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Moog
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30 Aug 2011, 3:09 am

Fnord wrote:
Moog wrote:
I've never seen so many misconceptions about astrology in one place. It's like a greatest hits medley. You are the Jive Bunny of not understanding astrology.

Moog, of all the mods currently active, you are the one I respect most, so what I am about to say is a reflection of that respect, and said with the utmost sincerity.

I have been an astrologer. I have cast horoscopes and told fortunes based on the arrangement of the planets. I know all the terms, and have even been hailed for my insight and wisdom into the lives of my clients.

But at no time did I ever discern any clear causality between behavior or fortune, and the arrangement of the stars and planets. All I ever did was follow the basic procedures for charting natal, current, and future planetary arrangements, then edit a series of Barnum statements into a few short paragraphs, while placing the focus on the clients' interests in business, education, health, money, romance, travel, and personal goals. I also practically memorized the entire contents of a book called, "Passages - Predictable Crises of Adult Life", by Gail Sheehy. This is a book that trained therapists and counselors use in determining what interests a person may have, based on age, gender, marital status, et cetera. It is as much of a "cheat" for them as it was for me. I recently found a 5-page PDF entitled, "Learn To Be A Psychic In 10 Easy Lessons!", which pretty much sums up everything I ever knew about being an "psychic" or an astrologer.

Also, the ephemeris that the majority of astrologers use is at least 2000 years out of date. This means that the planets may not be in the exact position that the astrologer thinks they are when casting the 'scope. This alone puts the 'scope in doubt, as its base data is inaccurate right from the start.

Please do not take it as a personal affront when I say that astrology is not a fact-based science, it is instead a faith-based system for parting clients from their money while providing common-sense counseling - which is something that any trained and licensed psychologist could do for ten times what the average astrologer charges per session, or that any religious leader could do for a free meal and an extra twenty in the collection plate.

Now, with all that said, please understand that I am not trying to convince you to give up your beliefs. I am just trying to relate my own experiences and understanding as a former astrologer who is now in a more scientific frame of mind.

Finally, please consider that those who criticize your belief may not have the same knowledge of the subject that you or I have. I know how it is done, and I know what goes on between astrologer and client. There is a level of trust that can not be ethically breached. So what if the client takes home what amounts to a pretty drawing with arcane symbols on it, and derives comfort from the idea that he or she somehow has a little more control of his or her life than others? As long as you are morally bound to providing ethical counseling, and are not exploiting your clients beyond their capacity to provide for themselves and their families, you may be providing a valued service to your community.

Blessed Be!

-Fnord-

(PS: I wish more religious leaders would follow the ideology of that last sentence.)


Fnord, I've never known you to be so polite in giving your views :lol:

I appreciate it. I think you deserve a decent response.

I am well aware of most of the arguments against astrology. I'm aware of concepts like the forer effect, I am aware of human cognitive biases, I have read oodles of material both for and against astrology. I am aware of what cold reading is, and can understand the difference between information gleaned from observation of a person, and observation of a chart.

Why did you feel the need to couch your counselling within the framework of astrology, if you did not use it properly? It does seem that you were at least attempting to help people and not just giving something of no value to your clients, so that's good. There's cowboys in every field.

I shall look into that book as it sounds quite interesting.


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Awesomelyglorious
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30 Aug 2011, 6:50 am

91 wrote:
No logically possible being could choose better, ergo it is the best logically possible choice. You are still trying to find a way to link logically possible with impossible. It cannot be done in the way you are insisting. What matters is the choice cannot be improved upon by any logically possible being. The choice is justifiable because there is no better choice that is BOTH logically better and logically pickable. You have found a choice that can be the first but is not the second. Thus, you have not shown an inconsistency. There is a good reason why the underachiever problem is dead.

91, there are logically better choices because there are choices that are more good. The existence of logically better choices is definitionally part of the problem. Also, if omnipotence is defined as the ability to pick anything that involves no contradiction, then the better choice is definitionally logically pickable in this framework. You've made this argument before. It's pathetic and still a waste of anybody's time. You're wrong within the definitions of the very framework presented, as you either have to say that God actually isn't omnipotent, or you have to say that the set of good possible worlds doesn't improve infinitely. You're violating the very framework, as you are trying to say something plainly absurd, that is that an arbitrary choice is logically necessitated, when.... the two properties oppose each other.

In any case, you will probably never get this. You will stubbornly refuse to get SIMPLE DEFINITIONS IN LOGIC, and even when confronted with the textbook answer ON A DEFINITION, you will still hold your ground. You could defend the most inane, the thoroughly logically rejected, and the most absurd positions, and somehow fail to grasp that your position is an utter failure. It's utterly pathetic, and given that I've seen you struggle for days and pages against the very definitions of logic, it's not possible for me to regard you and anything you post as simply an idiocy needing to be put down and you as a creature that can only be asked to leave or driven off by various grotesque comments, but actual engagement is not possible. Hopefully somebody posts something grotesque enough where you get the f**k away.



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30 Aug 2011, 7:36 am

Awesomelyglorious wrote:
91, there are logically better choices because there are choices that are more good. The existence of logically better choices is definitionally part of the problem. Also, if omnipotence is defined as the ability to pick anything that involves no contradiction, then the better choice is definitionally logically pickable in this framework.


