My answers, as promised...
Nov. 23rd, 2005 02:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ayoub1. If you suspected you were deluded, how could you find out for sure?
If I thought I was deluded, then I'd ask people questions that I feel absolutely sure of the answers for, and see whether they concur.
2. Are humans the product of a skilled or unskilled designer?
Unskilled, we're the product of what survived, not necessarily what's best.
3. Would an omnipotent being need to think in the way that people understand it? Or is thinking unnecessary for a timeless indestructible being whose preferences are the same as reality
If God knows everything that is, was, and will be, then what would He ponder? The only thing people think about is unknowns, but there are no unknowns for God, except, maybe, what it feels like to die. God doesn't think like us, because if He did, then the only remaining thing for him would be suicide.
4. Why would God be so unclear about which book or books he authored?
To give us the illusion of free will? The Islamic answer is that the Koran was the only one written by Him, the others are collected stories and accounts of events written by man (Anybody want to debate this?)
5. Is consciousness anything more than a continual process of imagining, acting, observing the impact of an action, and imagining again with new information?
That's a fancy way of saying conciousness is learning from your actions, and I can agree with that, from a certain point of view.
6. The dictionary defines "faith" as belief without evidence. It defines "stupidity" as unreasoned thinking. Is belief without evidence a form of unreasoned thinking?
Faith is stupidity, it is unreasoned, but then, everybody does some stupid things...
7. Can the impact of your actions rippling into the future be considered an immortal soul?
No, because a single organism made up of multiple cells rarely has those cells destroying each other out of pride, fear, or jealousy. The human race would need to be one race for the rippling of actions to be seen as anything but chaos.
8. Could atheists and believers accept the same definition of God?
There can be a definition of God that can be universally accepted, providing it doesn't allude to any of the religions.
9. If God's so smart, why do we fart?
If we were intelligently designed, we would utilise everything with 100% efficiency, so we would not fart. But are our weaknesses designed as a test?
If I thought I was deluded, then I'd ask people questions that I feel absolutely sure of the answers for, and see whether they concur.
2. Are humans the product of a skilled or unskilled designer?
Unskilled, we're the product of what survived, not necessarily what's best.
3. Would an omnipotent being need to think in the way that people understand it? Or is thinking unnecessary for a timeless indestructible being whose preferences are the same as reality
If God knows everything that is, was, and will be, then what would He ponder? The only thing people think about is unknowns, but there are no unknowns for God, except, maybe, what it feels like to die. God doesn't think like us, because if He did, then the only remaining thing for him would be suicide.
4. Why would God be so unclear about which book or books he authored?
To give us the illusion of free will? The Islamic answer is that the Koran was the only one written by Him, the others are collected stories and accounts of events written by man (Anybody want to debate this?)
5. Is consciousness anything more than a continual process of imagining, acting, observing the impact of an action, and imagining again with new information?
That's a fancy way of saying conciousness is learning from your actions, and I can agree with that, from a certain point of view.
6. The dictionary defines "faith" as belief without evidence. It defines "stupidity" as unreasoned thinking. Is belief without evidence a form of unreasoned thinking?
Faith is stupidity, it is unreasoned, but then, everybody does some stupid things...
7. Can the impact of your actions rippling into the future be considered an immortal soul?
No, because a single organism made up of multiple cells rarely has those cells destroying each other out of pride, fear, or jealousy. The human race would need to be one race for the rippling of actions to be seen as anything but chaos.
8. Could atheists and believers accept the same definition of God?
There can be a definition of God that can be universally accepted, providing it doesn't allude to any of the religions.
9. If God's so smart, why do we fart?
If we were intelligently designed, we would utilise everything with 100% efficiency, so we would not fart. But are our weaknesses designed as a test?