T_Clark

This is a serious discussion about belief in God. Your post doesn't contribute anything to it. It just makes you seem thoughtless.

I certainly am not a religious historian, but it is my understanding that the Protestant Revolution was about the belief that you didn't need to go th...

You're not really saying that there are two types of Christian - fake Christians who don't really believe and hard core Christians who will kill their...

Let me see if I have the logic right: 1 - some people who believe they can have direct contact with god are crazy. 2 - therefore, believing you can ha...

In your arrogance, you've left out the most obvious reason people might believe in god - they have experienced the presence of God in their lives. I a...

Do you have a link?

I don't think it's theist at all. Creation is going from non-being (the Tao) into being (the 10,000 things). I take that seriously, not just as a meta...

What I said was true - Some scientists consider the possibility that something can come from nothing. That's not pop science, it's true. I don't know ...

It seems like you are presenting yourself as a messenger from above bringing the light of truth to the benighted unwashed masses. I will tell you that...

Name the specific modern laws of physics that say you can't get something from nothing? To say "in order for something to exist (at least in the way w...

Why is it crazy to believe that you have direct access to God? What would keep you from having direct access? Why would God restrict access? What's th...

Or to go from non-being into being. To be created.

Let's break this down. First, The question "can any absolute truth be known" has been at the heart of philosophy from the beginning. Maybe that's what...

Whatever anyone writes here, we should remember that dreams are something in the world. They have a psychological, cognitive, physical, and/or biologi...

Yes, as everything I write, it has a profound, obscure meaning. Or maybe I was trying to see if anyone was paying attention. Alternatively, it might h...

For all of us here, when we get to the end, all we have is trust in ourselves, our judgment, and our experience. Thinking about it now, maybe that is ...

I knew that. When I forced myself to pick answers, it said I am a skeptic.

Well, I tried to take the quiz and I didn't agree with any answer on any of the questions. Straight "none of the above" or "who cares" on all of them.

I am a strong follower of T Clarkism. It fits my world view and values perfectly. For some reason, it wasn't included on the Wikipedia list.

Did I say that the Tao is interchangeable with objective reality? Did I mean that? Do I think it is? Let me think. I guess I think the Tao and objecti...

The Tao is not logical or illogical. To call it either would be naming the unnamable. I'm not sure if the human world, the ten thousand things, is log...

I think the view consistent with the Tao te Ching is more radical than that. There is a sense that before it is mapped, the territory doesn't exist. "...

No bubble has been burst. I don't expect that everything that inspires, informs, and moves me will do the same for everyone. Do you assume that becaus...

I wasn't complaining. I like that you can hold both visions in your head at the same time. I try to do that too.

I've been reading "Subtle is the Lord," which is a scientific biography of Einstein looking for ideas about these same types of issues. It is a wonder...

You have said what I am trying to say in this post, but better than I did. Thanks. I read "The Tao of Physics" long ago and didn't like it. I think it...

Isn't this just a practical way of avoiding the issues I raised in my post? If the Tao cannot be known on principle, and if objective reality cannot b...

People can use the Tao te Ching in whatever way is useful to them, but I experience it much differently than you do. What you describe as "a compendiu...

Yes, to the extent that it can be put into words, that is what the Tao is. The goal of this thread is to talk about how that compares with objective r...

Books like the Tao te Ching are not explanations. They are maps, guidebooks. When I read the Tao te Ching, any version, I feel someone taking me by th...

It is my understanding that space and time are created by matter and energy. I'm not sure, but I think that the recent detection of gravity waves repr...

Although I read descriptions and analyses of Zen and the Tao before I read the Tao te Ching, I no longer do. I think the Tao te Ching speaks for itsel...

Both the Tao and objective reality could be identified with existence. They often are. It is the differences between the way the two concepts describe...

Careful, or people will think you are bitter and a crank.

Well, maybe we should try to agree on a definition. Here are some: Not anything; no single thing. A concept denoting the absence of something, and is ...

I think we are talking about the physical world, not grammar. Maybe not. I just don't want the discussion to collapse into a back and forth between pe...

Interesting. Thank you. Does that only work in a situation where there is time and space? So what subject should I be reading about? More about the va...

Most conflicts are caused by one person having something that the other person wants, not perceptions.

I wasn't talking about any particular response on your part, I was referring to your whole modus operandi. You're a jerk. A schmuck. Yes, that's an in...

It's not that you disagree with people, it's that you insult them, demean them, call them names, speculate on their personal characteristics and lives...

At work, I tell people who are a bit timid that if they are not willing to defend their ideas, they might just as well not have them. Truth, schmooth....

As I asked previously, is there anything closer to nothing than the vacuum state? Or is nothing impossible?

I didn't know this thread existed. Yay Tao!! I like this verse because it is a milder restatement of the first verse, my favorite - "The Tao that can ...

Aren't you just defining the question away. If something is created from it, it's not nothing. No way around that one.

Sure. But the vacuum state is what most people would define as nothing. I'm not a physicist. If you are, please answer - Does quantum mechanics allow ...

In my brief experience, there's a lot more cranky than there is reason from many posters here. Cranky is a polite term for it.

Here's a link to a Wikipedia article on the quantum vacuum state: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vacuum_state

If there is no matter and energy, there is no space and time. Not sure what the rest of what you said means.

Question 1 - It is my understanding that physicists have concluded that matter and energy can be created from nothing. Question 2 - Is there a meaning...

The reasons I gave you are serious. I get more out of the back and forth with Agustino than I do with people I agree with more and who are more polite...