Have you considered that this belief system is unlivable? Or maybe deep, down inside, you don't actually believe it?
If you believed it, and you were consistent, why did you post what you did? If you don't matter (I think you do matter tremendously), and if nobody who reads it matters, then your post doesn't matter.
But you do matter. And so do we. And you know it because you spoke up. Why do you matter? That's the question. Because you were created in the image of God.
It is indeed livable, you just may not be able to conceive how it is so. Contrary to what many think, nihilism is not just the assertion that reality lacks meaning, but a philosophy based around the implications of such a reality. To paraphrase, we are the ones, on an individual and collective level, who assign meaning to our experiences and encounters. Put simply, everything matters because nothing matters.
There's another solution to this question (or maybe the same one in different words). I believe something similar, but I still do things - why do I do things? Why write this message?
The question seems like a show-stopper.
Then again, the trees I can see outside my window don't believe pointing their leaves at the sun matters or bears meaning, nor do the planets consider turning in their orbits. Nevertheless, they continue to do these things!
What is the difference between me, and these other systems? Why do I need to Ultimately Matter to live?
I think we're thinking of "unlivable" in two different senses. When I said "belief system is unlivable" I didn't mean you can't agree with it and live. I meant you can't live as though it's actually true. You can't be consistent with it and live.
Why take care of yourself if you don't matter? Why help other people if they are as irrelevant as your help? Why participate in thoughtful discussion if nobody matters, and neither do the conclusions? Folks who think they have no ultimate value do these (good) things all the time -- but they can't and be consistent with their worldview.
> What is the difference between me, and these other systems?
Simply put, you're human, not a plant or a planet. Humans are volitional, trees and rocks are not. "How can trees live without beliefs?" is analogous to "how can humans live without photosynthesis?" -- because we're fundamentally different.
Human actions are the products of our beliefs. We think and long for significance. Why? If you're a just mass of chemicals, atoms clashing with atoms, why do you long to matter? And if you aren't more significant than the tree, why can't I cut you down if it suits me? The typical responses ("it's beneficial for survival", "society says so", etc.) don't make it wrong inherently, yet we know murder et al. are wrong. Actually wrong. And, if we don't matter, why is survival good? Why is society's opinion good? They wouldn't be, they would just be other possible, equally meaningless, states in the vast, purposeless, eternal state machine.
But you do matter. And it's a divine gift. You matter because you were created to matter.
> Human actions are the products of our beliefs. We think and long for significance. Why? If you're a just mass of chemicals, atoms clashing with atoms, why do you long to matter?
Because it’s built-in for your survival. You are optimizing a fitness function. Nature is ultimate. The meme that man has dominion over Earth has led to us raping and pillaging her. We have done horrible things to our mother.
> Jesus is a human embodiment of God (according to the Council of Nicaea) so he is both himself and his Son.
What you've described is called "modalism" (aka "Sabellianism", after a guy named Sabellius) and is taught against in Scripture and rejected by the Church under all non-cultish denominational flags. The doctrine of the Trinity is difficult to "wrap your arms around" but very easy to state:
1. The Father is God.
2. The Son is God.
3. The Holy Spirit is God.
4. The Father is not the Son.
5. The Son is not the Holy Spirit.
6. The Holy Spirit is not the Father.
7. There is one God.
From this the language of the Trinity (1 being, God, who consists of 3 persons, the Father, Son, and Spirit) was developed by the Church to describe what is taught in Scripture.
Really not trying to be rude, but I do think it's worth pointing out that nothing you said except "God sends his own son down to ultimately sacrifice himself" is what Christians believe. This is not the story of Christ.
Maybe read the Gospel of John (4th book in the New Testament) if you want to know the details. It's pretty short, you could easily do it in one sitting. If you don't want to know the details that's your business of course, but be aware that the story you relayed is not Christianity.
That's all in what they wrote - he dies, he's back after a couple of days, he ascends into heaven. I think I have it all accounted for. If 'true scotsmen', ahem, christians, don't believe their own writings, then well, we're done here. I don't believe them either.
> Anyone who talks about sleep as if it’s some kind of inconvenience and getting less of it is a virtue should be challenged. These people are dangerous.
This statement was bizarrely totalitarian. I actually agree with the fundamental premise that many schools probably start too early. But to say those who take the other side are dangerous people who need to be challenged? Too far.
Ironically, I think this Soviet-esque mentality that "people who disagree with idea X are dangerous" is dangerous!
As Vi Hart explains here[0], it's critical that you establish enemies for your followers if you wish them to crusade for you. Playful banter and "agreeing to disagree" don't cut it. You have to dehumanize them.
Not really. That would be true if the tariffs were on all imported goods, from all locations. In this case, it just encourages businesses to look at other cheap markets (Vietnam, Mexico, Bangladesh, etc.), hence China's anxiety.
> To that end, he shows us places around the world — from a garbage city in Cairo to an urban park in Helsinki, from the underground tunnels of Tokyo to a traffic median in Newcastle, England...
So if I don't know where those places are, I should find out by...?
> So if I don't know where those places are, I should find out by...?
Advice from a commenter: Put away the headline.
Out lives are saturated with headlines. We see them in cars, subways, and airplanes. We access them with our phones, computers, and GPS devices. There are headlines of deep space and of the topography of the deepest ocean floors. Then there are the headlines of us — of our genomes, of the cognitive landscape of our brains, of the web of neural connections that allow us to see and think and act. Our faith in the headline as a true representation of the article, and a reliable metaphor for experience and the concepts of modern life, is exercised every day, largely without question.
If you believed it, and you were consistent, why did you post what you did? If you don't matter (I think you do matter tremendously), and if nobody who reads it matters, then your post doesn't matter.
But you do matter. And so do we. And you know it because you spoke up. Why do you matter? That's the question. Because you were created in the image of God.