News Nugget: A Computer Will Replace You Too | Best of Cain
For the 10,000th time, Cain should have been President.
While we're very happy to have you in the Gulch and appreciate your wanting to fully engage, some things in the Gulch (e.g. voting, links in comments) are a privilege, not a right. To get you up to speed as quickly as possible, we've provided two options for earning these privileges.
Thanks for taking a chance on my book. I'm pleased to know you are enjoying it. Which one did you pick up?
BTW - I downloaded your book and enjoying it.
The purpose of prayer is giving thanks for what you've been given already. The asking for things (though I don't think changing physics is something many pray for) is an act of reliance. Pray to get picked for a better job, that your kid comes out of surgery, that your son gets on base at a ball game, or that you meet your bills are probably far more common than asking for physics to be changed.
Back to intelligent design - neither theory can possibly be proven with the tools and the knowlege that humans have at the moment. I am not advocating either one. However, devoting much resources to the belief in God and, especially, the Church, is a tremendous anchor on human progress and well being. You mention the palaces that the bishops have built for themselves; drive through the poorer areas in the South and be amazed at the no-expense-spared churches towering over the trailer parks. It doesn't take a genius to see that there's something wrong with this picture.
You might find this funny. Every Archdiocese does a yearly fundraiser. I mailed mine back with two pennies taped to the card so that they knew who it was from with a note to see if they could recoup my contribution from the various archbishops that I enclosed news clippings from - one in Atlanta who built himself a 6000 sqft house, and another one in PA who added on to an already 4000 sqft house to the tune of several hundred thousand dollars. They actually sent me a thank you for the donation (which cost more to mail than the 2 cents).
I like the structure of Catholicism it's how I was raised, but I have no illusions that the humans that make up the church are any more holy than I or have a more direct communication to God than do I.
Unless and until something comes along that shows how inert matter could spontaneously become living matter, and how humans developed a capacity to think, then I'll keep my belief that it happened as a consequence of an all powerful deity. It's as logical and rational as not. And from a practical perspective, I've never found the argument that we all must respect one another and that's why we shouldn't use force against one another as a logical, rational, nor practical philosophy, particularly since it isn't borne out by history. No, I prefer the theory that there is a vengeful God who will smite those who behave in ways against his will (love one another) as that seems a more credible mechanism to ensure good behavior.
I believe in God. I also believe we have only a fraction of an idea of who He really is and what His objectives are. This is my major sticking point with blind obedience to any faith (and I don't like having to say thank you 10,000 times a week). (I also think using He, could be moot since a strictly spiritual being would have no sex as we know it).
Why, why?
I'm sure that the above is quite lucid, and self explanatory.
I consider myself and Objectivist and perhaps I can answer why Objectivists are not friends with religions. More precisely, not friends with churches - that is the institutions of religions. A great example of that was actually expressed by a rabbi (can't recall his name), when he was asked to explain the difference between spirituality and religion. Spirituality, he said, is when Pocahontas goes into the woods, sits by a stream and contemplates her surroundings, the earth, the water, the sky, the meaning of life… Religion is when her local synagogue asks for 10%.
Now, it is quite possible that an Intelligence created Life and, perhaps the Universe, or that part of it of which we are aware. Is highly unlikely that this Creation happened in six earth days, as described in the Genesis. More likely, a natural world, with its physical laws, came into existence. Thus, we are all subject to those laws, which may have been created by God. What I find curious is that people pray to the God in order to grant them their wishes (even if most noble), which would necessitate the breaking of those natural physical laws created by that same God. And only in order to satisfy the wish of that person. Amazing!
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