06-08-2010, 05:39 AM | #91 | |
Chocolate Grasshopper ...
Posts: 27,600
Karma: 20821184
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Scotland
Device: Muse HD , Cybook Gen3 , Pocketbook 302 (Black) , Nexus 10: wife has PW
|
Quote:
I agree, both religion and science have been so inter-related through the ages, as methods for trying to define life, that they have perhaps fed on each other. There is, now, however, perhaps a danger that the tenuous link, that they might have had, is being severed? as zealots of one deny the other ? |
|
06-08-2010, 05:51 AM | #92 | |
High Priestess
Posts: 5,761
Karma: 5042529
Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: Montreuil sous bois, France
Device: iPad Pro 9.7, iPhone 6 Plus
|
Quote:
It's hard for us to imagine that the universe could be built on a different set of arbitrary laws. We are born from a long succession of life forms that were born within this set of laws, and evolved according to it. If the dice had rolled differently at the start, we might not be here, or maybe a completely different species would be here asking the same question we are asking, or maybe... hard to say. But we are here because we have adapted to this universe we live in, to this specific set of arbitrary laws. Not because the laws were specifically meant to produce us, or have a special meaning that another set of arbitrary laws would not have. I do hope the above makes some kind of sense... I should probably get back to work now |
|
Advert | |
|
06-08-2010, 05:56 AM | #93 |
Chocolate Grasshopper ...
Posts: 27,600
Karma: 20821184
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Scotland
Device: Muse HD , Cybook Gen3 , Pocketbook 302 (Black) , Nexus 10: wife has PW
|
I'm not too sure that the laws of physics are arbitrary. They seem to fit the situation that we find ourselves in - certainly not everything has been answered adequately (gravity for one), and there seems always to be room for adjustment - quantum theory smashed some of the pre-conceived ideas of the 19 and early 20thC. (even if quantum theory was perhaps hinted at by some the ancients before religion squashed it).
|
06-08-2010, 06:05 AM | #94 |
Digitally confused
Posts: 500
Karma: 1500000
Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: London, UK
Device: KPW, K2i, Nexus 7 32gb, Kobo Mini
|
Misrepresentation - in what way? if we're discussing the philosophy of science then you must try to offer a proof because just preferring a given explanation isn't any different to religious belief. And proving that something is correct is impossible, so proving that something is wrong is what science is all about
|
06-08-2010, 06:09 AM | #95 | |
Chocolate Grasshopper ...
Posts: 27,600
Karma: 20821184
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Scotland
Device: Muse HD , Cybook Gen3 , Pocketbook 302 (Black) , Nexus 10: wife has PW
|
Quote:
One hopes, one day, I might understand that statement, reminds little old me of sophistry ..... |
|
Advert | |
|
06-08-2010, 06:10 AM | #96 | |
Wizard
Posts: 4,395
Karma: 1358132
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: UK
Device: Palm TX, CyBook Gen3
|
Quote:
"Barrow introduced a memorable paradox, which he called "the Groucho Marx Effect".... Barrow states: "A universe simple enough to be understood is too simple to produce a mind capable of understanding it."" Last edited by Sparrow; 06-08-2010 at 06:13 AM. |
|
06-08-2010, 06:15 AM | #97 | |
The Dank Side of the Moon
Posts: 35,872
Karma: 118716293
Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: Denver, CO
Device: Kindle2; Kindle Fire
|
Quote:
Evolution has likely proceeded completely differently in other parts of the universe but the process is not arbitrary, it is well defined. I just read an essay by Loren Eiseley - Little Men and Flying Saucers. He is somewhat philosophical in his view of the universe. I posted a link to it somewhere (in the What we're reading thread? ah, here it is: http://www.american-buddha.com/little.men.htm ) I wouldn't say it's his best essay but I love the ending: "Lights come and go in the night sky. Men, troubled at last by the things they build, may toss in their sleep and dream bad dreams, or lie awake while the meteors whisper greenly overhead. But nowhere in all space or on a thousand worlds will there be men to share our loneliness. There may be wisdom; there may be power; somewhere across space great instruments, handled by strange, manipulative organs, may stare vainly at our floating cloud wrack, their owners yearning as we yearn. Nevertheless, in the nature of life and in the principles of evolution we have had our answer. Of men elsewhere, and beyond, there will be none forever. " |
|
06-08-2010, 06:17 AM | #98 | |
Chocolate Grasshopper ...
Posts: 27,600
Karma: 20821184
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Scotland
Device: Muse HD , Cybook Gen3 , Pocketbook 302 (Black) , Nexus 10: wife has PW
|
Quote:
|
|
06-08-2010, 06:20 AM | #99 | |
The Dank Side of the Moon
Posts: 35,872
Karma: 118716293
Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: Denver, CO
Device: Kindle2; Kindle Fire
|
Quote:
Science is the body of knowledge built up since the beginning of humanity based on the scientific method (including falsifiability as mentioned). Religion is based on belief without proof. |
|
06-08-2010, 06:20 AM | #100 |
The Dank Side of the Moon
Posts: 35,872
Karma: 118716293
Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: Denver, CO
Device: Kindle2; Kindle Fire
|
Yes! He is very much a poet (an if fact did write a few poems).
Last edited by kennyc; 06-08-2010 at 06:31 AM. |
06-08-2010, 06:21 AM | #101 |
Wizard
Posts: 4,395
Karma: 1358132
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: UK
Device: Palm TX, CyBook Gen3
|
|
06-08-2010, 06:25 AM | #102 |
Chocolate Grasshopper ...
Posts: 27,600
Karma: 20821184
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Scotland
Device: Muse HD , Cybook Gen3 , Pocketbook 302 (Black) , Nexus 10: wife has PW
|
|
06-08-2010, 06:27 AM | #103 |
The Dank Side of the Moon
Posts: 35,872
Karma: 118716293
Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: Denver, CO
Device: Kindle2; Kindle Fire
|
I don't think so, at least not any more of an assumption than any other scientific theory. Everything exists in the same reality/universe the laws that govern its constituents should be the same everywhere (with local variations of course) black holes being an extreme case of how the laws operate.
|
06-08-2010, 06:27 AM | #104 |
Chocolate Grasshopper ...
Posts: 27,600
Karma: 20821184
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Scotland
Device: Muse HD , Cybook Gen3 , Pocketbook 302 (Black) , Nexus 10: wife has PW
|
|
06-08-2010, 06:30 AM | #105 |
The Dank Side of the Moon
Posts: 35,872
Karma: 118716293
Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: Denver, CO
Device: Kindle2; Kindle Fire
|
Some may disagree, but they'd be wrong. If any that do disagree can provide scientific proof of Supernatural beings etc. then I'm willing to go along...but by providing that scientific proof the belief then becomes part of science.
|
Tags |
philosophy, plato |
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Thread Starter | Forum | Replies | Last Post |
Philosophy eBooks | dhume01 | Deals and Resources (No Self-Promotion or Affiliate Links) | 8 | 07-28-2010 12:18 PM |
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy | FlorenceArt | Deals and Resources (No Self-Promotion or Affiliate Links) | 6 | 08-29-2009 07:43 PM |
Christian and Philosophy books on Kindle? | nathanb | Amazon Kindle | 11 | 07-07-2009 09:57 PM |
interesting discussion on pricing of fiction books | Liviu_5 | News | 4 | 10-10-2007 09:27 AM |
Book2Book mobile e-books discussion | shalmaneser | Deals and Resources (No Self-Promotion or Affiliate Links) | 0 | 08-05-2005 05:49 AM |