What religion/faith are you?

[publiusr]

Star Trek imagined beings evolving into higher energy planes and becoming Q, Organians or come other damn thing.

There is this idea of a Boltzmann brain
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boltzmann_brain

Atheist.

The Universe doesn't allow for a God IMO and thank fuck for that. Any God who would allow such shit to occur on a daily basis would be a massive C**T in my eyes.

Think Fred Phelps with the power of Q.

He gets his though--that's why PREACHER is my fav' TV program now--and The Saint of Killers my hero.

The sad thing is--skeptics don't have a hell for their enemies.

Most unfair.

Hypatia should be living a life of ease now, with the likes of Savonarola and Torquemada having their still living heads on a pike.
But we don't believe in infinite pushishment for finite sin.

Last night on Coast-to-Coast AM (I know its crap--but it is either that or reg' talk radio) the host was mourning the passing of a guest--who sometimes talked about the afterlife.

But if he really believed that--he would not have wept so bitterly...

 

[Kor]

I see. Thanks for the info.

It's a really enjoyable show. All kinds of clever science fiction and pop culture references, and interesting threads of storyline continuity interwoven throughout the series.

Kor

 

[Discofan]

It's a really enjoyable show. All kinds of clever science fiction and pop culture references, and interesting threads of storyline continuity interwoven throughout the series.

Kor

Alright, I'll give it a try but to be honest I am not overly impressed by that sample.

 

[PSGarak]

He gets his though--that's why PREACHER is my fav' TV program now--and The Saint of Killers my hero.

I'm still catching up on the TV series. Loved the graphic novels. I think they've done a great reinterpretation of them. When I first heard they were going to try, I was wondering how in the hell they'd manage. Turns out, they've managed quite well.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

If you’ve got friends, family, and potentially steps back out, you haven’t hit rock bottom. You’re still a long way up, you can’t even see the bottom from there.

Friends and family, okay, but I fail to see a situation where there do not exist steps out. Barring being in prison for life or something. They might be really difficult steps that seem completely overwhelming but they exist.

The point is, work to get back out, maybe you will succeed, maybe you won’t. Wait for a miracle, you’ll be waiting a long time.

 

[Discofan]

I really don't know about rock bottom. I don't think I ever experienced it. I've never been seriously sick, I am lucky I was wise enough not to do destructive things, so I am still in good shape at 59. I have many friends that step up when it's needed though I make sure it almost never happens. I needed friends a couple of months ago for reasons I've already exposed and they were there!! What more can I ask for?

To me aside from being really sick (which is something that could happen to anyone of us), nothing is truly irremediable, In my country at least, I am certain there are countries where things get easily complicated and I think I know which they are. I will never go there, you can be sure of that.

 

[DonIago]

Alright, I'll give it a try but to be honest I am not overly impressed by that sample.

I found the episode delightfully metaphysical myself. I like the notion that if a higher power exists it would intentionally try to use a "light touch", because a god that routinely performs miracles would foster dependence among its followers, but a god that erred on the other end of the spectrum could cause its followers to lose hope.

 

[Discofan]

I found the episode delightfully metaphysical myself. I like the notion that if a higher power exists it would intentionally try to use a "light touch", because a god that routinely performs miracles would foster dependence among its followers, but a god that erred on the other end of the spectrum could cause its followers to lose hope.

How about a god that doesn't give a sh*t? Like one that doesn't exist for example?

 

[publiusr]

An interesting quote:
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Alan_Guth

It becomes very tempting to ask whether, in principle, it's possible to create a universe in the laboratory—or a universe in your backyard—by man-made processes.

• "A Universe in Your Backyard," in Third Culture: Beyond the Scientific Revolution (1996) ed. John Brockman.

It turns out that the energy of a gravitational field—any gravitational field—is negative. During inflation, as the universe gets bigger and bigger and more and more matter is created, the total energy of matter goes upward by an enormous amount. Meanwhile, however, the energy of gravity becomes more and more negative. The negative gravitational energy cancels the energy in matter, so the total energy of the system remains whatever it was when inflation started—presumably something very small.

It may be that all you need is compression--maybe a single black hole--to bud off a universe. If it can be done in a lab--that argues for a mortal deist approach. Once the universe buds off--you can't get to it to interfere.

