Board index › Topical Discussion › Politics, Philosophy, and Religion

Who or What is God?

Page 2 of 4 [ 62 posts ]  Go to page Previous  1, 2, 3, 4  Next

Previous topic | Next topic

Khan_Sama
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 25 Mar 2008
Age: 35
Gender: Male
Posts: 882
Location: New Human Empire

05 Feb 2009, 3:34 am

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAV3VLFZhs0[/youtube]



adverb
Toucan
Toucan

User avatar

Joined: 7 Dec 2007
Age: 47
Gender: Male
Posts: 256

05 Feb 2009, 5:52 am

god is the concept by which we measure our pain.


_________________
What will happen in the morning when the world it gets so crowded that you can't look out the window in the morning?
- Nick Drake


ruveyn
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 21 Sep 2008
Age: 88
Gender: Male
Posts: 31,502
Location: New Jersey

05 Feb 2009, 5:57 am

adverb wrote:
god is the concept by which we measure our pain.


That makes very little sense. We can't really measure pain. All we can say is pain A is more intense than pain B and for that you don't need God.

ruveyn



slowmutant
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 13 Feb 2008
Age: 45
Gender: Male
Posts: 8,430
Location: Ontario, Canada

05 Feb 2009, 6:08 am

ruveyn wrote:
adverb wrote:
god is the concept by which we measure our pain.


That makes very little sense. We can't really measure pain. All we can say is pain A is more intense than pain B and for that you don't need God.

ruveyn


Normative Judaism is very depressing. :(



b9
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 14 Aug 2008
Age: 52
Gender: Male
Posts: 12,003
Location: australia

05 Feb 2009, 6:16 am

humans have a fatal flaw compared to all other animals.

humans are the only animals that KNOW they are going to die.

animals have blissful lives if they are well fed and healthy because they have no idea that it will ever end.

no matter how content a human is, there is always the knowledge in the back of their mind that it all will end.
everything they love, they will be parted from forever one day.


to plug this flaw, they use a caulking compound called "god".
it keeps the enthusiasm of meaning encapsulated in human minds that have a fatal "tear" that lets hope out.
if people did not have it, their sense of purpose would evaporate, and then despondency would spell disaster for progress and may result in extinction of the species.

all this does not apply to me (except the knowledge that i am going to die).
i am just a reactor to what ever fuel is shoveled in by life.



slowmutant
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 13 Feb 2008
Age: 45
Gender: Male
Posts: 8,430
Location: Ontario, Canada

05 Feb 2009, 6:22 am

I dunno, the fatal flaw to which you allude as SAPIENCE could also be described as our advantage over all other forms of life.

My cat Dixie is sentient in that she is aware of her environment, yet she does not know her own name. She can chase the laser-pointer dot across a shadowy wall, yet she is not aware of herself as a black & white cat. She knows my scent and appearance, but Dixie won't ever learn my name.



slowmutant
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 13 Feb 2008
Age: 45
Gender: Male
Posts: 8,430
Location: Ontario, Canada

05 Feb 2009, 6:25 am

b9 wrote:
humans have a fatal flaw compared to all other animals.

humans are the only animals that KNOW they are going to die.

animals have blissful lives if they are well fed and healthy because they have no idea that it will ever end.

no matter how content a human is, there is always the knowledge in the back of their mind that it all will end.
everything they love, they will be parted from forever one day.


to plug this flaw, they use a caulking compound called "god".
it keeps the enthusiasm of meaning encapsulated in human minds that have a fatal "tear" that lets hope out.
if people did not have it, their sense of purpose would evaporate, and then despondency would spell disaster for progress and may result in extinction of the species.

all this does not apply to me (except the knowledge that i am going to die).
i am just a reactor to what ever fuel is shoveled in by life.


b9, you have a very unique way of looking at things. :) :thumright:



ruveyn
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 21 Sep 2008
Age: 88
Gender: Male
Posts: 31,502
Location: New Jersey

05 Feb 2009, 7:59 am

b9 wrote:
humans have a fatal flaw compared to all other animals.

humans are the only animals that KNOW they are going to die.



Not a flaw. It means we have to make each of our 25,000 days count for something. Only the gods and immortals can afford to procrastinate.

ruveyn



b9
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 14 Aug 2008
Age: 52
Gender: Male
Posts: 12,003
Location: australia

05 Feb 2009, 8:52 am

ruveyn wrote:
Only the gods and immortals can afford to procrastinate.


well then i must be a god or an immortal.
i will get around to determining that at a later time.

i am off to bed soon.



Sand
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 15 Sep 2007
Age: 99
Gender: Male
Posts: 11,484
Location: Finland

05 Feb 2009, 11:22 am

slowmutant wrote:
I dunno, the fatal flaw to which you allude as SAPIENCE could also be described as our advantage over all other forms of life.

My cat Dixie is sentient in that she is aware of her environment, yet she does not know her own name. She can chase the laser-pointer dot across a shadowy wall, yet she is not aware of herself as a black & white cat. She knows my scent and appearance, but Dixie won't ever learn my name.


