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Theme Changer

 Topic: Hi from on the fence muslim

 (Read 97687 times)
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  • Re: Hi from on the fence muslim
     Reply #690 - February 13, 2011, 11:18 PM

    Any comments from debunker on this previous piece about the soul?

    Quote from: debunker
    ok, let's rename it as: the non-physical "thing" in us that would explain our experiencing being alive


    Quote from: Sobieski
    Soul is a concept invented by polytheist infidels (read "Greeks", or if not Greeks then whoever they stole it from); how does that square with the purity of Islam? And furthermore, we experience being alive not because of a "non-physical thing", but as isLame said, because of the brain. There's nothing non-physical about it. That's why anesthesia works among other things.

  • Re: Hi from on the fence muslim
     Reply #691 - February 13, 2011, 11:32 PM


    @Sobieski

    I simply hate to put the burden of explaining the misunderstanding on debunker. There is nothing in the text that says he did not start the blessings and measuring (4 days) from the beginning of earths' creation (2 days). Then 7 heavens (2 days). There simply is no contradiction. It can easily be 6 days. Every authoritative interpretation assumes that total is 6 days. It is not a convincing contradiction to someone who assumes that the words are from infallible creator. But it's up to you...

    The only possible textual contradiction I would see here is with a previously quoted verse where for God to create something he can simply say 'be'. So instead of saying 'be' which takes a human fraction of a second God decided to take his time - 6 days, or even more if days are understood as periods of time. There are scientific contradictions as to proportion of age of universe and age of earth, but that could be put in the above mentioned corner for example...

    "That it is indeed the speech of an illustrious messenger" (The Koran 69:40)
  • Re: Hi from on the fence muslim
     Reply #692 - February 14, 2011, 05:15 AM

    @debunker

    Coming back to the concept of a soul, I am becoming sure that this is another feeble attempt by the religious at filling in the gaps and justifying heaven & hell.  After all we know what happens when our bodies die, we see where they  go (underground) & what becomes of them (worm food).  So what do they say invent, the concept of an invisible soul that gets punished/rewarded after death.

    I say concept, because I have yet to hear any attempt at giving it any shape or structure, which would enable us to start investigating it.  We know that when a the brain dies, our conciousness dies too.  How can this be when you claim its our spirit that gives rise to conciousness? 


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  • Re: Hi from on the fence muslim
     Reply #693 - February 14, 2011, 12:09 PM

    @ Sobeiski

    You have this tendency of restating the same things I already addressed. For example you said:
    Quote
    Well you keep a pretty damning thing in that corner, that the guide to all mankind fails miserably (100%) to explain how nature works. Is that a wise thing to do? If you would find out your financial adviser is an embezzler, would you keep that in the corner too?

    when I have already explained to you that putting it in this context doesn’t change my position.

    Quote
    Mars is rock just like Earth, so it would have sounded in the same limited way. What is your point then?

    If you didn’t get it the first time, then there’s no point of repeating it.

    Quote
    Actually I never use these terms, because the need for using them never arises. Nowadays I use the clock system if I want to refer to a point in time - and I'm not being sarcastic here. If I'd really want to refer to those events/periods, I could say "dawn" and "dusk", but yes, I could use "sunrise" and "sunset" just as well. Mainly because I don't have the mission of writing a guide to all mankind, a guide that wants to impress unto the reader that it is not the work of a limited being.

    Ok, I’m going to explain this to you once and only once: yes, God is unlimited, but that doesn’t necessarily mean He shouldn’t speak our language. In fact, there’s no point of speaking to us in His language, because its beyond us anyway.

    Quote
    You believe that? Based on what? Lack of faith in Mo's belief capabilities? Lack of persuasion capabilities on Mo's part toward fellow Arabs? Is it more easy to believe the sun sets in a pool of murky water? If you like to speculate in this way, I could also speculate that IF they wouldn't have believed that, "Allah" could have performed miracles before them, and tell them to believe it. Or "Allah" could have destroyed them for their disbelief and throw them into hell (like he threatens all over the place in the Quran to do), then he would have approached other primitive people more open to suggestions. Why didn't you choose to believe these alternatives? Because you'd like Islam to be true?

