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  • I am sure I've posted it before, but I'll post it again. This one of the "logic discourses" (in quotes, because like most logic, it can be circular if you really put your mind to it) as to why some people, I know Gurm shares a similar sentiment, believe in a "highly possibility of a supreme being or intellect that we collectively call God." This ignores all other arguements for the time being...

    If you examine the ultimate goal of science, what do you find? You find that the ultimate goal of science is to understand everything about everything. Everything about life, about the Earth, about the solar system, the galaxy, the universe, and the cosmos in general. Obviously this is not an easy task, but one that most scientists believe might/could/will - depending on the person - happen. This is called omniscience (not pronounce omni - science, for non-native-English speakers).

    To understand everything about everything, you must be able to produce and duplicate results to form proofs and axioms from theories. As such, an omniscient scientific community, or being/person, would have the ability to manipulate everything to their designs. This is called, omnipotent, or all powerful.

    ...to save some typing, in order to understand everything you would have to have the ability to go anywhere at every level, or be omnipresent. Which may not exactly mean physically being everywhere at once, but having the ability to be anywhere at any given time.

    Anyway, the three omni's build the classic definition of "God." All powerful, all knowing, all present (omni obviously means "all" or universal). As such you could, according to this logic, call godhood the ultimate end to science, i.e. a being that has achieved the ultimate goal of science.

    Thus saying that "there is no possibility of a god," which is true atheism, is to say the science is futile and ultimately cannot achive the knowledge that it so desperately seeks, beyond increasing basic comfort of the human race ... or to accelerate the destruction of the human race if you're more inclined to be a pessimist. Or to say that no being/person has yet attained said status in all of time and space. This is why some people say there is no such thing as an atheist, only people who are agnostic and don't know it

    Anyway ... the believer, following this line of logic, would say that at least one being/person has achieved this goal or status and uses it for their own purposes, like the creation of planets and populations.

    This of course begs the question, where did God come from. To which nobody knows ... which isn't a bad thing, as we really don't know a lot in the grandest scheme of things (it's hard to know about the universe when we still can't send people to our closest planet, let alone closets galaxy).

    Anyway ... if you are speaking of logic, science, and god a more accurate statement, IMHO, would be, "I believe in the possibility of a god," more than, "I believe in God."

    My $0.02.

    Jammrock
    Last edited by Jammrock; 22 November 2005, 13:30.
    “Inside every sane person there’s a madman struggling to get out”
    –The Light Fantastic, Terry Pratchett

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    • Originally posted by Gurm
      AHH. No, you've got the second one wrong.

      It should be "do not assume that you can fully comprehend God".

      As I said earlier, the Zohar goes on (at some length, quite complex in fact) about the things we DO know and CAN understand about God. But the essence of the being of God... is unknowable, largely because it is beyond our comprehension - as one would expect of an extra-universal entity.
      Ou, so it's "These words are given to you, and also knowledge of this few things. And BTW, do not try to understand more, or assume anything more, you'll fail miserably"?

      Comment


      • Originally posted by schmosef
        roflmao!

        btw, I would agree that we don't have logical tools to prove the existence of God. We simply don't know enough about the universe yet. One day we might, or maybe not. That's one of the mysteries of life. It doesn't bother me.
        Who knows, one day we might find out how it is to be "God"...

        BTW, a bit inspiring articles:

        Comment


        • Has anyone read God's Debris?

          Scott Adams has made it a free download: http://www.andrewsmcmeel.com/godsdebris/

          It's a pretty short book. You can read it in one sitting.

          I don't want to ruin it by telling everyone what its theory of God is. Adam's clearly states that this book doesn't necessarily reflect his views; he considers it more of a thought experiment.

          Here's the synopsis:
          Imagine that you meet a very old man who—you eventually realize—knows literally everything. Imagine that he explains for you the great mysteries of life—quantum physics, evolution, God, gravity, light, psychic phenomenon, and probability—in a way so simple, so novel, and so compelling that it all fits together and makes perfect sense. What does it feel like to suddenly understand everything? God's Debris isn’t the final answer to the Big Questions. But it might be the most compelling vision of reality you will ever read. The thought experiment is this: Try to figure out what’s wrong with the old man’s explanation of reality. Share the book with your smart friends then discuss it later while enjoying a beverage.
          P.S. You've been Spanked!

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          • Originally posted by Nowhere
            Who knows, one day we might find out how it is to be "God"...

            BTW, a bit inspiring articles:

            http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_Question
            Here's a link to read "The Last Question": http://mit.edu/tylerc/www/twt/LQ1.htm
            P.S. You've been Spanked!

            Comment


            • Originally posted by schmosef
              Well, there's a couple of ways of looking at that...

              First you have the context of how the revelation at Sinai came about... If you accept the context of that then it's not a great leap of faith to accept the Torah.

