Art48

I don't accept the idea you can chose what to believe. To use God language, I'd say both faith and intelligence are a gift of God. In my experience, m...

Not at all. I'm fully aware there are Nobel laureates who are religious (Francis Collings is a case in point). My point is that the lacking faith accu...

If I'm a realist about a cat and a tree, then I see both as substances, as independent entities with their own essential properties that make them wha...

Which is why I wrote "QM reminds of Kant’s distinction . . ." Metaphysics is a branch of philosophy. The book that arguably begin modern science is Ne...

Albero, I’m a Schopenhauer newbie not an expert. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry for Arthur Schopenhauer https://plato.stanford.edu/entr...

Yes. One take away from the lack of a scripture (as described in the OP) is that God as often conceived may not exist.

What about earthquakes, drought, famine, disease, childhood cancer, etc.?

Yes. But Christians do say God has written the moral code in our hearts. Great. But when they are asked what the God-written moral code says about cap...

Then it's up to proponents of the fine-tuning argument for God to identify those aspects and, in an ideal case, to prove them. Thanks.

From the OP: But suppose we really are immaterial, immortal souls. If we are immaterial, immortal souls, then the type of universe we inhabit is irrel...

Correct.But I'll add that I consider many apparently objective statements to be subjective. Example: "The cat is on the table" -> "I see the cat on th...

Object is too strong a work. Certainly, the world will continue using "is" as it has in the past. But, yes, "force equals mass times acceleration" is ...

The comment seems irrelevant to this thread. I disapprove of statements that use "is" to purportedly make a statement about objective reality that hid...

You may be correct but I used what the preacher said merely as one example of the fundamentalists' dormant mind. Many other examples could be given.

I'd say both solipsism and idealism derive from a common observation: that I directly experience only my physical sense data, my emotions, and my thou...

Then why the roundabout way of stating ~A = A is false? Is it hat we don't want to introduce the "not equal" connective? And mathematically there are ...

I think it also qualifies as representative realism because I'm leaving the existence of external, independently-existing object an open question. Bec...

We have indirect access to physical objects. My eyes only see light. If free-standing 3D holograms existed indistinguishable from real trees, my eyes ...

In means no intermediary. I take it I have direct access to what my eyes see, my mind thinks, etc. Yes. And yes, again. It's reasonable to believe the...

Can I take this question in terms of Kant's thing-in-itself? Kant said we cannot know the thing-in-itself, only phenomena. I'm making a more modest cl...

OK, what ideas do you have in mind?

I'd be interested but I think it should be in another thread. I think this captures part of our disagreement. We have five physical senses and I'd say...

Light and ideas are exceptional, in that we experience them directly. We experience objects "out there" indirectly via our physical senses and our min...

The point is I can directly experience only five physical senses.Based on what my senses tell me, I think of a tree. Similarly, imagine a mirage. My e...

Searle disagrees. Can you tell me why in your own words? The OP doesn't mention "subjective experiences". The OP points out we only have 5 ways of acc...

The issue is direct vs indirect experience. Physically, we can directly experience only the five senses. We directly experience the idea of a tree and...

I had the physical world in mind when I wrote the original post.We receive physical sense data via our five senses, then our mind accesses an appropri...

I have some ideas about objective moral values but that would be the topic of another thread.

Characterizing an argument to dismiss it is not the same as addressing it, especially since there are 2000-year-old, traditional explanations still be...

Processes are not a problem. Swimming, runnning, etc. are universals. True, the language we develop has indications of what exists but if our interest...

If all objects are viewed as individuals, it seems that some types of knowledge would be difficult or even impossible. Yes, I could gain knowledge abo...

Sure, just as we can have the idea of a unicorn without ever having seen one. A particular tree is a concrete object which we recognize as an instanti...

My view is that ideas already exist in the mindscape, just as trees exist in the landscape. Seeing a pair of apples may awaken our mind to the idea of...

Yes, thank you. OK, if we require “exist” to apply to only things in space/time, then universals don’t exist but they subsist. But if we make this req...

Suppose you see a hurricane on TV. You directly experience the TV's light and sound; you indirectly experience the hurricane. Similarly, you indirectl...

“Illusion” suggests what I experience is unreal, a misapprehension. It suggests something that occurs occasionally. I have only five physical senses. ...

T Clark: A good OP. Well-written, clear, and interesting. Thanks. T Clark: We overlay an abstract coating on the world as it is. I’d say we overlay an...

NOS4A2: If you experience the world through the five senses, what being and with what kind of senses do you experience abstract objects? The mind.Abst...

“What does it even mean to "directly" or "indirectly" experience something?” An analogy: Imagine indirect experience as watching a baseball game on TV...

Bartricks: You have provided no argument. . . . What’s your case? The original post is more of a person observation about the desirability and undesir...

Jack Cummings: I first became confused about the idea of life after death seeing this as conflicting. Yes. Saint Augustine (presumedly) has been in he...

Alkis Piskas: So, not only it is not impossible to knowingly sin, but we always know that we sin. As far as I can see, you don’t address evidence in t...

Certainly, the clergy think highly of themselves. But the great majority of Catholics don't care, or even know, what is in the catechism. But you seem...

They are simply two different views. That catechism view is the minority view.

Baker: Ordinary Roman Catholics are usually not fluent in the Catechism of the RCC; they have their own folk beliefs. You ignore the beginning of my p...

Baker: “Art48 What do you think is true Catholicism? That which is declared in the Catechism of the Roman Catholic Church, or that which is held by a ...

I like sushi: Note: ‘physics’ as a ‘habit’ of the universe? How is that any different to physics as ‘laws’ of the universe? Laws are prescriptive; hab...

Hanover, Thanks for your response. Some comments. As to your first paragraph, pointing out that the views of theologians are “subtly nuanced” does not...

Hanover: a literalist caricature I claim Christianity says that eventually there will be only heaven and hell. If that is not correct, please tell us ...