Monday, February 17, 2014

The lengths some people will go to

to deny the existence of God is amazing to me. A mathematician sees proof of God, but decides that the universe is a simulation created by a very advanced programmer. Gee, I'd call that God, wouldn't you?

15 comments:

Theodore M. Seeber said...

There are two ways to look at it.

1. There is a transcendent being behind the creation of the universe, the laws of nature, fine tuning of the physical constants, life, consciousness, the appearance of intelligent design etc. but it wouldn't be called "God".

2. It would be called "God" but everything said about God in the religions of the world is absolutely false.

Theodore M. Seeber said...

Or 3. . There is a transcendent being behind the creation of the universe, the laws of nature, fine tuning of the physical constants, life, consciousness, the appearance of intelligent design etc, and it is God, and everything the religions of the world say about God is true *from the limited, finite perspective of the humans in those religions* (just like Nostra Aetate claims).

Theodore M. Seeber said...

Or at least, so says the demonic influences in your head.

Theodore M. Seeber said...

It wasn't the Death with Dignity law that did it. It was the Cover Oregon law that did it, under the Oregon Health Plan. It's legal because of the Death with Dignity law, but DWD doesn't fund treatments.

Theodore M. Seeber said...

So in Oregon, once you condition is determined to be terminal, you should just get your affairs in order and get ready to die either by natural causes or by ODing on sedatives.

I wouldn't want any more than that. I'm good with that.

Theodore M. Seeber said...

By that reasoning, all disbelief is demonic.

Theodore M. Seeber said...

There's always a good reason to live. But I understand you and your type are fine with that, because you're under influence that says that anybody who is below a certain level of productiveness, should just shuffle off and die already anyway, to reduce the surplus population.

Theodore M. Seeber said...

I believe in death with dignity. You can take that to mean whatever you want.

Theodore M. Seeber said...

I see no dignity whatsoever in being tortured into choosing to die.

Theodore M. Seeber said...

Mike, this is just embarrassing. Your failure to understand is your failure. Dismissing that which you do not understand as 'demonic' (i.e. evil) does nothing to increase understanding and, in itself, leads to ignorance. Wrap your mind around the idea that others possess values that differ from yours and therefore come to different conclusions. Put aside the Catholic-centric "We know the will of God" arrogance and consider how others view their existence. I get that empathy is difficult for you but that is no excuse. And please lose the sense of superiority.

How does believing in magic help to make sense of our world? Demons cannot be directly demonstrated to exist and hypothesizing their existence offers no tangible advantage in dealing with the problems of the modern world.

I see the "demons" have left you unable to question the moral supremacy of the Catholic Church. How sad. Must take some serious mental gymnastics to make sense of the historical Church's position on slavery, it's attitude towards the Jews, the existence of Jesus's brothers by Mary, the concept of hell as a second millennium invention and the fact that James, Jesus's brother, not Peter, was the post crucifixion leader of the Jesus Movement.

Theodore M. Seeber said...

Understanding good and evil- and the tendency in all of us to follow what we like rather than what is good for us- is where understanding in magic is superior to Sola Science. It takes far more mental gymnastics to create a fake morality that is only good for one person, than to understand the reality of the supernatural to the point of realizing that all history- even pagan history- is valuable.

Theodore M. Seeber said...

'Superior' ? It what way? Supernatural explanations are a dead end. How does that lead to testable predictions? Evolutionary psychology goes a long way to explain our conflicted species. We all naturally create 'fake morality' along with language by a process of rapid learning from others of our species. It becomes so much a part of our view of ourselves, others and the world that most people are sure it is innate and universal. We judge actions as good or evil because it enhances group selection. Meanwhile, our primitive desire mechanisms, necessary for individual survival, compel us to seek resources from the environment. Add to this mix, our big brain learns that sugar, which our old brain is programmed to crave, is not healthy in the doses we ingest. Life is not simple.

Theodore M. Seeber said...

Some events will never be testable. Even the ones that are, there can be no confidence in anything you do not test personally. Testicle predictions can only give you a very small window into reality.

Theodore M. Seeber said...

"there can be no confidence in anything you do not test personally" Why? I use formula all the time that I have not tested. Results, on the whole, are excellent. The big advantage for our species is the ability pass down information.

Our limited sensory organs give us a small window. Still, the only way to test our internal model for accuracy is to experiment. Introduce the supernatural and you break the link between cause and effect.

Once you hypothesize the existence of demons how do you determine that you are not under their influence?

Mike, on a COMPLETLY different subject: Have you read "Autism Breakthrough: The Groundbreaking Method That Has Helped Families All Over the World" by Raul Kaufman? I would love to hear comments.

Theodore M. Seeber said...

What we do not test personally is myth. The formula are mythical, as Godel teaches, they will always be incomplete ( aren't you the one that introduced me to Godel, Escher, and Bach?).

I have not tested the Son Rise system personally, and thus it remains mythical for me, but in my experience, approaches to autism written by autistics that contain autobiographical information are always valuable. To that end, I have added Raul's book to my Kindle and will read it.

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Oustside The Asylum by Ted Seeber is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
Based on a work at http://outsidetheaustisticasylum.blogspot.com.