Topic: Religion. The evolution, creation and everything in between megathread

Offline KiLL3r

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Quote from: cnvrt02;666622
that is the most moronic comment i have heard from you, Christianity did not cause rome to fall, unrest and barbarian attacks on citys did, with a long list of other crap, but i can't be fuckin arsed putting it all down.


So just coincidence that they ruled for a thousand years yet in the 100 years that christanity was prevelant rome managed to lose everything they had gained? I mean why bother expanding your country when you can just wait and live forever in heaven

Reply #4100 Posted: February 28, 2008, 06:58:18 pm


Offline philo-sofa

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Quote from: Arnifix;666597
Entropy.


Quote from: KiLL3r;666603
Yet apparently its impossible for the universe to do the same thing?


It doesn't seem possibel for the universe to do it, given that it's a zero net-energy brane floating on/in a multiverse, but any itself is a largely unknown quantity, and moreover implying that the multiverse (or something beyond that, e.g. an ubermultiverse) isn't infinite raises much harder logical questions such as "what caused it then" and specifically "how could something cause the universe if it didn't exist as soemthing that doesn't exist can have no causality".  Entropy is great, but the same logic above implies that the there may be soemthing that transcendes it, otherwise there would be no present universe (either no beginning and no entropy, or something which is uncaused).

Quote from: KiLL3r;666589
Why do religious types always end up using slander when their argument falls apart?


Quote from: KiLL3r;666603

Well when you call one of the most well educated atheist Dorkins instead of Dawkins it appears that way.


That was a spelling error, though it hardly qualifies as slander.  I'm a great fan of Dawkins, having watched and read much of his material, though I find him a little militant sometimes, he generally makes good arguments and has made me a lot more militant.

Which brings me onto the fact that I'm an Atheist.

Actually a pretty strident, vocal one, however in my case that's because I've reasoned a lot through arguments from both sides before coming to my conclusion (if you did the same rather than picking a side and sticking with it maybe you wouldn't be a Communist :P)  I reason that the whole idea of a God is quite absurd.  The strongest evidence is circumstantial, easily explicable through othe means and exactly in line in terms of quality and quantity with what I'd expect if the majority of the human race just had faith and was scrabbling to justify it.  That doesn't mean I'll deny any religious argument simply because of its conclusion - a lot of very smart, rational people accept that there are some half decent religious arguments and some acutally believe in God.  

But congrats on taking my bait ;)

Reply #4101 Posted: February 28, 2008, 06:58:29 pm

Offline cnvrt02

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Quote from: KiLL3r;666625
So just coincidence that they ruled for a thousand years yet in the 100 years that christanity was prevelant rome managed to lose everything they had gained? I mean why bother expanding your country when you can just wait and live forever in heaven


the empire was in trouble WELL before the Christians came along.

Reply #4102 Posted: February 28, 2008, 07:00:07 pm

Offline KiLL3r

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Quote from: cnvrt02;666627
the empire was in trouble WELL before the Christians came along.


sorry cnvrt i didnt know you were there but thanks for providing all that evidence to backup your statement

Reply #4103 Posted: February 28, 2008, 07:01:51 pm


Offline KiLL3r

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Quote from: philo-sofa;666626
It doesn't seem possibelfor the universe to do it, given that it's a zero net-energy brane floating on/in a multiverse, but any itself is a largely unknown quantity, and moreover implying that the multiverse (or something beyond that, e.g. an ubermultiverse) isn't infinite raises much harder logical questions such as "what caused it then" and specifically "how could something cause the universe if it didn't exist as soemthing that doesn't exist can have no causality".  Entropy is great, but the same logic impleus





That was a spelling error, though it hardly qualifies as slander.  I'm a great fan of Dawkins, having watched and read much of his material, though I find him a little militant sometimes, he generally makes good arguments and has made me a lot more militant.

Which brings me onto the fact that I'm an Atheist.

Actually a pretty strident, vocal one, however in my case that's because I've reasoned a lot through arguments from both sides before coming to my conclusion (if you did the same rather than picking a side and sticking with it maybe you wouldn't be a Communist :P)  I reason that the whole idea of a God is quite absurd.  The strongest evidence is circumstantial, easily explicable through othe means and exactly in line in terms of quality and quantity with what I'd expect if the majority of the human race just had faith and was scrabbling to justify it.  That doesn't mean I'll deny any religious argument simply because of its conclusion - a lot of very smart, rational people accept that there are some half decent religious arguments and some acutally believe in God.  

