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Respecting Christians

Why do you assume a link between the two volumes? Odd.

Why would the brain need to describe something that is billions of light years in diameter? Most people would have trouble with accurately describing everything in the street they live in. The universe? No chance.
 
So?

I cite various models of string theory, or quantum fluctuations producing ye olde Big Bang. Both result in something outside our universe impinging there upon?
No. And even if they did, what would that have to do with made-up things like the Christians' Torture Fairy?

A supernatural gnome would be outside of science: based on the principle of methodological naturalism, science could say nothing about it.
...except that the observable universe perfectly matches what it would be like if there were no such gnome/God/whatever so it would make no sense to just make them up.

Phenomena derived from the actions of the gnome in our universe would be naturalistic and hence subject to scientific scrutiny.
And then, when it was found that none of the claimed actions had ever actually happened...

Yet the standard model, much comsogony and maths work just fine while not being based on empiricism but on rationalism applied ot entities outside the limits of empirical observation?
Cosmogony might be that way; I haven't read any articles or such that were identified as "cosmogony" so I don't know whether it's a real science or just more made-up stuff like religion. But no, the standard model (I presume you mean in particle physics) and math are based entirely on evidence, not just making stuff up, so your claim here is simply false.

Mathematics, logic, any of the rationalist rather than empirical sciences?
Again with the math! What's your deal with math? Is it that the definition of an "axiom" involves the axiom not being provable? That just means that an axiom isn't provable by the methods that are used to prove theorems because axioms themselves are used in those proofs and that would be circular. They are, however, "proven", i.e. known to be true, by guess what: observation of reality. They're used because reality tells us that they work.

Same thing with logic: the principles of logic were worked out by checking what mental procedures did and didn't work in reality.

And there's no such thing as a non-empirical science. If it's not empirical, it's not science.

You're not being honest either about what science is OR about what religion is. The basis for everything in science is observed evidence. The basis for everything in religion is stuff somebody made up without evidence. Your desire to come up with a way to equate them does not change that.

evidence is simply data used to argue for a hypothesis.
No, it is not. It's data used to derive or alter one. Starting from a hypothesis and then trying to use data to support it is going backward.

The question is not the existence of evidence; it's if the evidence is strong, weak, or utterly rubbish.
The question is what the evidence is evidence OF/FOR.

Dawkins says there is no evidence for God: I point at a church building and say "evidence people think God talks to them!"
And the reason you had to change the words is because it's not evidence for God. It's evidence for something else.
 
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Cosmogony might be that way; I haven't read any articles or such that were identified as "cosmogony" so I don't know whether it's a real science or just more made-up stuff like religion.

The only place that I ever came across the word ''cosmonogy'' was in Blavatsky's ''The Secret Doctrine'', so yes, it is made-up.
 
I have the same attitude towards evidence of gods. I find it hard to discuss with you, could you put the tongue in cheek, mildly amusing bits in another colour of font please?


OK, silly bits in purple. Yes, evidence for Gods is weak, because our best most efficient and successful way of knowing, perhaps barring mathematics or direct observation, is Science.

Now Science works by sensible rules; axioms. Those rules, foundational axioms - not in themselves scientific as such - they are things we use to do Science (there are also tools we employ - like Occam's Razor - doesn't always work, but pretty useful tool!)

So the rules of Science are fairly universally agreed, though philosophers of Science argue over them. One of the most important is something called Methodological Naturalism. That s a bit of a mouthful, so let's call it the NMC - No Magic Clause. What it basically says is Science can not deal with entities like Gods, magic wands that can do anything, and other things that don't obey Natural Laws and causality.

We have to assume that when an apple falls, it falls according to the laws of gravity. We do not postulate that some apples are actually carried down by invisible fairies (or gnomes posing as smurfs). We expect the rules of nature to be consistent,. and to apply the same every time, and if I do an experiment and you do an experiment in idea world we both get the same result, because Zeus does not intervene and change how reality works.

Now there a
re good philosophical reasons why we use this rule: It's not just to piss off Creationists. I can explain them if you doubt me, but just assume for now the NMC is absolutely basic to how we do science, and science would get very silly without it very fast.

