Author Topic: Is man getting too big for the world?  (Read 20706 times)

Leonard James

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Re: Is man getting too big for the world?
« Reply #125 on: June 10, 2016, 09:19:47 PM »
Causation is an assumption not a fact, or are you being less than honest?

No, the universe was caused by something ... that is a fact not an assumption.

Nearly Sane

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Re: Is man getting too big for the world?
« Reply #126 on: June 10, 2016, 09:23:13 PM »
No, the universe was caused by something ... that is a fact not an assumption.
The whole idea of cause and effect is an assumption. It is what we appear to observe but is not objectively true. Why are you being less than honest?

Nearly Sane

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Re: Is man getting too big for the world?
« Reply #127 on: June 10, 2016, 09:23:53 PM »
I don't think anybody but a fool lies about such things. As I said, facts are obvious truths to everybody ... beliefs are "truths" for only some.
argumentum ad populum fallacy

Leonard James

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Re: Is man getting too big for the world?
« Reply #128 on: June 10, 2016, 09:28:36 PM »
The whole idea of cause and effect is an assumption. It is what we appear to observe but is not objectively true.

Why not?

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Why are you being less than honest?

I don't think I am. What am I being dishonest about?

Leonard James

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Re: Is man getting too big for the world?
« Reply #129 on: June 10, 2016, 09:30:14 PM »
argumentum ad populum fallacy

That can only apply to beliefs. I am talking about facts.  :)

Are we going to dance all night?

Leonard James

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Re: Is man getting too big for the world?
« Reply #130 on: June 10, 2016, 09:32:04 PM »
LIke Father William, I am old and need my sleep to function.

See you tomorrow.  :)

Nearly Sane

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Re: Is man getting too big for the world?
« Reply #131 on: June 10, 2016, 09:41:16 PM »
Sleep well

Nearly Sane

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Re: Is man getting too big for the world?
« Reply #132 on: June 10, 2016, 09:56:55 PM »
Why not?


Because we don't have a method for establishing objective, as opposed to inter subjective.

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I don't think I am. What am I being dishonest about?
. You aren't but your position is that those making statements that cannot be backed up objectively are being less than honest
 You cannot back up your statement about objectivity will then by your position make you less than honest.

Nearly Sane

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Re: Is man getting too big for the world?
« Reply #133 on: June 10, 2016, 10:00:35 PM »
That can only apply to beliefs. I am talking about facts.  :)

Are we going to dance all night?


Happily dance all night with you, Len, a two step?


The point about the ad populum is that you cannot establish truth by numbers of believers. This applies whether the belief is a fact or not. Your assertion was an appeal to numbers nothing more so the fallacy applies

Walt Zingmatilder

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Re: Is man getting too big for the world?
« Reply #134 on: June 11, 2016, 12:03:30 AM »
In which Trollboy fails to grasp that his "God" and my "leprechauns" are precisely as ridiculous as each other as conjectures about objective truths
Hillside merely asserted once again............Your never going to explain why are you?.......let alone give any warrant for it.

Walt Zingmatilder

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Re: Is man getting too big for the world?
« Reply #135 on: June 11, 2016, 12:09:39 AM »
So admitting that I don't know what caused the universe is dogmatic, is it?   :)
Really?, I thought it was more that you didn't know but knew or believed it wasn't God.

Leonard James

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Re: Is man getting too big for the world?
« Reply #136 on: June 11, 2016, 05:57:06 AM »

Because we don't have a method for establishing objective, as opposed to inter subjective.

I don't understand what you mean by these terms. It seems that you are saying that objective existence can't exist, because whatever method you use to establish it is merely everybody's opinion.

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You aren't but your position is that those making statements that cannot be backed up objectively are being less than honest
 You cannot back up your statement about objectivity will then by your position make you less than honest.

How do you propose to back up anything "objectively" except by taking everybody's opinion that it is correct?

Leonard James

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Re: Is man getting too big for the world?
« Reply #137 on: June 11, 2016, 05:59:39 AM »

Happily dance all night with you, Len, a two step?


The point about the ad populum is that you cannot establish truth by numbers of believers. This applies whether the belief is a fact or not. Your assertion was an appeal to numbers nothing more so the fallacy applies

And you can only establish 'truth' by accepting everybody's opinion that your method for doing so is correct.

Walt Zingmatilder

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Re: Is man getting too big for the world?
« Reply #138 on: June 11, 2016, 06:00:03 AM »
I think when you have discussions with people who make the effort to go down the Kalam and all the other 'rationalist' attempts to deal with a their god belief.
But is it not also possible that those most eager to dispute Kalam also do so....from.....their atheism?

Leonard James

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Re: Is man getting too big for the world?
« Reply #139 on: June 11, 2016, 06:01:14 AM »
Really?, I thought it was more that you didn't know but knew or believed it wasn't God.

Explain to me what you think "God" is and I will defend my position.

