Thoughts Worth Sharing(first post and first forum intro)

Discussion in 'General Philosophy' started by BigBangIsGod, Mar 4, 2016.

  1. BigBangIsGod Registered Member

    Messages:
    44
    maybe, i used to say i was in high school, but i decided around graduation i didnt really like having a label, i feel more of an atheist, but i hate atheists.
    im open to change and accept the foolishness in unwillingness to stay open minded. occams's razor is important to me in conversations such as these. and so are anomalies.
     
  2. Google AdSense Guest Advertisement



    to hide all adverts.
  3. C C Consular Corps - "the backbone of diplomacy" Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    3,324
    One can make distinctions between militant atheism and the politically passive variety; plus strong / positive atheism and weak / negative atheism. There's also the broad, umbrella category of "nontheism" which subsumes the whole spectrum of stances -- including apatheism, ignosticism. There are odd, curious refinements of deistic epistemological pessimism like "agnostic atheism" and "agnostic theist".

    To the consternation of many of my fellow atheists, I often argue that the concept of “atheism” is unnecessary and misleading. [...] “Atheism” is another version of Wittgenstein’s Mr. Nobody. When in the presence of Christianity, it’s Mr. Sorry-but-I-won’t-be-in-church-on-Sunday. --Sam Harris; Being Mr. Nobody
     
  4. Google AdSense Guest Advertisement



    to hide all adverts.
  5. Bowser Namaste Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    8,828
    There are things in Christianity that I like, so I lean in that direction. I've always felt like a spiritual creature, and often I look in that direction. On the other hand, science has opened a lot of doors for humanity. I mean, how can we ignore it's benefits. I try to mix the two, religion and science, finding relevance in all of it.
     
  6. Google AdSense Guest Advertisement



    to hide all adverts.
  7. BigBangIsGod Registered Member

    Messages:
    44
    I'm sure i could find one of these to be most accurate of myself, ive never actually known there to be more than just atheism before now. is there a quick read site i can get the basics in difference? i'd love to look into it further.
     
    Last edited: Mar 4, 2016
  8. BigBangIsGod Registered Member

    Messages:
    44
    i consider myself spiritual as well. i believe in the force of good and evil, though theyre quite subjective. and i value the affect everything has on everything else as meaningful. and above all its math and science that holds my heart.

    this doesnt have the hard math i like seeing and honestly it comes across a little silly, but this is the best way ive been able to show my spirituality explained. its not perfect nor very educational, but its a decent start to my thoughts i foumd
    http://www.abundance-and-happiness.com/quantum-physics.html
     
  9. BigBangIsGod Registered Member

    Messages:
    44
    i consider myself spiritual as well. i believe in the force of good and evil, though theyre quite subjective. and i value the affect everything has on everything else as meaningful. and above all its math and science that holds my heart.

    this doesnt have the hard math i like seeing and honestly it comes across a little silly, but this is the best way ive been able to show my spirituality explained. its not perfect nor very educational, but its a decent start to my thoughts i foumd
    http://www.abundance-and-happiness.com/quantum-physics.html
     
  10. paddoboy Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    27,543
    Interesting. Science is a continued work in progress, whose details and theories are subject to change and modification the further we see into the Universe.
    What perplexes me is that while anyone can accept scientific theories or not as being as near as possible to reality, it's prudent that they also offer alternatives with observational evidence to either support their own version or invalidate the incumbent. In most cases, particularly on forums such as this, open to any Tom, Dick or Harry, all we get is total cynicism driven by obvious agendas and inflated ego problems that they, know more then the expert professionals at the coal face. Perhaps this is what you mean by not being in tune with?

    Also while never being 100% positive, some scientific theories are as near certain as they can ever be: One in particular, Evolution can be put down as certain which contradicts the 100% certainty comment.
    Others can be said to be certain within their spheres of applicability...SR, GR, for instance.
    That's the scientific method and if you interpret that as a religious style faith then I suggest you know nothing about science particularly cosmology.
     
  11. C C Consular Corps - "the backbone of diplomacy" Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    3,324
    Wikipedia has entries on each. Despite the academic world wailing and moaning about the former's approach to incrementally improving itself not being up to the latter's standards, the overwhelming global usage of Wikipedia in social media (due to the long-term stability of links to its articles) guarantees that its accounts [and those of its derivative affiliates] will be a major influence on what certain subjects popularly mean in the future (whether anyone likes it or not).
     
  12. Magical Realist Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    16,608
    I'm a firm believer that spirituality and science can compliment each other. I would call myself a mystical atheist in that while I don't believe in a god, I do believe reality to be a transcendent and infinitely creative substrate. I also believe consciousness is a core part of this reality and unified with it at a fundamental level. Based on this and solid evidence I believe in ghosts, and ufos, and synchronicity, and other anomalous phenomena that crop up occasionally. My spiritual quest involves an ongoing attempt to understand my place in the universe and to live in harmony with the flow of becoming that energizes all things. Real science only illuminates this path and doesn't contradict it in any sense:

    "Science is not only compatible with spirituality; it is a profound source of spirituality. When we recognize our place in an immensity of light-years and in the passage of ages, when we grasp the intricacy, beauty, and subtlety of life, then that soaring feeling, that sense of elation and humility combined, is surely spiritual. So are our emotions in the the presence of great art or music or literature, or of acts of exemplary selfless courage such as those of Mohandas Gandhi or Martin Luther King, Jr.The notion that science and spirituality are mutually exclusive does a disservice to both."

