Tom Storm

I came here to see what I may have missed in not privileging philosophy. And I am mostly interested in what others believe and why.

Is the guy that maintains my pool from alpha centauri?

Thank you. I've flitted about on the periphery of this approach once or twice. It's very interesting material. This is challenging conceptual space. E...

A very romantic account.

I guess then creativity may be found everywhere - in business, politics, health.. in every day life. Could it be that just in being human and making c...

What counts as creativity?

The way you phrased this ('It is popular these days...') suggests you take issue with the view. I have no dog in this fight but is there a better acco...

Not sure. What do we do with this view and how can it help?

For the pessimists - love Leonard's voice and singular poetic sensibility. This song always makes me smile. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xu8u9ZbCJg...

Me too. I love it. Mine is a von Karajan recording. I heard it first in 1985 and used to drive through winding mountain roads to our country place wit...

Yes. Same as serial killing. Some of us think it's a bad thing. :razz:

As an atheist I generally proffer 'I don't know' when people ask about consciousness or abiogenesis or the origin of the universe. Atheism doesn't hin...

:up:

I think Hitchens was a patchy debater. He had terrific presence, a sonorous voice and was skilled at rhetoric - but re-watching some of his debates, i...

I was a pessimistic child. For no particular reason I assumed everything would always go badly in the world and that becoming an adult was a pointless...

Thanks. I confess to finding elements of the position seductive but I fear its consequences. I think I enjoy Spanish Key the most on that particular a...

I know you find postmodernism's approach problematic, but what is your response to this argument: Do you see this reasoning as having any utility? Whe...

I was referring to people's needs for 'absolute certainty' whether they are secular or religious. At one end is scientism and at the other end religio...

We're not even talking about the same thing, Greg. Sorry man, I did my best. We can maybe talk about something else another time. Take care.

Sounds a little like Richard Rorty. I share some of these impulses/thoughts too, but I think this may be just a bit too 'extreme' for my worldview. I ...

Goodness, you're arguing about something entirely different. Perhaps if I go over it it once more - we'll leave the thorny topic of religion/spiritual...

Agree. Should I add this to your other globalizing statement about religion below? Not sure how this got into your argument since it neither addresses...

Can you demonstrate this? It sounds wrong. I grew up in the Christian tradition which was as divided and antagonistic with each other over experience ...

Some people think so. However, Karen Armstrong, a scholar of religion, holds that it's a subject that has no clear definition. I would say religion ha...

Can you really say there is a whole point to religion - or is this just a view? Surely religion, like humanity, is about many things, from bigoted cru...

This is an important point. It's interesting how 'absolute certainty' is itself a kind of god in a lot of thinking.

I agree with much of this. But the general response will likely be 'no one says that the truth has to be appealing.' I guess many atheists (especially...

Sounds like a good start. I became an atheist because my experience suggests a godless world; I lack a sensus divinitatis and no argument presented to...

I hate to say it, but it might be better if some people (me included) never read philosophy and theory, and just applied this and got on with fucking ...

Well, from his best-selling biography it's pretty clear god has very low self-esteem and personality problems - needing to be worshiped; needing to be...

He has low self-esteem.

People are very judgmental of the 'stupid, misled public' it often seems to me. They just want dumb things and are happy with the status quo... I thin...

And the good thing is they only sacrifice goats, not pigs...

Of course it is. To begin with, no one can demonstrate what this morality consists of and everyone interprets their god's morality differently. In the...

I'm not convinced that many of us know who we are (whatever that might mean) or that we have much idea who we wish to be (same problem). Sure, we migh...

Nice. I see him also spraying torrents of holy blood at people from his stigmata wounds, like a messianic Spider Man.

Jesus 2 - This Time It's No More Mr Nice Guy

That's worthy of any number of great thinkers.

Ha! Yes, people are disappointing. I certainly appreciate how you lay out ideas and pose questions for us to work through. It's interesting how quickl...

Thanks, Joshs, this is a rich and interesting approach. God is something like the cumulative result of presuppositions and approaches to meaning which...

Do we know anything about aliens?

You wouldn't be only one who thinks this. I suspect most metaphysical questions are likely to be unanswerable and often don't even make sense outside ...

I'm an atheist and don't trust in any absolutes period. I think any notions of 'absolute truth' are just remnants of Greek philosophy (idealism) which...

Thanks. So in your case why not accept the reality of a god? Is your position beyond reason and more about an inability to believe? I am fascinated by...

I have no commitment to aliens existing. And the notion of highest intelligence is a human construct which for me doesn't carry much more than a poeti...

Of course it looks that way because atheism - especially in America - is dealing with literalist apologetics and has become stuck in the refutation of...

Do you believe in god/s? and if so (or not) can you sketch out your thinking?

You beauty, Cobber - I just had a bonza lunch of shredded llyrebird and deep-fried koala, the midyim berries were sweet, but the wattle gum wine seeme...

Unconvincing (to me). Why would the creator not provide creation with clear unambiguous guidance from the start, to not only make its intentions clear...

:yikes: