It's sad that so many people will waste so much of their time on the so-called "afterlife"...

[cynatnite]

but not on bettering the here and now.

It also pisses me off to no end, too. :grr:

[vandelay]

1. It isn't the people chasing the afterlife that are making things rotten here.

The people making things rotten here are the ones God said would do so.

[blueamy66]

5. Which god are you speaking of?

nt

[vandelay]

8. The one True God silly.

Which others are there? Seriously..

[cynatnite]

10. I should've known since you capitalized T and G, both. Silly me...

:rofl:

[cynatnite]

6. And who are the ones god said would make it rotten? n/t

[rfranklin]

2. Always been a convenient way to control the weak-minded...

As Marx said, "Religion is the opiate of the masses."

[robcon]

3. Butt the fuck out of what people think about.

None of your business.

[cynatnite]

4. I wasn't talking about what people think about...

:eyes:

You do know that a ton of money has been wasted on this "end of the world" crap, don't you? Despite the starving and suffering, that is where a shitload of money has gone.

[Name removed]

7. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[cynatnite]

9. You've obviously not been here long enough....

to know that it's a Saturday...my day off from working in two health clinics and the only day I took off of volunteering.

:eyes:

Of course, post counts tell everything, don't they? :sarcasm:

[palm_to_forehead]

14. So the people you are talking about don't volunteer?

And you know that how?

[cynatnite]

16. Geez, I never even said that...

:eyes:

Trying to connect the two different topics will not help you any.

[palm_to_forehead]

18. So then what the hell does your volunteer activity have to do with it?

[cynatnite]

20. Here...

You said...

of somebody with 23,800 posts on a political forum taking the time to comment on how sad it is to see people spending time on something other than bettering the here and now?

I responded specifically to your comment about how I spend my time. I work at two health clinics and I volunteer. I'm not on DU as much as I used to be.

That is why I said what I said. It was a direct response to your comment.

[palm_to_forehead]

21. Do you know what irony means?

I was implying you are just as guilty of wasting your time on this forum as they are of obsessing over the afterlife.

By you bringing up your volunteer work it implies that you think that sets you apart from them.

[cynatnite]

You can think whatever the hell you like since you care so much about my post count...

You don't like what I said and that's fine. This is DU.

Considering how long it's been since I've been on DU last, it's fucking hilarious that I get hit for all the time I supposedly spend on DU. :rofl:

[palm_to_forehead]

25. Nobody is hitting you.

I'm just commenting on how sad it is you spent all that time on here over the past seven years instead of working to better the world.

;)

[cynatnite]

27. And I answered that which you obviously didn't like one bit. n/t

[palm_to_forehead]

29. What do you think I don't like?

You've made my argument about the irony of your position quite well.

Thank you for that.

[frebrd]

33. Put on Ignore! n/t

[palm_to_forehead]

17. And yes, post counts tell quite a bit...

At 23,800 posts averaging a very conservative 1 minute per post between reading and posting...

23,800 / 60 = 396 hours.

396 hours = 49.5 work days.

49.5 work days = 10 weeks of time you could have spent doing what you claim you are sad others don't do.

[cynatnite]

22. I have been a member of DU for several years...

most of those I did not have a full time job until here recently. My volunteer work started a few months ago.

If you research all my posts, you would also see that it has been some time since I posted before today.

[palm_to_forehead]

24. Not sure what that has to do with it?

I'm speaking of the overall time you've wasted on this forum in aggregate.

I'm just saying it's sad that so you wasted so much of your time on a polical forum rather but not on bettering the here and now.

[cynatnite]

26. You are making assumptions about the life I lead outside of DU...

as if you know something about it.

Do you do this with everyone who has a high post count? Or are you better because you have a LOW post count?

I think too many people waste their time on the so-called afterlife and not enough time on bettering the here and now. You don't like my opinion about it. I do what I can when I can to better the world. A lot of people do. It doesn't make me better or worse than anyone else.

If you don't like it, that's fine. It's your right. You can slam me all you like, but it does not change me or what I do outside of DU. I'm not going to make assumptions about how you or anyone else leads their life outside of DU. That would be presumptuous and arrogant of me.

[PassingFair]

32. Please, you do NOT need to engage in explanations with this person!

He doesn't even HAVE a point, since
he is equating YOUR time spent on a
message board, discussing REALITY, and
his time spent discussing or thinking
about a fairytale realm.

Really....and he thinks its IRONIC!

:rofl:

:eyes:

[CBGLuthier]

12. Nope. Funny how obsessed some are with what they DO NOT believe.

[mr blur]

41. No, we're just sick of "believers",

ranting endlessly about what their belief in a ridiculous fantasy means to them and demanding respect for their delusions. Who gives a fuck?

[Urban Prairie]

19. Maybe, maybe not

But ~24K posts in ~7 years averages out to ~3400 posts per year, not really that unusually high of a number on any sizable and very active internet forum or messageboard nowadays.

Especially considering that texting and twittering has now become the primary means of communication, mostly by children and young adults, and it would not surprise me one bit, if many now average 100+ text messages alone on a daily basis.

