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RE: Life isn't about how smart you are
March 5, 2013 at 1:23 pm
(This post was last modified: March 5, 2013 at 1:29 pm by jstrodel.)
(March 5, 2013 at 3:49 am)FallentoReason Wrote: (March 5, 2013 at 2:47 am)jstrodel Wrote: David Hume was aware of the vanity of thinking too highly of his own intelligence, and wrote about this somewhere I can't remember. So was Stephen J Gould, during a Simpsons episode he asked to have a section removed where his mind was given a place of honor.
Humility is a virtue that will aid understanding.
Intelligence and humility are two different things...
Based on my old self, I think your endgame is a subtle agressive technique I used to use to lower atheists' guard. Make them realise that thinking too much isn't going to get you into heaven because it's what keeps you away from knowing God. Am I on the right track?
Christianity is true, so to teach virtue's of knowing is to strengthen my position
(March 5, 2013 at 12:28 pm)pocaracas Wrote: (March 5, 2013 at 2:36 am)jstrodel Wrote: Life isn't about how smart you are Life is about.... what?
I can't imagine any word that follows that sentence that would make it correct.... maybe a huge string of words would give us a decent view of life...
but then you have billions of different life forms... each with their own huge string of qualifiers.
My life is not about the same things that your life is.
It is the same. We are made of the same genetics. Pride will hurt you just as much as it will hurt me.
(March 5, 2013 at 3:37 am)teaearlgreyhot Wrote: Trying to compensate?
There are some atheists that impress me, but the average atheist seems to me to be either in the 16-25 range, or has some sort of middle class technology job where he makes $40,000 as a systems analyst and cannot grasp subtle linguistic or philosophical analysis but simply repeats another argument from authority thinking he is using real logic.
I have met way more people like that then I have met PhD astrophysicists.
Everyone knows that guys who make $40,000 as systems analysts in mediocre IT firms are not the smartest people in the world.
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RE: Life isn't about how smart you are
March 5, 2013 at 1:29 pm
(March 5, 2013 at 1:23 pm)jstrodel Wrote: Christianity is true, so to teach virtue's of knowing is to strengthen my position
Who told you christianity was true?I am afraid you have been led astray.
You can fix ignorance, you can't fix stupid.
Tinkety Tonk and down with the Nazis.
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RE: Life isn't about how smart you are
March 5, 2013 at 1:30 pm
(March 5, 2013 at 2:36 am)jstrodel Wrote: Life isn't about how smart you are
Yes, yes it is. 
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RE: Life isn't about how smart you are
March 5, 2013 at 1:32 pm
(This post was last modified: March 5, 2013 at 1:39 pm by jstrodel.)
(March 5, 2013 at 4:45 am)Justtristo Wrote: (March 5, 2013 at 2:36 am)jstrodel Wrote: Life isn't about how smart you are
Among sane people stupidity is not seen as a virtue and rightly so.
strawman. Like every other enlightened internet atheist, you completely missed the subtly of my point and reached as fast as you could for a strawman.
Of course stupidity is not a virtue.
Do you even know what the word humility means?
(March 5, 2013 at 8:15 am)Esquilax Wrote: (March 5, 2013 at 2:36 am)jstrodel Wrote: Life isn't about how smart you are
Kind of depends on what your priorities are, I guess. Mine require that I constantly seek to expand my own sphere of experience and knowledge. Life isn't about how smart you are, but I'd certainly place importance in knowledge and becoming smarter in life.
Why do you think being smart is a bad thing, Jstrodel?
It is not a bad thing, but it is very vain and small to center your life around trying to prove that you are smarter than other people. Many people go through their whole lives essentially trying to prove their intelligence to others. This is a very destructive and egotistical way to learn about the world, and it severely disrupts learning about the world.
To understand what the world around teaches us requires patience and humility and listening and putting aside what one wants to find and letting the world speak for itself. People that are proud do not do this, they focus on what they already believe and close their minds to what the world around would reveal to them.
(March 5, 2013 at 9:43 am)KichigaiNeko Wrote: Oh strodel. Roll yourself up in pastry and set the oven for 280 degrees centigrade.
LIFE IS about how smart you are you dumb fuck!
How smart are you NOT to get your self used as luch for a predator?
How smart are you to pass on your genetic code to the next generation?
How smart are you to navigate the current economic and social climate and still remain sane??
How smart are YOU strodel?
 not very by the look of you
You are an immature person.
(March 5, 2013 at 12:25 pm)Psykhronic Wrote: (March 5, 2013 at 2:36 am)jstrodel Wrote: Life isn't about how smart you are
Maybe YOUR life isn't. But you don't get to decide that for the rest of us.
Yes I can. I can tell people that they are doing something that is destructive. Pride is destructive. If you are intentionally proud and haughty, you should stop. It will harm others.
(March 5, 2013 at 12:28 pm)pocaracas Wrote: (March 5, 2013 at 2:36 am)jstrodel Wrote: Life isn't about how smart you are Life is about.... what?
I can't imagine any word that follows that sentence that would make it correct.... maybe a huge string of words would give us a decent view of life...
but then you have billions of different life forms... each with their own huge string of qualifiers.
My life is not about the same things that your life is.
