Janus

Taken a long, hard look at it, have you? >:)

Buddhism sees suffering as distinct from pain. We cannot, as long as we are embodied, avoid pain, but we may choose, by releasing our attachment, not ...

“Since the race does not begin anew with every individual, .... the sinfulness of the race does indeed acquire a history. Meanwhile, this proceeds in ...

This is a useful distinction, between teleology and teleonomy, between the transcendent, logos and the imminent, nomos. But, a third possibility, I th...

Possible equivocations: To say that genetic mutations are random could mean: that they are not caused by anything. Determinism is not the case. that t...

The reason for the capitalization of "I" is that you can use it to refer to one and only one person, whereas 'you' can refer to everyone but yourself.

I don't have time for a more extensive reply. As I understand it the Buddhist notion is that there is no identity that is reincarnated but something l...

Yes, I also believe, based on my own experience, that meditation or contemplation is of the highest importance, because it frees the intuitive imagina...

I am reluctant to say anything that might be interpreted as a criticism of Buddhism, since I have great respect for it. I think Buddhism, being an emi...

If there is a correlation on average between head size and IQ, and if there is an, on average, difference between the head size of men and women such ...

I can sympathize with this. Romanticism is not a very good basis for human psychology or society; since these things, insofar as they are logistic and...

But if an on average ten percent icrease in head size does not correlate with any on average increase in IQ, regardless of whether the subjects are ma...

I'm amenable to that.

I agree that the term 'random' can be misleading and is somewhat ambiguous. Is it meant to deny that nature is deterministic? I think jamalrob's defin...

Well, I wish you all the best fortune on your path! I tried to accommodate myself to Buddhism, since there are many communities of practice here in Sy...

Yes, I hope we do find an opportunity to do that. Well Landru, I believe, would say just that; and I had thought you were agreeing with him about it.

I agree with most everything you write in this post and certainly about dualism. But I think romanticism is an absolutely pivotal disposition, indispe...

Like you I have been fascinated by Krishnamurti (and others purportedly like him such as Ramana Maharshi, Barry Long, Eckhart Tolle) who spontaneously...

I can't even imagine what that could mean. How could we ever know that anything we are aware of is the totality of what it is possible to aware of?

Thanks for your explanation mcdoodle, it seems then that we mostly agree, but use different terminology; what you call "metaphysical naturalism" I wou...

I have a tendency to believe that there is a spiritual dimension to moral intuition. On the other hand in a purely pragmatic connection cultures whose...

Just to clear up a point I'm not claiming that the very specific idea of natural selection was formulated as such before Darwin, just that the common ...

I think I already understand the idea of natural selection. (I've read some of Dawkins and Gould and even read Origin of Species many years ago) so I ...

Are you claiming that people had not known about heritable traits for centuries, if not millennia before Darwin? How long do you think selective anima...

Yes, that's exactly right; the former are produced by random (in the sense of 'not deliberate or not purposive' processes). Whether natural processes ...

I reread what I wrote, but couldn't see anything which I thought should lead you to you think I have "conflated the two concepts yet again", I'd be in...

Humans have created the notion of moral rectitude. If this fact reflects a human intuition into a divine order, then moral intuitions should be, by an...

I'll reply in more detail later, as I am at work now, and even though I do have a bit of time to post due to weather conditions I am doing it on smart...

I don't see that at all; I was contrasting the purposive selection of breeding with the (according to Darwin) non-purposive selection of evolution. If...

No, the randomness, or non-randomness, of the mutations is not the salient issue. The analogy doesn't hold because in the case of selective breeding t...

Sure, but I'm not convinced that 'selection' is the right idea in relation to Darwin's Evolution, it is somewhat misleadingly oriented toward some not...

I would say they are more or less part of the more indeterministic, spiritual side of things. Even animal behavior would be to some degree. Science de...

I say that because selective breeding involves very definite purposes that determine changes, whereas the Darwinian model posits a complete lack of pu...

Selective breeding's a very poor analogy for Darwinian evolution...and the world ain't like a watch either... :-}

Even if there is no strict correlation between head size and intelligence but instead just a loose correlation, that would still yield the conclusion ...

I find Rudolf Steiner very interesting as a philosopher. I am thinking in particular of his Philosophy of Freedom in the context of German Idealism (o...

I would say that intellect is required to unify, identify and re-cognize sensory input. The very fact that there clearly seem to be more and less inte...

You're missing the point, which is that you are wanting to draw an analogy between reality and a computer program, but unwilling to acknowledge that t...

For me the point is that nature contributes to our categorial perceptions and judgements; more than contributes: categorial perception and judgement i...

But that "function" would have to be an elaborate program. How could it be plausible that such a thing, posited to be analogous with computer programs...

Not demonstrably wrong at all, and nor have you demonstrated it to be wrong. Some people may have thought revenge killings, per example, to be a good ...

If you are referring to the 'statin' thing I remember reading about it some years ago, because my father has been on statins for over thirty years and...

This thread has become very off-topic; but that seems somehow appropriate for a thread about Koans. :)

I have certainly not been saying anything about rhabdomyolysis, the first thing that comes to mind is that I have read there is some evidence it may b...

Agreed, I have always been interested in martial arts and have practiced Tai Chi for many years on and off. I have always enjoyed physical activities ...

By the way I googled 'death from over-training' and all the articles I could find dealt with excessive cardio-vascular training, which is not the subj...

So, you are admitting that moderate strength training may be beneficial to health?

Note the qualifier: "overtraining". Having acknowledged that over-training could be detrimental to health and counterproductive for the goal of streng...

Ignore-ance at your own peril...bro... :-}

Actually the latest research in sports science shows that it is very good for you to do precisely that; but not so often that your muscles do not have...