Re: a comment on Escape by Heather Dee	zodiac 212.118.19.108	10-Oct-05/4:30 AM
Just to song-comprehension. I'm pretty sure he's saying something specific. Okay, 70% sure.
Re: a comment on The Servant and The Messenger by ALChemy	zodiac 212.118.19.108	10-Oct-05/4:27 AM
I think the point is, any set of beliefs/truths written by someone else is bound to have things you don't entirely accept as true - or, at the very least, aren't expressed exactly the way you'd express them. Religions like Christianity and Egoism have tons of these, of course, and people who claim that Christianity/Egoism perfectly express their set of accepted truths are entirely full of shit. You accept some of what the Summa said as true, but why say "I hold with Summa philosophy" or "I believe in the Summa philosophy"? (note: I know you haven't.) Why bring in the Summas at all, instead of just saying, um, "I accept that nothingness is governed by some law, and you can create nothingness by uniting matter with anti-matter, and matter comes from the potential of something somehow getting an edge over the potential of nothing"? Same goes for Nietzsche. It strikes me that the only advantages of claiming adherence to some preexisting-but-flawed philosophy rather than simply expressing what you hold to be true (barring the actual existence of a God who can put hot coals on your feet) are: 1) it saves time, and 2) you think it lends some credibility to what you believe, so your not just a wacky guy who believes wacky things, but a follower of Summa. That's all fine, but REALLY? I mean 1) the time you save is bound to be re-lost explaining or justifying all the things you don't accept in your claimed preexisting philosophy, and 2) if you need to give yourself credibility you're not such an ace believer, are you? Secondly, the rest of your comment shows you make what we'll call THE POETE'S DISTINCTION between things making sense and things feeling right (or being a "personal preference"). I believe a reasoning person would say "things that make sense feel right and things that don't make sense don't feel right." Only an unreasoning (and therefore, dupish) person would say "things that make sense don't feel right, and things that feel right often don't make sense." These are people constantly on their guard for scientists and Democrats trying to trick them into committing evil with their everpresent 'facts and figures'. Balls to them, I say. Balls, balls, balls. Thirdly: I doubt if Socrates would have said he was Socratic. Plato would, though. Jesus probably thought he was a Jew.
Re: a comment on The Servant and The Messenger by ALChemy	zodiac 212.118.19.108	10-Oct-05/4:08 AM
By whom are people built to have faith? You're doing the "purpose of species" thing again. People have faith because of the following: BIFF: Why does the sun go up and down? CLARK: I dunno. BIFF: Maybe somebody's making it move? CLARK: Sure, but who? BIFF: I dunno. Big guy, I guess. Invisible. CLARK: Man, I'd hate to piss him off. Probably drop the sun on my head if I did. BIFF: That reminds me of when my mom got a mammoth dropped on her head. Dang, I wish death didn't suck so bad! CLARK: Yeah, but it does, though, doesn't it? BIFF [musingly]: But maybe not... I bet if anyone could improve death, the Big Sun Guy could! CLARK: Yeah, but your mom's dead. We ate her. BIFF: Not if she had some invisible lifeforce that superexisted her body! Like, I dunno, a soul, I guess. CLARK: What the fuck are you talking about? BIFF: The soul. The source of your morality, stupid! CLARK [clubbing Biff to death]: What morality? [Then,] Oh crap! Biff's dad's gonna kill me to protect his family interests! What the fuck? BIFF'S DAD: Big Sun Guy's gonna kill your ass! CLARK: No, no! Wait! Big Sun Guy teaches tolerance and forgiveness of sins! BIFF'S DAD: Really? Isn't that kind of pussy-like? CLARK: You can't call Big Sun Guy pussy-like, he'll kill your ass. BIFF'S DAD: Oh, right. My bad. [And so on. Ad infinitum, amen.]
Re: a comment on The Servant and The Messenger by ALChemy	zodiac 212.118.19.108	10-Oct-05/3:53 AM
Fine. ADDENDUM: *For all X excluding "in a philosophy" and its synonyms.
Re: a comment on The Servant and The Messenger by ALChemy	zodiac 212.118.19.108	10-Oct-05/3:51 AM
X would have to be in a philosophy. That quibble aside, the glaring contradiction was obvious to me from the beginning. I let it slide, rightly imagining that anyone who bothered to complain about it was a religious, and therefore not worth my attention.
