Posted: Thu Apr 19, 2018 2:24 pmBut would it be water into coffee, or something else?
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Atheism Discussion Thread
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Posted: Thu Apr 19, 2018 2:24 pmPosted: Thu Apr 19, 2018 2:27 pmPosted: Thu Apr 19, 2018 2:27 pmI must admit to things science will never be able to explain. I don't think it's God, however. I like not being able to know certain things. I am contented with not being able to know everything.
Posted: Thu Apr 19, 2018 3:01 pmPosted: Thu Apr 19, 2018 5:22 pmI put "Anyway, that Jesus was a dupe." Somehow, Google Translate interpreted "dupe" as "double coffee..."
Posted: Thu Apr 19, 2018 5:24 pm
Posted: Fri Apr 20, 2018 1:34 amPosted: Fri Apr 20, 2018 1:53 amEsheaun Stroakuss wrote:I must admit to things science will never be able to explain. I don't think it's God, however. I like not being able to know certain things. I am contented with not being able to know everything.
I think science can explain everything. Whether or not we can understand it is a different matter.
Still, I have hope for the future.
Posted: Fri Apr 20, 2018 4:18 amEsheaun Stroakuss wrote:I must admit to things science will never be able to explain.
Which things? Are you sure they haven't been explained already and never will?
Posted: Fri Apr 20, 2018 4:20 amPosted: Fri Apr 20, 2018 4:21 amAlvecia wrote:I think science can explain everything. Whether or not we can understand it is a different matter.
Quite true. Already there are areas of science beyond many of us. Human intellect will probably increase in the future, either via alterations or augments, or other means.
One day the average human might have the brainpower of Einstein, which would be cool.
Posted: Fri Apr 20, 2018 4:41 amNo internally consistent system can be self justifying for logical reasons, thus it is literally impossible for everything to be explained.
Posted: Fri Apr 20, 2018 5:16 amPosted: Fri Apr 20, 2018 5:25 amPosted: Fri Apr 20, 2018 5:30 amLower Nubia wrote:Alvecia wrote:I'll admit, this has gone right over my head. Could you clarify?
It ultimately applies to all systems.
Christ, I'm gonna need a simple Wiki and a few hours for this
Posted: Fri Apr 20, 2018 6:21 amLower Nubia wrote:Alvecia wrote:I'll admit, this has gone right over my head. Could you clarify?
It ultimately applies to all systems.
I think Tarski's undefinability theorum is the most relevant one in this context.
Posted: Fri Apr 20, 2018 6:41 amDuly noted.
Posted: Sat Apr 21, 2018 12:39 amI know for a fact that Pope Joan turns water into coffee several times a day. In fact, I have witnessed this miracle.
Posted: Sat Apr 21, 2018 10:47 amPosted: Sat Apr 21, 2018 12:42 pmAlvecia wrote:Esheaun Stroakuss wrote:I must admit to things science will never be able to explain. I don't think it's God, however. I like not being able to know certain things. I am contented with not being able to know everything.
I think science can explain everything. Whether or not we can understand it is a different matter.
Still, I have hope for the future.
Science can't explain its own ontological and methodological assumptions.
Posted: Sat Apr 21, 2018 12:44 pmPosted: Sat Apr 21, 2018 12:47 pmScience is essentially the method of empirical evidence. However, there are certain assumptions that science must make in order to explore the world empirically, and these assumptions are not given to us by empirical evidence but are sort of "built-in" to our investigations prior to any kind of empirical evidence we can begin to gather.
Posted: Sat Apr 21, 2018 1:02 pmActual story: when I was a kid, about 5 years old, my great-grandmother who was in her late 90s told us that she ran a brothel in her younger years. Guess who were the most frequent customers? Exactly, the ministers. Worse still, she told us that they secretly took the money from the charity collection boxes which they had installed at the church entrances. So much for religion in my family. Nowadays, my great-grandmother has long since passed away and I have become an adult who solely believes in science and reason. The bible? Claptrap and nonsense. Islam? Dangerous and barbarous at worst, backward and benighted at best. Judaism? Same thing. Religions nowadays are a plague that mankind somehow doesn't seem to be able to get rid off. Religions stand in the way of progress, they falsely claim some kind of moral high ground, as if atheists can't be moral people or if their morality somehow trumps ours. Honestly? In this day and age, the twenty-first century religion has become a burden and in all honesty I have to admit that I fear for the future of Europe.
Posted: Sat Apr 21, 2018 9:04 pmPosted: Sat Apr 21, 2018 10:06 pmNovum Imperium Atlanticum wrote:Actual story: when I was a kid, about 5 years old, my great-grandmother who was in her late 90s told us that she ran a brothel in her younger years. Guess who were the most frequent customers? Exactly, the ministers. Worse still, she told us that they secretly took the money from the charity collection boxes which they had installed at the church entrances. So much for religion in my family. Nowadays, my great-grandmother has long since passed away and I have become an adult who solely believes in science and reason. The bible? Claptrap and nonsense. Islam? Dangerous and barbarous at worst, backward and benighted at best. Judaism? Same thing. Religions nowadays are a plague that mankind somehow doesn't seem to be able to get rid off. Religions stand in the way of progress, they falsely claim some kind of moral high ground, as if atheists can't be moral people or if their morality somehow trumps ours. Honestly? In this day and age, the twenty-first century religion has become a burden and in all honesty I have to admit that I fear for the future of Europe.
Religion has a lot of problems. I can not argue with that, and I do not intend to do so. The people who follow religion are just that: people. Humans are not perfect and never will be. Admittedly, some ministers and some Catholic priests have made more serious mistakes than most people, and they abused their power within religion to do that. There are people who commit acts of terror and murder in the name of their religion. Some cults misuse and appropriate the title of religion to describe themselves. All of this can make religion in itself seem like the problem.
However, these are not the majority of people who follow religion. Religions have done great work: feeding the homeless, create charities, and many smaller things as well. For instance, when my mother had an operation and couldn't make food for me or my sister, our church brought food for us. Many churches have similar systems. Religions offer people a sense of belonging and family. My family is almost all still in Germany. My church feels like a large family, though, and I don't feel like I'm completely alone. Many people that I have spoken to feel the same way. Religion makes people happier. Here is an explanation why. Religion, while it is flawed, has all of these positive effects.
To say that the Bible is, to use your words, "claptrap and nonsense" is ignoring facts like the fact that there are more than 25,000 partial and complete manuscript copies of the New Testament still in existence today and archaeological discoveries confirming Biblical accounts. You also say that Islam is dangerous and barbaric at worst. I agree there. Islamic terrorism is dangerous and barbaric. However, the terrorists by no means represent Muslims. Religion often is not a contributing factor in terror attacks.
As for the idea that religions are a "plague," I respectfully disagree. Society now is more secular than ever before. Also, I disagree that religions falsely claim a moral high ground. While religious people are on average no more moral than non-religious people, religious people have an external source of morality. That makes their sense of morality more objective. I do not believe that religion is a burden.