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If you fancy trying out something like a metaphysical hallucinogen, some of the “discussions” on the following forum are certainly surreal enough – subjects like metaphysics versus meta-metaphysics, how many energy crystals can dance on the head of a single reality, and whether there is one god, man...

It depends entirely on precisely how you're defining 'metaphysics'. For example, cosmology is metaphysics under a given definition. Is cosmology necessary? Certainly, if it is thought that knowledge and understanding are necessary. Is wibble necessary? Certainly not, although it can provide some in...

Metaphysics is a prerequisite for the art of "making shit up and pretending that we're gaining access to the secrets of reality". Metaphysics allows for an airy indifference towards notions of evidence. While making shit up is necessary to creative writing, the assertions about special access are pr...

I cannot pretend that the endless allegations of child sex offences in the Roman Catholic Church motivate my hostility towards the rotten institution. Where I live (England) there’s a constant hysteria about paedophiles, increasingly a witch-hunt, whipped up by the tabloid media; any regular reader ...

jamest wrote:Ah, more mud. Why seek empirical evidence of metaphysical claims?

Why indeed. *drum roll* What can be asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence.

Friends and captives, I have this metaphysical notion that everything is contained and constrained within the Everloving Everythingness TM . Nothing that is not anything is not encapsulated and enclosed in the EE TM . Everybody can deny it, but none can deny it: the whole caboodle, in a sense, IS th...

A flashback to Intelligent Design: "Stop trying to explain how things work scientifically, you're killing all the mystery! We need that mystery - we can weave those dark clouds of fog into magic that'll make you say 'wooooooo...' - but you're filling those precious gaps and breaking our spells and l...

I know very little about your life, but at this time and place, do you want to dedicate years of study so you can carry on at cocktail parties or other gatherings? ...and I suppose you spent years building up your appreciation of Mozart so that you could rivet everyone on the bus by loudly humming ...

Elessarina wrote:

Matthew Shute wrote: The Silmarillion is free to read, here:

http://ae-lib.org.ua/texts-c/tolkien__t ... on__en.htm

It's on my bookshelf

Me, too.

The Hobbit starts shooting in July

We'll see what Guillermo del Toro can make of it. It could be interesting.

Here's a quote from The Silmarillion, regarding Saruman's motivation. The context, here, is Sauron's initial return in Dol Guldur (Mirkwood). Note that Curunír is the name the Elves use for Saruman: Thus the Wise were troubled, but none as yet perceived that Curunír had turned to dark thoughts and w...

Hmm. It has been a few years since I read The Silmarillion. I'd forgotten that the singular of "Valar" is "Vala". Don't think I'm oblivious to the mistakes I occasionally make.

No worries. You're right, I don't regret it.

http://easydamus.com/alignmenttest.html

It must have caught me on a bad day - apparently, I'm Neutral Evil. However, if I actually was Neutral Evil... would I be telling everyone?

Why do then, should they even be alive? Ignorance of this kind shouldn't even be allowed, period. They should all just commit mass-suicide and do the rest of the world a favor. Would solve the over-population issue for a few centuries. Dubious. Incidentally , my reply to P Thomas's idiotic letter (...

Comte de Saint-Germain wrote:http://rationalia.com/forum/viewtopic.p ... 00#p388800

Damn, Jerome, your posts make the rest of us look bad.