    Sorry, Sobeiski, but I have to say that 1- your style is patronizing 2- it is especially annoying given that you don’t seem like the bright guy you fancy yourself to be, at all!
    Now, you chose to neglect the fact that explaining nature to man was not the goal of that book, and that adding more obstacles to delivering a message (that has nothing to do with science) isn’t exactly helpful. Yes, you can speculate all sorts of things, including God actually creating us with an inability to stray, and thus there’s really no point of any of that.

    The Meccans could or could not have believed in (supernatural) miracles, to force them to believe in a natural phenomena that 100% goes against their own daily observations. A relevant miracle would be if God took the Meccans to outer space, and shown them the Earth from the moon, for example. Yeah, that could have worked, I guess. (of course, such a miracle would have to be perpetually repeated for everyone, beyond Mecca, until modern times where everyone accepts earth's spinning as an established scientifc fact OR the Quran simply didn't have to mention an irrelevant fact with all such potential trouble).  Best yet, God could have shown Himself to Meccans and to all humanity for all time.

    Oh, btw, the sun setting in murky water point is entirely irrelevant (after all, isn’t this “supposedly” what the author of the Quran believed, being from that age?)

    Quote
    As for the "without the guarantee of impressing anyone from the future" part, maybe you're not familiar with people converting to Islam because of the "scientific miracles", and people falling from Islam because of their falseness. They *do* have the guarantee of impressing people from future.

     
    Really? The Bible says the earth is a ball hanging on nothing (and this is a REAL scientific miracle in the Bible). Why don’t you believe in the Bible? Because there’s no guarantees that even this would make anyone believe this was revealed by God. (in case you don’t know already, I don’t believe there are any scientific miracles in the Quran – these are all lies).  

    Quote
    Well first, the verse I presented says nothing about it being something to thank God for.
    Second, it *does* mean the earth cannot be a globe, since a "bed" is never a globe. The only reason you're saying it "doesn’t necessarily mean the earth cannot be a globe" is that the alternative is not palatable to you. The context shows clearly "Allah" speaks from a cosmic perspective here about his creation, the creation of a whole planet, not the creation of a path. The thing that betrays the author is not an out-of-this-world being is that this author has the limited perspective a primitive man on earth would have.

    I already told you elsewhere that preaching to people from another religion is a bad idea and here you are still preaching to me. Do you know how many verses talking about the flatness of the earth are there? Many of them mention this flatness as if it is something to thank God for. Here’s one example:

    20:53
    Who has made earth for you like a bed (spread out); and has opened roads (ways and paths etc.) for you therein; and has sent down water (rain) from the sky. And We have brought forth with it various kinds of vegetation.

    Hmmm? Why would I want to count the “flatness” of the earth, as a blessing? What would the earth be if not flat? Hilly all over? Possibly.

    And no, *bed* doesn’t necessarily mean anything beyond a description of the flatness of the earth. Besides, the Arabic word (Mahd = bed) is really derived from the word “flat” (a bed is flat or even and that’s why bed is called Mahd in Arabic).

    Quote
    That's a shame. Let's go through just one more. Quoting from isLame's (I think) list, here's the 1st one:

    Quran 41:9-12 teaches that it took God 8 days to complete his creation, while Quran 7:54, 10:03 and 11:07 say it took 6 days.

    Here you are again, acting as if you didn’t understand what I told you in a previous post. I do NOT care to do this with you (or anyone else). I’m not going to go through the endless list of supposed errors in the Quran. You think there are many errors, fine, but I’m not going to discuss them with you.

    Quote
    Why is that the worst, I say it's the best. There is empiric evidence for it, so what's the problem. JWs have a favorite (but valid) question for doubters, that works here too: would you drink a glass of water knowing 1% of it is poison? Hey, 99% is clear water, right?

    *rolling eyes* I know a Christian who believes the Bible is heavily corrupted but he still believes the Bible is originally revealed by God. He follows his heart on what bits of the Bible to believe and what to reject.  And that poisoned water example is irrelevant.

