Re: Spirituality, Religion, it's all bullshit....
 

You really are an argumentative old shit aren't you. ;)

Re: Spirituality, Religion, it's all bullshit....
 

I'm not saying it's a proven scientific theory, I'm just saying it makes sense.
I've had a few experiences that lead me to believe that there is something more and that we each go through many incarnations.

The reason I believe that our "essence", if you will, travels with you is this.
When I was 19, I was in the hospital with a blood clot in my leg. At one point, I had fallen into the deepest sleep I had ever experienced and felt myself floating above my body. (before this occured, I had absolutely no belief in astral projection) I saw the doctor come into my room and have a conversation with my mother. She was telling him that my breathing didn't look right. I remember fighting, trying to wake up. When I finally did, I repeated the entire conversation my mother and the doctor had, told them exactly what they had been doing while talking. They sent me down for a lung scan and found the blood clot had moved to my lungs and I was very close to death. Most people who have been with a loved one when they die say that they can feel the spirit leave the body.

Also when I was in my 20's I was a participant in a study at the University of Pennsylvania dealing with hypnosis and past lives. I discovered 2 previous lives. At the time I still wasn't sure how much of it to believe, but around that time my mother had been at a friends house who also happened to have another friend there who is a psychic. She was not there as a "psychic" she was simply there because she was a friend of my mother's friend. Anyway, she was talking to mom and asked to hold her wedding ring. She got very few impressions of my mother, but a ton of impressions about me. She told my mother I was a very old soul and told her about my past lives. She described exactly what I had experienced. I had never met this woman, nor had I told my mother about the hypnosis.

So go ahead and call me crazy, but I have my reasons.

Re: Spirituality, Religion, it's all bullshit....
 

*writer tip toeing into the fray*
You all have excellent points, but I believe I'm siding with sarettah on this one. Why? I put the reasons in bold. The verb you used. You "made" a decision. An action. You even referred to the actual dieting as "subsequent actions." Not *the* action, another action. There is quite a point to actions being only in the physical world, but I think it's too narrow a definition.

Re: Spirituality, Religion, it's all bullshit....
 

Equals and opposites are not always easy to discern.

If we accept that the exact opposite of a "mental cocksucker" is a "sane pussylicker" then yes your statement would stand as sound. But since the opposite and equal of a "mental cocksucker" could possibly be manifested many ways, while your logic may be sound your statement is not true. :okthumb:

Re: Spirituality, Religion, it's all bullshit....
 

By this statement the decision must be the reaction of the electrons flowing.

Re: Spirituality, Religion, it's all bullshit....
 

"There are more things in heaven and in earth than are spoken of in your philosophy, Horatio."
~Shakespeare

Re: Spirituality, Religion, it's all bullshit....
 

You may have decided that you need to lose weight which would be one of the first actions taken in the process. You subsequently decided, for whatever reason, not to take the additional action necessary to lose the weight. However, if you never decided that you need to lose the weigth, then you wouldn't lose it unless of course as the result of some other action such as a virus infection where you don't eat.

The decision itself is an action as much as anything else we do.

While we are alive we are in constant motion, we are incapable of NOT taking action every nanosecond that we live and breath.

Re: Spirituality, Religion, it's all bullshit....
 

It's not my logic, it was my attempt at trying to understand yours.

Human actions are not bound by the laws of motion.

Re: Spirituality, Religion, it's all bullshit....
 

Did the thought cause the flow, or did the flow cause the thought ?

Or neither ? :yowsa:



Cogito ergo sum Or Sum ergo Cogito ?

Re: Spirituality, Religion, it's all bullshit....
 

You did a good job of identifying the crux of the problem: "There is quite a point to actions being only in the physical world, but I think it's too narrow a definition."

I think the distinction between mental and physical is of the utmost importance.

Deciding I need to lose weight is a mental process. Medically, I have a doctor who tells me that every time I see him, so the decision is based on scientific fact.

I accept the suggestion of the doctor. It is true that I need to lose weight.

It is very true that the logical next step is to take subsequent actions to accomplish that.

But I'm a human being. What is logical is not always what I will do.

Thus, the decision means nothing without action.

Re: Spirituality, Religion, it's all bullshit....
 

Humans are above the law ? :blink:

Re: Spirituality, Religion, it's all bullshit....
 

I am. ;)

Re: Spirituality, Religion, it's all bullshit....
 

Ah but you have not made the decision or actually accepted his word. If you truly accepted that you NEED to lose weight then you would make the decisions necessary to make that result happen. Since you are only giving the doctor lip service and don't really think you NEED to lose weight then you have subsequently made the decision to not take the additional steps necessary to make the weight loss happen.

