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Author Topic:   Perceptions of Reality
Nighttrain
Member (Idle past 3984 days)
Posts: 1512
From: brisbane,australia
Joined: 06-08-2004


Message 60 of 305 (358059)
10-22-2006 2:35 AM
Reply to: Message 59 by RAZD
10-21-2006 11:02 PM


Re: Reality: What a concept!
I`m waiting to validate the methods of detecting demons.
Can`t be too hard as a certain group say they are all around us. :-p

This message is a reply to:
 Message 59 by RAZD, posted 10-21-2006 11:02 PM RAZD has replied

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Nighttrain
Member (Idle past 3984 days)
Posts: 1512
From: brisbane,australia
Joined: 06-08-2004


Message 64 of 305 (358244)
10-23-2006 2:07 AM
Reply to: Message 63 by RAZD
10-22-2006 1:39 PM


Re: Reality: What a concept!
If only we could access the autopsy reports on those Gergesene/Gadarene swine. I`m sure Grissom could construct a fail-safe detection test. :-p

This message is a reply to:
 Message 63 by RAZD, posted 10-22-2006 1:39 PM RAZD has not replied

Nighttrain
Member (Idle past 3984 days)
Posts: 1512
From: brisbane,australia
Joined: 06-08-2004


Message 81 of 305 (359215)
10-27-2006 3:19 AM
Reply to: Message 79 by warner
10-26-2006 9:35 PM


Re: two replies for two different purposes
And the idea that it was orchestrated by divine intelligence and not by natural selection.
In a long and rather thorough search on this earth, I have found no evidence of divinity. Care to show me some?

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 Message 79 by warner, posted 10-26-2006 9:35 PM warner has replied

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 Message 82 by warner, posted 10-27-2006 11:52 AM Nighttrain has replied

Nighttrain
Member (Idle past 3984 days)
Posts: 1512
From: brisbane,australia
Joined: 06-08-2004


Message 84 of 305 (359437)
10-28-2006 1:54 AM
Reply to: Message 82 by warner
10-27-2006 11:52 AM


Re: two replies for two different purposes
I`m not querying on my behalf, but for believers who went screaming in agony to their deaths while calling on the divine. So you have the gift and all the others were misguided? Seems the least a God could do is let you pass on the secret to the favoured.

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 Message 82 by warner, posted 10-27-2006 11:52 AM warner has replied

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 Message 85 by warner, posted 10-28-2006 5:40 PM Nighttrain has replied

Nighttrain
Member (Idle past 3984 days)
Posts: 1512
From: brisbane,australia
Joined: 06-08-2004


Message 86 of 305 (359572)
10-28-2006 11:59 PM
Reply to: Message 85 by warner
10-28-2006 5:40 PM


Re: two replies for two different purposes
And that you should know all the details before slandering somebody, especially God.
And you should know the real Scriptures before quoting them. Care to show me the originals? Being on first-name terms should give you an inside edge to what really was written. Show us the beginning.

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 Message 85 by warner, posted 10-28-2006 5:40 PM warner has replied

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 Message 93 by warner, posted 10-29-2006 11:15 AM Nighttrain has not replied
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Nighttrain
Member (Idle past 3984 days)
Posts: 1512
From: brisbane,australia
Joined: 06-08-2004


Message 102 of 305 (359740)
10-29-2006 10:02 PM
Reply to: Message 100 by RAZD
10-29-2006 8:06 PM


Re: philos+sophy -- perceptions of what you see based on what you know
The question is - regardless of sex and faith and race and any other demographic - how do we determine perceptions of reality are based on reality?
Apologies,RAZD, for derailing the thread.
Thoughts at random.
I guess the concept of reality must be allied to a certain number of observations--claims, if you will. Dunno where the cutoff point will be reached. 5? 10? 20? Certainly, there will be anecdotal experiences reported, and they may even be genuine, in a realistic sense, not delusional. But, they remain oddities until such time as more of the same surface, and we can assess whether the proposers are reporting something factual or an experience of the mind. Many tales of seafarers were dismissed as delusions till repeated physical sights and concrete evidence caused them to pass from fantasy to fact. Some were so bizarre (like the Kraken and mermaids) that the tales were never accepted. (Anyone who has seen a manatee or dugong up close will never confuse the two with mermaids. :-p).
With mass hysteria, religious conversions, riots, etc., are we dealing with mental aberrations on a grand scale, or something on the chemical level? I suppose physical apparitions tend to get confirmed a lot sooner than apparitions of the mind, even though both were reported.
On the individual level,how is one to determine the reality of what may be an optical illusion in the desert? Walk it off? Have forty winks and see if it goes away? Surely, knowledge of these aberrations must be fundamental to making a judgement. Just like being aware of the avenues that the mind can wander down gives us a tool to pick real from unreal. Somewhere in the reported incident may lie clues to separate fact from fancy. Does the recipient vary the story from day to day? Does the reporter embellish (a la Matthew) the tale at repeated tellings? Does it retain clarity over a period? Are the names changed to protect the innocent?
Yet we have had so many great concepts and inventions that were created within our minds, even if it took physical work to bring them to fruition. Were they delusional? What of the ideas and inventions that didn`t pan out?
While it might take a bit of the spontaneity out of life, I guess a sceptical frame of mind should put new claims of unusual events or concepts on hold until such times as they can be compared with similar claims,and excluding all other possible explanations. Accepting oddities first-up is the province of children and the gullible.

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