Posts by John

583

What is the purpose of life?

by slimboyfat in

while reading the magazines the other day it occurred to me that jws never really had a very good answer to that question.

because it was aimed at young people and it said something along the lines, "if you believe in god you have a purpose, but if you don't believe in god your life has no purpose or meaning".

i think that is a faulty analysis of the situation.

John_Mann

Is JM more of a bible writer.

I was referring to Catholic Church. I'm Catholic and Catholicism is ancient. And Catholics wrote the Bible.

583

What is the purpose of life?

by slimboyfat in

while reading the magazines the other day it occurred to me that jws never really had a very good answer to that question.

because it was aimed at young people and it said something along the lines, "if you believe in god you have a purpose, but if you don't believe in god your life has no purpose or meaning".

i think that is a faulty analysis of the situation.

John_Mann

Untrue. Scientists came from ancient Greece. Thales of Miletus, 624 BC to 545 BC is considered to be the very first scientist although he did not leave a written record. Aristotle, 384 BC to 322 BC was also a scientist. Both men lived well before the Christian Era.

C'mon, Greeks hated empiricism. They thought only abstract ideas were valid. Experimentation was related to slaves.

Science as we know today was invented in a recent time by Christians.

Aristotle maintained that women have fewer teeth than men; although he was twice married, it never occurred to him to verify this statement by examining his wives' mouths.

Bertrand Russell

583

What is the purpose of life?

by slimboyfat in

while reading the magazines the other day it occurred to me that jws never really had a very good answer to that question.

because it was aimed at young people and it said something along the lines, "if you believe in god you have a purpose, but if you don't believe in god your life has no purpose or meaning".

i think that is a faulty analysis of the situation.

John_Mann

Nicolaou
Shark, jumped.

LOL!

Yes I admit some poetic licence in that.

But Linnaeus was a Christian and he knew the Divine task of Adam when he created the binomial nomenclature. And he chose to use the ecclesiastical language to do that.

And science was created by Christians.

I just put some jumping poetry to this historical fact. :)

583

What is the purpose of life?

by slimboyfat in

while reading the magazines the other day it occurred to me that jws never really had a very good answer to that question.

because it was aimed at young people and it said something along the lines, "if you believe in god you have a purpose, but if you don't believe in god your life has no purpose or meaning".

i think that is a faulty analysis of the situation.

John_Mann

No, it isn't. A hypothesis is a testable, falsifiable prediction. Bicameralism is not that at all.

Yes, bicameralism is a hypothesis in Psychology. Like you or not.

You made a claim about people, calling them evil... Are you afraid to find out?... And stop pretending you know anything about me.

I didn't called you evil, Viviane. I called positivism an evil ideology. Positivism nihilism, hedonism, etc are evil ideologies. But they were made by an already defeated entity. So I'm afraid of nothing.

I'm not an anti-vaxxer, a only-prayer-heals-all, a Bible thumper, a JW or any "woo and deepitys".

I belong to an ancient kind of knowledge. One that have been around since the dawn of consciousness and it will be around until the end of times.

We wrote the Bible, Viviane. The most influential book in human history. This very site is made upon reasonings from it. We are not afraid of any ideology from this world.

We created your precious science. Even the language used by science is ours. We use science to achieve our task to name every specie so it must be in our holy language.

We call ourselves Ecclesia.

And we know something about you.

We know that you found very easy to get rid from "woo and deepity" of JWism and other supertistions. But you can't get rid from the thought of what is to die. You don't need to be indoctrinated to harbour this thought, it happens from nothing in your mind. At first you label this fear and doubt about death as simply as an instinctive defense mechanism. But you know it's not just an animal instinct because it works in a total different way. An animal can only feel this instinct in a situation of danger. But we can reason about this in a very safe and comfy place. We are the only specie that can do that. Why this trait in human mind cannot be traceable to any other species?

We can trace any trait of our anatomy with a lot of evidences. Why we can't do that with our minds?

Where's the sense of justice in us came from? The sense of liberty? The sense of infinity? The sense of our own death? From what animals can we trace these mind traits?

Why consciousness is an evolutionary advantage at all in a pure biological POV? Our consciousness can produce suicide, mass suicide and the destruction of the environment and much more energy waste. Evolution is economic so why our consciousness produces waste?

Why only Homo sapiens sapiens possess consciousness? There's other megabrains in nature too. Like dolphins and whales. Their brains could easily harbour rationality as humans.

Science cannot answer these questions and much more, Viviane. And these questions are not "woo and deepitys".

You can't harbour the idea of someday you'll not exist. Because a part of you simply can't assimilate that because is immortal. No matter how hard you try to convince yourself of your oblivion after death. You'll never achieve that, and you never be in peace fighting against this feeling.

You can prove this for yourself, you already knows that. You only have to accept what you already know, what you always knew.

583

What is the purpose of life?

by slimboyfat in

while reading the magazines the other day it occurred to me that jws never really had a very good answer to that question.

because it was aimed at young people and it said something along the lines, "if you believe in god you have a purpose, but if you don't believe in god your life has no purpose or meaning".

i think that is a faulty analysis of the situation.

John_Mann

Except he doesn't have a hypothesis. It's just something he said.

Yes, bicameralism is a hypothesis in Psychology. Like you or not.

Once you explain how your definition of posotovism matches the one Nicolau posted.(something you seem very eager to avoid), then you can explain how it's a "problem" if you are right.

Viviane, stop.

