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Notes -
Oh, okay.
I can't blame this all on you, because I did just change my handle, but the conversation I linked above (where I mention the miracles I've seen) is a child of a debate we were having about this very topic. Given that you referenced the comment, and proceeded with a bunch of arguments which we've already debated in detail, I interpreted your words as grandstanding using my comment as your soapbox.
We have discussed pretty much everything here multiple times before though.
Rhetoric is fine, making the same tired points over and over, rather than actually addressing counterarguments, is not fine. I already understand, in good detail, your position regarding the fundamental apathy of the universe, and don't need it explained to me yet again. So when I say I wasn't actually asking you, I'm calling you out for using what was obviously a rhetorical question as an excuse to soapbox again. Combined with the many other arguments we've had over this exact topic, it seemed clear that you're essentially not addressing me (one who already knows your position) at all.
When you say:
you do so in response to me explaining why I addressed the problem of pain at all. Whether humans actually have access to painkillers "on a whim" is essentially irrelevant--the point is that even with painkillers, suffering still exists, and therefore needs to be explained. You're definitely smart enough to know where I was going with that, but rather than actually addressing my point you chose to use it as yet another soapbox.
I don't think your technicality here is even true--I wouldn't describe that as painkillers accessible on a whim--but it's really not important.
I think it's better that some amount of suffering exist than no suffering, but generally pain and suffering are bad. If suffering didn't exist at all I think our innate capacity for joy, and freedom to choose, would be severely diminished.
Here's another example of what I'm talking about. It looks to me like willful misinterpretation of what I'm saying. I know you don't need pain management tips. You know I know you don't need pain management tips. The context makes it clear that I'm not giving you helpful advice regarding pain management, but rather attempting to provide evidence regarding my own attitude concerning pain. Yet you deliberately choose to interpret it differently, pretending I'm a misguided, naive optimist who thinks that all those who think pain is bad just don't know how to manage pain.
Sure, it's a useful pain management tip, but you know that's not why I brought it up.
I really disagree, I think abject agony is on net pleasant from a hedonistic perspective. That's not to say I'm a masochist or anything, just that the innate joy of existence outweighs virtually any amount of physical pain. We've already discussed this in detail in the thread linked above. Some of the worst suffering people can experience is to lose a loved one. Given the infinite expanse of possibility space, I think the fact that essentially the worst thing we ever experience is an absence of joy is actually pretty good evidence of a benevolent creator. It's certainly more compatible with that than with an uncaring mechanistic universe, which I would expect to at least be capable of inflicting more physical pain than it does.
You may know more about physical pain than I do but that doesn't mean you know physical pain better than I do. One denotes knowledge, the other understanding. I've experienced enough pain that I think it's reasonable to generalize the lessons I learned to literally any degree of physical pain.
I don't really care to argue about enormous doses of pain always being ennobling or enlightening, sometimes they are but usually they just hurt. The point is that they're tolerable and that the existence of pain itself is pretty easily explicable.
More like we both got swept away, I came back to shore after a few hours, and then they came back a few hours later. A lot of the lessons learned generalize to worse situations.
This is again something we've already discussed in detail. In short I don't think you lose responsibility for your choices by blaming them on your neurons, nor do I think on any meaningful level determinism actually means you lack freedom or agency.
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