For me, it would have to be:

• Factorio
• Rimworld
• Red Dead Redemption 2
• Tetris DS
• Disco Elysium

Considering that we could just end up with covid 2 tomorrow it seems that any answer is going to be arbitrary so might as well give an optimistic one. The West’s slide to the right is prevented by a leftist surge as parties such as Labour and the Democrats realise that they can’t win by trying to attract the right, and so instead double down on progressive policy - which works for them as they’re able to reform their image and start really appealing to the people.

AI slop starts to falter as it feeds off of self-produced training data until it becomes literally incomprehensible, meaning that it can be easily ignored or not understood by the majority of people, as well as being banned on the rising stars of the internet: federated social media, independent streaming services (think Nebula, Dropout), and newly-independent news sites, like Giant Bomb.

The climate change issue is now taken more seriously, as the generations unfamiliar with the internet who could be sucked into misinformation rabbit holes start to die off, and policymakers who have grown up understanding the existential threat it poses to all of us take power.

The workplaces of large corporations start unionising, even illegally at first, and establish strong community centred power bases which are used to demand better treatment not only in the workplace, but also to bargain with the government. A focus returns to the local community.

(I know all this is very wishful thinking, but figured the thread could use some more positivity 🫶)

Just wanted to say that it’s always a highlight of my day reading these :)

Dated someone for a couple of years in my teens. Had multiple people assume they were a virgin because “it’s bad enough that you’re dating them, but your standards can’t be that low right?”

Thanks for the video, will check it out!

I think that my main issue is that this stuff is just straight up supernatural, to the point where I would need hard evidence, for example contemporary accounts from people neutral towards or opposing Christianity before I could believe it. I’m not going to commit to believing in something unless there is appropriate evidence for it, and Jesus’ miracles just happened too long ago to be verifiable.

I really appreciate you taking the time to talk to me about this!

I suppose my issue there is that you have shown the reasons I believe in the other events, but not in Jesus’ miracles: we have archeological evidence for Pompeii, and a separate source for Pontias Pilate. If Pompeii had just been the offhand reference by Pliny then I don’t know if it would be so easy to believe. But I’ve grown up able to literally see the ash covered bodies. And I think you’ve summed up the issue with Pilate exactly, that he was only known of from one source, until we had another corroborating it.

Should any extra evidence present itself for the rising of the dead on Good Friday, I’ll be a lot more likely to come around, but I still don’t think that it can be appropriately corooborated.

I really appreciate you taking the time to talk this out, I’m definitely something of a bible novice so your help is very appreciated :)

Thanks for the detailed response! It’s helping Camus’ writing make a bit more sense, still not 100% convinced but this is getting me closer.

Okay, I’ve watched the videos, but unfortunately they don’t fix my main issue with the bible, that being there are no contemporary (as in written within the subsequent decades), non-Christian sources for any miracle alleged in the bible. In particular, the dead rising and walking around the towns on Good Friday as talked of in the Gospels isn’t recorded in any Roman source we have from the time, and I think that such an act would have been recorded. It seems to me that it is more likely that these stories of miracles survived with Christians for a few hundred years, before being disseminated into the popular account of Jesus’ life as Christianity grew in popularity.

They also don’t fix any of my other problems with Christianity, such as the problem of evil, principally relating to animal suffering, or divine hiddenness. Still, I feel more informed than before, so thank you!

Thank you, will give it a try! I wouldn’t be able to call myself a nonresistant nonbeliever if I resisted this :)

Wow, really interesting, thank you!

Adorable picture :) Unfortunately my cat has found a purpose - being a bastard and knocking over anything she can, and loudly demanding attention at 2am. She’s still wonderful of course!

I hope that I can come around to the absurdist perspective sooner or later, it does seem quite appealing to me, but I’m still yet to be convinced by Camus’ argument that the rebellion against the absurd has any more value than your other options. How would you say you find that sort of value?

I’ve got a lot of respect for theists, and would truly love to be convinced of this sort of perspective. Thanks for bringing it to the table!

It’s interesting, I think I’ve tried engaging with Stoicism before, but it feels to me that it kind of ignores how sometimes the romantic should take control? I can’t remember which Stoicist (Epictetus I think?) said that we should be so detached that the death of a child should feel like a glass breaking, but I don’t think I would be able to rationalise and internalise that personally. Do you think there’s space for strong feelings in Stoicism?

I definitely don’t buy into there being some big thing that everyone should be working for in their life, but I do think that it’s good for humans to develop meaning and purpose on a personal level - we need some drive in life or everything is just arbitrary and you have no reason to for one option to be preferable over another, if truly there is nothing that matters.

Love this way of looking at it tbh, definitely meaning is something that humans come up with, just trying to fine a convincing answer personally. Really appreciate you commenting, feels good to engage with such a lovely community :))

Those owl pictures definitely made my day better, cheers :))

I don’t think I necessarily agree with the way you present truth, but it’s an interesting line of thinking. I do definitely agree with your opinion on the bonuses life has to offer!

Yeah I think I’m in the same boat as you here to be honest, as I can still acknowledge that a negative emotional impact on those I care about also negatively impacts my emotions, so that provides me with some grounding in the topic. Loose grounding though, especially if you take the idea that there is no meaning to its limits.

Well sure, I can say that objectively it is pointless to try and give my life meaning - but I think that it is still part of the human condition to try and strive for some purpose. More of an emotional need than a philosophical need would be the way I would frame it.