but it carries no more logic or reason or basis that Aquinas - actually less - since it also requires you to disregard today's best science — Rank Amateur
All I can suggest at this point is looking into the standard mathematics of infinity. — aletheist
Between any two points that we mark on a line, there is an inexhaustible continuum of other potential points; — aletheist
Basically you are still saying - Augustine's argument is logical, I just don't like his answer, so in that case it is not logical. — Rank Amateur
And you still have not acknowledged or answered my point that Augustine's argument is consistent with today's best science and yours is not - can you bridge that point for me ? — Rank Amateur
That definition is incorrect, according to the standard mathematics of infinity; mainly because it begs the question by presupposing the discreteness of quantity — aletheist
In any case, I am advocating the reality of continua, not the actuality of infinity — aletheist
ou are just missing stating the first proposition in your logic chain - your first proposition is " it is not God, because I don't believe there is a God" so it has to be something else — Rank Amateur
All of which is fair - I just want to point out to you that your answer to the un-moved mover has no philosophic difference than mine ( and Aquinas's') answer - Other than, my answer is consistent with the best consensus scientific explanation of the universe - while yours requires you to leave science all together and is baded solely on faith — Rank Amateur
Which is fine, except one would have to leave the realm of the best consensus scientific theory of the the universe, that it is finite — Rank Amateur
Which is also fine - but just to be clear this is just as faith based a answer as "God". — Rank Amateur
In what specific sense do you hold that the hypothesis of a real continuum is "logically unsound" — aletheist
A bare assertion is also not persuasive — aletheist
The universe doesn't seem to be heading for a big crunch at this point. It seems more likely (at our current understanding) that the expanding universe will expand forever and keep getting colder. — Bitter Crank
Because space-time is a true continuum, — aletheist
This is the Big Bounce hypothesis. — Michael
Just curious what definition of "information" you're using. — Terrapin Station
The analogy is with a mathematical line, which does not consist of individual dimensionless points or tiny finite segments, but instead can always be divided infinitely into shorter and shorter lines. — aletheist
Just a series of events without any smallest units — Mr Bee
Who says the temporal continuum needs to contain instants? Likewise who says that the spatial continuum needs to be pointy? Perhaps the continuum has no fundamental level at all, no unit with which all other quantities are multiples of — Mr Bee
events simply come and go continuously without any fundamental duration. — Mr Bee
The concept of 'now' presupposes that time exists; and now separates the past from the future - two more meaningless concepts without that of time itself. — Tim3003
So surely time must exist, but what it's made of must be similar to what space is made of. — Tim3003
The effects on mass (basically a kind of "pulling" on the mass in both cases) is a counteracting force that make changes/motions relatively slower. — Terrapin Station
time is just change/motion — Terrapin Station
This universe is by far, theistically describable as not the best God could create, and in theistic theory, God would have in his supposed omnipotency, created far better, far more valuable things. — VoidDetector
If praying helps, then pray. Fuck the philosophers who think it is inconsistent. — Bitter Crank
the notion of god is absurd. — Banno
Measurements so far have density equal to the critical density(mass needed to stop the expansion) which should eventually slow the expansion down gradually to a flat, infinite universe — Happenstance
Anyway, did you know that the smart money is on being a big freeze due to dark matter being a constant? If we get a decrease in dark matter then a big crunch is likely and an increase would mean a big rip is more likely! — Happenstance
Reason should be guiding us not to win the God debate, but to escape it, transcend it, make it irrelevant. — Jake
Nope, still not getting it, given a billion pots, given that it is possible for one to be hole-less, why is it surprising to find that one is? — Ciaran
The situation is not that some people use faith while other people use reason. That's an entirely false division. Everybody uses faith — Jake
Without reason, atheism becomes just another kind of religious experience, and a very poor one at that — Jake
To me, God is a loving Presence, a Spirit akin to a Universal Consciousness that all of us can call upon for hope, peace, love, equanimity, patience, joy, and all of the loving virtues — Noah Te Stroete
No, we do not have to ask that. If our single universe were not life supporting we would not be in it to ask the question, so it's obvious that our universe is the life-supporting one (out of all the billions of non-life-supporting ones). It's like saying that a potter makes a billion pots, all but one of which has a hole in it. What's the chances that the only one with water in just happens to be the only one that is capable of containing water? — Ciaran
Let me ask you this: do you think if you physically damage a computer, like, break it or hit it with a hammer, or throw it in the water, that it suffers? — Wayfarer
Animals and humans are driven purely by physical/emotional pain/pleasure. We seek to maximise pleasure and minimise pain. It would be interesting if we could give a computer a nervous system and pain/pleasure drivers we have. As we saw in Bladerunner the result might be computers that are indistinguishable from us. — Devans99
Consider it further: imagine if science did create an actual being, something that was self-aware - so no longer just 'something' but a being. What kind of predicament do you think that being would feel itself to be in? If it began to ask the question 'what am I? How did I come to be? What is my place in the world?' — Wayfarer
But as regards the question - computers are not intelligent at all. They’re not beings, they’re devices. But I know what you’ll say - what’s the difference? And it’s very hard to answer that question. The fact that it’s difficult, is the indication of a deep problem, in my view. — Wayfarer
Eh? Are all the other universes going to lack cohesion or come out like ours? — Ciaran
God exists as an independent dimension above all others. S/he/It encompasses all other dimensions, such as space and time — Wallows
The thing about the big Crunch though is: would it necessarily be the same set of events going backwards in that the inhabitants from the rebound do the same things as us, or reverse-time as in the Red Dwarf story? — Happenstance