Even if we studied it all, who can know for certain? But I believe that, as long as we all see eye to eye on our moral duties (or even just stand by the idea of things being morally right or wrong), the rest is somewhat inconsequential. 😉

Anyway, see you around, stay cool and inquisitive. ✌️

Organically or with years of American propaganda though? Nothing is a vacuum although yeah people are naturally dumb as well. 😭

Those things are real. And our world (in my understanding) is like the Matrix to God, who's to say we couldn't inhabit a Hell as real as this world, right? Regardless, though, it's a circumstance we'd rather avoid, lol. We are/can be better than that!

And yes, I found an Internet archive link to it: https://archive.org/... 👋

Nobody, really, not even my dad, who was a highly erratic, hedonistic, vain, angry and two-faced man.

I read books/texts written by men with varying degrees of wisdom and maturity (or written about them), took what I found important and spoke to me and discarded the rest. If we're being honest, two certainly made an impact on me and made me feel "seen": Diogenes and Jesus. Solomon came much later (and Muhammad, for those who believe, was just accurately sharing a message from the Divine so I don't know if I can include him here), in my mid 20s, so I'm not counting him. But I went through a lot of Greek and continental philosophy and there is much to learn therein, if anything to "deprogram" yourself if necessary and to learn to think in earnest, but I find many conclusions flawed and/or disruptive to uhh eudaimonia and the result of emotional instability/depression and/or getting lost in the sauce, losing connection to reality because they stayed in abstractions (Nietzsche, Schopie and Hegel, for example). Evidently, they wouldn't do, but the big dawg and the J-man? They get it. 😀

PS: I don't remember much of my maternal grandpa, but the little I do recall shows me he was a faithful and loving husband, a responsible family man, and an athletic teetotaler (my grandma drank though, lol). Now that I think about it, maybe he impacted me more than I gave him credit for, my memory is just garbage but some things remain.

Eh, sometimes I'd rather let my ignorance stay and collect the (mostly) deserved downvotes, but you're right.

It's always a pleasure to find you here! Personally, I think it's as real as this world is, but what do I know, lol. And I'm certain that God will adjust for mental disorders, after all there's an "us" underneath the mental deformation resulting from trauma, the "us" that regrets our negative actions stemming from these issues in our moments of clarity (or not, hence Hell).

I'm very excited to hear you're interested in the Qur'an, for whatever reasons, and thankfully I think the Qur'an is very straightforward, not much to really "study" there, it's not a somewhat philosophically dense read a la Ecclesiastes, for instance. I like "Quran: A Monotheist Translation", since it's not influenced by Hadith literature (most of the morally questionable "Muslim" beliefs derive from it, not the Qur'an) and it's unburned of sectarian doctrines, it's quite literal (slightly more open for interpretation, which can pose its own problems, but at least it's not a mistranslation) and says God instead of Allah (I feel like it takes any Western/English-speaking person "out of it", it creates distance when reading an English translation). And Rumi is wonderful, a great poet inspired by his love of God and his gratefulness for life.

The English Qur'an translation as an app for Android (there should be one for iOS too): https://play.google.com/...

😀🫶👋

Only the naturally cool kids could tolerate such heat, I've heard it's worse than summer in Seville. 😉

Hi Maeve. 👋

Place of eternal (in theory/by default, but everything is up to God, ofc) suffering earned by being a major, habitual line stepper with no remorse. It's a fire fueled by men and stones and it involves grinding, pressure, unmet physiological needs, etc, very hot and dense and certainly uncomfortable. Regardless of the nature of "the bad place", one would be better not earning a spot there, if anything because if the merciful, wise Creator thinks you were bad enough to deserve it then you were, objectively so, and that's a very hard/impossible pill to swallow!

Now, just as a little thought experiment: would you rather endure Hell, at least for a while, knowing it's just an extra test or something like it (you didn't do anything wrong, maybe you're just strong enough to handle it amongst many) but God already approved of you or be in Heaven knowing you did not earn it, with everyone and God side-eyeing you and hating you and for valid reasons, because you're just an objectively awful person? 🤔 (Global "you", of course, you seem lovely, hehe)

Thank you for the correction! I actually read a bit about it later on but it was too late to be changing my comment, lol. 🫶

I mean, he did say "can't" not "shouldn't". Not a problem of ethics but military capacity, lol. 😔

Even if it sounds like nothing, it's at least evidence that the tides are changing in the West regarding public opinion of Israeli violence, enough to at least warrant symbolic acts. And that's very good!

No better imperialist than an incompetent one, TBF. I'd hate to see a more competently murderous USA!

Trigger warning: criticism of popular media

Friends is an extremely boring and formulaic show, it just has handsome people in it and sometimes the ladies don't wear bras. I much prefer Seinfeld, which was in a way revolutionary for sitcoms, and it can still be enjoyed today (the laugh track is unfortunate though). It definitely inspired It's Always Sunny, another great show, whilst Friends inspired How I Met Your Mother... and you can draw your own conclusions from that. 😅

Tinfoil would be required for any other possibility, lol.

I trust people with information about my life because they cannot hurt me with truths I know and share, and I trust most people not to be violent maniacs so I don't have to be in fight or flight all the time I'm around them (and you can usually tell when they are). As such, I'm a very friendly guy who talks to and listens to everyone. I don't really need people one way or another though (yes, it comes from a somewhat difficult and lonely childhood but at least it's made me independent), so I don't mind letting them get close and I don't have any expectations of them besides the basic ones. I trust people to be people, not to be mentors or even helpful (and I always appreciate it if they are!).

Mike's finally learning to be more expressive!

Meta: Why is your post downvoted? Usually I understand whatever silly ideas/immature attitudes happen to be behind them but this time I'm confused. It can't be angry mods who already feel called out, right? That would be too pathetic of them, so I don't wanna consider it.

I don't understand how cockroach man became the new spokesperson of Western supremacy/American racists but it's very fitting.

At some low point in my life I binge-watched the entirety of "How I Met Your Mother"... Trust me, you cannot hurt me the way I've hurt myself. 😔🤣

Add to that the well known atrocities committed against the Chinese in WW2, backed and fueled by an ideology of racial supremacy, and you can see why they could see eye-to-eye with the West. 🤷