Posts by Matt

As far as kids go. It’s definitely a personal choice that has to be right for the person. I’ve met many who don’t have kids either by choice or by nature and they are perfectly happy in their lives. I’ve met plenty of happy people with kids, but also unhappy people. For me, having my daughters has been a paradigm shifting life changer. My happiness and pleasure is now tied to them. When I was single and without children, I would pursue my individual pleasure particularly in the “dating” world above most other pleasures, but now nature has put me in charge of these little ones. I’m only as “happy” as my saddest kid. So I’m tied to them.

Co-parenting and “romance” are pretty far apart on the Venn diagram in general. They can join up, but in general the roles change entirely once the wee ones appear.

Related to the suffering of the world. It’s one of the premises within Buddhism that I vehemently disagreed with…that life’s constant is suffering which ultimately creates dissatisfaction, which dovetailed into the metaphysical premise that samsara (reincarnation) doesn’t end until you get off the “wheel”of rebirth through various disciplines. I always felt super uncomfortable with these premises.0

And other than deliberate human actions that cause suffering such as terrorism and war …the rest is literally nature doing what nature does. Flooding villages, toppling cities with earthquakes, ravaging with viruses, all totally random, no rhyme nor reason. Just the typical “behavior” of the universe. No moral discrimination on nature’ part, everyone and anyone can fall victim to any one of these events without prejudice. It’s all chance…and ultimately however much responsibility a person wants to feel for the suffering of others in the world is very, very subjective.

It’s the only way to get more Epicurean friends….we have to grow more Epicureans. I have more in common with many online individuals that I’ve never met, but corresponded with for almost 7 years than I do with many of my in person friends. Branching out will be an edifying thing.

If there is a place that is a “hub” for Epicurean philosophy in the English language in the 21st century. This website is it.

People like “apostolic” type lineages and authority when it comes to authenticity. 😉

It could start slowly or there could be a rapid interest based on internet exposure to the philosophy…especially as a rival to Stoicism. But regardless a unified teaching curriculum would be needed to be the source for all the branches of the Garden.

Already have two millennia worth of information stored on this website alone… We have podcasts, we have individuals willing to do all sorts of things. Everyone needs to start branching off.

A somewhat unified teaching curriculum could be used. Just like the College of Stoics does by Chris Fisher.

Individuals here who feel comfortable would need to branch off and start local geographical groups…like an “Epicurean Fellowship” of New Hampshire, Georgia, Florida, Washington…and of course globally. The local affiliated geographical groups flow back into the home school website (this one…or in other cases the Athens Garden, the SoFE etc.) but individuals have to choose to go out of their way to lead groups in the philosophy. Make their own websites and create their own material (or use what we have here) a teaching curriculum of sorts.

There are some very smart, wise, well spoken, well read and articulate people in this global community. Scholars and average people. All promoting a historically popular and relevant philosophy for modern times.

I have “faith” that this community can make changes.

What I’ve learned about people is that they rarely have an internal “come to Jesus” revelation that dramatically alters their behavior. It’s usually a paradigm shifting external experience, often negative or painful, that does it….and even then there are people who will still touch the hot stove after being burned….multiple times.

I think the main impetus for me starting this thread is my building impatience for for certain ideologies and attitudes, especially in the last few years. In general, I’ve been one to “let things go” in the past and what that taught me was that I allowed the other person’s behavior to flourish, usually without correction. With the numbers of people in society who are otherwise detached from reality increasing steadily, the “casual” remarks about unfounded things are becoming much more irritating. I’m not one to say “lathe biosas” and go live in a mountain cave shutoff from society…so the only option is to steer the ship away from rocks and put the crazies in the brig by correcting them.

Kalosyni you have a very good way with people.

If I add the “internet” crowd to this number of detached people that believe in lizard people, deep underground bases and other “fringe” ideas and those people are those that are not using the canon as the standard of truth, the number of detached people would exponentially multiply.

In recent times in light of certain ideologies that seem to have taken hold among people, I’m way less inclined these days to let certain things pass by without notice. The supernaturalists are in reality a minor problem, but someone who believes certain apocalyptic eschatological narratives in a casual way may be much more inclined to believe fabrications they read online to “act” upon them in reality. So what I see is a bigger problem in society in general…casual unfounded beliefs in fantastic things can quickly turn into serious real life issues.

Agreed, my issue is that there are a good number of people just like the person I’m talking with. For example I know of another person who in a similar way is so deeply involved with psychics that she has altered actions in her life to follow what the psychics foretell…

Even further this can go into people getting detached from reality while perusing the internet and social media, believing unfounded things and altering their lives to fit what might as well be the same as religious fiction. And the line blurs even more.

I don’t suggest we have only Epicurean or secular minded friends…but there really needs to be a line drawn where people who perceive reality in vastly different ways must reconcile reality either by disassociation or direct ideological confrontation.

SimonC absolutely…and your experience goes to show that this isn’t an isolated thing. Many, many people say they see and hear things that otherwise appear to be fabrications. For us it is simple to dismiss as fantasy, but for those who say these types of things and testify to their reality we have a problem…especially if it’s deeply cherished belief that is a part of their identity.

My position is that there are two options…either the person is ill or that there is some sort of social and mental immaturity. Since a supernatural third position is impossible.

If the person is attempting to minister…and simultaneously doesn’t actually see or believe what they are saying, we have a whole other discussion about ethics in religion. And believe me…I believe that people do this exact thing all the time, fabricate things to maintain cohesion of belief.