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clark

Member

Registered: 2001-09-20

Posts: 6,362

Re: Freedom?????? - Are People really Free?

Your reference to the jury being "out to lunch" makes me wonder whether you would
feel comfortable in the category "methodological naturalist."

I don't feel comfortable with labels, of any kind, they tend to limit how people will interpret your views, and it can lead to bias on your own part. After categorizing, move on, repeat, rinse... etc.

If my views or our discussion lead you to believe I am of one school more than another, by all means, use that as a guide to understand- but I do not choose them for myself unless I have to.

Methodological naturalism simply requires that, in  trying to explain any particular observation or experimental result, an investigator may not resort to miracles.

Then how would they ever be able to actually identify a true "miracle"? It seems there is no opportunity for this phenomena within the philosphy of "everything has a material reason based on a system of cause and effect".

Philosophical naturalism asserts that the material world is all that exists

I agree completely with this. However, (always the but) I also believe that there is a possibility of worlds beyond our ability to perceive them, or beyond their ability to affect us.

Take a harmless amoeba for example- for all intents and purposes, it did not exsist prior to the invention of somethign that could magnify to a point where we could see it. It is harmless, so it has no effect on us. For all intents and purposes, it exsists beyond our material world in any relevant way. It dosen't exsist in one sense- however, we can agree that it does exsist, and that it did exsist even prior to when we were finally able to perceive it.

My point being, that it would be arrogant to assume that we can perceive everything that exsists- yet holding that we can not perceive, so it does not exisist would be a mistake.

Such is God. We have not the means by which to measure god, so for all intents and purposes, God does not exsist. Yet, if we found the means, would he have exsisted, or would he only exsist once we have the means to measure him?

This is a basic philosphical rule that I am using, that's why I won't rush into judgement on certain topics.

Josh Cryer

Moderator

Registered: 2001-09-29

Posts: 3,830

Re: Freedom?????? - Are People really Free?

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Some useful links while MER are active. [url=http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.html]Offical site[/url] [url=http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/MM_NTV_Web.html]NASA TV[/url] [url=http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/mer2004/]JPL MER2004[/url] [url=http://www.spaceflightnow.com/mars/mera/statustextonly.html]Text feed[/url]
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The amount of solar radiation reaching the surface of the earth totals some 3.9 million exajoules a year.