    Quote
    Then you were playing with me previously. I asked you "So you agree that you are rejecting reality, that the Quran contains indeed contradictions?" and you replied "No, I agree to the *possibility* of contradictions but that doesn't necessarily mean that there are contradictions."

    So do you admit now that you are rejecting reality, something you complained about when it comes to the Shia?

    I won’t perpetually re-explain myself to you.

    Quote
    So you believe you owe your "soul" to "Allah" because he created your soul, and you believe he created your soul because you start with a premise? Why don't you start with hard facts? Why do you prefer to start with *this* premise? And how do you know this premise is correct, what are your hard facts and proofs?

    Ok, I didn’t explain this to you before. But to me, a God who is not the creator of absolutely everything and in control of absolutely everything and is absolutely limitless is not a God. So anything other than starting with that premise means that God doesn’t exist (at least not to me) and thus we don’t have to discuss why I owe my soul to an entity, that to me, doesn’t exist. Capiche?

    Quote
    Any comments from debunker on this previous piece about the soul?

    No, and in fact I don’t care to discuss anything related to religion with you again. (you can always pat yourself on the back and assume that this means that you got to me and I’m now scared shitless of your de-conversion tactics, but the reality is I just find that talking to you is a bit too tedious).

    Regards.

    A googolplex is *precisely* as far from infinity as is the number 1.--Carl Sagan
  • Re: Hi from on the fence muslim
     Reply #694 - February 14, 2011, 12:09 PM

    @ Alex

    Quote
    Despite your interpretation of what is the Koran, the book itself states that it is a guidance for mankind, all of it's verses should be believed in, thus when it tells you that you should do something, you should do it, otherwise you disrespect the most merciful.

    It is a guidance and a call upon men to heed the central message: worship the Creator and no one else. I’m not saying that there are no other commands, but my point to Kenan was that, unlike what he was suggesting, following a certain code of conduct isn’t the entire message of the Quran, but in fact a marginal one. Man is saved by God’s grace, not by works. Believing this is essential to be saved, yet that doesn’t mean that works aren’t important at all.

    Quote
    Jihad is obligatory to you (and you know it?). Show me how you interpret jihad, with the help of the Koran, as anything but a physical fight against unbelievers.

    I said this elsewhere on this forum. Jihad, in the entire Quran, was in self defense, except in one verse (where it was an offensive Jihad). Anyway, the answer is yes, I believe Muslims (or non Muslims) must defend themselves when attacked.

    Quote
    Those who lived in times of Muhammad, would have had to understand orders about not being noisy around Muhammad as a practical advice. You clearly can not do that and I am willing to accept your invented interpretation about it's purpose these days.

    OK.

    Quote
    What about all other practical advice/commandments: inheritance, praying, communal praying, fasting, hajj, jihad, which friends to take, charity, wife beating, whom to obey (politics: human rulers/sultans/amirs), law (fatwas, shari'a)?

     
    First of all, how about we separate between commands of worship, and other commands? Worship is a necessary condition of submission to God. Being unable to heed His commandments in other issues are a different thing altogeather. Surely, you must understand, as an ex-Muslim, that choosing not to fast, for example, is on a whole different level, than doing all the required worship, yet drinking, for example.

    Now, friends to take? The Quran says on this issue only one thing: you cannot befriend only those who fight Muslims and kick them out of their homes. Well, guess what? I can live with that.

    Wife beating? I discussed this before elsewhere and I don’t care to repeat myself. But no, wife beating is unacceptable under any conditions. (I’m not denying that it exists in the Quran, btw, but I reject it, nevertheless).

    Quote
    Do you believe that those are also meant only to know God?

    No. Where did I say that?

    Quote
    If there was a religion that I would follow, I would prefer to be able to do my own tafsir of the holy texts, just like you do. The problem however is, that when you have ummah and practical advice toward other people, the word of God about such issues will be taken as constitution and application of it without an authoritative tafsir is not possible. Will you question a judge? Your president/amir? Are you an anarchist?

    I don’t understand your point exactly, but the answer is no. But I would love to be able to be an anarchist, unfortunately I can’t.

