If God exists, what would be a good reason why he never communicates or helps his creation by intervention?

by pistolpete in

you have probably heard all kinds of excuses why god doesn’t communicates with his creation or why he doesn’t intervene.. some examples.. no one can see god because he is a spirit.. but we can hear god---yet he chooses not to talk to humanity.. god only communicates with certain people.

moses, samuel, abraham, etc.

but there are many people today who also claim that god spoke to them yet we ignore them but believe god spoke to people who lived thousands of years ago and we can’t really verify if that was so.

PaddyTheBaddy

I think the evolutionary growing intelligence of mankind inherently started for man to think about why and how which he saw and experienced came about, the answer most ancients came up with is that supernatural beings in the massive heavens made and was the cause of what they saw.
Many people today still think this to be so.

In a materialists reality the ancient mind was not the originator of the response "supernatural beings did it”. Whatever it is that produced our universe also produced the answer for the ancient mind to think. Without there being a non material aspect to reality, it is very difficult to escape this conclusion. It is part and parcel of the intellectual price tag a materialist is required to pay in order to adhere to their belief. Most are willing to pay this price as it is the price they believe is worth the truth they acquire in return. This truth includes, everything is either determined or probabilistic, therefore free will doesn’t exist and consciousness is just an illusion, an elaborate trick played on us by our brains.

56

If God exists, what would be a good reason why he never communicates or helps his creation by intervention?

by pistolpete in

you have probably heard all kinds of excuses why god doesn’t communicates with his creation or why he doesn’t intervene.. some examples.. no one can see god because he is a spirit.. but we can hear god---yet he chooses not to talk to humanity.. god only communicates with certain people.

moses, samuel, abraham, etc.

but there are many people today who also claim that god spoke to them yet we ignore them but believe god spoke to people who lived thousands of years ago and we can’t really verify if that was so.

PaddyTheBaddy

The reason gods existed in human cognitive awareness throughout history is because they were something needed and wanted to exist by humanity which is undeniably related to human ignorance itself.

If they were needed and wanted to exist by humanity, which materialism states is the product of deterministic laws, then what you are really saying, is that this need and want was front loaded from the very beginning into the physical attributes of the universe itself.

You can want what it is that you want, but if you hold to materialism then you can't choose the wants you possess. For that you would need among other things "free will" which materialism can't provide you with.

56

If God exists, what would be a good reason why he never communicates or helps his creation by intervention?

by pistolpete in

you have probably heard all kinds of excuses why god doesn’t communicates with his creation or why he doesn’t intervene.. some examples.. no one can see god because he is a spirit.. but we can hear god---yet he chooses not to talk to humanity.. god only communicates with certain people.

moses, samuel, abraham, etc.

but there are many people today who also claim that god spoke to them yet we ignore them but believe god spoke to people who lived thousands of years ago and we can’t really verify if that was so.

PaddyTheBaddy

One way God may communicate with humankind is through both the physical and moral laws. Moral laws may be likened to having received a letter from your parents giving you information, not about how you must behave, as in the case with the physical laws, but more how you ought to behave. I think the “ ought" in this case comes with a condition. That being you value a world where people live together in peace and harmony.

Both the physical and moral laws reflect something about what or who it is that produced the universe we find ourselves in.

From Richard Dawkin’s observation of the world he finds himself in he concludes the following

"The universe that we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if there is, at bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil, no good, nothing but pitiless indifference.”

So according to this view, something which is pitiless and indifferent produced our universe and everything we observe in the world around us, including humans who can display mercy and compassion.

https://youtu.be/oUFJJNQGwhk

34

Pfizer becomes first Covid vaccine to gain full FDA approval

by PaddyTheBaddy in

great news.. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-58309254.

pfizer's two-dose covid-19 vaccine has received full approval from the us food and drug administration (fda) - the first jab to be licensed in the nation.. .

the vaccine had initially been given emergency use authorisation.