The OP still could easily spend some if not much of her spare time on "bettering the here and now", despite posting ~10x per day on average.

[palm_to_forehead]

23. Good point but wouldn't the same apply to the people he or she is "sad" about?

[Heidi]

31. There are probably a few like you here for the time being. But let me just say,

DUers are capable of doing more than one thing at a time and are not confined to the basics -- like, say, walking and chewing gum -- like many others. It probably took the OP about 30 seconds to frame his point and post it. There are 24 hours in a day. What have YOU done to make the world a better place today -- besides popping in here to plop and run?

And before you even THINK about calling me out for my polite inquirity, today I (among other things):
- Collected and took to the village recycling center the aluminum, glass, paper, batteries, oil and trash collected by three families (not all of the heads of households in these three families can drive; doing the right thing takes a village, you know);
- Cut wild blackberries out of our hedge, chopped them up into six-inch lengths and took them to the county compost center;
- Wrote (by hand) a letter to a 20+-years-long U.S. friend who is in long-term treatment for mental illness;
- Fed, doctored and dosed a couple of feral cats with open wounds; letting them die of their diseases and hunger would be more expedient, but as a thinking and empathetic person I can multi-task. Isn't that cool how that works?
- Went to DU3 and subscribed to about 20 groups about which I very much care;
- Helped my 75-year-old mother-in-law do her gardening and carried her groceries up two flights of stairs;
- Exercised my duty as a non-nutty American and ambassador of peace by making margaritas in empathy for the rapture-transfixed and shared them with our Swiss-German neighbors who just can't believe how self-absorbed and off-the-map many Americans are;
- Worked (the other stuff I've mentioned isn't work; it's being part of a community and family).

Happy Saturday!

[Odin2005]

35. Go away, troll.

[tularetom]

11. WTF? Seldom has such an innocuous sounding post

caused so much frothing at the mouth.

I mean who in his right mind could disagree with the title of this post?

Haysoos we have some emotional people here.

FWIW I recommended. Not that it will do any good.

[CBGLuthier]

13. While there may be truth in it, there is also a certain amount

of snottiness present also.

[PassingFair]

15. They are having a hard time with their cognitive dissonance....

the "rapture" and having to see that many
live happily without fear or adoration of
a supernatural being is causing mental pain
amongst many.

Believers are not used to hearing opposing philosophies
that allow for states of happiness without the soothing
benefits of magical thinking.


"The basic theory of cognitive dissonance is simple: People prefer a situation in which their cognitions are consistent with each other and their cognitions are consistent with their behaviors. If there are inconsistencies among a person's cognitions, or between cognitions and behaviors, these will cause disquiet in the person, leading him or her to seek some resolution of the discomfort. Research on this basic idea has led to some interesting and counterintuitive results, including those from the When Prophecy Fails study. In that research, the expectation that flying saucers would come to remove all believers at a specific time and place was disproved, but this did not lead to the immediate dissolution of the group. Instead, Festinger et al.'s predictions that the group would seek other explanations that were consistent with the failure to appear, and that they would promote those alternative ideas energetically through proselytizing, were supported. This result made the research an instant classic that aroused great interest and controversy."

—James T. Richardson

[Odin2005]

38. That poster harassing cynatnite looks like a troll. I alerted the Mods.

[palm_to_forehead]

28. You are making assumptions about the life they lead outside of thinking about the afterlife...

as if you know something about it.

Do you do this with everyone who spends time on something other than what you want? Or are you better because you don’t believe in an afterlife?

I think too many people waste their time on political forums and not enough time on bettering the here and now. You don't like my opinion about it. I do what I can when I can to better the world. A lot of people do. It doesn't make me better or worse than anyone else.

If you don't like it, that's fine. It's your right. You can slam them all you like, but it does not change them or what they do when they’re not making news. They’re not going to make assumptions about how you or anyone else leads their life outside of DU. That would be presumptuous and arrogant of me.

[cynatnite]

30. If someone spends millions of dollars for bullshit like the world is going to end...

rather than helping the suffering and the poor of this world, I will call them on it and I will fucking say it is a waste of time.

If they believe in gawd and jesus so much, then they should be doing what jesus said about helping the suffering. Instead, these types lament about the rapture, the end of the world and spend money on it. These are the same ones who are homophobic and misogynistic.

I will make assumptions about people like this and I won't stop.

I sure as hell won't apologize for it, either.

[Odin2005]

34. it's a form of social control, so people do not care about being screwed by the Elites...

...because "it will be all better in Heaven".

[Name removed]

36. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[malaise]

37. The absolute truth

But cashing in on people's fears and superstitions is the oldest multinational corporation on the planet.

[nobodyspecial]

39. It's sad that so many people will waste so much of their time

posting on DU and not getting out there and doing something.

[and-justice-for-all]

40. If the afterlife is so damned great, why do they still wear seatbelts?nt

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

42. "I do not fear death.,,,,,,

"I do not fear death. I had been dead for billions and billions of years before I was born, and had not suffered the slightest inconvenience from it." Mark Twain