The two properties only oppose one another when you assert a logical contradiction. Yours is not the discovery of a contradiction, rather the introduction of one. Hence why you are just making an argument from the principle of explosion. Your premises are contradictory. On the one hand you are claiming that God must choose x then pointing out that God cannot chose x. Its simple ex contradictione sequitur quodlibet (from a contradiction, anything follows), you have not discovered some profound truth, rather, you have denied logic by asserting a contradiction. The more logical conclusion is that if God cannot chose x, then he is not required to chose x. If you hold that he must chose x then you are very obviously asserting a contradiction.There is a logical escape from your position, but you seem to find the one derived in spite of the principle of explosion as being better.

Put simply, this is not how good arguments against the internal consistency of the divine are made.

Awesomelyglorious wrote:
It's utterly pathetic, and given that I've seen you struggle for days and pages against the very definitions of logic, it's not possible for me to regard you and anything you post as simply an idiocy needing to be put down and you as a creature that can only be asked to leave or driven off by various grotesque comments, but actual engagement is not possible. Hopefully somebody posts something grotesque enough where you get the f**k away.


Yours are the statements of a man with little valuable to say and much to prove.


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30 Aug 2011, 8:58 am

Moog wrote:
Fnord, I've never known you to be so polite in giving your views :lol: I appreciate it. I think you deserve a decent response.

I have my moments. You've been both helpful and respectful to me, so it is only right that I return the favor.
Moog wrote:
Why did you feel the need to couch your counseling within the framework of astrology, if you did not use it properly?

I needed the money. People wanted help. :shrug:
Moog wrote:
It does seem that you were at least attempting to help people and not just giving something of no value to your clients, so that's good. There's cowboys in every field.

At the time, I believed in karma. Then I grew up.


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30 Aug 2011, 1:15 pm

Knifey wrote:
LKL wrote:
Reading between the lines is valid in an argument. For example, if someone quotes the bible saying, 'Thou shalt have no other gods before me,' it is valid to speculate not only on the meaning of 'Thou shalt not...' but also on the possible origins of 'Thou shalt not...' and on the motivations of the autor(s), real and purported, of 'Thou shalt not...'.
But my point is, you should know what others believe before you dispute it. There are so many variations of belief when it comes to "christianity" that any blanket statement made to apply to all christians will invariably be false for one of them, making it a false statement. Only a fool would knowingly say false things in such instances. Please forgive my grammar, it's really not my strength.


The grammar thing was just, as I said, a quibble. Unless someone is doing something really egregious LIKE TYPING ALL IN CAPITAL LETTERS, it doesn't bother me much (and I'm sure I make mistakes that make someone who *really* pays attention to grammar grind their teeth) - but I do correct where I see errors, and hope that I will be corrected likewise, in the interest of better communication.

As for not knowing what others believe before I disputed it: I fully allow that I am not telepathic in person, much less over the internet. However, I deny that telepathy is necessary in order to have an argument.



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30 Aug 2011, 6:09 pm

Knifey wrote:
It makes sense that he would be covered by his belief before he lost his mind, the loss of mind being a temporary limitation of his body and nothing to do with his spirit (or its salvation)

The problem is that there really isn't a line where we can say "They've lot their mind". In fact, a lot of people going through treatment, even functioning in society, are not in some normal state of affairs, they're in a place where they can have various influences or break-downs or whatever have you. So, pretending some easy and clear-cut line exists really doesn't seem reasonable. I mean, if one wants to argue it, we're all a little crazy/mentally defective, just in varying degrees, what degree is the cut-off point?

Even further, even though you can say that the worst possible case is mitigated, the problem is that we still don't have a case that this is the BEST POSSIBLE WORLD. You are trying to work around how this world effectively denies people free choice. Obviously, a world without mental illness will involve more free choice, thus... this isn't the optimal world on that ground. Even further, a world without mental illness seems quite intuitively to be a much much better world.

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I didn't say that. Children of unbelievers go to "hell", (i believe in eternal death instead of hell which I take to mean death in the same way atheists think of death).

This is a quibble. My point is "There are people who do not choose this who are saved". That being said, the principle is actually arbitrary and what I said was actually fairer, as nobody picks their parents.
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Because free will means you have no choices made up for you by default.

Well, my choice to believe in the principles of mathematics is perfectly made up for me by default. I don't go around each day deciding to think that 2+2=4. So, why God? Even further, as mentioned in the other thread, free will likely doesn't exist.

Quote:
I said free will can work on earth, if everybody gave their life to God it would be like heaven. That hasn't happened nor will it happen in my lifetime so it can't be proven one way or the other.

Umm.... the issue is that in heaven, there are people who have free will and everything works out just fine. So, why couldn't this have been actualized on earth? It isn't as if each person who goes to heaven had to choose it. Even further, it isn't as if people in heaven have the ability to choose not to believe. So, why couldn't that have been put in place on earth? Just have people who have free will, who simply do not choose not to believe, just as the people in heaven do not choose not to believe. This seems perfectly possible. This seems reasonable. This really doesn't involve any arbitrary rules. It's the most direct way to do things.

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God created us to love Him and be loved. If you had a stepford wife with a chip in her brain that made her love you, would it really mean as much? God made us with the ability to hate him so it would mean something when we loved him.

The problem is that physics determines our actions. The physics on the working level of the brain, is effectively Newtonian. (By which I mean that quantum randomness is offset by the large numbers of atoms, and relativistic forces are held back by nothing approaching the speed of light, so a Newtonian model is a very effective approximation)

Even further, who says that love really is a choice? I mean, it isn't as if I get up each day and determine how I am going to care about each person? No, that's silly. I feel certain ways about certain people and I act upon these feelings. I don't think that is meaningless, but I certainly am not deciding "Hmm... I am going to feel THIS WAY about that person", or anything close.

