Original Sin?

Quote: Nareed

You want to hear something sad? They loved their children, and deeply resented their existence.

I totally understand this. My daughter
would love her kids, but she also knows
she would resent them for pinning her
down. So she opted out of having them.
FrG will say it's sad, but it's the opposite
of sad. It's called self awareness, something
the Church is vehemently against. They
loathe free thinkers.

Quote: Evenbob

Please name a universal philosophical truth
to prove me wrong.

"Truth is surprisingly difficult to define. We seem to rely on it almost every moment of every day and it's very "close" to us. Yet it's difficult to define because as soon as you think you have it pinned down, some case or counterexample immediately shows deficiencies. Ironically, every definition of truth that philosophers have developed falls prey to the question, "but is it true?"

Logic. A is not equal to not-A. If A=B and B=C then C=A. A and not-A cannot both be true.

I may not know all truth, but I do know that given A (my truth) is not equal to not-A (your truth) then A (my truth) and not-A (your truth) cannot be both true.

Quote: Evenbob

I totally understand this. My daughter
would love her kids, but she also knows
she would resent them for pinning her
down. So she opted out of having them.
FrG will say it's sad, but it's the opposite
of sad. It's called self awareness, something
the Church is vehemently against. They
loathe free thinkers.

You usually embarrass yourself when you think you know me or what I think. I applaud the type of self awareness that it takes to realize that someone is not called to have children for a variety of possible reasons. Free thinkers are the only kinds that can actually arrive at truth.

Quote: FrGamble

Logic. A is not equal to not-A. If A=B and B=C then C=A. A and not-A cannot both be true.

Fuddle with it all you like, philosophical truth
is nothing more than opinion. Philosophical
truth is an oxymoron. And yes, just like hearsay,
I know what an oxymoron is also.

ox·y·mo·ron
ˌäksəˈmôrˌän/
noun
noun: oxymoron; plural noun: oxymorons

a figure of speech in which apparently contradictory terms appear in conjunction

Quote: FrGamble

Free thinkers are the only kinds that can actually arrive at truth.

You obviously have no idea what free
thinker means.

free·think·er
ˌfrēˈTHiNGkər/
noun
plural noun: free-thinkers

a person who rejects accepted opinions, especially those concerning religious belief.

Quote: FrGamble

Aren't we our brothers' keeper?

I'm not.

Quote:

If not don't you want to know when you are wrong?

I am always right. Except on those occasions when I'm not.

Quote: Nareed

I'm not..

What does that even mean, to be your
brothers keeper.

Quote: Evenbob

Fuddle with it all you like, philosophical truth
is nothing more than opinion.

So that then is just your opinion? Because it sounded an awful lot like a philosophical truth.

Quote:

Philosophical
truth is an oxymoron.

So it is a philosophical truth that philosophical truth is an oxymoron? I'm so confused.

Quote: FrGamble

Secondly, it is just a fact that there needs to be a "God"

<roll-eyes>

Quote:

However, what you and I usually refer to as atheists are those who don't believe in any God or First Cause that is represented by religion. I think if you pressed any of these smart guys like Jospeh Campbell, Einstein, Hawking, etc. about why we are here and if there is a divine creator of all things they wouldn't agree to such a statement but they wouldn't be so bold as to deny it either.

Working out the consequences (predictions) of Relativity, Einstein realized the universe could either be expanding or be contracting, but it couldn't stay still. He then went on to theorize a "cosmological constant" to counteract this effect, making the universe thus stand still. After all, it was effingly obviously necessary.

It was Einstein's self-described "biggest blunder."

I'm sure the work was brilliant, but it all rested on a bad assumption. Ironically it was another aspect of Relativity that allowed for an easy (relatively speaking) empirical test on the state of the universe.

The moral of this little vignette is: you cannot make sweeping assumptions about the universe without evidence. The universe is as it is, not as we wish it to be.

Quote: FrGamble

So that then is just your opinion? .

How could it be anything else.