Advertisement
If you have a new account but are having problems posting or verifying your account, please email us on hello@boards.ie for help. Thanks :)
Hello all! Please ensure that you are posting a new thread or question in the appropriate forum. The Feedback forum is overwhelmed with questions that are having to be moved elsewhere. If you need help to verify your account contact hello@boards.ie

The devils advocate thread.

Options
2»

Comments

  • Options
    #32
    rccaulfield
    Registered Users Posts: 1,015 ✭✭✭rccaulfield


    Stercus Accidit wrote: »
    Do you consider the infinite universe theory to be more humble?

    No but-seen as we at present cannot say much about the big bang and before (other then it happened)- it would be a faith type assumption that we are the first universe!?


  • Options
    #33
    Sam Vimes
    Registered Users Posts: 21,611 ✭✭✭✭Sam Vimes


    Who's saying we're definitely the first universe?


  • Options
    #34
    Dades
    Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 25,558 Mod ✭✭✭✭Dades


    rccaulfield wrote: »
    No but-seen as we at present cannot say much about the big bang and before (other then it happened)- it would be a faith type assumption that we are the first universe!?
    It would be if anyone has said that, which they didn't. If fact there seemed to a be a complete lack of assumptions being made.

    As a Devils Advocate aren't you supposed to question arguments actually made? :)


  • Options
    #35
    rccaulfield
    Registered Users Posts: 1,015 ✭✭✭rccaulfield


    Sam Vimes wrote: »
    Who's saying we're definitely the first universe?
    Me at first!:D


  • Options
    #36
    rccaulfield
    Registered Users Posts: 1,015 ✭✭✭rccaulfield


    Dades wrote: »
    It would be if anyone has said that, which they didn't. If fact there seemed to a be a complete lack of assumptions being made.

    As a Devils Advocate aren't you supposed to question arguments actually made? :)

    Read original post anyone can pose a topic;)


  • Advertisement
  • Options
    #37
    Valmont
    Registered Users Posts: 5,856 ✭✭✭Valmont


    Why does the idea of a God comfort and fulfill millions of people?


  • Options
    #38
    drkpower
    Registered Users Posts: 5,475 ✭✭✭drkpower


    Valmont wrote: »
    Why does the idea of a God comfort and fulfill millions of people?

    Eh..... eternal life, paradise in heaven etc etc..... sounds great. As long as you can ignore the bad stuff, its a bed of roses. Sure you would be mad not to.....:D


  • Options
    #39
    Turtwig
    Registered Users Posts: 26,578 ✭✭✭✭Turtwig


    That's the million (infinite?) dollar question isn't it?

    God makes life simple, we like to keep things simple.
    The question is always 'why' though? In other words why is itharder to accept the image of the complicated Universe which is actually far more elegant and beautiful ( :).) than its simplistic,black and white but definitely false counterpart?


  • Options
    #40
    robindch
    Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 24,404 Mod ✭✭✭✭robindch


    Valmont wrote: »
    Why does the idea of a God comfort and fulfill millions of people?
    Check out Pascal Boyer's "Religion Explained". It's far more rarified than any of the offerings of the Four Horsemen, and it's far more comprehensive too. It will also answer your question.

    Get it even if only to appreciate the cover photo.


  • Options
    #41
    rccaulfield
    Registered Users Posts: 1,015 ✭✭✭rccaulfield


    Valmont wrote: »
    Why does the idea of a God comfort and fulfill millions of people?

    Because they will meet their lost relatives in the afterlife=theres so many reasons but i reckon this is the strongest!


  • Advertisement
  • Options
    #42
    rccaulfield
    Registered Users Posts: 1,015 ✭✭✭rccaulfield


    If GOD didnt create man above the animals and IF EVOLUTION is real
    Why is there such a gulf in ability/brain power between chimps and humans?= both are meant to have descended from the same ancestor and are now cousins!!! Yet the VAST gap is there. Is there a similar gap of abilities in close cousins in the animal kingdom? Religion says no!?


