Comments on: nerve

By: Last Hussar

Last Hussar — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 23:18:54 +0000

Actually there has been research in the urinal scenario, and it is actually 3, 1, 5 (where 1 is closer to the door). Really, research.

By: Touching a Nerve | Unreasonable Faith

Touching a Nerve | Unreasonable Faith — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 13:15:42 +0000

[...] (from Jesus and Mo) « God Hates the World [...]

By: Uncle Roger

Uncle Roger — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 18:12:19 +0000

Okay, I’ll bite. Multiverses being possible doesn’t even come close to meaning that everything is possible. Everything possible means that in one universe I died right now. And in another now. And in yet another next tuesday at 1am and 1pm and every instance in between and in a whole ‘nother set of universes, Olivia Newton-John knocks on my door at each of those times. (and in a very cruel set I die right after opening the door at each instant.) That truly does mean infinite.

Unless you’re going to filter some of those? How do you do that, then? Only allow ONJ to show up during the daytime? Assume it’s bloody unlikely she’d show up at all? Filter out all the ones without Jesus? If you eliminate any, you have to eliminate all of them, except for the one for which we have evidence — this one.

Re Sliders: Started out good, went downhill pretty quick. They never did end up in a missing-earth universe because that would have killed them (and the show) — which wouldn’t have been a bad idea once John Rhys-Davies left.

By: Toast in the machine

Toast in the machine — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 00:11:02 +0000

Yes, I find that’s a problem.

By: mateo-argentino

mateo-argentino — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 22:10:21 +0000

hey, its the last time I bring this up, really…I just want to say a few things:

About the video: Im not stupid, I know that because some guy put a nice video in youtube everything it says is true (I mean…if I was like that, I’d be Christian), I just think its a very interesting way to aprcoach the “multiple universes” thing in a more scientific aspect…

Now, someone said something about the show “sliders”: I’ve heard about the show but never watched it…I don’t really like the “parallel universes” sci-fi, because it usually takes it to “parallel earths” with people exactly the same, etc. and thats like 1 of the infinite posiblities…I mean, did the sliders ever landend in universes were there was no earth or no breathable atsmosphere or something?? Well, i don’t really know…

And, at last: The point of all the “multiverse” talk was to try and convince someone that if it is even remotely possible, then everything is possible, as it would be “remotely possible that everything is possible”…

Well, anyway, I promess i won’t bring this up again…but if someone else does, Ill be glad to talk about it…

By: Rosemarie

Rosemarie — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 21:26:10 +0000

This discussion about urinals is fascinating. Go on.

By: Rosemarie

Rosemarie — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 21:24:38 +0000

Maybe Mo was using the one for little boys.

By: grouchy-one

grouchy-one — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 20:40:43 +0000

In the eye we have three types of colour receptor yet we can see millions of different colours – we have 3 dimensional colour vision. I’d say smell works in a similar way. Imagine that… A 300 dimensional smelliverse

By: Daoloth

Daoloth — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 19:46:55 +0000

I think “agnositic” takes because it strikes some people as reasonable-by which I mean, in the British sense, compromising.
Brits, for reasons that are sometimes hard to fathom, think that the words “The truth lies somewhere in between” are sentiments of the highest wisdom. This is what you can expect of a nation that is politically monarchist and republican, religiously catholic and protestant all simultaneously.
For people who actually give a shit about truth the words “the truth lies somewhere in between” should be a rallying call to violence, of course.
Why the hell should the truth track our sensibilties and desires to get along?
I submit that this is why “agnostic” gets air-play. Even Bill Maher tried it in religulous, which is why the movie was a disappointment.
What do people think?

By: JohnnieCanuck

JohnnieCanuck — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 19:04:54 +0000

From the man who coined the term, this quote, “So I took thought, and invented what I conceived to be the appropriate title of “agnostic.” It came into my head as suggestively antithetic to the “gnostic” of Church history, who professed to know so much about the very things of which I was ignorant. To my great satisfaction the term took.”

-Huxley, Thomas. Collected Essays. pp. 237�239.

As Revyloution says, the history of a word and logic do not determine its latter meaning. It is usage that does that. Aykavil and I could argue the best use of the word for a month and likely make no difference at all to what is found in the dictionaries a decade hence.

Go poke around Wiki’s Agnosticism article for a pretty good background and links associated with the concept.

By: Poor Richard

Poor Richard — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 17:46:18 +0000

Let’s have all the universes we want. Let’s try to understand as much as we can. Let’s rejoice in the great beauty and delight the cosmos has for us. But to add in an invisible omnipotent deity is still nonsense–what can be SUPER-natural? “Star Trek” answers are just as sensible. I get all the mystery I can handle right here.

