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Death is already the Great Equalizer. There is no need to invent one. Yet people still accumulate wealth, so desperately, unaware that they do not know how to u

Death is already the Great Equalizer. There is no need to invent one. Yet people still accumulate wealth, so desperately, unaware that they do not know how to use it after death.

kstenerud 6y ago
People who live in wealth have comfort in life. People in poverty do not. That's the problem for which the downtrodden wish for answers, because they didn't ask to be poor. That death leaves both poor and rich in the same situation is of little comfort to the man shivering in the cold as he watches the rich in their mansions. There needs to be another chapter to the story, where the poor man finally gets his share. Religions can provide this because they tell stories of life after death that are comforting to the downtrodden.
polemic 6y ago
This is a deliberate misinterpretation of the previous point. Short, miserable lives and long rewarding lives are not equalised by death.
- apta 6y ago
  They are in the atheistic point of view, because nothing matters no matter how long it lasts.
  - longtimegoogler 6y ago
    That's quite a statement.
  - kstenerud 6y ago
    That's not the atheistic point of view.
    - apta 6y ago
      The atheistic point of view is that we are all "chemical scum" as per Hawking. Death is the end of everyone and everything, and nothing matters.
      - kstenerud 6y ago
        Oh I see. I didn't realize that Hawking was the prophet of the church of Atheism, and spoke for all atheists. Perhaps you have a copy of the Orthodox Atheist Beliefs to share?
        apta 6y ago
        It's not just Hawking, you'll hear similar arguments from Dawkins, Harris, Kraus, and many more, and guess what, from a purely atheistic materialistic point of view, they're right. They have made the arguments like incest cannot be shown to be wrong, or that suffering doesn't matter, that rape just is, like the stripes on a tiger, a phenomenon that is neither right nor wrong. That is the only rational ultimate conclusion of atheism.
renewiltord 6y ago
> Yet people still accumulate wealth, so desperately, unaware that they do not know how to use it after death. I won't be able to, but my genetic semi-copies with heavy memetic influence from me will be able to. It's not about me, the individual. It's about the genes and memes that compose me, and accumulating wealth does pretty well at ensuring replication of those genes and memes.

Death is already the Great Equalizer. There is no need to invent one. Yet people still accumulate wealth, so desperately, unaware that they do not know how to use it after death.

kstenerud 6y ago

People who live in wealth have comfort in life. People in poverty do not. That's the problem for which the downtrodden wish for answers, because they didn't ask to be poor. That death leaves both poor and rich in the same situation is of little comfort to the man shivering in the cold as he watches the rich in their mansions. There needs to be another chapter to the story, where the poor man finally gets his share. Religions can provide this because they tell stories of life after death that are comforting to the downtrodden.

polemic 6y ago

This is a deliberate misinterpretation of the previous point. Short, miserable lives and long rewarding lives are not equalised by death.

apta 6y ago
They are in the atheistic point of view, because nothing matters no matter how long it lasts.
- longtimegoogler 6y ago
  That's quite a statement.
- kstenerud 6y ago
  That's not the atheistic point of view.
  - apta 6y ago
    The atheistic point of view is that we are all "chemical scum" as per Hawking. Death is the end of everyone and everything, and nothing matters.
    - kstenerud 6y ago
      Oh I see. I didn't realize that Hawking was the prophet of the church of Atheism, and spoke for all atheists. Perhaps you have a copy of the Orthodox Atheist Beliefs to share?
      - apta 6y ago
        It's not just Hawking, you'll hear similar arguments from Dawkins, Harris, Kraus, and many more, and guess what, from a purely atheistic materialistic point of view, they're right. They have made the arguments like incest cannot be shown to be wrong, or that suffering doesn't matter, that rape just is, like the stripes on a tiger, a phenomenon that is neither right nor wrong. That is the only rational ultimate conclusion of atheism.

renewiltord 6y ago

> Yet people still accumulate wealth, so desperately, unaware that they do not know how to use it after death. I won't be able to, but my genetic semi-copies with heavy memetic influence from me will be able to. It's not about me, the individual. It's about the genes and memes that compose me, and accumulating wealth does pretty well at ensuring replication of those genes and memes.