3 Theories Of Everything by Ellis Potter

My thoughts.

I don’t think that his “circles” even do a good job of capturing the underlying beliefs. There is a lot of room for nuance and divergence.

And the whole “my beliefs are best!” implicit in it is - well, probably the point, but it’s rather distasteful at best. The more so unless it’s really rigorously justified with painstaking fairness, and I’m not seeing that. At all.

Also, it’s a rather sad commentary on Christianity that acknowledging that non-Christians can do good is even an issue. That it has to be justified with dodgy talking of “completeness”, to try and say that Christians are still better just shows that the problem is still there.

So, I don’t think that they are really good questions. And the answers aren’t that great either. (Well, the second question is worth asking, I guess, but the fact that it is worth asking is a pretty severe indictment of Christianity).

Tangle writes: It's a continuing source of puzzlement to me how you can read that totally unsubstantiated, almost meaningless tripe that's simply made up on the spot and be impressed by it.

First of all, it really isn't "made-up". But I'll never convince you unless I somehow can capture some objective proof some day.

Even then, I could see you fighting it. Most of you really want autonomy and never would trust a cosmic authority figure even if One could be proven to exist.

Phat writes: First of all, it really isn't "made-up". But I'll never convince you unless I somehow can capture some objective proof some day.

The words and ideas that these people spout is totally made up - there's no other source for them. On the few occasions I'm forced into church - births, deaths and marriages - I hear the priest riff around such stuff as though no one with a critical mind is listening. Which I guess they're usually not and which is why they get away with it. Preaching to the converted.

Most of you really want autonomy and never would trust a cosmic authority figure even if One could be proven to exist.

The same refuted stuff just keeps bouncing back as though it was never said. Most of us deal with the reality in front of us. If that ever involved this god thing of yours, we'd deal with it. You know, that stuff about when the facts change...?

I know it's alien to you but realists are capable of changing their minds based on evidence. Try it, you might like it.

Good morning, O Tangled One..(who introduced me to the concept of realism)
which I just looked up to jump-start my brain. Realism on Wikipedia One good feature that I like now about the evolving usefulness of Wikipedia is the feature that lets me simply hover over a sub-classification or word mentioned in an article and see the sub-definition pop up handily. Now that we are on the subject, allow me to try and do the same with references to Ellis Potter and his book...on Wiki. Im lazy this morning and am satisfied for now with learning through comparing and contrasting word definitions within a given topic. I did the same with our boy Danial Dennett and pigeon-holed his basic beliefs quite quickly. One thing that I noted which led me back around to Wikis article on Realism is the observation of Dennetts thinking and of how he was raised in the Empiricist tradition.

In regards to our ongoing discussions and debates between myself and youse guys, I am starting to understand your positions somewhat better, but for the life of me cannot figure why it is so hard for you to understand mine. I certainly didnt simply adopt a belief/philosophy which was simply (and entirely) made up!

There is a lot of anecdotal and subjective evidence within the community, and not everyone is a personified loon.

tangle writes: The words and ideas that these people spout is totally made up - there's no other source for them.

Yes I know... and you will again tell me that the characters are limited to the book. That characters in a book are totally created by the authors of said book. Your logic is sound, I will admit. Lets just say then for the sake of argument that the body of believers on the planet makes up their own characters and passes them around to each other as a collective mythos. Does that observation satisfy your demand for honesty? AddbyEdit:
I also clipped this from Wiki in an article titled "Belief".

wiki writes: There are various different ways that contemporary philosophers have tried to describe beliefs, including as representations of ways that the world could be (Jerry Fodor), as dispositions to act as if certain things are true (Roderick Chisholm), as interpretive schemes for making sense of someone's actions (Daniel Dennett and Donald Davidson), or as mental states that fill a particular function (Hilary Putnam).[2] Some have also attempted to offer significant revisions to our notion of belief, including eliminativists about belief who argue that there is no phenomenon in the natural world which corresponds to our folk psychological concept of belief (Paul Churchland) and formal epistemologists who aim to replace our bivalent notion of belief ("either we have a belief or we don't have a belief") with the more permissive, probabilistic notion of credence ("there is an entire spectrum of degrees of belief, not a simple dichotomy between belief and non-belief").[2][3]

That fellow Roderick Chisholm is where i'm heading next.

