I have converted to Taoism and I quit this website.

Author: RationalMadman

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RationalMadman
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Have a pleasant time without me, or don't. Either way I am content for that is the way of the Tao.
Vader
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So long yet again
K_Michael
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Good for you I suppose.

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@Vader
lol he's done this before?
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@skittlez09
lol he's done this before?
Enough that it became meme worthy.
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@Barney
Isn't everyone a Taoist to a certain degree.

It's more a case of recognising it rather than converting to it.

And I think that it's still possible to debate online as a Taoist.

Or maybe the Madman is giving up all their worldly goods and emigrating to China.





Discipulus_Didicit
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@Barney
@Vader
Place your bets. 1:1 odds are set at the 10 day mark.
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@Barney
damn tho 

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@Discipulus_Didicit
More like 1:800 odds


(1:1 is 50%)

WaterPhoenix
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again? welp if you are gonna up and go to china like zed said then i hope you don't get corona
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@RationalMadman
Why can't a taoist be on the site?
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@ethang5
Exactly my question, and concerned because he had proposed an interesting debate. Oh, well. 
Discipulus_Didicit
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@Vader
In regards to betting the term "odds" reffers to the relative amount of money risked by each party. For example if you and I place a bet where we both risk $10 that is an example of 1:1 odds regardless of what the estimated "win" chances are. If you risk $10 and I risk 20 that is an example of 1:2 odds - again regardless of the actual "win" chances - etc.

So in the above example anyone betting on the 10 day mark would receive a dollar for each dollar they bet if they win (whichever stance they take). At the 20 day mark these odds would be 2:1 in favor of those saying he would not return by that time (since those people are less likely to win they get better odds to incentivise them to take that risk). The 30 day mark would see 3:1 odds, etc.

This crash course in irresponsible gambling brought to you by Discipulus_Didicit*

*Disclaimer: This post meant only for information purposes and does not represent gambling advice** of any kind.

**Disclaimer: Taking gambling advice from an irresponsible gambler*** would be a bad idea anyway, just don't.

***Disclaimer: The fact that Discipulus_Didicit has won more than he has lost in gambling does not mean he is to in any way be considered a responsible gambler****

****Disclaimer: or a responsible adult in general.*****

*****Disclaimer: Don't be like me, kid.
Discipulus_Didicit
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So I just looked up Taoism and apparently it is "a philosophy which advocates humility"

Are we sure RMs account wasn't hacked?
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Lol 
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@zedvictor4
Taoism is a way of life, and its chinese
Alec
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@zedvictor4
Isn't everyone a Taoist to a certain degree.
How so?  I don't know much about it.

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A lot of Westerners "convert" to Eastern religions (usually Buddhism) on their own terms, based on lofty universal values of zen, harmony, and "duality" that said religion is supposedly all about, according to the naive convert's own telling.
"Real" Buddhism is basically polytheistic, so far as concerns the way it's actually practiced by most native Buddhists. There's a butt ton of random cultural baggage attached that you can't simply ignore and still call yourself a true follower. You gotta accept the icky stuff along with the not so icky.

I'm not saying that a Westerner can't authentically convert, but it takes many, many hours of research beforehand, and sometimes it's difficult to find the original, relevant holy scripture translated into one's own Western language. Often there may be a religious devotee somewhere who puts this material online for free to increase general knowledge among X linguistic group about what they believe in, but these websites may take a little searching to find, and then time to gloss through.

And finally, you must consider whether a religion actually reflects divine truth before converting. Because converting just "because it's cool" is a bad idea. It's not like flirting with different political ideologies: you're contending with God Himself and He definitely wouldn't appreciate people acting like that.
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Personally I don't see value in converting to anything from Christianity (beside atheism).

Judaism and Islam both say the morality God expects of man is a series of rather arbitrary rules which in many cases just aren't relevant in an industrialized world. And neither one seems to have a theology which is better than in Christianity. Islam's selling point vs. Christianity is that it's Unitarian, but they also believe that the Qur'an is co-eternal with Allah, even though its text is very much temporal and human in content, so I fail to see how they're much better on that front.
Hinduism and Buddhism have so much garbage attached that you can't just believe in the sophisticated theology separate from all that (or you can, but you'd be believing separate from any sort of divine revelation).

Zoroastrianism might seem sophisticated at first but if you actually view the primary texts (as I did) it's like a nominally monotheistic variation of Hinduism but without reincarnation, and it definitely reflects tribal norms of the ancient Indo-European nomads as opposed to being a universal revelation for mankind.
In addition, Ohrmazd failed to protect the belief in him from being driven to the point of near extinction, which is an enormously discrediting factor for any religion.
(Did I forget to mention also that Sassanid-era Zoroastrianism gave direct religious sanction to brother-sister or even mother-son incestuous marriages? Or that the Iranian natives were actually somewhat relieved when Islam took over the area just so that they wouldn't have to go through with that?)