PaddyTheBaddy

Great news.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-58309254

Pfizer's two-dose Covid-19 vaccine has received full approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) - the first jab to be licensed in the nation.

The vaccine had initially been given emergency use authorisation. Its two jabs, three weeks apart, are now fully approved for those aged 16 and older.

49

Before you judge anti-vaxxers

by David.L.Henson in

jw
friends

.

PaddyTheBaddy

Vidqun

Look at the death numbers for both countries especially in comparison to pre-vaccine periods. The numbers show the effectiveness where it counts the most. Vaccines have been saving lives. If a third jab is warranted in particular for the elderly, why discourage it?

https://www.google.com/search?client=avast-a-2&q=Covid+Iceland&oq=Covid+Iceland&aqs=avast..69i57j0l6j69i60.6145j0j7&ie=UTF-8

https://www.google.com/search?q=covid+israel+deaths&sxsrf=ALeKk025J4_vXbXly_YphwpdRnLGOVnCOQ%3A1629057579312&ei=K3IZYcSuEsGaa7GjtrgK&oq=covid+israel+deaths&gs_lcp=Cgdnd3Mtd2l6EAMyBQgAEIAEMgkIABAWEB4QiwMyCQgAEBYQHhCLAzoHCCMQsAMQJzoHCAAQRxCwAzoHCAAQsAMQQzoFCAAQkQI6BQgAEMsBOggIABCABBDJAzoFCAAQxAI6CwgAEIAEEMkDEIsDOgYIABAWEB5KBAhBGABQnYUBWJ6SAWDgnQFoAXACeACAAaQBiAGEBpIBAzYuMpgBAKABAcgBCrgBA8ABAQ&sclient=gws-wiz&ved=0ahUKEwiE8NSy6LPyAhVBzRoKHbGRDacQ4dUDCA4&uact=5

33

Jesus, without sin and a perfect human being ?

by smiddy3 in

how could he be, regardless of how god impregnated mary, as she was a sinful human just like the rest of us according to the bible.. mary was subjected to the adamic sin like all other humans, so jesus had to at least be part sinner himself.. to believe otherwise is just deluding oneself imho .. the only way jesus could have been really without sin is if god created him the same way he created adam.. what do you think ?

.

PaddyTheBaddy

If you talk about Zombie movies and ask, "Why would dead people be hungry? Why don't Zombies poop? Why wouldn't all of them rot and fall to pieces?" etc. etc. You would be demanding Real World logic to apply to a very unreal premise.
We can't mix the real with the unreal and make it logical.

Hi Terry,

There is more to zombies than meets the eye. Or is there?

https://bigthink.com/paul-ratner/how-philosophers-use-zombies-to-understand-consciousness

Why do philosophers need zombies?

The concept is kind of a mind trick. Imagine a being that looks and even talks like a human. It goes through all the normal motions of a human and yet has no consciousness. And you would have no idea that it is not like you.

According to philosophers like David Chalmers, p-zombies are an argument against physicalism - the school of thought that everything that makes us human is ultimately derived from our physical characteristics.

Physicalism is based on the success of science in exploring the physical world. According to physicalists, we are essentially intricate arrangements of atoms. Behaviorists, a subset of physicalists, maintain that even all mental processes - thoughts, desires, etc - are just responses to the behaviors of others.

If a p-zombie that is exactly like us, except for the sense of self and consciousness, is logically conceivable, then this possibility could support dualism, an alternative view that sees the world consisting of not just the physical but also the mental.

13

Shunning from different perspectives

by jonahstourguide in

hi folks,.

this interesting article on abc australia covers views of people ex-communicated or shunned by a couple of institutions.

it also includes paul grundy's experience.. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-07-25/the-australians-who-were-cast-out-of-their-religions/100306930.

PaddyTheBaddy

Atheist and theistic philosophers are broadly in agreement than some entity must have existence as a fundamental part of its nature. This means that it can't fail to exist. We can all fail to exist and so have a weak grip on existence. As we are all dependent upon something for our existence, it follows that some entity must have a stronger grip on existence. It must exist necessarily.