  • Options
    #43
    Goduznt Xzst
    Registered Users Posts: 1,353 ✭✭✭Goduznt Xzst


    rccaulfield wrote: »
    Why is there such a gulf in ability/brain power between chimps and humans?

    There isn't. The implications of the differences though is what causes the apparent divide. Chimps evolved extremely good short term memories (better than humans), whereas humans evolved extremely good long term memories.

    The impact of this small difference has been monumental. It allows us to plan for future events in the long term. It allowed the hunter gatherers to plan for the coming winters, it allowed them to have surplus to work on other activities such as art and music. What this small difference in our evolution accomplished was to give us the ability to separate ourselves from the base survival grind of most other species.


  • Options
    #44
    Sam Vimes
    Registered Users Posts: 21,611 ✭✭✭✭Sam Vimes


    This is a common misunderstanding. A bigger brain isn't "better", only better for our environment. The environment the chimps were living in was such that they could survive perfectly well without developing their brains and so their brains didn't develop

    Evolution does not have a single defined path with humans at the top, evolution means that animals end up with traits that are suited to their environment and chimps are perfectly suited to their environment

    Also, the genes that allowed our brains to develop came about through a random mutation. That particular branch of primates never had that mutation and never had the gene interbred into them


  • Options
    #45
    togster
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,931 ✭✭✭togster


    Valmont wrote: »
    Why does the idea of a God comfort and fulfill millions of people?

    I think because we are aware of time and therefore beginning and end. If we were unaware of end and death we would have no religion, no atheism.


  • Options
    #46
    CerebralCortex
    Registered Users Posts: 3,809 ✭✭✭CerebralCortex


    togster wrote: »
    I think because we are aware of time and therefore beginning and end. If we were unaware of end and death we would have no religion, no atheism.

    No religion = atheism thats the hardest point to get through to a theist actually.


  • Options
    #47
    JC 2K3
    Closed Accounts Posts: 7,794 ✭✭✭JC 2K3


    I think togster means no awareness of the concept of religion, with that, there'd be no atheism, because there'd be no such thing as theism.


  • Options
    #48
    Mark Hamill
    Registered Users Posts: 7,771 ✭✭✭Mark Hamill


    JC 2K3 wrote: »
    I think togster means no awareness of the concept of religion, with that, there'd be no atheism, because there'd be no such thing as theism.

    There would be broad atheism (ie just the absence of belief in a deity).


  • Options
    #49
    rccaulfield
    Registered Users Posts: 1,015 ✭✭✭rccaulfield


    Sam Vimes wrote: »

    Evolution does not have a single defined path with humans at the top, evolution means that animals end up with traits that are suited to their environment and chimps are perfectly suited to their environment

    Also, the genes that allowed our brains to develop came about through a random mutation. That particular branch of primates never had that mutation and never had the gene interbred into them

    Nice one!;) I suppose at some point our ancestors went out onto the savannah and needed different traits/skills to survive then the chimps ancestor!


  • Options
    #50
    rccaulfield
    Registered Users Posts: 1,015 ✭✭✭rccaulfield


    How did humans get on the continent of Australia and similar remote places all those millions of years ago from africa? Dont say surfed over lol!


  • Options
    #51
    dvpower
    Closed Accounts Posts: 9,183 ✭✭✭dvpower


    rccaulfield wrote: »
    How did humans get on the continent of Australia and similar remote places all those millions of years ago from africa? Dont say surfed over lol!

    They didn't. They arrived much later, some by land-bridge and subsequently by Quantas.


  • Advertisement
  • Options
    #52
    rccaulfield
    Registered Users Posts: 1,015 ✭✭✭rccaulfield


    dvpower wrote: »
    They didn't. They arrived much later, some by land-bridge and subsequently by Quantas.

    What do you mean qantas? Was there a landbridge to oz?


Advertisement