Ookami38

I'm done. Clearly you don't want to engage in this conversation with any kind of good faith. You can only engage on the gotchas, the easy talking points. Enjoy your life, friend.

Again, I did not specify that I believe in a god. I said I believe in things outside our observable 3 spatial dimensions, things unknowable to us. I'd prefer if you're going to argue with me on this, you at least argue my views, not some arbitrary ones that you seem to have superimposed over mine.

In absence of any specific evidence pointing one way or another, all of these beliefs are equally valid as just that - beliefs. As long as they're not making you act in such bizarre ways as condemning people based on those unprovable beliefs, there's no issue.

As for my specific beliefs, I'm drawn to a lot of the eastern religions worldviews a lot more. That we, are in some way, reincarnated into this world again and again. That we have a concept of karma, in a sense - there's an underlying "baseline" level of the world we're all born into, and our duty is to raise that baseline as high as possible so that anyone regardless of status is born into a world with the most chance to succeed. And we have that duty not just to others, but to our eventual future "selves". I don't believe we have any concept or knowledge of these past lives, but the concept of rebirth, conservation, cycling is all too prevalent in all too many beliefs, and within physics itself - matter/energy not being created or destroyed, just changed.

Exactly. I don't find atheism itself as attractive as agnosticism. There's as much evidence supporting a god as there is else. I don't claim to know either way, it's largely unknowable, and so you gotta kinda just go on faith one way or another. This is also a part of why I keep insisting this is all a VERY personal set of beliefs.

I don't see any reason not to, at present. I don't necessarily believe in, say, supernatural entities, but I'm more concerned with origin, what exists beyond our universe, the nature of consciousness, etc. I believe a lot of that is simply outside of our abilities to fully understand as humans.

Take a 4th spatial dimension as a simple example. We can do all the work on understanding how one would work mathematically. We can even get something approaching an intuition about how things would move and work in a 4th dimension, but we're simply not equipped to see, experience, interact with this 4th dimension. Another easy example of an unknowable is the thoughts and mental state of another. We can make inferences, we can ask, and we can trust that the information we get from those sources is accurate, but there's no way to verify.

This same thing, the fundamentally unknowable, exists pretty much everywhere if you dig deep enough. I like to think of this relationship with unknowables as "spirituality". Understanding that there are simply things that I cannot grasp, and being okay with that forms the basis for my spiritual worldview.

As stated before, as well, I believe this is all DEEPLY personal. I doubt any two people will ever arrive at the exact same conclusions. The thing with unknowables is there's no way to really be "right" short of following your intuition, so as long as your personal beliefs don't start impacting the will and agency of others, you do you.

That's nuts, my friend.

I don't want that disease vector anywhere near my dangly bits, thanks.

I've no problem with people getting a bit of cash, but it's a problem when the investment vehicle is a necessity. What if it was water, or food, that people were hoarding, keeping at artificially low supplies, and selling as high as possible. We have that, it's called Nestle, and they suck massive asshole. Let's just not use basic necessities as profit vehicles.

So limit those, too. A company can only own X properties. Above Y number of properties owned, Z% of them must be income-based. Go after any company getting around this with shell companies and shit. It's a solvable problem, no one wants to tell the fat cats no though.

The important act is giving. If you think a dude on the side of the road needs $20 and you've got it to spare, there's no downside to doing that. They may not use it how you like them to, but they will use it how they best can. Sometimes that's food, sometimes that's drugs, to keep them from actively offing themselves.

If you think a charity has a decent track record and can better use those funds to serve more people, donate it there. They'll use it how they beat see fit, whether that's food, shelter or enforcement of policies. It may not be how you want it used, but that's okay.

Ultimately, give what you can, however you can. Once you've given the money, you can't determine how it's used, so be okay with your act of charity simply existing by itself, not in comparison to another hypothetical "best" act of charity.

I fully believe there's ~something~ beyond our 3 spatial dimensions we call reality. What that is, I don't know. Does it have sentience, I doubt. I also think these things fall into unknowables, things each individual will develop a different feel for, and should be deeply personal.

Can confirm. I'm playing through my 4th total playthrough (once on launch, once about 6mo later, one on the DLC launch and one now) and the last two have been noticeable in terms of quality improvements. I'm playing modded to shit, but only have had a few crashes. Police feel fine now, I'm not using anything that alters their spawn logic. Just about the only thing I've not enjoyed still is driving, even modded to hell lmao

Etymology nerd on YouTube has a video on this! It's basically how we put people in our phones now, such as Alex (neighbor) and Alex (work), two names I actually have saved in my phone. They're more based on relationship than occupation now.

Edit: (neighbor) not (phone)