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Philosophy
Topic Started: Aug 3 2009, 06:03 AM (301 Views)
Darkom
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Hello everyone. As our first Community Discussion thread, I figured there was no better place to start than philosophy.

Are you a philosopher? How much so?

If so, what philosophies do you believe in most? Which do you think are total BS?

Also, remember, we can talk to our heart's content about religion and everything else here :D

More questions later, answers now.
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redmer

edit: oh well sorry.
Edited by redmer, Aug 4 2009, 09:58 PM.
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Darkom
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Yes, and bread can be compared to cheese because you can slice both of them. There is really no relationship other than one makes up the other, sorry.

And that's not philosophy, that is simply idiocy. If you look at the right places the right way, you're bound to find something. I'm not sure about that one number that happens frequently in nature, but they butcher it all the same way. "If you multiply it by X and divide by Z and subtract Q you get 23!!!"

Try this, take another random number and look for it. You're bound to find it somehow.

Real philosophy is asking things like "Where did the universe come from?" and "Is X really a bad thing?" X being one of the multitude of things society says is bad.


No need to apologize, you were fine. I, however, apologize if I sounded condescending or otherwise unsupportive. I'll leave mine as it is so people wonder what you said :D
Edited by Darkom, Aug 5 2009, 03:01 AM.
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redmer

ok then lets examine fate. I for one believe in fate because everything must have a meaning or we wouldn't be here.
Edited by redmer, Aug 4 2009, 10:41 PM.
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Half Tooth
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Hmmm.. Fate eh?

Well I believe there is a reason for everything, but that that reason was in the past. What I'm trying to describe is kind of simple, but describing it is very difficult. It's analogy time yay!

Imagine you have a story book. Every time you read the story the ending is always the same, why is that? It's because of the stuff that happened at the beginning. If you change what happens at the start then the ending would change too.
I guess what I'm describing is kind of like the theory called the Butterfly effect* except that is ripples through time as well effecting the future as well as the present.

Anyway to try and sumerise what I'm trying to explain, I think that everything that will ever happen to anyone or anything or any universe... ever, has already been decided. But not because some supreme being sat down and wrote it that way, we haven't had our futures decided for us, we make the decisions but if you go back to my analogy, every decision we make is like the ending to a story and the only way we would make a different decision is if the beginning bit of the story was changed. But because the beginning is linked in with everything else, and one ending can also influence another beginning, everything we ever will do has already been set, we just have to live through it.

I don't know if that makes sense to anyone, please tell me if it does.

*For those who don't know, the Butterfly efect is a theory which basically states that when a butterfly flaps it's wings it's affecting everything in the world somewhere somehow even in the smallest most unlikely of ways.
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redmer

Yes thats kinda what I meant and didn't know how to summerize it. but goes back to the thing someone said if you knew the velocity and speed of every sub atomic particle then you could predict everything for the end of time. even thought thats impossible because the closer you measure its velocity the less certain the speed and vica versa. or was it velocity and vectors not sure been too long sinse I took physics. anyways everything is predetermined. then agian if you could see all the velocity and vectors of every sub atomic particle could you change the future to your likeing?
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Darkom
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What you are saying is the past influences the present, yet you do not mention that present decisions affect the future in the same way.

Fate can be described as two things: As in relating to a diety or fate as in relating to the pre-determidness of future events, which you already mentioned.

The biggest debate with the fate theory is free will. Can we truly choose for ourselves, or are our decisions based on our mindset which was influenced only by other things, which through a cycle of being influenced goes all the way back to the beginning of time. The people that believe our decisions are up to "fate" say that every single facet of the universe had a factor in whether or not we will do X. Those that think this is nonsense and that we choose our fates say that the human mind is shaped only by itself.

And the butterfly effect is named as thus because the butterfly analogy is one of billions. During the creation of the theory, it was used as an example "A butterfly flapping its wings in Africa creates hurricanes in Florida." This is not to be taken literally.

Fate in a diety, however, is obviously the theory that every single decision and event in the universe is decided by a supreme being. That goes back to the existance of an omnipotent and omnipresent being. I myself am an agnostic atheist on the subject, deciding not to believe in such a thing unless proof is brought forward.
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Atmoran

Darkom
Aug 5 2009, 03:10 AM
The biggest debate with the fate theory is free will. Can we truly choose for ourselves, or are our decisions based on our mindset which was influenced only by other things, which through a cycle of being influenced goes all the way back to the beginning of time. The people that believe our decisions are up to "fate" say that every single facet of the universe had a factor in whether or not we will do X. Those that think this is nonsense and that we choose our fates say that the human mind is shaped only by itself.
I tend to stay away from metaphysical subjects because I hate the idea of just plain guessing, but I believe a person is who they make themselves to be.

If anyone has ever watched the "Social Contract" episode of House (the only television show I can bear to watch), can you recall what Wilson said? Something to the effect of "If he's spent his whole life trying to build this persona of who he'd like to be, isn't that as much who he really is as anything else?" That's what I believe.
Edited by Atmoran, Aug 9 2009, 12:38 AM.
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Michael Valentine

I am quite the philosopher myself. Being an Atheist because I like to think for myself and discover the answers on my own rather than to put faith into things that I have no proof of.

I have a strong interest in metaphysics.
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Darkom
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Ah, yes, metaphysics. A very practical use of philosophy, particularly before advanced sciences came to be. I myself am more concerned with ethics, though also love cosmology, the mind, and religion. I'd love to see you over in the debate thread sometime, perhaps we can make even more philosophy threads now :D

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Michael Valentine

Heh heh. Would be one hell of a debate.
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