    Quote
    Thus I do see a lot more support in the Koran for the orthodox view that Islam is a complete way of life, regulating personal and communal affairs. Your interpretation that it is some kind of "God's autobiography" does not seem plausible for me at all.

    If by Islam, you mean submission, then yes, the Quran does demand that you submit your entire life to God. If by Islam, you mean following instructions (unrelated to worship), then no, not necessarily. To be more specific, I do NOT believe that all the verses in the Quran are for all time.

    By the way, if you were asked to make a guess as to the percentage of verses in the Quran that include instructions (unrelated to worship), what would your guess be?

    Quote
    This brings me back to the awe inspiring verses of judgement day, afterlife and similar. The book that promises believers to be successful in this life as well as afterlife can not afford the unclear, awe inspiring verses when it fails to give a clear message on practical advice. How do I know it fails? Because observation shows the opposite of its claims to be true: those with the strongest iman tend to be most illiterate, most poor, oppressed, with shortest life expectancy... I think my point is clear. the statement that sun rises in the east may be incorrect scientifically but it does not contradict my observation. Great. However the statement that believers will be successful in this life does contradict observation.

    I’m unaware of this statement (could you show me the verse?) If anything, the Quran emphasizes the afterlife and dismisses this life as a temporary stage of no real importance except as a stepping stone to the next life.

    Quote
    The only possible textual contradiction I would see here is with a previously quoted verse where for God to create something he can simply say 'be'. So instead of saying 'be' which takes a human fraction of a second God decided to take his time - 6 days, or even more if days are understood as periods of time. There are scientific contradictions as to proportion of age of universe and age of earth, but that could be put in the above mentioned corner for example...

    Why is that a contradiction, Sacha? Instead of creating the earth instantly, by saying: let there be life-sustaining earth, God chose to create earth in a process. So what?

    A googolplex is *precisely* as far from infinity as is the number 1.--Carl Sagan
  • Re: Hi from on the fence muslim
     Reply #695 - February 14, 2011, 12:10 PM

    @ Islame

    No, the issue of soul is not why I believe the Quran is the word of God. I believe in the Quran (mainly) because of how it defines the word “God”.

    A googolplex is *precisely* as far from infinity as is the number 1.--Carl Sagan
  • Re: Hi from on the fence muslim
     Reply #696 - February 14, 2011, 12:38 PM

    @debunker

    Quote
    Really? The Bible says the earth is a ball hanging on nothing (and this is a REAL scientific miracle in the Bible)


    What verse is that? Still, I think the Bible has the expanding universe miracle too.  Tongue


    Isaiah 40

    22 He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth,
       and its people are like grasshoppers.
    He stretches out the heavens like a canopy,
       and spreads them out like a tent to live in.


    Job 9

    8 He alone stretches out the heavens
       and treads on the waves of the sea.
  • Re: Hi from on the fence muslim
     Reply #697 - February 14, 2011, 12:47 PM

    @ Islame

    No, the issue of soul is not why I believe the Quran is the word of God. I believe in the Quran (mainly) because of how it defines the word “God”.


    OK - but can you provide a little framework around the concept of the soul, because it seems that you do believe in it over & above the conciousness = senses+brain theory.

    Things like:

    i) its shape
    ii)what its made off,
    iii) where it is
    iv) its properties
    v) can it ever die
    vi) where does it get (or does it need) energy
    vii) where does it come from

    so I can see what you are truly envisioning - ive never heard anyone sane try to explain these things so I have a new theory about it just being a box inside where people put difficult questions/ reasons to justify their faith.  The reason I say this is because it shares the same attributes as God - such as invisibility, no proof etc


    My Book     news002       
    My Blog  pccoffee
  • Re: Hi from on the fence muslim
     Reply #698 - February 14, 2011, 12:56 PM

    had a giant rock the size of mars NOT crash into earth, we wouldnt have the
    atmosphere we have today to support life!  So where in creationalism does it
    DESCRIBE this rock crashing into earth, hence, creating an atmosphere, hence,
    being able to sustain life, so billions of years later we could arrive on the scene?
    Also, what about all the dinasours, and such.  Where did THEIR souls go when they
    died?