Daoloth: “Under-achiever” cool. sv Woody A who agrees. String theory? Fun. It is time for a rereading of the late Kurt Vonnegut’s “Cat’s Cradle.”

Poor Richard has said ere now: sure, there are miracles. Here are a few I’ve witnessed: the Detroit River now supports great fishes–
smallmouth bass, muskies, salmonoids. When I was in college at Western Michigan, you bathed in Lake Michigan at your own risk; now the tastiest salmon and steelhead live there and even swim up the Kalamazoo River (yuk–don’t eat those). I have a photograph of a daughter standing on the other side of the rubble of the Berlin Wall. I survived a deadly disease and shouldn’t have. My partner in life survived Santo Tomas Internment Camp (she’s still skinny, 67 years later. Two things I want before I die: stars in the 3-D universe visible again, and a credible unified theory (though I won’t understand it, it’d be nice to know it’s there, just to get things started).

OK–gotta go call in my vampire unicorns; they’ve been out all night, and God knows ….

By: grouchy-one

grouchy-one — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 17:17:16 +0000

This new heirarchical posting is all well and good but it makes it very difficult to see where the latest posts are. Is there a way we can choose to sort them by time?

By: JMo

JMo — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 15:02:41 +0000

Here is the official test to see whether or not you know which urinal to choose. I actually got all of them right the first time I played. I know, I know but please limit the length of your replied congratulations, adulations etc.

By: Aykavil

Aykavil — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 13:49:35 +0000

The only dictionary I found that would support the claim that gnostic is the opposite of agnostic, is the Oxford English Dictionary, with the “nonce-use” caveat.

b. nonce-use. Believing in the reality of transcendental knowledge; opposed to agnostic.

1888 R. FLINT in Mind XIII. 596 Idealism is not necessarily either gnostic or agnostic, but is more apt to be the former than the latter.

As for the definition ‘possessing esoteric knowledge’, it is completely possible to have esoteric ‘knowledge’ of the influence of stars on our destiny, while doubting the existence of God, thus being a gnostic agnostic.

By: Benjamin Geiger

Benjamin Geiger — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 13:07:27 +0000

“Gnostic” as a proper noun is not synonymous with “gnostic” as an adjective.

By: JMo

JMo — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 12:43:09 +0000

I read an article recently that tried to explain our senses, and it focused on smell. There are only 300 and sum odd different “smell” receptors in the lining of the nose. So how could there be so many different smells? The article when on to explain that sub-atomic forces which can in theory have several multiple physical attributes associated with it giving rise to the plethora of possible smells. Does this mean we should be able to smell “God”. Also Johnny and yourself and me I guess get the whole string theory, multiverse, infinite possiblity, thing not being more than more of the same universe we already can’t explain. Can’t wait to cease existing so I don’t have to listen to any more “possibilities”…….(holding breath)…..

By: Aykavil

Aykavil — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 08:45:07 +0000

quote: �Gnostic� doesn�t get used so often as �Agnostic� because it�s also the name of a branch of Christianity, but ignoring that and going by the root words yields the definitions above.

Please, don’t ignore that. The gnostic heresy is currently the proper meaning for ‘gnostic’, and bears no comparison with being “anti-agnostic”, much like inflammable is not the opposite of flammable.

By: Aykavil

Aykavil — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 08:41:05 +0000

quote: “You can be a gnostic theist: �I know God exists.�”

Please, do make a quick search on ‘gnostic’ and ‘gnosticism’ before misusing those words, Ben.

By: Stephen Turner

Stephen Turner — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 08:33:51 +0000

I think there are several scenarios consistent with
the observed state of the n-stall with n=5. We should
recall that Author’s snapshot shows it at a
single instant, whereas its occupancy pattern
is dynamic.
For instance:
(i) J is at 1, Mo has just arrived at 2, but since
Mo’s arrival, L Ron Hubbard finished at 3 (4 and 5
were initially occupied by Joseph Smith and Moses but
the latter two sanitary facilities’ current state of
occupancy is not known to us as Author was not using a
wide-angle lens).
(ii) Moses found the bathroom empty so went to 5,
and J went to 1. Then Mo arrived and went for
2 instead of 3 perhaps remembering:
http://www.jesusandmo.net/2006/10/25/cozy/

By: JohnnieCanuck

JohnnieCanuck — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 07:07:17 +0000

Speculating about infinite universes and 10p will get you a cup of coffee. Only after you adjust for inflation, though.

Just because we have no access, physically or logically, to alternate universes doesn’t mean we should be using them as havens for gods as Science closes gap after gap in this one.