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In reply to the discussion: Gene Wilder - Atheist [View all]

Warren DeMontague

(80,708 posts)
25. Pixels and words aren't the person?
Tue Aug 30, 2016, 07:59 AM
Aug 2016

Okay, what is? Gene Wilder the baby? Christopher Hitchens the adolescent? None of us are even the same person from moment to moment.

I know, Death is spooky black stark nothing, and this is supposed to be the great looming threat which drives us all into the warm embrace of the holy church.

Ignoring the fact that the scenery is made of balsawood and you can see the ropes holding up the angels.

But nothing is "nothing". Certainly not nothing. There's no such thing as nothing. So-called "empty space" is teeming with things popping in and out of existence all the time, borrowing time and matter and energy and probability from the randomness, uncertainty and chaos that is the REAL firmament underlying everything.

It's not that I'm not scared of anything, but I'm certainly not scared of nothing, Rug.

(It also may be completely meaningless to try and speak of what is "outside" existence, because by definition there is no outside, but that's a post for a different day)

Gene Wilder - and Christopher Hitchens to boot- the individual, the ego, the organizational system of molecules holding forth for however many decades against the relentless and always victorious forces of entropy? Gone. But where? Back to the nameless, the Tao, the great mother of the ten thousand things which has no name and can never be created or destroyed. That's not Misty-eyed, that IS the stark reality.

At least, that's what I choose to think this week. You think whatever the fuck you want, holmes. Your head, not mine.

How's that, for "preaching"?

Gene Wilder - Atheist [View all] stopbush Aug 2016 OP
Sounds like a pretty good plan to me. OriginalGeek Aug 2016 #1
and... Jeffersons Ghost Aug 2016 #8
lots of brilliant minds are underpaid Younemeen Aug 2016 #21
IMDB says 1995! TexasBushwhacker Aug 2016 #2
Jewish Atheist! mucifer Aug 2016 #3
Not any more. rug Aug 2016 #4
If it makes you feel better edhopper Aug 2016 #5
It is the reality now, isn't it ed? rug Aug 2016 #16
I took your post to say edhopper Aug 2016 #31
I took it as a simple fact pintobean Aug 2016 #33
True. Now he's just dead. REP Aug 2016 #10
Classy. Warren DeMontague Aug 2016 #13
No, actually I learned that from Hitchens. rug Aug 2016 #18
I know he does Warren DeMontague Aug 2016 #22
Those are pixels and words, not the person. rug Aug 2016 #23
Pixels and words aren't the person? Warren DeMontague Aug 2016 #25
Er, no. rug Aug 2016 #26
wow, that was fast. Warren DeMontague Aug 2016 #27
Only six characters rug Aug 2016 #29
You accused me of preaching, so I figured I owed you a little pulpit thumping, so to speak. Warren DeMontague Aug 2016 #30
HOLY SHIT I'M STILL HERE Warren DeMontague Aug 2016 #41
Always. Think about it. rug Aug 2016 #42
You assume I haven't? Warren DeMontague Aug 2016 #43
You know, we used to believe in ghosts. Many still do. WestCoastLib Aug 2016 #35
He wasn't interested in having an actual discussion, clearly. Warren DeMontague Aug 2016 #40
Post removed Post removed Aug 2016 #14
Post removed Post removed Aug 2016 #19
And to think I thought you were so happy at jpr. rug Aug 2016 #20
Wow. demmiblue Aug 2016 #24
Not any more. AlbertCat Aug 2016 #34
He would probably laugh edhopper Aug 2016 #6
Yes. Very disrespectful of his wife of the past 25 years, stopbush Aug 2016 #7
Well, there's room for both, if that's what one believes. DawgHouse Aug 2016 #9
This message was self-deleted by its author edhopper Aug 2016 #32
That too REP Aug 2016 #12
Just to set the record straight leftynyc Aug 2016 #15
'Rejoining' with god is one way to explain it REP Aug 2016 #36
It was explained to me leftynyc Aug 2016 #37
3 Jews, 5 opinions :-) REP Aug 2016 #38
Agree leftynyc Aug 2016 #39
I never knew he remarried. Lunabell Aug 2016 #28
I thought they were weird REP Aug 2016 #11
If he was Buddhist, one way of looking at it is to say that all things contain the Buddha nature. Warren DeMontague Aug 2016 #17
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