Up@dawn 2.0

Monday, February 9, 2015

Group 2- The Philosoraptors- H01

We kept with the conversation of, "Should we fear death?" Most of us agreed on the fact that the idea of being dead isn't scary, but the process of getting there is terrifying. We then started to talk about the Gambler's Wager and decided that is definitely not the correct way to live. If you can't devote yourself to a religion, you're just copping yourself out. Religion isn't supposed to be based on self-interest.

I agree with the opinion of Evan as far as a benevolent God goes; a benevolent god would not curse people to hell simply for not believing a certain religious doctrine.

Daniel thought that if hell is simply a lack of heaven, couldn't this justify a normal death with no afterlife?

Our floater Sarah added in on the conversation with the idea that death itself isn't scary, but the idea of leaving this beautiful world behind is.

Joshua questioned, if God is perfect, why does he need us to worship him?

7 comments:

  1. My FQs:
    1. What do stoics believe being philosophical means? (LH 28)
    2. What did Seneca think was the most fruitful way to exist? (LH 32)

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  2. Evan Conley1:46 PM CST

    I feel like much of the wisdom of the stoics is particularly useful when dealing with the fear of death, dying, and the afterlife. Though I do not necessarily agree with the stoics on all counts, I do believe there is a great deal of wisdom in not worrying about that which lies beyond our own control. Since we can't know what happens when we die, and because we can't predict when or how we will die, the constant worrying about death and the afterlife seems to bear no fruit. Instead, it is more important to focus on problems that can be fixed.

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  3. Anonymous1:49 PM CST

    This is the author post for Group 1- H01 from Thursday...

    We discussed whether death is something we fear. Most of us were more concerned with the process of dying than the idea of being dead. We also mused about death in the light of American literature, such as The Great Gatsby and The Death of a Salesman.

    We also discussed the afterlife. Since most of us are Christians, we agreed that there is a Heaven and Hell. We speculated on what Heaven and Hell are like, whether Hell is fire and brimstone, or ice cold. Whatever the environment is like, we mostly agreed that it would be the absence of God's presence. We again pulled from different literary works, Dante's Inferno and C.S. Lewis's The Great Divorce.

    Another part of our discussion transitioned to how a person gets into Heaven or Hell... we mostly agreed on the traditional Biblical explanations for how a person is saved. We also discussed that Hell is not a place God wants any human to end up, but that a perfectly good God by nature must be separate from evil.

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  4. A few thoughts on last weeks discussion;

    I fear and romanticize death at the same time... On one hand, the blissful nature of sliding into nothingness (possibly accompanied by a spiritual DMT experience) sounds very nice. All tension and anxiety would (or hopefully should) just float away. On the other hand, I have a natural fear of the unknown. I find it difficult to imagine nonexistence and absence of thought (for obvious reasons). I've accepted that fearing death is irrational, but I can't help it! Funny stuff...

    2/10
    FQ: What is a Kantian 'maxim' supposed to represent?
    DQ: Is it immoral to tell lies? Or do you believe that the consequence of the lie is more important than the intention of the person telling it?

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  5. FQ: (T/F) Kant dismisses emotions as irrelevant to morality. (P 46)
    FQ: Who wrote On Old Age? (LH 30)
    FQ: How did Seneca die? (LH 32)

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  6. I really enjoyed Group 1's discussion. After discussing American literature that discusses death, I thought of how many works of literature throughout the ages have focused on the subject. I particularly remembered the play Our Town, one of my favorites.

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  7. I thought this was a really interesting question that I've been pondering for a long time. In a sense, you could say that all religion is related to a stoic philosophy, in that while what humans cannot control is in God's hands, they do worry about the people they can change and influence, and so work to convert them and save them. :D

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