Finally, if God wanted love, why wouldn't he openly display his presence? If I wanted someone to love me, I'd talk to them as an individual. I'd call them on the telephone. I'd write them notes SPECIFICALLY ADDRESSED to them.(The Bible is generally addressed to all and thus isn't in the same category) But, most people, theist or no, will agree that God is quite hidden, and many people consider the position that requires no faith to simply be agnosticism, even though whether we liked a person or hated them, we would all agree that this person existed. So, the idea that this is all about love, when there is a plain absence, is silly.

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I would completely agree and say without God living in us our notions of moral responsibility are completely subjective. The ability we have to commune with God again because of the Christ is our salvation for more than one reason.

No you don't. You failed to understand my comment completely. Just in this earlier statement: "If you had a stepford wife with a chip in her brain that made her love you, would it really mean as much?" is an appeal to intuitive workings of the mind. You've explicitly rejected my comment then said you accepted it. Now, I really think you either didn't read what I said, or you didn't comprehend what I said, but in either case, you haven't engaged what I said.

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The first time we were smart enough to be aware of God.

Some people are still not smart enough, so what percentage of the population is needed for that line? There isn't a point in time where it is possible to gather the entire species and call them all competent to understand the idea. Even further, what does "smart enough to be aware of God" mean? Christianity is a revealed religion. God revealed it to man, but few people today believe the theistic concerns are powerful enough to persuade people that God exists.

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Maybe the sinless period of man is part of the allegory.

The problem is that it probably really wasn't an allegory at all. Even further, if there is really no sinless period of time, how does the fall actually explain anything? There would never be a non-fallen period of time. So... if people have always been fallen, why have the story at all? It would only *confuse* people by making them think that there was an Original Sin, or a garden of Eden where man lived in harmony. Even further, why *couldn't* man have never been fallen? I mean, we might say "man has free will" but free will doesn't include a proclivity towards bad things, and if we don't have a proclivity towards bad things, why would we ever do them? I mean, how often have you just randomly eaten a piece of dog crap off of the ground? If your answer is never, why couldn't sin have been built in to be the exact same way??

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But if Christ is God then he sacrificed himself. If i pushed somebody else out of the way of an on coming train only to be hit by the train in his stead, would that be morally absurd?

The absurdity is that this is PUNISHMENT. An oncoming train isn't punishment.

Quote:
They are all parts of one God (I can cite scripture where the names of God are used interchangeably). God exists outside of the universe, he doesn't have to conform to the laws of physics.

Well, no. Christ is LORD. Christ isn't PART OF LORD. They don't say The PART OF LORD Jesus Christ. They say the LORD Jesus Christ. That's kind of a problem.

Even further, the issue isn't physics, it's logic. To use a quote, here's the issue: "The doctrine of the Trinity poses a deep and difficult problem. On the one hand, it says that there are three distinct Persons—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—and that each of these Persons “is God”. On the other hand, it says that there is one and only one God. So it appears to involve a contradiction. It seems to say that there is exactly one divine being, and also that there is more than one."

Parts really doesn't work, and most answers I've seen seem to be questionable because of how they'd work with persons.

Quote:
ah, I finally see your point. The answer is God can not be where sin is, these are the "laws of physics" in the spiritual universe where God exists outside our universe. So it was not possible for humans to "eat cake" with God until the sin was taken away (in effect) which Christ did.

So, Jesus was God, right? Jesus ate with sinners. SO....... if God cannot be where sin is, and Jesus was where sin is, then Jesus must not be God. But if Jesus is not God, then the incarnation AND trinity are false. This is just hand-waving, particularly because "law" here makes no sense, why can't a perfect being be wherever the hell he wants to be? Going at this again, why isn't this law clearly expounded in scripture? After all, in Job 1, what is God doing? He's having a chat with Satan. So, our being that cannot be in the presence of sin, is chatting with the lord of all sin. Something seems deeply wrong here, as if these "spiritual laws" are so basic, how could the author or any reader of Job actually look at that without doing a double-take at it? It'd be like suggesting that I started flying by flapping my arms.

Quote:
That is not what I was saying at all. The fact that if somebody made it up, it would be better, is not the underlying reason for me believing or disbelieving anything as that in itself is a purely subjective call and not really an argument. I was just having fun with you by what I said.

I really am not sure. Competence in making something up is really a function of the persons. We also have to realize that there wasn't a single author, but rather the Bible is comprised of multiple authors, and even large parts of the text that were different authors spliced together. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Documentary_hypothesis Finally, most of the authors were probably not highly educated by modern standards, as the Hebrews did not have a philosophy, were not empirically informed, or anything of that nature. For this reason... what you give isn't compelling. Under the circumstances, this lack of sense... isn't odd.

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I don't think there is a poor fit, only people refusing to fit.

Um.... that has no relationship to anything said earlier in the conversation. I don't know what you mean.

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Clearly false excuses you haven't been able to refute to date. lol. Is somebody getting exasperated?

I've already refuted most of what you've given. And a lot of your responses are failures on your part to understand what I am saying, and that's not intended to be rude, just that in many cases, I am putting forward objections that exist in a philosophical literature or a debate context other than this debate, and you really haven't risen to the challenge.

