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Current time: December 23, 2024, 10:37 pm
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I have some questions for the posters here.
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 (June 22, 2021 at 12:14 pm)Frank Apisa Wrote: When I use the word "god" I mean "The entity (or entities) responsible for the creation of what we humans call 'the physical universe'...IF THERE IS SUCH AN ENTITY." But why does God necessarily must imply a creator? Let me ask you this question: if humans one day build a computer that is thousands or even a million times smarter than a human brain - could that computer be considered a God?
teachings of the Bible are so muddled and self-contradictory that it was possible for Christians to happily burn heretics alive for five long centuries. It was even possible for the most venerated patriarchs of the Church, like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, to conclude that heretics should be tortured (Augustine) or killed outright (Aquinas). Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches. - Sam Harris, "Letter To A Christian Nation"
(June 22, 2021 at 7:39 pm)Frank Apisa Wrote:Why do you think there's no way of knowing that there are no gods?(June 22, 2021 at 5:49 pm)The Grand Nudger Wrote: So, you make guesses, give estimates, and have opinions. Cool. Do you ever state a fact? Is there any particular reason that you guess, estimate, or are of the opinion that atheists are guessing?
I am the Infantry. I am my country’s strength in war, her deterrent in peace. I am the heart of the fight… wherever, whenever. I carry America’s faith and honor against her enemies. I am the Queen of Battle. I am what my country expects me to be, the best trained Soldier in the world. In the race for victory, I am swift, determined, and courageous, armed with a fierce will to win. Never will I fail my country’s trust. Always I fight on…through the foe, to the objective, to triumph overall. If necessary, I will fight to my death. By my steadfast courage, I have won more than 200 years of freedom. I yield not to weakness, to hunger, to cowardice, to fatigue, to superior odds, For I am mentally tough, physically strong, and morally straight. I forsake not, my country, my mission, my comrades, my sacred duty. I am relentless. I am always there, now and forever. I AM THE INFANTRY! FOLLOW ME!
Agnosticism, ruining reality for the rest of us.
RE: I have some questions for the posters here.
June 22, 2021 at 9:52 pm
(This post was last modified: June 22, 2021 at 10:03 pm by The Grand Nudger.)
Saying that I don't know something would be agnosticism. Claiming that it's impossible to know something is an entirely different assertion. Personally, I think it's a bit of a rabbit hole, but I am interested in how a claim focusing on the individual ends up being insisted as comment on the world at large.
If I ask somebody what the proper weight for some bird is, they might say they don't know. They have a vague idea or general opinions, but they'd have to get back to me on that, or I'd have to ask someone else, or look somewhere else, if I was looking for a fact. Maybe two reasonable and well informed people disagree over that fact, even. Here is our bird weight agnostic and our dueling bird weight gnostics. A person who says, instead, that no one can know the proper weight for some bird...is making a different claim than any of those three people. TLDR version...I'm not so sure we can blame the agnostics for ruining reality. 
I am the Infantry. I am my country’s strength in war, her deterrent in peace. I am the heart of the fight… wherever, whenever. I carry America’s faith and honor against her enemies. I am the Queen of Battle. I am what my country expects me to be, the best trained Soldier in the world. In the race for victory, I am swift, determined, and courageous, armed with a fierce will to win. Never will I fail my country’s trust. Always I fight on…through the foe, to the objective, to triumph overall. If necessary, I will fight to my death. By my steadfast courage, I have won more than 200 years of freedom. I yield not to weakness, to hunger, to cowardice, to fatigue, to superior odds, For I am mentally tough, physically strong, and morally straight. I forsake not, my country, my mission, my comrades, my sacred duty. I am relentless. I am always there, now and forever. I AM THE INFANTRY! FOLLOW ME!
 RE: I have some questions for the posters here.
June 22, 2021 at 10:40 pm
(This post was last modified: June 23, 2021 at 10:33 am by LadyForCamus.)
Nay_Sayer: “Nothing is impossible if you dream big enough, or in this case, nothing is impossible if you use a barrel of KY Jelly and a miniature horse.”
Wiser words were never spoken.   RE: I have some questions for the posters here.
June 23, 2021 at 7:08 am
(This post was last modified: June 23, 2021 at 7:10 am by Belacqua.)
Quote:Frank Apisa** Given the definition provided, it's impossible to say one or the other. We can rule out any number of versions that have been proposed. The literal God of Genesis and Exodus, for example, is unbelievable. Zeus or Aphrodite as physical, empirically detectable entities are not believable. These I think are 100% rejectable. Any god which is detectable as a material, empirically findable object isn't really a god, as I see it -- just a powerful creature. It's very difficult to believe that a material thinking creature could create the universe. So I'd say that's almost impossible to believe, but not completely rejectable. It's not falsifiable. Often when people hear the word "God" this is what they think of. They assume that a god, to exist, would have to be provable by science, or somehow findable, like Bigfoot. So if that's what people are imagining, they are probably comfortable saying with confidence that there's no such thing. The metaphysical issues, though, are harder to rule out definitively. When you get into theories about how "God and the universe do not make two," or God as the non-physical primal existence which at every moment holds the universe in being (which is what theologians often mean by "created the universe") then one can doubt it (a lot) but not declare that one knows for sure.
Why not? I keep seeing this asserted, never explained.
I am the Infantry. I am my country’s strength in war, her deterrent in peace. I am the heart of the fight… wherever, whenever. I carry America’s faith and honor against her enemies. I am the Queen of Battle. I am what my country expects me to be, the best trained Soldier in the world. In the race for victory, I am swift, determined, and courageous, armed with a fierce will to win. Never will I fail my country’s trust. Always I fight on…through the foe, to the objective, to triumph overall. If necessary, I will fight to my death. By my steadfast courage, I have won more than 200 years of freedom. I yield not to weakness, to hunger, to cowardice, to fatigue, to superior odds, For I am mentally tough, physically strong, and morally straight. I forsake not, my country, my mission, my comrades, my sacred duty. I am relentless. I am always there, now and forever. I AM THE INFANTRY! FOLLOW ME!
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