“Зачем нужна дорога, которая не ведёт к храму?” – спросила старая женщина из известного фильма: “Покаяание”, и эта фраза сразу завоевала популярность среди людей. Звучит красиво, как-бы противопоставляя духовное материальному. Но, на мой взгляд, от дорог, которые не ведут к храму, почти всегда больше пользы, или, по крайней мере, меньше вреда, чем от дорог, которые ведут к разного рода храмам. И дело тут совсем не в материальности, просто не надо отождествлять духовность и религию.
Category: Really Random Thoughts
About Sacrifices
I have much greater respect for the sacrifices made by atheists, than for those made by people who believe in happy afterlife.
Keep Your Hopes Up
For a rational mind, based on facts and science, there may be little doubt that we cease to exist after death. Of course, one can’t rule out the possibility that we live in some kind of simulated reality — but since this can be neither proved nor disproved, you’re free to believe it if it helps.
In fact, that might be the most rational choice, and here’s why: if death is the end, you won’t be around to regret being wrong, but while you live, that belief can make things feel less miserable. It will let you hold on to hope until the very last moment — and then, in case you were wrong? Well, nothing, as I already mentioned in one of my previous posts.
The One Habit of Highly Effective People
I believe, the difference between ordinary and effective people is the way they decide on their actions. The ordinary people, more often than not, base their decision on how they would feel while doing or not doing something; the more successful ones decide what to do based on how they will feel after they do or don’t do it.
And, as you might guess, I haven’t followed this rule enough myself.
History Lessons
I was about to write a smart-ass comment, something like: “We learn from history that we do not learn from history”, but then I thought the quote is to obvious and somebody should have said something similar in the past. I did some searching an and voila: Hegel in his “Lectures on the Philosophy of History” wrote:
“What experience and history teach is this—that nations and governments have never learned anything from history.”
Bummer… Still, I think, my version sounds better 🙂
Can Something Cease to Exist?
It would seem that nothing is lost in the universe: stuff transforms from one state to another, matter can annihilate and become energy, and energy can transform back into particles of matter. Lifeforms die becoming building blocks for other lifeforms, and every single cell is the direct descendent of that first molecule that found the best way to replicate itself billions of years ago. Yet that doesn’t seem to apply to the best and the most precious creations of the universe: the human minds, which are largely wasted, leaving behind scrapples of work and questionably affected minds of some unconcerned and forgetful children. What becomes of all the collected memories and wisdom, unique set of skills, unspoken or ununderstood thoughts and ideas, unwritten poems, untold stories or the music that has been conceived but never recorded? But then again, what does universe care? There are no laws requiring conservation of everything… or are there?
Maybe it is preserved in some mysterious ways we don’t fully understand. Or maybe it is too new an invention and the universe hasn’t found the way to preserve it yet, or maybe we are the ones who are destined to do it.
Promises
The most important promises are those you make to yourself. Keeping or breaking those has the greatest impact on your life.
Death
Do not be afraid of death: in the worst case it’s nothing.
Religion
Religion is a child of ignorance and fear.
Intuition and Wisdom
Intuition is just an acquired pattern of thought as a result of experience, and wisdom is the entire set of those patterns.
Some may say that wisdom also includes reassessment of the values, but one can argue that it is also the result of conscious and subconscious selection of successful patterns, in the manner, which in the ML we call: reinforced learning.
Armen' s Random Thoughts 