    When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us.
    Helen Keller
  • Re: Hi from on the fence muslim
     Reply #699 - February 14, 2011, 01:27 PM

    @debunker

    What verse is that? Still, I think the Bible has the expanding universe miracle too.  Tongue


    Isaiah 40

    22 He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth,
       and its people are like grasshoppers.
    He stretches out the heavens like a canopy,
       and spreads them out like a tent to live in.


    Job 9

    8 He alone stretches out the heavens
       and treads on the waves of the sea.



    the earth being a ball is in Isaiah 40 (the arabic Bible says ball not circle). I don't know where to find "the hanging on nothing" part, but i'm sure i seen it in the book of job.

    it's a nice way to fight off Muslim dawagandists with verses like these from the Bible.

    A googolplex is *precisely* as far from infinity as is the number 1.--Carl Sagan
  • Re: Hi from on the fence muslim
     Reply #700 - February 14, 2011, 01:28 PM

    @ islame

    all i know about the soul is that it's what's responsible for experiencing being alive. I know nothing else.

    said nother away, the soul is the only explanation i find acceptable for the *hard problem of conscienceness*.

    A googolplex is *precisely* as far from infinity as is the number 1.--Carl Sagan
  • Re: Hi from on the fence muslim
     Reply #701 - February 14, 2011, 02:49 PM

    I.e. the 'Soul of the Gaps'.

    Against the ruin of the world, there
    is only one defense: the creative act.

    -- Kenneth Rexroth
  • Re: Hi from on the fence muslim
     Reply #702 - February 14, 2011, 02:51 PM

    ^^ LOL. I had that same phrase in my head when I read debunker's post.

    19:46   <zizo>: hugs could pimp u into sex

    Quote from: yeezevee
    well I am neither ex-Muslim nor absolute 100% Non-Muslim.. I am fucking Zebra

  • Re: Hi from on the fence muslim
     Reply #703 - February 14, 2011, 03:01 PM

    Ha.

    I googled the phrase and came across this:

    http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/neuro-atheism/201012/filling-in-gaps-the-soul

    Quote
    Filling in Gaps with the Soul.
    The soul is also a failed medical hypothesis.

    Published on December 7, 2010

    [snip]

    Imagine you knew nothing of the brain, neuroscience, or mental illness. If you're someone like Bishop Paprocki, don't bother imagining. Now imagine believing a person is born with a soul, the seat of human reason. The soul is a perfect, immaterial little god, capable of the magic we all know as a subjective self, a prime mover in our internal universe. The body may become diseased, and without any understanding of neuroscience, the soul can be thought of as different, impervious to worldly forces.

    One's own impervious, perfect soul feels in control. A psychotic person's soul is neither perfect nor in control. When someone operating within this fantasy meets a woman who hears voices and whose thoughts do not make sense, the soulist framework does not easily allow it. Do the insane refuse the yoke and responsibilities of adulthood? Is she insane through her own volition? Did she commit a sin with a karmic payback, or does she has a faulty soul (if so, is she even human?)? Or, did her perfectly good soul come under possession by another, malicious one? An exorcism is performed when one is firmly committed to the soul fantasy.

    And it is a fantasy only. Science discredited the basis for this position long ago. Just as the mind is the brain's function, mental illness is a brain disease. Of course, there are gaps, but over time neuroscience closes gaps, like our understanding of seizures.

    In the New Testament a reader learns of a surface observation afflicting a child so that "he foams, and gnashes with his teeth, and pines away." Clearly this is a seizure. Just so we're sure, Jesus sees an event, "the spirit tore into him, and he fell on the ground, and wallowed, foaming." It is pleasing to me that Jesus first obtains a history (indicating a medical and not surgical bent), asking the father, "How long is it ago since this came unto him?" The answer is since he was a child, and "oft times it cast him into the fire, and into the waters, to destroy him." After the father begs for help, and only after the father professes a belief in Jesus' divinity, Jesus "rebuked the foul spirit, saying unto him, Thou dumb and deaf spirit, I charge thee, come out of him, and enter no more into him."

