Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Welcome To The Thinking Persons Blog
I want to welcome you to the thinking persons blog. Because I am a Buddhist I will not glorify thinking. In fact thinking can become an addiction. I use it as a tool. So like Socrates I will try to challenge dogmatic "know it alls" without coming off as one myself. If I ever had to admit a hubris it wouldn't be that I'm a know it all but that I can out think most people who are.
Here I will post debates from other message boards to keep discussions alive that would otherwise never be heard. I will post my own thoughts and feelings. And I hope you will do the same. Keep the fire of discriminating awareness alive and destroy the oppressive fog of ignorance that hangs over us by dogmatic and bigoted small minded people
Here I will post debates from other message boards to keep discussions alive that would otherwise never be heard. I will post my own thoughts and feelings. And I hope you will do the same. Keep the fire of discriminating awareness alive and destroy the oppressive fog of ignorance that hangs over us by dogmatic and bigoted small minded people
My Network
The Links Below Have A Short Summary. Please Click On Link To Read The Actual Essay In It's Entirety
Descartes Method of Faith
I have been searching the net with no luck on Descartes to find arguments on him starting from a theistic conclusion and working his way back to to his premise. To clarify I think Descartes like most theist started with God and and worked his way back to a starting premise.
He wants to prove God exist. Not as an agnostic arguing probability but as a theist who is already convinced. Since his most important work is based on a method of doubt it looks as if he is an agnostic doubting everything then surprise surprise his reasoning just happens to lead him to what he already believed.
It is my understanding that any true agnostic using this method of doubt would go in circles like the dog chasing his tail.With each circle of reasoning he would end up with less and less faith until atheism all though not proven would seem the most probable truth. Descartes on the other hand seemed to go from his method of doubt straight to a theistic conclusion step by step with no missteps. I find this suspicious.
1 comments:
- pemomasek said...
- The philosophers of ancient Greece would disagree that atheism leads to amorality. Looking at the evils done throughout history by those who professed faith in a God or gods, it is not clear that belief in God leads to morality. It should not be suprising that philosophers and later scientists who were part of establishment came to conclusions that supported the existing social order in their societies.
See Also
The Cartesian Circle and The Clockwork Orange Paradox.
By The Young Contrarian
The Soul of The Atheist
Wow after visiting an atheist message board and reading their replies to the topic of the soul it has occurred to me maybe atheism is a religion. I have been an atheist ever since I was a child in rejection of religion. When my mom brought me to church I found nothing taught there made sense or felt right. I was reading about mythology since I was 11 maybe before.
The stories told to me like Noah's Ark seemed nonsensical. The more I studied mythology the more I found things in it that had things in common with religion like the virgin birth. I was told by everyone I knew that I was going to go to hell for not believing this tripe. I denied having a soul that could go to hell. In fact I denied anything supernatural. To me once you proved one supernatural phenomena you proved them all.
So I rejected the soul because it was supernatural. But this went against my intuition and after several spiritual experiences I turned once again to philosophy and found that the only difference between the soul and the mind was one was immortal.
Free At Last
Epicurus is generally credited with first expounding the problem of evil, and it is sometimes called "the Epicurean paradox" or "the riddle of Epicurus."
"Either God wants to abolish evil, and cannot; or he can, but does not want to. If he wants to, but cannot, he is impotent. If he can, but does not want to, he is wicked. If God can abolish evil, and God really wants to do it, why is there evil in the world?" — Epicurus, as quoted in 2000 Years of Disbelief
Free Will
The free will argument is as follows: God's creation of persons with morally significant free will is something of tremendous value. God could not eliminate evil and suffering without thereby eliminating the greater good of having created persons with free will and who can make moral choices.
One problem Christians like to ignore in the problem of Evil is this.. Does God have freewill? Because if God has freewill how can he be all good? Does God make moral choices? Can God choose to do Evil if he wants? If he can not choose then how can he have freewill?
If it is possible to have freewill and be all good then it stands to reason that not only would an all powerful God be able to create man in his image being both free and all good but he would by his nature have to so or he wouldn't be all good.
