Lech, _plenty_ of people think they have perceived god – not a reasonable argument. I can think of a dozen off the top of my head, and those are just people I know.
And just because you can’t prove a negative, doesn’t mean that I have to accept that any possible thing you think of. Is it possible that the entire world is actually a grapeseed in an icecreamcone in the anus of a wild boar? Well, sure, I guess it’s possible. Is it possible that an omnipowerful being spent the last five minutes turning me into a goldfish and the back again but told me not to remember? Well, okay.
But, just because those things could, conceivably, be possible, doesn’t mean I have to give them any credit. I can safely say they’re impossible because once you leave the realm of needing to make any sense, the very idea of possible or impossible is meaningless, and you end up with your arms tied up in your shirt gibbering in the corner.
Agnosticism is a perfectly reasonable belief structure, but it doesn’t typically mean willy-nilly belief in anything at all. God-belief can be (seldom happens) a logically consistent belief structure. I’m quite happy in logically consistent belief structure which has decided things which have no relationship to the real world are meaningess in determining how I should operate within that world.
“but there is simply no way for humans to deduce the existence or non-existence of God out of their perceived world.”
1) I don’t know what this means exactly, but it seems like it could apply to God just as much as the things bfarwell listed.
2) I don’t see why human deduction out of ‘their perceived world’ is a standard for truth.
What is the difference between perception and belief?
“What is the difference between perception and belief?”
None that I see, PB.
Lech, _plenty_ of people think they have perceived god – not a reasonable argument. I can think of a dozen off the top of my head, and those are just people I know.
And just because you can’t prove a negative, doesn’t mean that I have to accept that any possible thing you think of. Is it possible that the entire world is actually a grapeseed in an icecreamcone in the anus of a wild boar? Well, sure, I guess it’s possible. Is it possible that an omnipowerful being spent the last five minutes turning me into a goldfish and the back again but told me not to remember? Well, okay.
But, just because those things could, conceivably, be possible, doesn’t mean I have to give them any credit. I can safely say they’re impossible because once you leave the realm of needing to make any sense, the very idea of possible or impossible is meaningless, and you end up with your arms tied up in your shirt gibbering in the corner.
Agnosticism is a perfectly reasonable belief structure, but it doesn’t typically mean willy-nilly belief in anything at all. God-belief can be (seldom happens) a logically consistent belief structure. I’m quite happy in logically consistent belief structure which has decided things which have no relationship to the real world are meaningess in determining how I should operate within that world.
“but there is simply no way for humans to deduce the existence or non-existence of God out of their perceived world.”
1) I don’t know what this means exactly, but it seems like it could apply to God just as much as the things bfarwell listed.
2) I don’t see why human deduction out of ‘their perceived world’ is a standard for truth.
What is the difference between perception and belief?
Yeah, dibs, & there’s no prophet in it.
gotcha
is the pun fest over yet? I ran away like a little girl when I saw the pun starting
Arkady, as our resident grammatician, you have a heavy cross to bear.
Snappy, I just replied to your email.
Dave, I have a friend who has one. She loves it and says it’s pretty easy, especially if you are used to macs anyway.