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Author Topic:   My Beliefs- GDR
AZPaul3
Member
Posts: 8554
From: Phoenix
Joined: 11-06-2006
Member Rating: 4.9


Message 89 of 1324 (698964)
05-11-2013 5:49 PM
Reply to: Message 84 by GDR
05-10-2013 9:32 PM


I just contend that the odds are so stacked against it that it is far more plausible to believe that there it is all the result of an external intelligence as a first cause.
Through out all of human history every religious claim of supernatural agency that could be tested has been found to be false. We all know this.
So what can be shown by the objective facts over the last 2,000 years is that the chances of any religious claim of supernatural agency being correct are zero. Demonstrably, no chance at all.
So any natural process that may, by chance, lead to intelligent beings inventing Hagen-Dazs Chocolate Ice Cream, no matter how vanishingly small that probability may seem, is considerably more likely than any supernatural alternative claimed by religion.
And I personally thank god chance for Hagen Dazs.

This message is a reply to:
 Message 84 by GDR, posted 05-10-2013 9:32 PM GDR has replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 93 by GDR, posted 05-11-2013 9:30 PM AZPaul3 has replied

  
AZPaul3
Member
Posts: 8554
From: Phoenix
Joined: 11-06-2006
Member Rating: 4.9


(1)
Message 96 of 1324 (698981)
05-12-2013 8:40 AM
Reply to: Message 93 by GDR
05-11-2013 9:30 PM


Through out all of human history every religious claim of supernatural agency that could be tested has been found to be false.
Atually nobody has ever proven the idea of a supernatural agency wrong.
Well let's see, where to start.
Young Earth, Great Flud, all the various natural phenomena gods (volcano, wind, sea, storm), intercessory prayer, genesis creation, rain dance, biblical inerrancy, papal infallibility, astrology, all those paranormal claims like telepathy, precognition, homeopathy, pyramid power, dousing, etc, and on, plus more and then some.
I would even add your Jesus's miracles like raising Lazarus, walking on water, resurrection etc, and on, plus more and then some.
I do not subscribe to this "science cannot prove" or "science cannot study the supernatural" philosophic restrictions.
Assessment is as simple as: If this claim is true then we should see this thing here. If this claim is true then these laws of physics would be violated in these specific ways. Do we see that thing there? Have we seen any instance where these laws were violated in those specific ways?
Done right, science can accurately assess the veracity of any claim and appropriately conclude that such claim is so ludicrous and unlikely as to be indistinguishable from false. The error bars are but semantical quibble for believers to cry over trying to resurrect their dead ideas.
I say again:
Every religious claim of supernatural agency that could be tested has been found to be false.
All the data we have, the only data we have (and there is a lot of it), all point to the conclusion that those tested supernatural claims are all false. Further, from this experience we have no reason to entertain any idea that any other present or any future claims of supernatural agency will not also be false.

This message is a reply to:
 Message 93 by GDR, posted 05-11-2013 9:30 PM GDR has replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 99 by Phat, posted 05-12-2013 4:13 PM AZPaul3 has seen this message but not replied
 Message 100 by GDR, posted 05-12-2013 4:30 PM AZPaul3 has replied

  
AZPaul3
Member
Posts: 8554
From: Phoenix
Joined: 11-06-2006
Member Rating: 4.9


(2)
Message 102 of 1324 (698995)
05-12-2013 6:42 PM
Reply to: Message 100 by GDR
05-12-2013 4:30 PM


For example how do you prove that the resurrection didn’t happen?
Resurrection. To arise from the dead. Keyword - dead. Not just dead but, if the story is to be believed, three days dead.
Actually there supposedly was a second episode with Lazarus. One thing we know and have seen quite well in this universe is that if it has happened once (twice) there will be more. There aren't any more that anyone knows. But this is weak considering it was supposed to have been done by a god of infinite power. But still physical law violation #1.
What happens to dead things? Rigimortus, decay. The laws of thermo dynamics shift from entropy caused by bodily maintenance to a full runup on fast entropy increase in bodily breakdown.
After this sets in we have resurrection. The entropy process is reversed, in an enclosed darkened cave with very little, if any, thermodynamic excess available. Physical law violation #2.
Decay is reversed, cells are reconstituted complete with previously lost moisture, structure, cytoplasm, ribosomes, mitochondria, organ function restored and brain function restored all requiring an enormous input of energy to spontaneously recreate what was destroyed. Physical law violation #3.
Boltzmann would not be happy.
OK, highly unlikely. Exceptionally highly unlikely. So highly unlikely that the probabilities are as close to zero as to be indistinguishable from didn’t happen.
But god done it is the claim. But the history of religious claims about supernatural stuff is not just piss poor but downright really bad, to the point that such claims are not viable and must be ignored.
More.
A lot of uneducated people in this region of the world at this time. But not everyone. Given the population and the usual education rate of the time (doing this from memory) about 150,000 educated scribes, historians, writers, chroniclers, folks who could write, exchange letters with friends, family, acquaintances, etc., infested the area and the surrounding territories.
The Lazarus thing was done (supposedly) in open public. The Jesus thing also (supposedly) had a public display. Rising from the dead would have been a big deal. It would have been one hell of a big deal anywhere at any time. A startled and thoroughly enthralled public would have clamored and buzzed from Jerusalem to Phoenix and back several times in a matter of, well given the speed of camels, many months to several years.
No one within an astronomical unit of the planet could have avoided the buzz. And yet, with all those educated scribes, historians, writers, chroniclers, folks who could write, exchange letters with friends, family, acquaintances in the area not one independent, non-biblical, non-self-serving, non-religious recording of either event. No notes, no records, no "Hey, Jaime, guess what happend here today. You ain't gonna believe this but ..." kind of letters to everyone any write-enabled person knew and a bunch more to them what he didn't knew.
Not incredulity on my part. The lack on notice is not humanly possible, at that time, in that place, in any time, in any place. Unless you want to claim your god covered it up at the time but let it leak out many decades later. Bullshit.
That doesn’t prove that there is no god.
quote:
But the history of religious claims about supernatural stuff is not just piss poor but downright really bad, to the point that such claims are not viable and must be ignored.
--Me
Nothing else you and yours have claimed to be there turned out true. I do not have to prove a negative though I hold the preponderance of the evidence. You have to prove the positive. The problem is that every other time you (collective you as in religionists for many centuries) proclaimed something supernatural, divine, unworldly, paranormal, of god, etc., you have been mistaken, in error or just plain wrong and sometimes with the most devastating consequences. Why should anyone give credence to any such claims now?
The preponderance of the evidence, actually the entire body of evidence, makes any claims of god non-viable.
Yes, I know science is not supposed to be able to speak on the supernatural.
Bullshit.
We do not live in a philosophically perfect world. We live in a realistic world. There comes a point where a realistic view of the evidence requires a reasonable man to say, Bullshit. Religionists can no longer hide behind a magic word, like supernatural, to exempt their claims from scientific scrutiny.
I know this is wrong but you know what I’m gonna do, GDR? I’m gonna get one of them pints of Hagen Dazs and try not to devour it in one evening. I may lose, but I will give it my greatest effort. sorta
And I'll try not to use the word bullshit so much. Keep my mouth shut. With a spoon of chocolate ice cream inside.
It's calling me. I gotta go.