              And that brings me to the second way of looking at it: Faith. For me, it's my faith that allows me to believe what I believe. I don't feel that I follow it blindly either. It feels right. And I don't dispute that a Christian or a Muslim might feel his faith is right either. Again, God's plan is just as unknowable as he himself is. I don't know why he allows what he allows, but if we're lucky, there will be a an interesting story for us one day.

              ...

              Last point I want to make, when I think of how my friends who profess to be atheists must look upon the world and life in general, I get an unpleasant empty feeling. It saddens me that not everyone has some sense of the "spirit of God" in their daily life.
              If it's faith, that's OK, I was just wondering about this one logical trap, which I thought was there due to misunderstanding of one rule.
              BTW, if it makes you happier, than, if I'd want to (not very probable...) really choose my faith one day, basing decision on it's essence and so on, not my background and where I would live, Judaism would be quite high in my book, if it weren't for circumcision

              As for ending of your post...I'll say it this way: that's what God tought them. That's what world tought them.

              Comment


              • Yeah right, the reply took me to long. This is a reply to Jammrocks tutorial on divine logic

                Sry, but this is poppycock.
                1. To understand everything it is not required that you can produce and duplicate everything. Scientific knowledge has the form of theory. You are confusing understanding and testing or proving (and "proof" is not required by any normal scientist).
                2. Thus, you do not have to be all powerfull to understand and not be able to be anywhere at any time either.
                3. Moreover, "omnipotent" means one could do *anything*, which is, you know, sometimes claimed to be in the power of god. That is far more I'd wager than doing just anything that is possible within the laws of the universe science tries to understand.
                4. I have yet to come across, BTW, something that is clearly understood by God and misunderstood by Man until God set him straight. Cynical? Maybe, but *that* would be circumstancial evidence of the existence of god.
                5. So the statement that "As such you could, according to this logic, call godhood the ultimate end to science, i.e. a being that has achieved the ultimate goal of science." is nothing more than a semantic trick which is based on in part at least on confusing understanding and proving by reproduction. [Edit: to see the fallacy, ask yourself whether this statement means that if there is no god, there can be no end to science.]
                6. And then the notion that "Thus saying that "there is no possibility of a god," which is true atheism, is to say the science is futile and ultimately cannot achive the knowledge that it so desperately seeks" is wrong on two accounts:
                6a: Atheism is not as strong as "there is no possibility of a god" which in fact is a scientific theory which can be disproven. Athism is simply not believing a god exists. I'd like to contrast this with the view that "As I do not understand everything, it is highly likely God does exist". This is *not* a scientific statement: it can not be disproved. Even if we understand everything, that is we have have a set of theories that can explian everything we see without the need of an axiom of God, it still does not prove God does not exist.
                6b: Again, science does not need to be able to do anything in order to understand everything. Your representation of "understanding" is flawed.
                7. This one is nice: "Anyway ... the believer, following this line of logic, would say that at least one being/person has achieved this goal or status and uses it for their own purposes, like the creation of planets and populations." OK, aside from the "logic" I wonder, where does this being/person come from? Was it created by, uhm, God? Did God exist before it became God?

                I am not denying that god may exist. I just believe he does not. I don't think I will be convinded by semantics.
                Last edited by Umfriend; 22 November 2005, 13:55.
                Join MURCs Distributed Computing effort for Rosetta@Home and help fight Alzheimers, Cancer, Mad Cow disease and rising oil prices.
                [...]the pervading principle and abiding test of good breeding is the requirement of a substantial and patent waste of time. - Veblen

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                • Originally posted by Nowhere
                  As for ending of your post...I'll say it this way: that's what God tought them. That's what world tought them.
                  I would say that I've had a very difficult life. It's been a real battle getting to where I am. And I've had a lot of obstacles. I've never thought of myself as blessed in the sense that things came easy to me. But I've always had this feeling of Ruah HaQodesh that's simply been too strong to deny. I have to admit that it's given me comfort.

                  It's the absense of that feeling in some/most of my friends that saddens me. I'm not saying that most of my friend are atheists, but most don't feel their faith the way I do. And all would agree that there's somthing different about me. That feeling gives me a perspective on things that they don't have. I'm not as caught up in the "now" as most people.

                  One could argue that I've manufactured it, but it feels real to me.
                  P.S. You've been Spanked!

                  Comment


                  • Originally posted by Umfriend
                    4. I have yet to come across, BTW, something that is clearly understood by God and misunderstood by Man until God set him straight. Cynical? Maybe, but *that* would be circumstancial evidence of the existence of god.
                    Well the big revelation of the Torah was ethical montheism. Man was confused as to how to please God. God set man straight.
                    P.S. You've been Spanked!