I'm a little exasperated, and that's mostly because I suspect you're a bit obtuse on this issue, and I get tired of dealing with that time and time again. I mean, I know this issue pretty well. You've committed yourself to a very absurd position, that this is the best of all possible worlds, you really haven't actually shown this or even effectively rebutted the problems with your idea.(for example, your response to my point on mental illness actually failed as a rebuttal, as you only tried to show that people could still get into heaven, but you didn't show that a world with mental illness was better than one without, even though mental illness is clearly perceived as a bad thing.) You've also misunderstood my objection to Penal Substitution to quite an extreme, as well as my objection to the trinity(For hell's sake, everybody knows spirits don't relate to laws of physics), and you've introduced issues that really will just create more problems for your position.

Quote:
I think God told Abraham(?) or "showed" him the creation message to send the message of the Sabbath and other things. I don't believe in a literal creation in seven days and even if Abraham did, I don't really think it's crucial to the lessons God wants us to learn from it. Not everything in the bible is there for the sake of being a historical record.

Well, the problem is that if the Bible is in any meaningful sense God's word, why can't he convey what he really means in a reliable manner? It isn't as if human free will can hold him back that much. Any boss can reliably have dictation, so why can't God?

Part of the issue is that many of these elements were meant as a historical record. After all, why then is there so much focus on generations of people? One doesn't add that to a purely fictitious account because the number of names would be annoying.

Quote:
I don't know what you're maniacally laughing about but I'm happy for you to prove my speculations false.

I think your position is ridiculous. I mean, I've probably said that from the beginning. That's what exasperates me. That's also what makes this amusing.



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30 Aug 2011, 10:17 pm

Awesomelyglorious wrote:
The problem is that there really isn't a line where we can say "They've lot their mind".
And there is no point at which you know the state of somebody elses salvation. Some things are just up to God when you die.

Awesomelyglorious wrote:
Even further, even though you can say that the worst possible case is mitigated, the problem is that we still don't have a case that this is the BEST POSSIBLE WORLD
When you understand how to create a universe, we will listen to your ideas on how the world could be better.

Awesomelyglorious wrote:
the principle is actually arbitrary and what I said was actually fairer
Nobody said the world was fair. Or salvation was fair. It's just how it is.

Awesomelyglorious wrote:
Well, my choice to believe in the principles of mathematics is perfectly made up for me by default.
I'm sure nobody proved to you that the principles of mathematics were true, and you just knew them as a fetus.

Awesomelyglorious wrote:
Even further, it isn't as if people in heaven have the ability to choose not to believe.
Of course they do. Why do you think lucifer and half the angels who sided with him were cast out of heaven. People have to option to go against God when they are in heaven, they get cast out.

Awesomelyglorious wrote:
The problem is that physics determines our actions.
God can change us if we let him as he has control over this universe on a quantum level. (not the the theories you're stating prove what you want them to anyway)

Awesomelyglorious wrote:
Even further, who says that love really is a choice?
Some christians believe in a predetermined belief, see Calvinism. This is not specifically at odds with my theology but I don't believe it.

Awesomelyglorious wrote:
Finally, if God wanted love, why wouldn't he openly display his presence?
He can not be where sin is. He can only make his presence felt amongst people who are free of sin in his eyes (those who accept Christ). If you mean why doesn't he show himself, the answer is (as God said to moses) nobody could see Gods face and live.

Awesomelyglorious wrote:
The problem is that it probably really wasn't an allegory at all. Even further, if there is really no sinless period of time, how does the fall actually explain anything?
The author of the book is not the person who held the pen but God himself working through man, who knows if God meant it to be an allegory or not. If there was no sinless period of man it explains why we have a sinful state by default and require Jesus Christ to unify with God.

Awesomelyglorious wrote:
The absurdity is that this is PUNISHMENT. An oncoming train isn't punishment.
I have never heard of it described as punishment until you said it. I think my analogy was very apt. We are born with sin that was bound to destroy us, Jesus took the sin upon himself and took it to the grave. If you can see where punishment comes into it, that's fine but I fail to see the absurdity of one putting himself on the chopping block to save many from inevitable doom.

Awesomelyglorious wrote:
Well, no. Christ is LORD. Christ isn't PART OF LORD. They don't say The PART OF LORD Jesus Christ. They say the LORD Jesus Christ. That's kind of a problem.
You could say "the part of God who is Jesus Christ" if you wanted to. It wouldn't be wrong, just so as long as you know when you talk to one you talk to them all.

Awesomelyglorious wrote:
So, Jesus was God, right? Jesus ate with sinners. SO....... if God cannot be where sin is, and Jesus was where sin is, then Jesus must not be God.
Jesus had access to take his God power at any time but did not possess it while on earth. Which is why he called himself the son of man. He had to be human to complete his mission. In his last years of ministry he had the holy spirit which we can have too. Except he understood the holy spirit a lot better than we can which is why he could do miracles on demand (actually also dependent on peoples faith as sometimes he was unable to do miracles).

Awesomelyglorious wrote:
For this reason... what you give isn't compelling. Under the circumstances, this lack of sense... isn't odd.
I don't really care if you go to hell, I'm not trying to compel you to believe anything. You are the one who is convincing me there is no God.

Awesomelyglorious wrote:
I've already refuted most of what you've given. And a lot of your responses are failures on your part to understand what I am saying, and that's not intended to be rude, just that in many cases, I am putting forward objections that exist in a philosophical literature or a debate context other than this debate, and you really haven't risen to the challenge.
I am waiting for you to present something that can't be explained by a universe with God in it. You are the one who is failing.

