Posts by Matt

Glad to see people migrating over away from Facebook. It does my heart good to see that!

Happy New Year to all!

I guess I missed the chat, but I want to wish everyone a happy holiday. Hopefully everyone can experience pleasure and happiness today, and if for whatever reason you aren't happy today, I hope that the days ahead become happy and bright for you.

Love and peace to all ✌?

Merry Christmas and...Peace and Safety to you Cassius! I hope we may continue have great discourse into the New Year!

The "to love thy neighbor as thyself" is the sum of all Christian philosophy. Without it there is nothing to be gained from the Gospel. For someone who cannot love their neighbor, no matter who they are, will never apprehend nor comprehend any of the other teachings.

It takes an incredible amount of compassion to love those who would persecute you. It's easy enough to love those who already love you, but how can a person come to have compassion for an enemy? That is powerful because it in fact does turn all human nature on its head. We want to lash out and attack, but we are told to fight against our nature and see it from a different perspective. It is in my opinion a powerful concept, and the lack of it leads to alienation.

In the spirit of the season, Charles Dickens explained this most powerfully in the Christmas Carol. The Ghost of Christmas Present opens his robe to reveal two children:

"This boy is Ignorance. This girl is Want. Beware them both, and all of their degree, but most of all beware this boy, for on his brow I see that written which is Doom, unless the writing be erased."

Or even consider using an image of early man Cro Magnon or another homonid.

It would serve two purposes, one to help a person identify with a similar being and two to serve as a Visual representation of evolution. Early man making a choice to either go to the idealist philosophers or to the materialist ones.

Just a thought.

Oh absolutely! I'd be happy to help. And yes I am fully away from FB. As easy and covienient a platform it is, it's just better being here than there.

I would say that it might be wise to change the dinosaur to an animal that is similar to humans. Maybe an Orangutan, Bonobo, Chimp etc. or perhaps an animal such as a dolphin that we know is extremely intelligent.

Maybe it's explained somewhere, but what is Plotinus holding in his hands?

I remember this project. Nate is a creative guy.

Absolutely! I'm always here in the shadows ? Hope everyone is well.

Once again though, if someone is going to make a concession that certain things in the universe might be authentic, i.e. The Epicurean gods, then that person now has a burden of proving that those deities are in fact real and all other variety of deity are not authentic.

In my personal opinion, I do not believe it is possible to do this. If the EP gods stay, then so do the Hindu and Near-Eastern deities. Because similar arguments can be made to support their existence.

I think the word "supernatural" is too broad of a term. I would almost liken it to the term and genre of "science fiction" in that many things under that heading are currently improbable but not necessarily impossible. Likewise, supernatural is term to describe things "outside of" or "above" nature. But if a day comes in 1,000 years from now that proves a supernatural thing to be real, we would then be forced to call it only natural. It's only supernatural at the moment because we may not see evidence of it. There is a big difference between having an agnostic point of view and having the point of view that something simply doesn't exist because we don't have evidence of it.

This relates directly with the God and gods debate.

It has been my opinion that something is eternal about our reality. In the sense that from the Epicurean point of view the Universe has just always existed from eternity or conversely the temporal universe was manifested from another eternal principle as in the traditional theistic point of view. Or yet again this universe is somehow a runoff from a higher universe... I saw an article somewhere discussing the idea that our universe was sparked off from the remnants of a collapsed 4th dimensional star. But who knows how much is science fiction rather than fact. It's interesting to meditate on though especially on a cold clear winter night like tonight when the stars are extra bright!

I should probably introduce myself here as there are many who probably do not know me outside of Facebook.

I have studied all sorts of idealist philosophy, everything from Neoplatonism to Eastern Vedanta but was dissatisfied with these abstract philosophies as I see them as more therapeutic rather than actually defining truth. I eventually found Epicurus and became enamoured with his natural, materialist philosophy. I have always been a theist, so learning that the Epicureans also had a theological system proved to be a great interest for me. For a couple years I adopted the philosophy as my own and sought to adapt it to my life. During this time I became friends with many of the core FB Garden and I continue to keep the lines of fellowship open.

I eventually studied Epicurean theology more deeply and found that I could not accept it. So I abandoned the idea of being an Epicurean because this was a cornerstone issue for me.

Over the course of the last year I had been convicted to turn back to the faith of my youth and see it not from purely a metaphysical or philosophical approach, but rather an entirely practical one that involved giving up intellectual inquiry and adopting certain principles and a open frame of mind that now after years of missing what was being presented, it fundamentally makes sense to me.

So at this time I do not consider myself an Epicurean, but rather a Christian and Neoplatonist philosopher. I am someone who has had a growing relationship with the Epicurean community and thus far they have not shunned me, but rather continue to embrace me as a friend. It makes for a very interesting relationship.

But as this relates to Epicurean philosophy...I see friendship, fellowship, and community being hallmarks of the Epicurean garden. So in that, I seek out commonalities between it and other world systems. Though the two worlds are in fact irreconcilable it never precludes us from being able to have a dialogue.

Other than relaying what I know of the core doctrines of Epicurean philosophy I only have at this time inputs regarding the theology and how it relates to other systems.

Thanks for having me!

Matt