Screw Religion

[vegetariantaxidermy]

''Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence''

[Walker]

''Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence''

What is the extraordinary evidence that a creation does not have a creator? Pretty please, pray tell.

[vegetariantaxidermy]

What is that annoying squeaking sound? Someone get some oil on it please.

[Walker]

What is that annoying squeaking sound? Someone get some oil on it please.

After she realized and accepted that she was no longer in Kansas, Dorothy said the very same thing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJZcQDSZzQc

[vegetariantaxidermy]

There it is again....

[attofishpi]

What is that annoying squeaking sound? Someone get some oil on it please.

Yeah it pisses me off too (when God doesn't give a woman legs so she can walk from the bedroom to the kitchen and laundry)

[Walker]

''Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence''

What is the extraordinary evidence that a creation does not have a creator? Pretty please, pray tell.

How can we not answer the question? Let us count the ways. So far we have two ways, oil and legs.

[Agent Smith]

Interesting statement.

[Iwannaplato]

''Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence''

What is the extraordinary evidence that a creation does not have a creator? Pretty please, pray tell.

How can we not answer the question? Let us count the ways. So far we have two ways, oil and legs.

Yes, extraordinary is a very vague word. And 'extraordinary' to whom? And then as Walker is saying here, how do we evaluate degrees of ordinariness around metaphysics?

And then the original, the one that Carl Sagan reworded was
Laplace's principle, which says that “the weight of evidence for an extraordinary claim must be proportioned to its strangeness”

And there we have strangeness. But strangeness is always in relation to our other beliefs and norms. It's not like mass.

On the other hand

Many religions deserve the sentiment Screw Religion aimed at them.

And they should know why.

[attofishpi]

''Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence''

What is the extraordinary evidence that a creation does not have a creator? Pretty please, pray tell.

How can we not answer the question? Let us count the ways. So far we have two ways, oil and legs.

Yes, extraordinary is a very vague word. And 'extraordinary' to whom? And then as Walker is saying here, how do we evaluate degrees of ordinariness around metaphysics?

And then the original, the one that Carl Sagan reworded was
Laplace's principle, which says that “the weight of evidence for an extraordinary claim must be proportioned to its strangeness”

And there we have strangeness. But strangeness is always in relation to our other beliefs and norms. It's not like mass.

On the other hand

Many religions deserve the sentiment Screw Religion aimed at them.

And they should know why.

So what do you believe regarding God? As far as I am aware you are a theist..so are you drawn to any particular religion?

[Gary Childress]

What's even more incredible, is that only 1 or 2 of these 200 to 500 million sperms make it to the ( '' I'm alive stage '' )

Which means the rest of the 200 to 500 million sperms that did not make it, are the lucky ones. Amazingly!
That's 200 to 500 million people never got to be alive.

So amazingly, the probability of your 'personage' is more likely to have never happened than it is to have happened. Amazingly!

It's hardly 'amazing'. Actually the 'probability of your personage' was 100 percent.

Do we know if either claim is really true though? If a different sperm had fertilized the egg I came from, then would I be here or would it be someone else? Obviously, it's a black box problem that is impossible to ever know the conclusive answer to but it's an interesting thought experiment that articulates the paradoxical problems associated with identity (that which suffices to make us who we are as opposed to being someone else in this world).

[Dubious]

What's even more incredible, is that only 1 or 2 of these 200 to 500 million sperms make it to the ( '' I'm alive stage '' )

Which means the rest of the 200 to 500 million sperms that did not make it, are the lucky ones. Amazingly!
That's 200 to 500 million people never got to be alive.

So amazingly, the probability of your 'personage' is more likely to have never happened than it is to have happened. Amazingly!

It's hardly 'amazing'. Actually the 'probability of your personage' was 100 percent.

If a different sperm had fertilized the egg I came from, then would I be here or would it be someone else?

You wouldn't be here is the short and final answer. If it were a different sperm cell what would have emerged instead of YOU could have been female...in any event, someone else. From what I gather from your posts, you don't feel very lucky having won the sperm marathon.

Personally, among the many millions of squigglies huffing and puffing toward the finish line, I would have preferred being one of the rejects.

[Gary Childress]

It's hardly 'amazing'. Actually the 'probability of your personage' was 100 percent.

If a different sperm had fertilized the egg I came from, then would I be here or would it be someone else?

You wouldn't be here is the short and final answer. If it were a different sperm cell what would have emerged instead of YOU could have been female...in any event, someone else. From what I gather from your posts, you don't feel very lucky having won the sperm marathon.

Personally, among the many millions of squigglies huffing and puffing toward the finish line, I would have preferred being one of the rejects.

Hindsight seems to be 20/20, doesn't it? As a mindless squiggle huffing and puffing toward the finish line I probably had no idea what the end result would be. All that my proto-sentient reflexes knew how to do was beat out a bunch of other squiggles at swimming. Maybe they were even bigger losers than I am. I don't know. My dad gave the best he had to offer. Maybe not good enough for this world, but I love him and mom just the same. They've given me the best life they could. I am thankful for them.

[Dubious]

If a different sperm had fertilized the egg I came from, then would I be here or would it be someone else?

You wouldn't be here is the short and final answer. If it were a different sperm cell what would have emerged instead of YOU could have been female...in any event, someone else. From what I gather from your posts, you don't feel very lucky having won the sperm marathon.

Personally, among the many millions of squigglies huffing and puffing toward the finish line, I would have preferred being one of the rejects.

Hindsight seems to be 20/20, doesn't it? As a mindless squiggle huffing and puffing toward the finish line I probably had no idea what the end result would be. All that my proto-sentient reflexes knew how to do was beat out a bunch of other squiggles at swimming. Maybe they were even bigger losers than I am. I don't know. My dad gave the best he had to offer. Maybe not good enough for this world, but I love him and mom just the same. They've given me the best life they could. I am thankful for them.

In that case you were more fortunate than I was. I never knew my father; he died a few months after I was born. He was 27 years old. Things would have been much different and much better had that not happened.

[Gary Childress]

You wouldn't be here is the short and final answer. If it were a different sperm cell what would have emerged instead of YOU could have been female...in any event, someone else. From what I gather from your posts, you don't feel very lucky having won the sperm marathon.

Personally, among the many millions of squigglies huffing and puffing toward the finish line, I would have preferred being one of the rejects.

Hindsight seems to be 20/20, doesn't it? As a mindless squiggle huffing and puffing toward the finish line I probably had no idea what the end result would be. All that my proto-sentient reflexes knew how to do was beat out a bunch of other squiggles at swimming. Maybe they were even bigger losers than I am. I don't know. My dad gave the best he had to offer. Maybe not good enough for this world, but I love him and mom just the same. They've given me the best life they could. I am thankful for them.

In that case you were more fortunate than I was. I never knew my father; he died a few months after I was born. He was 27 years old. Things would have been much different and much better had that not happened.

I'm sorry to hear of that loss. Also surprised, you seem to have turned out with sharp wits. That's more than can be said of me.