Awesomelyglorious wrote:
I'm a little exasperated, and that's mostly because I suspect you're a bit obtuse on this issue, and I get tired of dealing with that time and time again. I mean, I know this issue pretty well. You've committed yourself to a very absurd position, that this is the best of all possible worlds, you really haven't actually shown this or even effectively rebutted the problems with your idea.(for example, your response to my point on mental illness actually failed as a rebuttal, as you only tried to show that people could still get into heaven, but you didn't show that a world with mental illness was better than one without, even though mental illness is clearly perceived as a bad thing.)
My point was, to have free will, we must have the ability to reject God. Without God bad things happen. To prove otherwise you will have to create a world without God that works better than this one, I don't think you can do that.

Awesomelyglorious wrote:
Well, the problem is that if the Bible is in any meaningful sense God's word, why can't he convey what he really means in a reliable manner? It isn't as if human free will can hold him back that much. Any boss can reliably have dictation, so why can't God?
I don't know why God chooses to use us to interpret Him instead of a more reliable source. Maybe it is His was of including us and using us, for our benefit. a guess.

Awesomelyglorious wrote:
Part of the issue is that many of these elements were meant as a historical record. After all, why then is there so much focus on generations of people? One doesn't add that to a purely fictitious account because the number of names would be annoying.
There are a lot of things it does show. Jesus Christ actually comes from royalty bloodline and from the levite (preist) bloodline. This fulfills the prophecy of a "Royal Priest" saving the world. Also the names join together characters in the bible.

Awesomelyglorious wrote:
I think your position is ridiculous. I mean, I've probably said that from the beginning. That's what exasperates me. That's also what makes this amusing.
You can think it's ridiculous but you can't pose one theory that makes me question the existence of God, or even one scientific fact that makes me question my idea of God.


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30 Aug 2011, 11:50 pm

Knifey wrote:
And there is no point at which you know the state of somebody elses salvation. Some things are just up to God when you die.

Well, the issue is that your system RELIES on this to make sense. The existence of that unknown is irrelevant to the ontology of sanity and how it relates to moral responsibility for salvation.

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When you understand how to create a universe, we will listen to your ideas on how the world could be better.

I don't have to understand how to create a perfect meal to know that something could be better than what I am eating. Do you have anything other than tired evasions?? That being said, the understanding needed to create a universe seems minimal but rather the real question is capability. I mean, any author of even the mildest thought experiment is effectively creating a universe. A small fictional one, but still, the creation of a world is a constant there.

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Nobody said the world was fair. Or salvation was fair. It's just how it is.

Hunh? But you're talking about a perfect God who sets up the system with perfect precision? Yet, this is all unfair??? Is fairness categorically impossible, or is God a dick? Surely it isn't the former, otherwise why would we have the concept of fairness and expect it? Somehow it seems that somebody f****d up and dropped the ball here.

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I'm sure nobody proved to you that the principles of mathematics were true, and you just knew them as a fetus.

Would the matter of proof actually be relevant to whether a choice occurred? The answer is no. The relevant variable is whether it is indubitable. Picking out an irrelevant piece of data is a waste. If necessary, another form of information could be picked, as some things are actually strictly instinctual, however the a priori truths of mathematics still are a reasonable example.

Quote:
Of course they do. Why do you think lucifer and half the angels who sided with him were cast out of heaven. People have to option to go against God when they are in heaven, they get cast out.

Into hell, which is oblivion??? Am I missing something here? Even further, if free will necessitates the evil, and all people inevitably use free will to go against God. Then... wouldn't this mean that heaven will only be a short-term state of affairs before everybody just dies off?? I don't think you're actually doing anything systematic here. As I stated, you seem to be confabulating.

Even further, have you never wondered why on earth the devil would rebel and why a half of the angels or third or whatever would do the same? I mean, most national governments avoid this kind of a revolution, and these are flawed institutions, so why would the perfect institution, backed by the omnipotent military ever suffer a rebellion?? It makes no sense. In basically ever other instance of rebellion, we see the reason stems from the imperfection of the situation somehow, but what imperfection would exist in heaven??

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God can change us if we let him as he has control over this universe on a quantum level. (not the the theories you're stating prove what you want them to anyway)

But there is no "let him". Human beings work off of the hardware of the mind. Everything you believe and feel could be altered by someone good with a knife. If a person good with a knife can cause the changes, why not God? I don't think you're actually engaging the thing I am arguing, and what you're arguing makes no sense.

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Some christians believe in a predetermined belief, see Calvinism. This is not specifically at odds with my theology but I don't believe it.

But it IS at odds with the explanation you are giving for evil. You're using the free will defense/theodicy. If you reject free will, then this all goes to crap, and there is no explanation for evil. How the heck aren't you following that simple chain of reasoning??

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He can not be where sin is. He can only make his presence felt amongst people who are free of sin in his eyes (those who accept Christ). If you mean why doesn't he show himself, the answer is (as God said to moses) nobody could see Gods face and live.

But Christ is GOD. He lived and breathed and walked the earth with sinners. So.... you're being flatly INCONSISTENT. Even further, people in the OT didn't accept Christ and didn't KNOW about Christ, yet he still revealed himself. He's revealed himself to TONS of people, many of whom were sinners.

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The author of the book is not the person who held the pen but God himself working through man, who knows if God meant it to be an allegory or not. If there was no sinless period of man it explains why we have a sinful state by default and require Jesus Christ to unify with God.

