The Lord of the Rings Challenge

I want through everything that you have described here to the point that it is scary.

And I don’t now what about you, but the biggest change in my life in regards to NoFap was to quit smoking weed alone (and afterwards to just quit) weed and PMO is just to strong as a combo and the hard part about that combo is the way it makes you feel like you’ve lost the rest of the day. so even without changing anything else, try and see how you can “come back” after a relapse without losing that day. for me it really changed the way I feel at the end of the day.

I’m sorry that you feel like shit, I’ve got a small suggestion that helped me, I’ve never made it to hobbit and it really bothered me for a while. So the thing I’ve done is just to start marking days on a calendar, red X for good days, black X for days with PMO. That why my sense of accomplishment is not only revolving around the day counter. Right now my ratio of good to bad days is 4:1 for good days, so even that I’m still a dirty Orc, I’m still moving forward and improving my life.

 

day 1.

I know that the final stage of NoFap would be to win just be will power and by fully understanding that I don’t want or need P in my life. But that day is not yet today, and I will use any training wheel, porn blocker or cheat code that I can find in order to improve my life while I better myself and try and reach the freedom I want.

For now, I’ve invited a friend over to study with me at my house while everything is closed for the holyday. I’ve talked to my girlfriend about relapsing and the half shame half pride that I gat from showing her how much I’ve manage to better myself and how long I still have to go really help me to get myself in the right mindset.

Thank you all for your help and support, especially @Slider8, you are the greatest example of tough love but it really helps.

 

Day 2 complete! I've been stricter with myself about prayer, running, and cold showers. I think it's helping.

I'm glad to hear you didn't end up drinking or smoking much. Everyone handles alcohol differently but in my experience it is harder to stay focused and to rise up when there is drinking involved. Plus, it sounds as though you may be using these activities as a kind of coping mechanism or even a subconscious reward trigger.

 

Checking in on Day 115.

 

@eagle rising If we're going to get anywhere with this I think we're going to need to have some serious discussion about what's meant by logic! Feels like we're reading out of different books here. I would appreciate it if you could clarify a couple of your statements for me. For instance, you say, "But, there is no man upstairs. It is just a logically flawed failed attempt to make sense of existence" (#13757). You also said, "A simple example: your logic says that God has made man. My logic says that man has made God. Logic is subject to the person using it. It is not absolute" (#13758). If logic is different for each person using it, how can it be that the logic for God is flawed and failed? If two people use logic to arrive at opposite conclusions, that simply means that one of them has used bad logic. I think what may be happening is that you are using the word "logic" where you simply mean "reasoning." It's true that we often use the word "logic" to mean both things, but reasoning can be anything for anyone, while logic does not and cannot change. That's how it's defined. You say that logic evolved with mankind, but didn't gravity exist before mankind? Didn't A=A before we said it did? If I were to say that A does not equal A, that would be absurd. That A=A is true for all people, in all places, in all times. To say that if A=B, and B=C, then A=C, is true for all people, in all places, in all times. That is what I mean when I say logic and I believe @Ciceron would agree. It does not seem to be the way you are using the term, but perhaps I do not fully understand what you mean. "Yes, of course, A=A, but don't look away! Someone might swoop in and change it" (#13784). Someone might tell me something different, but no one has any power to change that A must equal A. (From my above example, this doesn't mean that A can't also equal something else like B). If I taught many people that 2+2=5, it wouldn't change the fact that 2+2=4, unless we've simply changed what we mean by the symbols 4 and 5. The concepts represented by the symbols do not change.

I'm sorry to hear that the meaning wasn't clear for you. Folks like me are happy to tell you what we really mean by it. Personally, I think it makes sense this way. It's not as though God said "Let Us make other beings exactly like Us."

In a sense, you're not wrong here, but it again follows from logic. It's only possible for us to have some of God's characteristics. God is said to be omnipotent, omnipresent, eternal, and so on. He is, in effect, the Supreme Being. Everything exists because of Him and through Him; "existence" as a concept is His nature. Nothing, no creature, can exist "more" than all of existence. Saying that something God did sounds like something a human would do doesn't at all mean that man must have created God. Why couldn't it be the other way around, and something a human would do sounds like something God did? That goes right back to the idea of "image and likeness."

I hope Ciceron will forgive me for responding to some of your responses to him, Eagle Rising, but I would like to address a couple points.

This LITERALLY does not say that at all. Logic can be used to explain a concept (God) which already exists. That is not the same thing as saying that it can be used to justify a made-up new concept.

No, it does not imply that. I grant you that science evolves, and that science is based on observation and logic. However, you completely disregard one explanation in favor of the other. Logic, by definition, does not evolve. Perhaps our knowledge and application of logic changes, but not the principles of logic. Science evolves because the observations generating it evolve. You point this out yourself in the bolded line. Someone discovers (or, observes) a new phenomenon and it leads to a change in our science.

This line of argument is simply fascinating. All this knowlege you're attempting to communicate to me...why, it must be immaterial! I shall therefore disregard and dismantle it completely in my efforts to find the truth.

This, again, is simply not true. Numerous arguments using logic have been advanced to prove God's existence. Why should logic only be kept to the realm of "hard sciences?" Logic is a method of thinking based on universal principles. It can be applied to absolutely anything. Which brings me to my final question...

