Search results

Love from the scientific standpoint would be something basic like 'instinct' - as in mother whatever's love for her offspring, or something that a behaviorist could observe and ascribe to some need or other. I think there's a special kind of human love that's of a higher order than any that...

Omigod - I forgot to factor that in!

I missed this one. Looks like we blew our chance to terminate this thread on a high note.

The probability of God is .2673911418 I did a lot of work to get this result and I won't appreciate being challenged on it.

Looks like 560.00 to me

You understand that I wasn't arguing for "everything as subjective" - just for all experienced subjective events as existing ( however fleetingly ) and related to the non-subjective world with varying degrees of correspondence. Some of these subjective entities correspond strongly to...

Ephemeral existence is still existence. How many quantum entities are transitory? Is anything everlasting? In general, any event or physical thing exists only for the time it occurs although events and physical things virtually define the natural world. I'm not arguing for magic (...

It's true that measurements are essential to the conduct of science, but science is only one specialized way of experiencing truth. How about your own subjective experiences - do they not exist? Even if we ignore the abstract values of your last post, it's undeniable that the specific...

You're just saying that because you're sane.

"President Obama", "President Huckabee" . Naw. Neither one sounds right. It's all about image. Obama looks like a kid. Completely unbelievable as leader of the world's mightiest nation. Huckabee's too crafty for his own good. Neither one of these guys. No idea who, but it won't...

My argument is based on considerations of possibilities, yours on assertions. Enlighten us. How did you come to this state of certainty? And why is it impossible that "damn lucky monkeys" hold a priviledged position in the scheme of things?

Re "No more fanciful..." : Agreed - no more fanciful, especially given that degrees of fancifulness are pretty difficult to deal with. Re " obviously an omnipotent designer...": Agreed again, but there could be a Creator God that isn't omnipotent and that had to work within...

When the improbability reaches fantastic levels we should consider the possibility that it didn't happen by chance. Really, isn't randomness a mystery? The mathematics of probability are fairly simple but why the rules of probability or for that matter any other rules of nature? What is...

The possibility of life forms based on different logics, different chemistries, or even different natural constants can't be ruled out but at this time it's only a fanciful idea with no scientific basis. There is no way ( at least at this time ) to test whether or not life could evolve in...

Depends on what you mean by a deity. The Universe might be a deity. I suppose you mean those deities that require worship. If so, I tend to agree that such entities would be odd - why would things so innately grand need our puny admiration? But then, that's anthropomorphizing the...

Maybe not these, but definitely people who cut in in lineups for theatre tickets and half the contestants on American Idol.

Pretty effective. Should bring it back for child-killers, hitmen, and serial killers. Victims' relatives toss the rocks.

Depends on what you mean by 'religion' . Blindly accepted dogma may be religion as you suggest, but religion can be as simple as a feeling that the world and life have a purpose in being - that there's something strangely, beautifully meaningful behind all the shock and savagery we...