DD, does it puff you up to call me by the devils number? Like some Christians, and some Muslims, and some others, some Buddhist are Buddhist in name only. Of the roughly 500 million adherents, how many do you consider "pacifist liberals". You are very quick to label others, how do you label yourself? I'm interested.

Dear Nathan,

Indeed, one needs to find the correct balance and this can be difficult.

Life (in the biological sense) is important, but it is only a means, not an end unto itself.

I observe that while in some countries the tendency is to consider life to be cheap and err on the side of disrespecting it, in Australia the tendency is to err on the opposite direction whereby every effort is made to keep human bodies breathing at all costs, regardless even of the value that the inhabitants of these bodies (or those who used to inhabit these bodies) still derive from it.

Surely it is vital that we respect all others (and not just humans) because in essence all is God, so we should strive to see God in all others. This does not mean, however, that we should neurotically keep blood flowing and lungs pumping air in overdue bodies which no longer serve their dwellers. We can still respect the body's indweller even while the body is returned to the earth.

The continuing lockdown lunacy shows that our politicians have no respect for our lives, particularly the lives of Victorians and New South Welsh. No deaths, just a few cases not requiring anything but common sense by the sufferers. We are stuck in 2020 while the rest of the world is getting on with life. Unbelievably, a woman giving birth with all the discomfort that entails was ordered to wear an effing mask .

Paul numbers...(at the moment , contorting your number domicile is seen as a snide way to punish your ideas).

And since OLO is all so often a war zone for testing the strength of ideas, then “all’s fair in love and war” fits reasonably well!
It’s good to unbalance the enemy. Evil always progresses from a bad idea, so bad ideas should be called out!

Your questions:

“DD, does it puff you up to call me by the devils number?”
No, it amuses me....and

“You are very quick to label others, how do you label yourself?”

This is a difficult question, since it has a lot of dangling ends to it to make clear it’s intent.

I don’t label myself. But I take a core belief system built on a Christianity, surrounded by cultural norms I’ve been educated into, through life’s experiences in my living environment in Australia.
I have a concept of my culture which I fiercely defend. Good V Evil. Fundamental!

Lastly:

“ how many (Buddhists I understand), do you consider "pacifist liberals".

Obviously people (be whatever they profess to be), are not the pacifist type when they lop the heads off their opponents.
Christians have a long history of chopping the heads off their enemy too.

It’s a brutal world we live in, with much brutality not defined by religion.
Although the Old Testament holds plenty of brutal accounts between its covers.
As does Islam of course.

To be fair, I offer you the opportunity to re-domicile Diver Dan with a fitting tag related to. Your impression of my views.
I’d like you to do it justice though, with thought.
Maybe I should care more what people think of my views!

Dan.

Yuyutsu.

Should we look at what Plato thinks on this very subject, as he assembled the laws for his new republic?

He was very unforgiving of the wealthy and their introspection of fighting off the effects of disease while feverishly attempting to lengthen their span of life. Something the poor were unable to do.

His view was to stay prepared for death whenever that time was. Allbeit not excluding the ability to patch up more minor and short term conditions, particularly in the young and otherwise healthy.

I think we will eventually have to accept the death among certain groups as inevitable with Covid-19, as he suggested from 2.5k years ago.

Dan

Dear Nathan,

Whenever I see those commercials on television about
children dying every few seconds around the globe
due to the lack of medicines and immunisations and
the pleas for help. My heart goes out to them. Why
are these things allowed to happen? Surely instead
of spending money on wars, and conflicts humanity
could better invest in getting rid of poverty and suffering?

We seem to have the wrong priorities. What is spent on
weapons of death could be spent on medicines and the
prevention of disease. Taking lives for granted?
I guess many rich countries do try to protect their own.
And they give as much as they can to foreign aid - but more
could certainly be done if we got our priorities right.
Saving human life instead of killing it.