The Darkness in Life.

[RobRoy]

The Bible itself is very dark. You can't embrace the Christian God without accepting that the Christian God kills on a massive scale and created hell. Is that not dark?

Fixed it.

Yeah, the Bible is a pretty dark piece of work. There is wholesale slaughter, giving up family members for rape, torture, and brutality of every kind.

Random capitals is the way to show on the internet that you are starry-eyed...

I wasn't aware. I haven't been starry-eyed in some time.

 

[Neverfly]

While I understand what you're trying to do, bolding, italics, or underlining are all better techniques, and are universally acceptable. At a stretch, and used sparingly, all caps (though this can be interpreted as yelling on the internet). Your style makes the capitalization appear random, since you use it so often.

Yes, I've been told before. And it's true, I cannot refute the argument that it's better to use Proper English.

All the same, I still ask of people patience, after-all, FWIW, LOL, Yeah, ok, okay, OTOH etc are also all not proper english.

I'll try to improve my communication, but no promises.

His language is very clear.

That's unusual for me.
Most of the time I type a novel... and then ten seconds later some genius comes along and sums up everything I just said in one short beautiful sentence.
All I can do is stare and think, "Damn. How do they do that?!"

I am hinting that eastern religions might conceal common sense truths in complicated words... So perhaps there is no need to seek relgions - maybe the answers are actually pretty simple, and are common wisdom, if you think for yourself.

This is a double edged sword.

There are a great many eastern teachings that are enlightening and very well founded and solid.

There are also eastern religions and teachings that are so maniacally faith based and nonsensical it will almost literally make your head pop reading about them.

I wasn't aware. I haven't been starry-eyed in some time.

I can show you some stars. Or.. if I fail in the attempt, at least little birdies.

 

[JetLeg]

There are a great many eastern teachings that are enlightening and very well founded and solid.

This is not what I said. I said nothing about how "well founded" and "solid" they are.

I noted that when there is a kernel of truth, I have found out that there is always a simple, less mystical way to say it.

But which ones do you mean?

 

[RobRoy]

Yes, I've been told before. And it's true, I cannot refute the argument that it's better to use Proper English.

All the same, I still ask of people patience, after-all, FWIW, LOL, Yeah, ok, okay, OTOH etc are also all not proper english.

I'll try to improve my communication, but no promises.

Ahhh, some miscommunication. My comments were not aimed at you, and reading this post, I believe that Third Eye Open's comments were not as well. My comments were aimed at XxDeadlyNinjaxX, and I thought that's who you were defending against Third Eye Open.

I have not seen you use the random capitalization technique as a means of emphasis. While we could all improve our English skills, I haven't seen anything particularly worrisome in yours. Certainly nothing that I would feel compelled to comment upon. Especially since I still have trouble spelling definately, difinately . . . definitely correct!

I can show you some stars. Or.. if I fail in the attempt, at least little birdies.

I think my wife would disapprove.

 

[Neverfly]

This is not what I said. I said nothing about how "well founded" and "solid" they are.

I noted that when there is a kernel of truth, I have found out that there is always a simple, less mystical way to say it.

But which ones do you mean?

Sorry about that Jetleg.

I was not saying that you had said that- I was expanding on that point with a warning.

As to which ones... <chuckle>
That's worthy of its own thread.

Ahhh, some miscommunication. My comments were not aimed at you, and reading this post, I believe that Third Eye Open's comments were not as well. My comments were aimed at XxDeadlyNinjaxX, and I thought that's who you were defending against Third Eye Open.

I have not seen you use the random capitalization technique as a means of emphasis.

I was not sure who Third Eye Open was addressing, but being a bit of a Tool fan...
I had to step up and take account even so.
I do do that on occasion. You may not have noticed it. But I am guilty, too.

While we could all improve our English skills, I haven't seen anything particularly worrisome in yours. Certainly nothing that I would feel compelled to comment upon. Especially since I still have trouble spelling definately, difinately . . . definitely correct!

In I.E. there's a program called ie.espell that can be downloaded... I use Firefox with spell checker
It's a bit annoying at times, though. It doesn't check when numbers accide4ntly get injected into9 words.

I think my wife would disapprove.

Depends on catching her in the right moment.

 

[RobRoy]

I was not sure who Third Eye Open was addressing, but being a bit of a Tool fan...
I had to step up and take account even so.
I do do that on occasion. You may not have noticed it. But I am guilty, too.

To quote the great Mr. Spock, "No one is perfect, Mr. Saavik.

In I.E. there's a program called ie.espell that can be downloaded... I use Firefox with spell checker
It's a bit annoying at times, though. It doesn't check when numbers accide4ntly get injected into9 words.

My office does not permit us to download anything, so I must resort to my own, Huked On Fonix spelling skills.

Depends on catching her in the right moment.

