For example, this definition includes things like me telling you I will flip this coin and get tails 20 times in a row, and I get it, and you and others are not capable to reproduce the event within a reasonable timeframe using the same coin. — Agustino
I don't have any reason to believe the laws of physics admit of exceptions. — Baden
For example, this definition includes things like me telling you I will flip this coin and get tails 20 times in a row, and I get it, and you and others are not capable to reproduce the event within a reasonable timeframe using the same coin. — Agustino
Contemporary physics exists with one end in mind, which structures the entire enterprise. I am of course speaking about what Nietzsche called the "will-to-power" or Freud called the "death drive" - in its essence science is man's attempt to force nature to do his bidding. And how is this achieved? It is achieved by destroying matter and turning it into energy, and then rechanneling that energy according to man's will. That's what you do when you burn gas to cook your meal, when you burn petrol to drive your car, or when you use nuclear fission to power your home. The whole enterprise is the exact opposite of a creative endeavour - it kills, in the attempt to control. To understand the flower, science breaks it up - into this and that part, and then proposes a theory to explain how the parts fit together. But once broken, the parts cannot be put back together. The divisive nature of physics obscures - and completely misses - the creative and unitive nature of existence - indeed that which makes physics itself possible in the first place.Contemporary physics, particularly at the extreme micro- and macro- levels is a much richer source of novelty and strangeness than the impoverished narratives of "miracles" and "the supernatural", which are fuelled largely by superstition and parochialism, rather than the more hard-earned aspects of the imaginative life associated with the former, which are borne of a combination of real intellectual work and theoretical courage. — Baden
Then the LORD God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil; and now, he might stretch out his hand, and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever”— therefore the LORD God sent him out from the garden of Eden, to cultivate the ground from which he was taken. So He drove the man out; and at the east of the garden of Eden He stationed the cherubim and the flaming sword which turned every direction to guard the way to the tree of life. — Genesis 3:22-24
On the contrary, science has done such great damage to man's collective psyche over the past 400 years, that if this continues, soon there will be no man left. We have greater technical power than ever today, but much less wisdom. We have utterly explored the outer world, but continue to be completely ignorant of the inner world. In fact, science itself has obscured the inner world in its blind quest for power. It has called the inner "subjective" - an epiphenomenon at most - while only the outer is real, fundamental and true. Science itself has attempted and continues to attempt to reduce and force the inner - that epiphenomenon - to be subservient to the outer. You feel depressed? Where is your Prozac? In other words, do not let this inner crap control you - you are the master, just like you are the master of the external world, and you will force it to be as you want it to be, you have control over it. Of course, I forgot to mention that you are also no one, just check out Metzinger's Being No One.So, anything of "miracles" or the "supernatural" that can't be at least potentially distilled into theoretical physics can be confidently flushed from consciousness as superfluous to understanding and most probably detrimental to it. — Baden
A miracle is very difficult to define - alas, I am not much interested in definitions.Hume defines a miracle as ‘a violation of the laws of nature’, or more fully, ‘a transgression of a law of nature by a particular volition of the Deity’ (p. 173) — Kitty
A miracle is very difficult to define - alas, I am not much interested in definitions. — Agustino
The problem with Hume's definitions is that "laws of nature" do not really mean anything. Whatsoever we call a law of nature is just a regularity we have observed. For all intents and purposes, those regularities can change over time. There are no laws of nature above and beyond the regularities themselves. So if the regularities change, that would, according to Hume, be a miracle. Quite a strange definition I think. — Agustino
Everything that exists is natural. — NKBJ
Doesn’t physics itself rely on other things? — Mr Phil O'Sophy
If you assume there islam a diety, then the laws of nature are the volition of that diety. so a transgression of a law of nature by a particular voilition of a diety becomes -the transgression of a volition of the diety by the particular volition of a diety. — Mr Phil O'Sophy
I’ve read the document on Hume quite intensely already. I did an exam on that very paper last year, and seemed to have a decent understanding of it considering I got a 1st. — Mr Phil O'Sophy
You could possibly argue for the supernatural on the grounds of some other kind of reality or what does it mean to exist. But since I presuppose one reality, one universe, I'll stick to all things that are in existence are "natural" in the sense that they obey the laws of nature. Natural things do not have to comply to our current understanding of the laws of nature, because we understand (or ought to) that our grasp on these is incomplete and still an area of scientific exploration. If a ghost existed, for instance, it would force us to redefine some of our laws of nature, but it would still be natural since it exists naturally in the world. Think about it, the natural course of life would be for one to be born, live, die, and part of oneself to become a ghost. It would merely be an unexplained phenomenon, not supernatural.A transcendence beyond the immanent reality we live in.
Please explain how I am committing the fallacy of begging the question? I fail to see it.But that's just question-begging
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