Karma

[bluehillside Retd.]

Spoof,

When was spaghetti unfalsifiable?

Always.

[Walt Zingmatilder]

When it forms into a flying monster, obviously.

When has spaghetti ever been falsifiable..........answer never........are we talking food fight in a trattoria or something here Blue?

[Jack Knave]

Reductionist, well I don't see how complex things can be understood other than by looking to how their simpler constituents are arranged. Maybe we analyse the same phenomena in different ways because we have different imperatives, mine being a desire to understand this booming buzzing confusion we are born into, maybe others prioritise deriving ways to best live it and enjoy it. You approach is maybe top down, start with the lived experience and imagine some underlying rationale for it without worrying about the nuts and bolts; for me it has to be derivable from the bottom up.  Quantum theory is our best description of reality as it basest levels so anything than is not derivable from that is probably wrong and therefore just an entertaining diversion.

Reductionism would reduce an old style watch down to its bits. And then what? You have lost the watch and the 'life' it had - the tick. Reductionism is the root  to meaningless and dearth.

[Udayana]

Okay! what word shall I use instead? Mind you, whether it will have any effect on SotS I'm not at all sure.

SotS just has to tell us what use the idea of god is. It either works for others or it doesn't. Same goes for karma, souls, reincarnation and pixies and so on. People can still be emotionally moved by these ideas or attached to them, even if they are no use to anyone else.

[Walt Zingmatilder]

Spoof,

Always.

Lol.

[wigginhall]

When was spaghetti unfalsifiable?

It's not spaghetti.  It's the Flying Spaghetti Monster, and in some denominations, it is invisible and undetectable.    Be careful, or you might be Touched by his Noodly Appendage. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_Spaghetti_Monster#/media/File:Touched_by_His_Noodly_Appendage_HD.jpg

[Jack Knave]

it's another case of argument by analogy, similar to the DNA is compared to a code so therefore it is a code

Why is it not a code of sorts? It acts like a code, looks like a code.....and swims like a cod.

[Walt Zingmatilder]

It's not spaghetti.  It's the Flying Spaghetti Monster, and in some denominations, it is invisible and undetectable.    Be careful, or you might be Touched by his Noodly Appendage. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_Spaghetti_Monster#/media/File:Touched_by_His_Noodly_Appendage_HD.jpg

How do we know it's spaghetti if it is undetectable?
Isn't pasta theology old hat anyway and disappeared in the seventh century under Pope Linguinus XIV?

[Sebastian Toe]

How do we know it's spaghetti if it is undetectable?
Isn't pasta theology old hat anyway and disappeared in the seventh century under Pope Linguinus XIV?

That's taking it a step too farfalle!

[Jack Knave]

You can't disprove pixies
I personally met a pixie
I have a book about pixies
Many people have believed in pixies
The world doesn't make sense without pixies
You are just pixie dodging

Coming from you, NS, it must be true. How do I become a Pixien?

[Walt Zingmatilder]

That's taking it a step too farfalle!

Apparently an atheist comedian couldn't go on stage because felt a little farfalle.

[wigginhall]

How do we know it's spaghetti if it is undetectable?
Isn't pasta theology old hat anyway and disappeared in the seventh century under Pope Linguinus XIV?

It seems pretty clear that if you partake of the Holy Rite of Carbonara, while the accidents of spaghetti still appear to the naked eye, actually the substance of spaghetti is changed irrevocably into the substance of the Flying Monster.  Does this mean that the substance of the FSM lacks its usual accidents?  Of course not, it just means that the accidents are hidden.   Likewise with the sauce, while it may appear as an ordinary carbonara sauce, in fact, it has been transformed into a Noodliness which we can all partake of, and which joins us together in one substance.  In fact, you and I become one with the Noodliness, and are each a strand of it, yet connected beyond time and space in infinite goodness and loveliness of Pastafarian Transformation.   This is what the instructions on the packet say, anyway.

[Walt Zingmatilder]

It seems pretty clear that if you partake of the Holy Rite of Carbonara, while the accidents of spaghetti still appear to the naked eye, actually the substance of spaghetti is changed irrevocably into the substance of the Flying Monster.  Does this mean that the substance of the FSM lacks its usual accidents?  Of course not, it just means that the accidents are hidden.   Likewise with the sauce, while it may appear as an ordinary carbonara sauce, in fact, it has been transformed into a Noodliness which we can all partake of, and which joins us together in one substance.  In fact, you and I become one with the Noodliness, and are each a strand of it, yet connected beyond time and space in infinite goodness and loveliness of Pastafarian Transformation.   This is what the instructions on the packet say, anyway.

