4 ms·

>It dawned on me that an Elon Musk or even a Mitch McConnell could have dealt with it with one phone call. But did they?

spiritplumber 6y ago
Not as far as I know, which is puzzling.
- AnimalMuppet 6y ago
  Don't be puzzled. They have finite time. They have finite information. You're placing them on too high a pedestal, higher than they deserve. They aren't God; they're just people with some fame. And even God doesn't usually just fix things. He uses people to do the fixing. Even the biggest fix - salvation - was wrapped in flesh.
  - spiritplumber 6y ago
    I don't think you'd like my theology, but just in case you do, have you read Left Beyond? https://www.deviantart.com/spiritplumber/art/Left-Beyond-Additional-material-842711345 https://www.deviantart.com/spiritplumber/art/Left-Beyond-Add...
    - AnimalMuppet 6y ago
      I have not. Summary?
      - spiritplumber 6y ago
        Summary: The Rapture happens in 1996, as described by the Left Behind novels. As has been made fun in Fred Clark's extensive liveblogging/review of those novels, the Antichrist hires some hypercompetent person to run the new world order's FCC / cable / internet company. This is the story of that person and, most importantly, of that organization. They have 7 years in which to figure out how to cancel the Apocalypse even as it happens all around them. Beating up God is hard, especially if God has control of the narrative...
        AnimalMuppet 6y ago
        Interesting premise for a novel. But you tied this to your theology. Do you believe that?
        spiritplumber 6y ago
        I'm a Deist, personally. I do however believe that IF a Devil or a God or a Thanos were to show up and try to kill most of humanity (Which... if it's an actual divine being, incidentally would mean that I'm wrong about being a Deist, but I can live with that!) it would be a moral imperative to prevent them from doing so. In that sense Avengers Endgame is a better Rapture movie than the Left Behind movies... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yn7KTOLbyfQ&t=1s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yn7KTOLbyfQ&t=1s
        AnimalMuppet 6y ago
        To some degree, I think God agrees with you. That's what the cross means - God trying to prevent sin from killing humanity, at an incredible cost. (I note that I'm writing this on Good Friday.) But as you were charitable and suspected that I wouldn't like your theology, I recognize that you probably won't like mine, either...
        spiritplumber 6y ago
        I was raised Catholic and Evangelical, became an Atheist as soon as I could get out, and became a Deist after working with cosmologists a little. The only theology I actively dislike is Calvinism and its offshoots (Presuppositionalism and so on), mainly because they effectively paint God as playing a single-player game with humanity as the NPCs.
        ksaj 6y ago
        It's hard, but it's been done. Here's a story about Jacob literally having fisticuffs with God in a dark alley, and kicking His butt. After, Jacob freaks out realizing he met God face to face, beat Him up, and got rewarded instead of disappeared. https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%2032%3A22-32&version=NIV https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%2032%3A... According to the ending, Jacob's only injury is a really big thing: "Therefore to this day the Israelites do not eat the tendon attached to the socket of the hip, because the socket of Jacob’s hip was touched near the tendon." It would be interesting to see if that is still true. And a theory of what Jacob did to make God call "Give!"
      - deleted 6y ago
        [deleted]
      - deleted 6y ago
        [deleted]
AnimalMuppet 6y ago
No. No, they didn't. They might have, perhaps, if they were there and had seen it. But they didn't, because they weren't there. You were.
- spiritplumber 6y ago
  I'm trying to decide whether to keep being there, or whether to go away (IDK, sell my house buy a sailboat and just stay away from land from there on out)
  - approxim8ion 6y ago
    I think the takeaway here is that you can choose to go away if you have the option and the privilege to do so. No one will hold it against you and those who do will be gone around the same time you will, give or take a few years. But you don't leave things in more capable hands. The people you idolize exist and are doing what they're doing irrespective of you. Their motivations are their own, however. There's no guarantee that they are willing to or interested in solving the problems you want to solve or see solved. There's no guarantee they even view them as problems. On this ship I think we can do with all hands on deck, but that is me being optimistic and looking for reasons to hold on just as much as you.
    - spiritplumber 6y ago
      I do not idolize Elon Musk and I definitely do not idolize Mitch McConnel. I acknowledge that they have vastly more power than I do. In Musk's case, specifically, he has been doing most of the stuff I've been doing, only better (I doubt he writes intentionally cheesy sci-fi, or designs free board games). I don't think I can cope with that.
      - AnimalMuppet 6y ago
        You can't be a better Elon Musk than Elon Musk. Don't try. But Elon Musk can't be a better you than you are, either. OK, there's some overlap. Be you anyway - all of you, the parts that overlap and the parts that don't. You can't do what Musk is doing in rockets? OK. Don't give up in despair. Especially don't give up on all of you because someone is doing what a part of you wanted to do. Take that part of you and find a worthwhile place to use it.

spiritplumber 6y ago

Not as far as I know, which is puzzling.