Except if you take THAT methodology, then f**k hermeneutics. God could mean anything you goddamn feel like the Bible saying at the moment and what evidence could ever overthrow that? It's a nonsensical interpretive method that leads to NO conclusions except "The Bible says what I *WANT* it to say". And... why not just dispense with the pretense of that book in the first place??

Even further, why on earth is Christ necessary. Couldn't God just wave a fairy stick and remove all sin? Seriously. Omnipotence means the ability to do anything logically possible. If creating a massive earth is possible, then so are sinless people? In fact, how could God call the world good and populate it with sinful people? It makes little sense of the Genesis account.

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I have never heard of it described as punishment until you said it. I think my analogy was very apt. We are born with sin that was bound to destroy us, Jesus took the sin upon himself and took it to the grave. If you can see where punishment comes into it, that's fine but I fail to see the absurdity of one putting himself on the chopping block to save many from inevitable doom.

Then you have less knowledge of Christian theology than I do, making this conversation a further joke. Why can't the sin just be removed? Why must Jesus die? The absurdity continues to be put in with a God that has to kill himself to remove an arbitrary feature of reality. How do you not comprehend the implications of omnipotence???

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You could say "the part of God who is Jesus Christ" if you wanted to. It wouldn't be wrong, just so as long as you know when you talk to one you talk to them all.

Except.... I can't, because they are fundamentally ontologically ONE by the definition of the trinity. If we could separate it out into three beings then how is that not tritheism?

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Jesus had access to take his God power at any time but did not possess it while on earth. Which is why he called himself the son of man. He had to be human to complete his mission. In his last years of ministry he had the holy spirit which we can have too. Except he understood the holy spirit a lot better than we can which is why he could do miracles on demand (actually also dependent on peoples faith as sometimes he was unable to do miracles).

Jesus was God. You haven't changed anything. You haven't explained anything. You have failed to understand something basically logical here. You say "God cannot do X" "Jesus did X" Therefore, "God can do X". You're inventing a BS metaphysics on the fly, and it's obvious, and it is incredibly stupid. God's inability to withstand sin, within orthodox Christian theology, is supposed to be his Holiness. Holiness isn't a matter of power though. Even further, if Jesus didn't have his power, then omnipotence, omniscience, etc, are not necessary properties of a being that could be called God, which violates the basic conception of a God. I mean, s**t, either you hold that God is not essentially Holy, which is BS, or you hold that God's Holiness is compatible with the presence of sin. But you don't seem to understand reason or interpretation that well.

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I don't really care if you go to hell, I'm not trying to compel you to believe anything. You are the one who is convincing me there is no God.

"For this reason... what you give isn't compelling. Under the circumstances, this lack of sense... isn't odd. "

Ok, so you disregard your own book(which emphasizes spreading salvation), AND, you fail to understand what I really meant. Here's my euphemism in plain talk: "Your answer is complete BS and a BS theological work is what we'd expect given how Christianity came to be under a purely naturalistic notion of reality." Note: Naturalism, being ontologically simpler, is thus required by Occam's razor if no additional explanations are needed. Also, a religion being real is generally incompatible with what predictions naturalism would make.

That being said, I don't make the claim to "convince". I can't convince morons, and I frankly believe most theists are exactly that, either because the meme stunts their intellectual capabilities, OR because the belief is very much something that a moron would be inclined to think. Most of what I provided should be sufficient to a reasonable person. I've never actually believed you were a reasonable person, and this belief that you probably weren't has generally been justified by the conversation.

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I am waiting for you to present something that can't be explained by a universe with God in it. You are the one who is failing.

Hold on. I've already given good answers, and the answers you've given have been bad to the point where an honest person would have to admit they are full of sh**. I mean, seriously, I've made an argument that this must be the best of all possible worlds, and yet your claim is that NOT ONLY is this world unfair, but God's own plan of salvation is unfair. I mean..... seriously, what kind of dick is your morally perfect God? You've implicitly accepted the category of fair as existing. You have recognized that this world and God's plan fail by that standard. And yet... you don't realize that this is a death-knell for a perfectly good being??? SERIOUSLY???? Have you ever studied logic, or argumentation, or anything of that nature?? By my earlier logical argument, your position should have already been considered dead. I don't even need an argument if you admit that the world and God's plan are both unfair. It's just... absurd at that point where anybody should be able to draw the connection...

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My point was, to have free will, we must have the ability to reject God. Without God bad things happen. To prove otherwise you will have to create a world without God that works better than this one, I don't think you can do that.

Free will is empirically false though. I already MADE that objection. You failed to understand it.

Even further, I've already shown that we can have free will and an inability to reject certain ideas. Why can't we lack the ability to reject God? Going further, how does this go about with hiddenness?

As for "proving otherwise"?? Umm... you do realize that the standard you're holding to is an utter steaming load of crap, right? No, I have to present a case that a logically consistent possible world exists, or that this possibility is MORE plausible than the impossibility of that. I've done that. I've done that quite effectively at this point. You've simply moved the scope of the debate to the point where you can dogmatically assume God as much as you want, but that's not how evaluating ideas and theories work. To evaluate an idea, we evaluate how this idea fits with the reality we see. This includes counter-factual speculation. Counter-factual speculation is used in all idea evaluation. In fact, science, which is successful, relies on this. But.... you want to deem this impossible for your favored idea? That's utter crap.

