OracleOutlook
Fiat justitia ruat caelum
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User ID: 359
OracleOutlook
Fiat justitia ruat caelum
9mo ago
There could be three fewer stars in the universe, and the universe would still make sense as a concept, but the effects of the gravity of the stars would no longer exist. Within the universe, we can talk about things having cause and effect, firing a bullet really does cause a broken window.
The imagined God would not have such cause and effect internal to it.
OracleOutlook
Fiat justitia ruat caelum
9mo ago
therefore it needs an explanation for why it is the way it is, and why it isn't another way?
Yes, you understand what I'm saying. Whether I'm providing the best steelman of the argument is another question (answer is probably no.)
God's nature could not be different, or it would not be God. Philosophers call God a "Necessary Being," a Being whose nature is that it is impossible that it should not exist. If He is the answer to "why something, instead of nothing" it would be because His nature is necessary, not conditional or composite.
OracleOutlook
Fiat justitia ruat caelum
9mo ago
The changeless thing exists out of time and knows all its actions before, during, and after them. It is without emotion. If that is incompatible with your understanding of the Judeo-Christian God then I don't know why that matters to this conversation.
OracleOutlook
Fiat justitia ruat caelum
9mo ago
To put it very informally, if things that change need explanations for the change then if there is anything that does not need an explanation, it does not change. If there is something that has the property of coming from nothing with no explanation, then it would be something that does not change. You could say that things that change do not always need explanation for that change if you like. I'm not trying to prove or convince anyone of God here. All I am trying to do is explain the distinction between God and the Universe that philosophers draw.
This is not a God of the Gaps argument at all. Thomas Aquinas wrote his Five Ways in the 13th century , Sir Francis Bacon lived in the 17th century.
OracleOutlook
Fiat justitia ruat caelum
9mo ago
I'm going to start referring to the philosopher's God as pGod, to disambiguate and maybe help distinguish the idea in your mind from any religious upbringing you might have had.
I have no idea what the difference between "God knows all its actions" and "God does not know its actions" are. What does it actually mean for an unchanging system to "know" a thing?
I think it can only be discussed analogously, and determined negatively. Meaning, we can be certain of what pGod isn't, and use all those "isn'ts" to develop an "is." It is so far outside our realm of experience as temporal, complex creatures.
When we know something, we are grasping its form and holding the form somewhere inside our self. As the originator and grounds of all forms, pGod grasps these forms in their most perfect way. That is what is meant by pGod knowing everything.
Also, is there any particular reason that we would expect that the universe we live in is one that is causally downstream of an instance of this specific type of god?
What specific type of god? pGod, the First Cause God? The arguments from casualty, rationality, motion, essence, etc all point to the same type of pGod. They are all arguments for the same God that Is, Existence itself, formulated differently to avoid different objections as they arise, to try to express the idea more clearly.
Or do you mean the omniscient, omnipotent, divinely simple God? The same arguments that make the case for pGod are then continued to require such things. As you can see above, the omniscience follows from the nature of the pGod as the ground of all things, that which is "proved" (philosophically, proof just means a logically coherent argument given certain starting positions) in the argument for pGod.
OracleOutlook
Fiat justitia ruat caelum
9mo ago
I wanted to be an Imagineer for the Disney Parks. And I would have gotten away with it too if it wasn't for those meddling kids MAE2030-Dynamics! (and I took a cryptography class as an elective that I ended up liking more.)
OracleOutlook
Fiat justitia ruat caelum
9mo ago
My husband started up Baldur's Gate 3 with my five year old on the chair next to him, and now no one in my house has slept in 48 hours. She keeps running in and out of our bedroom screaming about monsters and worms going into eyes. The baby wakes up and starts crying. I can't safely have both her and the baby in the bed at the same time. I hate this game with a burning fire and I haven't even played it yet.
OracleOutlook
Fiat justitia ruat caelum
9mo ago
He says he just wanted to stay on the character creation screen and have her make a character. Turns out it's not a Barbie dress up game!
OracleOutlook
Fiat justitia ruat caelum
9mo ago
Have you spoken with a dermatologist in person? Could you have rosacea?
OracleOutlook
Fiat justitia ruat caelum
9mo ago
Is there any way to change your domain of responsibility so that if you perform your responsibilities at your desired cadence it won't negatively affect your wife?
For example, if the dishes are on the counter and it's your job to do them but its her job to cook, then she might feel frustrated that the surfaces she'd use to chop, mix, prepare are not clean. If you swap jobs she can clean the dishes at a rate acceptable to her, and you would cook at a time acceptable to you. Or she can do both cooking and dishes because there's synergy (unload the dishwasher while something heats up, wipe stuff down as they are used and load the dishwasher, etc.)
In exchange, you can take over anything that is more routine, set on a schedule. You can set specific times for you to do mopping, sweeping, laundry, cleaning toilets, cleaning out the refrigerator, etc. If she knows that you always do X at a specific time, she might be able to wait for it instead of just deciding to do it herself.
