Philotic Web

So, I was riding home on the train from Baltimore to NJ last Friday. My computer was on, and I was reading "Darwin's Radio" (great book). This guy sits across from me at the table in the "cafe car", also reading a book. We trade quick book reviews. I mention I probably read too m...

"How would you explain the Internet to those in the fifth century? " Silly...it's a series of PIPES! Or is it a series of TUBES (??) A resistor is a restricting valve , BTW. And I never called you unimaginative. But I do believe that the concept is wrong. Now, what were we talking about ag...

ZG, Oh, I love creative imagery! And, I use analogies all the time--it's like my bread and butter! But when I was learning electrical engineering, there was the volts = pressure and amps = flow analogy, and it all worked out pretty well. But, you see: you're taking a difficult, real-world concept, a...

There is another choice, re. Christ... He could have been a wise man who realized a way to bring people together. Sort of like L Ron Hubbard, but with a martyr's complex. Or he could have been another (though far more successful) David Koresh type of character, but with something positive to say to ...

Zero, pushing the consciousness into some other existence....Like, if you were teleporting a building somehow Interesting how the analogy you chose to explain the soul's disappearance has to use another non-existent reference (teleportation). Does this mean that discussions about the (supposed) huma...

Thanks, eriador, but she's been dead for over 10 years now...I'm good! EL, If you want to define a soul as little more than the minimum of self-aware sparks, then fine. Also, then I don't see what all the hubbub about SOUL is for, anyhow? It's like we started to talk about this wonderful set of fine...

Couldn't their consciousness just be on its way out to somewhere else instead of being destroyed entirely? Such as, the deterioration of the biological process is like "pushing" it away to whereverland. So, your answer to my question "Have you ever seen anyone die from chemo/cancer? ...

Jota, "...but of course, what is the point of defining something that, by definition, goes beyond our own finitude" As humans, we are always defining, or trying to define things that go beyond our own finitude. Think: astronomy, philosophy. I've been trying for YEARS to get religious peopl...

OK, then...

So we need to redefine what omniscient means, then. We may also need to redefine what omnipotent means.

Or are those descriptions of the JCSG not from the Bible, but from later apologeticists and philosophers?

Is God (the JCSG) all powerful or all knowing? Or is He less than that?

Guest/Anthony, I just got back to this forum, so I have some catching up. 1) Love the cat. 2) I have positive evidence that there is no afterlife. Look...no afterlife. Look again...still no afterlife. Wait--what was that? Wow--it looked like an afterlife! No, wait...it was just a cheese sandwich. So...

Guest, I'm not debating that. Jota, Xeno, I'm not assuming "all instants (or instances) of time exist " I'm saying that if you propose a time-transcendent being, then (by definition) that being is not bound by linear time as we know it. Personally, I believe that no such being exists. I fu...

Xeno, You're missing the point. In theory, a being that transcends time can see all moments at once, or may flit from moment to moment across the span of time, without constraint. It's like editing a video, and using the scrub feature (non-linear editing!). You don't need to predict anything. You kn...

Xeno, "God knows what we are going to do because he knows us so well... " That's not the fear. And it's not the JCSG model. In theory, God knows what we are going to do next because he's already seen what we are going to do next. He never has to "predict" anything. That is, assum...

No, actually, it's not.

It's a challenge, or it's good-natured "ribbing." If you consider that ridicule, then I would propose to you that your skin's far too thin for you to be out by yourself on the Internet yet.

"You guys are, Bashing, Ridiculing, or degradating my system of beliefs Specifically the belief that if God exists determinism must. And my belief that God does not exist." Regarding your first belief, I was not "Bashing, Ridiculing, or degradating" it. I was opposing it, and sta...

Enough.

Fish Tank...what point are you trying to make?

FT, You sound like a frikkin' Turing language 'bot. If there is a God we cannot claim to know God. (Sure...but that's such a big IF) If we create something does it know us? (So far, none of Man's creations have shown themselves to be self-aware. If we created God in our image...then it's just a verb...

"We cannot possibly comprehend what God is" I don 't get it. This is not language I would expect from an atheist... "We cannot possibly comprehend what an invisible pink unicorn is" They are statements that appear to presume the existence of the thing that cannot be comprehended.

I thought you were an atheist...there were just some concepts you appeared to support earlier that didn't jibe with that (I guess you were posing straw man arguments...) Back in the time Genesis was written, the other planets (I assume) were thought to be a type of star (wandering star). Comets were...

Fish Tank, First, God ideated us (thought us up), and then he created us. That is, of course, if you believe in such stuff. And as far as being not even a blip on the radar---according to the Old Testament, WE are the reason he created the universe. It's just us. We are the pinnacle. And we *are* th...

Fish Tank,

I have no idea what you are talking about.

Until and unless proven otherwise, there is no God.

"We are a [small] piece of God" WTH does that mean?

It seems to me that the universe "with God" is no different from the universe with no god. Except, of course, that one has a god in it, and one does not. There is no difference in how the universe responds to us, whether or not there is a God involved. If you pray--the results are no bette...

A number of people here believe in a non-standard, Judeo/Christian-like God. Their view of God is similar in many ways to the standard J/C tracts, but varies in certain critical aspects. The JCSG (Judeo Christian Standard God) is both omniscient and omnipotent. He (He's male, too, FWIW) can see acro...

"they do have a special â€œnatureâ€: that of being able to learn. They analyze, systemize and remember past experiences. Some learn from their experience and from that of others" So do many animals, to varying degrees. Humans just tend to be better at it. It's not a unique gift, it's just...

Jota,, and all love comes from God. So, there's nothing all that special about mankind, then? Humankind's ability to love has nothing to do with us, but it's all about God? Is that like praising a bucket because it holds water so well? Big freakin' deal. That's what I love about religion: it denigra...

I'm sorry, but this statement makes no sense: "there are truths that trascend reason" There are claims (things that people claim are truths) that transcend reason. But, you know, for something to be a "truth," it really has to have some, uh... truth to it. Otherwise, it's just so...

I get it, Jebus...

Michael Jackson?

No way. That would be way too creepy.

Well, obviously, the ribs are implied , since I can see the FSM's noodly appendages wrapped around something I just can't see (but know is pink, nonetheless) And, please, don't degrade His Noodly Appendages by (falsely) claiming that He is some failed refrigerator experiment of God's. I can't begin ...

I can see Cthulhu with a couple of IPU ribs sticking out of it's gaping maw...slurping up noodles.

Clearly, you don't know Cthulhu like I do...

Sum, You never asked how a blind person might see the color green: Think of a blind person. Using your argument, that person can prove that â€œcolour greenâ€ does not exist, because there is no test that person can do to detect it. Yet there are others, that can see it and will agree that it does e...

It's called a fictional conceit, fellas. It's not really a "scientific" concept. If one could somehow move outside "space and time", then time travel would have to be possible. If it wasn't, then you really wouldn't be outside of space and time, now would you? (said in my best Jo...

Jota, Don't forget, Jesus was considered one nasty SOG during the Middle Ages. He was considered to have brought the plague to Europe. In that spiritual, mon-materialistic way, of course. A religious climate thus developed where people were inclined to meet the plague with surprising apathy and resi...

Sum,

You know as well as I do that, by definition, "God" has no definable (or detectable) properties...

I can develop a test that will allow a sightless (or even a color-blind) person to detect the color green. First, I define "green". Green is light with a wavelength between X and Y mm. Second, I provide a spectrometer that has an audible readout of detected wavelength. Third, I place a gre...

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