The Power of Positive Thinking to Reverse Aging!

Quote: Originally Posted by SirJosephPorter

I don’t believe in spiritual nonsense, countryboy, there is no evidence for it.

Quote: Originally Posted by countryboy

I wonder why you chose to describe spirituality as "spiritual nonsense." I don't think anyone is asking you to believe in anything. People are just discussing their take on things and fortunately, most of them can manage to pull it off without being offensive about it.

Quote: Originally Posted by SirJosephPorter

Yes, about the open mind. In one of his stories, Asimov very accurately described this ‘open mind’. Near as I can recall, he said

“Now, Cullen was an intelligent Irish man. That is to say, he believed in the presence of fairies, pixies, little folk, leprechauns etc. and kept an open mind about vampires, werewolves, poltergeist and such foreign trash."

Quote: Originally Posted by countryboy

I wonder why you chose to describe spirituality as "spiritual nonsense." I don't think anyone is asking you to believe in anything. People are just discussing their take on things and fortunately, most of them can manage to pull it off without being offensive about it.

Quote: Originally Posted by countryboy

My grandfather was Scottish, not Irish, but I remember the time he said to me, "A mind is like an a**hole - if you don't open it once in a while, you're gonna have problems." I think he was right.

Quote: Originally Posted by SirJosephPorter

Single existence doesn't make sense? Why?

So what you are saying is that life isn't fair (if this is all there is to it). Well, duh. Why should life be fair, who meant to make it fair?

Quote: Originally Posted by countryboy

See, right there you demonstrated that you really are quite capable of having faith. Jumping from JLM's statement "single existence doesn't make sense" to your interpretation "So what you are saying is that life isn't fair" qualifies as something well beyond a leap of faith.

And following that up with "Well duh. Why should life be fair..." indicates a need for attention and respect by showing how you are able to size up a situation and come up with the final definitive answer, thus making yourself the final authority on the subject. Sounds downright spiritual to me!

Quote: Originally Posted by JLM

"However, I regard spiritually, religion, afterlife as part of superstition, which in my opinion is nonsense."

THAT I can accept. It doesn't work for YOU. But it's a little bit self centred to dismiss it as "nonsense" when it works for thousands of others.

Quote: Originally Posted by SirJosephPorter

If somebody is offended by it, I am sorry. However, I regard spiritually, religion, afterlife as part of superstition, which in my opinion is nonsense.

I don’t believe in these things, how else would you expect me to characterize it? Same way I would characterize Islam, Christianity, Hinduism etc. as silly superstition, as bunk. So by one sentence, have I offended 5 billion people in the world (out of 6 billion)?

Insulting persons, resorting to personal insults is rude, crude and childish, and must not be allowed (and fortunately they don’t, in this forum). Trashing of ideas, calling some idea nonsense or silly superstition is perfectly permissible, is part of the debate and I don’t see anything wrong with that.

It is Mohammed’s cartoons all over again.

Quote: Originally Posted by SirJosephPorter

Gee, thanks for the psychoanalysis, countryboy.

Quote: Originally Posted by countryboy

Yeah, you're absolutely right. Insults are OK as long they are not personal.

Which means that if I said that the field of cancer research - worked on by thousands of highly qualified people for many years - is nothing but a money-sucking scam because a cure for cancer isn't on the horizon (and probably never will be), that wouldn't be insulting, would it? From a results point of view, cancer research is nonsense. Just stating the facts, as I see them.

Quote: Originally Posted by JLM

I used to think the same from seeing her on T.V. but then I read some books my daughter in law had and I changed my mind a bit. She's got a lot of details that I don't think a phony would go to such depths for. Can't remember the names of the books as it was several years ago that I read them. I don't think she necessarily has everything right, but some of it she just might.

Quote: Originally Posted by SirJosephPorter

There is nothing wrong with open mind, countryboy. The question is to what idea is one’s mind open. If one’s mind is open to superstition, that is not a desirable trait.