But congrats on taking my bait ;)

you come off sounding alot more agnostic than atheist. An weak atheist maybe?

Reply #4104 Posted: February 28, 2008, 07:03:17 pm


Offline philo-sofa

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Quote from: KiLL3r;666631
you come off sounding alot more agnostic than atheist. An weak atheist maybe?


No an Atheist.  Knowledge makes you stronger, not weaker.  

Accepting the possibility of being wrong is hard to do (for myself and others), but neccesary if we're to advance a little beyond the level of apes slinging feaces at each other when there's any disagreement.

Reply #4105 Posted: February 28, 2008, 07:08:00 pm

Offline KiLL3r

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Quote from: philo-sofa;666633
No an Atheist.  Knowledge makes you stronger, not weaker.  


a weak atheist doesnt mean your weak  :sunnies:

Reply #4106 Posted: February 28, 2008, 07:12:37 pm


Offline philo-sofa

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Quote from: philo-sofa;666633
No an Atheist.  Knowledge makes you stronger, not weaker.


Quote from: KiLL3r;666641
a weak atheist doesnt mean your weak  :sunnies:


That was a pun - I was using a well known saying to imply that knowledge tends to lead to Atheism :bigglasse

Reply #4107 Posted: February 28, 2008, 07:13:45 pm

Offline Black Heart

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Quote from: maorifulla;666584
yes it goes on and on my friend.....

[next line plz]


Some people started singing it not knowing what it was...

Reply #4108 Posted: February 28, 2008, 07:23:51 pm

Offline Arnifix

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Quote from: Black Heart;666644
Some people started singing it not knowing what it was...


and those people got neg rep. Bad luck suckas. That's causality for you.

Reply #4109 Posted: February 28, 2008, 07:25:18 pm

Let us retract the foreskin of ignorance and apply the wirebrush of enlightenment.

Offline Tiwaking!

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Quote from: ThaFleastyler;666420
A post about the healing power of prayer

http://whywontgodhealamputees.com/
Quote from: philo-sofa;666626
It doesn't seem possibel for the universe to do it, given that it's a zero net-energy brane floating on/in a multiverse, but any itself is a largely unknown quantity, and moreover implying that the multiverse (or something beyond that, e.g. an ubermultiverse) isn't infinite raises much harder logical questions such as "what caused it then" and specifically "how could something cause the universe if it didn't exist as soemthing that doesn't exist can have no causality".  Entropy is great, but the same logic above implies that the there may be soemthing that transcendes it, otherwise there would be no present universe (either no beginning and no entropy, or something which is uncaused).

Branes dont float they coexist like slices of bread in an overall loaf.

The universe is not infinite because there is a definite 'outside' of the universe, beyond the background radiation.

'How could something cause the univese if it didnt exist as something that doesnt exist can have no causality' - The same way that God could exist without a cause. Adding God as the cause for the universe when refusing to accept the Universe being its own cause..... well. You can derive your own comment there.

The only thing that transcends entropy is, of course, zero dimension.

Reply #4110 Posted: February 28, 2008, 10:30:55 pm
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Offline detonator7

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what i can understand is why do athiets have to prove christians wrong? if they believe theres nothing out there and when you die nothing happens couuldnt they just leave christians alone and let them live their life how they want. whats so important to them about how another person lives?

Reply #4111 Posted: February 28, 2008, 10:34:34 pm
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Offline Tiwaking!

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Quote from: detonator7;666744
what i can understand is why do athiets have to prove christians wrong? if they believe theres nothing out there and when you die nothing happens couuldnt they just leave christians alone and let them live their life how they want. whats so important to them about how another person lives?

Because Christians have been attempting to dictate how everyone should live for nigh on 1500 years?

With Islam, being 600 years younger, attempting to take up the baton of telling everyone what to do what is the next religion going to be?

Hinduism gave up trying to tell everyone what to do 2500 years ago. Buddhism gave that up 1400 years ago.