Edited by Phat, : tangling up an idea

Edited by Phat, : No reason given.

Phat writes: I am starting to understand your positions somewhat better, but for the life of me cannot figure why it is so hard for you to understand mine.

offs. Of course I understand your position! How many times have I explained to that I believed the same garbage as you do once. I completely get it.

But it's a delusion - once the smoke blows away you feel a complete idiot for ever believing it.

I certainly didnt simply adopt a belief/philosophy which was simply (and entirely) made up!

Of course you did. Just like you think everyone but you and your fellow Christian nutters think every other religion is made up. Despite those believers having exactly the same experience that you have and I had. Despite the fact that you couldn't have had your experience if you'd been born elsewhere or even to different parents. Wake up, you're not special.

I would only add that I believe that we are not originating the stories but are borrowing from the mind(s) in Holy Communion with the Living Spirit. (had to verify to you that I too was and am a loon!

I already knew Phat. It hurts.

I appreciate your feedback and honesty. This morning I am travelling down a rabbit trail regarding word definitions. I just found this one on Wikipedia:
Metaphysical naturalism ... (also called ontological naturalism, philosophical naturalism and antisupernaturalism) is a philosophical worldview which holds that there is nothing but natural elements, principles, and relations of the kind studied by the natural sciences. Methodological naturalism is a philosophical basis for science, for which metaphysical naturalism provides only one possible ontological foundation. Broadly, the corresponding theological perspective is religious naturalism or spiritual naturalism. More specifically, metaphysical naturalism rejects the supernatural concepts and explanations that are part of many religions.

so i'm trying to defend the idea that my world view is not simply made up. I am observing many of the great minds quoted in support of science and scientific/philosophical concepts and definitions which built upon one another and which led to many further theories and schools of thought today.

Having observed this...my question is: Why is the religious theologians who have built their ideas ajnd philosophies upon the Bible and also on the thoughts of many church fathers thought of less respectfully for having gotten their world views thusly?

I already knew Phat. It hurts

oh hush. I edited that post and went off in another direction. My basic question, after hovering over scientists and philosophers in the wiki pages, was why you so flippantly stated that *we* make stuff up with no source behind it. But the science mi9nds and philosophy minds use each others words to build on their own theories. Yes, these theories can be better tested than can the theological theories, but to limit the ideas to empirical evidence is a bit biased in my mind. In philosophy, you often have to take what is said with the premise that you yourself don't need to believe it but are curious where the idea comes from.

Phat writes: Lets just say then for the sake of argument that the body of believers on the planet makes up their own characters and passes them around to each other as a collective mythos.

Let's not forget that "the body of believers on the planet" don't all believe the same things you believe. There are Hindus, Mormons, etc. who all believe as fervently as you do and all have "experiences" as convincing as yours - and YOU think THEIR beliefs are made-up nonsense.

You actually reason the same way as atheists do. The only difference is that you hang on to one set of made-up nonsense.

Phat writes: But the science minds and philosophy minds use each others words to build on their own theories. Yes, these theories can be better tested than can the theological theories, but to limit the ideas to empirical evidence is a bit biased in my mind. In philosophy, you often have to take what is said with the premise that you yourself don't need to believe it but are curious where the idea comes from.

Science is not philosophy. And theology is neither.

Theology is wholly made up, has no foundation in anything but a core feeling that mankind is special above all other organisms that are born and die. We made it all up for our own purposes and it became a power structure that survives only while it is culturally acceptable.

Philosophy thinks that it can think itself an understanding of the world. Just by sitting in a chair and thinking really hard. At least it's rational and logical, but it gets nowhere if the conclusions it forms can't be tested in the real world. Science is the only thing we've invented that can test the real world an get reproducible, independent, objective answers.

Edited by Tangle, : No reason given.