Posts by Coded Logic

162

Do you still believe in God?

by FormerlySandL in

i never thought i would admit it, but i don't.

i might superstitiously have some kind of doubt but digging a bit deeper in my heart i really don't believe in god.

as a human i could never just sit and watch people be tortured, live years of abuse, suffer from illness and disabilities and all the other awful things people have to endure day after day without doing something about it.

Coded Logic

God could have simply wiped the early ones out and started again - but that would not have proved His contention, which was goaded by the adversary. So Man became independent, and that issue has to prove itself - God's intervention would only violate the terms. God cannot intervene until Mankind learns that it cannot survive on its own
-Acts5v29

What about when God drowned almost everyone on the planet in the flood, wasn't that intervention?
What about the tower of Babel when God confused all the languages and spread everyone apart, wasn't that intervention?
What about when God helped Judah kill 500,000 men, wasn't that intervention (2 Chronicles 13:15)?
What about when he killed all the firstborn (including babies) in Egypt, wasn't that intervention?
What about when God ordered the genocide of the Midianites, Amalekites, the people of Heshbon, and the people of Bashan - wasn't that intervention (1 Samuel 15:1-9, Numbers 31:7-18, Deuteronomy 3:3-7, Deuteronomy 2:32-35)?
What about the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, wasn't that intervention?
What about God sending two bears to maul children to death for calling Elisha bald, wasn't that intervention (2 Kings 2:23)?
What about God giving Jeptha victory over the Ammonites on the condition that he sacrifice his daughter, wasn't that intervention (Judges 11:30-39)?
What about God giving Samson strength so he can kill 30 men for their clothes, wasn't that intervention (Judges 14:11-19)?
etc.

.

Clearly God can intervene to cause destruction and death. And it's not just humans that experience suffering. It's also animals that suffer and die too. What about them?

14

All Hail Our Robot Overlords

by Coded Logic in

absolutely amazing how fast this technology is advancing.

at the darpa challenge last year the robots could hardly walk up right and it took them ten minutes to walk through an open door frame.

now they're running around outside and opening doors like a pack of velociraptors!

Coded Logic

Absolutely amazing how fast this technology is advancing. At the DARPA challenge last year the robots could hardly walk up right and it took them ten minutes to walk through an open door frame. Now they're running around outside and opening doors like a pack of velociraptors! Not sure whether I should be excited or just plain terrified.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVlhMGQgDkY

26

Bets on when the UN prophecy will be dropped?

by marmot in

now that i'm free to bet, i figured it would be neat to start a pool on when the watchtower is going to change light bulbs on the prophecy about the united nations turning on worldwide religion.

there is no doubt in my mind that this prediction will be dropped.

not only is this the longest-running unchanged prediction in the wt's history (1925 and 1975 had much shorter gestations) it's the last detailed concrete prediction the society has left in its bag of tricks.

Coded Logic

Any group that wears purple socks and sings kumbaya every other full moon has no allegiance to God . . .

Any group that embrace faith or doesn't question the very existence of a God has no allegiance to God . . .

Any group that is "a group" has no allegiance to God . . .

. . . making claims about reality based on nothing other than personal preference or baseless opinion is hardly informative. Anyone can make any claim. What's important is the evidence we use to support them.

26

Bets on when the UN prophecy will be dropped?

by marmot in

now that i'm free to bet, i figured it would be neat to start a pool on when the watchtower is going to change light bulbs on the prophecy about the united nations turning on worldwide religion.

there is no doubt in my mind that this prediction will be dropped.

not only is this the longest-running unchanged prediction in the wt's history (1925 and 1975 had much shorter gestations) it's the last detailed concrete prediction the society has left in its bag of tricks.

Coded Logic

Thanks for the WT quotes AA!

26

Bets on when the UN prophecy will be dropped?

by marmot in

now that i'm free to bet, i figured it would be neat to start a pool on when the watchtower is going to change light bulbs on the prophecy about the united nations turning on worldwide religion.

there is no doubt in my mind that this prediction will be dropped.

not only is this the longest-running unchanged prediction in the wt's history (1925 and 1975 had much shorter gestations) it's the last detailed concrete prediction the society has left in its bag of tricks.

Coded Logic

Does the WT still actively teach that the UN is the wild beast? Or are they just letting that belief kinda fade out on its own?

34

What do you think is the source of your consciousness? Can it be copied or transferred?

by EndofMysteries in

this seems to be a question that even scientifically is still in the air.

right now your consciousness, is it the physical part of the brain?

the electrical signals in the brain?

Coded Logic

It seems that this is more a discussion of theseus' paradox than it is anything to do with consciousness specifically.
-OEJ

Agreed! But is suppose it all depends upon definitions. If we're defining consciousness as our thoughts and feelings produced by our brain states - then yes, I would think it could one day be transferable. But if we're defining consciousness as our subjective first hand experience of the world we inhabit - then no it's not transferable.