Finally, Bahai faith touts itself as a modern religion but if you'll examine it closely you'll find problematic elements there as well, reflecting the arbitrary whims of its two founders.
It lacks real sophistication and simply repeats the old trick of "prior religious revelations were canon in their day but it was all (somehow) pointing the way towards this final revelation now". It's easy to add liberalism to your new religion if you're founding it in the modern era, so don't be impressed by how progressive it might appear on the outside.

The New Testament has a theology which is universalist in scope, basically satisfactory, and sufficiently removed from ancient Hebraic norm to not be totally irrelevant to a Westerner in 2020. In believing in it as opposed to a general deistic liberal fluff you have the added benefit of divine revelation, and a clear sense of how to enter in a personal relationship with a God who loves you, will forgive you literally no matter what you've done in your past, and will show Himself to those who diligently seek Him through prayer and the reading of His word.
The amazingly beautiful and well-composed message of the Gospel was written without the benefit of modern thought and attitudes, but rather came to the conclusions that it did in spite hailing from a thoroughly barbaric and unenlightened time almost 2000 years ago. That in itself is quite possibly a miracle.

The problem with Christianity, I suspect, is that it may seem incredibly boring to a person who spent his entire life steeped in that religion's culture. While spiritual matters are far more important than "having fun" on earth, there are mystical strains of Christianity based in ancient monastic and ascetic traditions which can make for more spiritually intense and gratifying experiences. As a demi-Catholic nation, the UK is fortunate enough to have readily accessible resources and networks toward this end, if you know where to look.
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@Alec
Look it up then and see to how much of a lesser or greater extent you think that might fit in with the basic principles of Taoism.
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@Swagnarok
They arent religions, they are a way of life
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@Dr.Franklin
Buddhism and Taoism both make cosmological and spiritual claims inconsistent with a simple "way of life".

In addition, RM made the choice of wording "converted", which denotes conversion to a religious tradition.
For example, you might say "I am a communist now" or "I've embraced communism" or "I've become a communist" but you probably wouldn't say "I have converted to communism".
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@Swagnarok
You only say" I have converted to x" when talking about religion
Discipulus_Didicit
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@zedvictor4
Look it up then and see to how much of a lesser or greater extent you think that might fit in with the basic principles of Taoism.
<br>

This combined with the claim "everyone is Taoist to a certain degree" indicates that you believe the following statement is true:

Agreeing with the basic principles of a religion to a certain degree means that one identifies/should identify with that religion to a certain degree.

The problem is that isn't an accurate statement.
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@skittlez09
This return will surprise very few. Sure, you were probably thinking I’d wait to 10 days apparently (or just under that being the placement of ‘bets’) but I am back in 2 days or whatever.

The problem isn’t that, in fact I had ‘quit’ the website if you analyse my activity before that statement that I was quitting. That statement was an out for me. I have quit a few websites and games recently and contrary to what most are experiencing during this coronavirus era, I have found extreme focus and direction in life to evolve from the events.

This isn’t about me IRL though and I never want it to be about that. It’s a huge reason I was (and I stress ‘was’) addicted to this website. I no longer am addicted to almost anything. I have cut down how much I consume energy drinks to a manageable minimum, I am genuinely happy and calm (though I’ll never be a passive pussy type and everyone knows that) and finally, I would say that I have developed that ‘thick skin’ that I was told to develop. The ‘thick skin’ concept, in my eyes, is not about actually having thick skin to criticism and mockery, it’s about how you go about handling it after it offends you. The difference between thin skinned vs thick skinned people isn’t even that the thick skinned don’t pick fights alone, it’s that the thin skinned pick wrong fights far too often and go about it all wrong too (the how, not just the when, is erroneous).

I haven’t truly ‘converted’ if we discuss the epistemological aspect of Taoism, though it doesn’t really contradict my original Pagan view of reality all that much. Instead of there being a being evolving from a random generator (complex concept that I will explain to you later or you can go back on my posts and/or questions to find out), there is simply a duality in Taoism instead and it’s more like a creator vs destroyer, with the destroying entity being the more cryptic and feminine one while the creating entity is the more blatant and masculine one. I don’t entirely agree to this notion, the duality I depict is one of both a creator and destroyer as one random generator and that there is a controller (former hijacker, present genuine captain/mistress of reality) and ‘she’ plays the more feminine role as she’s mothering reality, whereas ‘fate’ itself is the more masculine one if anything, as it is aggressive, unpredictable and not at all mysterious (it can’t be, it doesn’t even have any logic to it to begin with to then uncover).

