Re: Stephen Hawking Challenges God (zoorabbi)

On 10/24/2010 2:46 AM, moshes@xxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
sheldonlg<sheldonlg@xxxxxxxxxxxx> writes:
On 10/21/2010 9:42 AM, moshes@xxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
sheldonlg<sheldonlg@xxxxxxxxxxxx> writes:
moshes@xxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:

I am reminded of a dialogue in Alice in Wonderland. Alice is speaking
to the Cheshire cat:

Cheshire Puss,' she began, rather timidly, as she did not at all know
whether it would like the name: however, it only grinned a little wider.

`Come, it's pleased so far,' thought Alice, and she went on. `Would you
tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?'

`That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,' said the Cat.

`I don't much care where--' said Alice.

`Then it doesn't matter which way you go,' said the Cat.

The fallacy in your analogy is that we *do* know where we want
to get to and it has nothing to do with *why* we are here.

I let this by last time. Who is "we", paleface?

People who have an idea of who they are.


We want to live a good life and provide for ourselves and our
families so they can also have a good life. Why we are alive at
all is, well, somewhat irrelevant. IOW, we don't need a "world
to come" to "do the right things".

Sorry Shelly, we're gonna have to agree to disagree here. You see
mankind as "more developed" apes. So your goal is no different
than any animals' goal. I see mankind as something completely
different, so his goals should be different as well.

I know we disagree. However, I (or rather scientists) can prove
experimentally that we are cousins of the chimps, gorillas and
orangutans. The workings of our bodies are so similar. Our
social structures are even similar.

We'e also cousins to zuchini, check the DNA.

Actually, no. Would you say you are my cousin? No? Well, in the world of life, we are the evolutionary cousins of the great apes, but not of cats and dogs, let alone plant life. Check the DNA. We have over 99% the same with the great apes. Not so for other animals.


You, on the other hand, have NO proof that mankind is "something
completely different". Yours may be a "warm and fuzzy", but it
is only an ego statement about humans. You have a need to think
we were "specially created". I don't.

Don't tell me what I have a "need" for. I will only say that my
position is the one felt by most people.

You mean the people that are blinded by a religious fable? Well, at one time "most" people also thought the world was flat.


Do _you_ eat animals?

Absolutely. I do eat other animals.

Do you also eat cousins and cousins of cousins?

Not at all. I would never eat a great ape, not any other animal with at least that level of intelligence -- even the human animal.

Moshe, humans are a species of in the animal kingdom.

--
Shelly
.

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