21 JUN 2014 by ideonexus
Four kinds of intrinsic rewards
First and foremost, we crave satisfying work, every single day. The
exact nature of this “satisfying work” is different from person to
person, but for everyone it means being immersed in clearly defined,
demanding activities that allow us to see the direct impact
of our efforts.
Second, we crave the experience, or at least the hope, of being
successful. We want to feel powerful in our own lives and show
off to others what we’re good at. We want to be optimistic about
our own chances fo...Folksonomies: happiness
Folksonomies: happiness
31 AUG 2011 by ideonexus
An Early Incorrect Assumption About Plate Tectonics
Though the theories of plate tectonics now provide us with a modus operandi, they still seem to me to be a periodic phenomenon. Nothing is world-wide, but everything is episodic. In other words, the history of anyone part of the earth, like the life of a soldier, consists of long periods of boredom and short periods of terror. That they occur dramatically and infrequently; as opposed to our modern understanding of them being gradual and perpetual.
10 AUG 2011 by ideonexus
Nonexistence is Preferable to the Afterlife
“What will happen? When we leave the world of the dead, will we live again? Or will we vanish as our daemons did? Brothers, sisters, we shouldn’t follow this child anywhere till we know what’s going to happen to us!”
Others took up the question: “Yes, tell us where we’re going! Tell us what to expect! We won’t go unless we know what’ll happen to us!”
Lyra turned to Will in despair, but he said, “Tell them the truth. Ask the alethiometer, and tell them what it says.”
...In Pullman's vision of the afterlife, things are dreary and static, the dead long to dissipate and have their atoms return to the world and become other things. An atheist alternative to the boredom of heaven.
23 MAR 2011 by ideonexus
Summary of Schopenhauer's Philosophy
[Schopenhauer] was also an atheist. He did not believe in a personal, omnipotent God.
Instead, Schopenhauer believed that the essence of the universe is Being: a blind, irrational, unquenchable thirst to exist he called Wille zum Leben, and that everything we perceive is a representation of this Will to Live.
Because we ourselves are products of Will, we spend most of our lives trapped in a cycle of striving and boredom.
We're constantly willing ourselves to attain our goals, and when we d...A brief explanation that sounds familiar to atheism/secularism.