Janus

To be an actual (as opposed to conceptual) thing is to be an object of the senses which means to exist in relation to other things at some place and f...

Everything is not itself a thing, which means it is no-thing. So everything is nothing. But no-thing is not nothing. So everything is not nothing. Als...

By "equal" is meant 'same'. No two things are exactly the same, but similarities and differences between things are observed. From this evolves the id...

:clap: Excellent post!

I agree with you about opposing injustices that are religiously motivated (or not religiously motivated for that matter). I don't view religious belie...

:up: :cool:

I did have something relevant to say which was to disagree with this: Despite your protestations I still think it is justifiable to say that communism...

I read what you have quoted as a statement that religion is a poor substitute for "real happiness" and that people must be called upon "to give up a c...

Although a tiny proportion of Marx's writings may treat of theism, atheism seems obviously to be a central plank of his theory. The masses need to be ...

Sure, but it's a socioeconomic theory that does not merely not require God, but one which cannot tolerate God, since "religion is the opiate of the ma...

Marxism, if not all forms of communism, is certainly fundamentally atheistic, in that it posits that the prime mover in human affairs is not God, but ...

If atheism consisted merely in a lack of theism; I wonder where the motivation to argue for it would derive. It seems to me that atheism would in many...

I accept the idea that I might be mistaken, but you have given me no good reason to think that I am. Do you accept that you might be mistaken?

:up:

Or some other ideology.

:up:

I was actually highlighting the fact that your text had "atheist" instead of "theist", not correcting you on the spelling of proselytize. :smile:

Not unequivocal proofs: There are genuine conceptual difficulties implicit in this question. The transition from the rational numbers to the real numb...

Such acts are only performed in a ritual context when what is seen as some overarching context trumps what individuals want. Besides I am speaking bro...

Right, but I'm not convinced it is something which has evolved by natural selection, at least in human societies, so much as something which is simply...

The point is that all societies will prohibit anything which is detrimental to their harmonious functioning. I haven't claimed that all societies woul...

Yes, we are no different, on the group level, from animals in that regard. It is much more posiible now to develop a global notion of humanity than it...

fundamentalist noun religion uk /?f?n.d??men.t?l.?st/ us /?f?n.d??men.t??l.?st/ someone who believes in traditional forms of a religion, or believes t...

Apparently I thought I was in a different thread; so I was addressing what I thought was a claim that science can never investigate the first person n...

Would you say they qualify as fundamentalists? My idea of fundamentalists is that they believe the bible is literally the word of God and thus is infa...

Did you mean to write "and the theists do not try to proselytize"? Otherwise I can't make sense of your statement.

Disagreement with your statement or with your justification for making it? I don't pretend to know whether there are many theists who act as though th...

Yes, I share atheism's anti-fundamentalism, but when this becomes itself a fundamentalist crusade against all forms and shades of theism, I part compa...

The more important moral norms are, in my view, pretty much universal for merely pragmatic reasons and this ties in with Kant's deontology (which is a...

Yes, there is an asymmetry, one might even say a fundamental misunderstanding, there between atheism and (at least some forms of) theism. I'm referrin...

Nor am I.

How then will it be determined whether that turns out to be the case?

A more interesting question would be whether atheists generally are intent on refuting belief in any and all forms of deity or transcendence. And if s...

The irony in this statement is that it seems to be based on you thinking that you know what science can and cannot ascertain, rather than leaving it a...

I don't get upset when someone presents a reasoned argument against something I've said. Sometimes the point tells against mine, and other times the u...

All I've been presenting here are my opinions, you don't have to agree with them, but if you want to argue against them you need to pick something I'v...

Looks interesting Edmund, thanks for the recommendation.

I think it's just a matter of a shift in consciousness. The "merely real" is the sublime, when "the trivialities of the moment" do not intrude upon it...

Neither proven nor unproven. Self-evident does not strictly equate to proven. The three principles you mentioned above certainly seem self-evident, ax...

Here's the "compliment: You haven't identified what "other stuff" I said and precisely what parts you disagree with. And then in this I've quoted abov...

Since I can't see how any of you have addressed anything I've actually said, I have no response to make.

I feel the same as you Manuel; not enough time to do justice to being the thread creator. As I said already, I think it is a paradigmatically murky to...

So, you agree there are no red quales? Then I'm not seeing where you disagree with Dennett. If you want to make another thread I'll participate.

This is nothing but a groundless assumption. If we have evolved to be loving and compassionate, then why are we not all loving and compassionate?

You are distorting what I've said. Of course each observation of an object of sense is particular, and the details of those observations in general ar...

So you think we experience redness in addition to red or painfulness in addition to pain? The point I'm making is that Dennett doesn't deny that we ex...

That sounds interesting, but I don't think we need scientific experiments to confirm the dualistic nature of human thought; all we need to do is look ...

Right on!

According to my reading of Consciousness Explained (which I have read, although a while ago now) Dennett's argument does not amount to a denial of the...

I think they see mind as an activity of the body, "minding"; more verb than noun. I wonder if Dennett and Ryle have no feeling for animals, or deny th...