This entity is either limited in its nature or it may be unlimited? Either way, eternal existence must be part of its makeup. If it turns out that it has certain limits, the question becomes why these limits in particular? This road tends to lead to an infinite regress of explanations with no ultimate explanation ever reached.

The question is, could an unlimited God choose to cease to exist? As logic is part of God's nature, it would need to be logically possible for God to cease to exist for him to be able to choose it. If it is logically impossible for God not to exist, then he can't choose to cease to exist, in the same way he can't choose to make a squared circle.

29

The bus stop analogy

by slimboyfat in

suppose we were naïve observers, given the following data, and asked to draw a conclusion.

we see people gather at a busy bus stop several times a day.

at first one person, then another, and another, until they form a group.

PaddyTheBaddy

What we experience as a thought is well understood in the neurosciences and you can indeed observe
that people have brain activity before they become aware of the thought.

Just on this point, metaphysical idealism proposes that the reason there is brain activity before we become conscious of our thoughts, is because the subconscious mind may be activated first. The operation of the subconscious mind is then seen via brain activity.

Just because we could be wrong does not mean something metaphysical is happening, we know Newtons laws are wrong, but they are still useful enough to fly to the moon, there is a lot to learn about thoughts and consciousness but that doesn’t mean it is not something that exists outside the physical processes we know off or somewhere outside our brain as some would like it to be.

The mystery about the intrinsic nature of physical stuff which produces consciousness (if true?) is like the question Stephen Hawking’s asked about the nature of the mathematical equations which describe the universe. What breathes fire into these equations in order to produce a universe for them to describe? What breathes fire into physical reality in order to produce consciousness?

The physical processes producing brain activity could be likened to a roller coaster car guided by the tracks it sits on. Something about the nature of reality caused the car to experience the ride.

https://youtu.be/Tb7WS1SsqC4

29

The bus stop analogy

by slimboyfat in

suppose we were naïve observers, given the following data, and asked to draw a conclusion.

we see people gather at a busy bus stop several times a day.

at first one person, then another, and another, until they form a group.

PaddyTheBaddy

How: The causal event caused your senses to perceive something and neurons to fire, causing a chain of neurons to fire and when that waveform has been generated (and it is this becoming aware of and interacting with your thoughts is what we describe as intelligence or consciousness, this has been well established and has indeed been explored in ancient texts such as the Bible and other stories for as long as we have had stories), you have generated a thought.

This is what is being challenged by metaphysical idealism. Materialism claims brain activity causes thoughts, whereas metaphysical idealism claims mental processes are reflected in brain activity but not caused by it. Brain activity may be simply a physical representation or image of our subjective mental experience.

If materialism's account is correct, then our personal subjective experiences are no more than the result of objective physical processes in our brain. Brain activity would precede the development of a thought. So in other words you didn't produce the thought, you just became aware of it, after material processes generated both the thought and your awareness of it.

If thoughts are always the pure product of physical activity in the brain, then "you" can never be truly held accountable for your actions, as they were dictated to you by your brain. In fact the “you" part is just an illusion, a trick of your brain which leads you to believe there is more to "you" than there actually is in reality. You are a figment of your brains imagination. This doesn't mean materialism’s view is wrong, it's just interesting to follow this path to its logical conclusion.

29

The bus stop analogy

by slimboyfat in

suppose we were naïve observers, given the following data, and asked to draw a conclusion.

we see people gather at a busy bus stop several times a day.

at first one person, then another, and another, until they form a group.

PaddyTheBaddy

But whatever that deeper process is it will be related to the physical, biological and chemical components of the brain because if you take away the brain there is no thought or consciousness.

But if the brain itself is the product of a mind? If mind is fundamental, taking away the brain, which is 80% water, still leaves this creating conscious mind in place.

PaddyTheBaddy

Posts by PaddyTheBaddy

"The universe that we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if there is, at bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil, no good, nothing but pitiless indifference.”