RE: Test my belief system
August 30, 2015 at 1:15 am
(This post was last modified: August 30, 2015 at 1:17 am by robvalue.)
Wallym:
I still don't know what your objection is. #7 is saying that I want people to be as unrestricted as possible to do what they want to do, while acknowledging that there are going to be limits. If someone is actively harming people, I understand that society can't "support this personal choice". The wellbeing of society gets put first in such cases. Again, this is just my personal view, this is not a manifesto. I'm not suggesting that I personally make the decisions or the standards. I'm simply saying I support the notion of equality and fairness. I'm sorry if you found my original wording unclear.
Magi: Thanks for your questions
1) I'm in England, and sceptic is the correct UK English (original) spelling as far as I'm aware America had to be all different and screw up the spelling of loads of words.
2) Yes, in general conversation atheist is more than sufficient to cause plenty of misunderstanding. I only went into detail here as it's an atheist forum where people have more chance of understanding the particulars.
3) Yahweh is a mess of contradictions, so for him to exist literally as written in the OT is impossible unless our understanding of logic as applied to reality is wrong. I'd say the probability of a being that existed being even remotely similar to Yahweh is negligible.
4) I weigh the consequences of my actions as much as possible, but there isn't time for a full analysis before every single action. I try to shortlist decisions which are likely to be morally less obvious, or carry greater impact, and devote more time to thinking about those. Most decisions seem to be either unimportant or obvious, after years of experience. I also try to be reflective and to look for evidence of the impact of all my actions in general. If I notice that something I thought was a good idea is actually causing some harm for example, even something I thought was obvious, I'd stop and rethink it.
5) My purpose, as designated by myself, is to try to help people and animals to be happy and healthy where possible, so they can enjoy their lives. Ironically my purpose is also to minimise the harm my mere continued existence causes on humans and animals. I'm dedicated in particular to looking after my wife and my pets, as my actions have the most direct impact on them. And while doing all this, I try to enjoy myself too!
6) I'm pretty good at chess. I used to play for a chess team when I was younger, going around the county playing other teams. I was in our second team, we had some players way better than me in the first team.
7) Determining what's fair is a very complex question! I look at it as trying to remove all unnecessary barriers, prejudices and harm. I want to see humans and animals given the chance to be happy and healthy, and for this not to be infringed upon by irrelevant details. I would like society to look after everyone as a whole, to see where any unnecessary harm is happening and to try and stop it. I support policies which discourage people from imposing their personal prejudices onto others in a way that impedes their ability to get opportunities (such as employment) as far as is reasonably possible. This is a huge subject and this response is rather inadequate, I'm sure. Fairness I would see as closely tied to morality, in this case the general morality that society can hopefully agree on. My personal idea of what is fair and what is not is something that is always developing, because there are so many variables involved.
I hope these answers were somewhat useful, feel free to follow up
I still don't know what your objection is. #7 is saying that I want people to be as unrestricted as possible to do what they want to do, while acknowledging that there are going to be limits. If someone is actively harming people, I understand that society can't "support this personal choice". The wellbeing of society gets put first in such cases. Again, this is just my personal view, this is not a manifesto. I'm not suggesting that I personally make the decisions or the standards. I'm simply saying I support the notion of equality and fairness. I'm sorry if you found my original wording unclear.
Magi: Thanks for your questions
1) I'm in England, and sceptic is the correct UK English (original) spelling as far as I'm aware America had to be all different and screw up the spelling of loads of words.
2) Yes, in general conversation atheist is more than sufficient to cause plenty of misunderstanding. I only went into detail here as it's an atheist forum where people have more chance of understanding the particulars.
3) Yahweh is a mess of contradictions, so for him to exist literally as written in the OT is impossible unless our understanding of logic as applied to reality is wrong. I'd say the probability of a being that existed being even remotely similar to Yahweh is negligible.
4) I weigh the consequences of my actions as much as possible, but there isn't time for a full analysis before every single action. I try to shortlist decisions which are likely to be morally less obvious, or carry greater impact, and devote more time to thinking about those. Most decisions seem to be either unimportant or obvious, after years of experience. I also try to be reflective and to look for evidence of the impact of all my actions in general. If I notice that something I thought was a good idea is actually causing some harm for example, even something I thought was obvious, I'd stop and rethink it.
5) My purpose, as designated by myself, is to try to help people and animals to be happy and healthy where possible, so they can enjoy their lives. Ironically my purpose is also to minimise the harm my mere continued existence causes on humans and animals. I'm dedicated in particular to looking after my wife and my pets, as my actions have the most direct impact on them. And while doing all this, I try to enjoy myself too!
6) I'm pretty good at chess. I used to play for a chess team when I was younger, going around the county playing other teams. I was in our second team, we had some players way better than me in the first team.
7) Determining what's fair is a very complex question! I look at it as trying to remove all unnecessary barriers, prejudices and harm. I want to see humans and animals given the chance to be happy and healthy, and for this not to be infringed upon by irrelevant details. I would like society to look after everyone as a whole, to see where any unnecessary harm is happening and to try and stop it. I support policies which discourage people from imposing their personal prejudices onto others in a way that impedes their ability to get opportunities (such as employment) as far as is reasonably possible. This is a huge subject and this response is rather inadequate, I'm sure. Fairness I would see as closely tied to morality, in this case the general morality that society can hopefully agree on. My personal idea of what is fair and what is not is something that is always developing, because there are so many variables involved.
I hope these answers were somewhat useful, feel free to follow up
Feel free to send me a private message.
Please visit my website here! It's got lots of information about atheism/theism and support for new atheists.
Index of useful threads and discussions
Index of my best videos
Quickstart guide to the forum
Please visit my website here! It's got lots of information about atheism/theism and support for new atheists.
Index of useful threads and discussions
Index of my best videos
Quickstart guide to the forum