Hi, I'm Mick

[piscator]

Since there's not one jot of empirical evidence which suffices to shatter any metaphysical claim [devoid of arguable empirical content]... well...

That's amazingly tautological, if only grammatically so.

I made the mistake of trying to mimic your own grammar.

Are there any practical benefits to the pursuit of pure referents that don't involve math??

Practical benefits? I'm not sure. But what about 'spiritual' benefits? Does your happiness hinge upon the material quality of your life?

A more practical question might be,
"Would I be paid so well if I didn't know what I was doing?"

A more spiritual question might be "Does the significance/quality of one's life hinge upon what he/she is being paid?". I'm finding your retorts to be somewhat naive and [also] somewhat disrespectful to people who see more to life than what they can buy for themselves. Are you really this Gordan Gekko character whom you apparently portray yourself to be? I can't make out if you're just acting the goat, or not. So, please just spell it out.

Practically speaking, it hardly needs saying that a large part of the quality of one's life does indeed hinge on his material surroundings and products. More metaphysically, the Wakan Tanka provides plenty of examples of this wherever life is found. Indeed, the Inuit, for whom there was no distinction between metaphysics and physics, found himself migrating to put himself in provisions. Is it any wonder his healing stories were populated with caribou, seal, walrus and whales?

[jamest]

A more spiritual question might be "Does the significance/quality of one's life hinge upon what he/she is being paid?". I'm finding your retorts to be somewhat naive and [also] somewhat disrespectful to people who see more to life than what they can buy for themselves. Are you really this Gordan Gekko character whom you apparently portray yourself to be? I can't make out if you're just acting the goat, or not. So, please just spell it out.

Practically speaking, it hardly needs saying that a large part of the quality of one's life does indeed hinge on his material surroundings and products.

I wouldn't disagree, but there are plenty of happy poor people and lots of miserable rich people. In other words, there's more at stake for a perspective than the practical benefits it provides.

[jamest]

I don't choose my buddies upon the basis of their allegiance to my mindset.

I asked for a sophisticated defence of your bigoted trolling, not just more bigoted trolling. Please show me that you have more in the locker than this.

It's not bigoted, and it's not trolling.

It's a robust and often sarcastic attack on a position which mac and most of the rest of us consider needs to be attacked.

Tough luck, religions deserve no automatic respect any more... Well, they never really did, but christianity in its day, and islam now, could use coercive power to physically punish those with a contrary view. I know many of you would secretly want those days to return, and fling all of us pesky atheists in jail for blasphemy, but tough titty, you can't.

Suck it up, princess, religion is a fading force in advanced counties the world over, and hopefully continues to dwindle into an insignificant footnote of history.

That's just childish. Attacking someone's opinion with naught but derogatory remarks does fuck all to undermine said opinion. All it does is wind-up the person who's being attacked. This is why it amounts to trolling. Furthermore, the arrogant refusal to engage in meaningful discourse with those harbouring a perspective contrary to one's own, is the epitome of bigoted behaviour. You are indeed a bigot and a troll of the highest order.

[JimC]

Zeus is gone.

Odin is gone...

Soon, farewell Jaweh and Allah...

Little by little, the delusions of the childhood of Homo sapiens will retreat into obscurity, and your security blanket, jamest will be gone...

[jamest]

Zeus is gone.

Odin is gone...

Soon, farewell Jaweh and Allah...

Little by little, the delusions of the childhood of Homo sapiens will retreat into obscurity, and your security blanket, jamest will be gone...

God will always be within our minds, and no amount of bigoted trolling is going to change that fact.

[JimC]

Zeus is gone.

Odin is gone...

Soon, farewell Jaweh and Allah...

Little by little, the delusions of the childhood of Homo sapiens will retreat into obscurity, and your security blanket, jamest will be gone...

God will always be within our minds, and no amount of bigoted trolling is going to change that fact.

And indeed, that's the only place your imaginary friend will ever be...

[macdoc]

Keeping the unicorns and tooth fairy company.....an equal opportunity affair

[LucidFlight]

Hi, Mick! Welcome to the fora.

What would you say is your favourite part about Catholicism?

[FBM]

Probably the tons of evidence that it provides for the existence of its deity.

[Babel]

Zeus is gone.

Odin is gone...

Soon, farewell Jaweh and Allah...

Little by little, the delusions of the childhood of Homo sapiens will retreat into obscurity, and your security blanket, jamest will be gone...

God will always be within our minds, and no amount of bigoted trolling is going to change that fact.

And indeed, that's the only place your imaginary friend will ever be...

I don't mind if that's the only 'place' god has. People can think whatever they want, as long as they don't force/expect others to act in accordance with the positions they hold as a result of their faith.

[macdoc]

Fruit of the poisoned tree.

[JimC]

Babel wrote:

People can think whatever they want, as long as they don't force/expect others to act in accordance with the positions they hold as a result of their faith.

Problem is that in most of christianity's past and in much of islam's present, the "forcing belief on others" meme has been a powerful feature of religious faith. Unless watched by the eagle eye of secularism, it always will tend in that direction - it's a feature, not a bug...

[piscator]

A more spiritual question might be "Does the significance/quality of one's life hinge upon what he/she is being paid?". I'm finding your retorts to be somewhat naive and [also] somewhat disrespectful to people who see more to life than what they can buy for themselves. Are you really this Gordan Gekko character whom you apparently portray yourself to be? I can't make out if you're just acting the goat, or not. So, please just spell it out.

Practically speaking, it hardly needs saying that a large part of the quality of one's life does indeed hinge on his material surroundings and products.

I wouldn't disagree, but there are plenty of happy poor people and lots of miserable rich people. In other words, there's more at stake for a perspective than the practical benefits it provides.

"Man does not live by bread alone..."? I can certainly buy into that independent clause, and can see the fun in the rest of Matt 4:4 too.
I have a great memory of a former marriage. My wife was driving through Lake Louise PP, Ab on her first trip North. I thought I had turned off the video cam, but hadn't, and caught her blubbering on, awestruck at her first view of the Canadian Rockies, blaming it all on God, and how nice it was for God to decide to make a place so magnificent and kind enough of Him to let her look upon it.
I was enormously happy for her at that moment, but a little sad too. So much stoke shunted to ground like that...

[Lion IRC]

Zeus is gone.

Odin is gone...

Soon, farewell Jaweh and Allah...

Little by little, the delusions of the childhood of Homo sapiens will retreat into obscurity, and your security blanket, jamest will be gone...

You think homosapiens will reach adulthood?

[JimC]

Zeus is gone.

Odin is gone...

Soon, farewell Jaweh and Allah...

Little by little, the delusions of the childhood of Homo sapiens will retreat into obscurity, and your security blanket, jamest will be gone...

You think homosapiens will reach adulthood?

If it ever does, part of that maturity will be the abandonment of primitive superstitions of all kinds...