TitaniumButterfly
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User ID: 2854
Christian understanding does not end at the Bible. Indeed the Bible says not to use itself that way (2 Thessalonians 2:15). This would seem to be quite a problem for Protestantism but that's beside the point.
The point here is that for a couple thousand years Christians have understood God's relationship with Israel to have been transferred, in a sense, to the Church. Early Christians understood themselves to be part of the fulfilment of the Jewish religion; that Judaism has become Christianity and gentiles have a place in it. They didn't understand 'Judaism' to be a separate thing from Christianity.
However, especially with the destruction of the second temple, the Jews who rejected Christ underwent a radical shift in their beliefs and practices, leading to what we today call "Rabbinical Judaism" -- not the same religion that (partly) transformed into Christianity and, indeed, a younger religion than Christianity, which fairly heavily and consciously defined itself against Christianity.
Within this rubric, what we today call 'Judaism' is rather a Christian heresy and no, there's no expectation that its adherents have any special role that Christians need to worry about. The Church is the 'True Israel'.
For non-Protestant Christians, having so many Protestants in political power is bemusing, frustrating, and sometimes terrifying. This case is all three.
TitaniumButterfly
2hr ago
What does 'person' mean here?
TitaniumButterfly
21hr ago
Jeez I have no idea why you got downvoted so hard.
TitaniumButterfly
21hr ago
I was coming from more of a subconscious, evo-psych angle rather than anything rational, but yes what you say is true.
I'm told that some extremely-conservative states don't even have exceptions for killing two-year olds conceived by rape. In 2025! Even during Pride Month!
The homeless with a profusion of free money, food, shelter, education, healthcare, goods, and services available to them, paid for by my taxes? The ones that I have, on multiple occasions, witnessed throwing away food given to them because despite what their cardboard sign claimed it's not what they actually wanted? Those homeless?
TitaniumButterfly
21hr ago
From a game-theoretic standpoint it probably increases her reproductive potential. She's much more likely to find a new mate (and get more kids in better conditions) than if she were a single mother.
TitaniumButterfly
22hr ago
Yes I used to memorize a lot of poems. That ended circa 2011 when I finally got a smartphone.
The longest one I still remember entirely is Tolkien's Mythopoeia. (PDF!)
Probably my favorite to recite randomly (while driving e.g.) is the Song of Eärendil, also by Tolkien. No link since I couldn't quickly find a good online version.
Lots of shorter material, mostly by Yeats. The Song of the Wandering Aengus, He Hears The Cry Of The Sedge*, and An Irish Airman foresees his Death are favorites.
Also a soft spot in my heart for An Appointment.
Could go on for a while. Having an internal library of poetry is nice for those moments when I'd otherwise be bored or simply don't want to fondle some device.
*For some reason lots of online poetry is riddled with typos which suggest bad scanning/transcription software. In this case 'unhound' should be 'unbound'. This sort of thing is extremely common.
This entire line of argument relies heavily on some very specific definition of 'personhood' that I can't tease out from context. Would you mind?
TitaniumButterfly
23hr ago
Those, or even undesirables in general.
TitaniumButterfly
1d ago
If a woman is interested in you she wants you to be direct.
When I decided my (now) wife was the one, I didn't pussyfoot around. It does take a lot of confidence to pull off though, which is why step one is "Become someone you can be confident about being."
TitaniumButterfly
1d ago
a "right" is a human construct.
The United States is based on the idea that rights are bestowed by our Creator, but then I suppose Singer probably doesn't subscribe to that model.
TitaniumButterfly
1d ago
It’s the woman who is inconvenienced by having another person strapped to her circulatory system, so she has an excuse to get away with murder.
You mean after she (in 99.5% of cases) voluntarily did the one specific thing that creates people?
TitaniumButterfly
2d ago
My favorite instance was yesterday when I searched google for a term, there were no normal results, and the AI suggested I try searching google.
(Partly this is because it insisted on autocorrecting the term no matter how I tried to specify it, quotes, etc., and it kept giving me the "showing results for $corrected_term" even when I kept clicking on "show results for $original_term" instead.)
TitaniumButterfly
2d ago
This is a very modern misunderstanding. Most European kings did not historically have anything like absolute power, but were beholden to a law above their own authority. Their prerogatives were sharply circumscribed in all sorts of ways.
Check out Missing Monarchy if you haven't. https://www.amazon.com/Missing-Monarchy-Correcting-Misconceptions-Democracy/dp/B0D6FGC9YF But not the audiobook, which is auto-generated and awful.
TitaniumButterfly
2d ago
Man I'm still on book 3 but eager to catch up.
The main complaint is that while a good electorate is possible, perverse incentives ensure that it will gradually be watered down. Not sure whether the Founders saw that coming or not but there is some ancient precedent and they'd surely have been aware of it. Would like to know more.
Anyway I don't really think our problems are solvable. We're so far unlike anything that's come before on so many levels. "We are trapped in the belly of the machine, and the machine is bleeding to death." Something will come after this but I don't think we'd recognize it as continuous.
To your point, many people do seem keen on comparing our current situation to that of the late Roman Republic (and the 'No Kings' protesting sure does help carry the vibe) but it's not clear to me that Caesarism is a viable option for us. The analogy only goes so far, and like I said so much is so different now.
It has been a really wild and wonderful time to be alive. As I enter middle life I wonder more and more how much I'll get to see of what happens next.
TitaniumButterfly
2d ago
Well, I don't know what it's like to be a woman, but when I try to imagine that situation I feel pretty turned off. Somewhere between cowardice and whining. Like he's trying to plausibly-deniably get you to initiate.
Anyway congratulations on your husband and family. WAGMI.
TitaniumButterfly
2d ago
To be sure. Just had to note that you hadn't actually denied the allegations =P
All the best to you if you're still on the market.
TitaniumButterfly
2d ago
Well, maybe sit with it a bit. But always happy to talk.
TitaniumButterfly
2d ago
This would be an appropriate time to provide those stats.
Yes, literally all belief is faith-based and we should be very careful about where to place that faith.
All maps are wrong; some maps are true. If it's blurry but gets you where you're going it's better than technically-accurate but leaves you stranded.
Anyone who would complain about this state of affairs had better take it up with Reality.
TitaniumButterfly
2d ago
Hence the 'terrible' and the 'faith' in my post.
TitaniumButterfly
2d ago
I was (by my own analysis) a pretty good catch for years. My problem was that I couldn't find any women up to my standards. It is exceedingly grim out there for anyone with expectations that would have been reasonable even 30 years ago.
Found one eventually and we're very happy. Years later we're still constantly telling each other "I can't believe no one else got to you first."
Even so I know too many other men my age and younger who can't find a decent wife for anything.
I think 'personhood' in this context is mostly nonsense and everything gets circular fast.
Comes down to something like "It's okay to kill him because he's not a person, and he's not a person because it's okay to kill him."
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