Re: Gross National Happiness

On 8 Mar, 18:48, "John Brockbank" <wag...@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
"Paul" <pgr...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message

news:1173353876.056395.126850@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

< We have not the remotest idea how we initiate
bodily movements.

We are permanently unable to have knowledge of the part of total
reality that is not part of the empirical world. So there cannot be
direct knowledge of a transcendental God, or knowledge that we have
souls - still less that they survive death.There can be no religious
knowledge, there cannot be knowledge of reality that cannot be tested
by experience. For the same reasons we can never know that there is a
God, we cannot know that there is not a God.>

For the same reasons? No reasons were given. You might not have the
remotest idea of how body movements are initiated but if so it would be
better for you to try to find out instead of assuming it to be true for
everyone.

I have no idea how to even beging -- how can you describe how will
affects
matter when it is not chemical or electrical?

What it seems to boil down to is a welter of mystical sounding words,
similar to those used by spiritualists, to justify belief despite lack of
evidence.

What belief would that be? Maybe I needed to expand a little -- see
post 30 in this spread for the expansion. Read Kant for a lot more
expansion.

It is a bit of a desparate attempt at rationalisation, when in
fact the whole point about religion is that it is not rational.

Yes that is Kant's argument, but that doesn't mean God can't exist.

I and a religious man both have imagination. He might imagine God and I
might imagine scoring the winning goal at Wembley, and we each wish that our
imaginings were actual, but he imagines that his are and I imagine that mine
aren't. So we are not so different.

Yours might be actual in a parallel universe, his might be actual.


.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Gross National Happiness
    ... bodily movements. ... reality that is not part of the empirical world. ... God, we cannot know that there is not a God.> ... He might imagine God and I ...
    (uk.philosophy.humanism)
  • Re: How to use SRQ effectively
    ... that one had to go on is ones own perceptions of reality. ... universe from an ineffable cause I call God. ... What I imagine is most required of us ...
    (soc.religion.quaker)
  • Re: CD Sales Down
    ... Maybe Truth is an ideal, ... In my theology that's backwards - people don't exist without God. ... Faith is what people use when they want to believe something, but can't find any evidence to back it up. ... The lie could be checked against reality, but if the liar controls the media and holds all the guns, it might be difficult. ...
    (alt.guitar)
  • Re: The logic of atheism
    ... >> is an ultimate reality and can speak to it in personal terms. ... for materialism is normally considered to imply ... god is real, and the proceeding to debate its nature. ... >>> The decisive difference between theism and atheism is that the ...
    (talk.atheism)
  • Re: WHY COLONIZE OUTER SPACE
    ... Jaron Lanier -- There are certain questions about virtual reality ... person who started off in natural reality can be fooled by a simulation, ... seemingly unrelated field: quantum computation. ... The very wimpiest god can hypothetically see into our world but can't do ...
    (talk.philosophy.misc)