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Beliefs are only good if they have practical applications. Beliefs are the lens through which you view the world; they affect how you act, what you say, where you go, how you spend your time. Beliefs are more to humanity than just distant hopes and wishes for a world that isn't kind, they are the foundation for everything that defines who you are.

Now, any belief worth believing in should line up with facts, shouldn't they? Otherwise it wouldn't be practical. If someone believes that Up is Down, they'll probably sorely regret trying to fly off the top of a building, eh? No, if up is up, and down is down, than anybody who tries flying in spite of that will fall, and most people would recognize where the belief and the cold-hard-fact didn't quite meet.
Now that may be an explicit generalization, but you understand my point? If beliefs don't make some sort of practical, logical sense, what's the point in believing it if it isn't within reason to believe?

Now the whole point of these discussions, for me anyway, is to see if there are any other more practical belief systems than the one which has already changed my life. I'm looking for something out there that's better than what I've got, something that will make me even happier, give me more meaning, more purpose, a better reason to breathe. Because if it's out there, it's worth pursuing. I owe myself the best possible life, don't I? Well I'll never know if there's anything better if I don't explore other options. I'm not afraid to let go of what I have, but so far it's because I haven't found anything better.
Have you ever sought out something better for yourself than what you've got? Even on a smaller scale, trying to find a better brand of Oreo, clothes that last longer and fit better, a house that suits all of your needs, a friend who you really connect with, a hobby that's worth your time, a Life that is full of Meaning.
I want to know if there's something better because I owe it to myself. And if there isn't, I owe it to the people I love to share what I've already found, because they'll never know if it works for them until they look into it for themselves.

Beliefs are more than just vague hope for a better future. They permeate your structure for real-time hope during every little moment that you breathe.

How many times have I tried to keep a discussion in one thread, and I'm answered with, "We don't really do that here". I know I wasn't the only one irritated by the Pokemon discussions going on in the Spamthread, but those continued regardless.
However, there's only been one vote in the DDT to keep it out of here (and I'm going to assume it Wasn't you, unless you tell me otherwise). In the past, many votes weren't enough to make a difference, why does One make all the difference now?

lol no, Four separate people expressed frustration that they had to think about things like this, regardless of where it went on.
If a thought becomes a discussion, I'll move it over to the DDT, but since we didn't move every single post from here to there, I'll leave what's here where it already is.

Interesting how we were encouraged to post our Thoughts, until someone had a Thought that made people Think.....

By the tone of LPS' retort, I'm guessing she had something entirely else in mind. =/

Just sayin....

I think LPS is trying to avoid the thinking herself. She's made it very clear that she doesn't approve of what I think, because it doesn't make her feel good, although I'm going to venture that she has no idea what I'm really thinking about. If she did, she wouldn't hate me for it. Research or not, ignorance is ignorance when two people, who are talking about the "same subject", have no idea what the other is actually saying, nor care to hear the other side out regardless.

lol I am not trying to convert her. I am, in a way, forcing my thoughts, but there were several times where she opened the door to that discussion of her own volition.
I know she's already done some thinking, but I know for a fact that she's never considered it the same way I and many others have, because if she had, she wouldn't pass it off so quickly.
Pure Thoughts about the Christian God are never accompanied by bitterness and demand for Justice, the way LPS approached everything I brought up, which says to me that her thoughts about the Christian God have been tainted by a great misfortune that she has to reconcile in a way that takes the blame either off of herself, or off of someone she cares about. Something terrible happened to her, and now she blames God for it, and by extension, everybody else who doesn't.
So she's chosen seclusion. She chooses to be happy with whatever she can make of life, though she has yet to admit whether that is much or little. She's chosen a very modern form of Epicureanism, where it's all about what you Want, and shunning the things you Don't want. It makes me sad that she thinks the only Good things in life are the things that 'make her feel good', because most others would agree that sometimes the hardest trials give way to the greatest rewards, but she discards other people's opinions without caring whether it'll aid her or harm her either way.
She doesn't suffer from Ignorance of Life, because she knows very much what makes her feel good in some cases. But she does suffer from ignorance of Truth, because she doesn't know that some of the things that don't feel so good are the things that will allow her to expand in ways even She can't imagine.