plasmid

I'm a dumbbell you can't lift So you won't get the best of me You're my captive, catch my drift? A bucktoothed guard, I'll hold your key I've got in board, but there's no doubt I've certainly not been subdued Fighting me won't get you out 'cause tougher jams I've gotten through What you need's a turn of fate Or card: get out of jail free If you want to cross my gate And once again the blue sky see

Excellent find, seeksit. I'll go ahead and add it to the Buddha supplement to the parable archive. My sympathies to octopuppy & Grayven. As a matter of fact, on July 1 I'll start my new job and my visits to BrainDen will become few and far between. The Seventh Shepherd's final parable for the meeting of Samarkand will close things out. (Of course, if we do need any more to be said at Samarkand we can add more stories in the middle.) Humanity struggles to fulfill our potential as it emanates from the Essence, and much remains to be learned and understood. Connecting with the Essence is an endless quest along a path that will be increasingly revealed as humanity parts the veil of the unknown through reason and sober study. While science reveals the mechanics of nature, it remains silent on our overall purpose, and for this we turn to the Essence. Purpose implies a need to act, and our Acts of Legacy will define our relationship with the Essence. To harmonize with the Essence: Help others, be generous, be reliable. Do not harm others, steal, or lie. Learn throughout your childhood, and fulfill your potential as an adult. Find something that you're good at that will benefit society and do it. Understand at all times that faith is a supplement to, and not a supplanter of, reason; it is a way to see the world that will lead to fulfillment, and its worth is measured by the degree to which it accomplishes this goal. It is fit that there be many denominations of Phronism, for not all people are alike, and diversity helps humanity flourish. The denominations shall each have their own customs and ways of harmonizing with the Essence. As it is important for people to each find their unique role in the harmony of the Essence, it is imperative for them to visit other denominations from time to time and experience their ways, and thus find their place in the world. As it is important to have many denominations, so it is important to have people outside Phronism who can view it objectively and dispassionately. Outsiders that understand the world through mankind's endeavors are to be welcomed, for they offer a unique perspective and often seek to advance humanity as the followers do. But beware if outsiders bring ideas that are based not on reason but on unsubstantiated beliefs such as gods, for these may be illusions of human imaginations that guide the way to decay. Human understanding of the Essence is a never ending quest requiring the joint efforts of many, and humanity's understanding should be reviewed from time to time. Phronist councils should take place to review what is known, and when a more complete description of the Essence becomes clear it will be shared with the followers. The council must also evaluate whether people's practices truly guide the Essence to positively affect people's lives. If denominations need to be altered to harmonize with the Essence, they will be so instructed, or will be excluded from Phronism if they cannot harmonize. The council will evaluate new denominations and determine whether they harmonize with the Essence, and will admit those that do into Phronism and allow them to participate in the council. That leaves hopefully the monk parable, a story of how a denomination changes, and the rules for the subsequent councils to be added before releasing this in a new thread. And an explanation of the Actual and Potential at some point in Samarkand since I don't think I included one yet.

Chess Vixen takes this riddle!

When you think of white stuff on your car, you think of wax? You people are indeed more blessed than I. But there is one important clue that it does not fulfill.

Chicory's whitewash and James' car wash have so much to do with the answer that they could practically be clues in the riddle.

When you see the answer, you'll realize how hilariously close this is.

While environmentalism and oil dependency and economic downturns and such might fit some of the clues, they leave many unfulfilled. And I wouldn't write a riddle with such an abstract answer. As a rule, my answers are like my head: concrete.

Although not following the logic I had in mind, chicory is actually getting closer.

A rewrite that may make things slightly more apparent Modern man has gone astray Enraged with want of care Lots defiled to pave thier way Pollution fills the air Downward fall the angels' tears Amidst a land corrupt Quagmire all around appears The change is so abrupt Now in purest white is swathed The place of our dismay Then the people of the cloth Wipe wickedness away Is this just one lone event For isolated sin? I doubt, and fear that we'll be sent Time and time again

