religion - general discussion

[nullorchis (imported)]

That is the one area where other life forms that have brains seem to be superior to humans:

WE HUMANS THINK TO MUCH.

LOVE, LIVE, LAUGH, but don't LANGUISH.

[A-1 (imported)]

Well, maybe so, but notice I didn't say she didn't have sex after we married, I just said we didn't.

Neither did I specify with whom... well, at least YOU know...

[sensenbender (imported)]

A more obvious question is why one would hold unsupported beliefs? There are several equally weak reasons: to conform with others, seeking praise and acceptance while avoiding censure and ostracism; to assert that one's wishes are true, and that life is as one would want it to be; to placate a hunger for knowledge with invented certainties, because one is too vain to admit ignorance and too lazy to seek answers. Why devote oneself to such obvious folly?

And some equally strong ones as well: Because science notwithstanding, we don't know it all; because outright falsification of everything not proven might miss out on a lot of truths; because "there are more things under the sun than are dreamed of in your philosophy, horatio."

[A-1 (imported)]

And some equally strong ones as well: Because science notwithstanding, we don't know it all; because outright falsification of everything not proven might miss out on a lot of truths; because "there are more things under the sun than are dreamed of in your philosophy, horatio."

Ah yes, I never could understand the King's English in the Bible until I studied Shakespeare in High School.

No, we do not know it all. We can only know what we know and believe what we believe, and never the twain should meet...

Hamlet:

Swear by my sword

Never to speak of this that you have heard.

Ghost:

[Beneath] Swear by his sword.

Hamlet:

Well said, old mole, canst work i' th' earth so fast?

A worthy pioner! Once more remove, good friends.

Horatio:

O day and night, but this is wondrous strange!

Hamlet:

And therefore as a stranger give it welcome.

There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,

Than are dreamt of in your philosophy. (http://www.enotes.com/shakespeare-quote ... th-horatio)

Hamlet Act 1, scene 5, 159–167

Horatio and Marcellus, though advised against it, barge into Hamlet's conversation with his father's ghost [see SOMETHING IS ROTTEN IN THE STATE OF DENMARK]. Hamlet is a little unforthcoming with the news imparted by this spirit, who is still rustling about under the stage. So it's hard to figure what Horatio and Marcellus are being asked to keep quiet, though Hamlet and the burrowing ghost (a "pioner," or miner) insist.

Horatio, a model of rationality, is still having a hard time swallowing the whole business. Ghosts are not the sort of beings his "philosophy" easily takes into account. We know that Horatio is, like Hamlet, a student at the University of Wittenberg, a notable outpost of Protestant humanism. The philosophy he studies there is probably classical—a compound of ethics, logic, and natural science. The emphasis on everyday phenomena pretty much excludes speculation about talking ghosts.

Wittenberg, however, isn't just a place where sober-minded Horatios debate Aristotelian physics. In Christopher Marlowe's play of the late 1580s, Doctor Faustus, it is where the doctor lectures and, on the sideline, fraternizes with demons.

Themes: philosophy, supernatural phenomena

Speakers: Hamlet, Horatio, Ghost

[Paolo]

Amen, Horatio!

[loveableleopardy (imported)]

Thanks for your message Arab Nights.

I get from what you are saying that no matter what there will always be good times and bad times. I've always accepted this, but still think that we should try to make our lives as good as possible. I suppose that means making the good times better.

We need the bad times to appreciate (recognise) the good.

[Arab Nights (imported)]

It dawned on me the day after that post that it was incomplete. My question on the cycle of relationships was what happens for those who cannot or do not have sex. MRT's point was that maintaining a relationship without sex is damn difficult.

[nullorchis (imported)]

The need for sex:

Food, air, water........all necessary to live.

Sex..........perhaps necessary for most, to varying degrees due to a lot of variables. Certainly for men, castration or other issues will greatly reduce or eliminate the desire and need for sex. I know siterone certainly eliminated all interest in or desire for sex for me; and the interesting part has been there there is no frustration or anxiety over not wanting or needing sexual activity. It's like finding peace on earth. Even lost my craving for castration for awhile, tho that craving has fully returned.

Money......probably needed more than sex.

[loveableleopardy (imported)]

The need for sex:

Money......probably needed more than sex.

Don't start talking like that.

You haven't lost your balls yet!

[gareth19 (imported)]

Ah yes, I never could understand the King's English in the Bible until I studied Shakespeare in High School.

Here's a modern version of Hamlet to make it accessible to students:

http://sub-zero.mit.edu/bakunin/hamlet.html

However, Pinkerton's Principle precludes a similar treatment of the Bible.