(July 11, 2013 at 2:20 pm)Dionysius Wrote: Skepticism is certainly warranted but out right denial would seem to be intellectually hasty.
As hasty as outright credence in the face of all the evidence ever presented? Not to mention that I'm not denying anything, for to do so would necessitate something to deny. I'm just sitting here looking at a naked Emperor and being told what a natty dresser he is.
(July 11, 2013 at 2:20 pm)Dionysius Wrote: A belief in God can be reduced to the question of whether discarnate consciousness is possible. For example a compelling argument can be developed if we view the ostensible perpetuity of the universe as a self-regulating intelligence where it wills a continual existential balance; a symmetry of elemental interactions necessary to sustain life. While no definitive agent known as nature can be isolated we know that such a corporation of influences do indeed exist which comprise nature.
That's all the metaphysical speculation I have for the moment.
Well, now you're using applied Dolphinetics and switching from the existence of "God" to the belief in it. Metaphysics, like all philosophy, only has as much power in that world that the believer needs at any one time. We can argue back and forth all day about whether Smurfs have blue blood or just blue skin; but unless we can acknowledge that there aren't actually any Smurfs, it's all a huge circlejerk without the fun of the climax.
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.'