That's lovely Wiggs.

[Sebastian Toe]

Apparently an atheist comedian couldn't go on stage because felt a little farfalle.

Bzzz, fail.

Repetition.
Or am I just being pici?

[Walt Zingmatilder]

Bzzz, fail.

Repetition.
Or am I just being pici?

Don't you mean Bzzz, farfalle?

[torridon]

But the objective is dead and soulless. It is just facts limited to the impersonal world of objects and things and takes no account of the human condition, especially personal element of it, and the value judgements that give substance to life.

For 'objective', just read 'free of personal bias'.

[torridon]

No you can't. Why do you have a propensity at doing some things well (a natural gift) and not others? Do you have siblings? Are they very much like you - many siblings can be the polar opposites of each other; even twins. In fact I believe the study of twins debunks your statement.

well you are right in that even identical twins are not really identical; and even if a clone of me were made at birth, we would still be considerably different by now.  That is why Ii included the phrase 'and formative life experiences'.  What we are, is due to our biological inheritance, which may include some degree of mutation from our parental lineage, plus whatever developments accrue to us during life, in particular plasticity of mind is a major factor in this.  If you subtract all these influences from what I am, there is nothing left to claim as some other 'person' from a previous life.

[ekim]

If you subtract all these influences from what I am, there is nothing left to claim as some other 'person' from a previous life.

The idea of karma/samsara is that these influences remain attached to the 'I am' and predispose you act similarly in a later reincarnation until you learn how to be free from such attachments.  If you embed this idea into a caste system it makes for another way to control a population.  In the democratic way of control you can see how attachments to the past causes problems without the need of personal reincarnation.  You just need history books and people can become attached to their fantasies of the past without even having lived them.  All it takes is a democratic referendum to bring the attachments to the surface.  How to act without attachment is what karma yoga method aims for (as possibly Jesus did).

[Sriram]

Hi everyone,

If we think of the world as a Simulation (as some scientists claim), then we can think of Karma as the principle that monitors the choices that we make while playing the game.

If we make certain 'wrong' choices or mistakes, we go back and have to play the game again or we lose some points etc.  If  we play the game as per the  rules and  make some difficult choices or make some extraordinary moves, we get additional points, we go further up the level, we get special privileges.

This principle is Karma. It enforces the rules (Dharma, Law, duty, righteousness) of the game.

Cheers.

Sriram

[bluehillside Retd.]

Sriram,

If we think of the world as a Simulation (as some scientists claim), then we can think of Karma as the principle that monitors the choices that we make while playing the game.

If we make certain 'wrong' choices or mistakes, we go back and have to play the game again or we lose some points etc.  If  we play the game as per the  rules and  make some difficult choices or make some extraordinary moves, we get additional points, we go further up the level, we get special privileges.

This principle is Karma. It enforces the rules (Dharma, Law, duty, righteousness) of the game.

If we think of the world as a simulation, we can think of anything that takes our fancy running it. Your problem though is to explain why your particular guess about that – “karma” – is any more or less likely to be true than any other guess.

Good luck with it though.

[SwordOfTheSpirit]

Sriram,

If we think of the world as a simulation, we can think of anything that takes our fancy running it. Your problem though is to explain why your particular guess about that – “karma” – is any more or less likely to be true than any other guess.

Ok. Here's my guess:

I think that a china teapot orbiting the sun somewhere between the Earth and Mars, with the inscription The fallacy of the negative proof fallacy is responsible for it.

Is Sriram's guess (as you so pejoratively called it) more likely than mine?

[bluehillside Retd.]

SOTS,

Ok. Here's my guess:

I think that a china teapot orbiting the sun somewhere between the Earth and Mars, with the inscription The fallacy of the negative proof fallacy is responsible for it.

Is Sriram's guess (as you so pejoratively called it) more likely than mine?

Nope, and why do you think "guess" is pejorative? Absent any logic or evidence for "karma", what else would it be?

[wigginhall]

Guessing is fine.  There is a famous Feynman film where he talks about guessing in science, but of course, the guesses here are tested.   The audience laughs when he uses the word 'guess', but he explains it to them.   I suppose religion is guessing without testing!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYPapE-3FRw

[Jack Knave]

For 'objective', just read 'free of personal bias'.

As I said a dead and soulless world of dry inane facts. Where's the human and humane element in all your science and intellect?

[Nearly Sane]

As I said a dead and soulless world of dry inane facts. Where's the human and humane element in all your science and intellect?

and I get ad consequentiam and begging the question in fallacy bingo