Re: Spirituality, Religion, it's all bullshit....
 

I said humans :hmm:

Re: Spirituality, Religion, it's all bullshit....
 

Not at all.

Humans are not even close to understanding the reaction of the electrons flowing in their own brains.

We don't even know what laws apply.

Re: Spirituality, Religion, it's all bullshit....
 

Good luck and thank you for the fish. :)

Re: Spirituality, Religion, it's all bullshit....
 

Btw, I just read through about 100 posts. Can some one tell me WTF that old coot is talking about this time? A summary? :)




So far it seems to have something to do with coffee. :blink:

Re: Spirituality, Religion, it's all bullshit....
 

I'd be surprised if he even knew. :unsure:

Re: Spirituality, Religion, it's all bullshit....
 

Ah, so it isn't my total lack of sleep. Good to know.

Re: Spirituality, Religion, it's all bullshit....
 

PD, what you have done now is criticize the action and declare it invalid...not prove that it wasn't an action. It was an action lacking the necessary subsequent actions.

Re: Spirituality, Religion, it's all bullshit....
 

Good post PD! :>))

Re: Spirituality, Religion, it's all bullshit....
 

I've had some practice at this one.

This is a discussion that takes place around the tables of 12 step groups on a routine basis.

It's more than mere semantics.

If human beings were wired binary, a decision would be an action.

We ain't.

It ain't.

Re: Spirituality, Religion, it's all bullshit....
 

Is the chair casting a shadow or is the shadow casting a chair?




:gives9:


I'm Super Cunty today.

Re: Spirituality, Religion, it's all bullshit....
 

In a 12 Step Program it is necessary that decisions never be considered actions. The members would float on "well, I've made the decision to stop...whatever so I get points for that." No, you don't. Not in 12 Steps. In those programs, there are *specific* actions that must be undertaken.

Re: Spirituality, Religion, it's all bullshit....
 

Delightful ;)

Re: Spirituality, Religion, it's all bullshit....
 

Re: Spirituality, Religion, it's all bullshit....
 

On another day, I'd laugh, give you a thumbs up and some points ....

Today, I'll just growl. :eh:

Re: Spirituality, Religion, it's all bullshit....
 

If you want to get coffee or lose weight, there are specific actions that need to be taken.

Deciding you need coffee or are fat does not get you any Joe or any thinner.

Re: Spirituality, Religion, it's all bullshit....
 

And today is different from any other day because ... ? :whistling

Re: Spirituality, Religion, it's all bullshit....
 

No, that's true.
But I'm making a separation between the actions that isn't determined by the results. The decision to lose weight was one action; the subsequent action that actually causes the weight loss (which is in reality a series of daily decisions) is another.
One can have the first action and a failure to commit the subsequent actions.

Re: Spirituality, Religion, it's all bullshit....
 

Paraphrasing:

Hear the clash of tiny swords of semantics....

Re: Spirituality, Religion, it's all bullshit....
 

So ... if I decide I want to play professional baseball next summer, and draw a salary 10% higher than Roger Clemens - I've taken an action?

Re: Spirituality, Religion, it's all bullshit....
 

Yes. You have *made* a decision.
The fact that it is an asinine decision does not enter into it.

Most actions people take, mentally and physically, are rather asinine, as a perusal of the morning news will display.

Re: Spirituality, Religion, it's all bullshit....
 

I've made the decision that http://oprano.com/msgboard/images/sm...topicsucks.gif and the action of metaphysically hitting you all with a trout. http://oprano.com/msgboard/images/smilies/fish0111.gif

Re: Spirituality, Religion, it's all bullshit....
 

*sigh*

I hate it when bad things happen to good sentences. ;)

Re: Spirituality, Religion, it's all bullshit....
 

I really should have thought long and hard before uploading so many smilies :(

Re: Spirituality, Religion, it's all bullshit....
 

You are right, deciding does not get you thinner. That is not the result of deciding. The result of deciding is whatever the next step in the process would be.

However, not deciding is also a decision and an action who's result is NOT the next ste[p in the process of losing weight.

We are the sum total of all decsions we have made.

Re: Spirituality, Religion, it's all bullshit....
 

Each and every decision has it's consequence. You made your bed, now lie in it :yowsa:

Re: Spirituality, Religion, it's all bullshit....
 

The action you have taken is "setting a goal", so yes.

Re: Spirituality, Religion, it's all bullshit....
 

Please don't interupt me while I'm trying to decide how many smilies need deleting. :)