Males and Females

Let's definitely do that. There are loads of beer fests going on in Boulder this summer, I think Avery's doing one of them, if memory serves me right.

Don't think i've seen Avery at all, but I went to a beer carnival/tasting thing in the Springs and was pretty let-down by Colorado brews.

I remember after high school I swam the high seas of religion, trying to find a spiritual mindset that best fit me. I was born and raised Catholic, and after high school I got really interested in my Irish heritage, so I tried Celtic Spirituality. It was interesting, but ultimately I felt silly. I then looked into Taoism and found it interesting but impractical. I then became a vehement atheist which I think everybody does their first few years of college. Then I became interested in Buddhism but found I'd make a shitty Buddhist. I really liked the philosophies and frequently read the Dhammapada.

In the end I've just decided to try and be a decent person and not a douchebag. That's my religion.

The thing against being a buddhist for me is you must believe in the caste system way of life correct? Which I could never agree to, but I do sort of believe in karma and I pretty much live a life without many material things.


And I eat organic peanut butter(skippy fo life) with a constant rotation of grape/raspberry(underrated)/strawberry..apricot is good, first time I had it was in a hostel in Budapest
 
I prefer to just stay clear of that whole hornet's nest altogether. I'll take plain white bread - thank you very much - maybe with a glass of water on the side for dippin'.
 
Chunky almond butter with black or boysenberry jam. Jelly is fucking disgusting. Sunflower butter has a really interesting taste as well. Swapping out the jam with figs is super bomb.

And as for religion, everyone I've come across is loaded with nonsense such as life-after-death, souls, spirits, deities and nonviolence (an impossibility for any animal). They're all pretty interesting if looked at as mythology, old legal codes and at times, stunning prose and poetry, but I'm constantly blown away by how many people still think this stuff is actually real.
 
In the end I've just decided to try and be a decent person and not a douchebag. That's my religion.

But what constitutes decent and what constitutes doucheyness?

I'm too unfocused, indecisive and inattentive to logical coherence to be anything but a postmodern eclectic when it comes to philosophy and religion, so I simply use it as a means to keep perspective on things as personal as my daily choices and as broad as modern politics and social phenomena. I mainly study ancient philosophies and religions, so that contrast keeps me at a safe distance from fully embracing anything modern and progressive at face value. For example, when considering a political issue I think of how similar approaches to them in the ancient world have turned out, i.e. democratic Athens' conduct during the Peloponnesian War, as well as how thinkers such as Plato would conceptualize social dynamics in terms of their organic coherence.

But I also believe that a degree of dogmatism and faith in institutions is the key to their positive success, and that rampant skepticism has potentially destructive advantages. It's still a quixotic notion that world socioeconomic equality and prosperity will reach a point where education will be of such high quality (social equality/prosperity and education are chickens and eggs, however) that any form of peaceful harmony can exist at such a large scale without the arbitrary boundaries of institutions to enforce it. That global garden of Epicurus envisioned by Vergil in Book VI of the Aeneid is still too far off and may never happen.

I haven't quite had a chance to finish the Republic yet, and while I intend to follow it up in the future with more of his writings, I think his ideas can fuck right off. Despotic elitism and misery-inducing ideals.
 
I haven't quite had a chance to finish the Republic yet, and while I intend to follow it up in the future with more of his writings, I think his ideas can fuck right off. Despotic elitism and misery-inducing ideals.

The Republic of Iran, which Ayatollah Khomeini structured largely on Plato's Republic, is a case study of Plato's ideals in action. Draw from it what you will.
 
The Republic of Iran, which Ayatollah Khomeini structured largely on Plato's Republic, is a case study of Plato's ideals in action. Draw from it what you will.

TBQH I don't think I'm going to be able to get any relatively unbiased information about Iran in the US/west......or from Iran.
 
SWAAAAAAG

I like smooth peanut butter with no-sugar-added (NO FAKE SWEETENER EITHER) raspberry preserves.

I like psychedelic drugs, music, and nature - separately and all together. Spiritual cocktail.
 
I remember after high school I swam the high seas of religion, trying to find a spiritual mindset that best fit me. I was born and raised Catholic, and after high school I got really interested in my Irish heritage, so I tried Celtic Spirituality. It was interesting, but ultimately I felt silly. I then looked into Taoism and found it interesting but impractical. I then became a vehement atheist which I think everybody does their first few years of college. Then I became interested in Buddhism but found I'd make a shitty Buddhist. I really liked the philosophies and frequently read the Dhammapada.

In the end I've just decided to try and be a decent person and not a douchebag. That's my religion.

this post^^
should have been posted here
http://www.ultimatemetal.com/forum/bar/867603-when-did-you-stop-believing-god.html