Can a human being change .

china

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Jul 30, 2006
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We probably have asked ourselves , I'm quite sure, whether one can change at all. I know that outward circumstances change; we marry, divorce, have children; there is death, a better job, the pressure of new inventions, and so on. Outwardly there is a tremendous revolution going on in cybernetics and automation. One must have asked oneself whether it is at all possible for one to change at all, not in relation to outward events, not a change that is a mere repetition or a modified continuity, but a radical revolution, a total mutation of the mind. When one realizes, as one must have noticed within oneself, that actually one doesn't change, one gets terribly depressed, or one escapes from oneself. So the inevitable question arises, can there be change at all? We go back to a period when we were young, and that comes back to us again. Is there change at all in human beings? Have you changed at all? Perhaps there has been a modification on the periphery. but deeply, radically, have you changed? Perhaps we do not want to change, because we are fairly comfortable....I want to change. I see that I am terribly unhappy, depressed, ugly, violent, with an occasional flash of something other than the mere result of a motive; and I exercise my will to do something about it. I say I must be different, I must drop this habit, that habit; I must think differently; I must act in a different way; I must be more this and less that. One makes a tremendous effort and at the end of it one is still shoddy, depressed, ugly, brutal, without any sense of quality. So one then asks oneself if there is change at all. Can a human being change? Can you change?
 

JLM

Hall of Fame Member
Nov 27, 2008
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We probably have asked ourselves , I'm quite sure, whether one can change at all. I know that outward circumstances change; we marry, divorce, have children; there is death, a better job, the pressure of new inventions, and so on. Outwardly there is a tremendous revolution going on in cybernetics and automation. One must have asked oneself whether it is at all possible for one to change at all, not in relation to outward events, not a change that is a mere repetition or a modified continuity, but a radical revolution, a total mutation of the mind. When one realizes, as one must have noticed within oneself, that actually one doesn't change, one gets terribly depressed, or one escapes from oneself. So the inevitable question arises, can there be change at all? We go back to a period when we were young, and that comes back to us again. Is there change at all in human beings? Have you changed at all? Perhaps there has been a modification on the periphery. but deeply, radically, have you changed? Perhaps we do not want to change, because we are fairly comfortable....I want to change. I see that I am terribly unhappy, depressed, ugly, violent, with an occasional flash of something other than the mere result of a motive; and I exercise my will to do something about it. I say I must be different, I must drop this habit, that habit; I must think differently; I must act in a different way; I must be more this and less that. One makes a tremendous effort and at the end of it one is still shoddy, depressed, ugly, brutal, without any sense of quality. So one then asks oneself if there is change at all. Can a human being change? Can you change?

Definitely, especially once we are convinced of the benefit of doing so. Most people want to be accepted for the right reasons. Most people want recognition for positive deeds.
 

In Between Man

The Biblical Position
Sep 11, 2008
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Jesus Christ was a good man two thousand years ago and led by example and it's probably good to keep him handy as a reference, but to be obsessed with him is sick, and can grate on people's nerves.

If it grates your nerves to hear Christ's name, then too bad.

How dare you call me sick.
 

china

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alleywayzalwayz

You need Jesus Christ.

Don' think so ,He's my younger brother and he needs me.
 

china

Time Out
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Definitely, especially once we are convinced of the benefit of doing so. Most people want to be accepted for the right reasons. Most people want recognition for positive deeds.
JLM

Most people want recognition for positive deeds.

Agree JLM , but the positive deeds can take away the "daily comfort" and pleasure eg quitting smoking .What's more important.
.
 

JLM

Hall of Fame Member
Nov 27, 2008
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JLM



Agree JLM , but the positive deeds can take away the "daily comfort" and pleasure eg quitting smoking .What's more important.
.

Guess it depends on what you value more the "daily comfort" or the long term greater comfort.
 

In Between Man

The Biblical Position
Sep 11, 2008
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.
It's only 1:45 pm in Qingdao.

I hope the weather is nice. It's 10:55 pm here in Beautiful North Vancouver, British Columbia, the best place on earth. Rainy, sirens going up my street, sleepy, very, very sleepy. Breathing the sweet air of freedom will do that do you.

Which brings me to these questions for you china:

If God doesn't exist, and we're purely biological, is "freedom" a real thing? For if there is no god, what are you appealing to when one stands up for his or hers absolute right to freedom of speech? If there is no God, our "freedom" is really nothing, its an illusion, something we convince ourselves we have. Right?

Never questioned that .It's just the way it is.
That is the worst explanation I have ever heard. You didn't even try. You didn't even try pulling the "relative" card. Pretty much what I expected.

You bet your cotton pickin Jesus sandals.
So if he's alive, why not believe? You must like to joke around when I'm all sleepy...
 
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Dexter Sinister

Unspecified Specialist
Oct 1, 2004
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If there is no God, our "freedom" is really nothing, its an illusion, something we convince ourselves we have. Right?
Wrong. Other way around. If there is a god of the sort you imagine, we can have no freedom except what he chooses to grant us, and as the biblical stories make clear, he can and does take it away in a fit of bad temper or, in the case of Job, to win a bet. God, particularly as he appears in the Old Testament, is the worst sort of petty tyrant, one of the nastiest characters in all of literature. The illusion is religious belief, not freedom. Freedom is something we grant ourselves as part of our contract with each other as social animals, in varying degrees depending on how we organize our political systems.