The Truth (As I see it)

Who dare insult Zanza? He's the closest thing to god in a 50 mile radius of any hooker.

 

You're being trolled, guys. Agreeing or disagreeing with Xyle is impossible, because he is rarely coherent, and when he is, he contradicts himself. You're arguing with a literate Charles BHoff.

 

QFT. Also, I can't add anything to the discussion that won't be considered pointless, so I thought I'd drop a meme.

 

I agree with all the madmen.

You know who you are.

 

I'm well up for changing my mind! I'll definitely go for it if I can!

 

That's another thing that the religious camp never understand. As scientists, we ARE open to changing our position on basically everything. All you need to do is produce a theory that explains some phenomenon better than existing theories.

The difficulty is that most phenomena are already comprehensively covered, so any new theory is likely to be a refinement of an existing one, rather than something completely different. e.g. Einstein's equations end up looking exactly like Newton's equations at slow speeds. Gould's punctuated equilibrium is still based on Darwinian selection mechanics, etc. Any creation theory hoping to usurp evolution, for example, would have to explain the progression of fossils, the commonality of DNA, and the absence of an obvious cut-off point, BETTER than our current theories. And seeing as how evolution has already done that to creationism, it seems unlikely. It's rare for a long-discredited theory to suddenly have turned out to have been right all along. If something does displace evolution, it will probably be something never heard of before.

That's why religious people have to take the position that "science isn't a very good way of finding things out". Which is ridiculous, since most of the religious people alive today wouldn't have survived to adulthood without the discoveries and innovations of scientists.

 

Thought I'd have a nice read of the Bible, seeing as I'm into changing my mind and all that (in reality, I was really just watching 'It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia'), and I'm starting to see the sense of some of the stuff! For example:

 

I'm a troll?

I have looked up the word and my understanding is that a troll desires an emotional response. IF this is true, then emotional responses that I am getting are not the emotional responses that I desire, so why am I still posting?

In truth, I desire an intelluctual response which Smuelissimo is the only one who is providing me with such. And my incoherency and contradictions are what I am try to resolve and eliminate.

So with much gratitude, I thank Smuelissimo for treating me like an intelluctual being. Your responses have been wholly welcomed even when I disagree with them. And the only emotional response I desire is Smuelissimo's heart feeling warmed by my gratitude, though with him being an INTJ (or so I perceive), I doubt he will feel my thanks.

 

I'd give you a good response if I knew enough about the bible or anything else to make what I say matter. I feel rather ineffective as of late. I need to learn more to give my comments depth. I could go on and on about soapstone, but that would only serve to muddy up the waters with talc dust.

 

I'd give a good response if I wasn't such an asshole! Sadly, I am; but this doesn't take away from the fact that all your arguments are invalid; so who's the real psychotic here!? In all seriousness though, I don't feel that you deserve to be treated like an intellectual being, since you're not acting like one, insofar as anything that you do address is something weak or ambiguous, and even then I don't find any response you give to be in any way satisfactory, and in most cases, you're actually simply talking nonsense by introducing fallacies and not checking facts; and any stronger arguments levelled against you, or difficult questions that have been addressed to you, have been, for the most part, ignored. You're intellectual honesty is contemptible, and you're a hypocrite.

 

I thought the Bible was your word Gross.

 

It's not right of me to claim to be God. I get those delusions when I mix my medications with cannabis. Since I have isolated the cause, I can claim responsibility for the effect. I don't know what I am, but I definitely don't have any special powers that set me apart from everyone else. Other people I know have precognitive dreams, I'm not the only one who sees the future. I'm just going to live my life, love the people I care for, and even those I don't. I'll be a humble pipe maker. Still, there are things I experience that I can't explain. For example, twice now while meditating I've witnessed tiny feathers falling around me. Fully formed flight feathers, but only millimeters across. White. I'd say they were down from my comforter, but down feathers don't look like that.

 

Man, you crazy...

 

Alright, keep saying it. But I dare you to tell me I'm not experiencing these things.

 

Being intellectual isn't the only kind of wisdom.

The Bagavad Gita describes emotional and physical discipline as equally valid for enlightened happiness.

Therefore someone who is deeply devoted to Jesus, or one who keeps their breath and posture calm and relaxed, can be said to have wisdom and truth even when their debate is pure nonsense.

This isn't exactly knowledge per se but it counts as truth. Cats and dogs are great karma and bhakti yogi respectively, but they wouldn't count as jnana yogi in a serious debate.

 

You're not experiencing these things Gross.

 

onder:

 

Actually I'm on the border between INTJ and INFJ. So good call. And yeah, it's nice that you say nice things about me, but in order to maintain street cred around here I have to pretend I don't care about your opinion.

I hope I've at least made you think less negatively about science and those who conduct it.

I don't doubt that you are, but just because you are experiencing them, it doesn't mean they are happening. e.g. You may occasionally PERCEIVE tiny feathers falling all around you like an Aeris Limit Break, but it doesn't mean there actually ARE tiny feathers falling all around you. I would have thought you'd been on enough drug-induced trips to know that the mind can play tricks like that.

Wisdom is not the same thing as happiness or existential contentedness. No doubt meditation is probably a better path to those things than working out the naturalistic phenomena behind them. But just because yogis manage to attain a desirable state of mind, it doesn't mean they are privy to great secrets of the universe that elude the rest of us. Really, the two are entirely unrelated, and if it so happens that some sections of eastern philosophical texts sound a lot like modern scientific discoveries, it's much more likely to be a coincidence than because the authors had any kind of mystical insight into the subjects. I expect they were dead wrong about a lot of things too.

 

Well, considering I always lose the feathers, I guess it's not really happening. At least they bring me peace.