Now imagine for a moment you are with me on a poltergeist investigation (I actually work in parapsychology). Stuff is going on. Things move. So we formulate some weird theory to explain it -- y'know it's the teenage girls repressed emotions, that sort of thing. OK, well objects moving will still move in line with standard energy decay, and so forth. We can do science: we can measure how far things move, experiment with the girl, test the claim she can read our minds. The NMC does not get in the way, because our spook is obeying perfectly normal scientific laws, just ones we don't understand. It might revise our understanding of physics, but it won't replace it.

Now imagine we are dealing with some saint, and he makes things appear and disappear by simply praying. We can check what method he is doing it by - no problem there, because he is probably a fraud: but if God grants him genuine miracles, and people rise from the grave, are healed in inexplicable ways, or the river turns to green lime jelly, we can't get anywhere. It's magic, it does not follow scientific laws, its all miracles - and while we could analyse the jelly, examine the patients, etc, etc, God remains outside of our scope. The NMC cuts in.

Prayer is not meant to be subject to normal causal effects - see the BMW example last page. That is why it's incredibly difficult to study. Any thing that breaks the NMC is outside of science: we won't find scientific evidence for it, because the NMC says we can't study it.

So are all Scientists atheists? No, but good scientists are sceptics and atheists in their workings - they do not drag "Godunnit" in as an explanation, as it violates the NMC.

So as children we pick up a bit of scientific method is we are clever, and learn how to make predictions, falsify, assess evidence etc, etc. We don;t know the terms - but we learn more and more to apply the NMC in normal life, because it works.We grow up, and dismiss Easter Bunnies, Santa Claus, Magic Men in the Sky.

Problem is we can then take the NMC too far: we conflate methodological naturalism with ontological natuaralism, which is just a way of saying that our necessary atheism to work out how to cross the road (don't rely on angels, rely on observation and working out velocity of oncoming vehicles) becomes confused with real atheism, the belief nothing outside of Science exists.

There are lots of other ways of knowing stuff outside of Science: many of them can render useful true results. Science gives us amazing lives, technology and opportunities, but mathematics, philosophy, direct experience, history, etc, etc, also provide truth.

So we have a problem finding decent scientific evidence for God; but that is no surprise; because Science can not speak meaningfully of God. It's a circular argument.

I managed to avoid silliness! :) Sorry I'm naturally playful, and joke around, but I try to be sensible too!

cj x





 
I managed to avoid silliness! :) Sorry I'm naturally playful, and joke around, but I try to be sensible too!

The problem with internet forums is that you can't see people's faces. No visual clues.
 
Agreed, but for someone like Minarvia's dad, it would be a show of respect rather than actual respect. Obviously these are two very different things.

If you consider "respect" to be a verb, then you can respect anyone, and there is no difference between showing respect and actual respect. You can respect a police officer, his position of authority and his power over you, even while you're thinking he's behaving as a fascist tool of state authority. You show that respect by being polite and not giving him an excuse to beat you senseless with his truncheon.

True, but there are some beliefs that make it impossible for me to respect the people that hold them.

People are complex beings, and it's rare to find anyone that is truly all bad. If your dad was a racist, wife-beating, necrophiliac but played a great game of scrabble, then it's possible to respect that scrabble game even while you condemn the rest.
 

You stated
Delvo said:
And religion doesn't have any sort of testing; if the religious really applied that to religion, they wouldn't be religious and religion would cease to exist.

So I responded by pointing out an article from this week on the RC church truth claim tests. There are other examples though. That was just this week.


Delvo said:
No. And even if they did, what would that have to do with made-up things like the Christians' Torture Fairy?

Again you wrote

Delvo said:
No, that doesn't make any sense. To declare something to be separate from our universe and then talk about it interacting with our universe is completely self-contradictory.

So I responded with examples thereof. Physical Review D article on possible impacts effecting CMB through WMAP data here here http://prd.aps.org/accepted/D/83079Q32M1c1810f37bf2af793911a2083788d205

Check out wiki on String Theory, branes and M_Theory for more possibilities.