    In 1934 an EEG first demonstrated epileptiform spikes. It is now impossible to imagine a "foul spirit" causes epilepsy. I say that again, a spiritual cause of epilepsy was superseded and made obsolete. Paprocki might take comfort that Jesus also saw a brain disease within a soulist framework, but had Jesus understood the electrical data, hidden under the surface, what would he have made of the "foul spirit"? If he cared to know, then he would understand seizures for what they are: abnormal, synchronous nerve cell firings.

    I must hasten to say that it is hardly the fault of Jesus that he took seizures to represent malevolent spirits entering humans. A terrible ignorance was forced on people 2000 years ago. They were not willfully ignorant of their world, the way Paprocki is, but like Paprocki, they based assumptions on limited surface observations: the behaviors of others and their own internal selves.

    Turns out, that doesn't get you very far. Worse, the only water it carries is down dead-end paths.

    Over time these ideas became entrenched, and if they touched on religion, sacrosanct. The idea of the soul was no different. Possessions of a soul were adopted by people who were not as primitive or stupid as Bishop Paprocki. They did not have the benefit of knowing about EEG's, spike waves, and neurophysiology. The soul explained both their minds and their mental conditions, like an epileptic spirit. Time enshrined these surface ideas, now they sit like vestigial golden calves, central to overall religious frameworks.

    So what do we make of the soul as a cause of disease?

    There are many problems with the medical theory of the soul. It is impossible to square the soul with behavioral observations correlated with brain damage, from blindsight to aphasia to neglect, in which the soul seems to break down into non-unified streams. Also, why the soul at all? The soul is only an arbitrary explanation for mental illness, one of many. You could also fill the gap with any other fantasy: mind control, planetary movements, vapors, or magnetic fields. Also, the soul doesn't truly give us a medical hypothesis. The soul only acts as an additional question. If we assume a soul (and there is no reason to do so), then how does a soul come to be diseased? How does one soul come to inhabit another? How can one prevent soul diseases and hostile soul takeovers? So this problem is that the soul just exchanges one problem for other impossible problems, turtles all the way down.

    I'm drawn to the miasma story because in retrospect human error is always refreshingly similar. Ancient doctors knew diseases like cholera were transmittable, but they did not know anything about the bacterium Vibrio cholerae. So one cannot fault them for believing infectious diseases were caused by bad air, or miasma. Miasma as an airborne disease explained a great many data points. It explained why poor people contracted plague and cholera at high rates - they lived in crowded, smelly conditions near stagnant pools of water. It explained why sanitation decreased the spread of infection. But it was false. It put undue importance on human perceptions and did not account for the data below thesurface, teeming with unseen bacteria.

    Like miasma, the soul explains a great deal of data. It gives a name to what we feel: that we are unified little gods, perfect prime movers in our inner universe. It appears as though there is something wrong with a psychotic person's soul, until you consider the data under the surface, like a psychotic's auditory cortex activates when they hear auditory hallucinations. The soul's role in explaining disease has been entirely eclipsed by medicine. Throwbacks like Paprocki aren't only wrong, but shockingly and dangerously wrong: false dogmas do not ease suffering.

    The thought processes are similar and deserves some attention. Positing an exorcism to treat a mental illness and a seizure is possible only without a better understanding. Just as humans used to posit miasma to explain infections, some still posit a soul to explain the mind. In all situations (also including questions about human's and the universe's origin), there is an explanatory gap: how did ____ happen? The gap was initially filled by positing a spiritual solution. We know better regarding epilepsy and germ theory (like global warming, it is only a theory), but gaps exist in mental illness and neuroscience.

    Pre-scientific theories grow in gaps, in some cases entirely uninformed by science. As medicine and neuroscience grow, they displaced the spiritual theory of epilepsy with a better theory. It was better because it was more parsimonious; it squared with both observed surface phenomena and with brain recording: seizures are abnormal electrical discharges from neurons that fire in synchrony. Epilepsy's soul hypothesis was falsified and rightly abandoned, like miasma. The same is happening for all other brain diseases. Where will this leave the soul?


