WHAT ARE YOU THINKING ABOUT RIGHT NOW?

I'm thinking that people who can't get over themselves when denied something and decide on passive-aggressive stalking tactics are stupid as fuck and should grow the fuck up.


Yes, I am talking to you Rahl. Quit being a fuckwit.

Philosophical Question: Is it more important in life to stand up for your beliefs, or to avoid stress?

"But on the other hand, it depends how stupid your beliefs are."

Well considering people seldom if ever believe their own beliefs are stupid, let's go with "not very" for the purposes of this question.

author=pianotm
I choose to believe that I can do great things with my imagination. My wife and I once did a ritual and when it ended, sand covered our altar. Nothing on the floor, and the ritual items on the altar were untouched. I have no explanation for it, but I believe in magick and I will never look back.

Excuse my narrow-minded way of looking at this, but is it possible the altar was made of a very brittle type of rock, and did you heat the altar in this ritual by any chance? It would explain how the floor and items were untouched and all.

I choose to believe that while we must not look away from things science cannot yet explain, we must strive to find a scientific explanation for them.

Umm...making an altar out of something like that would cost money, which I didn't and really don't have. No, it was a little bartable, pretty sure it was finished in Formica, and it was covered in black cloth.

author=LockeZ
I want to say it's more important to stand up for your beliefs than it is to do almost anything else in life, including eating.

I can see where you're coming from, but I mostly disagree. It always depends on how important these beliefs are for yourself and the people around you (I would fight someone over the question of whether it is okay to kill humans, but not over the question whether Chinese Food tastes good or not), and on whether actively standing up for your beliefs will do more harm than good.

Example: I am a convinced atheist. Does that mean I should call out LockeZ for not being one? Should I yell at pianotm and call him stupid for believing in paranormal phenomena? I could do that - and make some more enemies, make myself look bad, and reinforce the common prejudices that say atheists are narrow-minded, unempathetic and unhappy people. The result would be misery on all sides. For some reason, I'm not sure whether "standing up for my beliefs" like this is really the best idea.

What I can do is explain my own perspective in a rational way, try to see and respect the points others make and ask them to take my thoughts into consideration. Attacking others, mocking their beliefs and telling them how to live their lives will usually only result in a counterreaction, with the only effect being that they are even less likely to take my arguments seriously. With the exception of some fundamental rules of a functioning society, people must be allowed to choose their beliefs themselves and not forced to adapt others' beliefs.

In short, it is always recommendable to live according to one's own beliefs as long as nobody else is negatively affected by them. It is also a good idea to try and make others understand why one has these beliefs. But if one decides to actively "stand up" for them (which means opposing different beliefs), better be sure it can induce any positive effect at all. Because too often, the result will be the exact opposite of what was originally intended, and it will only cause unnecessary hostility where there could have been mutual understanding.


P.S.: Welcome back, Kylaila!

oh my god i didn't know you could do so many tasty things with hazelnuts

NeverSilent
What I can do is explain my own perspective in a rational way, try to see and respect the points others make and ask them to take my thoughts into consideration.

Really, I think that this is what standing up for your beliefs means. I don't think it means trying to convince others that your beliefs are the best or only right ones, it means standing up against the people who would do that to you, and not being intimidated into changing your beliefs just because someone else was shoving theirs in your face.

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I didn't really mean "spend all your time arguing" so much as "stand up for what you think is really important if it's being attacked and is in danger"

But I mean my own strongest beliefs, the ones I really care about, are about video games. So. Like, uh. Yeah.

That's why I go on giant thread-deletion-invoking rants about how game making should be the human instrumentality project every time RMN threatens to disallow certain types of game submissions (okay that only happened once). I think art is really really important, possibly more important than human life. I think my arguments about this have caused the only true thread deletion since Kentona took over?

I mean it's not like I don't argue about stuff on the internet. But I don't do it nonstop. I only do it when the topic seems interesting and I want to hear what people have to say about it, or when staying quiet would cause me more stress than arguing.

I didn't really mean "spend all your time arguing" so much as "stand up for what you think is really important if it's being attacked and is in danger"

This. Although there is frightening overlap between the two in certain situations.

Really, I think that this is what standing up for your beliefs means. I don't think it means trying to convince others that your beliefs are the best or only right ones, it means standing up against the people who would do that to you, and not being intimidated into changing your beliefs just because someone else was shoving theirs in your face.

This also.