Ontological arguments have always struck me as a bit fishy. I think this is how they strike most, isn't it? First, why would it be impossible to conce...
Well, once more you a) fail to engage the argument of the thread and b) pronounce confidently on something you know nothing about. They do not 'show' ...
But that wouldn't blow free will out of the water - it wouldn't touch it. If the point is just that there is a brain event - P - that occurs slightly ...
Let's say I am in the process of deliberating about what to do next - have a cup of tea, or a cup of coffee? Now imagine that the universe is determin...
The fact is that those who think that Libet's experiments pose some kind of challenge to free will are just confused. They don't show anything remotel...
Not sure I follow you. If the only point Libet's experiments make is that our intentions have causal antecedents, then we could establish this without...
That description just assumes that the mind is the brain and that mental events are brain events. What is recorded is a brain event. It is then noted ...
Haha, from someone who demonstrably doesn't understand the experiment. You. Haven't. Read. The. Article. Right? Yet you think you understand it. Dunni...
Yes, very confusedly. So? Yes, I know. I said many have taken his experiment to disprove free will. I didn't say Libet did. Are you disputing that man...
Ah, - so you don't have a reference for it, because that's not what the experiment is about. You haven't read the original, right? So, once more, it i...
Okaaay. Reference for that? (A reference from the famous Libet article in which the experiment I am talking about is described and on whose basis the ...
No, it is not about predicting behaviour. The brain event triggers the recording. (Although, of course, if you put something in capitals then it is de...
like I say, pure unashamed b/s. You're a wannabe guru and you want people to accept your authority over that of Reason. First step - invite people to ...
Well, top marks for a) contradicting yourself within two sentences and b) pronouncing rather than arguing. What is it with you people? You seem to thi...
I'm not doing that - where have I done that? I make decisions. The decisions are mine. I have made them. That's the default. Causes must have origins....
As we are in a prison, then death is removal from the prison. But that could occur for all manner of reasons. If someone kills themselves, then they h...
Presumably. We do, don't we? That is, we recognize the justice of releasing someone after they have done their time - that is, after they have receive...
I believe in God and in free will. I don't think we are given free will, however. My reason tells me that I have free will and also that I would not h...
You're just pronouncing. Why do you think you know it all already? Have the humility to provide evidence. A) it is harmful to put people in an environ...
really not. No question was posed. I did not ask for speculation on the meaning of life, but offered reasons for thinking it has a purpose, namely ret...
Er, no it doesn't. What does that even mean? Sounds like something a creep would say to impress someone in a bar. No argument. No engagement with the ...
it's God, not the universe (a universe doesn't have plans). And it's retribution, rather than revenge. You have provided no argument. Why would God ha...
So contrary to what you assert, you are playing the radical sceptic card. You are proposing that, as far as we can know, being sadistic and/or wholly ...
Again, really poor reasoning. Nothing you say follows. Nothing. First, from the fact we are not morally perfect, it does not follow that we cannot kno...
I don't need to deny a premise. It was nonsense. 1. We are immoral. 2. Therefore we can't know that God is good. That, so far as I can tell, was your ...
Not 'caught out', just asked a silly question by someone not remotely interested in the answer. It's not my fault that an accurate description of what...
Your question is for psychology, not philosophy. First, people obviously don't 'need' religious belief, for plenty do not have any. Second, your inqui...
That's flagrantly question begging. I provided a proof of what you have just flatly denied. So, you need either to locate a fallacy in the reasoning e...
I don't think you know what an 'answer' is. An answer you disagree with is still an answer. If I ask you "what's 2 + 4" and you say "it is 10", then t...
That doesn't make sense - by premise 4 it has already been established that the imperatives of Reason are the imperatives of a mind. What premise 4 sa...
Well, you don't see because you're not trying hard enough. God is all powerful and morally perfect. If we're woodchips from his birdhouse, then we can...
Well, I must say that your name is well chosen. You seem to be going out of your way not to get things. When someone asks or wonders "what is the purp...
Well, when we say 'this has a purpose' that is elliptical for "this was created for a purpose". What is confusing you is the ambiguity of the word 'ha...
That's confused. Designs express purposes. That is, the very concept of a design presupposes a purpose. If this world is designed, then there is a pur...
No it couldn't, for that would require that you created yourself for that purpose, yet self-creation is not possible. It is hubris to think that you c...
Yes. Quite. If there is no God behind things, then the processes of natural selection are blind, purposeless. And thus if we are simply a product of t...
Well, that's your problem and not evidence that retribution is not a purpose that God has. You're not God. This has been the problem throughout - I ha...
If you use a shoe to hammer-in a nail, then 'your' purpose in using the shoe - so, the purpose of your action, not the shoe - is to 'hammer-in a nail'...
You haven't identified a premise that you deny. You're just expressing your conviction that I am wrong. But which premise in the deductively valid arg...
er, no - by your lights we have excellent evidence that we all go to a weird other realm when we go to sleep. Good job! You're an excellent evaluator ...
Let me add something to my original OP. If you think there is no God, then as well as being mistaken, the answer you must give to the "what's the purp...
Again, you're missing the point: it's not supposed to have an edifying affect. You keep assuming that my view is that rehabilitation is the main reaso...
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