hey from new york.

[Seraphina]

Hi fellow New Yorker! I'm originally from upstate NY - near Buffalo.
Welcome!

[Alex K]

wheres that?

The south west of Germany, I figured the finger lakes region was the closest thing I could think of in NY that fit the bill.

[Whateverist]

Well said, not that I agree with all you say.  But it serves to give a taste of where you're coming from.  

I find the idea of a literal god absurd and more than a little incoherent.  But I agree with you that our beliefs mold us a good deal and for some people belief in gods can be life enhancing.

yeah, to give a definitive idea of god is more foolish than the idea of a god itself.

That's why I'd prefer to stop with the idea of god. That's something I believe in .. that people have been running with an idea of gods for a very long time. Undeniable. Leave it at that.

if god exists, there is less than a slim chance that we would be even close to right concept. the way the world and universe works has always, in my opinion, pointed to something greater than ourselves. i cant imagine we were the first, last, or the best in cognition.

Well, everything is greater than ourselves in as much as it includes ourselves. But when it comes to intentionality, that seems only to be found operating in living organisms. I don't believe clouds of star dust are conscious, nor gravitational waves, nor dark energy, nor rocks, nor anything else than one of our fellow living creatures both here and presumably across the galaxies.

Taken as a whole 'everything' is greater than its parts and so the cosmos is certainly greater than ourselves. But I have no reason to suppose the cosmos as a whole is conscious or exercises intentionality. That step, I think, is unwarranted.

.. seems to me the universe is designed. if not, it sure looks like it. its very subtle but woven so perfectly.

Lots of things that are evolved or even just been subject to the forces of nature for some time come to look that way. Someone recently quoted the story of the conscious water puddle which comes to think the depression it sits in was perfectly designed for it since it fits it so perfectly. All of us parts of the cosmos are in here bumped up against one another together; there is going to be a lot of just so fits just because how else could it be?

idk how or what, but i believe some intelligence could have had a hand in the universes creation. i dont put it outside the realm of possibility.

Complexity cannot all be top/down, creator to created. Else wise, from whence comes the creator? Some bits of complexity seem to be emergent phenomenon of more basic phenomena. How else could it be?

[Minimalist]

Yo, where in NY?

I lived there until I was 55 and moved out to Errorzona.

Schenectady. 20 minutes from albany.

I know of it.  Guy in my dorm at college was from there.  That was at Oswego.  He used to joke that "I could have stayed home and froze my balls off, too.... and there would have been less snow."

I'm from Long Island.

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

Welcome from the south Pacific's nothing-at-all-like-New-York.

Enjoy the forum!

Boru

[goombah111]

[quote='goombah111' pid='1429311' dateline='1477714513']

my whole message is gone. gay

either way.

as tesla said, “If you want to find the secrets of the universe, think in terms of energy, frequency and vibration.”