/lit/ - Literature

https://benthams.substack.com/p/why-theres-evil

>There might be various unknown reasons. Perhaps putting us in a universe like this is valuable because it is required for various hard-to-guess afterlife goods. Perhaps there’s some consequential decision that we’ll make in 5 quadrillion years that God knows will be positively shaped by us being in an indifferent universe. Given that we only witness 70 years of our lives or so, we’re not in a position to guess whether there are such great afterlife goods. This theodicy also avoids the problems with skeptical theism, because it only requires positing an unknown reason for one thing—making an indifferent universe. But surely thinking that God has some unknown reasons to do one particular act doesn’t produce global skepticism or any of the other untenable results of skeptical theism—we already know that we’re wrong sometimes!

>Perhaps being in an indifferent world, one whose features resemble the typical godless world that contains us and where we can know about the broad features of the world, strengthens our relationship with God. To consider an analogy: your relationship with your eventual spouse might be strengthened by the fact that you spent time without them. Having time without someone might strengthen your relationship with them. Similarly, time spent in a world apart from God might strengthen one’s eventual relationship with God, a relationship that is of infinite value.

>Perhaps struggling through an indifferent world, not being micromanaged by God, is uniquely valuable for soul-building. Just going through a narrowly tailored set of challenges doesn’t give one the knowledge that they can overcome hardships in the same way that overcoming a random suite of challenges does. The benefits of soul-building, as of the other benefits on this list, last forever.

Reasons why God exists from a rationalist perspective:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbhQhmgM5c4
https://benthams.substack.com/p/the-anthropic-argument-for-theism

>>23635013
A superintelligence is indistinguishable from God.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5lND7Hp5aw
https://benthams.substack.com/p/the-anthropic-argument-for-theism

>>23237819
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9NhjMOWUNY

Yourself. Sacrifice yourself to yourself. Discover your sufficient reason, the principle you were born to manifest, and become a law unto yourself, like Buddha, Jesus, and Muhammad.

That is the true goal of life.

Where is the Kant fag that was arguing about absolutism in this thread >>23021204, I want to continue this debate.

Yesterday was a good day for /lit/. The right amount of femoid bashing, the perfect number of philosophy posts and the right number of literature. No kant posts or seething about nietzsche and schop or hegel. Plato and Parmenides mentioned. No endless I am depressed and want die schizoposting and no juveniles sucking up to vs debates abou dfw, joyce and mccarhy. Jannies deleted some based threads but overall it was a nice day, probably one of the best discussion I've had on lit without getting distracted by youtube or going to other boards. Why can't the retards who made these threads be consistent? I have a video with all the threads but its too big to post.

What do we gain from philosophy?

>>22915535
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH

Non philosotards get poop'd on hard

Study the terms in this image to achieve enlightenment

>>22549524
This "steelmanned" argument is the most convincing argument there is for the existence of God.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxYbA1pt8LA
https://vitrifyher.wordpress.com/2018/11/22/the-case-for-the-physical-existence-of-god/

>>22288949
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9NhjMOWUNY

>>22195783
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9NhjMOWUNY

https://effectiveaccelerationism.substack.com/
https://harmlessai.substack.com/
https://squarecircle.substack.com/
https://benthams.substack.com/
https://roonscape.ai/

>>22043137
>explain why in LW agentic terms that he's probably not actually in a simulation
Redpill me in LW agentic terms on why we don't live in a simulation

>>22020919
Part 2

>>21796005
AGI implies Deism is true.

https://vitrifyher.wordpress.com/2018/11/22/the-case-for-the-physical-existence-of-god/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxYbA1pt8LA

>>21522210

>>21270008

Just finished Eric Voegelin's "Science, Politics, and Gnosticism" and I'm exploring his diagnosis of the "pneumopathology" that has taken root in modern thought: the desire for a method to alter being, the gnostic desire for dominion over being, the demonic mendacity of all systems of thought that initiates a closure to divine reality by making human inquiry a practical impossibility, deifying man as a master of nature in an immanentist program for the transformation of the world that rejects vertical transcendence in favor of the horizontal transcendence of futuristic parousias of Being or intramundance salvific doctrines where human existence is a movement from stage to stage toward a final perfect realm, rejecting the order of being, obliterating the transcendent order of being, decapitating being, putting being under man's control.

Voegelin's alternative to the various parousiastic gnosticisms of modernity is the experiential faith garnered through uncertain truths chosen over certain untruths, the expose to what lies beyond dogmatic certainty, the undergoing of a great spiritual strain of being what one is, without murdering oneself in order to be more.

What literature out there explores this method of spiritual training, this way of building in oneself a loving relationship to being? What's worked for you guys? How have you grown in your relationship to God?

For me, the basics are maintaining a devoted and disciplined prayer life and physical training regimen. I have a particular penchant for the calm, stability, and radical openness I experience through my practice of contemplative methods, so I practice a lot of meditative techniques. A continual study and relationship to Scripture is also important, in my experience. As far as spiritual teachers who have opened paths for me, I read and study Augustine, Thich Nhat Hanh, Thanissaro Bhikkhu, Frithjof Schuon, Anthony de Mello, the ascetic teachings of the Desert Fathers and the Orthodox monastic tradition, St. Francis and contemporary Franciscan spiritual leaders like Ilia Delio and Richard Rohr, philosophers like Karl Jaspers and Ortega y Gasset, authors like Herman Hesse and Nikos Kazantzakis, and poets like Rilke and Heaney and Wordsworth.

But what has worked for you? Tell me about your experience, your journey out of the sickness