Author Topic: Searching for GOD...  (Read 3890155 times)

Nearly Sane

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Re: Searching for GOD...
« Reply #28775 on: June 06, 2018, 01:05:47 PM »
Sorry, but I just can't see where I said that Rhiannon's choice is not a feasible one.  I just meant that the arbitrary examples she gave were not feasible choices for people in general, because they implied that we have freedom of choice to believe in things.  You can only believe in something which you understand to be true - you do not have freedom to choose your beliefs.
Reread the posts. It was you who implied that Rhiannon's choice wasn't feasible, I've been trying to get you to clarify that since as i said twice it makes no sense. It's in 28762 where you don't make clear that you mean feasible for you.

If we don't have the freedom to choose our beliefs then your whole ask of people to believe in your god makes no sense. Did you mean to post something that destroys your own position?
« Last Edit: June 06, 2018, 01:11:09 PM by Nearly Sane »

Rhiannon

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Re: Searching for GOD...
« Reply #28776 on: June 06, 2018, 01:17:25 PM »
Of course it is.
Can you not see the difference between automated reactions and consciously driven choices?

But your parking ticket god that could end suffering but doesn’t isn’t feasible to me. How can I choose to believe in him?

And if my choices aren’t feasible then how come I’ve chosen them if you can’t choose the unfeasible?
« Last Edit: June 06, 2018, 02:07:49 PM by Rhiannon »

torridon

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Re: Searching for GOD...
« Reply #28777 on: June 06, 2018, 01:56:01 PM »
Random has no part in self awareness or consciously driven acts of will.
Self awareness is defined by your present state of mind, over which we have conscious control.  The alternative is to pass all control over to nature and consign ourselves to be nature's puppets.

We don't have control over our mind state though.  If that were possible then people would just choose to be happy all the time.  If the world was like that nothing would ever get done.  Our mind state derives from the past, from the circumstances leading up to the present moment.

wigginhall

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Re: Searching for GOD...
« Reply #28778 on: June 06, 2018, 02:14:55 PM »
Absurd to say that we have control over our state of mind.  Also dangerous nonsense, as it implies that people feeling depressed or anxious or mentally ill, are somehow choosing that.  WTF?
They were the footprints of a gigantic hound!

Nearly Sane

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Re: Searching for GOD...
« Reply #28779 on: June 06, 2018, 02:31:15 PM »
It would also create an infinite regress in that this sort of control would need a further state of control and so on by the logic

bluehillside Retd.

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Re: Searching for GOD...
« Reply #28780 on: June 06, 2018, 06:18:18 PM »
AB,

Quote
But physically defined determinism does not produce any type of free will.

Of course it does, but just not of the incoherent type you’d like to to be.

Quote
An illusion of free will is not free will, because it is an illusion.

But for practical purposes it’s still “free” so far as the person exercising it is concerned. That ultimate, unfettered freedom is logically impossible doesn’t change that. To borrow torri’s example from a while back, the prisoner in a jail with walls so far away he never sees them still thinks himself to be free as you or me. That’s his reality, just as the workaday impression of “free” will is ours.   

Quote
So your comparison makes no sense, and my argument therefore can't be categorised as argumentum ad consequentiam

Nope. It’s precisely an argumentum ad consequentiam for the reasons that have been explained to you again just now and many times before that.

Worse, in your reply before the one I’m replying to here you did it again:

Quote
Random has no part in self awareness or consciously driven acts of will.

Self awareness is defined by your present state of mind, over which we have conscious control.  The alternative is to pass all control over to nature and consign ourselves to be nature's puppets.

The alternative isn’t to be ”nature’s puppets” at all but, even if it was, that you don’t like that does not for one moment validate the argumentum ad consequentiam you just attempted.  It’s just the “If gravity, then apples will fall on my head. I don’t like apples falling on my head, therefore gravity is false” construction you keep collapsing back into.
"Don't make me come down there."

