On October 28 2014 04:34 SoSexy wrote: Squat, just a little off topic: + Show Spoiler +
The video I posted is not a 'propaganda' (as you would say) video of WLC, but a debate with Sean Carroll, a very prominent atheist astrophysicist. In those 2 hours they discuss basically the same topic of this thread, so it might add some insights to people. Also, I don't know why you call him dishonest or such. Even Krauss, after their debates in Australia, recognised he's an honest man (I can Pm you the link to that).
I wanted to add something about philosophy/science. I think that the line that connects philosophy to the beginning of science lies in the modern age, not in the greek world. Soon after Ockham started to dismantle the medieval construction of Theology as 'scientia naturalis', the first 'scientists' started to study the natural world without refering to the Scriptures. Galileo, for example, was never considered a scientist but a 'natural philosopher'. It is after this period that the distinction became clearer and it led to the well-known figure of the scientist.
I never said anything about propaganda. I never even used the word. My objection concerned the use of WLC as some kind of credible source.
As for Newton, he is pretty much the best example I can think of, perhaps alongside Francis Collins of just how compartmentalized the human mind really is. He more or less invented calculus and the field of optics, and he also believed in alchemy. The more intelligent and erudite the mind, the better it can rationalize the preposterous.
Too be fair WLC actually is a reasonably respected theologian and philosopher and most of the philosophical non-religious arguments he brings forth aren't exactly controversial.
Wouldn't true nothingness be a very unstable condition? If there are no laws of physics, or laws about anything else, then there's no law that prohibits the spontaneous appearance something.
Theoretical physicists are basically mathematicians who use maths to explain physical phenomenas.
For anyone like me we no real high-end sciencific knowledge, listen to that lecture from Lawrence Krauss " A universe from nothing" : it doesn't explain everything in detail, but it's quite easy to understand, and that guy has defended the fact that "nothing" really is "something" cause of quantum fluctuations for a long time. I guess he will comment on that discovery soon.
As an aside, theologic discussions have nothing to do in here cause whatever's discovered and discussed in physics has no correlation whatsoever with the existence (or not) of God. Physics just doesn't need God, and physicists shouldn't include God in their equations, cause everytime they've done that, they were wrong (Einstein with his cosmologic constant to have a nice non expanding universe; Newton when he couldn't mathematically explain the erratic movements of the planets on their orbits, ...)
On October 28 2014 04:41 Teoita wrote: Oh yeah the dude was...special. I heard some people blame it on him experimenting a lot with chemistry stuff and breathing mercury fumes and stuff.
He was an alchemist. Mercury intoxication (bread and butter for alchemy) would explain many of his letters and writings, specially borderline paranaioa. Sorry for the little de-rail.
The article is interesting, by they say it is not rigorously proven anyways.
What a pleasant reminder of all those fun quantum mechanics courses in college. I say that also as one damn happy that I no longer need to submit papers analyzing and critiquing the subject. Ahh the bliss!
"Atheism" is a position you could hold, but it's still a *theological* position (since denying the existence of God is a claim that contains theological content).
That's not quite true. It is the position of being unconvinced by claims that have not met their burden of proof, not rejecting them as false. It is a position completely devoid of content, and the word itself is more or less worthless as I see it. We don't define ourselves by what we stand in opposition to or simply choose not to give any serious consideration.
that's the position i'm challenging. first of all that it's meaningful to speak of a "burden of proof," second that it's possible to "be an atheist" as a neutral position. It's certainly ludicrous to say that religious claims are "positions devoid of content," there is an enormous amount of "content."
You certainly do "define ourselves by what you stand against" - just look at the etymological construction of the word 'atheism.' If you didn't, you wouldn't be here arguing about it.
On October 28 2014 06:12 ZerG~LegenD wrote: Wouldn't true nothingness be a very unstable condition? If there are no laws of physics, or laws about anything else, then there's no law that prohibits the spontaneous appearance something.
but then you have to postulate a general tendency for things to happen unless there are laws preventing things from happening. why?
I don't think it invalidates the adoption of atheism as a 'neutral' position, it's just an issue of chronology. God-centred conceptions of creation have existed from the time we have any kind of recorded history, so subsequently of course you're going to posit it as a kind of refutation of those models.
If we were to discuss the issue from a blank slate of a starting point, the idea of 'I don't see proof for this, so I will actively disbelieve it' seems pretty neutral to me.
But there's no such thing as a blank slate for a starting point. It just doesn't exist. And your conception about what would constitute "proof" is based on some sort of epistemological stance which cannot be "neutral." You reject some idea because you are already committed to some other idea which defines when and for what reasons you should believe things.
I should point out, I am also an "atheist" I suppose, but I'm quite opposed to positivist rationalism or scientism which is what most people mean by "atheist." It's just that I believe in being skeptical and atheists tend to be very dogmatic people because they are so self-assured about the obvious truth of everything they think. They are pretty much exactly like fundamentalists in this respect
One day we'll be able to have a science thread that doesn't degenerate into back and forths of awful youtube videos containing monologues from apologists like WLC and Plantinga, and pop public intellectual hacks like Krauss.
On October 28 2014 04:41 Teoita wrote: Oh yeah the dude was...special. I heard some people blame it on him experimenting a lot with chemistry stuff and breathing mercury fumes and stuff.
Unless everyone at the time was sniffing the same fumes, highly doubtful and those people are just turning a blind eye to what was a very big part of natural philosophers at the time. Religion, or more specifically God doesn't really disappear from science until the mid 20th century. More than anything, it's because of religion that we have the basis of modern science, if it wasn't for the fanatical search for proof of God in the world then a lot of research probably wouldn't have come as quickly as it had.
The only reason philosophers still get to claim relevance in this discussion is because QFT, quantum gravity and the formation of the universe are things we don't really understand yet. The operative word here being "yet". Philosophers don't write about germ theory, organic chemistry, or even special relativity. We understand these things and they have moved into the standard toolbox we use to understand the world - there is no debate, no existentialism, only tools with which to shape the world around us. I mean, already people like Nietzsche and Gadamer lamented that philosophy was being reduced to epistemology, essentially beholden to science. That society overall, seeing the enormous success with which the scientific method was brought to bear against virtually every problem facing it simply had moved on from philosophy. Maybe they had a point, maybe there yet remain questions worth asking that are not fundamentally scientific in nature. Personally I'm not convinced - or to paraphrase futurama: "Reality be a harsh mistress".