RE: Is atheism self-contradictory ?
June 29, 2017 at 11:24 am
(This post was last modified: June 29, 2017 at 11:39 am by The Grand Nudger.)
(June 29, 2017 at 11:12 am)Parsim0ny Wrote: I already responded to the claim in bold. Also, you cannot say for yourself that you have a super powerful and reliable brain inside your head unless an exterior being says that to you. Nobody can claim he has a good voice unless someone else hears him and confirms it. We can't say for ourselves that our brains are reliable since we have no idea what unreliable brains are like.-and I saw the quality of your response.
I dont have a super powerful and reliable brain in my head. I have a more powerful brain than a canary, that's reliable enough for my purposes. An exterior being saying something to me won;t change any of that...and why would you trust the exterior beings word for it anyway? Wouldn't they, then, by this batshit law of reliable minds you're proposing...need an exterior being to establish that? And again, and again, and again..ad infinitum.
This is ignorance, Parsimony. All I have to do to sufficiently establiosh the reliability of a human mind is to see whether or not it produces useful and reliable results at it;s purpose. Acccurately modeling the environment to escape predation - for example. Check. Making profitable inferences as to where food may be found? Check. Correctly determining that my mate is not a simplteton...doublecheck.
That we can accurately and reliably make distinctions between a person with a reliable mind and a person with a deficient mind...again, shows us that there is no need to refer to some "exterior being". We have enough information, ourselves, here, to make that determination....and even if there were some batshit requirement of an "exterior being" then why doesn't some other human mind count? "Hey, Bill, is there a ball over there?" "Sure is Steve, why?" -Reliable mind confirmed.
Quote:How can a product of an unconscious natural process be reliable ?Pretty simple, actually. Let's say you have a cup in the sink, and the faucet above is dripping. At some point, the faucet will fill the cup, and the cup will begin to reliably overflow to the tune of one drip per drop. Ta-da.
Quote:How can unconsciousness generate minds capable of proving objective truths ?On the one hand, it didn't..presumably your mother checked to see if your father seemed retarded before she spread her legs. This is just one of the selective pressures involved in producing a species with reliable minds. The other, being that members of a species with unreliable minds would..you know...die.
Quote:How can a product have abilities superior to its designer - which is evolutionary processes in this case - ?Evolutionary processes are not a designer. There is no design, only what remains. This is a silly question on it's face, anyway. Are you wondering how a freight train is capable of hauling more than a human being - or wondering whether or not that's even possible?
Quote:This is far from obvious, you need to demonstrate this claim to back up your theory about human minds reliability.Do you have a reliable mind? Do you take that to be obvious? Well, your reliable mind is an evolved mind. Even if "goddidit" - that- is how he did it.
Quote:How can the first premise be false according to you ?You had parents, that's how. Their assessments of whether or not their prospective mate was mentally deficient..presumably, went into producing your reliable mind.
Or maybe it didn't......

Quote:My brain is CLEARLY not the work of a consciousness because it is a product of continous alterations of the genome, this process is NOT conscious.What would your mother think if she heard you describe her that way?
Quote:The second premise is still somehow debatable, but I'm still waiting to hear a reasonable objection instead of just asserting that everything I say is false without clarifying why.No, the second premise is DOA. Evolutionary processes are not only capable of producing reliable minds, they -did- produce reliable minds. Or, at least, they produced my reliable mind.
Whether or not yours is reliable -is- debatable.
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!