"Entropy" and "Enformy" are scientific/technical terms that are equivalent to the religious/moralistic terms "Evil" and "Good" [WOO]. So, while those forces are completely natural, the ultimate source of the power behind them may be supernatural [WOO], in the sense that the First Cause logically existed before the Big Bang. — Gnomon

It is a mistake of category to believe that 'mental' is divorced from physical reality. — Philosophim

Perhaps - but, ironically, the whole question of the mind-independence of the fundamental aspects of nature has been thrown into question by this objective process. — Wayfarer

Our emotional state is usually in reference to what our expectations are. So, if you want to have the maximally positive emotional state, it is rational to lower your expectations to the minimum. I think a lot of misery in life comes from having high expectations which are not met. — Brendan Golledge

Wokism is just a collection of leftist overreactions and eccentricities. That's the actual punchline. — ssu

When you hamstring God by saying, "well, it might be metaphysically impossible for God to do that", you're making God sound very impotent. I get why Christians like Leibniz do that, but it's a very weak ad hoc move. Prima facie, this is obviously not the best of all possible worlds. — RogueAI

In short, religions disagree about what happens when I die, how to be saved, etc. Religions have had thousands of years to find the truth and have failed.
— Art48

I hope that helps. — Art48

You can't pardon the person that victimized you and be just: that would be mercy at the expense of justice — Bob Ross

Presumably there is a theology that explains[EXCUSES] all this...
— Banno

Theology can explain[EXCUSE] anything... — Tom Storm

Theology is not philosophy.

Theology starts with a conclusion, and seeks to explain how it fits in with how things are. It seeks to make a given doctrine consistent.

Philosophy starts with how things are and looks for a consistent explanation.

Theology can't say "That's inconsistent", and so eventually has to rely instead on mystery. — Banno

Each biblical reference here supports the methodological point that theology presupposes its conclusion. — Banno

... the idea of God's sacrifice. — Bob Ross

[W]hat is at stake is not rational.

It's why the replies from believers consist mostly of repeating doctrine rather than responding to the inconsistency. [ ... ] When face[d] with the profound, inexpressible, existential mystery, the rational response is I don't know.

But silence is difficult. — Banno

The Catholic Church [Christian myth à la St. Paul, St. Augustine] teaches that God Almighty came down from heaven to save us... from His own wrath... by allowing Himself to be tortured to death. And apparently this strategy worked in spite of the fact that he didn't actually die (people saw him walking around three days later), and most people didn't get saved. — frank

I was talking about legitimate debt. Are you suggesting that the idea of sin is illegitimate? — Bob Ross

Imagine that you knew someone [mortals] was in debt to you [God] so much money that they [mortals] never could pay it back. — Bob Ross

According to Christianity, when you sin you offend God and you cannot repay that sin; so God, out of love, offered Himself to repay that debt so that you can repent.

↪Bob Ross
The act of torturing yourself or others is evil[or stupid]. — MoK

[ ... ] Meaning that the stark object-subject divide that characterised modern thought is now being challenged by science itself. — Wayfarer

The idea that the universe is purposeless is a modern invention, arising in the early modern period ... — Wayfarer

That is briefly described in the OP under the heading of ‘The Great Abstraction’ — which is precisely what it was.

we don't know anything transcendent, and this is so by mere definition. — Janus

If life has a meaning beyond mere survival it consists in the volition to thrive [ ... ] If there is a good we all strive for it is potence. Potence is naturally desirable (considered good) and impotence is naturally undesirable (considered bad). — Janus

The idea of a transcendent meaning is incoherent ...

All meaning is immanent and relative to life as lived.