Walt Zingmatilder

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Re: Is man getting too big for the world?
« Reply #140 on: June 11, 2016, 06:20:30 AM »
Len
Having followed your dialogue with Nearly Sane I would hazard that you would like to declare a belief that theists were deliberately making it all up, polity though demands from you that you moderate that to only guessing.

I think Sane points out to you that there is a possibility that theists see their encounter with God as genuine.

Now, what looks like defensiveness on your part is a claim by you to the facts, that weak minded or uneducated people cannot bring themselves to accept.

IMHO that is a comforting belief for you which stops you from considering the next step which is if these people believe on the strength of what they describe as an encounter then maybe they might genuinely hold that rather than by guessing that rational formulas such as Kalam are the correct answer.

Secondly the only ''facts'' you are allowed must be scientific and therefore cannot actually back up or dispute Kalam or any opposition to Kalam although I believe some cosmologists are trying to find some equivalent of the fossil record to knock down God.

Gordon

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Re: Is man getting too big for the world?
« Reply #141 on: June 11, 2016, 06:28:58 AM »
But is it not also possible that those most eager to dispute Kalam also do so....from.....their atheism?

No - they do so because the Kalam is fallacious.



Walt Zingmatilder

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Re: Is man getting too big for the world?
« Reply #142 on: June 11, 2016, 06:31:00 AM »
Explain to me what you think "God" is and I will defend my position.
That suggests a) that there is a definition or definitions you are prepared to accept b)You might have decided from the get go to dismiss any definition of God.

Walt Zingmatilder

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Re: Is man getting too big for the world?
« Reply #143 on: June 11, 2016, 06:32:48 AM »
No - they do so because the Kalam is fallacious.
By all means demonstrate Gordon rather than just say there are are alternative arguments.

Gordon

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Re: Is man getting too big for the world?
« Reply #144 on: June 11, 2016, 06:41:18 AM »
By all means demonstrate Gordon rather than just say there are are alternative arguments.

A straw man to start the day, Vlad, since I haven't claimed any alternative arguments.

We've addressed tha KCA regularly here, since Alien regularly advanced it, where it is beloved of the odious WLC. There are several objections to it but since it is an example of begging the question then it can simply be dismissed as fallacious nonsense.

Walt Zingmatilder

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Re: Is man getting too big for the world?
« Reply #145 on: June 11, 2016, 06:50:08 AM »
A straw man to start the day, Vlad, since I haven't claimed any alternative arguments.

We've addressed tha KCA regularly here, since Alien regularly advanced it, where it is beloved of the odious WLC. There are several objections to it but since it is an example of begging the question then it can simply be dismissed as fallacious nonsense.
That we've addressed it regularly is mentioned I take it you are not going to demonstrate how it begs the question or pointing out which  argument for why there is anything is not fallacious.

I tried looking for reasons why the KCA was a fallacy but the top answer was from the a-unicornist who is one of your motley crew.......though at least it wasn't the most inappropriately named Rational Wiki.

Nearly Sane

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Re: Is man getting too big for the world?
« Reply #146 on: June 11, 2016, 07:41:27 AM »
But is it not also possible that those most eager to dispute Kalam also do so....from.....their atheism?
Not entirely sure what you are trying to say here. The people most likely to dispute an argument (other than contrarians) are those who disagree with the conc!usions is surely a truism. Since I think that no one actually believes in their god because of arguments like the Kalam, I find it only of intellectual interest to dispute it. I also don't think anyone is an atheist because the Kalam is a crap argument.

Nearly Sane

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Re: Is man getting too big for the world?
« Reply #147 on: June 11, 2016, 07:44:49 AM »
And you can only establish 'truth' by accepting everybody's opinion that your method for doing so is correct.
What does that mean? Has there ever been anytime when everyone has agreed on a method for finding truth? And even were there to be such a time how do we avoid the possibility of everyone being wrong?

Nearly Sane

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Re: Is man getting too big for the world?
« Reply #148 on: June 11, 2016, 07:50:05 AM »
I don't understand what you mean by these terms. It seems that you are saying that objective existence can't exist, because whatever method you use to establish it is merely everybody's opinion.


No, I am saying that because you get inter subjective agreement you cannot claim that that is objectively true. I am not sure why you added existence in here.

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How do you propose to back up anything "objectively" except by taking everybody's opinion that it is correct?

I'm not proposing to at all. You are. And whether 1, 100, 1000 or everybody agrees, that's merely the ad populum writ large.

Gordon

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Re: Is man getting too big for the world?
« Reply #149 on: June 11, 2016, 07:58:24 AM »
That we've addressed it regularly is mentioned I take it you are not going to demonstrate how it begs the question or pointing out which  argument for why there is anything is not fallacious.

I tried looking for reasons why the KCA was a fallacy but the top answer was from the a-unicornist who is one of your motley crew.......though at least it wasn't the most inappropriately named Rational Wiki.

Vlad

Begging the question is an established fallacy, where the conclusion is assumed in one of the premises - I'm sure you'll see this for yourself if you look at it closely enough.

The KCA just isn't worth spending much time on!