sortingoutayoungcontrarian

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“If the highest aim of a captain was to preserve his ship, he would keep it in port forever.” - Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica

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“What is love but understanding and rejoicing at the fact that another lives, feels and acts in a way different from and opposite to ours? If love is to bridge these antitheses through joy it may not deny or seek to abolish them. Even self-love presupposes an unblendable duality (or multiplicity) in one person.”

—Human, All Too Human, “Assorted Opinions and Maxims,” §75.

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“Uncontacted tribes in the Amazon have no idea that water can freeze”

— http://ifttt.com/missing_link?1577732047

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“At the start of every disaster movie, there’s a scientist being ignored.”

— http://ifttt.com/missing_link?1577626271

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“He who has a why to live for can endure any how”

-Friedrich Nietzsche

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Strange Noodles, by Denis Loebner, via ArtStation.

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Watch Dr. Robert Sapolsky’s entire course at Standford University on Human Behavioral Biology. This course was designed for students with no scientific backgrounds, an introductory course. He first does an introduction of multiple disciplines from neurology, psychology, endocrinology, genetics, animal behavior, etc.. then demolishes the boundaries between disciplines and shows how human behavior is a complex mess and how truths from all these different disciplines come together.

WATCH the YouTube playlist now!

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“You can hold yourself back from the sufferings of the world, that is something you are free to do and it accords with your nature, but perhaps this very holding back is the one suffering you could avoid.”

— Franz Kafka, The Zürau Aphorisms

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“He who has a why to live for can endure any how”

-Friedrich Nietzsche

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Nihilism leads to ________

What some people call nihilism others call awakening.

I’m sorry to hear you have been there. I have been there as well. However it is not nihilism that motivates you to self destruction or the destruction of others. That is a lack of consciousness of well-being. This definition of nihilism is definitely a western Judao Christian take on what others call an awakening. being trapped in a slave…

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“If you’re an atheist then you think you are god.”

I have heard this phrase a lot lately and it gives me a headache. The only reason being to explain how and why this is fallacious is to take that person on a journey. This journey takes them outside of their world view for their first time. I say “first time” because if they had been objective in reasoning a question in the first place then that one would never have come up. Even when I was a…

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Why I Write

I was raised under a fundamental Christian roof. Homeschooled intact because God told my mom to. Then I went to a Lutheran Christian church. Then I went to a Bible College to become Pastor. You may be wondering “why/how could you now be an Deist?” Well to spare you the cliches such as “Facts” or “reason”, “logic”, “science”, “Religion is a cheap excuse for war”- you get the point. I am going to…

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I am not an Athenian, nor a Greek, but a citizen of the world.

Socrates, in Plutarch’s Moralia (via philosophybits)

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“Respect for man, and not merely for virtuous men, is perhaps what divides us most sharply from a Christian evaluation.”

—F. Nietzsche, The Will to Power, §747 (excerpt).

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A Former Protester Shows Us The Power of Engaging The Other

I found this to be a profoundly powerful video. This woman was raised from infancy to hold signs of hate, scream at unbelievers, and to quote passages that supported her agenda. She spent the first half of her life as a hate monger. That was until people engaged her online without rage, contempt, and condemnation. Watch the video to see how she changed, what happened after, and what she has to say about speaking with people we disagree with.

I had created this blog with the hopes of spreading information and mending divides. I even wrote this post at the very beginning, A Nation Divided. I must admit with deep regret that I have not lived up to my own words. I have not always spread my message with the tempered and compassionate method I set out with. Under this administration, I move between wanting to try to explain why certain things are wrong and just wanting to lash out in anger. This is the contradiction of human emotions and intelligence. I know from experience that only one method works to help someone see your point of view.

As it happens, I’ve been debating or discussing with a conservative on tumblr here. I must admit I’ve been condescending. One thing the woman said in the video is that we often feel the truth of our position is self-evident and that we are unable to understand how other people come to their conclusions. This is absolutely true. I am often floored at the apparent mental gymnastics of some people. She says that we have to take the time to make our argument. 

This is true. If we just look at people and say, “duh,” then we haven’t given them any reason to change their mind or taken an opportunity to create positive change in the world. That’s not to say that people shouldn’t be responsible for educating themselves, but we could take the time when we have it. If a girl raised in the Westboro Baptist Church can be led to reason by calm conversation then almost anyone can. The question is whether we are willing to put in the effort.