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Are Agnostics Welcome Here?

punshhh said:
Yes I realise this, I am not constructing a logical argument here.
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That's for sure!

I am proposing that we can suppose something about a god that might actually exist, by analysis of nature. Even when it is a god which we cannot say anything about.
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So we can suppose something about it, but we can't say anything about it? What is the relevant difference between 'supposing' and 'saying' in that statement?
 
punshhh said:
AI will soon emerge from nature, will it have evolved naturally?
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It depends on your definition of "natural". To say things I might build are unnatural while the shelter a beaver constructs is natural is an arbitrary distinction. But the point is moot because it in no way supports your argument anyway. AI if/when developed by humans will not have developed de novo.
 
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Hokulele said:
It is Pele, not Pele'. An 'okina (') represents a glottal stop, and always comes before a vowel, never at the end of a word.
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Sorry. I suppose I've mixed up the spelling somewhere along the way: Pelé WP It's a hard habit to break.
 
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Skeptic Ginger said:
Sorry. My keyboard doesn't have the capability to but the mark over the e unless I cut and paste it from another source: Pelé WP
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Completely off topic:

If you care about it at all you can look here for the key code:
http://www.asciitable.com

You will see that é is 130.

To type it in you hold <alt> and enter 130 on your number pad (make sure num lock is on) and voila!
 
Daald said:
Completely off topic:

If you care about it at all you can look here for the key code:
http://www.asciitable.com

You will see that é is 130.

To type it in you hold <alt> and enter 130 on your number pad (make sure num lock is on) and voila!
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Hmm, I have a Mac, no num lock and I got this: ¡£º when I typed in your code.

But clearly you've opened a door! :D I'll have to play around with alt.
 
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Wow! Look at that! It's a whole new keyboard.

`¡™£¢∞§¶•ªº–≠

œ∑´®†¥¨ˆøπ“‘«

åß∂ƒ©˙∆˚¬…æ

Ω≈ç√∫˜µ≤≥÷


Sorry... carry on.
 
DevilsAdvocate said:
That is who we are. Illogical, emotional, social beings. But we can use logic. The illogical, emotional, social beings create stories of God. Logic tells us God is false, and that the idea of God was created by illogical, emotional, social beings for some very good reasons.
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What is the advantage of God belief in natural selection?
 
Minoosh said:
What is the advantage of God belief in natural selection?
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Adding to what the Norseman said, not everything is actively selected. A whole bunch of stuff is simply coincidental but not bad enough to be de-selected, neutral, connected to something else that is selected, and so on. With 3 billion nucleic acid base pairs in the human genome, the idea every single thing about us is the result of positive or negative selection is an oversimplified view of evolution.

Then there are the things that evolved culturally. You may notice not all cultures are equally successful. Societies that move from superstitious god beliefs to successful evidence based scientific conclusions are just as likely to overtake the former as the human brain has allowed our species to rule the world. IMO ;)
 
Minoosh said:
What is the advantage of God belief in natural selection?
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It provides social cohesion for one thing. Also, a large group of people is more likely to be successful if they don't break social rules. Belief in an invisible thing watching you even when nobody else can see you can help keep people in line.

Finally, belief in life after death makes people more likely to risk their life for the group or accept death for the good of the group, especially when being good to the group is one of the ways to get a good afterlife.
 
Hokulele said:
No worries, just making sure that when people refer to fictional beings, they are doing it properly. :D
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Ah, but if you follow the wikipedia link, you'll find that there's nothing fictional about Edison "Edson" Arantes do Nascimento. :) Legendary, perhaps.
 
zooterkin said:
I did, but imperfectly. :) Yes, I was in error, I missed the opening sentence, and only saw the reference to Baptists (who are not necessarily fundamentalists).
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Apologies accepted, captain.... er... zooterkineeda !

You do understand that, in order to complete my reference, I have to kill you now. Of course, you'll go with the knowledge that your demise was done in honour of one of the greatest sci-fi movies ever made, so there.
 
Daald said:
Completely off topic:
To type it in you hold <alt> and enter 130 on your number pad (make sure num lock is on) and voila!
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Mayh I also offer my one useful piece of technical knowledge?:)
e acute can be done with Right Alt+e. é

[
 
SusanB-M1 said:
Mayh I also offer my one useful piece of technical knowledge?:)
e acute can be done with Right Alt+e. é

[
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Works the same on my key board whether it is rt or lt alt. I still need to hit the e after hitting alt+e.

But I'm happy to have been shown how to make Spanish letter ñ and é and the inverted ¡. I can also use the º, saves typing in , and the ≠ and a couple of the other math symbols. I wonder how to make an inverted ? ?
 
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Skeptic Ginger said:
Works the same on my key board whether it is rt or lt alt. I still need to hit the e after hitting alt+e.

But I'm happy to have been shown how to make Spanish letter ñ and é and the inverted ¡. I can also use the º, saves typing in , and the ≠ and a couple of the other math symbols. I wonder how to make an inverted ? ?
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¿ <alt>+168 for me in windows :)
 
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