Did you ever try to accept it without understanding it? — frank

How does a person who hasn't had a lobotomy make sense of this? — frank

What about dumb adults, or sheeple? — Punshhh

We all know we are all stupid, and stupider still when younger. Why fan the flames of political ignorance? — I like sushi

For example, imagine if everyone had followed the advice of Jesus two thousand years ago and continued to for generations. We would presumably be living a better life by now. — Punshhh

The "distinction" is between the physical Brain and its meta-physical function: Minding is what a Brain does. When I refer to Mind as "Meta-Physical" --- note the hyphen --- I'm using the term in its literal sense of non-physical. — Gnomon

[T]he term "metaphysical" is often construed as religious or mystical or unscientific woo-woo. The study of Meta-physics is indeed un-scientific, in that the Philosophical exploration goes beyond the empirical limits of physical Science.

... consciousness. It is present, in all things. — Patterner

Here's a link to a famous paper on emergence "More is less" by P.W. Anderson. — T Clark

First of all, the scientific worldview holds that physical processes alone, operating through natural selection and other mechanisms, are sufficient to explain the emergence of all phenomena including consciousness and reason, without requiring any overarching purpose. Of course both Nagel and Goff object to this, but the reality is that the scientific worldview has been incredibly successful in practice, while the sort of metaphysics these authors keep pushing has done absolutely nothing to advance our understanding of the world and represents, in fact, a sliding back to the Middle Ages, if not earlier.

Second, and this is an elaboration of the point I have just made, teleological explanations simply fail to provide concrete mechanisms for how cosmic purpose would actually operate in physical reality. There is truly nothing there to be seen.
— Massimo Pigliucci

So he articulates exactly the kind of positivist dogma that I have in my sights. — Wayfarer

A relativist doesn’t have to deny that moral language is of use in our world: they just deny that it reflects some absolute, God’s-eye-view or Platonic realm of moral truth. — Tom Storm

Consciousness is subjective experience. That's all. Everything experiences it's own existence. — Patterner

'To be, is to compute'. — Wayfarer

The idea is that there is no non-consciousness. — Patterner

I am saying consciousness does not cease when one is in general anesthesia ... the functioning of the person's brain does not create consciousness. — Patterner

I do not equate consciousness with sapience or sentience — Patterner

What "makes us conscious" is the (rarified) arrangements of our constituent "particles" into generative cognitive systems embedded-enactive within eco-systems of other generative systems. Afaik, all extant evidence warrants that 'consciousness' is an emergent activity (or process) of complex biological systems and not a fundamental (quantum) property like charge, spin, etc. — 180 Proof

both [non-immanent] and immanent — Gnomon

I've never experienced the indwelling presence of God. — Gnomon

It doesn’t follow from this though, that there isn’t a purpose. — Punshhh

I can say that consciousness may be epistemically fundamental but not ontologically so. — Manuel

I once had a lucid dream where I inhabited a plant, briefly. It was like my consciousness, disembodied, was moving around a landscape. At one point, I moved into a plant and could feel being the shape of the plant and the energies coursing through the xylem tubes. There were intense colours across a spectrum, it was very thrilling. Then I moved out of the plant and across the landscape again and remember looking back at the plant and wanting to be that plant again. It was like I experienced what it was like to be a plant. — Punshhh

In a world that gives rise to observers, meaning [may or]may not be an add-on. It may[or may not] have been that it is there all along, awaiting discovery. — Wayfarer

The problem is precisely that 'the equation' makes no provision for the act of observation.
— Wayfarer

In my understanding, interpretations of quantum mechanics, which do not make a provision for the act of observation are just as consistent with the mathematics and observations of behavior as those that do. — T Clark

Modern science[illiteracy] tells us that our world has progressed from a dimensionless mathematical Singularity — Gnomon

Since our world had a beginning, it's hard to deny the concept of creation. — Gnomon

So, an infinite deity is proposed ...

Have you ever engaged in an Ayahuasca retreat ... with others who will understand[understood] what you are talking[talked] about? — Gnomon

Scientific knowledge is a superior authority, because it's the only methodology that reaches "an intellectual consensus about controversial matters... [Armstrong] concludes that it is the scientific image of man, and not the philosophical or religious or artistic or moral vision of man, that is the best clue we have to the nature of man". — Relativist

↪Wayfarer It seems to me that everything that exists is an object, so I don't see an issue. — Relativist