Quote:
Originally Posted by Razor Ramon
There's a difference between personal drive and being a pack mule too.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Razor Ramon
There's a difference between personal drive and being a pack mule too.
While there is definitely a lot of room for making an argument that today's games are more realistically violent than the sprites we grew up with, it's still mostly cartoonish violence. I don't have kids, but as long as they understand that there's a difference between real violence and cartoonish violence, I'm going to trust that it isn't affecting their moral compass.
I grew up being able to play/watch just about any kind of content I wanted. My parents would frequently rent R-rated movies; they didn't have a problem with me renting whatever games I wanted. (Obviously, as a kid, my purchases were very limited, so choosing that game for Christmas or whatever took some serious research and confidence.)
Like Fe said, my problem isn't with any specific content. I just hope the kid is getting a diversity of things to do, not just enticed to sit in front of a video game all day long. Hell, I had woods to play in; hand-me-down toys; paper for drawing; friends to be imaginative and just play with.
Honestly, the best thing they did was buy me a subscription to Nintendo Power. (Later, EGM and Next Generation.) I learned to read at a VERY young age. These magazines were my gold. Even if I couldn't play all of the latest games, I could at least imagine I was playing them. The magazines gave me insight into other people's perspectives, critical analysis, and so much more. I was really ahead of my peers in elementary school. I hope there's something like that in the future that my kids can be passionate and want to learn from and about.
One time, my parents took away my entire magazine collection because I refused to go to church. But that's a whole 'nother story...
Not to derail the thread, but I kind of wish I didn't know about the christian religion. Its like building a little bit of crazy into a person, and it creeps out at bad times. Like you might have a horrible day. Like you just got fired or your wife left you. If you went to church a lot, you might start thinking some crazy shit about "what is god's plan" and "maybe god got me fired to teach me something" then you sit around and try to connect your shitty day to the will of the cosmos, instead of just accepting it, grieving for your loss, and moving on.
I vehemently disagree with people who say religion is just a crutch that people use to cope with life. If it is a crutch, it is a wretched one. It only extends the grieving period. It doesn't make pain go away quicker.
The nice thing about religious folk is that they all act and think the exact same way.
They're the one group of people that you can make sweeping generalizations about and not look like an ass afterward.
People can't deal with the idea that one day they'll cease to exist. Religion is here to assuage that fear.* It gives you a magic place to go and hang out with all your friends and pets after you die. No matter how bad life is you can still skateboard with Jesus in heaven. If this isn't a crutch to cope with life then what is?Quote:
Originally Posted by Fe 26
I thought most people have kids because condoms "don't feel good." That's the way it generally works around here.
That too.
It's kind of a difficult thing to properly express. Like I said earlier in the thread, I think that mature content for children may not be good for their emotional development. I don't think that it means they'll grow up to murderers on criminals but may cause other issues. It'd be pretty hard to make an argument that letting a little kid listen to gangster rap won't potentially have a negative effect on his development. A lot of the problem is the lack of parental involvement as well because without that (or the proper approach), kids are going to be lacking a strong foundation in which they are able to process this type of stuff in a way that doesn't lead to the wrong types of feelings.. Parental involvement and guidance is far more important than exposure to content that may or may not be too mature for the child. From what I've seen, that is a significant problem in the modern generation of parents as they seem to be far less involved in discipline, discussion and monitoring of their children. As a result, some parents have responded to this by going overboard and becoming too involved and overbearing. Of course this is only my opinion on the matter and I'm very open to other ideas and reexamining the problem as time goes on.Quote:
Originally Posted by bbobb
Religion serves a lot of purposes. The general mainstream approach to it is most certainly a crutch for people to avoid the fears of life and what the effects of their actions will be on their future/post-life. That being said, there are a lot of approaches to spirituality that don't have to contradict scientific process or society based issues. Truth be told, there is still plenty of mystery and unsolved problems related to our universe/being and a consideration for different elements of spirituality aren't an indication of ignorance in an individual. There are certain things about the universe that go beyond human understanding and we can only seek to explain/approach them in the way that makes the most sense to us based on our perceptions.Quote:
Originally Posted by Josh
I personally believe that there is a spiritual force that has some type of involvement in our lives and the universe in general. To what extent, I am completely unsure and I often find myself questioning this belief or modifying it.
In practice, you're not really coping. There is no "getting over" death or any the related problems in something like Christianity. You're constantly thinking about it. If you're faithful, you go to a building every Sunday (Wednesday evening, Sunday night and evening if you are super faithful) and think about this stuff. You're thinking about death and how horrible life is at least 3 times a week for the rest of your life. If you pray before meals and before bed, you're thinking about it everyday.Quote:
Originally Posted by Josh
An atheist on the other hand, you learn about death, you grieve the loss of you're childish nativity and you move on. You probably don't sit around and think about dying, the 'rules' of dying and everyone else dying every single day.
Saying that religion is a way to cope with death is like saying enlisting in the military is a way to cope with death during a war. Sure, you might feel like you have some control over your own fate but now you're enlisted. The war is all around you, every second of everyday. You're now thinking about it even more than had you just staid at home and tried to put it out of your mind.
If someone wanted to cope with death, 1 to 1, they'd be better off being an atheist. Because in atheism, you get over the idea of death and get on with your life. With religion, you never get over it. You're always preoccupied with it.
Its bad medicine.
Maybe it eases the your fears of death a bit, but it definitely helps you cope with the death of others. They either stop existing and turn to meat or they're partying it up in heaven. Which one makes you feel better?