Re: a comment on 10/8 by cronus	zodiac 212.118.19.108	10-Oct-05/3:45 AM
And he's dead.
Re: The Enigmatic Pentagram by ObsequiousGem	ALChemy 69.134.78.74	10-Oct-05/2:17 AM
Should use 5 line stanzas or 3 stanzas with 6 lines. You know how the devil likes his numbers. The vote of 5 a tad bit ironic.
Re: a comment on The Servant and The Messenger by ALChemy	ALChemy 69.134.78.74	10-Oct-05/2:05 AM
This does seem to be a common approach to religion. If Cardinal Stinkyfingers says it's that way than it must be. Meanwhile he's sodomizing choir boys on sunday nights. Don't you think religion should be found by hearing the words of others and comimng to your own conclusions based on what you feel in your heart should be true. The other approach just scares the hell out of me. It's easier to assume the priest or bible translator is always right than to study a belief system on your own but it is also much less rewarding. In a way both definitions are right but I'd rather bet my soul on my own conclusions than on someone elses. Screw specific religion. I would rather read the gospel according to Dovina any day of the week. At least I know I'd be entertained. After all you are the temple of the lord.
Re: a comment on Gnarly Knees by Dovina	ALChemy 69.134.78.74	10-Oct-05/1:23 AM
Maybe he's Jesus.
Re: a comment on My First Boyfriend by jessicazee	jessicazee 64.12.117.5	9-Oct-05/8:24 PM
zodiac- shut UP. thanks so much, really, b'cause I think yr stuff is , like, stick-in-my-heady and good too. Ew, like, let's have a poemy stroke session, yuh, hee. But I do post on this site for critique, so feel free. I'll do the same.
Re: a comment on 10/8 by cronus	Dovina 209.247.222.94	9-Oct-05/6:46 PM
Yes, try reading the sad ones.
Re: The Enigmatic Pentagram by ObsequiousGem	Dovina 209.247.222.94	9-Oct-05/6:42 PM
New age thought or wicca, symbolized by a pentagram, always leaves me wondering if I'm on the same planet.
Re: Keep on Going by april fool	Dovina 209.247.222.94	9-Oct-05/6:38 PM
The conclusion does not follow from the premise.
Re: a comment on The Servant and The Messenger by ALChemy	Dovina 209.247.222.94	9-Oct-05/6:36 PM
I would agree that the crux of religeon as a worthy calling is gut feeling. But the crux of any specific religion is taking the word of someone, and that is what I'm calling faith.
Re: a comment on The Servant and The Messenger by ALChemy	Dovina 209.247.222.94	9-Oct-05/6:32 PM
We have faith in God because we are built to have such faith. It's scarinbgly true, and leads to all sorts of deception. Too many people tell us to have faith in this god or that, and only because of some vision or supernatural knowledge they claim to have. Such people are easy to refute. Yet, we remain convinced of God's existance. Go figure.
Re: a comment on The Servant and The Messenger by ALChemy	Dovina 209.247.222.94	9-Oct-05/6:24 PM
No, that's not religion or philosophy. Yet some people have included it there. Okay, why not?
Re: a comment on Gnarly Knees by Dovina	Dovina 209.247.222.94	9-Oct-05/6:17 PM
Then I will assume he means it in an adoring way, of course.
Re: a comment on pep talk by ay deee	ay deee 204.90.50.252	9-Oct-05/11:09 AM
thank you; it's like a self-inflicted cause you know, a hair shirt worn by someone with something to prove a discomfort for its own sake but i still don't understand what is lacking in the rest of the poem...
Re: a comment on sap's pay by ay deee	ay deee 204.90.50.252	9-Oct-05/11:02 AM
in this poem, i did go for that rhyme pattern this is not my line of work visual art is my line of work, mostly sculpture writing is a roundabout way of sifting ideas for me but thank you for your consideration, and if you have anything constructive to say about my writing, i would greatly appreciate that sentiment as well. i was told by sculpture advisors to take my writing somewhere where people who knew things about writing could help (not sculptors).
Re: Gnarly Knees by Dovina	ALChemy 69.134.78.74	9-Oct-05/8:52 AM
What if he says "I love you ON your knees"?