Debate Stephen Hawking makes it clear: There is no God

ElementalDissonance

ElementalDissonance

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Harte said:
I suppose you might get it if people used the word "thingie" in it's place? As in "The Hindus worship many thingies."
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I can see it now... "And the Lord spake into Moses, saying, 'Your thingie is my thingie is his thingie is her thingie is all one big thingie. And yay, thou shalt have no other thingies before my thingie, thus sayeth the Lord.'

Amen."
 
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ElementalDissonance

ElementalDissonance

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titorite said:
Problems can be solved externally by anyone issues must be resolved internally by the individual.
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Okay, thanks for clarifying. In my first long-term job, they told us never to talk about problems, but about issues. Then, after a while, they told us "issues" was too negative, and we should instead talk about "challenges". A little later down the road, they told us they'd decided that "challenges" had too much of a negative undertone, and that we should henceforth talk about "opportunities".

Seemed absolutely ridiculous to me, even though I understood the "logic" behind it. Probably the Snafu principle at work in all its glorious splendor.

So you can understand my quizzical tone when you made a distinction between problems and issues...
 
PoisonApple

PoisonApple

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Hmm...I know Stephen Hawking believes in ET's, who's to say they aren't gods to some? In that case, Hawking believes in God... :D
 
Rosco..Jones

Rosco..Jones

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Ayasano said:
Rosco..Jones said:
There is one point I am not clear on. I am hoping to hear from those leaning towards the atheist/no God perspective. My question is, "Even if there are no Gods, do you believe in the possibility of life after death or a non-physical/spiritual side to reality?"
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While I don't believe in a soul or afterlife per-se, there is one thing I've always wondered about. Since my belief is that consciousness arises from the brain, what happens if you take apart my constituent atoms and reassemble them somewhere else in exactly the same pattern? I think the reassembled atoms would remember being me, but would I personally experience a continuous existence before and after, like going to sleep and waking up? What happens if you copy/paste instead of cut/paste? Would I experience being in two places at once, or have a random chance of ending up in either copy? What about if you replicate the pattern in silicon instead of meat? I'm sure it'll be quite a while until we have definite answers to these questions, unfortunately.

As I have had experiences with communication from those no longer living, I do believe in our having a soul and a non-physical existence after death. So, I do have a bit of a different viewpoint on the brain/consciousness relationship. I see the physical brain as more of a receiver that translates non-physical thoughts and desires into physical action. I have questioned what is the source that initiates an original that? Neurons exist in a ready state to send a nerve impulse, but it is not random chance or a chemical cause that enables them to fire in a way that allows free will to function. Their firing is like the collapse of a probability wave function. I cannot explain how this is accomplished without the source being non-physical.

That line of thinking also leads to another fascinating question. Am I the same person from moment to moment? If consciousness and memory arises from a particular arrangement of neurons and the chemical signals they transmit, will the me that exists in this instant exist in the next? Or will it be a new me that simply has the memories of old me? Have billions of me's come into existence, experienced an instant and then vanished into the ether while I was writing this post? Does it really matter, since I don't appear to notice the process? (Beyond a bit of introspective metacognition, anyway)

Great question! Physically all the atoms in our bodies are changed every seven years or so. But, we still seem to be the same person physically, more or less. Consciously, we are not the same as we were as a child or last year. We change with the experiences found in every moment. Although we are constantly changing, learning and growing, I feel that the overall essence of our being remains the same. So, yes you are not the same person you were a moment ago and yet you are.
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D

darwi

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One way of defining God is as pure consciousness. When we attain that level of purity, we find ourselves to be part of God or to be God ourselves. Many people have been stupefied by religion and science. A more accurate understanding of physics and metaphysics will help us to understand ourselves. Once you've been outside your physical body, you may begin to realize that you are not a body. And you are not your thoughts, not your emotions and not your wishes. You are just consciousness. I read some of Stephen Hawking's books. At one point he wasn't so sure that time travel was possible. Later on he began to become more enamored of the possibility. On page 272 or something of one of his books he made a comment 'if that's the way it was' and I knew that what he was suggesting but not really admitting was exactly the way it was. The problem with religionists and physicists is that their thinking is too convoluted, in spite of their high IQs. It's based on too many false concepts, too many false or incomplete theories. It's obvious to me why Einstein never was unable to complete his unified theory in physics.
 

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