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Robert White Byrne Robotics Member

Joined: 16 April 2004 Location: United States Posts: 4560
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Posted: 06 September 2010 at 6:30am | IP Logged | 1
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Lovecraft did say that the oldest emotion is fear and that the oldest kind of fear is the fear of the unknown. This explains to me why religion has been around pretty much since the start of human interaction.
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Robert White Byrne Robotics Member

Joined: 16 April 2004 Location: United States Posts: 4560
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Posted: 06 September 2010 at 6:37am | IP Logged | 2
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QUOTE:
There is no "assumption" that God is perfect and all powerful. That's what the Bible tells us. |
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I guess I misunderstood your comments then. I thought you were laying down that gods would have that kind of nature (perfect, all-powerful) independent of Christian doctrine.
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005 Posts: 134181
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Posted: 06 September 2010 at 6:38am | IP Logged | 3
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In the end, this "debate" always plays out the same way -- "God" is not an answer, "God" is another question, but one that refuses to be asked.If God created the Univers, who or what created God? Without an answer -- a real answer -- to that, there is no point beyond where we invariably get bogged down. Skeptics invoke reason, believers invoke fairy stories, and never the twain shall meet.
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005 Posts: 134181
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Posted: 06 September 2010 at 6:41am | IP Logged | 4
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I guess I misunderstood your comments then.•• No you didn't -- but it's so much more FUN to pretend you did, isn't it?
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Robert White Byrne Robotics Member

Joined: 16 April 2004 Location: United States Posts: 4560
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Posted: 06 September 2010 at 6:47am | IP Logged | 5
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I've always sensed a latent pragmatism in Christianity. I've always believed that few, beyond those that are mentally unstable, REALLY believe in divine beings. I think most, even if they couldn't articulate it, feel that it's dangerous not to. If they didn't have this framework to guide them in life, how could they possibly muddle through it? It's impossible for some people to imagine a world without their religion permeating everything. Being from the South opened my eyes to this very early on...
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Robert White Byrne Robotics Member

Joined: 16 April 2004 Location: United States Posts: 4560
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Posted: 06 September 2010 at 6:59am | IP Logged | 6
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QUOTE:
No you didn't -- but it's so much more FUN to pretend you did, isn't it? |
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Trying to understand other peoples ides is certainly fun. Is seeing hidden agendas from the comments of fans, while politely insulting their integrity in the process, FUN for you?
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Thomas Woods Byrne Robotics Member

Joined: 09 June 2004 Location: United States Posts: 1356
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Posted: 06 September 2010 at 2:33pm | IP Logged | 7
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I think most, even if they couldn't articulate it, feel that it's dangerous not to. If they didn't have this framework to guide them in life, how could they possibly muddle through it?
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For me, I could easily accept that there is no God or afterlife if that turned out to be the case. If we just end, I think that sucks, but so be it. The thing that makes me feel creation IS a possibility is that life, the genetic code, exists. I find it hard to believe that dirt gave itself a soul, a replicating code, that would lead to organic machines with no maker. Even a virus is like nanotechnology.
I was talking with a programmer at work one day about this subject and brought up the story you probably have all heard; could you look long enough and far enough in space and eventually find a watch (or any other machine) that formed by mistake, and he thought that was completely possible. I guess if you believe that, you can also believe we happened the same way.
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Thomas Woods Byrne Robotics Member

Joined: 09 June 2004 Location: United States Posts: 1356
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Posted: 06 September 2010 at 2:50pm | IP Logged | 8
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All this thinking of having the right combinations of elements can result in something like consciousness, makes me wonder what OTHER combinations could come up with. If consciousness did not exists before life, what other things could be born when you get the right combination?
Edited by Thomas Woods on 06 September 2010 at 2:51pm
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Wayde Murray Byrne Robotics Member

Joined: 14 October 2005 Location: Canada Posts: 3115
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Posted: 06 September 2010 at 3:03pm | IP Logged | 9
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The watch/watchmaker analogy is a poor one. It puts too much emphasis on the finished product as a "done-in-one" feat of engineering that requires an engineer. There are numerous examples of intermediate stages in biology that demonstrate how complexity might develop from simplicity given sufficient time (billions of years) and enough generations with minimal changes occuring between them. It's the chicken or the egg situation. Creationism says that the chicken was first, created whole, as is, and that it subsequently laid an egg that led to another chicken. Evolution says that the egg came first, and although it hatched a chicken, it was laid by something that wasn't quite a chicken. Given that we know of thousands of species of birds that aren't chickens, and given that we know that mutations do occur naturally, why would it be difficult to imagine the almost-chicken's existence, even if we couldn't point directly to it? And if there's fossil or other evidence of the almost-chicken, why add unnecessary layers of complexity? The almost-chicken arose from the not-quite-an-almost-chicken, and so on, as far back as you want to go. As to dirt giving itself a soul, or life arising from non-life, there are organic molecules in interstellar space. Atoms combine into predictable combinations, and simple arrangements lead to more complex ones according to natural laws. That makes me think that life is almost unavoidable.
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Wayde Murray Byrne Robotics Member

Joined: 14 October 2005 Location: Canada Posts: 3115
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Posted: 06 September 2010 at 3:11pm | IP Logged | 10
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Thomas wrote: If consciousness did not exists before life, what other things could be born when you get the right combination? ** Once again you're focusing on consciousness as if it's somehow more special than other attributes of organisms. Non-conscious behavior is shown by single-celled organisms when they react to light, or to chemical cues that signify nearby food. Chemical receptors that are "shaped" to fit specific chemicals like keys fit locks aren't making conscious choices, but like the almost-chicken I mentioned before you can see how simple response to stimuli might lead eventually to more complex responses to more complicated stimuli, until you have an organism that can ponder itself and it's own existence.
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Wayde Murray Byrne Robotics Member

Joined: 14 October 2005 Location: Canada Posts: 3115
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Posted: 06 September 2010 at 3:32pm | IP Logged | 11
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http://www.nfb.ca/playlists/1960s-explosion-creativity/viewi ng/cosmic_zoom/#panel2 This is a link to a bit of animation from 1968 that every Canadian has probably seen at least once on television. Watch the sequence from the ends of the universe to the nucleus of an iron atom and tell me why, on these scales of big and small that comprise reality as we know it, the boy is somehow LESS inconsequential than the dog or the mosquito. We fool ourselves into believing that we are somehow necessary and important, when we are very very close to being nothing at all.
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Mike Sweeney Byrne Robotics Member

Joined: 25 May 2004 Location: United States Posts: 318
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Posted: 06 September 2010 at 3:38pm | IP Logged | 12
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Well, on the other hand Wayde, we are the only thing we've found so far that is intelligent by our standards. As much as we are fascinated by the real intelligence in the animal community, we haven't found one yet that we can have a conversation with, or even play a decent game of chess.
Add to that the basic selfishness of looking out for, being interested in the doings of, and enjoying the company of, my own species; I find both of those plenty of reason to _personally_ treat humans as special.
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