(October 30, 2010 at 5:46 am)EvidenceVsFaith Wrote: The 'big picture' of the total sum of suffering is nothing but a fantasy because only individuals suffer.... out of all 10,000 individuals if they all suffer absolutely identically then not one of them suffers any more than any other. So to add all their suffering together is to act as if anyone or anything exists that suffers any more than them when that isn't the case because they all suffer identically.
'The Big Picture' is a subjective idea of "what matters most". It is not nothing... but rather dearly important to all of us. The suffering of millions doesn't even matter if it is entirely unrelated to one's goals. Sometimes it is a great thing that as many as possible suffer... such as when thinking of enemies. It doesn't matter how much suffer... or how many. It matters what the one considers the wiser decision to be. Given no other details other than wether 10000 people or 1 person suffers... I choose the 1. Given the choice between the 2-10 and the 1 though... i choose the 2-10. Few things are worse than suffering alone.
Quote:Because we are finite beings we can't suffer or experience pleasure infinitely..... so if we are to illogically add up our sufferings and pleasures (as if any such being exists that experiences the total pain or pleasure of all such beings) that would mean that if we get enough people suffering the pain of a mere pin prick or gnat bite together they would outweigh the importance of one person being tortured severely ..... which is absolutely ludicrous because not one of the other people would be suffering anything worse than a pin prick or gnat bite. To add up the sheer quantity of tiny sufferings to act as if there is anything whatsoever suffering more than the one person tortured is to believe in a fantasy. Just because you can add up the sufferings doesn't mean any such being exists that experiences it. And of course they don't because individuals only suffer their own pain because if you are to say "No because they can also empahize off others suffering" that is only their own imagined pain of anothers suffering and obviously counts as their own suffering and not anybody elses.
Believe me... if I could stop the nuisance of gnat bites across the world by having someone (anyone) be tortured horrifically, I'd volunteer. At least I could perform that service to the world.
Imagined pain can fucking hurt. Or it an make someone giddy that someone else is feeling pain. I admit, when I discovered that I could turn the gravity hammer in Halo 3 so that it is hitting the spartan's crotch... I was a mess of laughter for a good thirty minutes as I repeatedly hit the button.
It doesn't matter that we can experience their suffering at all, actually. The bare knowledge that they are suffering should be enough.
Quote:No one exists who experiences the total sum of suffering of all others, so to care not just about the individual experiences of people but also the total sum is to care about a being who doesn't exist, it isn't caring about anyone real.
Supposedly, a man named 'Jesus' did that once. I for one care that gnats exist, and I hate gnat bites. I hate mosquitos more though. One person suffers a terribly painful death (or agonizing elongated existence) and gnats are gone? Hell yes. Let someone suicidal do it though, as other people would like to live in the world without gnats.
Please give me a home where cloud buffalo roam
Where the dear and the strangers can play
Where sometimes is heard a discouraging word
But the skies are not stormy all day
