OT: Frank and Dave's Philosophical Kebab Emporium

I suspect that cats know what a pointing-finger is but ignore them. God made them smug, lazy bastards.

 

why?

And killer whales are awesome. I went swimming with dolphins some years back in The Bay of Islands in NZ. Fascinating lady there running it, a marine biologist called Ingrid Vasser (I think). She's been on Discovery talking about orchas (which are a big type of dolphin, despite the name) a few times.

The main thing is that the females can regulate their ovum to an extent that they can only get pregnant if and when they wish to do so, and choose to have sex purely for pleasure, just like the males; and the females, like ours, live long after the menopause. The reason seems to be that the matriarchs are the teachers, of hunting skills, social behaviours and so forth.

Inquisitive, curious, communicative, intelligent and undoubtedly problem-solving (did anyone see how they ganged-up to force a bow wave to knock that unfortunate seal off an ice flow so that they could eat the poor bugger?), and one of the few creature to recognise their own image in mirrors (self awareness?). The point is, when we do eventually find life on other planets I wonder if it's just the norm to find that some creatures 'inevitably' become sentient? And another thing - if we do find intelligent life (or it finds us) and they worship a god too, does that signify that sentient beings have a spiritual need, or are we simply programmed (by God?) to search for answers and understanding?

I don't know.

 

Do you believe the earth is six thousand years old?

But listen. without me resorting to ridicule and exasperation can I seriously ask you this: why did God start off with single-cell organisms a billion years ago, evolving through complex-life structures through millions of years with some species becoming extinct and so forth, when we were the purpose and, being omnipotent, he could have made us straight off in the beginning? As the late, great Bill Hicks said, is he just 'testing' us by burying dinosaur bones and fossils about the place?

God's ways may indeed be mysterious, but we're not even that biologically complex compared to some other life forms on this planet, so it can't be argued that he was building up to us or something.

Edit: btw, is anyone suggesting homo sapiens evolved from Neanderthals? News to me. Some speculate there may have been interbreeding, but dna and fossil evidence suggests a common simian ancestor, not one ape evolved from the other.

 

Without having to bring up pictures of the Aliens dude from discovery......

What would happen if Aliens did come here? Can you imagine the religions, hell maybe even the science people. But then again, Space, the planets, milky way, etc is ****ing massive!

 

DD why do you kep tring to evoke responses that merely help you sustain your own misunderstanding - be that deliberate or not?

Now JB will answer for himself within his own terms of understanding so I will try not to impinge upon that.

Now you either believe that God exists and is omnipotent or you don't. It's as simple as that essentially. If you do believe then how or why God made the decisions that He did is his province and not necessarily mine. In the great scheme of things the minuscule amount of 'facts' that science has so far managed to gather leaves understanding rather precariously balanced on the scale of probabilities. If that's too flowery for you then - you are making great assumptions on the back of 'facts' that tomorrow you may well dish in favour of other shards of 'fact' that are suddenly found!

I certainly don't need the words of a second rate comedian and third rate musician to help build my 'case' with or without resorting to ridicule so I would aprreciate the same respect. Enquiry however is always to be welcomed provided that it is not truly open and honest.

 

#406

 

Yes, we're obviously closely related - so close that we could interbreed, like lions and tigers - and we share a close ancestory, but we're not evolved from them.

 

Should I quote the Vatican's own scientific officer who said that creationism and intelligent design were nonsense?

http://www.theguardian.com/science/2010/sep/17/pope-astronomer-baptise-aliens

 

Aliens would be no different from us, in the sense that they would be highly evolved animals, merely from a different world and evolution. Their appearance in the stone age could possibly give rise to the belief that they were gods, but surely we know enough now to recognise that a technology way ahead of ours is still a technology, and not magic.

 

This is worse than the cricket thread

 

It's not that bad.

 

Don't be bloody silly.

 

It's on par with The Growth being a philosophical wart of a thread.

 

As you would probably struggle with intellect of a wart then I can understand your misunderstanding

 

In response to your emboldened comments:

1) Then you would be better advised asking your questions openly and without the sarcasm as you would then evoke a far more open response.

2) Resorting to your favoured concept of logic, why would anybody want to believe in a God who was not omnipotent?

3) my response was open and truthful. If you wish me to use your illustration then I would say something along the lines of "Because God meant it to be that way"

4) You may prefer things to be as you want them to but that may not be the truth. Science told us the world was flat, we now know that they were wrong but it didn't stop the scientists from proclaiming it to be true for a very long time indeed! You can take any biblical story and look at what it is trying to achieve in a multifaceted way - rather like your caveman reference. I therefore suggest that you try and consider some of them as parables - it may then enlighten you.

Personally, I do not care what any apparatchik of the Vatican has to say. If you had read my earlier comments then you would know that I stem from the Protestant tradition and I am therefore unlikely to subscribe to Vatican dogma. I suggest you refer that point to JB.

 

Australia win the toss and elect to bat in Cape town v South Africa.

Coming to the end of the first day they are 331 for 3.

 

Frank - I have a simplistic way of looking at things so excuse my lack of scientific language and specific knowledge. To me humans operate at a different level to animals. What you call a 'conscious decision' I call a learned behaviour. What you call HOT I call moral responsibility. It seems wrong ascribing human traits, such as empathy, to what is essentially animal instinct. Even the mirror test for self awareness has been passed by robots, does that mean robots have independent consciousness?

How does science explain human intuition/sixth sense?

 

that will be some weird neurology thing wont it, ie dif parts of the brain being used for dif purposes, some can use certain parts of your brain better than others.

watched stan superhuman programme once, and they had some japanese bloke who could cut a pellet fired from a gun, and the normal person wouldn't have had time to register the thing being fired that alone react before it went past them, and he can use a certain part of the brain quicker than everyone else seems to be capable of.

 

The unconscious mind, believe it or not, is faster than the conscious mind. Try reading Blink by Malcolm Gladwell, it may help your insight.

 

Science doesn't pretend to know everything, it's continually searching for answers.