Pattern-chaser

I think it means that the concept - "God", in this case - is not well defined. Not undefined, but only not defined precisely. There are very many such...

Really? You actually think that those who are rich and powerful gained this position by working harder than others do/did?

Perhaps there was a time when this was true. These days, when truth can no longer be discovered or proven using facts, but only created by constant re...

I see criticism of believers as personal attack, which it is. If you have anything substantive to add to the discussion, go ahead. So far, all I have ...

Then perhaps you could choose terms which do not characterise believers (not their beliefs) in such a negative way? Attacks on believers are distracti...

They have inherent meaning, which is assigned by us. And, for our own purposes and convenience, we change those meanings as it suits us. Language belo...

I don't think they are cheap shots, and I don't think they're indirect either. :up: Address the beliefs, please, instead of insulting believers. That ...

If all you can do is to insult those who believe, instead of addressing that which they believe, then all you can hope to achieve is to make entrenche...

Agreed. :up: But we do have a tendency to think, speak and act so as to establish ourselves as separate from 'nature', even though, as you say, we are...

There isn't one bit of evidence - in a strictly scientific sense, which is how you meant it, I think? - for the existence of God. Not one bit. If you ...

Yes, simple insults achieve nothing. :up: I can't disagree! :wink:

Hey, slow down! :wink: You seem to have jumped straight from my claim, based on empirical observation (but still possibly wrong; it's too easy to thin...

If you think philosophical matters are best addressed combatively, then we must disagree. Discussion is a co-operative consideration of matters concer...

Then why are you posting here? The topic asks for how we feel about religion, and you clearly feel it is a waste of time. For you. Fair enough. But if...

"Self-deception" is a description applied by someone else, yes? It's a judgement that you make about me (for example). But what if you are wrong? Shou...

Life is a creative act, for a human. Is that dreaming? We live our lives immersed in Kanye and Rihanna, Trump and Putin, Big Brother and America's Nex...

Yes, that's a fair observation. :up: Religion seeks to explain certain things; that's philosophy. But it offers no evidence, in the sense that a scien...

These are good answers. Much more constructive than the usual knee-jerk stuff. :up: And much closer to the mark, IMO. :smile: Hail Eris! :joke:

You assert your belief again and again, but you offer no justification, even though you now demand proof of an opposing view. :chin: Where is "all of ...

True. :up: But the bit you're missing, which completes the sense of your statement, is: Theists cannot prove that God does exist. God's existence cann...

I am a newcomer here, but I've already seen several threads or sub-threads bemoaning the lack of clearly-defined terms, ambiguity of meaning, and so o...

No! If there is no evidence, "then the conclusion follows that" no conclusion can be drawn, and we must await further evidence. You are espousing the ...

I don't think so. It's just that there are a number of existential threats - the most immediate being uranium, plague or nerve gas, in everyday terms ...

This time, I will try harder. We have said what we have to say, several times. This sub-sub-thread is going nowhere.

No, I'll observe that nukes are one of a number of existential threats. If we concentrate on one or all of them, that's what we will spend our lives d...

- link to article.

:smile: Perception is the interesting part, I think. But it's so hard to find stuff about it. Most of what's on the net is naive kiddie science. Like ...

It is? I think it's just a consequence of infinity, which is a very odd 'number' indeed. In scrabbling to make sense of infinity, some silly things ha...

There is always some extreme circumstance that breaks every rule such as this one. Consider a tribe whose membership has outgrown the locally-availabl...

Yes, religion does not (IMO) offer "objective epistemic content". It isn't that type of thing. :smile: I find that religion confirms and supports some...

Shame there's no 'like' button on this forum. :wink:

I went back to the OP, to read carefully what this topic is about. I hope I've chosen appropriate words? My response to this is simple: how do we reco...

No, I didn't want to talk about brains in vats either. I asked if we could look more generally, at speculations that were possible, but came without e...

I'd answer you, but I can't express the answer. :wink: :up:

Yes, I think this is the problem. Continuous-growth economics cannot work in a system with finite resources. Like our Earth, for example. For years I ...

That's what I call "perception", but maybe I use the term incorrectly. :chin: First there is sensation - input from the senses - then there is percept...

Then either the science is lacking, or we deserve a detailed explanation of how we seem to 'see' mental images, if they don't exist. Despite aphantasi...

I would take it farther, and recommend pan-theism. I think the Hindus claim that all 'Gods' recognised by humans reflect one or more aspects of God, w...

If the religions you mention had a specific influence on me - one that I found helpful - then I might have gravitated in their direction, if that's wh...

Well yes, but what is the cause of this? Could it be that there is no "wild" for them to live in any more? If we consider dogs, and their 'wild' cousi...

I'm not at all sure that's how it happens. :chin: Please don't misunderstand me. I offer my thoughts, the thoughts that your words evoked in me, but t...

Yes, I see what you're saying. :up: But when you say "usage doesn't always correspond with abuse", I wonder. :chin: If we had masters who kept us capt...

Quite possibly. :up: But there are other explanations that also seem (to me) to recommend themselves. For example, perhaps the problem lies with human...

C'mon! :smile: You offered a statement without context, and challenged me to guess what it was. Now you come out with some cobbled-together story abou...

No, it isn't, but one might argue that the threat is. :chin: Either way, there are a number of serious - species-threatening or world-threatening - th...

In this case, the context is mathematics, and the axioms associated with number theory. :roll:

I have rarely seen such a well-worth-reading post. :up: Thank you.

Me too! I have always :heart:-ed metaphysics.

Well, you see, ... propositions are usually context-dependent. So much so that it's almost a law. More or less everything is context-dependent. So whe...

Yes, although I would go farther. :up: I'm not so opposed to us being carnivores, as so many other species are. The mass breeding and slaughter is bad...