Weird questions in semi earnest....

Re: Weird questions in semi earnest....



what exactly was that that the bunny was smoking

Wondering about the far edges of scrupulocity...

hmm, what does jainism say about sick things? i mean, are bacteria also endowed with a soul? what has priority - computer or bacteria? you can view it as a healing process, or a form of exorcism, unless bad spirits are also considered as living things that are to be honoured.
you are pretty safe, i'd say. computer virus does not seem to qualify as a living thing responsible for its own actions. i'd say go for it - the sooner the better, before we all gallop to and fro (is it? or forth?) on a trojan horse.

Thank you Daggles, but, is Jainism permitted to distinguish, deliberately, between organisms, and to decide that a thing which SEEMs alive is or isn't?


It's a lolly, Didj, which I have put aside for the moment.



Osso, can you define your terms a little more. Where is the centre of the scrupulousity whose farther edges you wish to map?


(And don't think I dinna get you, you bad Corgi! Can't a woman ask a question round here without being cruelly mocked, by a corgi withal!)

Twasn't meaning to mock exactly, or there was some selfmock involved. The business of protecting insects from oneself by wearing a mask reminded me of me when I tried to figure out if I willfully accepted dirty thoughts back when I was a fairly scrupulous believer, light years ago, trying to figure out what to confess.

Well, would that be lesser or more scrupulous than the mask?

Oh my!!!!!


Seeking to filter thoughts!!!


There is a question for any masses who come along, or don't.


I THINK the thoughts one is more scrupulous, but I could be persuaded.

Hmmmm, interesting.

At first I thought as dag stated, that a computer virus is not "alive"

However, I tend to anthropomorphisize so many things, I'm sure more than most people.

Would killing that virus that you just cursed at as if it was alive be crossing the line?
I wonder.

Well, the beast of it would be, I think, that even the most scrupulous Jainist kills billions of little microbes everyday, with ruthless efficiency. It is not a conscious, effort, of course; immunity only affects our minds in the most indirect ways (though our mind can affect immunity much more directorially). Thus, the only way a Jainist can stop killing is to kill him/herself, which would, of course, is to be avoided, for reasons biological, ethical, and spiritual.

Now, if a Jainist can come to terms with the bodily immune system, cannot a Jainist come to terms with a virtual immune system?

Hmmm...is not the key question whether one consciously and voluntarily destroys life?


The body's immune system performs without conscious control.



Good point, Chai! Can we both act as if something is alive and malicious when we are experiencing its effects, and then act as if it is non-living if we choose to destroy it AND we have a strict Jainian ethical belief system.

Heeeheeeeee....

Computer "viruses" are only a piece of computer code that we have given the name "virus" because it has a purpose that is not beneficial.

If deleting code is killing then turning off your computer does the same thing to all the other code that is running on it. Deleting any program or file would be killing. Code is not living. It can't only function as its writer told it to.

I think not. They do not wear veils so that they will not go about intentionally huffing up flies and gnats, ending their precious little lives. It is to prevent their doing so unawares.

Exactly!

Stupid question, I'm sure:

What would a strict Jainist eat without getting into trouble with their beliefs?

I can't think of a darn thing that isn't "living".

It is in the url I gave in the first post.

Oh, folks, remember this is a silly thread for weird wonderings, not serious and sensical.

Hmmm.

A Jainist could not even shut down his/her computer, without causing its demise....

What about closing a program, or closing a file, or deleting anything?

I am really thinking about this.

What if your hard drive crashed? would that be the same as suicide?


Totally unrelated, but in the same semi-serious inquiry vein......
I brought this up once before, and lightly dismissed as have just taken my bong out of storage, but....

It occured to me that none of us really knows what our own face looks like, except for maybe the tip of our nose, and even then, it's blurry.

Our image in the mirror, or in a photo, is merely that, an image.
How do we know what we REALLY look like?
Can we rely on what a photo or mirror shows us?
what if it is a self-delusional image and we look nothing like that?

I think of the shutting down of the computer and its resarting more as a rebirth.

Or a sleep.

I cannot see a reason why Jainism would have problems with turning off a computer.


I do not think hard drives crash deliberately. I think it is more like a stroke than a suicide.





Hmmmmmm....I tend to take a reasonably optimistic view of knowing roughly how we look....


Of course, it is only an approximation (and a reversed one with mirrors).


Of course, our BACKS are a little like the dark side of the moon.....seldom glimpsed and with difficulty.

Recently diagnosed with an autoimmune disease, I had discovered that my immume system is attacking me. Now remember, my immume system is just a "code" programmed to attack the "viruses", so is it alive?

Furthermore, consciously I am not harming myself but my immune system is doing it on purpose. So, should part of me be held responsible for harming the other part of me? Or should we just say it's not aware of the damage it's doing and call it good? Or should I attack the immune system right back and twist it's arm behind it's back to make it stop hurting my poor defensless thyroid? Take it's lunch money and kick dirt at it? I don't know. What do you think?

Once one is aware of one's immune system, and what it does, would not one be obligated to terminate oneself? Or perhaps deliberate infection of HIV would do the trick.

(And there is no such thing as "the dark side of the moon." There is a far side, but it gets as much sun (actuallly, a tad more) than the near side. Plfffft!)

I believe it is known as dark in the sense of unknown. Like "darkest Africa" of yore.


Pffffft back.


I do not think your immune system is likely to have a separate consciousness, Bella, though I have no doubt its components are alive. I believe therefore, that it cannot be held to have ethical responsibilities.

The jury is out on whether your unconscious mind can have any effect on your immune system, though stress does seem more and more implicated in illness.

I think you will do yourself harm by worrying about whether you are implicated in this dastardly attack upon a sentient being!


By all means, do whatever you can to help your immune system to regain its proper focus.


I do not thinking that taking its lunch money will be of assistance in this endeavour.