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  1. LuisDantas

    Mauro Cid's delation gives results. A decisive week for the future of Brazil's Republic and Democracy

    Last thursday (February 8th, 2024) the patience of people still hopeful for Brazil's future as a viable community were rekindled. As expected for quite a while now, the former personal aide of fascistic former President Jair Messias Bolsonaro, Lieutenant Colonel Mauro Cid, made good on his...
  2. LuisDantas

    How is the perception of adherence to creeds in your community?

    Here in Brazil most people are presumed to be Protestants (of some variety) if they talk very often of god, Catholics if they talk often but otherwise show no obvious indicators, and there is a sizeable contingent of adherents to Umbanda and Candomblé that sometimes have trouble with intolerance...
  3. LuisDantas

    An interesting look at the Star Wars take on Campbell's Monomyth

    It is a very long video, but it does raise some interesting if unconfortable points.
  4. LuisDantas

    Some thoughts about the roles of certainty, belief, and personal responsibility in religious practice - also, what does science have to do with that?

    Recent thread activity reminds me of what seems to me to be a common mistake on matters of religion, belief and faith. (Disclaimer: I won't pinpoint the specific threads, both because they are fairly typical of common trends and because what interests me may not be their core subject matter.)...
  5. LuisDantas

    Ignosticism

    How often have you heard of Ignosticism? Do you feel that it is a sufficiently clear stance? How useful do you feel it to be, and for which purpose? Do you expect it to become less or better known in the future? Why?
  6. LuisDantas

    An appeal for accurate naming of expectations, or: Is belief truly belief?

    A recent exchange led me to revisit an ancient realization: while it is customary to talk of "believers" in some creeds, belief proper is often optional and very circunstantial. It seems to me that in practice what we see (most often and most emphatically in the Abrahamics) is rarely an...
  7. LuisDantas

    2022 Brazil's political woes

    @Jayhawker Soule and @Koldo may want to take a look at this thread. So. Brazil. The place where I have lived for pretty much all of my life. One of apparently many that are at odds with themselves and express that conflict through their political system. Currently, that dilemma is most...
  8. LuisDantas

    Please tell us what you think about course correction in religions and creeds.

    Regarding the internal consensual understandings of what a given religious, quasi-religious or pseudo-religious group is, what it does, and what it is supposed to be and to do: Do you perceive course correction mechanisms as important? Welcome? Necessary? Central? Optional? Of marginal...
  9. LuisDantas

    Some light contemplation over the historical roles of religion and how they may have changed

    There is a recent article about David Ickle's books that I have been reading and which at one point discusses the Sabbateans. Pickin’ Up Truth Vibrations, Part 5: Renegade Without a Cause Reading about that lampshaded to me how different a role religious communities had just a very few...
  10. LuisDantas

    Eye of the Beholder series: "Will the real worship please stand up?"

    This thread attempts to compile a representative sample of the various takes on the meaning of the word "worship", with an emphasis on practical questions such as whether it is possible for people to be worshipping something without realizing it; whether it is possible to determine what is a...
  11. LuisDantas

    "On A Plate" by Toby Morris. A comic that illustrates the harm from privilege

    The Pencilsword: On a plate I wonder... does anyone who reads this comic somehow conclude from it that everyone has equal opportunities? Myself, I think that it is an excellent presentation of why inequality of opportunities is both very real and very destructive.
  12. LuisDantas

    On the counting of Gods, and why it can never be an important matter

    I have come to the conclusion that, if religion is to last for a few more centuries, it will have to learn to deemphasize the concept of deity to a degree that current Christians and Muslims will have a very hard time dealing with. Fortunately, we will have a few generations passing by, making...
  13. LuisDantas

    On what ethics has to do with rules, and why it must transcend rules

    There is a school of thought that thinks of ethics as obedience to rules. It is more formally called deontology, and somewhat popular among the Abrahamic Faiths. Deontological ethics - Wikipedia Competing views attribute significance to the consequences of the actions as opposed to just the...
  14. LuisDantas

    Your views of Religion as it should be

    Allow me to propose a little exercise of gauging worldviews and understandings of the word "Religion". Please picture in your mind an ideal yet achievable world. One where religion is consistently expressed in its very best forms with the most auspicious of all conceivable results. What are...
  15. LuisDantas

    On attachment to perspectives and the many ways in which it can be harmful

    A few recent threads put me thinking about how often people end up weaponizing their own beliefs and their own inability to deal with disagreements and challenges to their views. There is a saying attributed to Oprah: "Don't back down just to keep the peace. Standing up for your belief builds...
  16. LuisDantas

    How should one deal with unreasonable expectations?

    I find myself contemplating the ideas of compromise and confrontation, and the trappings that come with each, mostly on the fields of political ideologies and religious beliefs. I have no doubt that most everyone wants to think of ourselves as fairly reasonable people, and it would most unusual...
  17. LuisDantas

    Happy Birthday, Aupmanyav!

    Hope it is a great one, @Aupmanyav !
  18. LuisDantas

    Is it even proper to use the verb "to believe" as an indicator of adherence to religion?

    I have recently written an answer elsewhere for a question about why some people insist on attempting to declare atheism a "religion". Sometimes writing such a reply enables me to put things together. This time, I realized that far as I am concerned it is just weird to expect someone to...
  19. LuisDantas

    Re: What use does an atheist have for deities?

    From another thread, where I unfortunately can not post: Deities (in this case, the Hindu Devas) are powerful symbols of certain ideals or doctrines. It is not only possible for an atheist to make constructive use of them (at least if the misconception that we actually believe in their...
  20. LuisDantas

    What can we learn from the recent dispute between the ACA and Rationality Rules?

    (@shane may want to jump in) A quick primer: Very recently, ACA, the Atheist Community of Austin, expressed its disapproval of a video in Stephen Woodford's YouTube channel "Rationality Rules" due to presumed transphobic content. This seems to be a good summary, from a source with good...
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