# Science Saturday



## ambush80 (Jun 21, 2018)

This is a great interview with one of my favorite scientists, David Deutsch.  At 10:25 "I became a science writer.....[because] it's the most powerful way to understand ourselves and understanding all of reality".  

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="



" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe>


----------



## ambush80 (Jun 21, 2018)

At around 21:50.

"The Earth is moving at 1,000 MPH around its axis".

It's so interesting to me that this kind of information could lead someone away from superstition or equally towards it.  The thought that this giant ball of rock and iron is hurtling through the solar system at high speeds with us on it, living, loving, fishing, eating, dying, breeding, pet owning, art making, discussing, all the while not even realizing that this ball of rock is actually in scale SO tiny and moving at such unremarkable speeds makes me see how one could be astonished and overwhelmed to the point of believing that there might be some kind of mystical force at work.  Then I think of how the world must have seemed to people that didn't know that washing your hands can keep you from getting sick.  How much more mysterious could the world have seemed to them and how much more important would they have thought themselves? 

I just can't see how when faced with the knowledge of how much we DON"T know that anyone could say "This is how the world works:  There is this Guy and he is in charge and he wants you to cut the tip of your pee pee off and he told this to some guys 2,000 years ago that didn't know what red blood cells are".  It dawns on me that it's actually hubris to think that God is "like us" (that's the logical conclusion from "We are made in the image of God").  We are squares and God is also a square but way more bigly.  The squarest of all squares. 

Deutsch has a way of putting things in perspective that truly humbles me.


----------



## Israel (Jun 21, 2018)

The deal breaker for some remains...consciousness. Once the "thing" of whatever magnitude is found to humble a man, once it is attributed consciousness...Katy bar the doors.

But even the believer (maybe specifically the believer(?)...) has some inkling "this consciousness ain't like the one I have known...of myself...or in myself" Whatever metric one wants to use as to quality...or quantity...this consciousness is indeed "bigger"...and also different...but neither to such an extent that it is not to be related to.
Yeah...you come to realize "if this consciousness don't wanna be found it won't"...and likewise "if it's perceived at all, it's only because _it_ has willed itself to be so"

But here's the trippiest part.

It's no different between people. The things _everyone thinks_...they know so well.


----------



## atlashunter (Jun 21, 2018)

God is indeed like us. For an obvious reason.


----------



## matt79brown (Jun 21, 2018)

Believer or unbeliever we all still got more questions than answers, doesn't matter if your David Deutsch or King Solomon.


----------



## atlashunter (Jun 22, 2018)

matt79brown said:


> Believer or unbeliever we all still got more questions than answers, doesn't matter if your David Deutsch or King Solomon.



That’s true. Also true that science has a far greater track record of providing truthful answers to questions.


----------



## WaltL1 (Jun 22, 2018)

matt79brown said:


> Believer or unbeliever we all still got more questions than answers, doesn't matter if your David Deutsch or King Solomon.


That's pretty much exactly our (A/As) position.


----------



## WaltL1 (Jun 22, 2018)

> "atlashunter, post: 11242162, member: 34470"]God is indeed like us. For an obvious reason.


To me, this is a GIGANTIC piece of evidence.
We can even acknowledge the possibility that there could be a "something" out there but its no coincidence that man (Christianity) has defined that something to be "like" man.


----------



## 660griz (Jun 22, 2018)

God made man in his own image, and man returned the favour. --Frank Wedekind


----------



## ambush80 (Jun 23, 2018)

Israel said:


> The deal breaker for some remains...consciousness. Once the "thing" of whatever magnitude is found to humble a man, once it is attributed consciousness...Katy bar the doors.
> 
> But even the believer (maybe specifically the believer(?)...) has some inkling "this consciousness ain't like the one I have known...of myself...or in myself" Whatever metric one wants to use as to quality...or quantity...this consciousness is indeed "bigger"...and also different...but neither to such an extent that it is not to be related to.
> Yeah...you come to realize "if this consciousness don't wanna be found it won't"...and likewise "if it's perceived at all, it's only because _it_ has willed itself to be so"
> ...



It's about evidence.  Everyone know gravity quite well.  They think they know about it and they actually do.


----------



## 1eyefishing (Jun 23, 2018)

There are many questions that science cannot answer.


----------



## bullethead (Jun 23, 2018)

1eyefishing said:


> There are many questions that science cannot answer.


Yet how can individuals positively answer some of the questions that science cannot regarding religious matters?


----------



## ambush80 (Jun 23, 2018)

1eyefishing said:


> There are many questions that science cannot answer.



Like what?  What method would better to try to answer them?


----------



## ambush80 (Jun 23, 2018)

Deutsch says that the only thing that prevents us from being able to do anything is lack of knowledge.  I thin that might be true.  I can't seem to defeat his argument.


----------



## 1eyefishing (Jun 23, 2018)

bullethead said:


> Yet how can individuals positively answer some of the questions that science cannot regarding religious matters?


Some people know how to turn Faith and Hope and belief into knowledge. I do not believe in this kind of religious Alchemy.


----------



## 1eyefishing (Jun 23, 2018)

ambush80 said:


> Like what?  What method would better to try to answer them?


So far, science has not been able to answer the question is there a God? Or is there an afterlife? Is there a ****? Is there a heaven?
The entire study of philosophy is about questions that cannot be answered.
I believe there are many questions that cannot be answered by any method as far as that goes. Except maybe by death and experience after that. Which cannot be communicated back to those in this world. So we'll never know.


----------



## ambush80 (Jun 23, 2018)

1eyefishing said:


> So far, science has not been able to answer the question is there a God? Or is there an afterlife? Is there a ****? Is there a heaven?
> The entire study of philosophy is about questions that cannot be answered.
> I believe there are many questions that cannot be answered by any method as far as that goes. Except maybe by death and experience after that. Which cannot be communicated back to those in this world. So we'll never know.



I'll catch up with this later.


----------



## lagrangedave (Jun 23, 2018)

Physics has you answer........


----------



## 1eyefishing (Jun 23, 2018)

lagrangedave said:


> Physics has you answer........


Psychics think they know everything...?


----------



## Israel (Jun 24, 2018)

ambush80 said:


> It's about evidence.  Everyone know gravity quite well.  They think they know about it and they actually do.



Really?

But I was talking about relationships of consciousness...even between men.
Or man, in the generic sense. There's a whole lot more cookin' in there, than meets the eye. Even the pot doesn't often recognize its own stew.

But, if you're the guy who never said to himself..."wow, where did that come from?" of some thought or desire, then I should either be paying more attention to you than I already am, or just laughing with you as I do at myself as "_that man_" that_ thinks he knows_ himself "quite well".


----------



## WaltL1 (Jun 24, 2018)

Israel said:


> Really?
> 
> But I was talking about relationships of consciousness...even between men.
> Or man, in the generic sense. There's a whole lot more cookin' in there, than meets the eye. Even the pot doesn't often recognize its own stew.
> ...


Hey Ive said that to myself!
But not as often as Ive said "Now why did I do that"?


----------



## atlashunter (Jun 25, 2018)

1eyefishing said:


> Psychics think they know everything...?



I see what you did there.


----------

