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Singularity
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Some people might ask why I have such a fascination with death and aging. I’m really not sure myself. All I can tell you is that it has always been there.I think it comes from just being more aware of my fear than others.Once we become aware of death, and it’s seeming inevitability, we form one of four coping mechanisms. The 4 copes are as follows;

1. Believing in a  religion and hoping that, the religion will lead to everlasting lifespan
2. Seeking to be immortalized through our works, by becoming famous, making millions or getting involved in politics and other similar things to make us larger than life.
3. Seeking the fountain of youth. These are the type of people trying to literally hunt for a magic fountain, use alchemy or pursue the philosopher’s stone.
4. Having children.These are the people who think of their kids as an extension of themselves and are seeking immortality through reproduction.

Some of us don’t think we are using copes, but we are. These people are those who have no fear of death. Anyone who has no fear of death has psychologically minimized what it is. They describe it as going to sleep, or say it is just like before you are born. They’ll reassure you that death is nothing to be scared of, or that it doesn’t hurt (As if it matters)

Death is real, and it is not going to sleep. It is not “being in nothingness”. What it is, is seizing to exist. When you die, you stop existing at all.Anything you did is pointless because your world has ended.

If I don’t use copes, you might ask what I do actually do.

First, I know that life has lost all meaning if you just end up dead anyway. Even if you try to rationalize it as having been good because you helped somebody, it is pointless. The person you helped will die also, and they will be lost to the sands of time.

There are only 2 correct responses to the fact we know we will stop existing at some point. The first rational response is to just give up. It most likely is true that we will fail to cheat death. No other generation has done so, before us though many have tried. When you give up, you go the hedonistic route. Enjoy every moment to it’s fullness. Screw the future, in the future we are dead.

The second response is the more heroic one, which is to actively fight the prospect of death. To hold off on the hope that we can one day do the impossible and cheat death, and in fact by taking the more heroic route, we actually increase our chances of beating death.

I encourage all of you to take the heroic route. Watch my posts, do what I tell you todo, but using your own judgment. I have a debate with rationalmadman where I give diet advice. Take the advice I give. Soon I will give advice on what to do in terms of activism and even provide you with solid career advice to help me end aging.

Mopac
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@Singularity
Christianity is not simply a coping mechanism to face death. If that was the case, I never would have been attracted to it, because I have long come to terms with the fact that I will die, and I am not attached enough to this vain world to care. Ceasing to exist sounds like a vacation!

Your strongest efforts will not give you immortality. Quite the contrary, it is in grasping for this life that you lose it. 
Singularity
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@Mopac
The fact you referred to death as a "vacation" is a cope. It implies you think of it as a black void you will be facing, but even a black void is something. Even facing nothingness implies that your consciousness still survives. Death is seizing to exist. 
Mopac
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@Singularity
I'm being a bit facetious when I call it a vacation, I know.


I get what ceasing to exist means. Doesn't bother me at all. I achieved total hopelessness at a pretty young age. I used to say that no hope is what gave me guts. Though I am a different person today, I still find everything to be done in this world as vanity.

Somehow, that translates very well into being Orthodox. 

So now when I serve, I do it as for God. Now when I give, I do it with a sincere detachment. Now when I become a fool for Christ's sake, I do it with no regard to my reputation.

In a way, we Orthodox are like nihilists. The nihilist puts all of their faith in the world and no faith in God. In doing so, their faith is in the abyss, and they can even discern this. We Orthodox however, put all our faith in God and none of it in the world. In doing so, our faith is in eternity.

The Truth is what sets you free. The Truth is God.


Singularity
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@Mopac
Sounds like a good philosophy to be honest with you.
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@Mopac
our faith is in eternity.
Oops, just destroyed your entire argument.



Singularity
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I'm not sure if there is any difference in putting your faith into the abyss or into God. It seems like the same exact thing, but with the God one, you are just pretending he exists because staring into the abyss is scary.

