slimboyfat

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Posts by slimboyfat

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  168

  Where to draw the line: how Platonism haunts our discourse and the search for exorcism

  by slimboyfat in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  in the discussion about race i adopted a position i am not entirely comfortable with.

  i think there is a sense in which it is useful to distinguish categories of description that can be fruitfully defended (apples and bananas) and those that cannot (caucasian or other racial descriptions for example).

  but there is a more fundamental sense in which i believe that everything is socially constructed, every single line you can think of.

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  slimboyfat

  I agree.

  Except I think there might be a real God behind the Bible. A lot of it is human interpretation a d myth of course. I found James Barr on the subject helpful. A lot of former JWs have found James Barr useful for his books on the "fundamentalist" outlook. Which describes JWs very well. But he also defended a liberal reading of the Bible in books like this:

  https://www.amazon.co.uk/History-Ideology-Old-Testament-Millennium/dp/0199280533/

  https://www.amazon.co.uk/Escaping-Fundamentalism-James-Barr/dp/0334003857/
  
  
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  168

  Where to draw the line: how Platonism haunts our discourse and the search for exorcism

  by slimboyfat in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  in the discussion about race i adopted a position i am not entirely comfortable with.

  i think there is a sense in which it is useful to distinguish categories of description that can be fruitfully defended (apples and bananas) and those that cannot (caucasian or other racial descriptions for example).

  but there is a more fundamental sense in which i believe that everything is socially constructed, every single line you can think of.

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  slimboyfat

  It is possible there is nothing behind it, it just is. It just doesn't seem very likely that's all.

  I find I agree completely with Krauthammer on this topic, although I agree with him about little else. (I wrote an essay about him once as a seminal neocon for an assignment)

  Krauthammer says the idea that humans are able to answer such questions is dubious. And that atheism is one explanation among many, and doesn't seem very likely as an explanation.

  http://www.theblaze.com/news/2013/12/23/i-dont-believe-in-god-but-i-fear-him-greatly-krauthammer-explains-his-thoughts-on-religion

  “I feel the way that I think Newton once said. I feel like a snail on the side of a great ocean and the idea that I can understand a notion like God or humans can as if we’re expecting a snail to understand the motion of the tides through calculus and physics,” he said.
  Krauthammer added, “That’s not possible. So I see the same kind of intellectual gap in the capacity of humans to understand in any deep sense about theology of God as for a snail to figure out how the tides work.”
  “I’m not at all an atheist. I mean, of all the possible theologies, atheism is the least plausible,” he said at the time. “I mean, you’ve got to explain the existence of the universe, and to assume it invented itself or created itself is rather odd.”
  Krauthammer added, “I mean, the only important question, the most important question is why is there or can there be anything, and how can there be consciousness? Atheism is not an answer that is plausible in any way to me.”

  Exactly so. Two weeks ago at church we had an open discussion about whether religion is a crutch. We all agree that it was, but that various things in life can be a crutch. Atheism is a crutch as well, for those who find comfort in a universe that doesn't have meaning. We also discussed whether different kinds of religion can be a crutch more or less. Some tend to think liberal traditions, like Unitarianism or universalism are less crutch-like than more fundamentalist beliefs, but we agreed this may be wishful thinking. Unitarianism has been described as, "the featherbed for the falling Chrisitan".
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  168

  Where to draw the line: how Platonism haunts our discourse and the search for exorcism

  by slimboyfat in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  in the discussion about race i adopted a position i am not entirely comfortable with.

  i think there is a sense in which it is useful to distinguish categories of description that can be fruitfully defended (apples and bananas) and those that cannot (caucasian or other racial descriptions for example).

  but there is a more fundamental sense in which i believe that everything is socially constructed, every single line you can think of.

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  3. 
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  slimboyfat

  How is the thing in itself an explanation?

  Isnt that like saying a car is because “a car”? What does that mean?

  If not God, then what?
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  168

  Where to draw the line: how Platonism haunts our discourse and the search for exorcism

  by slimboyfat in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  in the discussion about race i adopted a position i am not entirely comfortable with.

  i think there is a sense in which it is useful to distinguish categories of description that can be fruitfully defended (apples and bananas) and those that cannot (caucasian or other racial descriptions for example).

  but there is a more fundamental sense in which i believe that everything is socially constructed, every single line you can think of.