Time for Zoroaster to step up. With Zoroastrianism emphasizing good thoughts, good words, and good deeds, there's no question what he'll be talking about. His is the shortest, but quite possibly the most important. He'll be between the two Mahavira parables, the first of which introduced the concept that existence with the Essence depending on the type of life you lead. The followers were daily learning more about the Essence, and they began to understand that it was no mere idol demanding prayer or sacrifice but a force that is guided by every action they take. Yet the followers still lacked direction to channel their efforts. So as the council dismissed for the day, a group of them approached Zoroaster and asked, "Our actions shape the flow of the Essence and determine how we will ultimately exist with it, do they not?" Zoroaster replied, "Any one person's actions may influence the Essence and thereby affect the world around us, and they will affect both your ultimate existence and your existence now. The Essence should be your partner, your efforts must harmonize with it for you to achieve fulfillment." "Then Zoroaster, if our actions are so important: how ought we to act?" Zoroaster answered them, "As your existence helps shape the Essence, the Essence shapes the lives of everyone else. The most noble of paths would have the Essence bring the world peace and prosperity, understanding of the world around us, imagination to create works that stir our hearts and minds, courage to explore new paths, and compassion to help our fellow man. Guide the Essence toward this end with your acts, and help others do the same with your speech. Focus your thoughts ever on this goal so that you can see clearly how to achieve it. With these right thoughts, right speech, and right acts, your life can harmonize with the Essence for the betterment of all." I kind of like the idea of having Buddha say something along those lines to explain why Phronism could have fizzled initially, but I couldn't find an elegant way of having him instruct the followers to carry out an impossible task without making it seem, well, unappealing to someone who's looking for the ultimate answers to life. How would you feel about instead having the intended crossroads be consumed by war, like when Alexander the Great conquered Samarkand in 329 BC? Also, one more thing that we haven't really talked about. We all want Phronism to be able to adapt to the times, but how would we envision that actually playing out in practice? I think it might be valuable to include a story in the Phronist history about a denomination changing its ways. It would serve as a model for how change ought to be accomplished, how a denomination should entertain the views of skeptics, judge whether any proposed changes would be detrimental or beneficial, and handle an internal division between people who are willing and those who are unwilling to accept the change. It could be a scientific idea that gets adopted, like changing from a view of a flat earth to a round one, but I think it might be even better to have it deal with a social issue like trading slaves or giving rights to women.

Neither of those. Unlike some of my riddles the clues here are more subtle and a little harder to identify as being clues, so I'm afraid all I can really say is that the answer I had in mind would be a better fit to the whole riddle.

Yeah, saw it and all up to palmerc7's. The auto bailout answer is wandering down one of the paths that I intended for the answer, but hasn't wrapped up the entire riddle in a nice little package yet. And the answers are really not too far off.

Nah, rain is too close to the Biblical flood distracter.

Modern man has gone astray Enraged with want of care Land's defiled to pave thier way Pollution fills the air Quagmire all around appears The change is so abrupt Downward fall the angels' tears Amidst a land corrupt Now in purest white is cloaked The place of our dismay Then we see the faithful folk Wipe wickedness away Is this just one lone event For isolated sin? I doubt, and fear that we'll be sent Time and time again

I'm kind of inclined to agree with unreality that we should look for some outside opinions to help with salesmanship. I would propose putting together what we have now in a coherent package (going ahead and using the Samarkand approach for now, as I still think it's currently the best plan we've got) so we can take the current product and re-post it on a new thread so people don't have to read >20 pages of posts to get caught up. Sound reasonable? If so, I'll give Zoroaster his parable soon and the monk can get his revised parable, and we'll have a side-manual talking about the Council Days, and initial plans for some denominations to mimic current religions to siphon off members who might like the new philosophy but feel a need to maintain their current traditions or just have something that feels pretty familiar. And anything else you remind me about that I'm likely forgetting now.

Good one! I oughta do like in the riddle and quit taking mine black.