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Gods are necessary if you want to pretend you'll live forever.
Mopac
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@Singularity
The God we believe in is The Ultimate Reality.


If it doesn't exist, it can't be God. Existence is so intrinsically tied to the essence of God. 


I am not motivated by fear or promise of reward. I love God for who God Is.

Singularity
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@Mopac
Sounds like the ontological argument. Is that what you are hinting at?
Mopac
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@Singularity
I do not recognize any valid debate about the existence of God. The existence of God is a certainty, and so the debate is not ever truly about the existence of God.

I probably don't believe whatever god you are talking about either, and neither does the church.

Ours is a revealed faith, not something arrived at through reason. It is not a philosophy. It is The Eternal Way.

The Supreme and Ultimate Reality is The One True God, and surely this God exists. There is no reasonable doubt about this matter.





Singularity
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@Mopac
So you just randomly decided to believe in God and have blind faith that it is a certainty and above debate? This is a terrible argument in favor.

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@Singularity
My faith is not blind, I have experiential and true knowledge of God's existence. Neither am I making an argument. I am making assertions.

Do you doubt that there is Ultimate Reality?


Singularity
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@Mopac
Experiential sounds weak. There are people who claim to have been abducted by aliens, and I have no doubt they genuinely believe that it happened and it felt very real to them. As far as ultimate realit . I HAVE NO IDEAL IF WHAT I am experiencing is the only reality or if we are perhaps in a computer simulation or any other thing.
Singularity
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Schizophrenia patients also experience a lot of so called direct communication with other worldly beings as do people who take hallucinogens, so you can't trust experiential proof of something, especially in regards to the supernatural 
Mopac
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@Singularity
The fact that you are having an experience at all proves conclusively that there is some form of existence. There is a reality as it is experienced.

If there is a reality as it is experienced, there by necessity must be a reality as it truly is.

Reality in the truest sense of the word is God. That is what "Supreme Being" means. That is what "The Ultimate Reality" means.

To put it simply, The Truth is God.


Singularity
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@Mopac
Just because reality exists, which is a given LOL, does not make that reality God. It seems like a silly conclusion to jump to. Where is the logic that not only is reality a conscious being that created us, but is also a concept k own as "truth".
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@Singularity
You are having trouble reconciling your superstitions concerning God with what I just told you.


I am presenting to you in the clearest most demystifying way what we believe to the best of my ability. I'm sure if we are both patient, eventually we can come to an understanding of The Truth, which is the objective of righteous debate. Arguing is not righteous debate. Neither is it intelligent. The surest proof of this is observing children who argue. When debate becomes less about coming to an understanding of The Truth, and more about the imposition of will or the appearance of righteousness, it ceases to be edifying debate.

So I ask that you be patient with me and show me charity so that we can have a truly righteous debate, and not an argument. I will by the grace of God afford you that courtesy regardless.

Besides, we'll have more fun anyway.


We acknowledge The Ultimate Reality as God.



Singularity
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@Mopac
I believe I am being patient with you and probing for more information in a respectful way. Some things you do concern me though. I remember a user named bornofGod when I was on DDO, and he had a similar way of talking. I was wondering if you are the same user. I liked that guy
Mopac
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@Singularity
I am not the same person.

It is my primary mission to educate, I would encourage you to probe. You are not offending me.

For something to exist, there must be some truth in it. Even if reality exists as an illusion, for it to exist as an illusion there must be some truth in it.

The Truth that gives everything its being is God. It is The Ultimate Reality that all realities derive their being.





Singularity
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@Mopac
Just looking at the definition for truth which means "honest statement", I don't see how that is relevant to reality existing. Or how an "honest statement" is somehow God. It seems like some wierd conclusions to jump to. It almost sounds like word salad. I am struggling a bit to understand you. Can you expand on these concepts?

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@Singularity
When I say, "The Truth", I am not talking about an honest statement.