I think all people have responsibility to love each other, regardless of what they want. If you don't see yourself as having a responsibility to love others, which implies a responsibility to renounce pride as a center of your life, I consider you to be a bad person.
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RE: Life isn't about how smart you are
March 5, 2013 at 2:24 pm
jstrodel Wrote:Like every other enlightened internet atheist, you completely missed the subtly of my point...
I think you're confusing subtlety with ambiguity. Now, if you had said, "life isn't about proving how smart you are," you might have a point, however, it is unfair to blame others for your inability to communicate your message.
Even if the open windows of science at first make us shiver after the cozy indoor warmth of traditional humanizing myths, in the end the fresh air brings vigor, and the great spaces have a splendor of their own - Bertrand Russell
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RE: Life isn't about how smart you are
March 5, 2013 at 2:28 pm
(March 5, 2013 at 2:36 am)jstrodel Wrote: Life isn't about how smart you are
Your god is trying to make you play with the lousy hand he dealt you?
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RE: Life isn't about how smart you are
March 5, 2013 at 2:29 pm
(March 5, 2013 at 1:32 pm)jstrodel Wrote: strawman. Like every other enlightened internet atheist, you completely missed the subtly of my point and reached as fast as you could for a strawman.
Single sentence points are rarely subtle, Strodel. And you have to understand: generally, when a theist does this on a forum, they're trying to set up for some play down the line that's utterly devoid of intellect. Maybe you aren't, but we've been primed in the past 
Quote:It is not a bad thing, but it is very vain and small to center your life around trying to prove that you are smarter than other people. Many people go through their whole lives essentially trying to prove their intelligence to others. This is a very destructive and egotistical way to learn about the world, and it severely disrupts learning about the world.
Sounds like you've got a problem with ego, not intellect. Should have said that from the beginning.
Quote:To understand what the world around teaches us requires patience and humility and listening and putting aside what one wants to find and letting the world speak for itself. People that are proud do not do this, they focus on what they already believe and close their minds to what the world around would reveal to them.
If you actually did this, you would not be a theist.
"YOU take the hard look in the mirror. You are everything that is wrong with this world. The only thing important to you, is you." - ronedee
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RE: Life isn't about how smart you are
March 5, 2013 at 2:34 pm
(This post was last modified: March 5, 2013 at 2:35 pm by jstrodel.)
(March 5, 2013 at 2:24 pm)Faith No More Wrote: jstrodel Wrote:Like every other enlightened internet atheist, you completely missed the subtly of my point...
I think you're confusing subtlety with ambiguity. Now, if you had said, "life isn't about proving how smart you are," you might have a point, however, it is unfair to blame others for your inability to communicate your message.
No, it is what I said it is. Life isn't about how smart you are. The statement is true as it is. People are not supposed to direct their wills to prove that their are smarter than other people (despite all the people on this thread doing otherwise).
iNTERNET aTHEIST aTTACK - we R GUNNA kILL diZ oNE
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RE: Life isn't about how smart you are
March 5, 2013 at 2:36 pm
(March 5, 2013 at 1:32 pm)jstrodel Wrote: It is not a bad thing, but it is very vain and small to center your life around trying to prove that you are smarter than other people.
Bolding mine
You seem to confuse knowledge and intelligence with being arrogant and showy. Intelligence does not necessarily lead to arogance.
(March 5, 2013 at 1:32 pm)jstrodel Wrote: To understand what the world around teaches us requires patience and humility and listening and putting aside what one wants to find and letting the world speak for itself. People that are proud do not do this, they focus on what they already believe and close their minds to what the world around would reveal to them. Such beautiful irony...(not necessarily talking about you personally)
(March 5, 2013 at 1:32 pm)jstrodel Wrote: If you are intentionally proud and haughty, you should stop. It will harm others. How so? I mean, sure, it's annoying, but what do you mean by "harm"?
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RE: Life isn't about how smart you are
March 5, 2013 at 2:44 pm
(March 5, 2013 at 2:36 pm)Darkstar Wrote: [quote='jstrodel' pid='409932' dateline='1362504739']
It is not a bad thing, but it is very vain and small to center your life around trying to prove that you are smarter than other people.
Quote:You seem to confuse knowledge and intelligence with being arrogant and showy. Intelligence does not necessarily lead to arogance.
No, I don't. Being showy and arrogant is different from being proud. To be proud means to direct your life energies towards selfish pursuits, proving your intellect, careerism, etc. This is antithetical to true learning. It is extremely destructive. It leads people to think because they have mastered one subject in one way, that they know everything. It is authoritarian, because they will tend to want to enforce their understanding on others because of their pride. Pride is much deeper and more destructive than being arrogant.
Quote:Such beautiful irony
Is it ironic to see the greatest intellectual ferment in history coming out of a Christian civilization that values truth very highly? I don't see what is ironic about that at all. I think what is ironic is when atheists find the most questionable ministries e.g. Kent Hovind and they take a weak opponent and call that person the epitome of Christianity, meanwhile ignoring the fact that the entire atheist movement owes its existence to the culture of the universities that Christians founded. And then, on top of that, they call themselves free thinkers or complain about Christians ideological prejudices, when they themselves have just intentionally removed from vision all the serious exponents of Christianitiy. 55% of scientists are Christians, not that there is anything especially special about science and a great deal of science takes place at organizations that were founded to be Christian.
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