Definition of the word "cynic": "Cynic: a person who has negative opinions about other people and about the things people do; especially : a person who believes that people are selfish and are only interested in helping themselves." - Merriam Webster
---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <turquoiseb@...> wrote : I think the word "cynic" is often used inappropriately as an insult to mean "Someone I don't like because they have higher standards than I do." From: "s3raphita@... [FairfieldLife]" <FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com> To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Thursday, January 22, 2015 5:31 AM Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: Women more gullible than men - offical Re "Cynicism at its best is part of being young. ": That's often true. For myself though I was never a cynic. “Scratch any cynic and you will find a disappointed idealist.” I was always too much a pessimist to be an idealist in the first place! So I had nothing to react against to make me a cynic. Actually, to be more precise: I was indeed quite the idealist when young but I looked for my ideals in the ideal world - poetry, novels and art - and never expected to find ideals realized in the everyday world. ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <emily.mae50@...> wrote : ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <s3raphita@...> wrote : ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <emily.mae50@...> wrote : Looking at suicide by gender in the U.S. over the last about 10 years, men commit suicide at about three times the rate of women. Having had children, the miracle of birth and life and child, goes a little deeper than "more emotionally committed" to a "belief." For mothers, I think having children does play a part in excusing suicide as an option, no matter what happens. Yes, your choice of the word "miracle" is spot on. I think we agree with each other. If life is miraculous then suicide, cynicism or reductionism seem like a betrayal. E: Yes, certainly suicide seems such. Cynicism at its best is part of being young. Giving it up however can change one's perceptions of life and priorities markedly. "Reductionism" has its place - smile. And what does the thesaurus say are the antonym's to "betrayal?" "Devotion, faithfulness, fidelity, frankness, honesty, loyalty, openness, truthfulness, forthrightness, protection, quiet, secret, support." All excellent qualities. (I wouldn't say that women are less logical or more gullible - because they are women. I'd say the opposite is true). Not sure what you mean here. E: I was expanding the definitions of both words to account for more than their stereotypical meaning, thus allowing for the "opposite to be true." I suspect that women are both more suspicious of know-it-all systematic thinking and more open to subtle influences from the psyche. It's not a case of men or women being superior to the other gender but of a complementary approach to human experience. ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <s3raphita@...> wrote : I've sometimes mulled over the idea that as women are the sex who actually give birth they are necessarily more emotionally committed to the belief that life *must* be a good thing despite its obvious downsides. (If life is more trouble than it's worth and women are the ones responsible for transmitting life doesn't that make women guilty in some sense?) I wonder if part of the reason for women being attracted to the idea of an afterlife is precisely because it helps them insist on a more optimistic, positive view of our situation. Also, in occult and spiritualist-inclined groups women have long been considered the more psychic or sensitive sex. Even advanced male adepts in esoteric circles have relied on women to play the role of medium or scryer. Is that because women are more touchy-feely, less logical - even more gullible than men? Or is it that women are more open to hints and intuitions that men automatically censor out? ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <no_re...@yahoogroups.com> wrote : Women more likely to believe in God and the afterlife http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2919058/Women-likely-believe-God-afterlife-Two-thirds-faith-compared-half-men.html http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2919058/Women-likely-believe-God-afterlife-Two-thirds-faith-compared-half-men.html Women more likely to believe in God and the afterlife http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2919058/Women-likely-believe-God-afterlife-Two-thirds-faith-compared-half-men.html Two-thirds have faith compared to fewer than half of men. Sixty per cent of women believe in the afterlife but only 35 per cent of men, researchers with the UCL Ins... View on www.dailymail.co.uk http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2919058/Women-likely-believe-God-afterlife-Two-thirds-faith-compared-half-men.html Preview by Yahoo
