GENIUS FORUMS

Sapius wrote: DQ: How certain am I about [cause & effect]? Well, since it is a purely defintional truth, with no reliance on empirical data in any way, I am 100% certain. S: I'm not quite clear on the 'purely definitional truth' part. What is it that you are defining? The statement essentially ...

There's no such thing as absolute existence because all things (existences) have causes. translation : everything isn't absolute because it is caused. Every thing is caused but everything is not caused. That makes less than no sense at all. I'm not an academic, so in simple terms it would mean that...

David wrote; How certain am I about it? (Cause & Effect) Well, since it is a purely defintional truth, with no reliance on empirical data in any way, I am 100% certain. I'm not quite clear on the 'purely definitional truth' part. What is it that you are defining? Would you not show me a point of...

ksolway wrote:

Sapius wrote:So, would you say that number 1, or any other thing defined, exists inherently?

No. Defined things are dependent on being defined.

...hence that makes it timeless? Like Ultimate Reality? Ultimate Truth?

David wrote; Logic, however, cannot perform miracles. If the information it uses as premises is uncertain (as empirical information always is), then the conclusions it spits out will always be just as uncertain. So how about cause and effect? How did you arrive at that? How certain are you about it?...

David to Hades; You say this, even though you know that everything perceived through the senses is possibly an hallucination and that nothing can ever be conclusively demonstrated by empirical methods ..... What could be considered a purely empirical method that does not employ logic? (It’s good t...

allo do you say when time passes A is still A? Only if whatever "A" is, hasn't changed. For example, the number 1 doesn't change over time, by definition. So, would you say that number 1, or any other thing defined, exists inherently? I would say that A represents a thing at any particula...

When they ask me to venture an explanation for this lack of interest from women, I reply that the main reason is that I don't have enough money. Kevin, I don't think that would be the main reason for a person of your kind. Even if you had the money, it would most probably be your truthfulness about...

Nick, If everything is already perfect, then why does the sage bother to strive for perfection? Desire perhaps? Or may be he is caused to do so. But then again, all others are caused to whatever. May be on the way to his own perfection he will realize that all things are already perfect, only that h...

Matt, Just because we can't trace them all doesn't mean they don't exist. I never said they don't. We expend effort in thinking because we are caused to. Yes, you are caused to think. Ever think why a rock is not caused to think? OR do you claim that forms do not exist. How can the external be disti...

Kevin wrote , An enlightened world would be a world of intelligence, creativity, energy, fearlessness, and boldness. In such a world, would any of these attributes be realized in the absence of the opposite? Would these attributes even hold any meaning? Nick, in my opinion, attaining enlightenment ...

Matt, But how do we know that we are thinking? How do we know it's not just a causal process of change that creates our thoughts and they just appear to us? We can go for a drive and see a continual inflow of different things, turning down this street and that one. But we really don't have much cont...

Matt, if I may; thought is not a sensory perception, it is rather a result of a much evolved mental process, helped by our capability of forming words, naming things rather than pointing at it with a grunt, ability to speak the words and communicate through a defined language, recall words through m...

To exist is to present an appearance. That an appearance is presented is self-evident, given that there is awareness. If an appearance were not presented, there would be nothing to be aware of. Therefore, there is existence. If I am aware, I exist. The real question is, what am "I?" A thi...

Then clearly, the existence of your message proves your existence. - ....and the above reply proves the existence of, hopefully a person, that identifies itself as David. So, in my opinion, everything one experiences, including what animals and all things that have some sort of sensory perception, ...

Leyla,

I disagree that that is an example of a lengthy concept -- I can measure no length at all. A lengthy sentence, perhaps.

hehehe...... OK, if that was not lengthy enough, allow me to give you a lengthier one ------ now.

That'll be 20 Hail Marys & 20 Our Fathers for you, sonny! Thankyou ma'am, and God bless you. And please don't piss in the holy water on your way oot. Why? I don't see the problem. You could always punish me with Hail Marys and Our Fathres. Sapius, would that be like The Totality & Not The T...

David to Analog: you need to stop thinking of terms of past, present and future. What you are looking at right now, at this very instant, is the first and last moment of creation. There is nothing else. If one stopped thinking in terms of past, present and future, then the now wouldn't exist. Saying...

unknown wrote:There is a chance you will be able to stand outside and look at your beliefs as an outsider.

Why would I need to do that?

unknown wrote:

Ask questions, never agree or disagree.

Why?

Kevin wrote: I agree that it can be useful to speak in terms of "free will", even though ultimately there is none. Of course, ultimately , there is none, but IMO, a core property of a particular thing need not necessarily violate a core principle that it works on. In other words, the core ...

Kevin wrote:

We can always know the complete extent, since a thing is always caused by that thing that is other than itself. That is the complete extent.

Well, that is also true when seen from a core POV, but it does not make contextual sense here.

Leyla Shen wrote:"Cocaine" has a top sound. (Sooooo, over the tree question.)

Yes, it is a question, but not that much over the tree, for I think it is called a rhetorical question.

Dan wrote: If the causes of any such phenomenon were known in its complete extent "freedom" would be a meaningless term. Very true, and who or what in Reality could actually know the complete extent? Reality/Totality for one cannot think, and no- thing could actually achieve that, because ...

David, We only have "free will" in the sense that we are capable of making choices and initiating courses of action. In other words, we are not mindless puppets whose every thought and action is generated directly from an external agent. The conscious mind is a reality; it can reflect, rum...