God

Alan Burns

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Re: Searching for GOD...
« Reply #28781 on: June 06, 2018, 11:29:56 PM »
Absurd to say that we have control over our state of mind.  Also dangerous nonsense, as it implies that people feeling depressed or anxious or mentally ill, are somehow choosing that.  WTF?
The fact that some states of mind are beyond control does not mean that we have no control at all.
The truth will set you free  - John 8:32
Truth is not an abstraction, but a person - Edith Stein
Free will, though it makes evil possible, is also the only thing that makes possible any love or goodness or joy worth having. - CS Lewis
Joy is the Gigantic Secret of Christians - GK Chesterton

torridon

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Re: Searching for GOD...
« Reply #28782 on: June 07, 2018, 06:27:56 AM »
The fact that some states of mind are beyond control does not mean that we have no control at all.

A desire to control your mind is itself a state of mind.  Can you control your desire to control your desire to control your mind ?  "I" am not something separate from my mind, as if "I" has a mind of its own; I am my mind.

Alan Burns

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Re: Searching for GOD...
« Reply #28783 on: June 07, 2018, 08:42:59 AM »
If we don't have the freedom to choose our beliefs then your whole ask of people to believe in your god makes no sense. Did you mean to post something that destroys your own position?
No one can choose the truth.
The truth is out there to be discovered.
My aim is to help people discover the truth about God and their spiritual nature.

Once this truth is discovered, our spiritual nature gives us the freedom to accept or reject God's call to follow Him.
The truth will set you free  - John 8:32
Truth is not an abstraction, but a person - Edith Stein
Free will, though it makes evil possible, is also the only thing that makes possible any love or goodness or joy worth having. - CS Lewis
Joy is the Gigantic Secret of Christians - GK Chesterton

Nearly Sane

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Re: Searching for GOD...
« Reply #28784 on: June 07, 2018, 09:07:38 AM »
No one can choose the truth.
The truth is out there to be discovered.
My aim is to help people discover the truth about God and their spiritual nature.

Once this truth is discovered, our spiritual nature gives us the freedom to accept or reject God's call to follow Him.
Assuming your belief to be true is both begging the question and extraordinarily arrogant.

Gordon

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Re: Searching for GOD...
« Reply #28785 on: June 07, 2018, 09:16:14 AM »
My aim is to help people discover the truth about God and their spiritual nature.

In this respect how do you think you are doing?

ekim

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Re: Searching for GOD...
« Reply #28786 on: June 07, 2018, 09:22:19 AM »
In this respect how do you think you are doing?
..... bearing in mind that this topic has been going for three years.

Maeght

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Re: Searching for GOD...
« Reply #28787 on: June 07, 2018, 09:46:48 AM »
3 years, wow. How quickly they grow up. I remember the day it was born .......

bluehillside Retd.

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Re: Searching for GOD...
« Reply #28788 on: June 07, 2018, 09:50:48 AM »
AB,

Quote
No one can choose the truth.
The truth is out there to be discovered.
My aim is to help people discover the truth about God and their spiritual nature.

Once this truth is discovered, our spiritual nature gives us the freedom to accept or reject God's call to follow Him.

Then if your really think you know this supposed "truth" about "God and their spiritual nature" do you not think a good place to start would be with an argument to justify that belief that isn't logically hopeless?
"Don't make me come down there."

God

torridon

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Re: Searching for GOD...
« Reply #28789 on: June 07, 2018, 11:17:05 AM »
No one can choose the truth.
The truth is out there to be discovered.
My aim is to help people discover the truth about God and their spiritual nature.

Once this truth is discovered, our spiritual nature gives us the freedom to accept or reject God's call to follow Him.

A god that wants to be discovered wouldn't be playing hide and seek games now would he ?