I am talking very specifically talking about that which is ultimately real. Namely, the one all pervasive reality that unites all of existence. The True Singularity, for the God I speak of is incomparable, and there nothing like this God. The God I speak of is very distinct in nature from created things. While created things are contingent on other created things and ultimately God, God is self existing, and singular. Unchanging. Complete.

I am speaking about the unknown God, because God, being The True Singularity is incomprehensible. To know God as God truly is would be to know everything that can be known, and more. God's essence is unknowable. 

Though God's essence is unapproachable, it is it so strange to say that we can be certain of God's existence? Is it even so strange to believe that The Ultimate Reality exists? By definition, God is more real than anything else you think is real. Truthfully, this world IS illusion, and only God is real. But in this world of illusion are types and shadows that point to The One. We discern God's existence through God's uncreated energies which permeate creation. The Light shines in the darkness.

Believe me when I say that what I am trying to communicate is very simple. It is The Truth. Not a truth, but THE Truth. This is no exaggeration or hype, it is reality.

The big secret is that our religion is Truth worship. Everything follows from that, and it is impossible to see how if you can't accept that. Yet all of it is intricately tied together and very consistent.







Singularity
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@Mopac
Okay, I think I understand what you are saying to a good extent, it is just you incorrect use of the English language that is a bit of a barrier to understanding.  Maybe it is easier to shrink the concepts into words like "The Truth", so as to more easily explain the concept.  However I think you are sacrificing understandability by using words a different way than the dictionary defines them. My recommendation is to sacrifice this speed for a thorough explanation. 
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@Singularity
It is not so much my use of language so much as it is the nature of what it is I am trying to communicate. On top of that, the receptivity of your heart.

I am really only saying one thing at this point.


God speaks, and He says "I Am The Supreme and Ultimate Reality."


This is God's declared identity. He isn't lying either, God is telling The Truth. It is your choice whether or not you believe He is who He says He is.

If you can't make that choice to believe He Is Who He says He Is, you will never see it. 

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@Singularity
How do you worship God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength if you don't know who God is?

The Eternally Existing One is God.


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@Mopac
The Eternally Existing One is God
Well it can't be yours then because yours was only invented a couple of thousand years ago as a member of the Canaanite Pantheon of Gods.


Singularity
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@Mopac
In order to worship him with all your mind it would require not experiential knowledge which can't be trusted, but good solidly backed logic or science.
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@Singularity
Christianity is a myth based hypothesis.

And Death is the off switch.

And Death is the easy bit.

It's all our stored data that is the glitch and in the end Christianity won't really help with our acquired fear of non-existence.

Dementia is a good natural coping strategy.

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@Singularity
It's a matter of accepting who God is. If you love The Truth, this will reflect in your behavior..

I already demonstrated how everyone has performed the necessary experimentation to be able to see that God exists. Namely that existence itself is proof that there is an existence as it truly is.

But it was Christ who said, "Blessed are the pure in heart, they will see God."

Our discipline has a great deal to do with purifying the heart, or nous. Being capable of reason will not help you if your intents and motivations compromise your ability to see clearly or be truthful. What we do is not woo, but all very therepeutic towards eradicating delusion through the cleansing of the heart. The purer the heart, the clearer God becomes.

We strive to be living icons of The Truth, and so we understand The Truth not so much as an intellectual assent but The Way that is abided in. A lot is revealed simply by living The Truth.

But what you ask for, thinking you are being reasonable you are actually using logic in an irrational way. You are effectively saying, "Prove to me it is true that there is truth!". I am sure you have enough sense to see that this is an absurd request.


The existence of God is a given. To say, "The Ultimate Reality doesn't exist" is a self defeating and untenable position. In fact, it is such a stupid position that the scripture rightly says, "Only a fool says in their heart their is no God.". As the scriptures testify of the God I am speaking about, this is obviously true. The position of atheism doesn't deserve to be taken seriously.

Atheism is nihilism, plain and simple. If you don't believe in absolute truth you are a nihilist in the truest sense of the word.






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@zedvictor4
Dementia is not a coping strategy. It is a disease, and involuntary so definitely not a cope.