Delvo said:
...except that the observable universe perfectly matches what it would be like if there were no such gnome/God/whatever so it would make no sense to just make them up.

How do we know this? I have just explained methodological naturalism in an earlier post so won't go through it again.

Delvo said:
But no, the standard model (I presume you mean in particle physics) and math are based entirely on evidence, not just making stuff up, so your claim here is simply false.

I wrote "Yet the standard model, much comsogony and maths work just fine while not being based on empiricism but on rationalism applied to entities outside the limits of empirical observation?"

Empiricism is based on direct observation and induction. We currently have in physics at the big and smallest scale a whole load of work that goes beyond the potential for direct observation - it is based on rationalism and deduction, through mathematical logic.It work sin the same manner as classical systematic theology. Likewise mathematics works just fine without application to real world items: we can model entire alternative and imaginary universes with different maths.

Delvo said:
Again with the math! What's your deal with math? Is it that the definition of an "axiom" involves the axiom not being provable? That just means that an axiom isn't provable by the methods that are used to prove theorems because axioms themselves are used in those proofs and that would be circular. They are, however, "proven", i.e. known to be true, by guess what: observation of reality. They're used because reality tells us that they work.

Er you wrote


Delvo said:
And what is a premise that doesn't come from observed phenomena? Stuff somebody made up.

So I cited non-empirical science. Modern science is a rationalist-empiricist synthesis: historically rationalism and empiricism were rival approaches. Look them up? Anyway I have to head out soon, but if you try the Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philoophy which is online there are good articles on rationalism, Empiricism, the limits of observation, etc, etc.

Speak later.

cj x
 
I responded by pointing out an article from this week on the RC church truth claim tests.
No, you showed an example of the church dressing up some of its activities to try to look like real testing. When the question they claim to be trying to answer is "was this event a case of X", and X is itself something somebody made up with no basis in reality, the answer will also have no basis in reality. That's not even trying to find out anything about reality. It's just pretending.

I responded with examples thereof.
No, you responded with a mix of some scientific things pertaining to hard-to-detect dimensions or aspects of this universe and other scientific things even more mundane than that. But what these scientific ideas have in common is that they're based on observed facts. String theory, for example, not only has nothing to do with outside universes as you claimed, but originated as an inference from relativity and quantum mechanics, both of which have more observed facts behind them than I could probably even list in one sitting. When they started developing the implications of string theory, they found out that it implied more dimensions than were previously imagined, but that didn't come from nothing; it came from applying logic to the facts we know about relativity and quantum mechanics.

Compare that to the church supposedly trying to figure out whether some particular reported event was a true miracle or apparition or whatever. It requires having some idea of what an example of the "true" thing would be like, and where did that come from? Nothing. If it wasn't just made up, but worked out by inference or induction or deduction or such, then it only comes from prior theological concepts, claims about God's behavior and words, which were themselves made up.

We currently have in physics at the big and smallest scale a whole load of work that goes beyond the potential for direct observation
...By applying logic to facts which were established by observation of the real world.

It work sin the same manner as classical systematic theology.
No, because in theology, the starting point from which all inferences, inductions, deductions, and so on are derived is ultimately always stuff somebody just made up from nothing. No matter how many more steps of logical inference you take, the fact that it still traces back to, and is entirely based on, people just making stuff up (including if the original people who made it up have all been dead for millennia), never goes away.

So I cited non-empirical science.
No, you did not. You tried an equivalency that just doesn't work. No matter how many times you repeat a claim that science can be based on religion-like imagination instead of real-world facts and still be science, it won't become true. Nor will a claim that religion has any foundation under it all other than imagination, or that the imagined stuff it's based on is somehow equivalent to real-world observation. Observation and imagination are just two completely separate things, and the fact that inductions and deductions can be applied to both doesn't change that.

historically rationalism and empiricism were rival approaches.
And the fact that people who cling to evidence-free nonsense such as religion are now trying to disguise their religions as if they were somehow empirical or somehow equivalent to it, and shout "hey look, we can be sciencey too!", demonstrates which one has turned out to be superior.
 