OracleOutlook
Fiat justitia ruat caelum
9mo ago
Rosacea is not acne, and it will not be treated with the same things as acne. It sounds like at least type 3. Antibiotics are the most common prescription for Rosacea, but topical Ivermectin is the 'it' new thing. There are new developments every year and it might be worth going back to a dermatologist or at the least go through something like https://www.dermatica.com/.
The problem doesn't lie in food (like an allergy), the problem lies in your gut biome. Can you try drinking homemade milk kefir and see if that's a trigger? You can make it with A2 milk, goat milk, any kind of fancy milk to see if you can tolerate it. If you can, after a few months you might find that you're able to tolerate a wider range of food (but probably not everything.)
OracleOutlook
Fiat justitia ruat caelum
9mo ago
If dairy works well for you, you can try to get more calories from heavy cream? Way cheaper than beef and might be easier on social gatherings (show up with tea filled with 1/3 cup of cream, that's a full meal and you probably won't look too weird compared to pulling out a chunk of meat.)
OracleOutlook
Fiat justitia ruat caelum
9mo ago
"But you said you are engaging in prayer, which is the offense," the officer responded.
"Silent prayer," she responded.
"No, but you were still engaging in prayer," he said. "It is an offense,"
OracleOutlook
Fiat justitia ruat caelum
9mo ago
My mom visited my family recently and kept commenting on how busy I was, while I ran around trying to take care of my four kids (one a infant) while on maternity leave. She spent most of the time on the couch or "cleaning up" (really, messing up the careful system we have to make sure everything gets cleaned up.) She spent almost no time with the kids, let alone in a way that would have taken them off my hands. She was mostly determined to take posed photos of the kids, culminating a very staged attempt at getting a video of her reading a book to all the kids, keeping two of them up past their bed times. I don't think she learned anything from the experience, though the video is hard to watch with all the crying from the younger two.
I had an Au Pair, but she left the weekend before my mom showed up. It was a month early, and we would then have a gap between Au Pairs, but we didn't question her decision to leave too much. A week before she left, the Au Pair started asking me about my mom's visit. It turns out she had been under the impression that my Mom was coming over to take care of my kids, because that's what happened in her country when a new baby was born. I could only laugh.
My mom had me when she was 33. She has struggled with her weight since bearing kids and has low energy, was diagnosed with something wrong with her thyroid at some point. Playing with the kids would be hard for her on a physical level. I don't think she even has the strength to carry the 2 year old.
There are a lot of factors in lower fertility. Increased maternal age has effects for multiple generations, overall decline of health in the older population means less help to the next generation of mothers.
OracleOutlook
Fiat justitia ruat caelum
9mo ago
Yeah, I don't know why she thought the two month old would be interested in listening to her read... I think she has forgotten most of what it is like to have small kids. That thought gives me weird feelings. On the one hand, I know that one day most of my kids will be able to feed themselves breakfast and lunch, take their own baths, entertain themselves, and my role as a parent will be very different. I look forward to the role changing.
On the other hand, I want to be there for my kids when they have kids. If I forget what it's like, I will not be able to help as much. I'm already disappointed in Future Me's inevitable failure.
This was just the example that was easiest to convey. The most enraging thing was on a zoo trip. The zoo has a ski-lift-like ride where you can get a better view of the animals. My oldest, A, and second oldest, C, were tall enough to ride, but short enough that they needed a riding partner. My husband took C first, they got on the lift without a problem. I stayed with the younger two and the strollers.
My mom took A. While waiting for the chair lift to come up behind them, my mom kept trying to get A to look at me, yelling at me to take a photo, trying to get A to smile. The chair came behind them, my Mom sat on it easily, kept looking over my way trying to get me to photograph her. My daughter did not sit on the chair easily and was pushed forward. I kept shouting, "A! A!" helplessly behind three layers of steel gates and a long line. A ride attendant caught up and got my daughter on.
I was furious, muttered, "Stupid fucking woman cares more about photos than the life of her grandkid!" Mothers with young children heard me and glared. I was anxious, worried my daughter would fall off, pacing around until finally they came back around.
OracleOutlook
Fiat justitia ruat caelum
9mo ago
I'm a woman. People glared because I cursed in front of their small children.
OracleOutlook
Fiat justitia ruat caelum
9mo ago
Look into a Mother's Helper - someone in middle school who is interested in small children but not old enough to babysit on their own. They can play with younger kids while your wife cleans up or sits. It can be a pretty affordable arrangement.
On the converse of the WFH thoughts - I have found WFH + Au Pair to be a very good combination. I'm able to nurse a baby while taking a meeting on my phone while the Au Pair plays with the older bunch. When things are quiet I can practice Hooked on Phonics with the kids. I'm there to handle disturbances, illnesses, etc. I have a good idea of how the kids are doing any given day, unlike at preschool which was like a black box to me. But if I need a day of focus I can get it.