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I don't know why God chooses to use us to interpret Him instead of a more reliable source. Maybe it is His was of including us and using us, for our benefit. a guess.

But how plausible is that? I mean, it is POSSIBLE that lizard men control our government and our society, or that everybody but you is actually made out of plastic and wires. But.... that's not really reasonable to think right? Well, if God could use a more reliable source and God as an agent, desires us to know certain things, then God not doing this is pretty good reason, all else equal, not to believe in God. You don't seem to understand the basic aspect of intellectual integrity that requires that we NOT confabulate any explanation to protect a favored idea, or that we pick the more plausible idea over the less plausible one. That's not my failing. Nobody can persuade a person who lacks such a foundation.

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There are a lot of things it does show. Jesus Christ actually comes from royalty bloodline and from the levite (preist) bloodline. This fulfills the prophecy of a "Royal Priest" saving the world. Also the names join together characters in the bible.

Umm... I'm talking about the Pentateuch, not the New Testament. Talking about Jesus is thus meaningless because the bloodline of Jesus doesn't have the lists in the OT, which are much longer than what we are given. Even further, given that Jesus has two different genealogies that disagree with each other, and which wouldn't even be his blood given that this bloodline belongs to Joseph who is not the father of Jesus... I am not sure what you are really trying to get at. You seem to have conflated two different parts of scripture.

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You can think it's ridiculous but you can't pose one theory that makes me question the existence of God, or even one scientific fact that makes me question my idea of God.

Knifey, that's because you can't think, not because I can't pose. I've posed plenty of things. You've BSed, confabulated, and misunderstood everything all the way across the entire discussion. You've said things that in the eyes of most people, would have discredited YOUR OWN POSITION. I have made no failing against a person like that. In fact, that's pretty much what I'd expect you to be.



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31 Aug 2011, 12:12 am

AG tends to wax eloquent. In addition to maybe being the most patient person in existence


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31 Aug 2011, 12:12 am

Awesomelyglorious wrote:
Knifey, that's because you can't think, not because I can't pose. I've posed plenty of things. You've BSed, confabulated, and misunderstood everything all the way across the entire discussion. You've said things that in the eyes of most people, would have discredited YOUR OWN POSITION. I have made no failing against a person like that. In fact, that's pretty much what I'd expect you to be.
But the purpose was for you to present evidence that would convince me there is no God. If i'm too stupid or stubborn to understand your evidence then you still lose.


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31 Aug 2011, 1:15 am

Knifey wrote:
.

Awesomelyglorious wrote:
Even further, even though you can say that the worst possible case is mitigated, the problem is that we still don't have a case that this is the BEST POSSIBLE WORLD
When you understand how to create a universe, we will listen to your ideas on how the world could be better.


And THAT was nicely put.

Knifey wrote:
.
Awesomelyglorious wrote:
I think your position is ridiculous. I mean, I've probably said that from the beginning. That's what exasperates me. That's also what makes this amusing.
You can think it's ridiculous but you can't pose one theory that makes me question the existence of God, or even one scientific fact that makes me question my idea of God.


Nor can you or I put forth one line that will topple AG over the barrier. And yes, it is exasperating till you get old enough it matters less if people see what is obvious.

I today could not produce one point or a series of points that would have shaken my atheism back in the day. Until you see a giraffe, there ain't no such animal. And I still remember exactly why I repeatedly concluded "There is no God in 1975 any more than there was in 1960" - but that cannot erase my memory of seeing the giraffe - and very strange beasts they are, that tongue!



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31 Aug 2011, 1:54 am

AG may wax eloquent but he lacks any sense of irony. Perhaps he should look at the topic title before he bangs on about how silly theists are.


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31 Aug 2011, 2:15 am

Condescending narcissist™ here, I've just endured this Knifey-AG "debate" (more like one man delivering arguments as the other person progressively shutsdown their brain). Some of the lowlights of the "discussion":

  • Knifey uses the "fall of man" or "original sin" to explain why we have natural disasters. AG points out that there was no point in pre-history when the first humans "dawned", and instead there was a continuous progression of increasingly "human", yet impossible to tell which one was the first human, human-like organisms. Knifey replies that the fall of man was "possibly metaphorial". Which means that his explanation for earthquakes and tsunamis, which happened WELL BEFORE, JUST BEFORE, DURING, and JUST AFTER the evolution of Homo sapiens, is utter bunk.
  • Knifey pretty much fails to realize why the abscence of free will undermines his free will defense of suffering.
  • Knifey develops a theological metaphysics where God can't be in the same place as "sin". But, wait, if God is Omnipresent than that means God is where "sin is". If God isn't where sin is, then the being is not omnipresent.
  • On that note, since God is the source of all things; of all creation, then isn't he also the source of sin?
  • Knifey resorts to "God works in mysterious ways" to explain how God will sort out the sane unbelievers who deserve oblivion at death and the unsane unbelievers who don't have the "free will" to choose to believe in God, so get into heaven or {???}. Essentially, a pretty lame cop out.
  • Knifey claims that killing someone else aside from the wronging party (that someone else being your son, who is also yourself) "removes sin", so you can be with the wronging party. WTF??! !! Who'd have thought Atonement and Original Sin could've been made even more incoherent.
  • Knifey demonstrates, throughout this "debate", why he dislikes atheists criticizing his beliefs: he has next to no ability to defend, address, or even comprehend basic points and his entire set of religious beliefs are comically muddled. To put it simply, debates on God only serve to pwn him. The Christian emperor truly has no clothes.
  • Knifey gloats about having "beaten" AG, as AG "failed to convince" him of the rightness of the position that the Christian God doesn't exist. That wasn't very Christian of him, now was it?