I have a cat that knows its name and we speak cat together reasonably well. I am minimally fluent in cat, dog, duck, pigeon, crow and sparrow. And we are all equally sentient and all are very aware of the dangers of getting killed and avoid those situations studiously. You must have a pretty dumb cat.



MissConstrue
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 4 Feb 2008
Gender: Female
Posts: 17,052
Location: MO

05 Feb 2009, 11:37 am

This cat talks reasonably well...

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=964uCtgsDoE[/youtube]


Sometimes I wonder if it isn't cats that truly rule the world under mind control!!


_________________
I live as I choose or I will not live at all.
~Delores O’Riordan


slowmutant
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 13 Feb 2008
Age: 45
Gender: Male
Posts: 8,430
Location: Ontario, Canada

05 Feb 2009, 11:52 am

Sand wrote:
slowmutant wrote:
I dunno, the fatal flaw to which you allude as SAPIENCE could also be described as our advantage over all other forms of life.

My cat Dixie is sentient in that she is aware of her environment, yet she does not know her own name. She can chase the laser-pointer dot across a shadowy wall, yet she is not aware of herself as a black & white cat. She knows my scent and appearance, but Dixie won't ever learn my name.


I have a cat that knows its name and we speak cat together reasonably well. I am minimally fluent in cat, dog, duck, pigeon, crow and sparrow. And we are all equally sentient and all are very aware of the dangers of getting killed and avoid those situations studiously. You must have a pretty dumb cat.


Dumb? No, she's probably average in feline intelligence. I say my cat is not sapient in that she is unable to contemplete her own existence as a cat living in a 1-bedroom with some Asperger's guy.



Sand
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 15 Sep 2007
Age: 99
Gender: Male
Posts: 11,484
Location: Finland

05 Feb 2009, 12:10 pm

slowmutant wrote:
Sand wrote:
slowmutant wrote:
I dunno, the fatal flaw to which you allude as SAPIENCE could also be described as our advantage over all other forms of life.

My cat Dixie is sentient in that she is aware of her environment, yet she does not know her own name. She can chase the laser-pointer dot across a shadowy wall, yet she is not aware of herself as a black & white cat. She knows my scent and appearance, but Dixie won't ever learn my name.


I have a cat that knows its name and we speak cat together reasonably well. I am minimally fluent in cat, dog, duck, pigeon, crow and sparrow. And we are all equally sentient and all are very aware of the dangers of getting killed and avoid those situations studiously. You must have a pretty dumb cat.


Dumb? No, she's probably average in feline intelligence. I say my cat is not sapient in that she is unable to contemplete her own existence as a cat living in a 1-bedroom with some Asperger's guy.


If she doesn't know her own name, believe it, she's either dumb or hasn't been properly educated. I have had different cats all my life and they were all quite sentient and knew they were cats. And knew their names.



gina-ghettoprincess
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 8 Nov 2008
Age: 29
Gender: Female
Posts: 2,669
Location: The Town That Time Forgot (UK)

05 Feb 2009, 12:12 pm

b9 wrote:
humans have a fatal flaw compared to all other animals.

humans are the only animals that KNOW they are going to die.

animals have blissful lives if they are well fed and healthy because they have no idea that it will ever end.

no matter how content a human is, there is always the knowledge in the back of their mind that it all will end.
everything they love, they will be parted from forever one day.


to plug this flaw, they use a caulking compound called "god".
it keeps the enthusiasm of meaning encapsulated in human minds that have a fatal "tear" that lets hope out.
if people did not have it, their sense of purpose would evaporate, and then despondency would spell disaster for progress and may result in extinction of the species.

all this does not apply to me (except the knowledge that i am going to die).
i am just a reactor to what ever fuel is shoveled in by life.


You make some very good points there.

I guess if there is no afterlife, and we just rot in the ground, at least we aren't conscious of this fact. We are dead, we have no feeling or emotion. So no disappointment, no "damn, the atheists were right!".


_________________
'El reloj, no avanza
y yo quiero ir a verte,
La clase, no acaba
y es como un semestre"


slowmutant
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 13 Feb 2008
Age: 45
Gender: Male
Posts: 8,430
Location: Ontario, Canada

05 Feb 2009, 1:05 pm

If the atheists are right, why does life matter at all? What's the point of anything if we're destined to be nothing more than maggot food?



Sand
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 15 Sep 2007
Age: 99
Gender: Male
Posts: 11,484
Location: Finland

05 Feb 2009, 1:14 pm

slowmutant wrote:
If the atheists are right, why does life matter at all? What's the point of anything if we're destined to be nothing more than maggot food?


If you are truly unaware of the delight in just being alive, to see and hear and sense in all ways the fascination of participating consciously in the wonderful minute by minute existence granted you out of all the billions and billions of sperms and eggs that never made it into consciousness, what can you do in eternity plunking on a harp and flying through the clouds? Talk about your cat being dumb and not being conscious of death! You are not conscious about being alive!