OracleOutlook
Fiat justitia ruat caelum
9mo ago
Look at all the Sherlocks, next someone is going to point out my flair is pink and I interjected my emotional state in most paragraphs.
OracleOutlook
Fiat justitia ruat caelum
8mo ago
I bake my neighbors cookies and so far one of my neighbors has even returned the plate (along with a bottle of wine.)
Two doors down there is a single dad with two kids around the same age as mine. Across the street is a couple with three kids, slightly older. Next door on one side is a retiree who lost her cat when she moved in. On the other side is another family with small kids.
I have a play structure in my backyard which makes my house a good place to invite kids over. Excuses are easy to find if I'm willing to put in the effort.
Suburbia can be a soulless hell. I need to cross a highway to get to any commercial space - restaurant, grocery store, other kind of shop. But I know right off the bat that most of my neighbors are homeowners, have jobs that can pay for houses and cars, have kids and the responsibilities that go with that, can follow the most basic rules of the HOA (I don't like there is an HOA, but recognize it as a filter.) As a baseline they are more trustworthy than anyone I pass on the street. I am putting in the work to cultivate those relationships but I believe it is worthwhile.
I remember growing up in suburbia, I rode my bike in the neighborhood with the other kids. I would go to other kids' homes and knock on their front door and ask, "Is Heather home?" I would kick the ball in my backyard over the fence and have to go to the street one over and knock on a stranger's door and ask if I could retrieve my ball. My parent's mostly watched me through the kitchen window - I had a great deal of independence even by the time I was five years old.
My mom met with friends almost every day, either at a McDonalds with a play place, a park, or someone's home.
The change, as far as I perceive it, happened around 9/11. Same neighborhood, same kids, same families, but people stopped visiting as much. I wasn't allowed to go out by myself as much. A layer of optimism was stripped away.
I guess that's why I think it is mostly an attitude thing, not anything inherent to the suburbs. And why I stubbornly believe I can create a community if I keep pressing my neighbors to interact with me.
OracleOutlook
Fiat justitia ruat caelum
8mo ago
My elementary school gifted program combined 1st-5th grade into one classroom with two teachers. The child had to have a IQ score of 130+ to be assigned into the classroom. I can't really say if the age mixing was very beneficial. There's the obvious cofounder of everyone having a high IQ. It wasn't disastrous, at least. I think I had trouble learning spelling compared to my peers in normal classes, but I was ahead in reading and logic.
OracleOutlook
Fiat justitia ruat caelum
8mo ago
Have you played Outer Wilds? I feel like it has some of the best writing for a game, and a lot of that is because of where they put the writing.
OracleOutlook
Fiat justitia ruat caelum
8mo ago
I don't think what you are saying contradicts each other. A la "The Last Psychiatrist," having incorrect beliefs and assumptions about your own skills and relationship with the world is what craters self esteem. Fewer kids testing themselves on dangerous playground equipment created a rise in anxiety disorders and people who cannot perform risk management.
No one knows what Liriope and Cephisus did, but whatever they did, it worked: he didn't even recognize his own reflection. That's a man who doesn't know himself. That's a man who never had to look at himself from the outside.
How do you make a child know himself? You surround him with mirrors. "This is what everyone else sees when you do what you do. This is who everyone thinks you are."
You cause him to be tested: this is the kind of person you are, you are good at this but not that. This other person is better than you at this, but not better than you at that. These are the limits by which you are defined. Narcissus was never allowed to meet real danger, glory, struggle, honor, success, failure; only artificial versions manipulated by his parents. He was never allowed to ask, "am I a coward? Am I a fool?" To ensure his boring longevity his parents wouldn't have wanted a definite answer in either direction.
I would expect such a person to have very low self esteem once they are grown.
OracleOutlook
Fiat justitia ruat caelum
8mo ago
Look into co-ops in your area, identify the curriculum that interests you, and do your research. Build up the case for the specific curriculum and in-person meet ups you could use. Instead of making a fear-based, "public schools scare me," case, try to convey what about homeschooling excited you.
For example, if I get to homeschool, I will use Memoria Press and weekly music/art classes at a local coop. It's easy to look at Memoria Press' website and get excited about the curriculum. Think of how sophisticated your kid would be, reading the classics in Latin by the time they're 14!
(I'm sure the actual reality of homeschooling is not so rosy, because anything involving kids can be like pulling teeth, but this is the sales pitch.)
But also, if you show that you're willing to defer to some sort of external group as to what curriculum you are going to teach your kids, it shows that you aren't going to be a, "I know everything better than anyone else" kind of homeschool mom.
OracleOutlook
Fiat justitia ruat caelum
8mo ago
Dreaming Spanish is amazing, it's like Muzzy for adults. Thank you for this.
It doesn't seem you're responding to what I'm actually saying so I'm not sure what productive conversation can be had here. I'm not arguing from contingency or motion. I'm not even making an argument for God. I did not say a particular actual infinity of contingent things is impossible - in fact I explicitly said it's possible and how ("brute fact")!
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