You've spent so much time arguing that man has created God through logic. Flawed logic, perhaps, but that's what we're here to figure out. How can you then say that logic has no place in religion? (I'm assuming that the concepts of God and religion are more or less interchangeable here.) We're trying to show you exactly that religion does have space for logic. Belief in God is logical. (That doesn't mean God was created by men who use logic, because logic exists independently of men.) This brings me back full circle to the points at the beginning of this post. You can't say that our logic is flawed and failed based on your viewpoint if logic is different for every person. You can't have it both ways.

 

day 11

 

Hello Bob, thanks for the reply.
I have realised what a bad combo it is. I have been wanting to quit smoking weed, I have cut down a lot and over time it’s got a lot easier to go without it. I can only smoke alone as I don’t have friends. If I do meet people I can’t smoke because I already have serious social anxiety and smoking makes it worse. I will work on quitting again.
I love that idea, thanks. I do find visual aids helpful. I will make myself a calendar today.
Thanks again buddy

 

I didn’t even know I could be subconsciously rewarding myself and it’s definitely a coping mechanism. I do wish to quitting drinking and smoking, I am working on it.
Thank you for your input.

 

Day 1. New day. New shoes. New me.

 

@Green Boy, I know it’s hard, but now I think that it’s even more important for you to reduce weed from your life, because weed was found to really increase social anxiety. At least it happened to me.

@eagle rising
@Gallade_Templar
I know that I’m stepping in the middle of a really great debate, and I admit that I haven’t read all of what both of you wrote yet.
But I just want to post this little trolling bit in good faith and humor, because as a Jew from Israel, reading posts about “the old testament” always remind of this bit by Lewis Black.



Have a great day all of you

 

@RiseToGreatness I know it has been a while. I haven't given up, I have just gone elsewhere to work on my addiction. I have an accountability partner in my church group. Since I had my partner I had my cleanest streak yet but it was destroyed by an erotic dream this morning. Also I finally got a job and I am really happy. I am doing better.

 

Thanks brother for your kind words, but aren't we all the parts of God, of the One and Holy and isn't it the meaning and purpose of our lives to serve God in love. If we are selfish and closed we loose the meaning of our lives but if we help our brethren according to the talents given to us by the Creator we are not living in vain and having satisfaction from doing something meaningful and making the world around us a better place.
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength these are the words to live by.

 

Today is day 16 for this hobbit.

I am proud to say that last night the sex was good, and I do not feel the chaser effect like I almost always have in the past. I think this is due to working on my action plan almost daily, which consists of looking over and adding to my journal entries that help me quit PM. There are getting to be many, so this is proving very fruitful for me. Now I need to stick with it.

Time to do my action plan for the day.

Peace,
~Al

 

Firstly, let me say that I agree with many points you have said in terms of what logic is. That is, what logic has been defined to be. You will have to forgive me as what I view logic as is not the same as what has been accepted. The point I am trying to convey is that the understanding of logic is different for every person.

It is my understanding, whether flawed or not (if you see it as flawed, I will accept that and just do my thing), logic is not everything. Let me repeat, logic is not everything. Logic has come about in an attempt to understand what has been observed. Those things that have been observed over and over and is tangible has become science. You cannot tangibly reach a God, through a scientific approach. Subject on one's understanding of logic we can manipulate words in any fashion in order to obtain what we feel in our hearts as true.

We are quite aware that this sort of debate has been going on for literally thousands of years, and if logic were to be understood similarly for everyone I don't think we would be here debating the existence of a God through logic.

So, I said that logic isn't everything, but whenever someone touches a certain energy within, that feeling of bliss and happiness and love and caring and joy, the immensity of life flowing through them, they try to explain that through logic. This is where the "higher being" comes into play, in an attempt to explain to someone else what they have experienced. Through logic, the other tries to understand what this first person is meaning, but it is not in his experience. So people whom have not actually reached that bigger state have only logic to use in order to explain it, but logic isn't everything.

What I mean when I say logic isn't everything, I mean to say that we can only observe a scant percentage of the universe, that is where logic operates. Whatever is out of the bounds of human consciousness is beyond logic.

The mechanics of the world are not imposed through logic. Logic is a human construct used as an attempt to express and understand the mechanics of this world. The mechanics of this world is a certain truth they need not be filtered through the turbulence of thought to become. Logic itself is a manifestation of the human mind. What actually is we cannot perceive, unless we move into a certain space. Even then we will not be able to express it.


@Gallade_Templar Thanks for being calm in this discussion and being respectful. I really appreciate it. If I have said anything that felt personal I apologize. I did my best to convey what I personally feel is my understanding of the nature of logic and existence. And I understand that what I say about logic and understanding applies to me as well, so I know even my words are subject to the filter of the human brain.

I think if you would like to continue this conversation it would be best to do that elsewhere.

I hope that you get to feel that vastness of life which is beyond sexual pleasure.

 

Day 216. Checking in.

"If it is to be it is up to me."

 

Check in - Day 3

I am still an orc but it has been a good few days. I feel more determined than ever and my efforts to reduce my indulgence in sexual fantasies seems to be working. I am starting to see a difference and I feel less inclined to stare at women or look up p-subs.

Thanks again for all your support.

Stay strong brothers!

 

Okay people I reached day 4 after great binge
I don't exactly know how I manged 4 days but one of the reasons might b that I was extremely busy and tired with the part time job I have
I really love it and they say you don't really have to work if you love what you are doing and that quote fits really well with me..
Hopefully more days and looking for uruk Hai post

 

Day 10 Check in!