeply-ingrained portions of it, for millions -- it is not a fundamental truth, merely a species-comfortable medium which most can operate under unquestioningly, and, indeed, sanely, for the alternative appears to offer nothing but the fate of Tantalus.

shit

Basically, everything you experience is structured in a "yes/no" logical framework of human bias, and when something (like consciousness, or ethics, or God) does not fit into that definitive "yes/no" logical framework, it creates more suffering.



You are still looking elsewhere, to other people, for answers about what is good and bad. If you are honest with yourself, you don't have to worry about what is good or bad. Just do as you will, preferably according to the Golden Rule, and don't worry about what other people are doing. Just focus on what you are doing. This life of yours is your experience, and within the parameters of "what is", you may experience it any way you wish.

By redirecting your brain to certain avenues, you could actually GREATLY decrease your self-created suffering and create a life of almost pure pleasure. That's what you want, isn't it? To be in a state of pure physical pleasure as much as possible?

It will take work (all things worth doing do), but it's possible I suppose. I mean fuck, look at this guy's Instagram. Why not make your life like that? Who is going to stop you?




Speaking of not worrying about what other people are doing, I'm going to finish going about my day. I've got a lot to do. I hope you have been taking what I've been writing seriously, however, because I spent a lot of time and effort doing this pretty much specifically for you.