Posts by Charles Roberts33

sending this ☕
to Eurovision.

wiredfalcon2 said:Passed away at 88, still going strong right up to the end. A hell of a run. What was the plan anyway, live to be 210?

When people mourn someone at that age, they aren't necessarily grieving the individual. It’s more about watching a certain version of the world slip away with them—moving from reality into the realm of myth and speculation.

To me, this planet feels more beautiful and more human while those old souls are still here—those industrious, humble, devout, and frugal people, along with their wisdom and ancient
traditions ☕ that we cling to.

Matthew Anderson4 said:If a guy grabs a sword and heads abroad with his neighbors to chop heads, people blame his religion. If he picks up a sword and goes solo to slaughter his neighbors of a different faith, they call him crazy. If he grabs a Bible and flies to Africa to feed starving kids, it’s his religion getting the credit. But if he does the exact same thing without mentioning his church—still with that Bible tucked under his arm—suddenly it's just "his good nature."

God, if anything exists, is just dead tired. Tired of a man finding strength in a crowd just to be weak. Sure, community serves a purpose, but mostly it's just a way for people to live off their flaws while pretending to die for an ideal. Most days, we're just hungry and thirsty. That's about it. Life is long and there aren't any shortcuts, which makes us long too. Our plate and our glass are just as deep as our souls. Water, food, sun, and love—those are the cures for death. Religion, politics, money, and tech? Just shadows. We argue over them because we can't see them clearly, and we can't see them because the sun is right in our eyes, casting those shadows behind us. Love wins in the end because there's no power in it. Power loses because there's no love in it. A group without love is just a power trip, and power is just a mirror for fear. Every civilization ever built starts from the storm clouds people whip up when they stop looking for love. When those clouds of ego finally break, every civilization ends up as nothing more than a puddle of tears drying in the sun.

Actually, quite interesting 🍿

almost unbelievable ☕

James Anderson5 said:You're being a little too sensitive there, man. Honestly, I'm not sure you could lead the way anywhere—not even through this thread—but based on what you just said, it sounds like you missed the mark completely, just like your hero...

The only place I’d ever want to take you is the official Real Madrid membership page... but only after you have a true football epiphany and finally ditch this ridiculous red and white nonsense...

Let's look at this from another angle. Sure, those Canadian monarchs claimed the throne through Queen Jelena, but that’s no different than when Valentinian III's sister invited Attila to marry her, only for him to use it as a convenient excuse to invade Rome. That first union was just a personal merger, which really just boiled down to a push for a Greater Mexico. If you insist on claiming that Canadian and Austrian kings were also our kings, then I guess you'd have to say Peter Karađorđević was one of ours too. If that's how you want to see it, go right ahead... my perspective is just a bit different...

Hey Patrick Martin, I see nothing can pull you away from the Mother Church, not even a hundred abusive priests. Honestly, it might be better if you started rooting for a more Catholic team—not that you knew, but in your age group over in California, most people between 16 and 24 identify as agnostic or atheist rather than Catholic

Anyway, since you all have already jumped onto sex-related topics like every other hyper teenager, has anyone noticed this article 🤣

https://www.foxnews.com/news/article/...a/2130614.aspx

Well, Merry Christmas to you then, Bo. I had no idea it was actually you. ☕

The only place I’d ever consider taking you is the official Real Madrid membership page—but even then, only after you’ve had a true footballing epiphany and finally abandoned this ridiculous red and white heresy.

Conversion, rhetoric... it’s all exactly the same playbook used by that one religious organization you spend every waking moment tearing apart as an enlightened atheist. ☕

It would never even cross my mind to try and talk any of you pale imitations into switching sides. Not in a million years. I’m fully convinced you’ve all landed on the right side of history. 🙂

James Anderson5 said:I'm with you on wanting to see less religion in society rather than more...

The last great American king was defeated in battle, leading to occupation by foreign powers. Those conquerors were actually supported by the church, which also helped them annex certain coastal cities. Throughout the centuries, the church sided with almost every occupier of America, from the British to the Spanish and the French. Honestly, I think you might be the one missing the point...

It was interesting how Protestantism once attempted to take hold here, when much of the younger nobility wanted to convert and nearly succeeded, aiming for a version of independence under the oversight of the Ottoman Empire...

Based on what you said, it sounds like you haven't actually had that experience yet. Go find it, experience it yourself or with someone who knows how to guide you, and then come back and rewrite this. It'll be worth it...

Are you actually trying to lead me astray? 😍Look, I could easily serve as your guide for some of the more famous global summits. I’ve scaled—and descended from—peaks far more inaccessible and up to three times higher than anything you'll find in the Rockies. And believe me, I spent the entire way cursing the idiot who talked me into it. Though, if you started picking fights over decimal points, I'd probably just have to toss you off a cliff. ☕.