I guess the next big thing is Communism

Reply #4112 Posted: February 28, 2008, 10:48:45 pm
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Offline [tsw].Forsaken

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Quote from: KiLL3r;666573
Just as everything has a beginning everything has a ending. Why should god be any different?


well, in essence, from a "scientific point of view", we can say that matter does not get created or destroyed, just changes form, style, whatever you wanna call it. So it is tacitly implied that matter is a given that will not end (and has been "here" from...ever)....since everything is made of matter (material things for that matter :p hahaha love how I end up confused with the words lol) we can imply that everything has no beginning or end....only forms, or stages have some sort of "cycle" though not sure if that would classify as a definite end/beginning.

omg....I'm so tripping right now and I haven't had anything!!!!! I can get a high from air alone!!!!

Reply #4113 Posted: February 28, 2008, 11:01:46 pm

Offline philo-sofa

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Quote from: Tiwaking!;666742
Branes dont float they coexist like slices of bread in an overall loaf.

That's a slightly pedantic distinction - floating on/in is an acceptable and commonly used metaphor.

Quote from: Tiwaking!;666742
The universe is not infinite because there is a definite 'outside' of the universe, beyond the background radiation.

I never referred to the universe - I was implying the potential for the multiverse, or layers beyond that to be unbounded.

Quote from: Tiwaking!;666742
'How could something cause the univese if it didnt exist as something that doesnt exist can have no causality' - The same way that God could exist without a cause. Adding God as the cause for the universe when refusing to accept the Universe being its own cause..... well. You can derive your own comment there.

Absolutely - do please again read the specific claims I've been making; I'm not trying to add God as a cause, nor trying to deny any source of the Universe.  

Logically whether the we consider the Universe to have been created by a God, or to have formed some other way, we appear left with the causality paradox. Which is what I am saying; there's little sense in using a 'but who created God?' argument to guarantee a God didn't create the Universe.  This is not in any way indicative of a God having created the universe, I'm simply pointing out the presence of a near identical and often ignored problem in either scenario .

Quote from: Tiwaking!;666742
The only thing that transcends entropy is, of course, zero dimension.

I just don't understand the maths well enough to have any real input on Zero dimensional maths, but I believe I understand what you are saying on a conceptual level.  

However I do understand the implications of an unbounded set (the Multiverse) which is comprised of what can be viewed as orthogonal bounded sub sets, this doesn't specifically 'beat' entropy but does transcend it in a meaningful sense.  In essence think of a classic Tegmarkian multiverse and it's implications (specifically concentrating on the isomorphicism conditions being met), and you'll see what I'm aiming at - entropy runs out of steam as a completely meaningful factor when considered in the sense of the set - the loaf we're coexisting in is unbounded.

Reply #4114 Posted: February 29, 2008, 12:04:09 am

Offline cobra

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Quote from: detonator7;666744
what i can understand is why do athiets have to prove christians wrong? if they believe theres nothing out there and when you die nothing happens couuldnt they just leave christians alone and let them live their life how they want. whats so important to them about how another person lives?


as long as people don't have negative impact on other people i don't care how ignorantly they choose to live their lives.

christians head up hate campaigns - that's why i care

Reply #4115 Posted: February 29, 2008, 01:01:20 am

Offline Black Heart

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Quote from: detonator7;666744
what i can understand is why do athiets have to prove christians wrong? if they believe theres nothing out there and when you die nothing happens couuldnt they just leave christians alone and let them live their life how they want. whats so important to them about how another person lives?

Thats hilarious, what section of aetheist goes around selling aetheism door to door ?

Which part of the week is filled with specifically aetheist TV veiwing?

Name a terrorist who is an avowed aetheist.

Reply #4116 Posted: February 29, 2008, 07:54:19 am

Offline Tiwaking!

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Quote from: philo-sofa;666760
That's a slightly pedantic distinction - floating on/in is an acceptable and commonly used metaphor

'Floating' implies that it is surrounded by a substance. The only substance that Branes rest on is other Branes
Quote from: philo-sofa;666760
Logically whether the we consider the Universe to have been created by a God, or to have formed some other way, we appear left with the causality paradox. Which is what I am saying; there's little sense in using a 'but who created God?' argument to guarantee a God didn't create the Universe.  This is not in any way indicative of a God having created the universe, I'm simply pointing out the presence of a near identical and often ignored problem in either scenario

But the cause for God falls afoul of Occams Razor. You of all people should know that.
Quote from: philo-sofa;666760
I just don't understand the maths well enough to have any real input on Zero dimensional maths, but I believe I understand what you are saying on a conceptual level.

