There is nothing good about me or my life

That is so strange to me, even though I have a mostly-unhappy immediate family.

I'm the risk taker who's mellowed. I used to be a type A personality with all the concomitant health and sanity risks, but I overcame all that bullshit.

I don't free-climb in places that will kill me, and I don't get very angry when I do get angry. Just don't steal from me, or screw with the folks I love.

The rest of the time, I'm all Delta blues...

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I've noticed that too from religious people and their fear of God. They need that fear factor, and they are more than persistent in trying to share that fear.

 

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Maybe they're religious because they have unreasoned fear and need an old, bearded white guy in the sky to help them?

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Or they were taught to fear and they are doing what they were told to do.

 

Yep. Either way, still so sad.

 

I think a distinction needs to be made between conditioned happiness (happiness dependent on a circumstance or thing) and unconditional happiness (hapiness free of dependence on things, conditions or circumstances).

 

Agreed. How does the person objectively identify "true" happiness?

Lord have mercy, what have I done? That's so astoundingly stupid that I can't delete it: It should be here for all to see.

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In a sad sort of way of course.

 

The question that needs to be answered here is why. Why does Matt feel that way? Is there a physiological reason or does Matt find some reward in these feelings?

 

That is a question for which I have no answer.

 

You see, I don't get it.
How could you possibly want to follow or honor a god that you are afraid of?
If fear needs be the emotion, I'd respond: "I ain't your whipping boy motherfucker".
........
I was thrown out of an army chapel once by a red faced redneck southern baptist preacher/chaplin.
He puffed hisself all up, and redfaced advanced toward me with spittle flying out of his mouth bellowing "Out of my church you sacrilegious son of a bitch". Some days, it just ain't worth chewing through the restraints.
I did kind of provoke him---

 

Life is what you make of it. You are a melancholy person. This is not necessarily bad. IDK. And evolution? IDK, its possible. I just cant say for certain consideing the missing links.

 

I think they believe that if they don't do as God says they don't get the ultimate super surprise waiting for them in heaven. Did you hear about Heaven? It's a wonderful place!!

 

I thank Matt gets reward... or has antisipation of reward from the posts he makes... but i dout that he feels reward from havin little to no pleasure.!!!

 

"Wonderful"... the longest 2 houres ive spent in my life was in church;;; an eternity of that sht... screw it

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Are you sure? It's 72 degrees there and you get to stay there forever!! Plus, they should have some bathrooms there in case you have the runs. I mean, if you die at 107 years old, you get to stay that way!! Forever!! And remember all those people that you never wanted to see again? Surprise!!!!

 

The question is why? He will not have a solution until he has answered that question. And he may never find an answer to that question.

 

One time i dreamed i was in hell... an i was in line for the slidin bord that went into the swimin pool... an when i got my turn an hit the water it felt warm an i realized it was acid... but it soom felt good an i got back in line for the slidin bord... LOL.!!!

Ive never dreamed about heaven but it sounds like hell to me

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Mayb Matt will reply to you'r queston.!!!

 

Now before I address the posts others have made here, I wish for others to address and debate about what I'm going to say here as well:

Although pain and pleasure might be one function as a whole because some might say that we cannot separate our pain, thoughts, knowledge, etc. from our pleasure because all functioning of our brains is all one thing as a whole. These people might then go on to say that all our functioning of our brains is of the same value and worth since they are a whole and we cannot separate any of these functions and compare them. So if that's the case, then what I should be saying here is that the state of mind we would be in without our ability to experience pleasure would be a neutral state of mind as opposed to being in a state of mind in which we have pleasure (which would be a good state of mind) or in a state of mind in which we have pain and/or despair (which would be a bad state of mind). This neutral state of mind I just stated would still be neutral (neither good or bad) regardless of how much we use that neutral state of mind in helping others and doing great things in our lives and it would make everything neutral from our perspectives no matter what and no matter how much we viewed things in life as being good anyway.

Also, if you were in both a state of mind in which you had pleasure (a good state of mind) as well as pain (a bad state of mind), you might then be asking would you then be a good or bad person? The answer to that would be that the pleasure and pain would cancel each other out in terms of good and bad. So if you had an equal amount of pleasure and pain going on at the same time, you would actually be in a neutral state of mind. But if you had more pleasure than the amount of pain you are also experiencing at the same time, then you would be in a good state of mind (just not as good as if you didn't have the pain to begin with). Same thing applies if you had more pain than pleasure in which you would be in a bad state of mind.

Now I did not say that we were unthinking people or that any of our thoughts don't "matter." We are able to think and our thoughts do "matter," but they only matter in a neutral sense in that they are not good or bad in terms of scientific facts (scientific facts obviously being the facts of life). If what I'm saying about good and bad being scientific properties is a scientific fact (that they can only be the functioning of those atoms and particles that give us feelings of pleasure and suffering), then good and bad can only mean pleasure and suffering and that's it. All our thoughts of good and bad or any other created meanings for that matter would all just be a different scientific property that is neither good or bad. The functions in our brains that come up with words, sounds, images, etc., this functioning is all the same which would mean that there is nothing different about creating a moral meaning in your mind as opposed to any other bad or even bland meaning. It is all just a matter of different sounds, images, words, etc. and that is it (just simply different activity in those specific functions of the brain and that is it). It would be no different than the different activity of parts of your brain that make you blink, breathe, and walk in different ways.

But since pleasure always feels good in of itself no matter what while pain and despair always feel bad in of themselves no matter what and this is something that can never change, this would mean that they are the scientific properties "good" and "bad." The fact that we can change our perception (thoughts) of what is good and bad means that they are not the scientific properties of good and bad. All other functions of our brain are what they are and nothing can change that. They can only simply be different activities of those parts of the brain and that is it. For example, the function of your brain that causes you to blink cannot be any other different function such as the function of your brain that causes you to breathe. So to say that your created meanings are somehow different and special from any other created meanings would be false because the only way it truly can be different is if the functioning of those parts of the brain that came up with these meanings was a different function of our brains entirely. So any created meanings in our lives are just simply the result of different activities of those functions of our brains that come up with these meanings and that is it. The only way for those meanings to truly be good or bad is if they were no longer meanings at all and were instead a different function of our brains entirely (which would be the function of our brains that give us pleasure and suffering). Again, the functions of our brain that give us pleasure and suffering are what they are in that they always feel good and bad in of themselves independently of each other no matter what and this is what makes them the scientific properties "good" and "bad."

But you might then be asking that if good and bad don't exist in terms of our thoughts, then how is it that we find meaning in this life and help others out anyway? It would be because we are just designed by evolution to benefit ours and the survival of others. However, none of that I just mentioned is anything good or bad since they are, again, not the scientific properties of good and bad (which would be feelings of pleasure and suffering). If what I'm saying here has the potential to be true, then I wish to someday get this scientifically tested and demonstrated as true or false. I wish to prove to everyone once and for all whether one's own pleasure is truly the only good thing in life, that one's own pain and despair are the only bad things in life, and that everything else in life is neutral (neither good or bad).