I find Christianity disgusting. I think worse of Buddhism. There is a long list of silly ideas that I hate. If the truth be told, I don't spend so much time considering all the ways so many people are wrong in life, but whatever amount of time I spend thinking on particular breeds of idiocy is far too much.

A friend of mine has a saying, "People get what they deserve." And it's true. The consequences of action are derived from causality and the axiom of Identity; there's just nothing you can do to avoid it.

Interestingly enough, it's sometimes hard to tell who is getting their just desserts at any given time.

If you're a person who is opposed to the death penalty and you successfully lobby to have the practice outlawed, when will you see the consequences of your actions? That's a tough one and you may never notice the consequences, but they're there. Maybe one more serial killer comes to your state knowing he can kill and not worry about being killed by the state. Maybe your taxes go up from having to keep alive so many who would otherwise be killed.

One of the consequences of just having bad ideas might be suffering. If you think something stupid, you might come to some pain for it. Imagine the outcome of believing that you can walk through walls. For more abstracted aspects of philosophy, it's more difficult to envision the consequences of being wrong, but they are no less real.

Interestingly enough, the bigger, most profound cost of being philosophically corrupt isn't pain and suffering. The cost is happiness.

I'm not saying Christians aren't happy. Surely by some measure many are. But they aren't as happy as they could be if they weren't Christian. It's just not possible to experience the highest levels of happiness and joy that can be achieved as a human being if you flout the essentially human characteristic of rational thought.

I just think it's notable that the consequences of many people's actions isn't always sadness and hurting but they aren't happiness either.

In my book, not having happiness is the same as suffering, but my use of the words in this post comment on the gradations of pain and pleasure.

Every time you make a decision, you should be considering rationally whether or not that decision will bring you more or less happiness. One should only choose those decisions that, in the most rational terms, will bring them the most happiness possible.

Of course, some, like Buddhists, Christians, Muslims, et al, make it their business to do just the opposite. Foolishness.

Posted by: Flibbertigibbet at 02:32 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Category: Importance of Ideas
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It may seem that I'm a Libertarian most of the time. My rants about a need for more freedom, my wholesale support of laissez-faire Capitalism, my opposition to the war on drugs even though I myself do not use drugs.

Well, Dr. Hurd has published some remarks on the Libertarian party:

Q: Dr. Hurd, I understand you dislike both the Democrats and the Republicans. But why vote Republican as the lesser of two evils? Why not vote Libertarian for President? They favor strongly limited government, like you do.

A: The Libertarian Party is worse than either the Republican or Democratic parties--and that’s saying something.

The Libertarian Party is the party of unapologetic pacifism. They make John Kerry blush. Their 2004 presidential candidate proposes, for example, that all U.S. troops everywhere be sent home immediately. Why? Because, apparently, all government is bad. Anything the government does to intervene in the rest of the world--even if those interventions are to protect the United States at home--is bad.

The Libertarian Party is completely unprincipled and takes strides to avoid answering the question of WHY they support limited government. WHY is Capitalism so good? WHY is all taxation bad? (They don't even say that all taxation is bad, though.)

Read the full article. It's worth while.

Hat tip to the Rule of Reason!

Posted by: Flibbertigibbet at 01:18 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Category: Importance of Ideas
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