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I think what the poll needs is either an "I have no f***ing idea" option or a "Don't talk to me about religion (from either side)" option, or something else that's similar.
I'm not starting up with the existential crap here again, that's just my extra, seeing as how this thread was revived...
(And here I thought it would finally slip off to Page 2, never to be seen or worried about again! )
Distribution: x86_64 Slack 13.37 current : +others
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God is love... now knowing God is a privilege that he gives to whoever he likes... would you hand out that privilege to absolutely everyone... I would,nt. !
You don,t need religion,religion is crap... true love is better. LOL
I find it astounding that 30% of the poll is "firm believer". Absolutely amazing. Father Guido Sarducci gave god his chance today at the rally to speak-up and pick which religion is his and the response was lacking. God had a very public opportunity to show the world and make believers of us all. So either none of the the choices were positive, god wasn't listening or don't exist. I pick the don't exist choice, which really makes killing in his name nothing less than murder and books written in his name text-books on terror.
I find it astounding that 30% of the poll is "firm believer". Absolutely amazing. Father Guido Sarducci gave god his chance today at the rally to speak-up and pick which religion is his and the response was lacking. God had a very public opportunity to show the world and make believers of us all. So either none of the the choices were positive, god wasn't listening or don't exist. I pick the don't exist choice, which really makes killing in his name nothing less than murder and books written in his name text-books on terror.
Father Guido Sarducci is awesome!
I also watched the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear. Stewart as far as I'm concerned let the mainstream media really have it near the end of the rally.
Also I am happy that this rally got waaaay more people in attendance than that idiot Glenn Beck, this was a clear and well deserved slap in his face. Beck's rally failed miserably, Stewart's rally, epic WIN! In your face Glenn Beck!
Another reason I don't believe is because all religions claim to know what happens after death ... which is impossible. If anyone says that they know what happens after death, they are clearly lying ... they cannot know. Sure, I have some theories of what might happen. The mind is like an OS running on hardware (brain). It is self-aware, but aware of nothing else, hence there is an illusion that you are a unique entity. When the hardware is destroyed, the software ceases to exist along with the illusion. However, there was nothing unique about it from an objective point of view. Also, from split brain studies it is known that if you split the brain, the mind also splits into two different entities, each believing it is unique, because they are unaware of one another.
And then there's also science (excluding quantum physics).
EDIT:
At one point, upon finding out I was atheist, some girls told me: "It's sad that you won't be going to heaven.". I was dumbfounded and didn't say anything. But, I wanted to say: "No, it's sad that you're not either ...".
Last edited by H_TeXMeX_H; 10-31-2010 at 10:15 AM.
At one point, upon finding out I was atheist, some girls told me: "It's sad that you won't be going to heaven."
S**t, I haven't thought about that!!! But then again,if the heaven's earthly HQ, ie. the Vatican, is anything to go by, I don't really want to go to heaven. Besides, most girls I like are, if not already atheists, then definitely flirting with the idea of atheism.
The mind is like an OS running on hardware (brain). It is self-aware, but aware of nothing else, hence there is an illusion that you are a unique entity. However, there was nothing unique about it from an objective point of view. Also, from split brain studies it is known that if you split the brain, the mind also splits into two different entities, each believing it is unique, because they are unaware of one another.
Thanks. Thanks a lot for ruining my day.
You just gave me the following cold reminders:
consciousness or a sense of self is an illusion
ditto for free will
the only difference between anything is information state
due to all of the above, everything is meaningless
MrCode, I'm sure you've got enough free will to stop going on about the same stuff in most your posts in general. I know you can do it Actually, you HAVE TO do it. Trust me, you have no choice - it has been predetermined
Well, the two kind of go hand-in-hand...if the sense of self (agency) is an illusion, then how can one possibly have free will? A perception of free will comes from the fact that you assume that you are the cause of your actions. If the "you" does not objectively exist, then why should you believe that "you" are the cause of any of your actions? Why not simply assume what any determinist does in that we're all simply the culmination of all our past influence and genetic predispositions and completely reject the idea of a "free will"? You do realize that self-awareness does not imply free will, right? It only implies the same as a self-modifying computer program: that it can modify/write its own code.
In any case, I've already started twothreads on that topic, both of which have been closed for sanity reasons, so I'd rather not start a big long "free will vs. determinism" debate in this here thread...I'm already miserable from the above two. Seriously, anyone who starts up a big long debate on that whole thing again is more than likely going to get put on my ignore list.
When you split someones brain (cut corpus callosum) you effectively split the mind in two. So, while one half of you may try to open a door, the other may try to close it ... is that not free will ?
If you can change your programming (to an extent), doesn't that mean that you can change yourself, and thus have free will ? Or if you don't have free will, you can change yourself to have it.
Well, ok, I don't have an argument against determinism, except to say that:
It's like a blue pill / red pill kind of thing. You choose what to believe, if you really think everything is predestined, then there's nothing I can say to change your mind. Personally, I don't think there is any reason for anything to be predestined. Maybe I am subscribing to Occam's razor, and really, I often do. I don't see any reason to complicate things. To have everything predetermined is just crazy to me, it adds to much complication, if I tried to compute it, my brain would explode (yours might too). So, instead, I choose the simpler answer, we can do whatever we want, whenever we want, without added complexity.
EDIT: Actually, I just realized that this is not that off topic. I choose not to believe in God or the Big Bang or Quantum physics because it adds unnecessary compilation, when a simpler answer exists. Again, Occam's razor. I believe in Occam's razor.
Last edited by H_TeXMeX_H; 10-31-2010 at 01:11 PM.
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