All in all, I have one summary of the "debate":


Image

Now, if only clear-minded liberal CALVINIST Orwell would come here, to set the theological record straight. :wink:


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Last edited by Master_Pedant on 31 Aug 2011, 2:32 am, edited 1 time in total.

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31 Aug 2011, 2:30 am

91 wrote:
AG may wax eloquent but he lacks any sense of irony. Perhaps he should look at the topic title before he bangs on about how silly theists are.


Perhaps you should read the OP and subsequent posts by Knifey before banging about how unreasonable AG's statements on theists silliness is. After all, it starts with Knifey claiming that belief in God vs the lack of belief in God is equivalent to a preference for chicken vs a preference for beef. Then, we AG states that theism is a factual proposition, not a culinary preference, Knifey DEMANDS a disproof of God and evades away from all of AG's points. Knifey aptly demonstrates why atheists are "zealous" towards him - he's either grossly intellectually dishonest or deluded. Indeed, were you intellectually honest you'd admit it.


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31 Aug 2011, 2:40 am

Awesomelyglorious wrote:
1) An omnipotent being can actualize any possible world.
2) A perfectly good being always chooses the best outcome from among its choices.
3) Therefore, a world created by a perfectly good omnipotent being will be the best of all possible worlds.
4) This is not the best of all possible worlds.
5) Therefore this world is not made by a perfectly good omnipotent being.
6) If God exists, then he is the maker of this world and a perfectly good omnipotent being.
7) Therefore God does not exist.


The inference is invalid. You need to establish what a best possible world would consist of. What is the actual world lacking that is instantiated in the best possible world? Also, 6) is contentious. Why think if God exists that he is a perfectly good omnipotent being? Even if Christianity is false, Judaism (which does not posit God as a perfectly good omnipotent being) could be true. Deism could be true. Etc. In fact, there are Christians who do not accept that God is a perfectly good omnipotent being. Alfred North Whitehead and his followers are an example.



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31 Aug 2011, 7:32 am

Telekon wrote:
The inference is invalid. You need to establish what a best possible world would consist of. What is the actual world lacking that is instantiated in the best possible world?
Not only do you need to establish changes for the better, you need to prove those changes would not have an unforeseen affect on the positive aspects that exist in this world. That's why I said you would need to create a world with the changes before you could say weather it was better. Just like there is a difference between an airplane blueprint, to the model in a wind tunnel, and then it's different again to the full scale plane. Maybe the promise of heaven is because earth is a failed prototype? ha.

Master_Pedant wrote:
  • Knifey uses the "fall of man" or "original sin" to explain why we have natural disasters. AG points out that there was no point in pre-history when the first humans "dawned", and instead there was a continuous progression of increasingly "human", yet impossible to tell which one was the first human, human-like organisms. Knifey replies that the fall of man was "possibly metaphorial". Which means that his explanation for earthquakes and tsunamis, which happened WELL BEFORE, JUST BEFORE, DURING, and JUST AFTER the evolution of Homo sapiens, is utter bunk.
It's not at all utter bunk. Everything I said fits together. A world without God will fall apart. If the world has never been full of humans that accept his sovereign rule then the world will have always had natural disasters. What is so hard to understand about that? This is one of the things I think might have happened. I have many theories about genesis that I am not closed to.
Master_Pedant wrote:
  • Knifey pretty much fails to realize why the abscence of free will undermines his free will defense of suffering.
because you can't prove there is an absence of free will, and I don't think there is an absence of free will so why would I debate it?
Master_Pedant wrote:
  • Knifey develops a theological metaphysics where God can't be in the same place as "sin". But, wait, if God is Omnipresent than that means God is where "sin is". If God isn't where sin is, then the being is not omnipresent.
I also believe the physical universe is part of God. Which means God would not only be where sin is, but be the one commiting it! wtfbbq. He is a complex being and can be many contradicting things lol.
Master_Pedant wrote:
  • On that note, since God is the source of all things; of all creation, then isn't he also the source of sin?
I did say God himself is capable of sin, so yes he knows what it is, and yep he's the one who makes people with the capacity to sin. So indirectly God sins. oooerrr.
Master_Pedant wrote:
  • Knifey resorts to "God works in mysterious ways" to explain how God will sort out the sane unbelievers who deserve oblivion at death and the unsane unbelievers who don't have the "free will" to choose to believe in God, so get into heaven or {???}. Essentially, a pretty lame cop out.
I was just guessing, it really doesn't effect me and I trust God to be merciful.
Master_Pedant wrote:
  • Knifey claims that killing someone else aside from the wronging party (that someone else being your son, who is also yourself) "removes sin", so you can be with the wronging party. WTF??! !! Who'd have thought Atonement and Original Sin could've been made even more incoherent.
It's not really that complex, one entity can manifest themselves into three different entities. So one split entity killing another is not murder, it's suicide. If you can't understand that you should watch more television.

You seem to think because I don't know how God fits into every aspect of everything that logically I shouldn't believe in God. Everybody has gaps in their knowledge and the physical universe is one of the least interesting parts of God. But if you can prove any of my theories are wrong about God I am really willing and eager to know so I will change them, to something else that includes God. Enjoy your self-righteousness.


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