manni … self discovery is a personal journey … ingesting the thoughts/intuitions/experiences of an “other” would put us in the same category as the children in your neighborhood as a child.
OTH … thoughts/intuitions that are confirmed by personal experience are not only helpful … they encourage us to continue on our personal journey of self discovery.
you mentioned several times your preference for a “nature” based world view. The thoughts/philosophy in the Dao De Jing are almost entirely “nature” based.
The Dao De Jing is a short poem … about 5,000 Chinese characters … written about 2,500 years ago … yet … IMO the thoughts expressed in the poem owe their genesis to a much earlier period … perhaps as much as 5,000 years ago (from today)
Some say the book is the most read book after the Bible … translated into many languages … and interpretation/commentary for more than 2,300 years.
People are still arguing over interpretation especially in light of recent archeological discoveries.
The book is a rare opportunity for English speaking people to get a peek into an “alien” perspective.
I personally have read the book 15-20 times … each time expanding my comprehension … I personally found so many parallels between the stuff expressed in the poem and the Judaic/Christian/Islam faith stories.
God is evil. Satan is a metaphor of the Noble angel who rebelled against a tyrant. You can’t tell me God is not evil, God is evil. God is a metaphor for the folks in elysium, hipsters, yuppies, high heeled angels who live in the clouds, who don’t care about the male misery below. Nobody wants to understand or hear the male damnation, they just plug into their iphones, eat their butchered arby beefsteak and just don’t care. God sits in his throne like a high heeled lady, who could care less about the hell and damnation of all her dumped exes.
Transexualism, is a metaphor for Satan to reunited with the angels once again. Transexualism is hated, because all the imps in hell want Satan to stay and suffer with them, they don’t want him to sell out and make peace with the divas above. It’s almost perceived as a treason. Thus, jokers are formed…half angel half demon.
Transsexualism is bullshit hahahaha
do you think you can get a baby if you cut your dick off?? Hahahah
so disappointing, it must be, to find out that you’ve only destroyed your sex.
I know some girl who is having her pussy sowed shut, a meatstick sowed on. What, now she is a man?
Manni … if I understood some of your comments correctly … you certainly know the answer to Dawkins’ question … St Augustine said it rather eloquently … paraphrasing … God speaks to us through his creation … nature is part of his creation … what does the beauty of a rose in bloom speak to you … how distant is the sight/fragrance.
The God Dawkins is talking about is the man-made God … the old man with the long white hair and the long white beard … residing somewhere up in the sky.
Suppose that’s why I can empathize with your preference for a “nature” based world view.
What intention(s) does the term “Self Discovery” attempt to convey?
Two simple enough words yet an incredibly complex notion … with much of the complexity suffocated in the dust of obfuscation created by those who attempt to place the definition in a box … to wrap it tightly in chains and so on.
A True Seeker … and the word “seeker” is not alien to Paganism … gets lots of help along the way … the journey … destination … ultimate self discovery.
Much of this “help” appears garbed in the vestments of pain, crisis, frustration, anger, impatience and so on … a rather long list.
Yet in the end … the True Seeker … must discover … for himself/herself … by himself/herself … his/her self. All other discovery(s) is an illusion … worthless … meaningless.
Let me try with an example … from nature!
An erupting volcano is impartial … before inflicting it’s destruction on all things/beings in it’s path … in all 6 directions (up and down included)it takes no notice of ‘goodness’ or ‘badness’ … it simply erupts.
People are walking volcanoes … we suppress so much shit … and one day the cork pops … the volcano inside of us erupts.
Most of the time we may not even see it coming … no time to consider who/what is in the path of destruction … simply explode.
Those people in the ‘path’ of such destruction often misunderstand the circumstances … eg they take the eruption as a personal offense.
Those people who can ‘see’ … and they are few … look for the silver lining in the cloud of dust … they ask the question … where is the blessing/good fortune for me in this crisis?