Recent content by pierre45

I think the only absolute moral is expressed in the descriptive sense of the word, i.e. acting in ways consistent with your idea of a moral life is absolutely good, acting in ways that you believe are morally wrong is absolutely bad. Inherent in that attempt to live a moral life is an attempt...

I don't know, and for the purposes of my paper I don't really care whether they are one or the other. What I am interested in is why so many people find it so easy to believe that they are neither. If someone sees something in the sky that is strange...I have no trouble believing them, that...

delusion: A false belief or opinion. I think your first example falls squarely under the delusion category, your second example is an assumed possibility, but I was talking specifically about those who THINK they are recounting the truth. Which I think is a high percentage of the cases.

I agree with what you're saying if you're putting it in the context of a guy trying to score with a girl, or even any kind of social interaction one on one, its called being polite, but that doesn't mean you actually buy it. And in a situation of a poll, anonymous, 34% said yes I believe Aliens...

(I don't know where anything came from!) random organization, it was useful. But not an emergent property of that organization, a part of it.

I know nothing about this, but couldn't you argue that it is dependant on an observer, albeit a lower level one? That our lower level reptile brain is an observer of some sort, but not able to observe itself. And the ability to observe "ourselves" (that which became "I") emerged from that...

part of the problem with my poll is there are just too many iterations and subtleties that could have been included...I tried to break things down into what I thought were meaningful categories, basically hardcore skeptic, jury is out, and true believer. I saw a poll the other day that more...

don't know if this is relevant or not.. I have taken massive amounts of hallucinegens...and my "I" has always stuck around to observe things. It seems the inputs are routed through various segments before you can observe them, and under hallucinegen they take a different route, or to put...

I read your story, I had a dream once that was not similar in it's details but very similar in it's vividness, it was as if it happened. I was sleeping, and my dream so far as I can remember did not have a lead-in to the event (like you walking to Micky D's) so I never would have considered it...

Sorry Zoob, didn't mean for that to sound dismissive, they are very vivid and realistic I know. My point is that there are only two possibilities, either they are all delusions of some kind (all of them), or at least some of them (one even) are real. If they are all delusions it is very...

Hi Ivan, Yes, I'm using "ghosts" as kind of a catch-all phrase for...well...something hard to sum up in a word, but juicier than "unexplained phenomenon". So I think you were right in voting yes. It's interesting, the two differences between this poll and another I ran elsewhere is only in...

This is part of a survey I am doing for a class project, wanted to get a sampling from the scientific community. Many Thanks.

That is very interesting...it seems maybe sin has been transformed then over time, at least my familiarity with the concept came from Rom. Cath. Church, I can't recall too much the idea that God will punish/reward you now, in this life, based on your behavior. The concept was very much that...

sounds like you've been in different confessionals than me.

Does sin exist? In absolute terms, who knows? But certainly it exists so far as many humans believe it exists. What is your understanding of sin? A wrong against God/creator/higher power/universe, by way of wrong against yourself or fellow man. Is sin the same as the concept of...