Wayfarer, Thanks for the extended response. The mindscape idea is that all thoughts are pre-existent; that when we have a thought, we don’t create the...
There seems to be a difference. The mindscape exists independent of the physical but Popper's World 3 seems to be dependent on it. How so? "Reificatio...
I think it's coherent that we experience thoughts exactly how we experience trees, rocks, and people. In both cases, we experience pre-existent entiti...
Is the mindscape hypothesis metaphysical? I think so. That's why I posted in the Metaphysics & Epistemology section. Can metaphysical questions, in pa...
I'd say the sense data is not in the mindscape, but the idea of shit is. The idea coordinates and makes sense of the visual sensation of brown, the ta...
One way to refute the OP is to provide a counterexample. Here is what I believe is a valid counterexample. Explanation: There are two co-equal Gods, a...
The problem with an allegorical interpretation is that it can mean anything given a clever enough interpretation. The following Sam Harris' cookbook e...
That my five senses are all I directly experience of the world is a fact, not a metaphysical statement. If you disagree, if you believe we have some o...
So, in exactly what sense is my statement untrue? What we directly experience is our senses. For instance, we may sense water but if it's a mirage, th...
As I mention, the theoretical construct idea is independent of solipsism. The brain in a vat answers your question: we can be certain about what we ac...
The idea of matter being a theoretical construct is independent of solipsism. We do not directly experience matter, let's say, a tree. Why? Because we...
I don't disagree but I think what the OP says is easier to support, because it, in effect, puts an impossible burden of proof on the person who says s...
From an evolutionary point of view, we think of ourselves as separate and distinct from the universe. After all, if I don’t see myself as separate fro...
I don't see the relevance of this remark to what I've said. We don't. For 2 or 3 centuries Newtonian Mechanics was accepted as true; warping of space ...
The two TVs represent the two measurements. The reality is the soccer match. Obviously, the images on the two TVs have to correlate as they represent ...
On a superficial level, I agree. If we just look at claims about God and about QM, the claims themselves may see equally preposterous. BUT when we loo...
The point of the OP is that we do not know what "could not be caused, even in principle, by any natural event, force, or agent". For example, a thousa...
I didn't mean atheists should pretend. There are people, myself included, who believe something that deserves to be called God exists, and that religi...
We have better than anecdotal evidence for lightening; we have eye-witness testimony. I've even seen it myself. For centuries, lightening was thought ...
Look at the original post. What was done to Thor could be done to his entire tribe, a wireless doorbell camera in each hut. And then there's the well-...
Do you mean presently-known laws of nature or known and unknown laws of nature. In the original post, Thor experiences something beyond the laws of na...
Not at all. If I did, I'd have a burden of proof. But if someone claims something thing or event is supernatural, then the burden of proof is on them....
I am saying that when someone says something is supernatural, the burden of proof is on them AND that the burden is impossible to meet. Example: if so...
I don't find it "blah". It's reasonable to ask, So what? Some religions build off of the thought that spacetime is a facade and define the real thing ...
As I understand it, the soccer metaphor is meant to explain entanglement. The two entangles particles are analogous to the two views of the soccer gam...
niki wonto, This is from a book I’m working on. Current draft copy available upon request. Self-Transcendence Suppose I am entirely physical. Suppose ...
MojaveMan: “my own grandmother is close to passing and she is a devout Christian, and I can tell she is absolutely terrified of the end” It’s not surp...
One reason I like to post here is to see criticism of what I think. Would the OP have been clearer if I said that "substance" is like Kant's "think in...
I agree there are uses for person Gods. If that were not true, there wouldn't be so many of them. But I find it difficult to take them seriously. That...
All words mean something and may be useful. A word can refer to an objective reality (ex, water) or not (ex. unicorn). The OP discusses if "substance"...
I don’t question the facts: that Chinese spy balloons were shot down over the U.S. I question all the attention the story is getting. It seems to me t...
The entire paragraph is as follows: This is the situation we should expect if God does not really exist: different civilizations making up different s...
P.S. Of course, an allegorical and/or symbolic interpretation may contain much wisdom. But the wisdom is not from the book; it is from the writer. Her...
The problem with allegorical and symbolic interpretations is that they can make a writing mean anything at all. Sam Harris makes the point better than...
The very first sentence in your first post in this thread mentions alarm, which does not appear in the original post. I'm happy to defend WHAT I POSTE...
I'm happy to defend what I posted. If you disagree with something in the original post, please cite the specific sentence(s) and we can proceed from t...
As I mentioned, religions can and do change their teachings, by reinterpreting or ignoring scripture but not by repudiating scriptural verses. If you ...
Hanover, Physicists can say Newton was wrong. Can you cite a similar instance in religion? Of course, religions change. But do they ever repudiate scr...
" According to your argument, that hospital ought not to exist, and nobody working there could describe themselves as Christian, yet it does, and they...
Wayfarer, I have no problem with the idea “they are descriptions of different manifestations of the Ultimate”. But “and as such they do not conflict w...
Comments