    Against the ruin of the world, there
    is only one defense: the creative act.

    -- Kenneth Rexroth
  • Re: Hi from on the fence muslim
     Reply #704 - February 14, 2011, 03:19 PM

    it's a nice way to fight off Muslim dawagandists with verses like these from the Bible.


    Lol yeah, if they were consistent in their reasoning then they'd all be converting to Judaism.
  • Re: Hi from on the fence muslim
     Reply #705 - February 14, 2011, 04:05 PM

    ^^ LOL. I had that same phrase in my head when I read debunker's post.


    are you talking about this post?
    http://www.councilofexmuslims.com/index.php?topic=14003.msg401945#msg401945

    or are you responding to an argument i never made?

    A googolplex is *precisely* as far from infinity as is the number 1.--Carl Sagan
  • Re: Hi from on the fence muslim
     Reply #706 - February 14, 2011, 04:20 PM

    I.e. the 'Soul of the Gaps'.


    ?

    A googolplex is *precisely* as far from infinity as is the number 1.--Carl Sagan
  • Re: Hi from on the fence muslim
     Reply #707 - February 14, 2011, 04:47 PM

    @ islame

    all i know about the soul is that it's what's responsible for experiencing being alive. I know nothing else.

    said nother away, the soul is the only explanation i find acceptable for the *hard problem of conscienceness*.

    I was responding to that ^^

    Your point was that we don't know how consciousness works, therefore the best explanation is that we have a soul. That line of reasoning is similar to "god of the gaps" arguments, hence the phrase "soul of the gaps" came to mind.

    19:46   <zizo>: hugs could pimp u into sex

    Quote from: yeezevee
    well I am neither ex-Muslim nor absolute 100% Non-Muslim.. I am fucking Zebra

  • Re: Hi from on the fence muslim
     Reply #708 - February 14, 2011, 04:51 PM

    oh, but when it comes to the hard problem of conscienceness, there's only one gap to fill: the hard problem of conscienceness.

    The problem isn't used to justify the concept of the soul or to save the notion of soul. On the other hand, the gaps, in God of the gaps, are used to justify God.

    A googolplex is *precisely* as far from infinity as is the number 1.--Carl Sagan
  • Re: Hi from on the fence muslim
     Reply #709 - February 14, 2011, 04:59 PM

    I don't think debunker is making any claims about the soul.  When it comes to God, it is slightly different.  He is making a lot of positive claims about God without evidence.  But I'm cool with his form of Islam. parrot

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  • Re: Hi from on the fence muslim
     Reply #710 - February 14, 2011, 05:19 PM

    oh, but when it comes to the hard problem of conscienceness, there's only one gap to fill: the hard problem of conscienceness.

    The problem isn't used to justify the concept of the soul or to save the notion of soul. On the other hand, the gaps, in God of the gaps, are used to justify God.

    But could you answer some questions about what the soul is, as this simplistic explanation just seems to be a 'gap-filler' without any explanation about what it is/what you are taking about. 

    I am trying to get my head round it. 

    I know you are not happy with the rationalist explanation, but at least it provides something more than something than invisible & magical, which sounds suspiciously like, as mentioned earlier, soul of the gaps.  Incidentally those gaps are something that you see behind the coined phrase "hard problem of consciousness" when many see no problem whatsoever.

    So tell us a little more about this soul.

    i) its shape
    ii)what its made off,
    iii) where it is
    iv) its properties
    v) can it ever die
    vi) where does it get (or does it need) energy
    vii) where does it come from
    viii) are they subject to the laws of the universe

    (btw is it a coincidence that these questions remind me of ones posed about God?)


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  • Re: Hi from on the fence muslim
     Reply #711 - February 14, 2011, 05:24 PM

    I don't think debunker is making any claims about the soul.  When it comes to God, it is slightly different.  He is making a lot of positive claims about God without evidence.  But I'm cool with his form of Islam. parrot

    He has to believe in a soul, otherwise what goes to the afterlife  Huh?

