Janus

They must be pretty stupid agnostics then since religious faith is based, as the term indicates, on faith not on knowledge. Or else, if they are smart...

The term 'atheist' seems to indicate indifference to or simply lack of theism, as 'asexual' indicates indifference to or simply lack of sexuality. Tha...

Not true; an agnostic is not going to waste time arguing against theists.

If they are genuine likes they might be of some use, because then they might indicate how much in tune with the herd you are.

"Dating"? Are you familiar with process theology?

This is fine except that theism is not at all necessarily "one static truth".

:up:

If something is "beyond the limits of reason" then how can you expect to draw reasonable conclusions about it?

Pretty much my position exactly, nicely put!

You say that if you are agnostic, if you have no belief either way regarding the existence of God, then from that starting position you can choose to ...

That is not a relevant critique of the argument. First, the basic way we understand things (property dualism) does not change over time. Second, the a...

Oh well, your idea of what it means to live better is obviously very different from mine.

I think this does not follow. Lifeforms always simply adapt or fail to adapt to changing circumstances. Your assertion would have us being better at l...

Right, so if it is the case that the only argument for substance dualism is that we ought to expect reality to accord with the basic ways we understan...

Why would you bother arguing against a claim that you thought had no merit?

OK, good, you hadn't stated that clearly before, and that does make a difference.

It's nothing to do with conflating belief and knowledge. Have you heard reasons to accept the proposition that God does not exist? Do believe there is...

You don't, unless you think there is good reason to think it might not be true.

Yes, that is a significant, and on an uncharitable reading, tendentious omission on the part of the @"Banno"!

You say you don't believe in a God, but you do you disbelieve in a God? You say you are not convinced a God exists, but are you convinced a God does n...

I don't know what you think you're disagreeing with. Epistemology is based on the recognition that our understanding is dualistic; which is what I sai...

We are all property dualists insofar as we recognize two basic kinds of action or process; the mental and the physical. As @"180 Proof" says, this is ...

Perhaps that is what he had in mind. If so, I don't see that scenario being much different: I doubt he would have the time or resources to do much but...

A soundly founded move then I guess!

Thanks. That's a surprise! What prompted that decision?

Does anyone know why the numbers that indicate individuals' total numbers of posts have changed and now seem to show no rhyme or reason?

If others didn't exist you wouldn't have language or science or philosophy or any form of culture; you would have nothing to do except try to survive,

What about connections to other things; animals, environments, creative pursuits, are they not meaningful?

How could you learn things and achieve things if no one else existed?

If there were white triangles and you could remove all observers then there would be still be (unobserved) white triangles. How could it be otherwise ...

I don't agree that mind consists of any "stuff" I see mind as an activity of the living human body, just as running, walking, sitting, digestion and s...

If there were no observers there would be no observations of white triangles; that seems obvious and I see no reason to assert any more than that.

Sure you need an observer to observe something. I'd say it is more the capacity for pattern recognition that makes us see the triangles than it is rea...

I haven't said that mind is the same thing as matter. Horses are not the same things as trees, and so on; but what point do you really want to make? Y...

No, Master Fool, it's your little secret; I have no idea what you think the contradiction is.

It's not clear to me what point you are trying to make.

Not much point saying that unless you (can) point to the contradiction.

This is a mere assumption not any kind of absolute logical entailment or truth. Physical laws (if they exist), by definition, govern the physical, and...

The debate is tedious precisely because of unwarranted assumptions about the nature of mind and matter, of the metal and physical. So, I at least, fin...

You seem to be simply assuming that thoughts are not in any way examples of physical work. But if they are correlated with neural activity then they a...

This is a tedious, even incoherent, debate. I think it's safe to say that the only people interested in it are those who think it has some bearing on ...

Question: does a length of copper cable increase in weight when you pass electrical current through it? Or does a piece of steel increase in weight wh...

Yeah, sent me a personal message asking if I wanted to read their book, which I ignored.

Yes, the physicalist will say that cognition or perception is a physical process, but is also to be counted as a mental or neural process. The energet...

I would say that the fact that someone who propounds a principle may not follow that principle says nothing about the principle and everything about t...

Sure, but that wasn't what I intended to say as I already explained. I explained that I meant to say that if you claim their arguments are vacuous bec...

:up:

It was badly expressed; and I omitted some detail. What I meant to say was that claiming that someone's arguments are vacuous because the person is an...

This is an inappropriate example. Of course a person's expertise is an important factor in any decision as to whether to listen to their purportedly e...

As far as I know it is. I googled it and could not find it anywhere. I count perception as the act or process of something being perceived. So, for me...