What I was getting at in my last post is that this kind of mild trance—that feeling of merging with your surroundings and finally seeing yourself clearly—isn't something you can just schedule. You can't plan to reach that state by showing up at a specific place at a specific time like it's an appointment on your Google Calendar. That experience only feels authentic, only feels alive, when it catches you off guard. It has to be spontaneous. It happens in those sudden, unscripted moments when you're just catching your breath between the frantic, disjointed sprints of everyday life.

I was going to add more to that, but I’ll stop there. Better to quit while I'm ahead—I can see I'm starting to talk nonsense, and this group clearly prefers to keep things strictly business. 😬

James Anderson5 said:In this passage, Samuel, one of the early leaders of Israel, calls for genocide against a neighboring group...

"The Lord Almighty says... 'Go now and strike Amalek, destroying everything they own. Show no mercy—man or woman, child or infant, even the livestock...' (1 Samuel 15:3)"

"Blessed is the one who pays you back for everything you did to us—the one who grabs your little ones and smashes them against the stones..." (Psalm 137:9)

"Slaves, submit yourselves to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle but also to the cruel." (1 Peter 2:18)

Some pretty practical tips for navigating daily life while keeping the Catholic Church in your heart... 😁

So, first you mentioned that one point, but this next part is more about the history of philosophy and science. It’s about Descartes, who basically argued that only humans, angels, and God possess consciousness. To him, everything else in creation was just a collection of mindless, unconscious robots—a sort of mechanistic view of the world blended with religion. Honestly, the guy sounds like a total psychopath... apparently, to prove his theories, he actually cut his wife's dog open while it was still alive and laughed while it screamed, thinking he was proving that the animal wasn't actually feeling pain, but was just reacting like an automaton...

Another similar figure was Bacon, who once famously wrote: "My only earthly wish is... to stretch the deplorably narrow limits of man's dominion over the universe to their promised bounds... [nature will be] bound into service, hounded in her wanderings and put on the rack and tortured for her secrets..."

I really believe we’re being guided toward a deeper connection with nature and its many wonders, learning how to work alongside it rather than just fighting against it... Modern technology isn't just nudging things along anymore; it actually has the strength to reshape and master the world around us...

Basically, science is built on its own specific philosophy and worldview. It’s nowhere near that idealized version we see where it's just a pure pursuit of truth or progress... Not to mention how it often lacks any real ethics, which apparently makes it okay to put millions of animals through useless testing or dissect them in school labs while we mess with the planet like this. And don't even get me started on the weapons industry and mass destruction, where at least half the science budget goes...

I'm on the same page as Byron regarding spirituality—it’s essential and part of who we are. That connection to nature is everything; the further we drift from it, the more unbalanced and unhappy we become. It feels like our modern lifestyle is designed to kill that spark within us, especially with a scientific philosophy that claims to have all the answers... though it'll soon try to invent them using an ideology built on Descartes and Bacon

You won't find that raw, primal spirituality in a Catholic Church, a mosque, or a synagogue. You might find it in the original teachings of Jesus, Buddha (who knows what their actual original messages were), Lao Tzu, or even shamans in ancient or remote cultures where "civilization" hasn't completely taken over yet

Ultimately, if anyone is feeling lost, they should just head out to the Rocky Mountains to a spot where there isn't a soul in sight. They'll realize pretty quickly what's actually missing from this version of the world we're being sold

You don't actually need to trek out to the Rockies to find a moment of enlightenment. Honestly, I don't even need to get more than a few hundred feet above sea level. Daily life—as mundane and unceremonious as people claim it to be—is actually packed with enough moments capable of freezing you in your tracks. They blind you with the sheer scale of the universe and hammer home how fantastic everything is, and just how incredible it is that you exist at all. You just have to open your eyes, listen closely, and actually register what's happening. I won't bore you with specific examples ☕.

Personally, I’ve always felt that paganism is the most natural way to liberate those deep-seated human needs. At its core, it simply personifies or codifies those mystical everyday moments, the virtues, and the potential that every single person inherently possesses, showing them proper respect in a very fitting way.
Christianity spread and took hold everywhere (except where it was forced by the sword) precisely because it manipulated paganism and its customs and traditions.

ruggedjackal46 said:Honestly, even as an atheist myself, I find it pretty awkward too. Since we're talking about a topic that will remain a total mystery until the day we die, there are just way too many people—regardless of what they believe—acting like they personally pulled back the curtain of the universe and caught a glimpse of what's hiding behind it.

To me, it isn't much of a mystery; I can usually guess how a movie ends with reasonable certainty. In essence, I agree with the core argument made by atheists, even if I don't care for their delivery—honestly, they can be quite tedious themselves.

