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romansh

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Everything posted by romansh

  1. And in part, I am responding to your optimistic nihilism exploration. No free will, for me, is coherent with what is described as optimistic nihilism. I think in both philosophies suggest much of what we encounter can be labelled "not as it seems" or illusory. Including the "you" and "I" that may or may not believe in free will. I think we might be a little circumspect about things labelled as meaningful, purposeful and mattering.
  2. If you argued there is no intrinsic "me" then I might agree with 'you'. I don't influence my influences, but my influences are influenced. I am not claiming anything "matters". Saying something matters is like saying a stop light is red. Useful up to a point but philosophically "inaccurate". Like Carl Sagan said "We are a way for the cosmos to know itself," I might quibble over the word "know", but I agree with the sentiment.
  3. Do you believe in cause and effect? Many people and events have influenced me. These influences have shaped me. In turn, I am a shaping cause for other bits of the unfolding.
  4. I don't think this follows. The universe unfolding and all that.
  5. I have not read the whole thread but picked up on Joseph's quote. As a fairly devout agnostic, ignorance is not a problem but a way of life.
  6. Back from my travels yesterday. I broadly agree with what you say above, not keen on the label, but that is roughly where I am. Fundamental particles have certain attractions or affinities, or perhaps repulsions. People are pretty much the same but very much more complicated; we give names to these complications as you have mentioned: hobbies, lifestyles, careers, fulfillment, dislikes, war, etc.
  7. Yesterday I was in Adelaide seeing a friend I had not seen in thirty years. Today walking the streets of Fremantle with a friend I last saw sixteen years ago.
  8. Quite often people have asked does it matter if free will exists or not. And for me, the answer is a very definite perhaps. Recently, the Nobel prize for physics was awarded where a particular aspect (locality versus non-locality) was awarded for experiments with entangled photons, establishing the violation of Bell inequalities and pioneering quantum information science jointly to Alain Aspect, John F. Clauser and Anton Zeilinger. Also, there was a recent Nature editorial perpetuating a misconception and a (one page) rebuttal article was written. The conclusion can be taken as: Contrary to what is often stated, these observations do not demonstrate that “spooky action at a distance” is real and nature therefore non-local. Rather, the observations show that if nature is local, then statistical independence must be violated. Interestingly, whether we think we have free will or not affects the interpretation of how the universe ticks. Does this matter? Does anything matter?
  9. Yeah ... I checked with my wife's facebook ... don't get the full Monty so to speak.
  10. The "problem" of why? is that it has two broad meanings. It can mean how does something happen, eg why are the north and south poles of magnets attracted to one another? Feynman has a brilliant youtube answering this type of why? The other is what is the purpose? ... I am sure you Buddhists will have some sage words when it comes to purpose. Disagree strongly with Keats.
  11. It's there a few posts down ... It starts with John1:12-13.
  12. Campbell ... where West meets East ...
  13. Does this work? Gus Lott | Facebook
  14. Content not available? The link works for me?
  15. I think Gus has interesting interpretations. Gus Lott - John 1:12-13, "But to all who received him, who... | Facebook
  16. If we go to my Rex Weyler link, where Weyler used his journalistic skills and quoted everything that could be reasonably (in his opinion) ascribed to Jesus, then there is nothing apocalyptic in those 27 lines or so. If he accepted that there was evil then why are told not to judge? Divvying things into good and evil is judging.
  17. Filched from Ogdin's facebook page Yes, the apocalypse does seem in contradiction with the "kingdom is already present".
  18. And this brings me back to my mantra. What reasons do we have to try and decipher the interpretations of scribes years after the death of a mystic Jew, where these scribes may or may not have had a good handle on where Jesus was going with all this? This brings me also to the work of Weyler who used his journalistic talents to ascertain what Jesus might have said. Here are a few lines grouped by topic: Otherwise, avoid rules and follow the truth you discover yourself. Act from awareness, not habit or convention. Don’t blindly repeat rituals. Don’t trust those with spiritual pretensions. Question those who presume to speak for God. Discover the truth for yourself! Look around and try and work out how the universe ticks.
  19. @Ogdin did not say Qumran was not an Essene community. To me says the opposite. We are 'here' because: It has been postulated that Jesus was a determinist like the Essenes. Jesus's teachings are at odds with Pharisaic and Sadducaical teachings. Some scholars think John the Baptist was an Essene. If Jesus did not believe in 'free will' then that puts a different light on much that goes on in the texts. Just as an aside here is a bit from ChatGPT ... These other scholars tend not to be modern per se.
  20. [124] They have no one certain city, but many of them dwell in every city; and if any of their sect come from other places, what they have lies open for them, just as if it were their own; and they go in to such as they never knew before, as if they had been ever so long acquainted with them. For which reason they carry nothing at all with them when they travel into remote parts, though still they take their weapons with them, for fear of thieves. Accordingly, there is, in every city where they live, one appointed particularly to take care of strangers, and to provide garments and other necessaries for them. But the habit and management of their bodies is such as children use who are in fear of their masters. Nor do they allow of the change of or of shoes till be first torn to pieces, or worn out by time. Nor do they either buy or sell any thing to one another; but every one of them gives what he hath to him that wanteth it, and receives from him again in lieu of it what may be convenient for himself; and although there be no requital made, they are fully allowed to take what they want of whomsoever they please. Flavius Josephus. The Works of Flavius Josephus. Translated by. William Whiston, A.M. Auburn and Buffalo. John E. Beardsley. 1895. Tufts University provided support for entering this text. a link here
  21. I pointed this passage out. The reply: I don’t know why some scholars equate essenes with the dead sea community. Josephus talks about them being in every city, not isolated in the desert. He talks about their communal living in wats that are very similar to the stuff in various parts of the New Testament.
  22. While dualism may well have been typical of the time, was Jesus typical of Jewish tradition? He may well have been apocalyptic, but that does not rule out other flavours as well. The above is a quote from Dr Lott that I filched from Facebook. Who happens to have posted on this site that the Admin and mods have somehow neglected to welcome. What does Bart say about Jesus and Essene?
  23. Paul ... your reply seems to indicate that Jesus somehow believed we had free will and that god will take control at some point. Who or what did Jesus think was in control during his time?
  24. While what Jesus thought what we need saving from is an interesting question, what we think we need saving from would be far more interesting. There is some evidence that Jesus was an Essene, a Jewish sect who were determinists ... and by implication that did not believe in free will. This apparently was why Jesus kept butting heads with Pharisees, a sect that did believe in free will. So if, Jesus thought we did not have free will, it makes being saved an interesting concept. If anyone needs more info on this, PM @Ogdin or take a look at Dr Lott's youtube in the free will thread.
  25. And the third in this particular series Christianity 101: Does Jesus Save Us? | PlainSpeech with Philip Gulley And his salient point: This is my take on it: The salvation of man is through understanding and in understanding I'm not sure salvation is the right word either. What is there to be saved?
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