Saw a movie today

[bemused]

Reminds me of something I read in a book somewhere recently. Think it was an Anne Perry mystery novel.
Anyway, one of the characters was complaining that age-old complaint about how God can let bad things happen to people.
And some other character answers with another question about what are the best qualities a person can have.
Person one answers with a list that includes courage, faithfulness, love, compassion.
And character two replies that courage is only a virtue when a person is scared; faithfulness when there are temptations to be unfaithful, love when there is hatred, and compassion when someone else is suffering.

Believe me, Anne said it much better that I am.
But her point is that human beings can only rise to their best and most noble and most heroic when things get bad. If life were always easy and no one ever got hurt then the most positive virtues would be empty.

I'm not sure if that answers the question exactly as stated; but what I mean is if the choice is between not feeling and feeling bad sometimes in order to feel joy at other times I'll always take the bad with the good.

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"We shall not cease from exploration / And the end of all our exploring / Will be to arrive where we started / And know the place for the first time." --T.S. Eliot

known tyle since she was bald.

[Mr. Robin]

To the post above, how true!

But tell me, does this mean that a rock is only strong when it suffers?
What kind of rock is it, does it matter, is granite more conscious the sandstone? or is it just a little simpler then that??



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Ignorance may be bliss, maybe that's why I'm such a happy guy!

[gnosis_within]

why do we need those 'virtues' that bad things give us? would we need charity in heaven when everyone has all and more than they could ever want? couldn't god have made a world where everyone had those qualities and just left pain and suffering out of the picture? are all of those qualities going to make a difference the instant you die? do they make a difference now?

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[kilzok7]

Hmmmm... Is a rock only strong when it suffers?

Is a rock only strong when it is subjected to some sort of loading? If a rock is not under any stress, does it matter if it is strong or not? What is the effective stress at point A at a depth of 20 meters in a sandy silt if the wet unit weight of the soil is...

Errr, sorry, that was my engineering classes running away with me... Sorry to confuse physical stress with emotional/spiritual suffering...

[raddaqii]

to join philosophy that cares for rocks..

the pressure cannot possibly be the deciding factor for levels, or degrees of consciuosness. here is why: earth would be intelligent of that was to be so. made from rock, molten and solid, there would a hell of a lot intelligence below our feet; my guess ist it would long ago have decided to kick us out.

so it could be, probably, like with all perceiving and consciuos beings: learning from experience. a cliff on the eastern mediterranean would have seen much more of civilisation than, say, a norwegian fjord.

my guess.



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[SHATOUSHKA]

er...i would like to add/ask...
that a rock can only be hard when pressure is surrounding it.
right(?).

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~~share some greased tea with me~~

General Philosophy

[Mr. Robin]

Actually, a rock would get softer under pressure, as pressurization generates heat, and heat would soften the intermolecular bonds of the atoms that comprise a rock, as they were pressed together.

Sort of like a self-resistive regime.

But still, is granite more concious then sandstone, I need to know!

Zen rockdom, tell us the universes answers!

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Ignorance may be bliss, maybe that's why I'm such a happy guy!

[zelazny]

hmmm,i wonder,
if i cleave a rock in two..
then i have to parts
which by definition are still a rock.
And seeing how sand is nothing more than a little grain of rock i'd say this planet is getting smarter every day

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Sure the universe is a great place, but if it wasn't here, no-one would miss it.

[A Big Rock]

It has it's advantages and disadvantages lemme tell ya. It sucks because we tend to get thrown by small children, and quite frankly, I get air sick. But at any rate, you all think to highly of us... *blush*
we're not that great...

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I'm hard all the time, and yes, it's great.

[SHATOUSHKA]

...and with that, i would like to welcome everyone to the GP Circus.

poodle parade in 3 hours.

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~~share some greased tea with me~~

General Philosophy