Comparisons between religions and cults.

[exarch]

Originally posted by hammegk
You forgot to address the "I am, therefore I think" question.

Well, I don't see what it has to do with religion, unless you want to move on to creation and the like.

But to answer your question: Yes, I do believe I would not be able to think if I didn't exist, since then I wouldn't have a brain to think with.

 

[hammegk]

No, I don't think that's right.

"Emergent property" doesn't mean "god did it"; quite the opposite, actually.

Thanks for sharing. "Emergent Property" means "I dunno, but it sounds more scientific than goddidit".

Next time "red" emerges from a photon, let me know.

Originally posted by exarch


But to answer your question: Yes, I do believe I would not be able to think if I didn't exist, since then I wouldn't have a brain to think with.

Well, I'd agree the level & complexity of human thought seems to depend on an operational brain, as brains are perceived. If not we are into non-interactive dualism.

I think it's safe to assume you are a non-immaterialist, anyway. So of course you can see no possible difference between religions and cults.

 

[exarch]

Originally posted by hammegk
Well, I'd agree the level & complexity of human thought seems to depend on an operational brain, as brains are perceived. If not we are into non-interactive dualism.

I think it's safe to assume you are a non-immaterialist, anyway. So of course you can see no possible difference between religions and cults.

Resisting cheap shot about immaterialism and an operational brain

 

[LuxFerum]

I completely disagree.
I'm not saying that I know what they are thinking, but from some of the things I've heard from them directly, I gather that they see themselves as lesser, because other people tell them. And you're right, they're not leaving their religion just because they're being judged, which is a 180° turn from your position a few posts ago, where you said people will just leave a religion at a whim, if they don't like playing with the other kids any more.

They are not leaving their religion because it is stil provides them with a good service, some waiters or some other clients may be annoying, but it is still the best place in the town.
So it is not a 180° turn, it is just the fact that a better place or religion is hard to build, and they don't appear everyday.

You're either seriously overestimating the amount of people actually switching beliefs, or seriously underestimating the amount of cr*p people will put up with before doing so.

Dunno, maybe, but I know a few that did, and that is why I think they did.

No. In fact, I think people who are so truly convinced they are sinners are so deeply immersed in their religion that they will be less likely to leave than those who don't take religion quite so seriously.

Nope, I see that as an attemp to show that everything that a religion do is to try to brainwash their followers. Which is not true.

Yes, I obey them because I hate paying speeding tickets. If there weren't any speeding laws, I'd do 160 km/h on the freeway, just because I can

That sounds really really bad. How far would you go without the fear of punishment? Stealling? killing?
If you get a fatal disease, that will kill you in lets say 36 hours.
Will you allow yourself to comit unethical things during that time?
Is that what you want to do?

Sadly, Lux, many people's only reason for being nice is the reward they get afterwards (or the punishment if they aren't).

No. It is not.
People are nice because they want to.
That is what they like, that is what they would like to see everwhere.

 

[Frank Newgent]

Call it religion where justice isn´t blind.

 

[Exposer]

If followers of Jediism started flying jetliners into crowded buildings, blowing themselves up in cafes, and slaughtering innocent people of opposing religions by their thousands, I wonder how long it would take before Jediism was banned worldwide.

Not long.

 

[Graham]

If followers of Jediism started flying jetliners into crowded buildings, blowing themselves up in cafes, and slaughtering innocent people of opposing religions by their thousands, I wonder how long it would take before Jediism was banned worldwide.

Not long.

Maybe, maybe not, again I think it's a matter of numbers.

If there were 200 or 2000 jedis in the world, all involved in that type of behavoiur, it would probably be banned.

If there were 2,000,000,000,000 of them, some of whom were involved and some not, some of whom ran entire countries with armies and nuclear weapons and everything else, the situation would be a little more complicated.

Graham