Monicks: Unleashed

Tag: philosophy

  • Crosses

    Posted By Martin S Pribble

    I don’t normally do poetry but yesterday I awoke with some of this running around my head. Thanks to Monica for allowing me to cross-post this here.

    Crosses

    Cross yourself and speak unto Jesus
    And hope for the species that the people deceased
    Are released from the pain and the suffering
    Your faith is decreasing, the pages are creasing
    In the only book you’ve been reading.
    The idea is appealing, but somehow revealing
    Of the fear that you’re breeding.

    And you’re left needing…

    You’re only human.
    A part of this species that does as it pleases.
    If you do what they tell you then you will be free,
    Dotting the I’s and crossing the T’s,
    Putting crosses in boxes like a job application
    Delivered not into temptation but redemption
    And carry the cross on your chest like disease
    The people beneath us will be recieved above,
    And you will be there to receive all the love.

    Still you cross your chest as you cross your fingers,
    And cross your legs too for there’s evil down there,
    And preach the love as the hatred increases,
    The cross on your chest, double-crossing the rest,
    Treating others like feces.

    As the crosses increase for the people beneath us
    Crossing your chest as you cross your fingers
    The hope that you’ll be received
    And haven’t been deceived,
    That the Jesus you speak of
    Is real and forgiving.
    You give up on living, your life is in pieces
    Dashed against rocks, or stoned for your failings.

    The bible tells you you’ll go to heaven,
    You’ve been told this since before you were seven,
    But even now you have doubts,
    The cross is a crutch to reassure you.
    Crossing your fingers and crossing your chest, if you’re good, and love Jesus, you’ll see heaven with the rest.
    See, he died for you
    And when you leave the species you’ll be with him too…

    Cross your fingers…

    Originally posted at Martin S Pribble.

  • The true value of a man…

    “The true value of a man is not determined by his possession, supposed or real, of Truth, but rather by his sincere exertion to get the Truth. It is not possession of the Truth, but rather the pursuit of Truth by which he extends his powers and in which his ever-growing perfectability is to be found. Possession makes one passive, indolent, and proud. If God were to hold all Truth concealed in His right hand, and in his left only the steady and diligent drive for Truth, albeit with a proviso that I would always and forever err in the process, and to offer me the choice, I would with all humility take the left hand.”

    –Gotthold Lessing, Anti-Gokz.E (1778)

  • The Knobe Effect

    The vice president of a company went to the chairman of the board and said, ‘We are thinking of starting a new program. It will help us increase profits, but it will also harm the environment.’ The chairman of the board answered, ‘I don’t care at all about harming the environment. I just want to make as much profit as I can. Let’s start the new program.’ They started the new program. Sure enough, the environment was harmed.

    Did the chairman harm the environment intentionally? In a 2003 study, 82 percent of respondents said yes, he did. But now consider this:

    The vice president of a company went to the chairman of the board and said, ‘We are thinking of starting a new program. It will help us increase profits, and it will also help the environment.’ The chairman of the board answered, ‘I don’t care at all about helping the environment. I just want to make as much profit as I can. Let’s start the new program.’ They started the new program. Sure enough, the environment was helped.

    Did the chairman help the environment intentionally? Only 23 percent of respondents said yes.

    What should we make of this? Yale philosopher Joshua Knobe says, “It seems very puzzling that all we changed was this one word, just changing the word harm to help, and yet we’re now having completely different judgments about whether what he did was intentional or unintentional. Yet it seems like it’s only the moral status of what he did that is changing. … Somehow the moral judgments people are making are affecting their intuitions about something like how the mind works.”

    via futilitycloset.com