Epistemology aside let’s get onto the morality of Taoism and outlook it has on how to go about life. These elements of Taoism have, over the past week of my life, nearly single-handedly ‘cured’ my anxiety and depression issues. I am talking of effects to the brain you’d expect only after months of therapy and medication. It is about flowing and understanding that we cannot change a lot of things in reality but what we can do is embrace that chaos and be orderly in how we adapt to it. This even fits so well with my username, RationalMadman. If you honestly want to tell me that you think it’s a toxic thing to convert to and whatever else, that is your right to feel and express. I understand why it’s compared to Buddhism but there are significant differences that I will elaborate on in later posts if I find people willing to seek and understand it.

I have spent so much of my life fighting in all the wrong ways with all the wrong people when I should have been expending that same amount of energy in ways that enabled me to strengthen relations with those I am close to and which helped enemies genuinely respect (not so much fear, literally respect) me for the mature way I handle things and how I empathise with them even in the heat of ‘war’. Sun Tzu was a Taoist, he was also a war strategist, the two are not contradictory. I read someone saying that Taoism preaches humility but that’s a misconception of what it preaches, as opposed to a lie. Buddhism preaches humility and deems ego a bad thing, Taoism talks about toning the ego down so it is a caring beast, as opposed to just a straight up monster that you can’t handle.

All I can tell you is that I see life so different now but I haven’t ‘changed’ at the core level of my inner drive and even my taste in music shockingly hasn’t altered much at all, I just can enjoy slower and calmer music than before but I still love all I used to love even more intensely as I’m paying more true attention to it. I meditate regularly, literally any moment I can take deep breaths and just relax I take the opportunity until it becomes boring (boring isn’t a bad feeling once you master meditation, it’s actually what you want to strive towards to build an inner barrier of ‘boredom’ when shit hits the fan in life and your boredom will make you almost giggle at the struggle ahead with each set of obstacles). Taoist meditation involves filling your mind and hyperfocusing it, not emptying the mind. You can even think sexual thoughts, of food cravings you have and the approach Taoism takes is to simply make your addiction a ‘thing’, it’s just there and you fully are aware of it and accept it and say ‘hello addiction, I wish to work with you to make us both have a healthier relationship’. That’s how you begin your journey to lowering your dosage or whatever. Sure, you can go cold turkey if you can afford to be that irritable, it’s not about the speed or the destination but about your journey being balanced enough for you as a person to remain calm and ready for whatever lies ahead, at all times.

We spend so much time on this website ‘battling’ to prove others wrong and I still don’t understand why. You can’t fight someone to change their mind, the audience are not likely to change their minds either. I must learn the Taoist way of debating. Using the opponent’s logic against them is something that’s Taoist that Sun Tzu preached a lot but I am getting into more purist Taoism and not just warlike stuff, so Lao Tzu and teachings like ‘the angry warrior has something the prove, but the best warrior is never angry.’ To really take it serious, not go ‘pseudo-intellectual philosophical waffling’ but appreciate the deep truths of Taoism and apply them to my life and debating and just everything. I will learn but for now I don’t want to debate, to me it’s not fun and is toxic for my wellbeing. I feel no contradiction between admitting that and remaining here as an active forum member who at times will debate but seldom so. That’s my new MO and any who have an issue with it are free to enjoy my high quality forum posts as they complain.

Discipulus_Didicit
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@RationalMadman
Sure, you were probably thinking I’d wait to 10 days apparently (or just under that being the placement of ‘bets’) but I am back in 2 days or whatever.

No the 10 day mark was semi-arbitrary and in no way reflects the bookies belief of when the return would actually take place. You see the 1:1 odds anchor had to be set at some point on the scale in order to use a sliding scale method in the first place and save me from listing out each and every possible bet and the associated odds. This was necessary because it would only be possible to create bets on how long it would take you to return rather than a straight "will he return? Yes/No"

Placing bets on whether or not you would eventually return would not be interesting because everyone already knew you would (an easy prediction to make given not just your history but your nature).
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@RationalMadman
ok...
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@RationalMadman
Evolving is a fact of nature.

The cuttlefish, the catapillar, the crow....

The cocoon will always stand between  crawling blind and sighted flight.
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@Discipulus_Didicit
I puld gain little joy on proving it wrong. It's like saying Ramshutu will soon return, I don't think he will gainna shred of joy from proving it wrong. People come and go, I thrive when allowed to freely engage people's opinions and IRL I rarely get that chance.
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@Discipulus_Didicit
I had 3 days