On the lunacy of free will

[Ahriman]

The only reason you guys call me a troll/idiot/whatever is because I'm a theist. That's the whole problem. You just don't like theists.

[arewethereyet]

The only reason you guys call me a troll/idiot/whatever is because I'm a theist. That's the whole problem. You just don't like theists.

We have some good theists on the board, some have been here a long time.

The problem with you is that you are a liar and a complete fake.

[The Grand Nudger]

Strange, married to one, got a bunch of kids. I'll go tell her the bad news.

[arewethereyet]

Yeah, husband is a believer.

Married almost 30 years...guess I have to let him know I don't like him.

[Spongebob]

The only reason you guys call me a troll/idiot/whatever is because I'm a theist. That's the whole problem. You just don't like theists.

That's absolutely untrue and incredibly narcissistic of you.  You can likely find many theist members here who have high credibility.  And most of my family members are theists.  Most people I know for that matter are theists.  It would be a lonely world for me if I didn't "like" any theists.  What I don't "like" are dishonest people.

I don't know if you read this but I had ongoing conversations/debates with several theists on a different forum (now defunct).  These were quite productive conversations and not at all combative.  It's all about personality and how one goes about a conversation.  You've pushed pretty much all of the wrong buttons.  You must enjoy punishment because you keep coming back for more.

And in case you haven't noticed, no one holds back on the insults here no matter what your affiliation is.

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As a service to Ahriman I'm posting this link. Perhaps he will decide to educate himself.

@Ahriman You should get familiar with these and avoid using them in a debate/conversation.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fallacies

[Ferrocyanide]

The only reason you guys call me a troll/idiot/whatever is because I'm a theist. That's the whole problem. You just don't like theists.

Hello, I'm an atheist and an ignitist as well.
I don't know what your relationship is with the other people on this board. I have only been around for a few months.


In this thread, SpongeBob said that you were being coy.
Then, you said that you are a pagan but you don't care for labels.

What's the big deal? Just tell him want he wants to know. Tell him what you believe.

[Spongebob]

At least we can agree on something.  Whether you get into heaven doesn't depend on what god a person believes in.  

No one gets in, no matter what god they believe in.  You're talking about your dreams, remember?

My dreams are too vivid, detailed, and realistic (even down to an emotional level), to be bullshit.

Most people experience dreams and often very detailed and intense.  Any one of us could claim precisely the same thing as you do and there is absolutely no objective way to compare the detail or intensity of one person's dreams to another's.  So you can't seriously use this as evidence to support such arguments as your beliefs in god are true or "right".  Dreams have been considered somewhat religious in nature for most of recorded history, but there is zero objective evidence to support this.  I don't dispute that they are related to religion because I also see dreams as connected to our imagination and I fully believe that our imagination is strongly connected to religion.

[Ferrocyanide]

My dreams are too vivid, detailed, and realistic (even down to an emotional level), to be bullshit.

Most people experience dreams and often very detailed and intense.  Any one of us could claim precisely the same thing as you do and there is absolutely no objective way to compare the detail or intensity of one person's dreams to another's.  So you can't seriously use this as evidence to support such arguments as your beliefs in god are true or "right".  Dreams have been considered somewhat religious in nature for most of recorded history, but there is zero objective evidence to support this.  I don't dispute that they are related to religion because I also see dreams as connected to our imagination and I fully believe that our imagination is strongly connected to religion.

This conversation is about quantitative vs qualitative values.

The problem with the word detail is the same as the problem with the words:
1. small and big
2. short and tall
3. old and new and ancient
4. near and far
5. ugly and beautiful.
6. and others.

The dictionary does not define precisely where the threshold is. These are relative words. They are subjective words.

Guy 1: “Is your planet 4.56 billion y old? Wow, that is a very young planet!”
Guy 2: “4.56 billion y old? Wow, that is ancient!”

At least we have a means for measuring length, time, temperature.
There is no machine to measure the intensity and detailness of a dream.

Someone needs to invent the Dream-o-meter. You can connect it to someone’s brain and it shows numbers like 50.174 kiloflargs.
If you the number is above 50.000 kiloflargs, this means the dream is intense.

I agree. A dream can be related to a religion. It can also be related to your hobby, your friends, your car, your job.
I imagine that if someone thinks about Jesus a lot, they end up dreaming about him.
There are lots of examples in the Bible. They call it a “vision”.

[Angrboda]

At least we can agree on something.  Whether you get into heaven doesn't depend on what god a person believes in.  

No one gets in, no matter what god they believe in.  You're talking about your dreams, remember?

My dreams are too vivid, detailed, and realistic (even down to an emotional level), to be bullshit.

Do you have dreams about stuff that isn't real?

[The Grand Nudger]

EEG combined with something called dream intensity scale. It compares self reports, with external ratings, with brain activity.

I tend to forget my dreams immediately, only remembering that I forgot my dream. The only ones I remember are what the scale would call particularly intense, and wouldn't you know it, we light up like a christmas tree when when we report those dreams. Amusingly, though, the self report values tend to be consistently higher than external assessment interviews. This might be do to bias in the scales..or we might be creating additional content after the fact when asked to recall. Overall, though, the reports appear to match the data.