    Carl Sagan (1934 - 1996)

    Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!

     
    Last edited: Mar 4, 2016
  13. BigBangIsGod Registered Member

    Messages:
    44
    im hardpressed on things like ghosts and spirits, but i believe i do have a soul as well. im not surewhats commonly accepted as a "soul" but what i understannd it to be is my personal self outside of my physical body, the electrical current passing through my neurons. i love how i watched it once put but i cangt find it on google to quote, basically it went as "you can think of your body as a tv, and your mind as a tv signal, when you die, and the tv breaks, you can accept that the signal dies also, or that the signal continues on without reaching the tv"
     
  14. paddoboy Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    27,543
    Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. [Carl Sagan]

    One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we've been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We're no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. it is simply too painful to acknowledge -- even to ourselves -- that we've been so credulous. (So the old bamboozles tend to persist as the new bamboozles rise.) [Carl Sagan, The Fine Art of Baloney Detection]
    http://atheism.about.com/library/quotes/bl_q_CSagan.htm
     
  15. Magical Realist Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    16,608
    I believe we pass on to a higher state after death. I find it hard to imagine how or what that state is like, but neither could I imagine not existing when I once believed in that too. It may very well be that we do cease to exist relative to this dimension, transcending this physical reality into some noumenal hyperreal state. Your TV metaphor helps, in that all metaphors must be held loosely to express truth.
     
  16. BigBangIsGod Registered Member

    Messages:
    44
    right, i dont think of "me" as moving on with all of my memories or humanly concerns, but id like to think i become part of the universe again, maybe the light at the end of the tunnel is my soul becoming light approaching the speed of light, becoming timeless. often times i fantasize about ending my life to see, but if there really is nothing, id hate to waste it like that.
     
  17. Magical Realist Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    16,608
    Naw..it's far better to be alive than moving on prematurely. I suspect life's suffering and discoveries prep us for the state that is to come, so we need to stick around and go thru all this shit for some good reason. Besides, you just never know what's goin to happen. The universe is nothing if not constantly surprising:

    “Now, my own suspicion is that the universe is not only queerer than we suppose, but queerer than we can suppose. I have read and heard many attempts at a systematic account of it, from materialism and theosophy to the Christian system or that of Kant, and I have always felt that they were much too simple. I suspect that there are more things in heaven and earth that are dreamed of, or can be dreamed of, in any philosophy. That is the reason why I have no philosophy myself, and must be my excuse for dreaming.” ― J.B.S. Haldane, Possible Worlds

    Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!

     
    Last edited: Mar 5, 2016
  18. paddoboy Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    27,543
    I would love to believe that when I die I will live again, that some thinking, feeling, remembering part of me will continue. But much as I want to believe that, and despite the ancient and worldwide cultural traditions that assert an afterlife, I know of nothing to suggest that it is more than wishful thinking. The world is so exquisite with so much love and moral depth, that there is no reason to deceive ourselves with pretty stories for which there's little good evidence. Far better it seems to me, in our vulnerability, is to look death in the eye and to be grateful every day for the brief but magnificent opportunity that life provides.[Carl Sagan, 1996 in his article In the Valley of the Shadow Parade Magazine Also,Billions and Billions p. 215]

    http://atheism.about.com/library/quotes/bl_q_CSagan.htm
     
    BigBangIsGod likes this.
  19. BigBangIsGod Registered Member

    Messages:
    44
    youre human paddoboy not a computer

    Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!

    Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!

     
  20. BigBangIsGod Registered Member

    Messages:
    44
    any experiences with dmt aiuscha (sp) or any other hallucinogens involving spiritual intervention?
     
  21. Magical Realist Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    16,608
    Not yet. Maybe some day. I'm a big fan of Terrence McKenna.
     
  22. Magical Realist Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    16,608
    Paddoboy is high priest of the religion of scientism here. He worships science like catholics worship the holy trinity. Sagan, the author of Contact, is his infallible pope. He trolls people like you and me like we were heretics needing to be burned at the stake.
     
    Last edited: Mar 5, 2016
  23. C C Consular Corps - "the backbone of diplomacy" Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    3,324
    Concerning: http://www.naturalism.org/philosophy/death/death-nothingness-and-subjectivity

    Thus, generic subjectivity seems to have even found a nook in naturalism. Essentially the idea that as long as there's no violation of information being transmitted from body to body (like memories), then experience itself is a more fundamental, distributed identity that outruns the death and narrower characteristics of a specific person. There is amnesia of the latter, but not what "it's like to be conscious or a human in general" as newborn and surviving instantiations of experience re-acquire those broader traits in course of those other lives. [I.e., what individuals have in common despite the narrower variations which make each one distinct / concrete].

    Since its very disposition consists of an absence of empirical and intellectual evidence, oblivion cannot be validated or even be a literal state or condition [passage of empty time, sensation of empty space]. So there is that dilemma resulting from death or conscious extinction, which seems to force even some naturalist thinkers into -- again -- the generic subjectivity scenario espoused in that article above.
     

Share This Page