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> It is always nothing Classic atheistic arrogance here. Our understanding of the brain may be transformed, but had it occurred to you that when you dissect th

by b800h 4y ago

> It is always nothing Classic atheistic arrogance here. Our understanding of the brain may be transformed, but had it occurred to you that when you dissect things you begin to miss the wood for the trees? Nihilism is more absurd than any religion.

ly3xqhl8g9 4y ago
Classic argument to obscurantism. I am not even a nihilist, but sure, after nihilism will destroy the lives of people for 2,000+ years, I will agree that it's more absurd than any religion. So far, the great religions of the world, Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, needed thousands of years to realize that slavery is not really a great idea, and some are not yet convinced, but are pressured by those dissecting atheists to repress their true nature: oppress, admonish, control. And to think you can't appreciate the beauty of the world just because you understand it, it's simply mind-boggling. Given how much I appreciate a computer program about which I know every nook and cranny because I developed it from an empty text file, I would venture to say: only if you fully understand something you can start to appreciate its beauty, start to be responsible for its future. (Also, the expression "it is always nothing" is full of poetic vim given how atoms are mostly empty space and how the universe itself is mostly empty space—unfathomable voids sprinkled with galactic filaments [1]) [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galaxy_filament#/media/File:Nearsc.gif https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galaxy_filament#/media/File:Ne...
- b800h 4y ago
  > given how atoms are mostly empty space and how the universe itself is mostly empty space Are they? You've forgotten the wave/particle duality, which is appropriate, because it's analogous to the broader argument. There are (at least) two ways of understanding reality. One is done wth science and analysis, the other isn't. One can be broken down into "things", the other features conglomerates of those things. Just saying "well microscopy and deconstruction don't work on this, so it doesn't exist" is literally absurd. The rest of your comment there is just a strawman.
  - ly3xqhl8g9 4y ago
    "Atomic nuclei consist of electrically positive protons and electrically neutral neutrons. These are held together by the strongest known fundamental force, called the strong force. The nucleus makes up much less than .01% of the volume of the atom, but typically contains more than 99.9% of the mass of the atom." [1] No need for the wave-particle duality. Not sure where the straw man is. Doesn't Buddhism use "karma" to justify slavery?, doesn't Hinduism use the caste system as in a MMORPG?, didn't Christians use Apostle Paul’s Epistle to the Ephesians, VI, 5-7 "Servants, be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh" to justify slavery?, doesn't Islam treat 50%+ of the world population as property (although women are viewed as property in most religions)? and so on. If I were to use the software of a robotic arm that sometimes does what I ask of it, but sometimes beats me to a pulp, I wouldn't call that software as well designed, and I would stop using it at all. In just the same manner, religions were badly designed, they are codifications of behaviour made by people who didn't even know they were on a planet after all, so it's understandable, pitiable in the final instance (and the modern religions are just ridiculous parodies, from Mormonism to the Unification Church, when not downright murderous cults, from Theosophists to NXIVM). I am not sorry to hurt your sensibilities, you are free to have whatever beliefs and religion you like, but just don't tell me about the Sky Daddy while using machines which were born from the collective sweat and genius of the humankind, machines for which most of their inventors would have been killed by various religions across times (putting aside that the bigotry risen from religion killed Alan Turing). No, there are no two ways or more of understanding reality. We can build for ourselves whatever framework we need to encompass all and everything (even if the final framework will be somewhat self-contradictory as in the wave-particle duality), from the femtosecond event happening in a hadron collider to the trillions and trillions of future years which await the universe. But it is us, humans, tailless primates, conscious agents, and our tools who are doing the understanding. Nothing more, nothing less. [1] https://www.energy.gov/science/doe-explainsnuclei#:~:text=Atomic%20nuclei%20consist%20of%20electrically,the%20mass%20of%20the%20atom https://www.energy.gov/science/doe-explainsnuclei#:~:text=At....
    - b800h 4y ago
      Strong recommend: https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/863971 https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/863971

by b800h 4y ago

ly3xqhl8g9 4y ago

Classic argument to obscurantism. I am not even a nihilist, but sure, after nihilism will destroy the lives of people for 2,000+ years, I will agree that it's more absurd than any religion. So far, the great religions of the world, Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, needed thousands of years to realize that slavery is not really a great idea, and some are not yet convinced, but are pressured by those dissecting atheists to repress their true nature: oppress, admonish, control. And to think you can't appreciate the beauty of the world just because you understand it, it's simply mind-boggling. Given how much I appreciate a computer program about which I know every nook and cranny because I developed it from an empty text file, I would venture to say: only if you fully understand something you can start to appreciate its beauty, start to be responsible for its future. (Also, the expression "it is always nothing" is full of poetic vim given how atoms are mostly empty space and how the universe itself is mostly empty space—unfathomable voids sprinkled with galactic filaments [1]) [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galaxy_filament#/media/File:Nearsc.gif https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galaxy_filament#/media/File:Ne...

b800h 4y ago
> given how atoms are mostly empty space and how the universe itself is mostly empty space Are they? You've forgotten the wave/particle duality, which is appropriate, because it's analogous to the broader argument. There are (at least) two ways of understanding reality. One is done wth science and analysis, the other isn't. One can be broken down into "things", the other features conglomerates of those things. Just saying "well microscopy and deconstruction don't work on this, so it doesn't exist" is literally absurd. The rest of your comment there is just a strawman.
- ly3xqhl8g9 4y ago
  "Atomic nuclei consist of electrically positive protons and electrically neutral neutrons. These are held together by the strongest known fundamental force, called the strong force. The nucleus makes up much less than .01% of the volume of the atom, but typically contains more than 99.9% of the mass of the atom." [1] No need for the wave-particle duality. Not sure where the straw man is. Doesn't Buddhism use "karma" to justify slavery?, doesn't Hinduism use the caste system as in a MMORPG?, didn't Christians use Apostle Paul’s Epistle to the Ephesians, VI, 5-7 "Servants, be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh" to justify slavery?, doesn't Islam treat 50%+ of the world population as property (although women are viewed as property in most religions)? and so on. If I were to use the software of a robotic arm that sometimes does what I ask of it, but sometimes beats me to a pulp, I wouldn't call that software as well designed, and I would stop using it at all. In just the same manner, religions were badly designed, they are codifications of behaviour made by people who didn't even know they were on a planet after all, so it's understandable, pitiable in the final instance (and the modern religions are just ridiculous parodies, from Mormonism to the Unification Church, when not downright murderous cults, from Theosophists to NXIVM). I am not sorry to hurt your sensibilities, you are free to have whatever beliefs and religion you like, but just don't tell me about the Sky Daddy while using machines which were born from the collective sweat and genius of the humankind, machines for which most of their inventors would have been killed by various religions across times (putting aside that the bigotry risen from religion killed Alan Turing). No, there are no two ways or more of understanding reality. We can build for ourselves whatever framework we need to encompass all and everything (even if the final framework will be somewhat self-contradictory as in the wave-particle duality), from the femtosecond event happening in a hadron collider to the trillions and trillions of future years which await the universe. But it is us, humans, tailless primates, conscious agents, and our tools who are doing the understanding. Nothing more, nothing less. [1] https://www.energy.gov/science/doe-explainsnuclei#:~:text=Atomic%20nuclei%20consist%20of%20electrically,the%20mass%20of%20the%20atom https://www.energy.gov/science/doe-explainsnuclei#:~:text=At....
  - b800h 4y ago
    Strong recommend: https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/863971 https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/863971