If you actually dig deep into evolution, you will get all your answers. Even when you consider cellular life, you can see how this evolved. We, in our bodies, have the exact same mechanisms that go back billions of years. The mitochondria that powers every cell is believed to have originated when one cell engulfed another cell. I understand religion had a purpose 500 years ago when nobody knew anything, so it was one way to explain things, but today, we have science. With regards to sperm, its also just one way of many to replicate. And once again, if you follow the evolutionary tree, you see how it all evolved. Billions of years means that nature got really good at what its doing, but at the same time, there are still some issues. Take for example cancer. Why does god let cancer kill people??? LOL... Its a bullshit statement. But childhood cancers for example are much rarer than other cancers. Why? Its because if you get a childhood cancer, you die before reproducing. Your genes don't get passed along. But adult diseases with a hereditary component are difficult to weed out of the genetic lineage because you have already passed them onto your children before they kill you. Following science is what progresses society. If we followed religion, we would still be in the dark ages, and some cultures are clearly still mostly there, but working hard to dominate the West through sheer numbers and forced integration. But my main point is that only poor people need religion because they need a reason to explain to themselves why they have so little. You prevent them from rioting by convincing them that their after life will be spectacular and all the people who did them wrong down here, who stole from them, will be punished for all of eternity while you finally get to live like a king. Religion also ensures that you don't try and fight them here on earth because you will go to hell for it, once again, for all of eternity. So poor people better just slave away and put up with it for 70 years or so and then they will get rewarded. The rich get to enjoy now, but don't you worry, they are going to get punished later. And now of course, just repeat this in several different flavours to capture all the different religions. Who believes this shit???
Where are you on the rich/poor scale and will your thinking change as you move up or down on that scale? As far as I know there are some very religious rich people and some poor don't believe. As for cancer that could be a punishment for eating poorly. It's like the market, you can always explain things after they happen.
I'd say I'm middle. My thinking would in no way change. There is never going to be any proof of god, and fuck, these religious people even work that into the garbage they spew. They call it tests and all this other shit, but they also make you fear not believing in him. Yes, some super rich are religious and poor don't believe, that in general, countries like the Philippines, where most are poor, are deeply religious. And of course, Muslim countries, they don't even want a good life here. They want to just blow eachother up and go to heaven. The cancer thing is also funny because if your kid lives, they call it a miracle. If your kid dies, they say God wanted him up in heaven. LOL... These idiots will come up with anything to prevent themselves from having to think. Its like God can do anything, so you can't question him, but you also have to spin everything as being positive. Imagine if you, as a trader, when you kept losing, just tell yourself that each loss is a learning opportunity. Sure, but if 20 trades are losses, eventually you go broke. You need to wake up and realize you suck! But religious people keep taking loss after loss. Don't forget that at one point, saying the Earth revolved around the sun got you killed. The earth was at the centre of the universe because that is how deluded religious people are. And yes, religious people always explain after the fact, so as I said, either its a miracle, or god has a plan. Sadly, most people are hard wired to not question authority, so religions use this to their advantage as do governments. I'm honestly scared for the future because when things go to shit, people generally turn to religion, and I believe that the only reason we have such a modern world is because the west kind of moved away from religion.
All they have to do is look around papa, open your eyes. The fact that this planet isn't 1 degree off its axis is testament that something put it exactly where it needs to be.
I consider this Europe and North America. Of course Christianity is huge, but honestly, those are the laziest ones. They go to church once a year, wear a cross maybe, and call it a day. Of course you also have the hardcore bible thumpers, but its nothing like the level of devotion that other religions have. Christians get away with sex before marriage and everything else under the sun. Plus, none of them generally want to die for their god. And, they welcome modern innovations and up until Covid perhaps, many thought that science was the way forward. But this is all crumbling now. Many people consider morality only because God is supposedly watching. How on earth can a person move forward if they are taught from day one that Jesus died for your sins? Then you have some of these Indian religions that believe in re-incarnation, and so anything that happens to you that is bad, is because you were bad in a previous life. Literally telling kids with childhood illnesses that its payback for a previous life. Its all so fucked up, and yet a very large percentage of the world believes in some god or some version of this.
I really sympathize with all the posters here who have no first hand understanding of religion. (People don't read original books.) Well, it's unfortunate that in many western countries people think that Yoga is just some kind of exercise. In true yoga books they don't even talk of exercises. For example 'Patanjali Yoga Sutras' focuses on meditation and experiencing life beyond physical realms. If one came across someone who practiced this in a proper way it is only then one can get true belief in religion. Unfortunately, this is 'Kali Yuga', the era of decadence. True teachers are difficult to find and people who pose as some kind of gurus are donation seekers. In modern world there is so much of access to (dis-)information. People who talk don't know. And people who know, don't talk and, that's for a reason. P.S: There is no equivalent word for religion in Sanskrit. People use the word "matah'. But that word just means 'Opinion'. There is nothing called religion. Go, figure! I don't want to comment further.
I'm not entirely sure I buy this story. In August 2013, btc was around $100. 8,000 would have been worth $800,000. Would someone really have been that careless with nearly a million bucks? The history of btc is no doubt full of stories of regret*. For most people though there's no way of changing what was done, and they just have to learn to live with it. I guess the problem with losing a hard drive in a landfill, is there is still the (theoretical) possibility of getting it back, hence the danger of falling into the psychological trap of not being able to let go.
Why not? life is always stranger than fiction: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitcoin_buried_in_Newport_landfill He was one of the earliest BTC miners. Now anyone who keeps 8K BTC in one place when that is his most of his holding (mind you it was already worth half million) in one place is an idiot. But when he lost it (I mean who cares about half a mill, right?) he took it in pride and didn't care. This usually happnes when you have another drive with another few thousand cryptos on it. That to me means he kept mining or since he was a believer and price was dirt cheap, he should have been buying it. The point is, instead of later having a "loser's regret" eating him away, he had years and years when he still could have got on the gravy train and made himself fairly rich, well he was a believer. Since that didn't happen (or who knows, he is a well to do guy now, then stop crying) tells me he either gambled away whatever other crypto investment he had or he was just an idiot twice over. Anyway, his real regret diddn't start until 2017, so that tells me he was doing fine between 2013-17. And probably he is still OK, because he has money to hire lawyers, who may not work for a future maybe.
From what I remember of the story, he was mining it in 20010-2011 when bitcoin wasn't worth anything and used the computer for something else but took out hard drive and put in the drawer When bitcoin went up a lot in price, that's when he looked for the hard drive and realized he threw the hard drive away as the one he had in the drawer was the one he intended to throwaway Over the years, the price kept going up and he was able to secure funding from investors, they mapped out the area of where the hard drive could be in the landfill, but the city would not allow them to do it He would have sold most of it to pay off the investors so the value when they would have been sold would not be $900M unless everyone agreed to split the bitcoin and many intended to hodl a large portion of their loot