Being good without god

[Angrboda]

One can conceive of a universe in which one or all of the known physical constants have different values, however, you cannot conceive of a universe in which 1+1=3.

One cannot conceive of it because one has either intentionally or unintentionally not conceived of a universe that is actually "different" in a meaningful way from one's own.

If one were to invoke a meaningful difference along these lines then there's nothing stopping 1+1=3.

"2 + 2 = 5, for sufficiently large values of 2."



I don't personally mind the digression, Chad, as the thread had already begun to stagnate anyway (and it's one of three current threads on the topic, not counting Rayaan's).

For my part, while I find it interesting, this seems to trend in the direction of presuppositionalism, which causes many people to throw up in their mouth a bit. For my part, I have little interest in taking part in such discussions actively. I have at this point in my life arrived at a model which explains consciousness, logic, mathematics and a host of other phenomenon related to mind in terms of purely material, physicalist mechanisms. It is rather speculative and probably could use a few holes poked in it by able critics, but at the time, in concurrence with an episode of depression, I have no interest in discussing it. As such, largely on account of motivation, I'm reduced to a largely passive role in such discussions. Nonetheless, I find such discussions enjoyable to read, especially when visited by someone with an uncommon viewpoint, as well as the ability to compellingly articulate that view. If nothing else, it makes for good blood sport. (All kidding aside, pantheism, panentheism, Swedenborgianism and such are largely unexplored territory for me. It's not clear from my memory, but I seem to recall that you are a panentheist; my brief visits to Wikipedia on such in other times reveal a complexity to the subject that I had not at all anticipated. If you are a panentheist, I'd love to hear more. If not, I'd love to hear more of your specific vision, although it's been my suspicion that you've hesitated in terms of disclosure for largely strategic and tactical reasons. I can certainly identify with that.)