I’ve been toying with the idea of Circles of Fiction in my head and have tried to draw it out visually. Ultimately, the only reality in which I believe is physics–matter, energy, time, and space. However, I do believe in many other pseudo realities, but only within the circles of fiction in which they exist.

Do I believe that life has meaning? Ultimately, no. But do I believe that MY life has meaning, or that YOUR life has meaning? Yes, definitely, but only after acknowledging that we’re operating within the fictions of Self and Society, respectively.

Similarly, within these same fictions, I believe that suffering is very real and that we all make choices, because duh, of course it is and we do–but not REALLY, not outside of the circle of fiction called Self (or ego).

As to moral relativism (nothing is right or wrong, there is neither good nor bad, nothing is true or false), I’m with you. I totally agree. Unless we’re pretending that Society exists. Then all of those things surely exist, and the rules and regulations of Society must be diligently built around their existence.

However, I don’t believe right or wrong exist within the fiction of Self only, and I doubt you would either, if you somehow became the only conscious being in existence.

I didn’t include anything supernatural. Because I don’t believe in anything supernatural in any form, or within any circle of fiction.

Do you ever figure something out and think, “I’m a genius,” but then as you consider it further you think, “I’m an idiot for not figuring it out earlier”? That was my experience in struggling to prepare a sandwich on a circular plate with the bread oriented one way before realizing that changing the orientation is even an option. So which is it? Genius or idiocy? This is an example of the falsely dichotomous questions I ask myself frequently enough that I felt it would be beneficial to tattoo the answer to my arms: Both.

I also think “neither” is an acceptable answer to most of these false dichotomies. In other words, I think “both” and “neither” are BOTH acceptable, which can be summarized as “both.” 😉

In response to this

I think that at the end of the day we all believe what we want to believe but I personally lean towards logic, reasoning, and science and generally apply them to new thoughts and ideas. So, I’m more of a skeptic and I do not believe our feelings determine objective truth. I think our feelings can match a truth but not determine a truth. So, I wouldn’t have much confidence in a particular belief unless it is something I would WANT to believe and is convenient to believe and which serves me well to believe and that, of course, brings me back to my first statement; that we believe what we want to believe.

My rational mind governs all of my decisions, by which I mean I rationalize all of the emotions that govern my decisions. 😄

Original Facebook post

In response to this:

If a person holds a particular belief and it cannot be demonstrated to be untrue, how much confidence should we have that it is true?

It depends on whether or not your question is applied to something I personally believe. 😉

Original Facebook post

Is the typical relationship between employers and employees (particularly in larger corporations) emotionally abusive? Namely, the part where it is not an option for the manager to tell the employee, “You are enough.” Rather, there is a mandate that the manager maintain the stance that the employee always needs to improve something, i.e., “You are always broken.”

I wonder if midlife crises hit once we exceed the lifespan of our evolutionary ancestors?

We believe in the Freedom of [the majority] Religion [to override the freedom of the non- or minority-religion].

Three people want to understand you. They are eager and interested, and they ask many questions. The questions are very similar, and the experiences feel equally flattering.

What’s hard to see from your position, however, is that each is actually doing something very different.

The first is trying to find out what you think about them. They are self-absorbed and have a hard time caring about others. They are insecure and want to control their image.

The second is trying to find out what’s wrong with you. They are distrustful and judgemental. They are looking for ammunition to validate their condemnation of you.

Only the third matches what you thought all three were doing. They are curious and want to connect with you. They want to make sense of you and to justify you as you are.

What’s especially confusing though is that they aren’t three people, but rather three competing agendas within most anyone who asks you questions about yourself.

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White, Privileged, Heterosexual Man Denies Racism, Inequity, Hate, and Sexism in America

The optimist sees the world with only one eye opened. The pessimist sees the world with only the other. The realist sees with both, and by acknowledging the one or the other, is seen as being only the other by the one.