I was not talking about being right about definitions of positivism I'd made or if these definitions match with someone else's definition. I already said to you that I don't mind to be wrong about these definitions and matches.

I'm talking about if I am right about what you perceive as "woo and deepitys".

My "woo and deepitys" says that you have a part of your being that is immortal. And there's an eternal destination to this part of you.

And you alone is responsible for this destination.

That's what I really and sincerely care about you. My goal it's not offend you and fight for some virtual dialectical victory in this cyberworld.

I just want to plant a seed of reflection in your mind about the possibility that I can be right. You know there's at least a doubt about this possibility.

And it's useless for you to maunder as the shadows of doubt and denial gets more intricate and subtle. You know exactly what lies in the midst of this darkness.

405

Origin of Life

by cofty in

in recent years significant progress has been made in solving the question of how life originated on our planet.. how do you think theists will respond when it finally happens?

as a former christian i know my reaction would have been something like "well that just goes to show that it takes intelligent life to make life", but for two reasons that defense doesn't work.. firstly it would prove that life is not an ethereal force that originates with god.

there is no 'ghost in the machine', no elan vital.

John_Mann

Biological evolution doesn't need any direct supernatural intervention in the already created matter.

IMHO the origin of life is related to darwinian evolution too.

Science itself can explain anything about it.

Of course one can say the mutations could be controlled metaphysically. Anyway they would still be perceived as random in science.

583

What is the purpose of life?

by slimboyfat in

while reading the magazines the other day it occurred to me that jws never really had a very good answer to that question.

because it was aimed at young people and it said something along the lines, "if you believe in god you have a purpose, but if you don't believe in god your life has no purpose or meaning".

i think that is a faulty analysis of the situation.

John_Mann

Also, if it's a thesis, that means he's intending to prove it with science.

Yes, he is. It's related to consciousness and that's the subject of Psychology. Some positivists doesn't consider Psychology as valid knowledge though.

You are wrong about me. You shouldn't make claims about people you don't know anything about. This isn't about me.

That's why I'd asked you. My apologies if I'd insulted you. I can only make claims about your positions based about what you writes here. Could you tell me what other kinds of knowledge do you accept as valid?

If it makes you feel better I can say I did a bad joke about you being a positivist.

I would not be comfortable if someone labelled me as a positivist. That's why I said maybe you even aren't aware to be one.

And if you says you're definitely not a positivist so that's it. I'll not call you a positivist anymore.

You're sharing woo and deepitys and calling it knowledge and making false claims about people and reality.

Maybe. But if I'm wrong it will not make a significant difference in purpose of life if our destination is complete oblivion.

You know the real problem is if I'm right. That's makes one wonder about...

583

What is the purpose of life?

by slimboyfat in

while reading the magazines the other day it occurred to me that jws never really had a very good answer to that question.

because it was aimed at young people and it said something along the lines, "if you believe in god you have a purpose, but if you don't believe in god your life has no purpose or meaning".

i think that is a faulty analysis of the situation.

John_Mann

So what? Atheism has nothing to do with what you and they have chosen to fall for.

My point is to show that Bicameralism is a serious valid thesis about the origin of human consciousness. Even famous atheists consider it, I'm not just picking and choosing some "obscure hallucinations from a random guy".

This psychological thesis says that human consciousness is a very recent event in history. And human consciousness did not appeared side by side with anatomical evolution of Homo sapiens sapiens.

It's a very convincing hypothesis and I think you would enjoy to read it.

Viviane I don't understand your lack of education to me. I never insulted you and I'm just sharing some knowledge about the origin of consciousness and its relationship with the purpose of life. This is interesting because is compatible with the Catholic theology that says Genesis is an allegory about the origin of immortal soul in humans, and this soul is responsible to consciousness in man. Catholic theology says that about Genesis since the third century (Saint Augustine), and Catholic Church accepts entirely the anatomical evolution of man (officially since 1996 I think).

About the Positivism, I just classified you as a positivist because you seems just consider the scientific method as the only valid human knowledge. Am I right about this opinion of you? If not, tell me what other forms of human knowledge (beyond scientific method) do you accept as valid.

583

What is the purpose of life?

by slimboyfat in

while reading the magazines the other day it occurred to me that jws never really had a very good answer to that question.

because it was aimed at young people and it said something along the lines, "if you believe in god you have a purpose, but if you don't believe in god your life has no purpose or meaning".

i think that is a faulty analysis of the situation.

John_Mann

The philosopher Daniel Dennett on Bicameralism:

"If we are going to use this top-down approach, we are going to have to be bold. We are going to have to be speculative, but there is good and bad speculation, and this is not an unparalleled activity in science. […] Those scientists who have no taste for this sort of speculative enterprise will just have to stay in the trenches and do without it, while the rest of us risk embarrassing mistakes and have a lot of fun." --Daniel Dennett [23]

583

What is the purpose of life?

by slimboyfat in

while reading the magazines the other day it occurred to me that jws never really had a very good answer to that question.

because it was aimed at young people and it said something along the lines, "if you believe in god you have a purpose, but if you don't believe in god your life has no purpose or meaning".

i think that is a faulty analysis of the situation.

John_Mann

Bicameralism is literally nothing more than something some guy said that you've chosen to fall for.

That's not the opinion of the two major advocates of Atheism.

Richard Dawkins in The God Delusion (2006) wrote of The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind:

"It is one of those books that is either complete rubbish or a work of consummate genius, nothing in between! Probably the former, but I'm hedging my bets."

John_Mann

Posts by John_Mann