This message is a reply to:
 Message 100 by GDR, posted 05-12-2013 4:30 PM GDR has replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 106 by GDR, posted 05-13-2013 11:24 AM AZPaul3 has replied

  
AZPaul3
Member
Posts: 8554
From: Phoenix
Joined: 11-06-2006
Member Rating: 4.9


Message 109 of 1324 (699031)
05-13-2013 1:42 PM
Reply to: Message 106 by GDR
05-13-2013 11:24 AM


I'm sure you enjoyed the Hagen Dazs although you their vanilla is better than their chocolate.
Ehhh Well ... I suppose I can claim success and say I managed to make the pint last more than one evening. Until your message I’d forgotten it is still in the freezer unopened. Regardless, I hereby claim successful attainment of my stated goal. Rah.
Lazarus was resuscitated whereas Jesus was resurrected.
No, GDR, you cannot go redefine words to fit a favored myth. According to the story Lazarus was in the tomb 4-days dead. You do not resuscitate a 4-day dead body. From unconsciousness or near death, ok, resuscitate. To re-animate from dead, and not just dead but 4-days dead, rotted, desiccated, putrefied, this is called resurrection.
I understand the distinction you would like to make between the two occurrences, and the why of it, but this defies the accepted meanings of the words and the logic of their usage. It doesn’t work. Nice try, though.
Doesn't change the analysis, anyway. Neither occurance is viable.
There is a lot of stuff that regardless of our theistic or atheistic beliefs that we don’t understand but science has shown us over the last century that our world is a lot stranger place than we ever imagined.
Indeed it is.
However,
This does not allow us to expect some strange quirk of QFT or M-theory or Quantum Gravity will rescue any of our pet beliefs. Some have already assumed that undiscovered bits of strangeness exist in such form and with such properties that all the present impossibilities of their beliefs are magically accommodated.
One of the stranger attributes of this universe is that it constantly defies our expectations and assumptions.
Edited by AZPaul3, : No reason given.

This message is a reply to:
 Message 106 by GDR, posted 05-13-2013 11:24 AM GDR has not replied

  
AZPaul3
Member
Posts: 8554
From: Phoenix
Joined: 11-06-2006
Member Rating: 4.9


Message 155 of 1324 (699339)
05-17-2013 5:09 PM
Reply to: Message 154 by GDR
05-17-2013 2:55 PM


My only point was that either the natural law was suspended or we don't fully understand the natural law of time ...
There is the third option.
As Ringo was saying, when we are in danger the hypothalamus releases hormones, the adreanals release adrenaline, breathing increases, oxygen floods the blood and muscle tissue and the brain shifts into overdrive (sorta). This is the Fight-or-flight response. It is a well known phenomenon. The perception of time slowing is well documented and has nothing to do with any spooky quantum time anything. As a survival mechanism long ago, like millions of years, our brains adapted to a dangerous world by increasing, in times of perceived danger, our sensory reception (visual acuity, hearing, tactile) and increased the sampling rate at which we process these signals. There is no time shifting, not time distortion, no time dilation. Only perception of such.

This message is a reply to:
 Message 154 by GDR, posted 05-17-2013 2:55 PM GDR has replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 156 by GDR, posted 05-17-2013 5:19 PM AZPaul3 has seen this message but not replied

  
AZPaul3
Member
Posts: 8554
From: Phoenix
Joined: 11-06-2006
Member Rating: 4.9


Message 671 of 1324 (702171)
07-02-2013 1:13 AM
Reply to: Message 667 by GDR
07-01-2013 11:39 PM


It seems to me that disbelief is a belief ...
And not collecting stamps is a hobby?
Edited by AZPaul3, : No reason given.

This message is a reply to:
 Message 667 by GDR, posted 07-01-2013 11:39 PM GDR has not replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 672 by hooah212002, posted 07-02-2013 1:44 AM AZPaul3 has seen this message but not replied

  
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