Interesting. Regarding the topic of meaning / purpose, both you and octopuppy seem to have been of the mind that Phronism should avoid making assertions about there being any fundamental purpose to life. I see such a statement to be at odds with encouraging people to harmonize with the Essence by doing something good for humanity: the purpose of life would have to be to harmonize with the Essence. Of course, exactly how to harmonize with the Essence would only be spelled out in vague terms by Phronism (something good for humanity) and could be further refined by the denoms, but nevertheless it would be a purpose in life. Of course, since there are many different ways of enriching humanity, and since people get to choose their denominations, they are really pretty much choosing what their purpose in life is and just calling it harmonizing with the Essence. The only requirement is that it has to be something constructive; you can't choose to be a burglar. So I would recommend saying that the purpose is to harmonize with the Essence, while we understand that doing so practically means that you're choosing your own (noble) purpose. The concept of free will I pretty much agree with you on. I generally avoid the term "free" will and just call it a "will" though. The whole implication of free will vs determinism arguments is about whether or not people can really be held accountable for their actions, and the determinism argument would seem to imply that people do what they are destined to do and it would be just as senseless to punish someone for their actions as it would be to punish a clock for chiming at midnight and waking you up. By throwing out the "free" part, I do two things. First, determinism and having a will are not mutually exclusive, so the mere fact that determinism is true doesn't change anything. Second, I can say that a person was driven to commit their acts by whatever sort of will they have and that they should be treated as an entity that carried out those acts according to their will's programming (regardless of how the will came into existence) because that will has demonstrated its inclinations. The "free" part may be relevant if, say, your family were being held hostage on the condition that you help embezzle money from your corporation to the ransomers, in which case the embezzlement might be condoned to some degree. But I digress. I'm not entirely sure that this is an issue that Phronism needs to take up, but if it is taken up, I advise that whatever stance we take be guided by the principle that the point of the religion is to be practically useful, and the logic can then be selected to back up that stance. (Of course, the stance had better be fairly logical.) In this case, as long as people are responsible for their actions and it's reasonably logical, it should be fine. Finally, ethics. I agree that the only sorts of things that should be part of the core of Phronism are really fundamental, basic ethics. I'll go ahead and repost the latest version of the core dogma, which addressed purpose and ethics to some degree, so we can give it another looking over and see if it needs to be modified. I would plan on having it be the thrust of the final parable (well, the final parable at Samarkand anyway) and delivered by the Seventh Shepherd. Humanity struggles to fulfill our potential as it emanates from the Essence, and much remains to be learned and understood. Connecting with the Essence is an endless quest along a path that will be increasingly revealed as humanity parts the veil of the unknown through reason and sober study. While science reveals the mechanics of nature, it remains silent on our overall purpose, and for this we turn to the Essence. Purpose implies a need to act, and our Acts of Legacy will define our relationship with the Essence. To harmonize with the Essence: Help others, be generous, be reliable. Do not harm others, steal, or lie. Learn throughout your childhood, and fulfill your potential as an adult. Find something that you're good at that will benefit society and do it. Understand at all times that faith is a supplement to, and not a supplanter of, reason; it is a way to see the world that will lead to fulfillment, and its worth is measured by the degree to which it accomplishes this goal. It is fit that there be many denominations of Phronism, for not all people are alike, and diversity helps humanity flourish. The denominations shall each have their own customs and ways of harmonizing with the Essence. As it is important for people to each find their unique role in the harmony of the Essence, it is imperative for them to visit other denominations from time to time and experience their ways, and thus find their place in the world. As it is important to have many denominations, so it is important to have people outside Phronism who are most fit to view it objectively and dispassionately. Outsiders that understand the world through mankind's endeavors are to be welcomed, for they offer a unique perspective and often seek to advance humanity as the followers do. But beware if outsiders bring ideas that are based not on reason but on unsubstantiated beliefs such as gods, for these may be illusions of human imaginations that guide the way to decay. (Hope that helped give insight for parable writing and wasn't too much rambling.) I guess the question is: would we be better off using these historical figures, or making up others (either in the ancient past or even in the present day, in which case they could even be real). The advantage of using these historical figures is that by associating Phronism with these wise guys people, it would potentially carry some weight by being associated with people who are generally revered for their understanding and spirituality in a way that simply couldn't be achieved with modern folks. The disadvantages are several, including as you pointed out that it may draw harsh opposition from the religions included because of being apocryphal. For Confucianism and Taoism, which are arguably not really religions at all, I don't expect that the opposition would be too harsh. Greek philosophers are no longer around to object to Diotima's use, and I think Zoroasterism is so rare now that it's not really an issue. For Jainism and Buddhism, it might be more problematic. Fortunately, Christians, Jews, Muslims, and many Hindus would not have their founders represented and would not consider this terribly apocryphal; perhaps a little absurd that these ideas were underground for so long, but not apocryphal. The other drawback of our current story that we discussed is that it's, well, simply not true to our knowledge. That raises the possibility that the factual accuracy could be called into question, and also is just sort of poor form for a religion that is meant to be a positive force in society. But I think that in the end we decided that this made such a compelling story (for someone inclined to believe in religion) that we just couldn't pass it up. If there were a great way to launch Phronism with modern people, creating a true story that could capture the hearts and imaginations of our target audience so powerfully, then we would prefer to go that route. But this seemed like a really good story and is currently the best one we could come up with. Got any followers? If so, mind if we assimilate them? On second thought don't bother answering that second one, it doesn't matter. Resistance is futile.

DudleyDude does indeed get this one. Why thank you, lotus.