Thread: Could you do this?

Ok I know this is a poll but come on, once in a while can't be too bad.

Hmm...Easier said than done...Although I think I might be able to do it. If I can survive 7 days of vacation without internet, it's only four times more than that.

I think I went about a month and a half without internet this past summer.

I've done it before. Computers offer no necessities.

Tim, what is your ideal world? Would there be suffering?

I could do it, it would give me plenty of time to catch up on all of those books that I want to read but never seem to get around to.

-Prelude

Tim, what is your ideal world? Would there be suffering?

No, why would you assume that? My sig? If that's where you got it from, let me justify myself. I am an atheist. That does not mean I am immoral or malevolent. I just believe that "God" is something made up by people a long time ago. I have plenty of evidence to support my belief, while religion is mainly based on brainwashing and blind faith. Don't judge people on their religion or lack thereof. Besides my non-existant belief in God, I am probably just as normal as you.

Yes, I derrived my question from your signature.

I was not attacking your beliefs; I was questioning a single quote because there is a great deal of interesting philosophical debate about suffering. I wasn't making an assumption about your beliefs with regards to suffering; I was only questioning your to probe the philosophical implications of suffering. Your religious beliefs are only interesting as they affect your response.

"What do you mean?"

Your religious beliefs only interest me because I am interested in what sort of response you give based on them. Which is to say, your beliefs wouldn't be interesting if I weren't asking you the question.

What interested me regarding the idea of suffering is that it seems people often think the world needs some suffering to allow the appreciation of pleasure, which struck my as an interesting response to your signature's quote, if you're willing to agree that evil is that which causes suffering (there may be other definitions of evil, but many people seem to define evil in terms of causing harm).

And one more thought to consider, if you're in the philosophical mood: is the believe in the necessity of suffering a product of relativistic thinking? Plato, for example, argued that only the base emotions required opposite extremes for pleasure and that philosophical thought could produce pleasure without pain.