For instance take Astrology. Should one have an open mind to Astrology? Or how about Alchemy? Should one have an open mind towards Alchemy? If not, why not?

Do you have an open mind to Islam, would you consider the possibility that your religion (I assume Christianity) is the false religion and Islam may be true religion? If not, why don’t you have an open mind to Islam?

Or how about Applism? I have propounded Applism in this forum before. Would you consider the possibility that your religion is wrong and Applism is right? If not, why not?

Open mind means one is receptive to different rational, logical ideas. Open mind does not mean that one is open to any superstition, any crackpot idea that anybody will dish out.

Quote: Originally Posted by SirJosephPorter

No that wouldn't be insulting. I don't see why anybody would be insulted by it. It will be a crackpot opinion, certainly. But you are expressing your opinion, you are entitled to it, where does the insult come in?

Quote: Originally Posted by SirJosephPorter

No that wouldn't be insulting. I don't see why anybody would be insulted by it. It will be a crackpot opinion, certainly. But you are expressing your opinion, you are entitled to it, where does the insult come in?

Quote: Originally Posted by VanIsle

At one time I had all the books she put out too. Or at least all that were out at that time. I think I gave a couple to my sister and I either still have one around here or I may have tossed it. Like you, I believed in her. I thought she was the absolute greatest until she slipped up. We all store certain details and when she changed what she had to say from a year or two before in regard to how we all enter Heaven, she lost me. Then I began to look at her from the real side of life. When I listened with a critical ear rather than a believer, I could see how phony she is. One of the first ways a pyschic gets anyone's attention btw, is to tell you how much they believe in God and to indicate that God is in control of what they have to tell you. She's a loony bin like all the rest. She just does it better.

Quote: Originally Posted by Sporty883

Thinking young, acting young, having a youthful outlook on life, works for me... plus daily exercise. For 52 I have no health problems, never get a cold, and just zing through life. I guess having a zest for life is the key to eternal youth.
I date men much younger than me.

Quote: Originally Posted by JLM

Ohhhhhhhhhh how about a date? Nah, maybe wife would take a dim view.

Quote: Originally Posted by JLM

"How about Alchemy, do you think it is nonsense?"

In the sense that you are thinking, Yes, but if you look outside the box, there could be a lot of truth in it. Of course you can't turn straw into gold , literally speaking, but in a round about way you can. Flat earth? Works well for people who don't venture more than a few miles from home. Placebos are another thing that people turn their noses up at. People have known to be cure after taking them. It's what I call the "drug store mentality"- people who are just generally negative but they think some money can buy them some magic potion that cures all their ills. When they get the potion they are happy and when you are happy you forget about a lot of other crap. You might start doing cartwheels which gets the blood flowing, which gets oxygen to vital body parts. "Illness" is cured.

Quote: Originally Posted by countryboy

Talloola, Couldn't agree with you more. A person believes what they believe, and it's really nobody else's business. Hell, we even have a Charter that guarantees our right to do just that. (Don't tell SirJP I said that, or he'll never let me live it down! )

Quote: Originally Posted by countryboy

Well, let's see if we can find that elusive bridge between the "fact" and the "insult"...I submit that at least some of the researchers (and certainly the fund-raising folks) for cancer research might feel a bit insulted that some layman could come along and say that their entire careers have been built on a fabrication of the truth - that a cure for cancer is possible.

Quote: Originally Posted by countryboy

Taking it further, they might even think I was questioning their skills and credentials. After all, after the billions of dollars have been spent, people are still suffering and dying from cancer. So, lots of money and time expended, with no results.

Quote: Originally Posted by countryboy

I don't subscribe to your idea that having an open mind means "...one is receptive to different rational, logical ideas..." as that would mean I have pre-qualified any new or unfamiliar (to me) concepts as being "crackpot", to use your kind and thoughtful term.

Quote: Originally Posted by VanIsle

Give it a rest SJP. You are not a stupid man and you know exactly where you became insulting. You have attested to being the one who doesn't do such things, for years now so why are you? Don't come back at me with a "show me where I was insulting".