Oh, continuing down that line of thinking leads to far worse then “kinda fucked up.” If the judeo christian deity exists and is accurately described by their books than it is a total monster not worthy of praise or devotion…

What I understand about the judeo christian god is that they are believed to have created everything that has ever been or will ever be. They have total knowledge of everything past present and future, and they “knew me” prior to them creating me, knew what kind of person I would be, and knew without doubt that I wouldn’t believe in or worship them… so they created me with full knowledge that I’ll spend eternity being tortured in hell. What kind of benevolent deity brings a creature into existence just so they can be tortured? If that’s not full blown fucked up, then I don’t know what is.

When you’re brainwashed from birth, it’s difficult to recognize you’ve been brainwashed.

Funnily enough, that’s exactly how I stopped smoking. I smoked for around 17 years and had been trying to quit for nearly 15 of them. I did everything from pills to nicotine substitutions, hypnosis, and even that laser therapy. It would work for a time, but eventually, within a month or two, I’d be back to smoking.

Then, one day, I was in a really foul mood and just didn’t want to deal with people. I ran out of cigarettes right at the end of the evening before bed and figured I’d buy some in the morning. Woke up in a worse mood the next day and decided to just stay home and ride it out. It is best for me to avoid people when I get like that, so that’s what I did. The following day, I woke up in a better mood and was about to head to the corner store for a pack when I realized I’d already gone near 36 hours without one, so thought why not wait an hour. An hour passed, and decided to wait another hour, and then another, and another. Before I knew it, I was heading back to bed for my second full day being cigaretteless.

At that point, I decided to continue my smoke-free streak and just quit. It’s been nearly 6 years since my last cigarette, and it was one of the best decisions I’ve made in my life.

Context: I’m a disabled veteran with severe PTSD, anxiety, depression, and mood disorders caused by TBI’s. I have days where everything seems to act up all at once, and I’ll self isolate because it’s just safer for everyone if I’m alone during those times. Furthermore, I started smoking while in combat to help take the “edge” off, and as such, the nicotine addiction was extremely difficult for me to get beyond because it got wrapped up in my PTSD and anxiety issues.

Basically, what I learned from my many years of trying to quit is no matter how you “try” if you don’t truly want to quit, you won’t succeed. You have to want to quit more than you want that next cigarette.

Good luck to anyone out there still struggling to break a nicotine addiction. Stay strong. You can do it.

Toyota may be cranky about EV’s beating out hydrogen, but they’re the company claiming to have invented some new solid state battery that has an 800 mile range and can charge 80% in ten minutes on a fast charger, which would be huge for the EV market.

I remember an early Saturn EV that was never sold, only leased so GM could maintain ownership of them. Even with a limited range, the drivers all loved them for commuting and running errands, and many tried to purchase them outright, which GM refused. Eventually, GM issued a mandatory recall for all the Saturn EVs, mothballed the project, and then they released the Hummer… made me sick even at the time.

118 years old? Well, in that case, all I have to do it put the paperclip upstairs. Without one of those stair climber chair lifts, I doubt he’d even be able to get up there to look for it.

My house was built in the early 1900s and was used to secretly store and distribute liquor to the town and surrounding areas during prohibition… that money is as good as mine.

Grandiloquent, or circumlocution.

Didn’t say I agreed with it, but if you sign a code of ethics as part of an employment contract, then you shouldn’t be surprised when you’re fired for violating it.

The University of Wisconsin has a code of ethics that all faculty must adhere to. His participation in creating pornography most likely breached this morality clause, resulting in his termination.

You’re not alone. I was trying to figure out which race was the Sikh’s until I realized I’m just an idiot lol.

There have been over 18,000 different gods, goddesses, and various animals or objects worshipped by humanity since we started writing our history, and likely countless more that have been lost to time. The majority of these worshipped deities are no longer believed in, and the fact we as a species have been unable to move beyond the fairytales of omnipotent gods told during the bronze age will never cease to amaze me.

Religion in all its various current forms is a tool of manipulation used against the masses to keep them complacent and scared. That being said, even though I tend to lean towards an atheististic view, I will concede that the possibility exists of a higher life form we may consider as a god. If such a life form does exist, it would be so far beyond our ability to comprehend that any claim to know what it expects of us is pure human foolishness or intended maliciously to control the ignorant.

I live my life by the simple principle that if a god exists and is a just god then I’ll be judged by my actions in this life, whether I caused harm to others or lived well doing what I’m able to make the world better, and not on whether or not I believed in and worshipped them. If a god exists that would punish me for all eternity for not worshipping them, then they are not a just god, and as such would be unworthy of such devotion. Bottomline is we will never know as long as we live, and with as short as our lives are, why waste them worrying about what we can never know. Just live your life well, be kind to others, and be the best you that you can be.

Edit: fixed a typo

You said you’d consider dumping fox news when I stopped watching the programs you mentioned. That sounded like a pact to me.

The problem with all news media these days is it no longer gives you the facts without it also telling you how you should feel about the facts based on their particular biases. If you only look to the sources that confirm your bias you’re not getting properly informed on the issues, you’re simply existing in an echo chamber having your views reaffirmed by the others that share them without ever hearing or considering there might be more to the story.

I never claimed to be above being affected by this myself, but I am consciously aware of how serious a problem it is. I do the best I’m able to see all sides of an issue, from multiple sources, the more non-biased the better (though this is getting increasingly more difficult), and then I make up my own mind as to what I think without allowing the media to tell me how I should feel.

Fox news is one of the worst sources for biased news as it is the only news network that was started with the agenda of specifically appealing towards a conservative audience. They have even won defamation lawsuits by arguing their shows are performances and shouldn’t be taken as fact. They’ve always cared more about ratings than the truth… MSNBC is a close second on spewing drivel catering to liberals. I wouldn’t trust anything either of them say without first doing some independent research on my own.

I already don’t watch any of that drivel so you got yourself a deal buddy. You just go ahead and let me know when you want to uphold your end and dump fox news.

The fact you can’t see that you’re the sucker isn’t a surprise to anyone but you. Stop watching fox news, it’s rotting your brain.