Tolstoy's "My Confession": Where do you fit in?

[Animavore]

I dunno. All of those descriptions fit me at various times. Quit trying to pigeon-hole me

[Cormac]

Ah. And I see I'm late to the game on the subject of the evil-ness of Life.

Life itself is too encompassing and varied and changing and developing to have a single quality assigned to it-- much less a moral judgement.

I think for something to count as evil, there has to be malicious intent - which can't exist without humans. This narrows down the range significantly.

Even then, my response would be "So what?".

His problem is that he is, at root, infected with the religious meme that suggests that there should be some meaning to the universe and consequently to us. This is nonsensical to me, in the realms of a category error. It presupposes an intention, which is to presuppose that an intelligence pre-existed. Isn' this classic "begging the question"

There is no meaning. We don't need a meaning in order to have full and meaningful lives.

Yeah, well. I don't see why atheists don't just kill themselves.

Seriously? It's hard to believe Tolstoy is as respected as he is, with a viewpoint I associate with fundie dimwits.

Quite.

[Tero]

So like, what happens next? I'm bored.

[PsychoSerenity]

Seriously? It's hard to believe Tolstoy is as respected as he is, with a viewpoint I associate with fundie dimwits.

I don't know much about him, but I presume in his own time he was nearer the front of the game. Since then, everything he has said, and many responses to him since, have been absorbed into the collective consciousness of society, and most of us have moved on. One day people may look back at us and think we're silly.

[Jason]

Tbh, the whole thing is predicated on the assumption of free will, which is almost certainly an illusion, so I wouldn't worry about it too much.

As if you have a choice in the matter?

[JimC]

Tbh, the whole thing is predicated on the assumption of free will, which is almost certainly an illusion, so I wouldn't worry about it too much.

As if you have a choice in the matter?

[hadespussercats]

Seriously? It's hard to believe Tolstoy is as respected as he is, with a viewpoint I associate with fundie dimwits.

I don't know much about him, but I presume in his own time he was nearer the front of the game. Since then, everything he has said, and many responses to him since, have been absorbed into the collective consciousness of society, and most of us have moved on. One day people may look back at us and think we're silly.

Why wait? I already do.

[Tero]

Well, Tolstoy was just a writer. Us guys that make stuff always have fixing to do. Attach that flint spearhead to the spear and stuff. Tolstoy would have been playing tic tac toe with a stick in the sand.

[mistermack]

All I get from the question is that Tolstoy was an unbelieveable intellectual snob, and not nearly bright enough to justify it.

Maybe that was the prevailing pinnacle of his culture, maybe he was made that way by his surrounding society.
Whatever, I'm glad I haven't wasted any time reading his stuff.

[MiM]

Yeah, well. I don't see why atheists don't just kill themselves.

Seriously? It's hard to believe Tolstoy is as respected as he is, with a viewpoint I associate with fundie dimwits.

.
A very nice boil down of this whole argument. Nuff said.

[Robert_S]

Yeah, well. I don't see why atheists don't just kill themselves.

Seriously? It's hard to believe Tolstoy is as respected as he is, with a viewpoint I associate with fundie dimwits.

.
A very nice boil down of this whole argument. Nuff said.

But he's got a Russian name and there are lots of pages per book, so it's DEEP!

I'm inclined to think from some short works and Crime and Punishment that he's more of a twat than a fucktard.

[Robert_S]

BTW, here's where I fit in:

All that is very well," answered Candide, "but let us cultivate our garden."

We have a little bit of control over a little bit of time and space, and with that, we can make things liveable and even enjoyable for ourselves and others.

[Tero]

I wanted to make Voltaire my coffee name, but gave up the first try. The Starbucks girl could not spell it.

[Audley Strange]

Yeah, well. I don't see why atheists don't just kill themselves.

Seriously? It's hard to believe Tolstoy is as respected as he is, with a viewpoint I associate with fundie dimwits.

.
A very nice boil down of this whole argument. Nuff said.

But he's got a Russian name and there are lots of pages per book, so it's DEEP!

I'm inclined to think from some short works and Crime and Punishment that he's more of a twat than a fucktard.

Ermm Crime and Punishment is Dostoyevsky.

[Robert_S]

Yeah, well. I don't see why atheists don't just kill themselves.

Seriously? It's hard to believe Tolstoy is as respected as he is, with a viewpoint I associate with fundie dimwits.

.
A very nice boil down of this whole argument. Nuff said.

But he's got a Russian name and there are lots of pages per book, so it's DEEP!

I'm inclined to think from some short works and Crime and Punishment that he's more of a twat than a fucktard.

Ermm Crime and Punishment is Dostoyevsky.

Russian anti-atheists all look alike to me.