Questions for the LHPer to ask

[1137]

Does this person/group/idea...

1. Allow for your individuation, or dictate it?

2. Promote individuality, or suppress it?

3. Disregard the status quo, or seek to define/enforce it, or define themselves in relation to it?

4. Treat individual experience with pluralism, or exclusivism?

5. Promote a self discovered worldview, or preach an external dogma?

6. Allow you to focus on what matters to you, or command what to care about?

7. Embrace or reject pragmatism?

8. Encourage or shun doubt/skepticism?

9. See you as a divine being, or something lesser/fallen?

 

[Quintessence]

Some follow-up questions from someone who doesn't really "do" the whole LHP/RHP dichotomy so if these don't make sense, that's probably why:

• Is there an answer to these that is considered "correct" or "incorrect" in some fashion?
• What happens if one discards the either/or and instead adopts a both/and for one's answers?

 

[crossfire]

Why would anyone reject pragmatism? Wouldn't rejecting pragmatism get painful after a while?

 

[1137]

Some follow-up questions from someone who doesn't really "do" the whole LHP/RHP dichotomy so if these don't make sense, that's probably why:

• Is there an answer to these that is considered "correct" or "incorrect" in some fashion?
• What happens if one discards the either/or and instead adopts a both/and for one's answers?

The answers can only be correct relative to the individual. I don't think one path is right and one wrong, I think one is for me and one isn't.

I'm inclined to say you can't embrace contradictions, but it seems more common to do so than not in our world! I suppose the individual will have to sort out cognitive dissonance and choose a side.

 

[1137]

Why would anyone reject pragmatism? Wouldn't rejecting pragmatism get painful after a while?

Oh yes very much, I think this is a cause of much suffering whether coming from Abrahamic monotheism or atheism/physicalism.

 

[Quintessence]

Oh yes very much, I think this is a cause of much suffering whether coming from Abrahamic monotheism or atheism/physicalism.

Could you expand on that? I find both monotheism and atheism and physicalism to be incredibly pragmatic in that they are considerably less complicated than the alternatives.

Monotheists only have to focus on one relationship with a higher power - this is so much simpler to do than honoring multiple relationships given the limited time and energy we have at our disposal. Atheists abdicate any relationships with powers and forces greater than themselves - this further simplifies relationships one has to manage so it's now only about humans. Physicalists narrow things down even further by ignoring entire dimensions of reality from consideration in their lives. Sounds incredibly practical to me because it simplifies life and living quite a lot. There comes a point where oversimplifying reality comes at a cost, that's true, but on balance I don't get the sense that non-polytheists/non-animists or those with simplistic ontological perspectives are really suffering any more or less than the rest of us. At most I might say they're suffering from missed opportunities from the relationships they decided to ignore, but again, only so much time in the day so... meh?

 

[1137]

Could you expand on that? I find both monotheism and atheism and physicalism to be incredibly pragmatic in that they are considerably less complicated than the alternatives.

Monotheists only have to focus on one relationship with a higher power - this is so much simpler to do than honoring multiple relationships given the limited time and energy we have at our disposal. Atheists abdicate any relationships with powers and forces greater than themselves - this further simplifies relationships one has to manage so it's now only about humans. Physicalists narrow things down even further by ignoring entire dimensions of reality from consideration in their lives. Sounds incredibly practical to me because it simplifies life and living quite a lot. There comes a point where oversimplifying reality comes at a cost, that's true, but on balance I don't get the sense that non-polytheists/non-animists or those with simplistic ontological perspectives are really suffering any more or less than the rest of us. At most I might say they're suffering from missed opportunities from the relationships they decided to ignore, but again, only so much time in the day so... meh?

Well "pragmatism for me but not for thee" isn't really pragmatism imo. Try telling the Christian that you just find working with demons more beneficial, or a New Atheist that there's benefits to theism.