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                    • Imagine there's no heaven,
                      It's easy if you try,
                      No hell below us,
                      Above us only sky,
                      Imagine all the people
                      living for today...

                      Imagine there's no countries,
                      It isnt hard to do,
                      Nothing to kill or die for,
                      No religion too,
                      Imagine all the people
                      living life in peace...

                      You may say Im a dreamer,
                      but Im not the only one,
                      I hope some day you'll join us,
                      And the world will live as one.

                      (Imagine all the people sharing all the world)

                      Imagine no possesions,
                      I wonder if you can,
                      No need for greed or hunger,
                      A brotherhood of man,
                      Imagine all the people
                      Sharing all the world...

                      You may say Im a dreamer,
                      but Im not the only one,
                      I hope some day you'll join us,
                      And the world will live as one

                      -----------
                      Jhon Lenon (but i am sure you all know that)
                      ----------

                      interpret the folowing as you will.... but somehow i feel my point will not translate properly
                      "They say that dreams are real only as long as they last. Couldn't you say the same thing about life?"

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                      • Uhm, well, that is true only if you believe that (1) God exists and (2) He gave the Torah to the jews. So it's kind of uhm, can you think of something that god set us straight on that, well, uhm, does not involve his existence?

                        I mean something simple as, just an example, the earth is, well, not flat? And prove that it was told to us by God, not one man who convinced (most of) the rest at some stage?
                        Join MURCs Distributed Computing effort for Rosetta@Home and help fight Alzheimers, Cancer, Mad Cow disease and rising oil prices.
                        [...]the pervading principle and abiding test of good breeding is the requirement of a substantial and patent waste of time. - Veblen

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                        • Originally posted by Umfriend
                          Uhm, well, that is true only if you believe that (1) God exists and (2) He gave the Torah to the jews. So it's kind of uhm, can you think of something that god set us straight on that, well, uhm, does not involve his existence?

                          I mean something simple as, just an example, the earth is, well, not flat? And prove that it was told to us by God, not one man who convinced (most of) the rest at some stage?
                          Hmm... Once again, I'm not trying to convince you of anything...

                          How about this... Kosher laws for suitability, preparation, and storage of food.

                          At the time the laws were set down the science didn't exist to explain their advantage.

                          Now we learn that the kosher method of slaughter is perhaps the most humane, that the rules for what makes an animal suitable for consumption and what parts are to be consumed are relatively sound, and that the rules for storage are actually quite hygienic.

                          Jewish communities generally avoided the plague and I've not heard of a case of Mad Cow disease in an Orthodox Jew.
                          P.S. You've been Spanked!

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                          • Originally posted by schmosef
                            Umm... Kathy Ireland... I think I must have made a false idol of her when I was a teenager.
                            Those spasming motions and repetitive "oh GOD, oh GOD, OH GOD!!!" - God Himself understands and doesn't consider that particularly blasphemous. I mean, it's just how you're wired.
                            The Internet - where men are men, women are men, and teenage girls are FBI agents!

                            I'm the least you could do
                            If only life were as easy as you
                            I'm the least you could do, oh yeah
                            If only life were as easy as you
                            I would still get screwed

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                            • here is a question for allof you...

                              do you think that an athiest has no Faith, or is faith only for those who belive in god?
                              "They say that dreams are real only as long as they last. Couldn't you say the same thing about life?"

                              Comment


                              • Originally posted by schmosef
                                Hmm... Once again, I'm not trying to convince you of anything...
                                I know, likewise BTW, u do know that don;t you?

                                Good examples indeed. I am missing proof that the rules were not man-made, but that is a bit of a spoiler, wouldn't you agree?

                                I wonder though, were none of these practices existent prior to their codification (is that the word?) in the Torah? (Why can;t we boil a lamb in his mothers milk anyway?)

                                Moreover, mankind has adapted a lot of behaviour in spite of not yet having the scientific explanation for it (take the use of a compass for instance). I think it would be fair to say that there is a real possibility for these "earthly" rules to have been established by some sort of trial-on-error process.

                                For instance, flew, often deadly, occured more often in communities holding pigs. Nomads did not hold pigs. So when they settled down, might it be they established a link between pigs and flew, based a rule on that link, all the while completely lacking any understanding of the actual causal; connection? (A cynic might say that is why it is presented as displeasing to the lord (what's the word): it can;t be rationally explained").

                                But I will readily admit that I can not explain all these things right now without God. I am pretty sure some people looked into it though. When I have time (if I remember this) I'll see if I can come up with something. Course, any fellow Atheist may come to my aid at this moment
                                Join MURCs Distributed Computing effort for Rosetta@Home and help fight Alzheimers, Cancer, Mad Cow disease and rising oil prices.
                                [...]the pervading principle and abiding test of good breeding is the requirement of a substantial and patent waste of time. - Veblen

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