Janus

It was a straightforward question that could be answered 'yes' or 'no' and you did not answer it. And I suspect I know very well why you didn't answer...

Should you not for example have written "recommending" rather than "achieving"? Because otherwise I am having difficulty parsing your statement.

Now you are countering a question with a question. Why don't you just give an honest answer to the question instead of bullshitting around?

Sure, atheists could use the belief in God to create the illusion of absolute authority.

I didn't say they did.

Social conservatives generally believe in authority as being necessary for creating social cohesion. God is associated with the idea of genuine author...

Thats not an answer to the question.

Would there be any actuality; that is, would anything at all be the case in a world that contained no percipients?

Well, it seems clear that is your opinion, for whatever it's worth. I don't have an opinion on that and I was merely referring to the way 'random' is ...

Ah, language! So many levels! General: universal, genera Specific: particular, species

I was using it in the ordinary sense as it is used in that Wikipedia article. If you are doubtful about what sense a term is being used in you can alw...

Alright, but from the beginning of this discussion I have consistently interpreted the question in the OP to be about the limits of science as theory,...

Again you're not disagreeing with what I said because I didn't claim that all the interactions of all the individual particles could be modeled. Obvio...

This is irrelevant because I never said it was. It is obviously modeled as the energetic interactions of all the particles, including the interactions...

All that's fine, as far as it goes. But in science these days the dominant paradigm says that ultimately biology and geology, for example, are reducib...

But, as far as I know, (and I don't know that much about quantum physics) the "particles" themselves are today considered to be energetic configuratio...

It all depends on what you mean by 'random' I suppose. From Wikipedia: Radioactive decay is a stochastic (i.e. random) process at the level of single ...

I don't disagree with anything much of what you say, except I am not much of a family guy.

Never denied it. You lean that way yourself it seems, and somewhat more authoritarian too, which is no surprise. :P

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At bottom there does not seem to be any coherent and unequivocal distinction between form and matter. But, again, this question has really nothing to ...

Atomic structure is probably better thought of as a material cause because it is understood to determine the different kinds of material or elements. ...

No it just means that modern people sometimes use the Aristotelian term (or more accurately the modern English translation of the Aristotelian term) w...

I took you to be referring to biological evolution.

You have diverted this into a side issue about Aristotle's understanding of causation. I never claimed that modern science's understanding of causatio...

Address what I have actually said if you want a response.

Sorry about delayed reply; this one slipped through the cracks somehow. The logical problem I see with thinking that Obama signifies a whole process f...

I haven't anywhere said that calculus is used to model all kinds of change. Evolution is understood in terms of the interactions between the structura...

I haven't suggested that the natural sciences operate in an Aristotelian paradigm; so, there is no need to state the obvious. Modern science is atomis...

The natural sciences and engineering are mostly modeled in terms of mechanistic (or in Aristotelian terms, efficient causation). There are some moves ...

It's modeled in mathematical (statistical) terms, no?

If you can precisely model it in terms of mathematics or mechanistic causal process then you have something that is a matter for science. Anything tha...

:)

I hope not; is it an evil emoticon? Oh, perhaps I see, the eyes are not merely open, but diabolically open on that one? O:) Remember now, my tendency ...

Merry Christmas Agustino X-)

That's ridiculous, because neither you, nor anyone else knows the truth, in this regard. Merry Christmas to all.

"Dust particles in the right atmospheric conditions resulting in snowflakes" with their variations on an invariant pattern just is an expression of un...

I don't think Kant's philosophy really addresses Hume's point about the irrationality of expecting things to be as they have been. I think it addresse...

"People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use." Kierkegaard

Yes, I think this is an extremely important point, and not often understood. I understand that "belief" to consist in a certain kind of lived relation...

I think that is very much a matter of how you define knowledge and belief. For Hume, for example, it is merely a belief based on habit that leads us t...

I very much admire the ability to admit mistakes; it shows real integrity. :)

For fuck's sake man; how many times do I have to explain that I never claimed that religious beliefs are infallible?

I agree that motivation to action is the most important function of any belief. I see nothing wrong with having "strong beliefs", however, as long as ...

I have never said the beliefs are infallible. There are two many misunderstandings and misrepresentations of what I have said for me to bother correct...

Yes, but the fact is that beliefs, which are of kinds neither demonstrable nor falsifiable, are almost universally associated with any spiritual or re...

But I haven't anywhere said that beliefs that don't count as fallible insofar as they cannot be in principle disproven are thereby infallible. I alrea...

It's not I that have changed the subject. The discussion was about whether beliefs that are not fallible or truth-apt such as a belief in God, or chi ...

Yes I know this is true from personal experience. There are plenty of such examples. A Christian devotes his life to charitable works, for example, an...

It may be more a consequence of how you practice, which in turn may be influenced by a belief if that belief inspires to practice, and to a particular...