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  slimboyfat

  I am not saying the rules are subjective. (In fact that they are objective is the point) I am saying the feeling that they require some explanation may be subjective. Although actually I find it difficult to understand the view that they don’t require explanation.
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  168

  Where to draw the line: how Platonism haunts our discourse and the search for exorcism

  by slimboyfat in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  in the discussion about race i adopted a position i am not entirely comfortable with.

  i think there is a sense in which it is useful to distinguish categories of description that can be fruitfully defended (apples and bananas) and those that cannot (caucasian or other racial descriptions for example).

  but there is a more fundamental sense in which i believe that everything is socially constructed, every single line you can think of.

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  slimboyfat

  Morph you’re one of the ones who think WT has found a sustainable alternative model based on real estate or some such? And you puts words in my mouth I never said. Need I say more?

  Crow, it seems to me the rules of the universe call for some sort of explanation. If you don’t think so, there’s little point arguing about it. It’s like arguing whether the sunset is beautiful. If you don’t feel it, then you can’t be convinced to feel it.
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  168

  Where to draw the line: how Platonism haunts our discourse and the search for exorcism

  by slimboyfat in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  in the discussion about race i adopted a position i am not entirely comfortable with.

  i think there is a sense in which it is useful to distinguish categories of description that can be fruitfully defended (apples and bananas) and those that cannot (caucasian or other racial descriptions for example).

  but there is a more fundamental sense in which i believe that everything is socially constructed, every single line you can think of.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
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  slimboyfat

  Why does reality exist in such a way that there is the relationship we call Pi?

  Reality seems to be strained through a sort of order that calls out for an explanation.

  https://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/6314606905524224/piano-inevitable
  
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  168

  Where to draw the line: how Platonism haunts our discourse and the search for exorcism

  by slimboyfat in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  in the discussion about race i adopted a position i am not entirely comfortable with.

  i think there is a sense in which it is useful to distinguish categories of description that can be fruitfully defended (apples and bananas) and those that cannot (caucasian or other racial descriptions for example).

  but there is a more fundamental sense in which i believe that everything is socially constructed, every single line you can think of.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
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  slimboyfat

  Why is Pi the value it is and not some other value? Could it be otherwise? To me God is the one for whom even these building blocks of reality are not taken for granted.

  Where is the equivocation?
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  168

  Where to draw the line: how Platonism haunts our discourse and the search for exorcism

  by slimboyfat in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  in the discussion about race i adopted a position i am not entirely comfortable with.

  i think there is a sense in which it is useful to distinguish categories of description that can be fruitfully defended (apples and bananas) and those that cannot (caucasian or other racial descriptions for example).

  but there is a more fundamental sense in which i believe that everything is socially constructed, every single line you can think of.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
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  slimboyfat

  I shouldn't mind not being taken seriously. It's less pressure. But I'd be interested what you find objectionable about the question. I can only imagine you considered it to be out of place, context or in some sense rude. But to me it's one of the most profound issues I keep coming back to. Mathematical relationships are arguably the purest kinds of unconstructed concepts available to us. They appear to exist independently of us and our awarenss of them. Where did they come from, if not from God? The idea that such laws can just exist of themselves and require no explanation seems unsatisfying somehow. An "inch" on the other hand, is straightforwardly constructed, and I can't find the enthusiasm to press the point, when it seems so obvious. So I'm more interested in Pi than an inch, hence the abrupt turn.
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  121

  Did man really go to the moon?

  by atomant in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  l have researched this subject and come to the conclusion that no we didn't.what do others think?.

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  slimboyfat

  Not just the moon. I met a man on Sauchiehall Street who's been to other planets. He gave me a booklet. I've not read it yet.
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  168

  Where to draw the line: how Platonism haunts our discourse and the search for exorcism

  by slimboyfat in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  in the discussion about race i adopted a position i am not entirely comfortable with.

  i think there is a sense in which it is useful to distinguish categories of description that can be fruitfully defended (apples and bananas) and those that cannot (caucasian or other racial descriptions for example).

  but there is a more fundamental sense in which i believe that everything is socially constructed, every single line you can think of.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  slimboyfat

  How do you explain Pi without God?