Actually your understanding of the 'Zero' dimesion is pretty spot-on. It is either:

a) The container for everything
b) The place where all the calculators go when they die

Neither of which is mutually exclusive, but are cause for debate

Reply #4117 Posted: February 29, 2008, 09:10:57 am
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Offline SteddieEddie

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Quote from: detonator7;
what i can understand is why do athiets have to prove christians wrong? if they believe theres nothing out there and when you die nothing happens couuldnt they just leave christians alone and let them live their life how they want. whats so important to them about how another person lives?




And one more

Finally in this age atheists can safely voice their views without fear of persecution. For me it is not about proving anyone wrong, if someone has faith in any religion (regardless of how much blood is on it's hands)then that is their choice. It has only been about 30 years in this country since you can openly question gods existence, long may it continue

Reply #4118 Posted: February 29, 2008, 09:15:47 am

Offline philo-sofa

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Quote from: Tiwaking!;666853

But the cause for God falls afoul of Occams Razor. You of all people should know that.


Yup - the cause does fall foul of the more-often-than-not true Occam's Razor and I really should and did know that, but again, I'm not trying to establish a cause for God, merely pointing out that there are only arguments for a lack of God other than 'but who made him'.

Quote from: Tiwaking!;666853

Actually your understanding of the 'Zero' dimesion is pretty spot-on. It is either:

a) The container for everything
b) The place where all the calculators go when they die

Neither of which is mutually exclusive, but are cause for debate


Why thank you :) I should point out though that I also don't believe in Silicon Heaven - where do all the calculators go?  They just... die.

Reply #4119 Posted: February 29, 2008, 09:59:15 am

Offline KiLL3r

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Quote

The Catholic Bishop of Sydney has come out against a government proposal to add an R18+ designation to Australia’s current video game rating system.

As reported by the The Catholic Weekly, Auxiliary Bishop Julian Porteous expressed a belief that violent games desensitize players to real-world violence:

    The causes of violence and crime in society is a very complex problem… We know from psychological research that exposure to violent video games can desensitise people to real-life violence.

    We need not add to this problem with games that numb our natural repulsion to violence and, with regard to sexually explicit games, reduce women in particular to mere objects of instant self gratification.


Bishop Porteous pointed to studies conducted by Iowa State researcher Craig Anderson and University of California professor Sonya Brady:

   Dr. Brady’s study not only reconfirms associations between real-world violence and risky behaviour, her experiments show a direct cause and effect between exposure to violence and attitudes toward risky behaviour. Video game violence can change a person’s attitudes in the real world…

    There is a risk that exposure to media violence will increase the likelihood of subsequent aggressive behaviour; video games with explicit sexual content are also at issue here.


This guy obviously believes anything he reads as truth :chuckle:
guess you aussies will have to keep playing m15 games only

Reply #4120 Posted: February 29, 2008, 11:52:12 am


Offline Black Heart

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Reply #4121 Posted: February 29, 2008, 12:31:20 pm

Offline KiLL3r

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Quote from: Black Heart;666908
whats "risky behaviour" ?


using a condom?

Reply #4122 Posted: February 29, 2008, 12:40:48 pm


Offline philo-sofa

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Not that I want to get a resputatuon of always supporting the religious - but I've read a couple of pretty watertight statistical studies that suggest playing 'violent' games tends to increase a person's agression level.  

That having been said I'm sure the same is true of teamsports, racing and so on, so it does all need to be viewed in context.

Reply #4123 Posted: February 29, 2008, 12:43:24 pm

Offline SteddieEddie

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I would have to agree with that statement that playing violent video games could desensitize some people.

I have no problem with rating grand theft as 18+. I know there will be plenty of under 18 that would never have a problem distinguishing reality from make believe, but for the minority that can't society needs to put in some checks and balances

Reply #4124 Posted: February 29, 2008, 12:58:48 pm