I'm only going to respond to part of this, because family etc.
Yep. Think of a portable power pack, the kind that you might use to charge your phone battery when mains charging is not available. The energy of the phone battery increases, but at the expense of the energy in the power pack. The sum total of the exchange results in less energy available to the system as a whole.
Please don't put words in my mouth. I think I've asked that of you before; regardless, I won't have to ask you again, okay?
Then perhaps don't posit the idea until there's evidence sufficient to warrant it?
In other words, the god concept has a zero percent track record for accuracy. Why should anyone even entertain the concept with any seriousness?
(December 31, 2017 at 11:05 am)Agnosty Wrote:(December 30, 2017 at 1:56 pm)Cyberman Wrote: That's how we learn.
Entropy can and does decrease on a local scale, at the expense of an overall increase in the total entropy in the closed system of the Universe.
That's the statement I'm having trouble with. It seems to be saying that order causes more disorder than if the order had not occurred. Can you describe a mechanism by which that happens? Can you provide an example or analogy to help convey your understanding that enables you to believe that is true?
Yep. Think of a portable power pack, the kind that you might use to charge your phone battery when mains charging is not available. The energy of the phone battery increases, but at the expense of the energy in the power pack. The sum total of the exchange results in less energy available to the system as a whole.
(December 31, 2017 at 11:05 am)Agnosty Wrote:(December 30, 2017 at 1:56 pm)Cyberman Wrote: Remember also that I am not an astrophysicist
If you don't understand it either, then why do you believe what you said?
Please don't put words in my mouth. I think I've asked that of you before; regardless, I won't have to ask you again, okay?
(December 31, 2017 at 11:05 am)Agnosty Wrote:(December 30, 2017 at 1:56 pm)Cyberman Wrote: Maybe. How do you suggest we set about validating that inference?
Dark matter or god? Either way, I have no idea. EM radiation travels right through dark matter with no interaction (except the gravitational effects between light and mass, which is exceedingly tiny and probably undetectable). I don't know how god would interact.
Then perhaps don't posit the idea until there's evidence sufficient to warrant it?
(December 31, 2017 at 11:05 am)Agnosty Wrote:(December 30, 2017 at 1:56 pm)Cyberman Wrote: I suspect you don't understand the significance of inference in a scientific context. Hint: it doesn't mean making stuff up and leaving it at that.
What I meant was we've been inferring the existence of god to explain things that were explained less mystically later on and I meant it to imply that we should always be on our guard when god is the answer to difficult questions lest we repeat history.
In other words, the god concept has a zero percent track record for accuracy. Why should anyone even entertain the concept with any seriousness?
At the age of five, Skagra decided emphatically that God did not exist. This revelation tends to make most people in the universe who have it react in one of two ways - with relief or with despair. Only Skagra responded to it by thinking, 'Wait a second. That means there's a situation vacant.'