Compatibilism tries to reconcile Determinism with Moralism. In order to evaluate the truth of this statement you must choose a starting point. The difficulty of this is very telling. If you are an atheist perhaps you read the writings of Daniel C Dennet on Compatibilism. Then you might question how Determinism can possibly lead to Moralism. It is true that without Compatibilism it is not possible to get to Moralism from Determinism. That is there is no direct link between Moralism and Determinism.
But the science of Behaviorism and religion of Theology both have the same goal of Social Engineering. And not surprisingly they both posit Determinism as the cornerstone of their ideologies. But if determinism is accepted as true then even though both Science and Theology have achieved half of their goal of getting rid of our pesky belief in freewill they are left with the paradox of no possibility for morality. The worse fear of Behaviorist and Theologians is a society where justice can not be established with punishment and reward.
1.To get people to believe that the soul is a substance that God can create and destroy at will rather than immortal by nature
2.That obedience is Love
3.That God sanctions only one religion and will recreate your soul later after you cease to exist if you behave according to man made religion
I have made clear that the Bible is wrong about the nature of God in my post Free at Last. This page will try to list all the contradictions in the Bible about God, Freewill, and the Soul
I am developing a page to dispel the myths that spiritual teachings such as Biblical or Buddhist scriptures do not support a vegetarian view This is not for the purpose of converting people to vegetarianism My point is only to dispel ignorance If you want to eat meat I can not and will not try to stop you but if you think Buddha or Jesus taught meat eating as a spiritual practice or believe that the scriptures of your religion support meat eating you might want to click on the links on this page before deciding
One problem Christians like to ignore in the problem of Evil is this.. Does God have freewill? Because if God has freewill how can he be all good? Does God make moral choices? Can God choose to do Evil if he wants? If he can not choose then how can he have freewill?
If it is possible to have freewill and be all good then it stands to reason that not only would an all powerful God be able to create man in his image being both free and all good but he would by his nature have to so or he wouldn't be all good.
Designer Genes
- Theological determinism is the idea that there is a god who determines all that humans will do, either by knowing their actions in advance, via some form of omniscience[5] or by decreeing their actions in advance.[6] The problem of free will, in this context, is the problem of how our actions can be free if there is a being who has determined them for us in advance.
- Biological determinism is the idea that all behaviors, beliefs, and desires are fixed by our genetic endowment and our biochemical makeup, the latter of which is affected by both genes and environment.
Compatibilism tries to reconcile Determinism with Moralism. In order to evaluate the truth of this statement you must choose a starting point. The difficulty of this is very telling. If you are an atheist perhaps you read the writings of Daniel C Dennet on Compatibilism. Then you might question how Determinism can possibly lead to Moralism. It is true that without Compatibilism it is not possible to get to Moralism from Determinism. That is there is no direct link between Moralism and Determinism.
But the science of Behaviorism and religion of Theology both have the same goal of Social Engineering. And not surprisingly they both posit Determinism as the cornerstone of their ideologies. But if determinism is accepted as true then even though both Science and Theology have achieved half of their goal of getting rid of our pesky belief in freewill they are left with the paradox of no possibility for morality. The worse fear of Behaviorist and Theologians is a society where justice can not be established with punishment and reward.
To Be or Not To Be
Why cant the Bible make up it's mind? It is my contention that the Bible can not be clear or non contradictory on subjects like the soul and freewill because the writers had a sinister agenda.1.To get people to believe that the soul is a substance that God can create and destroy at will rather than immortal by nature
2.That obedience is Love
3.That God sanctions only one religion and will recreate your soul later after you cease to exist if you behave according to man made religion
I have made clear that the Bible is wrong about the nature of God in my post Free at Last. This page will try to list all the contradictions in the Bible about God, Freewill, and the Soul
Choose Life
I am developing a page to dispel the myths that spiritual teachings such as Biblical or Buddhist scriptures do not support a vegetarian view This is not for the purpose of converting people to vegetarianism My point is only to dispel ignorance If you want to eat meat I can not and will not try to stop you but if you think Buddha or Jesus taught meat eating as a spiritual practice or believe that the scriptures of your religion support meat eating you might want to click on the links on this page before deciding
1 comments:
- Bhaskara said...
- Well researched writing. Pl. add that camels, buffalo's (and other black animals) deserve compassion. They should not be killed.
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