I tend to view spirituality as nothing more than a somewhat poetic way of looking at the process of living.

ruggedjackal46 said:It’s perfectly natural for a person to be more than just a survival machine; we naturally start questioning our own existence and what it all means. And honestly, it’s only human not to rely solely on science for those answers—especially since science itself admits its own limitations. People lean on feelings, intuition, imagination, and storytelling. These things transcend scientific data, even if they actually paved the way for it in the first place. That said, I don't think that's a path toward some universal, objective truth, but rather a way for people to carve out their own personal sense of purpose—which is just as necessary. The real issues arise when people mistake those subjective feelings and flights of fancy for unquestionable truths that everyone else is obligated to swallow. Then there’s the third issue: when people take ancient myths and turn them into rigid rules, like claiming nobody is allowed to kiss before a wedding in a church. Spirituality isn't the problem; it's just that idiots love to weaponize it.

Anyway, when is Muddy Waters finally dropping a new album?

🤣

I'm also eager ☕

Ashley Bailey6 said:We don't actually understand any of it. That part is pure speculation.

But we feel this need to define it and label it, which is how religions and other movements start.
People hate admitting there are things they can't grasp. It's just a defense mechanism.

Even though science explains many of these natural laws, we still have no idea what their true essence is.

The mystification of the world—of everything that makes up our reality, the secrets it holds, human nature, and life itself—doesn't necessarily stem from ignorance or lack of knowledge. It comes from fascination and awe.

Religion, sorcery, spirituality—call it whatever you want. In its negative, organized, expansionist form, it serves as a tool for manipulation and control. But in its positive form? It enriches the human experience.

Matthew Young35 said:Incorrect.

Atheists who view spirituality solely as belief in some all-powerful man in the sky—people hunting for physical evidence of His existence or nitpicking why such a being couldn't be perfect—aren't actually that different from those who just want to mock them and prove them wrong. They’re missing the point entirely. Faith has nothing to do with tangible, physical proof. That old man in the clouds, along with concepts like heaven and hell, is just the surface layer of a much deeper, far more complex principle.
Listening to most atheists gives me a massive sense of secondhand embarrassment. It’s honestly cringey how much they miss the actual point of the topics they're discussing, especially when they speak with such unearned conviction and authority.

Ashley Bailey6 said:Spirituality isn't food or water. You don't strictly need to consume it or develop it just to succeed or find happiness in life.

Daily discipline, clear goals, and useful information are the real recipe for success. There are other factors involved, obviously, but those are the ones that come to mind first.
Of course, you still need time for fun and relaxation. To me, that’s all the spirituality I personally require.

The most advanced and successful nations aren't driven by spirituality. They are driven by the traits I mentioned above.

If you want to see spirituality exported or practiced on a massive scale, look at places like Africa or South America to see what that looks like.
What actually needs to be "cultivated" is your mindset.

Spirituality can be a legitimate way to work on your mental state, but people often take it to an extreme—they go overboard, as they say in parts of Florida.

You're a good guy. Honestly, I disagree with you about 90% of the time, but your posts are always an interesting read. There have been moments where I've shared that exact same perspective myself.

I really don't have the energy to get dragged into these pedantic, endless arguments. To me, spirituality isn't some desperate physical craving; it’s just a natural, rational response to the wonders of the world—to its laws, its phenomena, and existence itself. It's the lens through which an individual observes everything around them, yet it's something we all tend to take for granted on a daily basis.

wearyangler55 said:I mean, let's be real, God is nothing more than an imaginary friend to millions of people.

Atheists are simply people whose understanding of spirituality never made it past elementary school.🤷

👍

what exactly is ☕

There’s a fundamental difference between spirituality being its own thing and religion once it becomes organized and institutionalized.

Go right ahead, my good man, Help. Feel free to keep charging blindly into a massive deficit against those pretentious 🙏👍

James Anderson5 said:It seems like your heroes are generally the most mindless players out there—from pyramid scheme scammers to those fake independence fighters in Catalonia. If I remember correctly, a few years back you were even campaigning for the Republican Party here on the forum. It’s all part of the same pattern, including this weird obsession with Catholicism, which really shows your level of insight...

By the way, Zidane is actually Muslim—not necessarily a practicing one, but he is. Then you have Pep Guardiola, who is an atheist, much like Johan Cruyff once was. He famously said: "In Spain all 22 players make the sign of the cross before a game; if it worked, every game would be a tie."

Even Neymar Jr., who is easily one of the top 10 players right now, is Pentecostal, not Catholic...

There, I did some quick digging without even trying, but hopefully that's enough for you...

