Nate had such good pithy material here in this Reddit thread that I wanted to preserve the core of Nate's comments here:
N: I submit that the greatest superstition promoted today is Monotheism.The weather witches are those who offer thoughts and prayers instead of actionable change.
Poster: And what do you offer?
N: I offer friendship! I offer my energy and resources to solve problems, rather than ignore them, or hide from the responsibility of engaging the natural world. I offer an invitation to abandon a desert of superstitious shadows and religious mirages to an oasis of pleasure. I offer encouragement to employ reason, and to forsake the fear of death that leads the fearful to retreat to sedation and intellectual paralysis.
Within the context of Epicurean philosophy, the offering is a philosophy of pleasure, an ethics of hedonism, a physics of materialism, and an epistemology of empiricism. Instead of ineffectual prayers, and powerless thoughts, Epicurean philosophy offers a potent, reliable path that employs sensation to understand nature, feeling to understand ourselves, and anticipations to effectively navigate reality.
Poster: I hear you but you got a lot to mature on. You sound like a religious fanatic, bringing down other faits and things that works for other people because of your own personal belief. For that person, thoughts and prayers means a lot - and truly, who are you to tell that person otherwise? Also, if theres a problem - people aren't just gonna say thoughts and prayers. That usually happens when they have no direct control or involvement, like a school shooting or the deaths of someone. Things are much deeper than what you projected here.
N: I hear you, but you got a lot to mature on. You sound like an uncertain skeptic, tolerating irrational faiths and dangerous superstitions that other people falsely claim to help them based on your perspective. For some people, thoughts and prayers take the place of confronting reality with bravery and courage – and, truly, who are you encourage other human beings to abandon their natural ability to reason and, instead, reinforce risky, superstitious thinking? People often just say thoughts and prayers, and it is futile. Things are much deeper than what you projected here.
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Nate also posted this at FB in conjunction with a link to the Reddit exchange:
Hiram brought this up months ago – I just joined Reddit, and have been participating in the pre-existing 'Epicureanism' subreddit (it's been around for about 5 years). I thought it might be a reasonable place to engage a different crowd.
I'm finding that it draws a lot of attention from Eclecticists, spiritualists, and non-Epicureans looking to promote the over-used idea that we shouldn't judge other philosophical systems in the name of 'respecting' everyone (and their harmful ideologies).
In the attached threat, I offered a polemic against monotheism, and superstitious thinking, and, in doing so, I was accused of being a "religious fanatic". I'm realizing why [epicureanfriends.com] is a better format for people who want to LEARN ABOUT EPICUREAN PHILOSOPHY, and not just debate opinions.
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I (Cassius) posted this:
WOW Nate that is a great exchange! Anyone tempted to skip over it because the text is small, I hope you'll zoom in and read the details of Nate's posts! And thank you for all you do! So you "sound like a religious fanatic" do you? I guess you are supposed to fall in line with the emotionless zombies who want you to think that nothing matters and that you should just retire to your cave pending your final departure from this veil of tears.... Argh. I would like to think that numbers of Epicureans came to your defense there, but the bitter truth is that we are woefully outnumbered and therefore have to stick together on the big stuff when at all possible.
And I should specially thank you for the kind comment on Epicureanfriends.com I intend to see that that forum is curated indefinitely into the future as an intellectually challenging and yet "safe space" for those of us who are on basically the same page and want to grow together. Social media has been a great tool for meeting new people we'd never meet otherwise, but it's necessary for mental health reasons to keep a tight watch on it. Reddit seems to be - if possible - an even more rough-and-tumble environment. We need our own spaces where we build constructively for the future, and hopefully Epicureanfriends will over time be joined by many others.