tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12487611.post586925032381282459..comments2023-07-01T05:31:58.501-06:00Comments on Signs of insanity: If the God of Creationists does exist, he's a jackass.Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10876775111703252840noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12487611.post-80937146980525044022008-03-12T16:04:00.000-06:002008-03-12T16:04:00.000-06:00Okay, I looked at your bugs. The reason God creat...Okay, I looked at your bugs. The reason God created them was so that pesticide manufacturers could thrive. The next question would be why God created pesticide manufacturers, which would be to get rid of these freaks of nature. I think it's the circle of life or something.<BR/><BR/>:PSnarkhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13953788717504860077noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12487611.post-80956628625644863002008-03-12T15:28:00.000-06:002008-03-12T15:28:00.000-06:00I like myths, too. I have always preferred Norse m...I like myths, too. I have always preferred Norse myths to Classical (that may have something to do with being half Norwegian)<BR/><BR/>It bothers me when people who should know better take them to be literally true. And it pisses me off when some of those people try to insist that I need to do so, too. That is who I rant about.Johnhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10876775111703252840noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12487611.post-49004333664126102712008-03-12T10:00:00.000-06:002008-03-12T10:00:00.000-06:00I like myths. Not because I believe them, but bec...I like myths. Not because I believe them, but because they're good stories. Then again, I studied Medieval English lit. Myths have power. I like it.Snarkhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13953788717504860077noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12487611.post-61949984207501090432008-03-11T15:58:00.000-06:002008-03-11T15:58:00.000-06:00As I understand it (and I may be way off base) the...As I understand it (and I may be way off base) the character Philo most closely represents Humes' actual beliefs. Philo's position was that human reason can't make any kind of assumptions about the divine. He also did an awesome takedown of the argument from design.Johnhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10876775111703252840noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12487611.post-82635701958989510192008-03-11T14:43:00.000-06:002008-03-11T14:43:00.000-06:00"Where'd that stuff come from?"In Hume's Dialogues..."Where'd that stuff come from?"<BR/><BR/>In Hume's Dialogues on Natural Religion, his character Demea (the mystic) argues that "god" is that which, when properly understood, cannot fail to exist. I've sort of adopted that as my working model for how the universe began, without referring to it as "god." The universe "started" with something which could not fail to exist. <BR/><BR/>Proving that such a substance/thing exists (and cannot fail to exist) is another matter, so this is still pure speculation.Qalmleahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17131154882107531113noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12487611.post-8907268297749203582008-03-11T11:20:00.000-06:002008-03-11T11:20:00.000-06:00" people who think some old man-like creature blew..." people who think some old man-like creature blew into some dust and made a (poor) copy of himself"<BR/><BR/>That is pretty much my operational definition of a creationist.<BR/><BR/>as for "where did it all come from?" (in reference to the entire universe) I don't see why this question is particularly important in an everyday sense. Cosmologists have several hypothoses about what happened before the Big Bang, some even indicate that "before the Big Bang" may be meaningless. What makes them scientific is that there are proposed experiments to test them. Without those proposed tests, they would be pure speculation. Given time and popularity speculation becomes myth.<BR/><BR/>"At some point people just have to leave things unanswered or invent (or borrow) something to explain the unexplainable."<BR/><BR/>you've just described how myths get started. Notice there's no requirement that any of these explanations be actually true.<BR/><BR/>My choice is to say "I don't know, and neither do you. I'm okay with that."Johnhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10876775111703252840noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12487611.post-85079728947496168962008-03-11T08:42:00.000-06:002008-03-11T08:42:00.000-06:00If creationists are people who think some old man-...If creationists are people who think some old man-like creature blew into some dust and made a (poor) copy of himself, yeah, I agree they're nuts.<BR/><BR/>But while I believe in evolution (the fact that there are people who don't astonishes me), at some point (i.e., Big Bang) everything exploded into the state it's in. Where'd that stuff come from? I understand what made it blow, but where'd it come from? At some point people just have to leave things unanswered or invent (or borrow) something to explain the unexplainable.<BR/><BR/>It looks like your choice is to shrug your shoulders at what is surely the most important question we have (where’d it all come from?) or accept a mythology. Some people don’t recognize that it is a mythology, though.Snarkhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13953788717504860077noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12487611.post-36763649996662649002008-03-11T06:12:00.000-06:002008-03-11T06:12:00.000-06:00I said it wouldn't be prettryI said it wouldn't be prettryJohnhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10876775111703252840noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12487611.post-7128673156133126802008-03-10T20:15:00.000-06:002008-03-10T20:15:00.000-06:00Pardon the cliche, but that stuff was stranger and...Pardon the cliche, but that stuff was stranger and nastier than most of the sci. fi I've read or seen. I'm not a big horror fan, but that does include several Steven King books. Natural selection is fantastically and ruthlessly creative.Jachttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01622919505576895393noreply@blogger.com