AnimalMuppet 6y ago
Don't be puzzled. They have finite time. They have finite information. You're placing them on too high a pedestal, higher than they deserve. They aren't God; they're just people with some fame. And even God doesn't usually just fix things. He uses people to do the fixing. Even the biggest fix - salvation - was wrapped in flesh.
- spiritplumber 6y ago
  I don't think you'd like my theology, but just in case you do, have you read Left Beyond? https://www.deviantart.com/spiritplumber/art/Left-Beyond-Additional-material-842711345 https://www.deviantart.com/spiritplumber/art/Left-Beyond-Add...
  - AnimalMuppet 6y ago
    I have not. Summary?
    - spiritplumber 6y ago
      Summary: The Rapture happens in 1996, as described by the Left Behind novels. As has been made fun in Fred Clark's extensive liveblogging/review of those novels, the Antichrist hires some hypercompetent person to run the new world order's FCC / cable / internet company. This is the story of that person and, most importantly, of that organization. They have 7 years in which to figure out how to cancel the Apocalypse even as it happens all around them. Beating up God is hard, especially if God has control of the narrative...
      - AnimalMuppet 6y ago
        Interesting premise for a novel. But you tied this to your theology. Do you believe that?
        spiritplumber 6y ago
        I'm a Deist, personally. I do however believe that IF a Devil or a God or a Thanos were to show up and try to kill most of humanity (Which... if it's an actual divine being, incidentally would mean that I'm wrong about being a Deist, but I can live with that!) it would be a moral imperative to prevent them from doing so. In that sense Avengers Endgame is a better Rapture movie than the Left Behind movies... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yn7KTOLbyfQ&t=1s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yn7KTOLbyfQ&t=1s
        AnimalMuppet 6y ago
        To some degree, I think God agrees with you. That's what the cross means - God trying to prevent sin from killing humanity, at an incredible cost. (I note that I'm writing this on Good Friday.) But as you were charitable and suspected that I wouldn't like your theology, I recognize that you probably won't like mine, either...
        spiritplumber 6y ago
        I was raised Catholic and Evangelical, became an Atheist as soon as I could get out, and became a Deist after working with cosmologists a little. The only theology I actively dislike is Calvinism and its offshoots (Presuppositionalism and so on), mainly because they effectively paint God as playing a single-player game with humanity as the NPCs.
      - ksaj 6y ago
        It's hard, but it's been done. Here's a story about Jacob literally having fisticuffs with God in a dark alley, and kicking His butt. After, Jacob freaks out realizing he met God face to face, beat Him up, and got rewarded instead of disappeared. https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%2032%3A22-32&version=NIV https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%2032%3A... According to the ending, Jacob's only injury is a really big thing: "Therefore to this day the Israelites do not eat the tendon attached to the socket of the hip, because the socket of Jacob’s hip was touched near the tendon." It would be interesting to see if that is still true. And a theory of what Jacob did to make God call "Give!"
    - deleted 6y ago
      [deleted]
    - deleted 6y ago
      [deleted]

AnimalMuppet 6y ago

No. No, they didn't. They might have, perhaps, if they were there and had seen it. But they didn't, because they weren't there. You were.

spiritplumber 6y ago
I'm trying to decide whether to keep being there, or whether to go away (IDK, sell my house buy a sailboat and just stay away from land from there on out)
- approxim8ion 6y ago
  I think the takeaway here is that you can choose to go away if you have the option and the privilege to do so. No one will hold it against you and those who do will be gone around the same time you will, give or take a few years. But you don't leave things in more capable hands. The people you idolize exist and are doing what they're doing irrespective of you. Their motivations are their own, however. There's no guarantee that they are willing to or interested in solving the problems you want to solve or see solved. There's no guarantee they even view them as problems. On this ship I think we can do with all hands on deck, but that is me being optimistic and looking for reasons to hold on just as much as you.
  - spiritplumber 6y ago
    I do not idolize Elon Musk and I definitely do not idolize Mitch McConnel. I acknowledge that they have vastly more power than I do. In Musk's case, specifically, he has been doing most of the stuff I've been doing, only better (I doubt he writes intentionally cheesy sci-fi, or designs free board games). I don't think I can cope with that.
    - AnimalMuppet 6y ago
      You can't be a better Elon Musk than Elon Musk. Don't try. But Elon Musk can't be a better you than you are, either. OK, there's some overlap. Be you anyway - all of you, the parts that overlap and the parts that don't. You can't do what Musk is doing in rockets? OK. Don't give up in despair. Especially don't give up on all of you because someone is doing what a part of you wanted to do. Take that part of you and find a worthwhile place to use it.