Gadianton wrote:Mr. Midgley wrote:I was more than merely "implying" that without faith in God and immortality, then life is ultimately meaningless. Now you are free to set out the tenets of your atheist religion. And be sure to explain how mere "meat wads" can have any real meaning that goes beyond merely pleasuring themselves until they disappear forever.
DCP already explained this to Fred Kratz. Fred asked what more could he want than the good things in life he's experienced, and DCP responded, to continue experiencing those things in the next life (presumably indefinitely).
In other words, DCP is telling Fred that a meaningful life is only found in pleasuring ones self, but on the condition any time constraints removed.
This really does raise some fascinating theological questions, doesn't it? I've long wondered what is meant to happen to agency in the CK. If each person is an exalted God, then you obviously cannot "force" them to do anything. So, is it the case that, as a God, you effectively "recreate" all the your friends and loved ones, but, of course, they answer to you, since you are the God? Similarly, would the Mopologists re-create their enemies, just in order to smite them down? I.e., DCP could reanimate Ed Decker, and then kill him with a lightning strike. He could theoretically create an infinite number of Deckers, and kill each of them in a different manner: stricken with boils; cancer; rockslide; car accident--you name it.
And what happens to the "rules" of mortal existence? Those go away in the CK, right? Or is the idea that the "virtuous" exalted beings just flat-out won't want to do those things? Peterson fancies himself a gourmand (he's not, though: if you pay attention to the things he says that he orders, he's always ordering the trashiest food items, like some kind of bean and beef pizza; it's as if he learned his tastes in food from Guy Fieri. He never met a deep-fried item that he didn't like, and he's never heard of something called "vegetables"), so would that mean that he'd get to drink Dom Perignon, coffee, and Bordeaux? You mention masturbation and "self pleasure." Is that permitted? Would he be able to not only to engage in guilt-free viewings of salacious Jennifer Lopez videos, but he would actually be able to graduate to hardcore porn?
"[I]f, while hoping that everybody else will be honest and so forth, I can personally prosper through unethical and immoral acts without being detected and without risk, why should I not?." --Daniel Peterson, 6/4/14