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  • Re: Hi from on the fence muslim
     Reply #712 - February 14, 2011, 05:34 PM

    So tell us a little more about this soul.

    i) its shape
    ii)what its made off,
    iii) where it is
    iv) its properties
    v) can it ever die
    vi) where does it get (or does it need) energy
    vii) where does it come from
    viii) are they subject to the laws of the universe


    Ans: I don't know the answer to all of the above.

    Quote
    I know you are not happy with the rationalist explanation, but at least it provides something more than something than invisible & magical, which sounds suspiciously like, as mentioned earlier, soul of the gaps.  Incidentally those gaps are something that you see behind the coined phrase "hard problem of consciousness" when many see no problem whatsoever.

    yeah, some philosophers argue that the problem doesn't exist, but many do.

    A googolplex is *precisely* as far from infinity as is the number 1.--Carl Sagan
  • Re: Hi from on the fence muslim
     Reply #713 - February 14, 2011, 05:43 PM

    oh, but when it comes to the hard problem of conscienceness, there's only one gap to fill: the hard problem of conscienceness.

    The problem isn't used to justify the concept of the soul or to save the notion of soul. On the other hand, the gaps, in God of the gaps, are used to justify God.

    Is this what you're saying: that we aren't able to explain consciousness therefore we have a soul. Is that right?

    That sounds like a gap to me.  parrot

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  • Re: Hi from on the fence muslim
     Reply #714 - February 14, 2011, 05:45 PM

    Is this what you're saying: that we aren't able to explain consciousness therefore we have a soul. Is that right?

    That sounds like a gap to me.  parrot

    Me too, particularly when you fail to explain anything about it.  Sounds like a "its just so" argument to me, and its piss poor.  Sorry DB.

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  • Re: Hi from on the fence muslim
     Reply #715 - February 14, 2011, 05:51 PM

    Is this what you're saying: that we aren't able to explain consciousness therefore we have a soul. Is that right?


    It is an answered question. The distinction though lies in the fact that this question isn't used to justify *soul*. Anyway, the Quran strongly implies that everything (including rocks, trees and stars) are conscious, and if I wanted to follow my Quranic belief regarding consienceness, there's really no need for *soul* to explain the hard problem of conscienceness, since everything in nature is at some level of consciousness (as implied by the Quran).

    A googolplex is *precisely* as far from infinity as is the number 1.--Carl Sagan
  • Re: Hi from on the fence muslim
     Reply #716 - February 14, 2011, 05:56 PM

    I asked my mum if gorillas & grass have a soul.  She said no, only humans  Huh?

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  • Re: Hi from on the fence muslim
     Reply #717 - February 14, 2011, 05:56 PM

    Me too, particularly when you fail to explain anything about it.  Sounds like a "its just so" argument to me, and its piss poor.  Sorry DB.


    well, T.H. Huxley remarked:

    Quote
    how it is that any thing so remarkable as a state of consciousness comes about as the result of irritating nervous tissue, is just as unaccountable as the appearance of the Djin when Aladdin rubbed his lamp.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_problem_of_consciousness

    In any case, i just can't pretend to know the answer to something when i don't, thus my answer to all of your questions was i don't know.

    A googolplex is *precisely* as far from infinity as is the number 1.--Carl Sagan
  • Re: Hi from on the fence muslim
     Reply #718 - February 14, 2011, 05:58 PM

    I asked my mum if gorillas & grass have a soul.  She said no, only humans  Huh?


    i believe gorrillas do have souls, grass doesn't have a soul, but in view of what the Quran implies, grass is conscious (in ways we cannot measure).

    A googolplex is *precisely* as far from infinity as is the number 1.--Carl Sagan
  • Re: Hi from on the fence muslim
     Reply #719 - February 14, 2011, 06:04 PM


    I cant scrutinise, nor do I care about Huxleys take on it, afaik he wasnt a recognised scientist.  In any case I am more interested in your opinion.
    Quote
    In any case, i just can't pretend to know the answer to something when i don't, thus my answer to all of your questions was i don't know.

    I was really after your feelings on it.

    If you are going to be prepared to believe in something contrary to current scientific knowledge, then as fellow scientist, I would hope you would have some personal understanding/appreciation of it rather than just accepting it.

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