Though I would argue that, under the second definition, every time we go to sleep at night our consciousness is lost forever and every time we wake up in the morning we're a different person.

However, I think it's a mistake to confuse consciousness with identity. Identity is transient. It's always in a state of flux. And what makes me "me" isn't any single conscious state. Rather, it's the sum totality of my aspirations and experiences and how I relate to myself and my environment and my loved ones and my community.

Perhaps one day we will be able to copy consciousness. But to copy consciousness isn't to copy identity.

83

Christadelphian

by Billy1000 in

my name is stephen and i am new to the forum.

i am a christadelphian and through my discussions with fellow members of my ecclesia it has inspired me to reach out to other religions to find out exactly what others believe to enhance my own faith and further bring me closer to our heavenly father.

in no way do i mean disrespect if it has been caused.

Coded Logic

What does your faith believe to be the blessings that were spoken of.
In particular the promises in the garden of Eden, Abraham and David

I believe that these are ancient myths from the Sumerians that were later hellenized by the Israelites around the third century BCE. There is not a shred of evidence that Abraham was a real person but there is a great deal of evidence that humanity did not start six thousand years ago in a garden of Eden.

To believe in a literal garden of Eden is deep roots of our homo-sapien heritage that goes back hundreds of thousands of years.

For example, here's the cave painting of Altamira. Using uranium-thorium dating we know it's around 20,000 years old:

58

Mind Body Dualism

by Coded Logic in

i've never found dualism - the idea that the mind and the brain are two different substances with the mind being "immaterial" or "non-material" - a valid manner in which to address consciousness or any mysteries relating to it.

to show the reasons why i think it's bad metaphysics i'll use analogous reasoning to make a case for my newly made up "mystic essence".. for hundreds of years scientists have studied plants and animals all across the world.

but they still can't explain where ecosystems come from.

Coded Logic

I too agree that consciousness is most likely a matter of degree. That is to say, the more processing power an organism has the more its potential for a higher level of consciousness. Animals that are highly sentient consistently have brains with large numbers of connections and high neuronal densities (octopods, dolphins, crows, elephants, etc).

Which is why I'd be really surprised if we ever found out plants were conscious. They have very few connections in their nervous system and even something like a large maple tree with it's vast array of solar collectors (leaves) only generates about 200 millivolts of energy for the entire organism. Whereas something like the human brain all by itself consumes 12 volts (12,000 millivolts) to say nothing of the power requirements for the rest of our metabolism necessary to keep our brains functioning.

If we ever do bump into an advanced alien civilization I think there are some predictions we can make. That they will have a predatory past (meat is the food source with the highest energy content), they will have highly articulate digits/antenna/arms/legs/tentacles/whatever (necessary for building and using tools), and will come from a high oxygen non-aquatic environment (access to fire is also necessary for tool building).

33

Can any believer make a case for the superiority of faith over knowledge?

by Half banana in

i find it curious why so many here on this site, in the face of factual evidence for things such as evolution and the impossibility for anyone to make a coherent interpretation for the bible, would still prefer faith to knowledge?.

can any believer attempt a defence of this position?.

Coded Logic

Faith is the product of a whole host of cognitive errors . . .

Conformation bias: Only acknowledging information that supports what you already believe while ignoring any and all information that's inconvenient or counter to your preconceptions.
Personal bias: Thinking that your positions are solid simply because you hold them or because such a position is necessary for you to maintain internal congruence.
Conclusions before evidence: Having a firmly staked out position without knowing any of the facts or principles necessary to arrive at a conclusion.
Intellectual dishonesty: Willfully failing to follow the evidence where it leads or failing to address any facts that would undermine your existing positions.
Availability error: Having your perceptions distorted by the human tendency to remember seemingly meaningful outcomes while forgetting outcomes you didn't realize were actually important.
Intellectual laziness: Preferring one conclusion over another purely because it's simpler for you to understand or because it doesn't require any research.

. . . just to name a few.

58

Mind Body Dualism

by Coded Logic in

i've never found dualism - the idea that the mind and the brain are two different substances with the mind being "immaterial" or "non-material" - a valid manner in which to address consciousness or any mysteries relating to it.

to show the reasons why i think it's bad metaphysics i'll use analogous reasoning to make a case for my newly made up "mystic essence".. for hundreds of years scientists have studied plants and animals all across the world.

but they still can't explain where ecosystems come from.

Coded Logic

Science uses metaphysics to form hypotheses and come up with ways to test them. In turn, we use scientific findings to inform our metaphysics.

met·a·phys·ics

ˌmedəˈfiziks/

noun

the branch of philosophy that deals with the first principles of things, including abstract concepts such as being, knowing, substance, cause, identity, time, and space.