I actually used my real name. :wink:

My wife is always trying to trap me because she always knows what’s best. I guess it comes with the territory.

There is chaos and patterns. You can’t separate the human mind from empirical experience.

Sure thing. I’m pretty honest unless someone is interrogating me with the aim of catching me in a trap.

As Heraclitus said, everything may be in flux. I don't see how the human mind can grasp through math the many infinities in which the random can take form — Gregory

On the other hand, Fibonacci patterns exist throughout nature, even in stocks charts. Fractals exist in nature, too.

alcontali seems like he genuinely tries to be a good person and that he wants others to try to be good, too. I don’t always agree with him, but I think his intentions are good. I, on the other hand, am very narcissistic, something I’m working on.

No, I don’t know him personally. Only on this site. It’s just my impression.

I feel like I butt heads with you too much. That is my shortcoming, not yours. I just have strong feelings about such things, but I shouldn’t get so emotional, especially in a philosophy forum.

Thank you for trying to explain it to me. I, however, still don’t get it. I wouldn’t bother clarifying as I’m not sure I would get it even then.

but I've been a bit hyperactive on that front and will wait a bit lest the forum members get sick of me. — jambaugh

I wouldn’t worry too much about it. They got sick of me a long time ago. Lol

Indeed. Logic alone doesn't cut it. — TheMadFool

Agree.

However, a superior logic, even if only provided with bits and pieces of life's puzzles, will rarely make glaring errors. — TheMadFool

Disagree. I think it would take clairvoyance and knowing the future to avoid errors.

However, it's entirely permissible that we expect mathematicians and scientists to be more logical than the rest of us. — TheMadFool

Logic only gets you so far when it comes to questions such as, “How do I live a good life?” “What should I do with my life?” “What should humanity do to heal itself from its obvious sickness?” “Is there really such a thing as mental illness, or is there just neuro-diversity?”

Does love usually sour after years of cohabitation? Do couples need to learn to “fall back in love” for the sake of keeping together what they have built their lives around, especially when it has been many years of cohabitation?

You can safely assume that this man, first and foremost, wants sex. — alcontali

:100: So wise, so true. It all starts out with lust “first and foremost.”

I would advise him not to do it, if possible. — alcontali

:lol:

:lol:

Jesus was a liberal/conservative hybrid. He taught us peace and love but at the same time condemned those who didn’t follow the Laws of Moses and who didn’t repent.

Also, Nixon was more of a liberal than Obama.

Plus, drugs bring you closer to God. Maybe they should all get high.

Mostly because of the propaganda of their leaders on both sides. Most people are capable of living in peace, side by side with anyone. It is and always has been the demagoguery and propaganda of leaders designed to keep them in power that divides any given peoples.

Yeah, the Israeli Jews’ discrimination and oppression of the Palestinians is awful, but what are they to do with a population that wants to expel them? It seems that neither side is capable of living in peace with the other. They are all digging their own graves.

It was obvious. I immediately thought of him before there were any replies. I agree that it is still a good question in the OP. Mathematicians aren’t experts in all fields, but no one is. And sometimes (or usually) experts are blinded by their rigid thinking in the prevailing system or paradigm of their field. Take everyone with a grain of salt on anything. We are totally fucking up our very existence (not to mention millions of other species’) on this once pristine planet. No one KNOWS what they’re doing, not even the world’s leaders. Well, especially them.

Did you meet someone who was like a god but was an atheist? I’m sorry to derail the thread, but I think we should make this public. All of us are wondering about your curious handle. :wink: :razz:

We all know this thread was started as a complaint against alcontali. You don’t have to be so passive-aggressive. He’s okay.

Well, I don’t think the ancient Hebrews were genius philosophers. There is wisdom in the myths, but don’t expect them to be ironclad.

I guess that’s what you were getting at. I agree.

Is this meant as reasonable/reasoned insight? As belief it is substantial and no doubt mostly good, useful, and helpful. As philosophy it is less than nothing. And I suspect it cannot be turned into a philosophical something - nature of the beast. Try for some philosophy? — tim wood

God isn’t a philosophical idea. That’s not in philosophy’s purview.

