Except that it literally was a commentary on me though. If you wanted to tell your own truth you could’ve made your own comment, but you responded to mine to tell me why your worldview was superior.

As I said, this brand of atheism comes from a place of misunderstanding. If you frame belief in deity as “inventing additional unseeable and unprovable forces and aspects”, then I’m afraid you’ve made some error along the way.

I’m not sure what benefit is provided by the projection of your hangups onto others. I’m not sure how you could construe your comment as inoffensive. I don’t see how implying my language was tortured, or my path too long, provides any form of guidance. Perhaps this is a subject where you should spend more time listening than guiding.

More or less, depends on how you wanna define UU.

No, actually. This was a step past atheism, which was how I identified for most of my teens and into my 20s. I too went onto message boards to convince religious people they were irrational.

It turns out my younger self, and I suspect you, came to that conclusion by a series of silly misunderstandings and an arbitrarily bounded rationality.

No, the language isn’t tortured, no the effect is not the same, no it isn’t fewer steps. It’s only one more small step from atheism to a coherent metaphysics.

I don’t believe in a religion. I am a syncretic pantheist.

“Syncretic” meaning that I don’t think any one religion or sect has a monopoly on divine truth, even if they are sincere and productive attempts. Refer to Rumi’s Elephant.

“Pantheist” meaning that I think God = Universe. The laws of nature are God’s attributes. We are all literally one with God, everything that exists is.

I believe these things because I exhausted basically every other reasonable metaphysical alternative.

Maybe, many relevant acquaintances have spoken very fondly of my balls, up to and including my wife. But maybe that’s just me.

I’m good at lots of things. Navigating the US healthcare industry is not one of them. My wife is in the industry, so I let her find one for me.

If you want a positively singular album, check out Oldfield’s Amarok. It’s a unique experience, start to finish, and the story behind it is great.

I grew up with them, and to this day I’ve never found anyone who quite matches that sound. Just pure musical creativity.

The first, like, 5 albums by They Might Be Giants are unique in their own ways. Just different blends of wackiness and musical sophistication, it’s sublime.

The difference between persuasion and manipulation is largely subjective.

If this is for personal interest, go into it with relatively concrete questions, and then try to answer them.

Her BWV 997 is amazing

Edge.

A man, obsessed with trains, finally sneaks into the engine one day. He’s having the time of his life for a few minutes before he screws up a switch and derails the train, killing dozens of people.

His trial is quick, and he is sentenced to death. The day arrives, and for his last meal he requests a single banana. He eats it, he’s strapped into the electric chair, and when they pull the switch… nothing.

They delay the sentence for a day, to examine the chair for defects. They tighten all the connections, check the wires, and test to make sure it’s working.

The next day, for his real last meal, he again requests a single banana. He eats, they strap him in and pull the switch. Again, nothing.

They delay one more day to tear the chair down to every component, test everything, reassemble, test again. They’re confident that the chair is working properly.

Next day, he asks again for one banana. “Oh no no,” the warden says “I didn’t know how you’re doing it, but you’re not getting another banana”. They serve him roast beef and potatoes, with apple pie for dessert. They strap him in, pull the switch and… nothing.

The bananas had nothing to do with it, turns out he was just a bad conductor.

Nothing. If I’m paying for it, it’s worth it. Convenience, quality, durability, whatever the reason I paid a high price for something, it’s worth the price. If it isn’t, I don’t buy it. There are things that I buy which are more expensive than other options, sure, but that expense is justified. I paid over $1000 for a washing machine, because it will last longer than the string of cheaper machines I would buy instead, which would add up to more than what I paid; not to mention the value of my time and energy in dealing with replacing a broken one.

Look, it’s easy to mess up when you have x-ray vision.

Right, and buying new stuff when you don’t need it perpetuates all those bad corporate practices. You can want to fix that while also not wanting to personally contribute to the excess.

You and I have different tolerances for waste. I’m not going to preach to you about it, but you should at least respect the wishes of people who want to help in the ways they can.

Because some people don’t think it’s misplaced. It’s not an obsession with old things, it’s an avoidance of new ones. Just because I’m only responsible for a tiny fraction doesn’t mean I’m going to ignore that fraction.

Consumerism is why those massive companies pollute so much in the first place.

If I may ask, why is everyone else so obsessed with new things? Why is it the people who don’t feel the need to constantly buy new products that have to explain themselves? That seems backwards.

That’s their problem: their product is very good and very reliable, which means once everyone who wants one has one, there’s no more demand.