Discussion thread for The Psychological Significance of the Biblical Stories - Lecture #13
study group discussion
Discussion as part of our Study Group.
podcast
My notes
Book: Better Never to Have Been by David Benatar. Some book by human genome project guy about Scientific case for God.
How to write a book?
- Do it as an investigation where you are trying to answer a question whose answer you don’t know
- Rather than just promote your already formed conclusions
- Ayn Rand?
Nihilist don’t just stop there
- Hate existence, hate humanity and then start taking it out on other people
Is life for happiness?
- Then suffering is an argument for it’s end
- Life: A series of crucial ethical decisions
- World as a moral landscape, and people are traversing through it (Their decisions direct the direction of the world)
- Why do we do things that we know are wrong?
Psychotherapy can be replaced with moral striving
- Potential future you
What it means to be a leader?
- Know where you are going, and should be able to communicate that
- Where you are going should have some value
- They do what they said they would do
- People should trust you
Paralysis that comes with doubt, and how conviction can move you forward
- How do you know your convictions won’t bring the worst things in the world?
Impulses that are beyond our conscious abilities to resist
- You can’t be interested in things that you are not interested in - even though you know they are necessary
- If you don’t control your interests, who does?
- Mercury the winged messenger from God. Your potential trying to manifest itself
Betrayal
- Can cause physiological damage to the brain
- Stress could trigger it again. WTF
Repetition (repeat of things he has said earlier)
- Trusting people
- Sacrificing your future for the present