A little after 5:00 here. I am sure that somewhere its must be getting close to 4:20. Anybody need a light?
Cannabis user, Robdar?
Nickolas
JoinedPosts by Nickolas
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363
So me, of all people, had a religious experience
by sabastious ini was sitting in my garage, as i often do, to chill out and i actually ended up becoming angry.. so here i am, in my garage, kicking it on the stool for the drum set that is in there (i am a pianist/composer, not a drummer).
i start to think about all the crazy stuff that transpires on this planet.
we have all seen shows and heard stories or maybe even witnessed events that don't add up.
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363
So me, of all people, had a religious experience
by sabastious ini was sitting in my garage, as i often do, to chill out and i actually ended up becoming angry.. so here i am, in my garage, kicking it on the stool for the drum set that is in there (i am a pianist/composer, not a drummer).
i start to think about all the crazy stuff that transpires on this planet.
we have all seen shows and heard stories or maybe even witnessed events that don't add up.
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Nickolas
Time I opted out of this conversation, too.
Apologies to those with whom I was blunt and insensitive.
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363
So me, of all people, had a religious experience
by sabastious ini was sitting in my garage, as i often do, to chill out and i actually ended up becoming angry.. so here i am, in my garage, kicking it on the stool for the drum set that is in there (i am a pianist/composer, not a drummer).
i start to think about all the crazy stuff that transpires on this planet.
we have all seen shows and heard stories or maybe even witnessed events that don't add up.
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Nickolas
10 million to one is a very low probability, indeed, but still well within the explainable.
The odds of winning the Megamillions lottery are one in 175,711,536, yet people still line up to buy tickets and every once in awhile someone wins.
When you believe you inadvertently asked for it. The reasons for that belief are not calculable, unfortunately.
Inadvertance is recognisable only in hindsight. Were you looking for some kind of sign when it happened?
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363
So me, of all people, had a religious experience
by sabastious ini was sitting in my garage, as i often do, to chill out and i actually ended up becoming angry.. so here i am, in my garage, kicking it on the stool for the drum set that is in there (i am a pianist/composer, not a drummer).
i start to think about all the crazy stuff that transpires on this planet.
we have all seen shows and heard stories or maybe even witnessed events that don't add up.
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Nickolas
The use of a half deck of 26 cards selected at random from 52 throws a wrinkle into the statistics because it separates the one occurance within an unknown population from the other eight within a known population. However, the odds would still be within the realm of a lottery. 0.1656^9 would be one in 10.7 million.
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363
So me, of all people, had a religious experience
by sabastious ini was sitting in my garage, as i often do, to chill out and i actually ended up becoming angry.. so here i am, in my garage, kicking it on the stool for the drum set that is in there (i am a pianist/composer, not a drummer).
i start to think about all the crazy stuff that transpires on this planet.
we have all seen shows and heard stories or maybe even witnessed events that don't add up.
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Nickolas
It begs the question, though, at what point does improbability of an event become an unexplainable phenomenon?
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363
So me, of all people, had a religious experience
by sabastious ini was sitting in my garage, as i often do, to chill out and i actually ended up becoming angry.. so here i am, in my garage, kicking it on the stool for the drum set that is in there (i am a pianist/composer, not a drummer).
i start to think about all the crazy stuff that transpires on this planet.
we have all seen shows and heard stories or maybe even witnessed events that don't add up.
-
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Nickolas
Sab, I get 0.1656^8 as 5.65565174883507E-07, or 0.0000000566. This is one chance in 1,768,143. For comparison, the probability of picking the winning numbers in a lottery using six balls out of 49 is 7.151E-08, or one in 13,913,816.
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363
So me, of all people, had a religious experience
by sabastious ini was sitting in my garage, as i often do, to chill out and i actually ended up becoming angry.. so here i am, in my garage, kicking it on the stool for the drum set that is in there (i am a pianist/composer, not a drummer).
i start to think about all the crazy stuff that transpires on this planet.
we have all seen shows and heard stories or maybe even witnessed events that don't add up.
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Nickolas
You seem adept at name calling, Robdar.
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363
So me, of all people, had a religious experience
by sabastious ini was sitting in my garage, as i often do, to chill out and i actually ended up becoming angry.. so here i am, in my garage, kicking it on the stool for the drum set that is in there (i am a pianist/composer, not a drummer).
i start to think about all the crazy stuff that transpires on this planet.
we have all seen shows and heard stories or maybe even witnessed events that don't add up.
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Nickolas
I can't think of anyone who made a serious contribution to humanity who did not ruffle feathers. Generally speaking, those whose feathers get ruffled are far too involved in preening themselves.
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49
"We are all atheists ...
by Nickolas in... about most of the gods that societies have ever believed in.
some of us just go one god further.".
dawkins raises a point which some, if not many, theists will dismiss as irrelevant, but i am not exactly sure why.
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Nickolas
Perhaps the only obstacle, lwt. But if all those personal revelations involving those 1,600 gods were illusions, what differentiates a personal revelation involving Yahweh?
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49
"We are all atheists ...
by Nickolas in... about most of the gods that societies have ever believed in.
some of us just go one god further.".
dawkins raises a point which some, if not many, theists will dismiss as irrelevant, but i am not exactly sure why.
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Nickolas
... about most of the gods that societies have ever believed in. Some of us just go one god further."
Dawkins raises a point which some, if not many, theists will dismiss as irrelevant, but I am not exactly sure why. Of course Thor doesn't exist, even though for millennia an entire civilisation believed he did. Same goes for Ra, Jupiter, Posseidon, Huitzilopochtli, Baal and another 1,600 or so gods worshipped by millions of our ancestors. We can say without fear of contradiction that we in the modern world do not believe in those ancient gods and in that strict context we are atheistic toward them. And we are atheistic toward them for the same reason billions of us are theistic toward the Abrahamic god. Because we have been told what to believe and taught not to question for fear, deep and dark, that we will be lost to the Abyss if we do.
Not only are we all atheists in a contextual sense, 1,600 +/- 1, we were all born atheists in a global sense. We were born believing in no gods. If we exchange a child born to Christian parents in Birmingham for a child born to Buddhist parents in Ulan Bator, what those children will come to believe will be much different from what they would have believed otherwise. The reason is evident. What we believe and do not believe is instilled in us by the accidental situations of our births and upbringing. We had no choice in the matter, and most modern religions steadfastly forbid that choice to us while we live out our lives.
Some of us have come to believe the world would be a better place if the people in it would examine what they have been told to believe without prejudice. It's never easy to do, but is generally worthwhile and emancipating. Some of us keep our faith in God but free ourselves from the shackles of oppressive religious organisations. Some of us just go one god further.