Or you, apparently.

 

[Jackalgirl]

Again, depends on what you mean by "darkness", and how close this is to the Christian descriptions of "evil".

Also, it depends on how close to what you're talking about is to conventional definitions of "illegal".

However, let me refer you to a really good book, "Diamond Age", by Neal Stephenson. It's about nanotechnology, but it also goes very deeply into ideas about where morality comes from; some of the characters strongly espouse what you may be ultimately saying: that a visceral experience of evil is what leads someone to truly, sentiently, embrace a moral code. (In the story, there are a group of people who embrace Victorian-era mores. They did so because they came out of a post-government world collapse in which amorality reigned. They're worried about their children and children's children, who grew up in this new world with the moral code intact and who accept it by rote -- so you could say, in a sense, that they do not actually choose it. The story is about one character's attempt to introduce perversity* into children's education.)

*By "perversity" I do not mean sexual perversity. Rather, what Stephenson talks about is what we would call "grim" or "dark" elements -- like the (original) Grimm's Fairy Tales. By vicariously experiencing evil through the characters in the story, the hope is that children will come to embrace the culture's moral code because they see that it is a rational response to amorality. The characters seek to create children who are not afraid of contradition or paradox, and who do not automatically expect that the simplest answer is the correct one.

Religion-wise, you might be interested in my own faith, Kemetic Orthodoxy. Part of the underpinnings of the faith is that there can be very contradictory (and even opposing) faces of God: to whit, you've got Osirus (linked to the green, growing land) and Set (linked to the red desert and to storms). Set is not evil, in the classical Christian "SATAN!!!" sense. Set represents forces of nature that can be incredibly destructive, but just are (and, in fact, is the only Name strong enough to face Apep, which represents isfet, or "evil"). Evil, in the KO sense, is (sort of) Uncreation (not death, which is a part of life).

KO might twig to what you're saying; if I'm understanding you correctly, there might be some parallels.

 

[Elizabeth I]

Exactly! lol

It is hard at first for some but it is a very helpful Technique Neverfly.

It's ignorant.

 

[Neverfly]

It's ignorant.

Ignorance would be hiding from your problems.

Do you actually have something useful to say?

 

[Ron_Tomkins]

You don't know the Power of the Dark Side!

 

[Shalamar]

You don't know the Power of the Dark Side!

Hey! Thats MY line!

 

[Hokulele]

Bacchus, ever fair and young,
Drinking joys did first ordain;
Bacchus' blessings are a treasure,
Drinking is the soldier's pleasure;
Rich the treasure,
Sweet the pleasure,
Sweet is pleasure after pain.

- John Dryden

 

[The Atheist]

I Believe in order to appreciate the Light in Life there must be Darkness.

You missed the point: the darkness is the light.

 

[Tumblehome]

And how much would we appreciate life without death, etc. etc.?

Curious, how many people have you met who were "ALWAYS happy"?

I used to have a born-again couple for neighbours who were always happy during the few years they lived beside us. Always had a smile and a cheerful comment. It became irritating after a while because it just didn't seem natural somehow.

But that only lasted as long as things were going their way. When their kids hit puberty and started causing problems that their "happiness" couldn't prevent or fix, they fell apart. In the end, their lives were just as balanced as anyone else's, but rather unnaturally so.

 

[Bikewer]

I've always been fond of the quote from Terence (Terentius) "I am a man, and nothing human is alien to me."

Of course, Obi-Wan was always warning Luke of the dangers of the "dark side"...

Much of value in Taoism...Hint, go to a library and get a number of different translations. Also, be sure to get one with all the commentary; some of the stuff is culture-specific and requires a little scholarly clarification.

 

[RobRoy]

In the end, their lives were just as balanced as anyone else's, but rather unnaturally so.

How was it "unnaturally so"? I'm not questioning your statement, I'm curious about your observations.

 

[Beerina]

What Ninja is saying is pretty basic...

Sometimes you gotta feel hurt to appreciate the times you feel joy.

How very Epicurean.


Although going hungry all day makes plain lettuce taste delicious, I'm not sure if this applies to morality.

And why would one pursue bad morality in order to enjoy the good? Make someone poor so you can feel good giving them food?

How exatly would this work?

 

[quarky]

god and the devil are an essential team.

 

[RobRoy]

And why would one pursue bad morality in order to enjoy the good? Make someone poor so you can feel good giving them food?

How exatly would this work?

I asked that same question up above; here is DN's response.

 

[Hokulele]

Much of value in Taoism...Hint, go to a library and get a number of different translations. Also, be sure to get one with all the commentary; some of the stuff is culture-specific and requires a little scholarly clarification.

I also recommend reading Chuang Tzu alongside the standard Lao Tzu (Tao Te Ching) for another take on Taoism. His writings give a bunch of examples of putting balance into practice in daily life.