RE: Argument against atheism
December 20, 2011 at 6:47 am
(This post was last modified: December 20, 2011 at 6:56 am by Darwinning.)
(December 20, 2011 at 6:40 am)J.D. Wrote: I don't really understand the purpose of theists and atheists debating their positions.
I don't think we were debating the validity of our positions. This thread is titled "Argument against atheism". I thought we were debating whether the argument made sense (or whether it is an argument at all, for that matter).
(December 20, 2011 at 5:56 am)Shell B Wrote: We certainly could. In my mind, a relationship is the sum of many things. If you oversimplify it, it loses its meaning.
I think that may be true. Sometimes simplification seems to destroy truth, rather than uncover it.
(December 20, 2011 at 5:56 am)Shell B Wrote: If a relationship is not feelings, what is it? Without feelings, you cannot have relationships. Those feelings define relationships.
Maybe my computing science background acting up here. A relationship between to objects exists if there is a pointer from one to the other. But I am unsure whether the pointer is the relationship, or whether the relationship is just a name I use to describe the fact that there is a pointer.
(December 20, 2011 at 5:56 am)Shell B Wrote: Not in the case of a duck, no. In the case of a relationship, yes.
If you define the thought to be (part of) the relationship, then yes.
(December 20, 2011 at 5:56 am)Shell B Wrote: Yes. You have never seen a relationship?
I have seen people act as if they have a relationship. Is that the same thing?
(December 20, 2011 at 5:56 am)Shell B Wrote: If it is not a thing, how can it produce things?
Good question. I'm trying to think of other concepts that produce behavior, but that I am not sure are things. Is pain a thing? Is love a thing?
(December 20, 2011 at 5:56 am)Shell B Wrote: In the basest of terms, a relationship is a thing, as evidenced by our grammar. "Relationship" is a noun, correct? Is it a person or a place? No? Then, it is a thing.
All nouns are one of those three? "God" is a noun.