 

[Discofan]

An interesting quote:
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Alan_Guth

It becomes very tempting to ask whether, in principle, it's possible to create a universe in the laboratory—or a universe in your backyard—by man-made processes.

• "A Universe in Your Backyard," in Third Culture: Beyond the Scientific Revolution (1996) ed. John Brockman.

It turns out that the energy of a gravitational field—any gravitational field—is negative. During inflation, as the universe gets bigger and bigger and more and more matter is created, the total energy of matter goes upward by an enormous amount. Meanwhile, however, the energy of gravity becomes more and more negative. The negative gravitational energy cancels the energy in matter, so the total energy of the system remains whatever it was when inflation started—presumably something very small.

It may be that all you need is compression--maybe a single black hole--to bud off a universe. If it can be done in a lab--that argues for a mortal deist approach. Once the universe buds off--you can't get to it to interfere.

They'd be nothing left of the lab,, the planet, or the solar system after a few days, the local stars after a few years but other than that, it sounds like an interesting experiment.

 

[publiusr]

It would make its own space--not explode into ours.

 

[Discofan]

It would make its own space--not explode into ours.

So you're saying that it would expand in dimensions perpendicular to ours?

Well, I guess with ten dimensions, there are seven left to choose from...

 

[publiusr]

In a documentary--I seem to remember Guth saying that it would be safe.

 

[Discofan]

In a documentary--I seem to remember Guth saying that it would be safe.

Well, there's the brane universe theory, that says that our universe expands only in three dimensions but is extremely thin (thinner than a nuclear particle) in seven additional dimensions. That means that there could be billions of billions of universes a micron away from us but we can't touch them since we're confined to our universe.

 

[Nakita Akita]

Well, the bible is a rather versatile epos. Apart from sex and crime, lovesongs and a collection of legends from the whole Near East it also contains a few rather good philosophical and ethical ideas, like the 10 commandments of which the last 7 are basic human rights.
I think, as is the case with Homer's works, the problem with the bible is that it had a gazillion of authors over the span of several centuries. Inevitably there had to be contradictionary bits. And that's without counting mistranslations or plain misunderstandings. Just remember how millions of children were forced to eat spinach until someone realised that the high iron content was simply a wrong decimal point.
The main difference between religious books and scientific books is that incorrect information in the latter is easier to change while errors in the further are cemented into place by customs and rites.
On the other hand: the US cut themselves free from an Empire, 200 years ago but still use imperial measures while the rest of the world - including said empire - uses metric. So maybe my thesis about scientific errors being less persistent than religious ones is not as solid as I had at first presumed.

What about Darwin and evolution, people act like its a truth when it's still just a theory.

 

[Discofan]

What about Darwin and evolution, people act like its a truth when it's still just a theory.

In that case, there's no such thing as a truth. Everything is "just a theory". As Descartes pointed out, the only thing that we can know ourselves is that we exist because we think, but that doesn't even allow us to know for sure that other people exist also.

 

[PSGarak]

In that case, there's no such thing as a truth. Everything is "just a theory". As Descartes pointed out, the only thing that we can know ourselves is that we exist because we think, but that doesn't even allow us to know for sure that other people exist also.

Descatres also believed animals and other creatures were clockwork automatons and routinely jabbed knitting needles through living puppies' bodies to "prove" it in the classes he taught.

 

[Discofan]

Descatres also believed animals and other creatures were clockwork automatons and routinely jabbed knitting needles through living puppies' bodies to "prove" it in the classes he taught.

I didn't cite Descartes as a role model. I think he was an asshole and in many ways, a fraud but even a broken clock is right twice a day. I just said that his "cogito ergo sum" was spot on, though little else I am afraid.

If you want to "get me" then throw dirt on Baruch Spinoza. Him I like!

 

[DonIago]

How about a god that doesn't give a sh*t? Like one that doesn't exist for example?

Well, isn't that the point? That you wouldn't know whether god existed?

 

[Nakita Akita]

Descatres also believed animals and other creatures were clockwork automatons and routinely jabbed knitting needles through living puppies' bodies to "prove" it in the classes he taught.

Ah, getting to look back at someone of 400 plus years ago and pass judgement on them. A favorite past time of many today.
At the time I'm sure he was cutting edge and innovative, probably considered a genius.