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I'm still busy but I'd best respond to this bit :)

No, you responded with a mix of some scientific things pertaining to hard-to-detect dimensions or aspects of this universe and other scientific things even more mundane than that. But what these scientific ideas have in common is that they're based on observed facts. String theory, for example, not only has nothing to do with outside universes as you claimed,

Yep it does: 11 dimensional space came first then the idea of branes beyond 1-branes (strings) was developed - see M-Theory as I said - and that postulates additional universes as potentials, connected to our by the branes that give rise to them. Have a look. :) I'm quite cynical about string theory and superstrings, but you will see what I refer to and that I am not "making stuff up" :)

but originated as an inference from relativity and quantum mechanics, both of which have more observed facts behind them than I could probably even list in one sitting.

As an inference; rationally deduced, not empirically inducted. As I said. :)

When they started developing the implications of string theory, they found out that it implied more dimensions than were previously imagined, but that didn't come from nothing; it came from applying logic to the facts we know about relativity and quantum mechanics.

Yes, applying logic to develop beyond observable empirical fact is what rationalism does. In fact the facts you refer to are of course provisional observations which are theoretically grounded and may change as our understanding does - all science is provisional - but yes. You are agreeing with me.

Empiricism = observed phenomena, and induction from these observations
Rationalism = developing logical models from first principles or said empirical facts... :)

cj x
 
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Of course it isn't.



It is fundamentally abhorent that a so-called god will inflict eternal punishment on anyone. What right would such an entity have to torment anyone?



You may have a god but I do not.





Hell does not exist. God does not exist.

Are you completely and utterly void of a clue?
 
As an inference; rationally deduced, not empirically inducted. As I said. :)
So now your attempt to make religion and science seem equivalent boils down to pointing out that people in both can make deductions, inductions, and inferences from something. That's like saying a saber-toothed tiger and a newt are the same animal because they both have a pancreas.

Look at what the BASIS for the deductions, inductions, inferences, and so on is; what starting point are these processes coming FROM?
In science: they start with observed facts.
In religion: they start with stuff somebody made up.

No amount of irrelevant attempts at distraction will change that.
 
So now your attempt to make religion and science seem equivalent boils down to pointing out that people in both can make deductions, inductions, and inferences from something. That's like saying a saber-toothed tiger and a newt are the same animal because they both have a pancreas.

Look at what the BASIS for the deductions, inductions, inferences, and so on is; what starting point are these processes coming FROM?
In science: they start with observed facts.
In religion: they start with stuff somebody made up.

No amount of irrelevant attempts at distraction will change that.

The idea that science and religion are equivalent is a very amusing one. cj's sense of humour has got the better of him again. If science and religion were equivalent then all religions would make the same deductions, inductions and inferences and there would only be one religion on Earth.
 
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The idea that science and religion are equivalent is a very amusing one. cj's sense of humour has got the better of him again. If science and religion were equivalent then all religions would make the same deductions, inductions and inferences and there would only be one religion on Earth.


And they'd be trying to teach it in science classes in the schools. Oh... wait...
 
I dug out this old post of mine from the thread I cited on page 5 of this one, to show there is, on this very forum, evidence for such
Pink Unicorns! Bah humbug! I'll tell you about Pink Unicorns!

have you not read the Revelations of Noodle, the Pastafarian gnostic text?

Hadn't read that before, so thankyou for the laugh.
 
If you consider "respect" to be a verb, then you can respect anyone, and there is no difference between showing respect and actual respect. You can respect a police officer, his position of authority and his power over you, even while you're thinking he's behaving as a fascist tool of state authority. You show that respect by being polite and not giving him an excuse to beat you senseless with his truncheon.

Exactly. You are showing him respect, but do not respect him.


People are complex beings, and it's rare to find anyone that is truly all bad. If your dad was a racist, wife-beating, necrophiliac but played a great game of scrabble, then it's possible to respect that scrabble game even while you condemn the rest.

I would think he was a racist, wife-beating necrophiliac that could play a good game of scrabble, but I still wouldn't respect him.

Some people believe that other human beings are sub-human beacuse of their skin colour, or because they are jewish. I cannot respect these people no matter what other qualities they might posess.
 

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