You horny mechanical beast. I’m 40! It literally takes me a week and then some to have a package worth delivering (if you know what I mean). I guess the squeaky wheel gets the grease 
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I answer to myself. Society can lock me up, bind me in chains, and while they pretend I am answering to them, ‘A mind changed against its will is of the same opinion still.’ I am responsible for myself. Outside of myself, I have very little control. Inside of myself, I have a bit more control. The whole trick to life is knowing when to assert that control and when to just let things go.
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Knowing when to assert control over one’s self or just let things go?
Or… knowing when to assert control over others or just let things go?
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You never have control over others. You may each pretend that you have control,one over the other, but it is never actually the case.
You barely have control over yourslelf. Make the best of plans and a virus comes along, an accident, bad weather, an injury, shit just goes out the window. Knowing this, helps one to ‘go with the flow’ while still moving forward. A semi Taoist sort of position., Taoists don’t actually move forward, they just go with the flow. (That’s part of the brutality of being born into a cast system with a fucked up belief like Taoism.) Still, one should not toss out the baby with the bath-water.
The one thing in this life that you have the most control over is yourself, and that may be pure delusion. Free will, may not be a thing. Still, it feels like I make choices and I certainly hold others accountable for the choices they make. I don’t see that changing.
Take the good and leave the rest behind. A nice philosophy for life. We don’t use the shells when we make an omle.
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Here in Toronto there was a small time politician running for office in a small ward. During a debate he was asked what he was going to do about world peace and global pollution. He response was that he was there to take care of his little corner of the world, not the entire globe.
Although I do think about the big picture, I operate in reality, with whom I interact with. And that is small scale.
I have read a lot of scientific books and absorb scientific findings. And everything I have read offers a cogent explanation on how this word came to be and why. There has never been a reason to dip into the “god did it” bag.
Yes, there are a heck of a lot of unanswered questions and mysteries in this amazing universe. And each future answer must be able to be supported. To reach into the “god did it” or “there is an evil overlord” bag has no rational foundation. To do so one must prove there is a god or evil overlord.
You are trying to solve a mystery by appealing to a bigger mystery.
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I’m a bit late here, but why couldn’t one form positive expectations from one’s own self preservation? If I mean to survive and thrive I need more than myself. Many hands make short work of large jobs. Or something to that effect. My work load gets easier when it’s divided up and spread among a community. So I have a positive expectation to keep my life easier by helping others. Without the need for a higher being.
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Not all Christians are moral out of the goodness of their own heart. They want to be repaid for their faith and worship. At least 2 Christians have told me that if it wasn’t for their religion. They’d go out and rob a bank and murder their neighbor, really live it up.
I take into account the law and the morals my parents and teachers taught me growing up. I don’t need a religion to make me want to do good so I can get my gold ticket into OZ. Christianity sucks at teaching people morality as it is. I don’t need those fantasies. I want to do the moral right thing because I’m a human being. If we all went out and killed, raped, and stole; we’d be fucking savages.
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Which is all the more reason why some folks need to maintain their religious faith as long as possible. 
However, here is the ultimate irony in their thinking, particular for those partial to the Christian god. If they actually believe their god is all-knowing, is aware of EXACTLY how they feel and think, and judges them based on what is in their “hearts”, then that god KNOWS they really want to do the bad things they mentioned. It KNOWS that at their core they are NOT good people. In which case, according to their own “holy teachings”, they are FUCKED.
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Amen brother! Preach the truth and ye shall be rewarded!
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And he said the word. Amen again. You are on a roll today. Im thinking of constructing a pulpit for you…metallic of course.
I tend to agree with this, however, it could be argued that coercion is a form of control, and I have been able to employ it on many occasions. Largely I accept that control is an illusion and the loss we feel when we think our “control” has been taken away, is just that. Our illusion of control is what has been removed.
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And worse, this depraved, asshole god perfectly planned for them to do those bad things, should they carry them out.
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So, if control is just an illusion, what if I have control over the illusion of control? Or would my control of the illusion just be an illusion of the control of the illusion? Aw, shit. Now I have a headache… 
But… but… but… God is GOOD! There’s NO WAY God would ever plan to let somebody do bad things. 
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Wait a dang minute here 3 in one breath…I never said control is just an illusion.
You see, my blatantly non-committal self dictates that I insert a qualifier (Largely) so I cannot be pinned down by such a statement.
If indeed control is an illusion, then all you could hope to achieve would be an illusion over an illusion of, by, and for the illusion…I hope that clarifies the issue…now I have a headache…
It’s morality on a leash. Christians shouldn’t be proud of that. But sadly they are. What I hear from Rat Spit’s post: “Oh! My sky daddy keeps me on a leash so I don’t go kill people and commit monstrous crimes. He says he won’t let me into Heaven if I rape and murder!”
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Ignore/ deflect/rationalize the bad god things. This is the way.
In fact, obliterate your intellect altogether. It is so thusly ordered and ordained by Holy Book for ever and ever, amen.
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If you’re reading the Bible when you shit. I advise you to use it’s pages to wipe your ass.
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Agreed. (You didn’t need the rest of this. You already said it.)
I understand what the proverb is saying, but i refuse to lean on it because it told me that was a TRAP!