Going Crazy

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by Grossenschwamm, Jul 30, 2010.

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  1. Grossenschwamm

    Grossenschwamm Well-Known Member

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    Unlike faith, as science changes over a period of time, the old ways are forgotten as those who maintained the original ideals die out, to be replaced by a newer, edgier science. Instead, faith separates into groups and starts arguing with itself.
    Alright, I purposely exaggerated, there are arguments in science all the time, but it seems it's easier for one to change an opinion if trust has taken the place of faith. Trust is easy to lose, given adequate evidence. Faith just closes its ears.
    But, is there anything really wrong with having some faith? Many people use faith to bring their families together, and what's wrong with a happy familial unit? It's not the only way, sure, but it works.
    I have faith. Does that mean I distrust science? No. I love science. I want to make my life, science. However, I don't think faith and science should ever meet. It's impossible. The one time it did was when the pope backed the big bang theory. This completely backfired and lead to a resurgence in popularity for the universal steady state theory, the theory that pushes for an everlasting universe that spawns new matter as it grows in size. Silly stuff.
    Keep your soul separate from your mind and you'll do fine.
     
  2. TheDavisChanger

    TheDavisChanger Well-Known Member

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    Plainly, theists demonstrate faith by believing in one or more gods whose existence has not been proved.
    Does the converse apply?
    Is it an act of faith to reject the existence of something whose existence has not been disproved? This seems to follow, but reconciling this internally is proving exhausting. What are the criteria for proving that something does not exist?

    When I was a child attending a Christian school, I was appalled at the hubris employed when introducing the ancient Greek religion as "mythology." Looking back, I suppose my educators were not obliged to be impartial when it comes to presenting religions. Later in life, I was told that the reason that the ancient Greek religion is regarded as myth is because there has been no evidence that any of the gods visited or inhabited Mount Olympus. That has satisfied me until just now, because it has occurred to me that the lack of evidence of the gods on Mount Olympus does not necessarily indicate the absence of the gods altogether.

    How is Zeus any less certain than Christ?
     
  3. Philes

    Philes Well-Known Member

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    While I have little interest in an ongoing debate online with people who are less interested in actual debate with thought change processes and actual opposing-side consideration (as opposed to mindless conversion to their own side without consideration for the other), I feel the need to chime in. Also, that a was a fucking bear of a sentence. It's late and I'm tired.

    At any rate, as a person with a doctorate a biological, medical, scientific field, my worldview allows for the concept of adaptation/evolution and creationism to not be mutually exclusive. Sure, there are niggling details that are often vague and unsubstantiated that might argue otherwise, but my own internal belief in created original complexity leading to other "evolution" processes through it's own natural systems makes sense to me.
     
  4. Grakelin

    Grakelin New Member

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    You have a Doctorate? That's actually pretty neat. Which scientific field is it in? Medicine seems the most obvious, since you specified medical, but it could be something like microbiology, too.
     
  5. magikot

    magikot Well-Known Member

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    I'm going to guess cellular biology.
     
  6. RodneyDale

    RodneyDale New Member

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    So, have you decided what to do about your developing insanity Gross?
     
  7. Grossenschwamm

    Grossenschwamm Well-Known Member

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    Well, I went to a DLF (drink like a fish) party to unwind, and ended up getting more confused, because I fell hard for one girl who was there who loves hookah and actually knows about greek mythology. I ended up leaving the party feeling lonely because I can't talk to people directly, the best I can do is chat with you all on a forum. I'm so terrified of social situations. But my crazy has for the moment subsided, so I'm just interested in what you all have to say about the myriad of possible topics to be discussed here in this several times derailed thread.
     
  8. RunAwayScientist

    RunAwayScientist Member

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  9. Grossenschwamm

    Grossenschwamm Well-Known Member

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    Well, the biggest issue for me with the neanderthals was this;
    Did we marginalize and exterminate them, like the humans have for so long done to their own kind?
    I'm speaking of course of any situation in which man, with his greater technology, began to get rid of competition with lesser weapons. The primary culture in this focus is the native american people who were litrerally crushed and sent to reservations for having different ideas and a lack of guns. Did the neanderthals live in a similar way? There's no way to tell without a modern population having somehow survived the arrival of homo sapiens.

    However, when I mentioned the flutes and shell with red ochre, these finds had been attributed to the aurignacian people until it was seen the human remains close to these finds were simply intruding corpses from a few thousand years ago. This could be huge! Neanderthals, the classic caveman, with symbolism and an appreciation for music? Right there, this could mean there was a way to get along with modern homo sapiens.
    Language may have been an issue, as the neanderthals with their shorter neck may not have had the same luck pronouncing (as many) vowels, i.e. their language simply did without them. But, there's no saying they couldn't have had translations and communicated with the interlopers edging in on their hunting grounds.
    The hunting practices of neanderthals and homo sapiens was largely similar, but it's theorized that our relatives didn't have the same ability to plan things ahead, meaning once their foods became scarce around 30000 years ago, coupled with the changing climate, they were unable to compete with us socially and this allowed us to achieve dominance over their people.
     
  10. TheDavisChanger

    TheDavisChanger Well-Known Member

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    Well keep approaching people in social situations. The practice can only improve your skills and comfort with those situations.
     
  11. Zanza

    Zanza Well-Known Member

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    I've always been a confident person, never had trouble with talking to large groups of strangers, though I did have some friends who couldn't talk to anyone they weren't friends with. One of them was looking for a job a few years ago and I hired him for a bar I used to manage and you should of seen the transformation that took place simply from being forced to say "Hi, how you going?" when he had to serve people. Occasionally people actually mistook that as a genuine question when they were being served and they would reply and strike up a short conversation as he grabbed their drinks. After a couple of months you should of seen this guy's confidence, through the roof it was.
     
  12. Grakelin

    Grakelin New Member

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    I hated it when people talked to me when I worked in the deli, but that's just because they were all stupid.

    Actually, I quite liked many of them, and they quite liked me. I got them to stop shopping at Sobey's for awhile.


    Job didn't improve my confidence, though. If anything, it made me less confident. But I'm still a Drama Major.
     
  13. RodneyDale

    RodneyDale New Member

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    I havn't spoken to anyone in real life for over a year, other than my girlfriend and my close family. I don't enjoy anyones company. I just want to drink and smoke until I conjure up the courage to commit suicide.
     
  14. TheDavisChanger

    TheDavisChanger Well-Known Member

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  15. Grakelin

    Grakelin New Member

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    Do it. You know you want to. Amirite.
     
  16. magikot

    magikot Well-Known Member

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    Girlfriend? Somebody tolerates your presence long enough to actually allow you to stick your penis in them?
     
  17. RodneyDale

    RodneyDale New Member

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  18. RunAwayScientist

    RunAwayScientist Member

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    To purely speculate, I doubt early homo sapien communities were organized enough to purposely and deliberately starve out neanderthals in communion. I think more environmental, chance, and socially isolative functions might have had an effective impact. Basically what you said, except I wouldn't necessarily compare their extinction to the situation of 19-20th century Native Americans, which was more of an unnatural occurrence.
     
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