[lbo-talk] Re: theism, atheism and dont give a fuckism

Jim Devine jdevine03 at gmail.com
Thu Jun 2 09:59:28 PDT 2005


WS writes:
> How about those who believe that the said proposition is meaningless because
> its subject has no meaning. I can say that the proposition "Big Foot
> exists" is meaningful but its truth value is unknown because it is possible
> to define (if vaguely) what "Big Foot " is, albeit proofs of its existence
> remains elusive. Perhaps one day that mystery will be solved.

FWIW, a man admitted to having set up the Big Foot hoax. Though some still believe in it.


> The proposition "Non-human civilization exists" belongs to the same category
> even if it differs from the previous proposition in that we may never have
> an effective method of determining its truth value. That is why some people
> have faith - a belief that the said proposition is true, even though we will
> most likely never be able to know one waay or the other.

how about non-human civilizations on other planets? isn't it likely that at least one exists in the universe? (billions & billions of stars and planets...)


> But the proposition "God exists" is different from the other two because it
> the determination of its truth function is impossible not to the limitation
> of human knowledge and methodology, but because the proposition itself is
> meaningless. Unlike "Big Foot" or "Non-human civilization," the word "god"
> has no meaning at all. We may not have precise definition of "big foot" or
> "non-human civilization" but we at least can define some empirically
> meaningful features that the objects designated by the concepts may possess.
> We cannot do the same about 'god' without running into blatant absurdities.
> An anthropomorphic creature running the entire universe? This is absurd on
> its face. Some nebulous "force" or "spirit"? This is replacing one
> meaningless word with another....

I don't see why there can't be something that exists that is currently beyond our understanding. In Edwin A. Abbott's FLATLAND, the two-dimensional critters have no understanding of three-dimensional ones. Isn't it at least possible that there are four dimensional critters that we can't understand? (String theory says that there are a bunch of different dimensions.)

-- Jim Devine "Segui il tuo corso, e lascia dir le genti." (Go your own way and let people talk.) -- Karl M., paraphrasing Dante A.



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