Learner
Veteran Member
Emulating stupidity hmmm.. Ironically A.S. seems to be the "real thing" in itself ... without the AS researchers realising it.
Q can die, but that aside, there is no good reason to think that in the actual world, there is anything like Q. Now you might say it's metaphysically possible, but then, the question of whether such hypothetical beings in non-actual possible worlds (whether Satan or Q) 'supernatural' seem to raise problems for the coherence of the word 'supernatural'. For example, if someone in the Star Trek universe said that Q is supernatural, and Q denied it, then one would reasonably wonder what it is that they're even debating about.Learner said:Q the immortal in star-trek could be mistaken for Zeus , Loki , or Satan to the mere mortal.
Q can die, but that aside, there is no good reason to think that in the actual world, there is anything like Q. Now you might say it's metaphysically possible, but then, the question of whether such hypothetical beings in non-actual possible worlds (whether Satan or Q) 'supernatural' seem to raise problems for the coherence of the word 'supernatural'. For example, if someone in the Star Trek universe said that Q is supernatural, and Q denied it, then one would reasonably wonder what it is that they're even debating about.Learner said:Q the immortal in star-trek could be mistaken for Zeus , Loki , or Satan to the mere mortal.
Hypothetically ... "yes" to the hypothetical underlined.
HeeHee, us skeptics do kept that pearl of wisdom in mind.
It is directed at theists.
If Jesus appears on your lawn is it the son of a deity or is it a hologram or a Star Trek transporter? Or is it simply a hallucination? How would you know?
I don't understand what you mean.
...one would have the ability to "heal you" so to speak whereas the other would do practically zilch
If you're not sure what is you're looking at on your lawn then its not Jesus appearing in front of you
HeeHee, us skeptics do kept that pearl of wisdom in mind.
It is directed at theists.
If Jesus appears on your lawn is it the son of a deity or is it a hologram or a Star Trek transporter? Or is it simply a hallucination? How would you know?
Bringing up good points (adding to my theology pov ... cheers ) one would have the ability to "heal you" so to speak whereas the other would do practically zilch benefit in comparison.
If you're not sure what is you're looking at on your lawn, then its not Jesus appearing in front of you but the other e.g. hologram other, and .. you'd still be an atheist .
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I don't understand what you mean.
Apologies, I agree with the underlined.
Yes, it is different in many ways, of course. But an interesting way is that such a computer - or rather, such a program + computer, and more precisely, in this case a NN (neural network), like Leela Chess Zero (LC0) - defeats the best humans at an intellectual task. The Ferrari does not. A better analogy would be an electronic calculator. Still, there are interesting differences. LC0 does not know in advance that a certain move will lead to mate, and does not compute the best path (except when using table bases, but that's for the endgame only, and LC0 is pretty limited at that; in fact, some of the versions do not even use them). Rather, LC0 plays against itself many, many times, and comes up with playing strategies that beat humans and nearly all chess engines, though only with a considerably more powerful hardware than the engines in question are not able to take advantage to. If the engines are given the best hardware available to them, it would be more difficult, and I'm not sure which ones would beat LC0.People get excited about so-called "machine learning" but on close inspection we see that it's still just a man-made machine doing - by rote - what it was told to do.
Make 10 trillion different combinations of chess moves and record/log/memorise which if-then combination of moves is the fastest (most efficient) pathway to a checkmate. Is such a computer, when it defeats a human Grandmaster, any different to a Ferrari that can beat Usain Bolt in a race?
Heh ... the question of which is which is personal, and still remains.
So, conversely.... lol!
What puzzles me about theists is their assumption that the place whence they derive benefit needs to be others' sole source (only troo religion, like all the rest).
That's why I like your "if you're not sure what you're looking at..." meme. If you're SURE you're looking at a hologram, or at a manifestation of the FSM, then it is (FAPP) "Jesus" - as long as the benefit is realized.
The old theist two step dance avoiding the issue. You have no way to know objectively if faith healing works, or if an apparently miraculous cure is not just a biological function. There are documented cases of cancer remission. Faith healing is a bit off topic.
I knew an Evangelical who absolutely belived in faith healing. He made trips to a church in Nortern Claifinia rthat was a center for it. He could ralle off a list clamed healings yet never saw one and did not know anyone who did.
Someone in his group had a heart exam that showed severe thinning of heart walls and a number was given to it, ultrasound does that. When they opened him up it was thicker. He claimed it was divine intervention that thickened his heart walls.
The old theist two step dance avoiding the issue. You have no way to know objectively if faith healing works, or if an apparently miraculous cure is not just a biological function. There are documented cases of cancer remission. Faith healing is a bit off topic.
I knew an Evangelical who absolutely belived in faith healing. He made trips to a church in Nortern Claifinia rthat was a center for it. He could ralle off a list clamed healings yet never saw one and did not know anyone who did.
Someone in his group had a heart exam that showed severe thinning of heart walls and a number was given to it, ultrasound does that. When they opened him up it was thicker. He claimed it was divine intervention that thickened his heart walls.
Perhaps another thread but I'm not avoiding the issue. I answered the question you previously posted but its just not an acceptable answer to you. Your question was " IF Jesus i.e. the real mc'coy, you seemed to be saying ; appeared in your front lawn. Now you are giving a different context here that you don't mean actually Jesus but another hallucination.
If you truly believe then it should be easy to express faith without having to explain, prove, or defend it. Faith without intellectualizing.