Alan Burns

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Re: Searching for GOD...
« Reply #28790 on: June 07, 2018, 12:06:47 PM »
In this respect how do you think you are doing?
I would hope that some of the million plus views of this topic will have seen through the shallow materialist view which reduces all human endeavours to nothing more than the unavoidable physical deterministic reactions in their brain cells, and come to appreciate God's reality through the amazing gift of consciously driven will of the human soul.
The truth will set you free  - John 8:32
Truth is not an abstraction, but a person - Edith Stein
Free will, though it makes evil possible, is also the only thing that makes possible any love or goodness or joy worth having. - CS Lewis
Joy is the Gigantic Secret of Christians - GK Chesterton

wigginhall

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Re: Searching for GOD...
« Reply #28791 on: June 07, 2018, 12:08:00 PM »
The fact that some states of mind are beyond control does not mean that we have no control at all.

So how do we know when we are controlling our state of mind?   If I wake up feeling reasonably OK, you would say that I'm in charge of that?  It all sounds a bit arbitrary.
They were the footprints of a gigantic hound!

Nearly Sane

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Re: Searching for GOD...
« Reply #28792 on: June 07, 2018, 12:20:06 PM »
I would hope that some of the million plus views of this topic will have seen through the shallow materialist view which reduces all human endeavours to nothing more than the unavoidable physical deterministic reactions in their brain cells, and come to appreciate God's reality through the amazing gift of consciously driven will of the human soul.
What about the possibility that seeing your inability to present a logical coherent case for your position, you have put people off your god?

bluehillside Retd.

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Re: Searching for GOD...
« Reply #28793 on: June 07, 2018, 12:20:16 PM »
AB,

Quote
I would hope that some of the million plus views of this topic will have seen through the shallow materialist view which reduces all human endeavours to nothing more than the unavoidable physical deterministic reactions in their brain cells, and come to appreciate God's reality through the amazing gift of consciously driven will of the human soul.

Thank you for that repeated assertion of your personal faith belief. Do you have any argument at all to justify it that isn’t logically hopeless, or are we expected just to take your word for it?
"Don't make me come down there."

God

torridon

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Re: Searching for GOD...
« Reply #28794 on: June 07, 2018, 12:49:13 PM »
I would hope that some of the million plus views of this topic will have seen through the shallow materialist view which reduces all human endeavours to nothing more than the unavoidable physical deterministic reactions in their brain cells, and come to appreciate God's reality through the amazing gift of consciously driven will of the human soul.

nah, I think people are going to see that it is your position that is shallow, born of a simplistic understanding of what being human is like, and taking no account of the science where relevant and without any regard for the value of evidence and reason.

Rhiannon

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Re: Searching for GOD...
« Reply #28795 on: June 07, 2018, 12:58:26 PM »
What about the possibility that seeing your inability to present a logical coherent case for your position, you have put people off your god?

It’s not the illogic that is off-putting, but the arrogance and self-importance I find unpleasant.

Nearly Sane

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Re: Searching for GOD...
« Reply #28796 on: June 07, 2018, 01:05:00 PM »
It’s not the illogic that is off-putting, but the arrogance and self-importance I find unpleasant.
You're just jealous that Alan's god finds his contact lens for him. ;)

bluehillside Retd.

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Re: Searching for GOD...
« Reply #28797 on: June 07, 2018, 01:26:02 PM »
NS,

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You're just jealous that Alan's god finds his contact lens for him. ;)

Good point. And those parking spaces don't just find themselves either you know Rhi...
"Don't make me come down there."

God

Maeght

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Re: Searching for GOD...
« Reply #28798 on: June 07, 2018, 01:42:11 PM »
NS,

Good point. And those parking spaces don't just find themselves either you know Rhi...

Nor hamsters rescued without divine intervention.

Nearly Sane

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Re: Searching for GOD...
« Reply #28799 on: June 07, 2018, 01:46:20 PM »
Nor hamsters rescued without divine intervention.
That's Spud's god, not sure if Alan's does Pet Rescue