Christianity and the End Times

Because ideas can only exist in physical minds. They're not freefloating entities that we can trap and use. If you think they are you're going to have explain how and where.I'm pretty sure I seen monkeys have ideas too. They get the lightbulb look.One day machines might be able to have ideas and if we ever find any, ET too. But it takes a physical thing to have a thought.

The one who is afraid is you - afraid of letting go of your fixed idea of God. If we did find an entity that was completely different from your pet god, most of us would be more willing to accept it than you would.

My "pet" God is rational. Certainly not limited to the one you compile from the book. Certainly not a mere Loki, or Bigfoot, or some other human creation.Basically an initial Creator of all seen and unseen. A source for the fodder for Big Bangs. An initial source. An eternal conduit of creativity and encouragement. A validation that human minds are not all that we have to bank on. An insurance policy of Hope for an uncertain future with fallible humans likely to blow themselves up if left to their own instincts.Why must your qualification for acceptance hinge on something different from that? I suspect it will be because you discovered and defined it rather than it defining you.

How can you call it rational when you can't provide reasons for its irrational behaviour? Again, the book is the only source you have. Everything else is made up. How is any of that rational? "It defining you" is the epitome of irrationality.

That's basic theism And that's wishful thinking.

This explains why its easier for science to believe that in the beginning, matter reacted rather than an idea or thought to be the initial cause. Science has conditioned you to always require the physical before the mental.How would I be able to show you otherwise? That would be Gods job. Are you suggesting that "you defining it" is more rational? How can a "you" that existed in the last seconds of Carl Sagan's cosmic calendar define the other 365 days and 83,520 seconds? Why does the definition emerge in the last seconds of a cosmic year calendar than it would in the first second?

So in essence, the beginning of modern science and wisdom used in defining the universe and all that is seen and unseen didn't start until humans evolved enough to begin our cognitive processes?

Are you thus arguing that the book is *not* made up?

Of course. Humans are the only things in the universe known to define anything. Because a definition is - by definition - something that humans use to describe a human idea.

Are there any ideas that are not human ideas?Is reality a human idea?Are we to conclude that anything a human cannot define or describe does not exist for all practical purposes?

Of course the book is made up - but at least it's stable. What you make up is strictly ad hoc. You make up a touchy-feely God and then try to link it somehow with the Jesus who IS in the book.

How many times Phat?? Science doesn't believe anything. It forms conclusions from evidence. Sciences studies both the 'mental' and the physical. It's able to do this because the 'mental' is physical. The 'mental' happens inside a physical organ called the brain. Did you have somewhere else in mind (sic) for this idea to exist? Right, You know it exists but sadly it's invisible and leaves no physical trace.

We've been through that already. Are there any paintings that are not made of paint? Reality is what it is regardless of any human ideas about it. "For all practical purposes", certainly. Try walking into a store and asking for something that you can't define or describe.

OK, lets go back to The History Of Our World In 18 Minutes which is a made up concept known as Big History.
The author concludes that "the universe" creates its own complexity. How is this not also ad hoc? Cant argue with you there. Are there any universes that *may* exist that we cannot yet define or describe?If we correlate the word paint to the word idea, we thus hypothetically have possible universes, multiverses, or dare i say Gods that exist as ideas not yet defined.Edited by Phat, : No reason given.

In as much as I can understand that, defining and understanding the universe couldn't have started until we obtained the conscious ability to do it. Surely that is obvious?We started the process by making up stories to 'explain' things - hence your current beliefs. Science continues this process but in a rational way, based on observation and objective testing in order to separate the real from the imaginary.