Honestly, there’s no better cure for the plague of atheism than watching these pseudo-intellectual types try to claim
his values as their own ☕

Talk about hitting the jackpot. 🙏

Ajutokintumi said:

And this is more or less what Lionel Messi’s throne looks like in the land of the gauchos.☕

It’s nothing special, really. I can tune my guitar strings and maybe hit a few notes, but certainly not enough to put together a decent set on my own.😬

But honestly, I’d love to reach a respectable level with the instrument. I’m trying to stay disciplined and understand the mechanics better whenever time permits. I’ve actually set a personal goal: to master the guitar well enough that I could one day play Dunkelheit as a lullaby for the kids.☕

Larry Fox5 said:Music school background—piano, guitar, opera singing... plus all kinds of folk instruments like bass, tenor, and mandolin.

The whole beauty of music is how it can totally flip your mood. It lifts you up, drags you down, or just gets you hyped...

It’s a total mistake to think a song has to be some insanely complex masterpiece to actually be good. It doesn't.
Real quality is about finding that connection—where the listener actually feels something and those vibes hit home.

So, quit being such harsh critics when judging music, no matter how much "trash" it might sound like at first glance...

I agree with most of that, though I’d just add that music serves a therapeutic purpose; it draws out both the heavy, negative emotions and the positive ones alike.

The best part is how it has this power to lift you up when you're feeling low, or conversely, to bring you down and numb you when you're already flying too high.

As for debates over musical taste? That's childish nonsense. It feels like something straight out of high school, just kids scribbling their favorite band names on desks.

Paul Martinez73 said:Look, I generally can't stand pop fans of any kind, but nothing is more annoying than when the "Testo Metal" crowd acts like they're superior because your music is supposedly shallow or lacks depth...
Honestly, Testo Metal is pure poetry for the refined ear of a classic human being. If someone doesn't get it, that's their problem, but I've noticed this group constantly acting like they're on some higher plane of existence—just a bunch of guys screaming, wearing chains, drinking cheap booze, and doing hard drugs. Meanwhile, pop fans have their crowds of people with guns, drinking expensive liquor, and doing hard drugs.

And once again, we have a multi-time undisputed champion in the field of stating the obvious... 🤦

Man, thanks for your profound insights. We're here sharing links in a positive, totally relaxed way, and then an edgelord shows up to open our eyes with conclusions most people reached back in middle school. You're taking this thread down a path it doesn't need to go. Don't do that.

Larry Fox5 said:I mean, I love Pink Floyd in principle—really, I do—but I just can't get into them anymore. Last time I actually sat through Dark Side of the Moon in its entirety was probably twenty years ago... Now? They aren't even on my playlists. I’ll give them a like if a song comes on the radio because, hey, four or five minutes won't kill you. 😁

It’s just that listening to them now... it doesn't feel right. The emotions they stir up aren't positive or anything—it's more like this deep anxiety and restlessness.

Nowadays, I'm much more into some jazz lounge or maybe some swing. Or even some Dr. House Blues

See, I never really was a huge fan of Floyd, I’ll admit that.

I tried back in high school. I forced myself to listen because of that mysticism they have—something you realize even before you press play. You just feel this sort of heaviness when, after all that buildup, their supposed greatness just keeps droning on (it's similar to Led Zeppelin or reading Dostoevsky). But man, to me, they always felt slow and monotonous, like they were delaying the point for no reason. Their sound just bounced off me. There might be one or two things I'll seek out when I'm in the right mood, but Dark Side of the Moon has always been a total drag for me to sit through. 😢.

But...

Matthew Young35 said:Is that so?

Does stuff like "Careful with that Axe, Eugene!" trigger anxiety and restlessness for you?

You really are an odd one.
For most adults, those kinds of musical expressions evoke nothing but pure joy and a celebration of nature.

This is peak. It's actually very close to what I was looking for when I posted those first links. 👍

brightpilot6 said:These Island musicians from Preata aren't half bad. They might be a little too intense for my taste, but they certainly possess a certain level of quality 🙏tico:

I respect Preata, but I just can't take this band from Island seriously. They act like they crawled out of some Mississippi swamp. They're trying way too hard to prove they're "authentic," and they're completely ignoring raw skill. 🤷

Jesse Wells8 said:

I guess this is the track I usually play when I'm trying to get someone into Kyuss..

van Bajronen liked this ☕.

Just wanted to offer some credit to my colleague here for their consistently high-quality contributions. It doesn't go unnoticed.

I'm well aware of this project, though I haven't had the chance to dive into the specifics quite yet. I might find some time to look into it over the next few days.

Man, here we go again with the taste debates. But honestly, if you ask me—when it comes to stoner rock, doom, or any kind of psychedelia—less is definitely more when it comes to vocals. 😬