Tom Storm

That's an intriguing idea. I often suspected God of festering, 'How do I vanquish this horned motherfucker?!" Another way of seeing Satan is as God's ...

The thread has generated some rich discussions. I love that we can put things out here and be open to revising our thinking and, where necessary, twea...

Great question. Given the immense variations and range of Christian traditions, I imagine you could argue almost anything in this space. There are Chr...

I used to think this and I don't entirely disagree. However, I suspect the value of sound reasoning plays a small role in people's beliefs and is of l...

Too much for The Shoutbox but it's essentially about ensuring services and government collaborate effectively, allocate resources and identify each pe...

Often, but it means that the person you are working with probably had parents and even grandparents who were also poor and dealing with trauma and dis...

Of course. That's what I was answering, not the issue of prevention. That's because I work in an area which attempts to address the problems - some sa...

You may be right. I suspect that frequently beliefs and values are emotionally or dispositional driven, which can change with time, opportunity or exp...

I think you're right. And much of what you say is true here even though we have a welfare safety net of sorts and largely free or subsidized healthcar...

Nice - that's what I was getting at.

I may be wrong but presumably @"Mikie" would apply this principle to atheists too for the same reasons.

Cool. I agree. Thanks for indulging me.

Don't hate me, but I'm not sure I fully get your position. I read the words and understand the sentences and I also understand that you are not hating...

[ I agree. They do arise from different sources. Many Christians believe in God but not Satan. The Baptist church I attended decades ago argued that S...

Interesting. I'm an atheist and it seems clear to me that there are atheists - usually secular humanists - who are essentially apologists; preaching, ...

Good question. I guess I am ok with 'I think therefore I am' as a presupposition. I'm just exploring the notion that if Descartes can imagine a realit...

No argument there, but Lichtenberg's point (which I must have made unclearly or I am not following you) was that he might have said instead thinking i...

Well, I appreciate your responses here. You keep me on my toes and actually know your philosophy. Your statement that 'philosophy is difficult' seems ...

Interesting response, it sounds like you are determined to distort my account. That's right I didn't say it, I paraphrased the point which has been sa...

I'd like to go this whole discussion without defining it. I literally did not. I said I had described these as assumptions, as a concern some might ha...

It seems to me that certain personalities are drawn to 'symbolic truths'. I like the idea of it but it has never worked for me. I can't think of any s...

Thanks. Very interesting.

:up:

There are a plethora of arguments given by Christians about Lucifer/Satan/the Devil and God which have no Biblical basis. Do they matter? What can you...

Well, the real question is probably if 'I' isn't there, then what is? And the answer to this is, fucked if I know. :wink: There are philosophical view...

If you can't grasp my meaning there might be bigger problem here than you being concerned about what an assumption is. In fact, it's hard to imagine y...

I'll check it out. I've often enjoyed Stanley Fish - he's provocative and witty.

Indeed and this has been a preoccupation of 'public intellectuals' for decades, from Aleister Crowley to Alan Watts. Carl Jung ran a similar project. ...

I guess you may be asking in essence how do the teachings of Jesus stack up against other ethical systems in philosophy. We don't really know what the...

I've watched a few of his talks and lectures. Interesting material. I'm curious about transjectivity (transcending categories of subjective and object...

Thanks.

Ok but I'm not understanding how this relates to arts the master distains. What is an example of such an art?

Intriguing. What is learned about power through this? Can you expand a little?

No. I already made this point. Both are assumed. The salient point is that there may not a straight forward 'I am' as the Cogito suggests. The experie...

Yeah... I should have said almost no electrical appliances. But we were talking about kitchens.

It's not about what I think assumption means. The idea of thinking assumes there is a thinker - that's essentially what the cogito says, right? "I" be...

I do. I even have plates and cutlery.

You paint a vivid and unpleasant picture. It's for that reason I've owned no electrical appliances at all for 20 years - no toaster, microwave, coffee...

Interesting. I haven't seen a Nolan film I've much likened to be honest - I find them contrived, dreary and portentous. But I thought it was just me. ...

Aren't there problems with the cogito? Assuming that there is an 'I' doing the thinking. And what exactly is it we know about thinking? I worked for m...

Maybe that's my fault for the tentative title of my OP. I wasn't sure at the time how else to put my question, which I guess amounts to trying to unde...

Nice. I was about to put up something along these lines myself - about the semantic nature of this discussion and the scope of the word 'reality'. My ...

I think idealism would have something to say about the reality of the cupboard too. Have you heard any arguments for antirealism that you think are mo...

I take it as a given that the cup and handle still exist when we don't see them.

:up:

Interesting material. I have read a little George Lakoff who also talks about embodied cognition. It certainly resonates with me. ? George Lakoff, Phi...

What do you consider to be the best 2 Murakami books?

:up: Can you just clarify what you mean by 'confined by' here? Hmmm... I can see this. This seems to be a rich source for further exploration. I like ...

Yes, this example makes sense. And we can get marooned by talk about which things exit when no one is there to see or hear. To some extent where you l...

Yep. Something many of us lose site of. Sure - I was using it metaphorically for this kind of distinction. Nice - yes this seems critical. Don't disag...