I do not see where anyone noted what (the) original sin is. My bad if I missed it- would someone kindly point me to it? Or if that hasn't been done, will someone provide? Because it is not clear to me that anyone so far knows what it is. — tim wood

Eating from the Tree of Knowledge of What is Good and What is Evil. It’s been a debate for millennia what this means. Personally I think it was the realization that humankind could modify nature to our own liking, setting down roots in particular settings, and starting civilization. Just look at the mess this has gotten us in (not to mention the fall of every other empire in history). We think we can tame nature, but we were always meant to live in the Garden of Eden (from which God expelled us, or rather we expelled ourselves).

If your only tool is a hammer then sooner or later the whole world will start looking like a nail! — alcontali

Agreed. :smile:

That said I don’t believe anyone knows what God is like. My opinion is that He gives us insight along our journeys in life. Some are open to His revealings. Others are not. I personally only take my own spiritual experiences as valid (to me). The world is full of con artists and scammers.

In science, it may apparently look like an empirical question but the falsificationist boundaries of science do not allow for a question that cannot be tested experimentally. — alcontali

Falsification in science and natural science in general only deals with the material world. God is a Spirit (at least that’s what most believers say). Science cannot even prove to anyone that other people aren’t philosophical zombies (that they do or don’t have conscious experience). Consciousness is private and is experienced privately. Likewise, God would only be experienced privately as a pure consciousness (Spirit) revealing itself to another consciousness.

People have “religious” or “spiritual” experiences all the time. Hard scientists say that they are just hallucinating when they can’t even prove they are conscious to begin with!

It’s like denying the most important part of existence. That’s my take.

Pardon the interruption.

What’s with your handle? Why must God be an atheist? Is it because He doesn’t know He’s God? Or that there is nothing above Him, and this makes his Soul long for meaning? Is God doing okay? Should we check on him?

Should I take it that we're not using arguments anymore? Is that what this is? — Virgo Avalytikh

Are you daft? He’s tearing apart your premises.

We just burned all the books that talk about how private property became a thing. How it violates a previous state of unrestricted (or far less restricted) access and must have its ownership strongly enforced. This is the real history of private property; it was imposed on the unwilling to turn a profit on what was once theirs. Commercial private property arises as part of a victory against those who it dispossesses, and only after became embodied in legal codes in a more polite form; only those who had private property or benefitted from its acquisition had a hand in setting up how it worked. As a social process, it has always been rigged, a means of attaching value to land that was acquired by force, and owning that which comes from it. — fdrake

It seems obvious to us with thinking brains. I think Virgo has an axe to grind. Either that or she is delusional.

I would guess that a true disorder is not possible...
My proof for this is our existence, or at least mine I don't know about you zombies. :-) — MathematicalPhysicist

:smile:

And lo, the prophet spake: "Let it be known that the human will, of sovereign import and power, seeks accord with its other as they are alike in essence, flowing from the ownership of our bodies and of things, the State will impose themselves upon you and the property which flows from your essence, and rob you of the power of violence which is your own. The statist will tell you that commercial private property is a social arrangement that arose contingently in the history of economic development after merchants leveraged their wealth to obtain other forms of power, but more truly it is the expression of the inviolable sanctity of our wills!" — fdrake

:100:

In other words, why not make food production and healthcare not-for-profit? Farmers and doctors could still be paid well through State subsidies, and the costs to the consumer would go down because the corporations (factory farm corporations and health insurance companies) wouldn’t be getting bloated with profits.

Furthermore, there is more than enough food to feed the world, and healthcare is not a non-renewable resource. Why should profits be involved in them?

With money management (such as the Kelly criterion and a good reward to risk ratio), yes.

I simply find your premises to be flat out false. Thus, I cannot arrive at your conclusion. See what @fdrake wrote above.

If it it simply natural evolution, then what is the need for convincing us through argument? You’ll have to excuse me if I find your motives suspect. Also, you don’t understand people.