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Going for a long period of time without water is intuitively a bad idea for your health. I think this is the reason for this study being water-only. It also ma

Going for a long period of time without water is intuitively a bad idea for your health. I think this is the reason for this study being water-only. It also makes sense from religious perspective, since a religion will prepare you for another life which is only attainable by dying, with no apparent intention to give you a good and healthy life on Earth.

darkerside 8y ago
Cultural evolution suggests that, regardless of intention, these practices which have become mainstays of popular religions around the world, cover some type of benefit to survival, reproduction, or intellectual spread.
- JulianMorrison 8y ago
  Or to spiritual practise. The idea that they have to have a mundane use strikes me as wilfully blind to their intended purpose.
  - darkerside 8y ago
    Considering the infinite variety of ways to exercise a spiritual practice, and that many (perhaps most?) of them have died out in favor of the dominant religions and spiritual practices that survive today, I'd actually say it's willfully blind to ignore the likely impact of religion on survival and reproduction. It's simple game theory. The religions that survive today outcompeted the others.
- nurettin 8y ago
  That, or terrible peer pressure. In my opinion, Occam's razor suggests the latter.
  - darkerside 8y ago
    That's fine. I think it's just conventional wisdom that makes this seem like the "simpler" solution, and I'm a bit allergic to that, but to each their own.
castlecrasher2 8y ago
>It also makes sense from religious perspective, since a religion will prepare you for another life which is only attainable by dying, with no apparent intention to give you a good and healthy life on Earth. I'm not seeing the connection; religion allegedly prepares people for life after this one, so it encourages suicidal tendencies like fasting? I's biased because I'm religious and have generally fasted once a month or so, but I imagine it's more to develop delayed gratification and gain insight into the self, similar to meditation.
- nurettin 8y ago
  I don't think any fasting or religion is needed to develop a sense for economics. According to the marshmallow test, all you need is to be born rich.
- apta 8y ago
  His argument doesn't make sense at all. Clearly biased (not to mention ignorant) as you pointed out.
apta 8y ago
> It also makes sense from religious perspective, since a religion will prepare you for another life which is only attainable by dying, with no apparent intention to give you a good and healthy life on Earth. Did you study all of the religions out there to make this claim? If so, I'm interested in seeing a summary or a write up. Otherwise, do not make blanket statements full of conjectures and imply that all religions are suicide cults of some sort. The most simple way to refute this is that any religion interested in sustaining itself is not interested in harming its followers. Not to mentions some religions that establish not just dietary practices, but also financial, economic, and social practices for balance and prosperity.
- nurettin 8y ago
  This is my life experience and deduction, you are free to refute it by example instead of trying to tell me what to say or think on the internet. Right now all I see is "you told me the truth on a subject I am sensitive about so I will say things to hurt you" I will be more than happy to relay my opinions and discuss further with a video conference if you do not find this medium adequate for discussion.
  - apta 8y ago
    A simple example (I'm sure there are many more): Islam explicitly mentions the need for balance between the Spiritual and the Worldly pursuits. For instance[1]: "You owe a duty to your Rubb (Lord), you owe a duty to your body; you owe a duty to your family; so you should give to every one his due. Abud-Darda' came to the Prophet (ﷺ) and reported the whole story. Prophet (ﷺ) said, "Salman is right". It also introduces certain rulings as to preserve social coherence and balance (e.g. outlawing interest as it is an exploitative practice that feeds on the needy, requiring a portion of each person's wealth to be distributed to charity each year, etc.). Life preservation comes first, so things that are prohibited become compulsory to sustain it (e.g. pork is prohibited, but if someone ends up in a situation where only pork is available for them to consume, otherwise they would starve to death, they are _obliged_ to consume it to sustain themselves and not die[2]). There are many more examples, but this is what came to my mind in a couple of minutes. [1] https://sunnah.com/riyadussaliheen/1/149 https://sunnah.com/riyadussaliheen/1/149 [2] https://quran.com/2/173 https://quran.com/2/173

darkerside 8y ago

Cultural evolution suggests that, regardless of intention, these practices which have become mainstays of popular religions around the world, cover some type of benefit to survival, reproduction, or intellectual spread.

JulianMorrison 8y ago
Or to spiritual practise. The idea that they have to have a mundane use strikes me as wilfully blind to their intended purpose.
- darkerside 8y ago
  Considering the infinite variety of ways to exercise a spiritual practice, and that many (perhaps most?) of them have died out in favor of the dominant religions and spiritual practices that survive today, I'd actually say it's willfully blind to ignore the likely impact of religion on survival and reproduction. It's simple game theory. The religions that survive today outcompeted the others.
nurettin 8y ago
That, or terrible peer pressure. In my opinion, Occam's razor suggests the latter.
- darkerside 8y ago
  That's fine. I think it's just conventional wisdom that makes this seem like the "simpler" solution, and I'm a bit allergic to that, but to each their own.

castlecrasher2 8y ago

>It also makes sense from religious perspective, since a religion will prepare you for another life which is only attainable by dying, with no apparent intention to give you a good and healthy life on Earth. I'm not seeing the connection; religion allegedly prepares people for life after this one, so it encourages suicidal tendencies like fasting? I's biased because I'm religious and have generally fasted once a month or so, but I imagine it's more to develop delayed gratification and gain insight into the self, similar to meditation.

nurettin 8y ago
I don't think any fasting or religion is needed to develop a sense for economics. According to the marshmallow test, all you need is to be born rich.
apta 8y ago
His argument doesn't make sense at all. Clearly biased (not to mention ignorant) as you pointed out.

apta 8y ago

> It also makes sense from religious perspective, since a religion will prepare you for another life which is only attainable by dying, with no apparent intention to give you a good and healthy life on Earth. Did you study all of the religions out there to make this claim? If so, I'm interested in seeing a summary or a write up. Otherwise, do not make blanket statements full of conjectures and imply that all religions are suicide cults of some sort. The most simple way to refute this is that any religion interested in sustaining itself is not interested in harming its followers. Not to mentions some religions that establish not just dietary practices, but also financial, economic, and social practices for balance and prosperity.

nurettin 8y ago
This is my life experience and deduction, you are free to refute it by example instead of trying to tell me what to say or think on the internet. Right now all I see is "you told me the truth on a subject I am sensitive about so I will say things to hurt you" I will be more than happy to relay my opinions and discuss further with a video conference if you do not find this medium adequate for discussion.
- apta 8y ago
  A simple example (I'm sure there are many more): Islam explicitly mentions the need for balance between the Spiritual and the Worldly pursuits. For instance[1]: "You owe a duty to your Rubb (Lord), you owe a duty to your body; you owe a duty to your family; so you should give to every one his due. Abud-Darda' came to the Prophet (ﷺ) and reported the whole story. Prophet (ﷺ) said, "Salman is right". It also introduces certain rulings as to preserve social coherence and balance (e.g. outlawing interest as it is an exploitative practice that feeds on the needy, requiring a portion of each person's wealth to be distributed to charity each year, etc.). Life preservation comes first, so things that are prohibited become compulsory to sustain it (e.g. pork is prohibited, but if someone ends up in a situation where only pork is available for them to consume, otherwise they would starve to death, they are _obliged_ to consume it to sustain themselves and not die[2]). There are many more examples, but this is what came to my mind in a couple of minutes. [1] https://sunnah.com/riyadussaliheen/1/149 https://sunnah.com/riyadussaliheen/1/149 [2] https://quran.com/2/173 https://quran.com/2/173