The Power of Prayer

[luminousnerd]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occams_razor

Occam's Razor is a load of bull, at least as it is generally interpreted and as you are interpreting it here. In fact, the opposite is usually true: the most complicated answer is quite often correct. Certainly there's no end-all be-all rule for all situations.

You forgot "nuts as an unharvested chestnut tree," luminous. He could also have been a crazy man with a huge megalomania problem.

Hehe, well, you're right, that one slipped my mind. XD But if he was crazy what are the chances the majority of the stuff he said was morally positive?

No assumption needed.

But there is. You're assuming that he lied. You're assuming that there is no God. No matter what way you go, there's tons of assumptions. HELL, all we are is assumptions.

[zeroguy]

It's not like the person is falling asleep; it's not like the dial controlling the strength of consciousness is slowly being turned down.

That is not what I said, and is not at all what I was implying. More like, sorta as I said, pushing the consciousness into some other existence. As parts go before or after others, it's going to make stuff unstable. Like, if you were teleporting a building somehow, but you could only take random pieces at a time, so it gets messed up before the whole thing is gone.

Or possibly, at that point of seeming deterioration, the "everlasting soul" is already completely gone, and what you're seeing is the body trying to cope.

[hive_king]

Occam's Razor is a load of bull, at least as it is generally interpreted and as you are interpreting it here. In fact, the opposite is usually true: the most complicated answer is quite often correct. Certainly there's no end-all be-all rule for all situations.

The most complicated answer is quite often correct? Jesus was sent from the future to have an epic show-down with the robo-mecha-winston-churchill to the death, but his chrono-ship missed and he ended up in Judea, where he, Jimmy Carter, and Lenny Bruce all started a bluegrass band, and the bible was his way of fixing the time-stream... That might not be the MOST complicated answer, but its definately a finalist. Care to rethink your statement?

[Boothby]

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) human soul are basically relegated to the realm of fantasy & science fiction? And we're back to counting angels dancing on the heads of pins...

[Boothby]

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 his followers.

[eriador]

Sort of like L Ron Hubbard, but with a martyr's complex.

And without the craziness and megalomania.

[zeroguy]

So I guess if I try to use imagery with Steve, I have to have the actual image as a photograph instead of just imagining it.

It's kinda hard to come up with scientifically-proven parallels to something that's just hypotheses and is probably impossible to prove/disprove. It's hard enough to get good ones with something as simple as voltage and current, so feh.

[Boothby]

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, and using another real-world concept to explain it.

When we got into e^(i*pi) to deal with capacitance and inductance, then you've lost me.

Similarly, if your only recourse to explain a concept is to use a fantasy construct...well, that says a lot about the original concept you're trying to explain, doesn't it?

[zeroguy]

But when I was learning electrical engineering, there was the volts = pressure and amps = flow analogy, and it all worked out pretty well.

Then what's a resistor? The analogies work for a time, but the problem is that some of the youngins depend too much on them to get started, and when you run into something that can't be exemplified with water... there's nothing but confusion.

When we got into e^(i*pi) to deal with capacitance and inductance, then you've lost me.

You might like this (maybe a little non-family-friendly for language). But yeah, it loses me, as well.

Similarly, if your only recourse to explain a concept is to use a fantasy construct...well, that says a lot about the original concept you're trying to explain, doesn't it?

I thought it just showed that I'm an unimaginative idiot. Doesn't mean the concept is wrong.

How would you explain the Internet to those in the fifth century? I wouldn't really know how to without fantasy, but then again, I'm an unimaginative idiot.

I might want to just agree to disagree here, though, as we're quite far away from the original topic.

[Boothby]

"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 again???

[Guest]

"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 again???

We were talking about the intertubes!