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Bringing you atheist articles and building active godless communities takes hundreds of hours and resources each month. If you find any joy or stimulation at Atheist Republic, please consider becoming a Supporting Member with a recurring monthly donation of your choosing, between a cup of tea and a good dinner.
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I can offer you 72 almonds in heaven if you join my jihad and sacrifice your life for “the cause”.
@Rat Spit Re: "I can offer you 72 almonds in heaven if you join my jihad and sacrifice your life for “the cause”."
Hmmm.... Since we seem to be negotiating, how about a six pack of-... No, no, no. A CASE. - a case of Bud Light, and I'll see if I can find a dozen roaches to sacrifice?
Domestic? How about something imported? Maybe a Czech lager of some type? I don’t mind splurging a bit on new recruits. But - hey; I don’t have the kind of cheddar to be buying everyone a fancy 42 inch Samsung, ok? *tongue wagging*
@Rat Spit Re: "Domestic? How about something imported?"
Oooooooo..... *Big Smile*.... Well, hey now, if you are offering imported, now we're talkin'! I was just trying to be considerate. Didn't know what type budget you have.... *briskly rubbing hands together*.... Let's seeeeeee.... Uhhh... Oh, I know! How about some Medalla? Made in Puerto Rico. Great stuff, and I don't know if it is even sold here in the States. Got introduced to it during a couple of trips I made there courtesy of my rich Uncle Sam. Get me some of that, and I may just throw in an extra dozen of sacrificial cockroaches.
Is 72 almonds a 70 inch 8k 3D curved TV? I think not.
Oh yeah, HDR.
A 70 inch 8k 3D HDR curved TV. Nothing less.
At least I still hang around lurking and reading. Just ain't got much to say.
rmfr
Oh, I doubt that he’ll actually leave... for more info on why I think that, please refer to this:
https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/RationalWiki:Leaving_and_never_coming_back
Here is a link to a broad study on auditory hallucinations in the general public. I mentioned an old study by the Dutch - who found 4% of normal people hear voices. This study has numbers even higher. And the general stigma of schizophrenia versus normal auditory hallucinations is covered. Basically just a good research paper covering a lot of the issues I’ve been tapping into here (nothing about an OverLord though. Hmmm. I wonder why).
http://www.dirkcorstens.com/hearing-voices-and-dissociation
“Once you hear the voices, you realize they’ve always been there.
It’s just a matter of being tuned to them.”
(Mark Vonnegut, The Eden Express, 1975)
The whole website, indeed, is dedicated to the normalization of auditory hallucinations in what is a mentally healthy general public.
"(nothing about an OverLord though. Hmmm. I wonder why)."
Why would objective research mention your personal fantasy?
Does anything in that research claim to objectively evidence anything but natural phenomena?
Oh that's right, you insist objective evidence doesn't exist, so that article by your own reasoning carries no more validity than people who claim to have befriended mermaids.
No point reading it then if everything is equally subjective.
You’re lazy and refuse to educate yourself. Go on. Remain ignorant. It suits you.
"What I have done is point out an inconsistency in people who identify with their thoughts. And that is that all thought begins as an impulse. Now, there is no way for “you” to be the source of that impulse, unless thought precedes impulse (which is absurd)."
Are you saying that the Overlord and Evil One are the authors of every thought you have, since you cannot be the source of the impulse that precedes thought? Then who are "you" at all? You can't even be the observer of these two beings if you have no capability of thought without them, meaning that all of your thoughts are theirs.
Who are you? Or are you simply the Overlord and Evil One speaking through/to a human vessel who isn't capable of independent thought?
I am the collection of my form, feelings, perceptions, volition, and consciousness. Recall that impulses may be triggered by our perceptual environment - not necessarily an Evil One or an OverLord.
Then can't thoughts be triggered by our perceptual environment? Including the ones you would attribute to the Evil One or OverLord?
Sure. I would say all thoughts are triggered by our perceptual environment. In my case it also boils down to the volition of an external presence.
In your case, the cause may be different. My only point is that the impulse itself doesn’t come from you. The thought is an after thought of the impulse.
I suspect that rat spit is an individual who desires to make atheists look foolish by his cartoonish god "the Overlord and Evil One", although he stops his pantomime when he reveals that he believes there are evils that must be punished and is shocked when others don't seem to agree.
Not at all. The OverLord punishes evil. I stand by that. And I don’t expect anyone to believe what I say. I would ask that people question the nature of thought. Find out where it comes from. Possibly read the paper which I linked. That’s a start. I don’t intend to make anyone look foolish per say.
Until he demonstrates objective evidence for his claims they are all woo woo. Including the claim that all evidence is subjective.
Which is quite funny given he's now linking research papers which according to his own claim are simply subjective opinion.
Selection bias and special pleading anyone...
@Sheldon
The point of the article is to show that a voice hearer’s inner hallucinations are indecipherable from, say, a person like you who identifies with their own inner voice.
Subjective evidence ... When these researchers ask the subjects about their experiences, are they not providing subjective evidence? Are we not relying on their “testimony” to be taken on “faith”.
As i daid you can demonstrate no objective evidence for you assumption that the physical brain requires an "outside" supernatural cause in order to think.
Occam's razor applies, and your assertions are irrational.
It's not a subjective claim that the physical material brain exists, it's as objectives fact as we can hope for. Likewise it's an objective fafthumans can reason. Lastly it's an objective fact supported by all the evidence that when a human brain dies, all its functions that we can evidence cease.
You and only you are adding a cause for which you can demonstrate no objective evidence, based on assumption and a fair amount of what by any objective standard is delusional paranoia.
I have no idea whatresearch you're referring to, you'd need to link a citation. If it's properly constructed then the results and conclusions should not be as objective as possible. Any hint of personal bias and the researchers careers in scientif8c research would be pretty much over. Even in accidental error they would have to publiclyretract their findings, a public retraction does not look good on any scientists CV.
Is the world flat? Is the world at the centre of the universe?
If you think those questions can be answered definitively and with objective evidence then you dont understand the difference between objective and subjective. The answer to the those questions is true independently of anyone's opinion and no subjective claims are necessary.
Remember the more unevidenced assumptions you make the less likeliiy it is to be true - Occam's razor.
The material brain exists as an objective fact. Each functioning brain produces thoughts, these are not subjective opinion, only your unevidenced assumption that an unevidenced supernatural entity is the cause, without any objective explanation of how it happens, is a subjective assumption.
Your using argumentum ad ignorantiam fallacy, but the burden of proof here is rationally yours.
Sounds like a troll and you guys keep egging him on to keep trolling.
Sounds like a troll and you guys keep egging him on to keep trolling.
He may well be trolling, I actually hope he is, as the alternative is deeply worrying.
@Sheldon
On what basis do you posit that the perceived and felt world is an illusion? Can you walk through walls?
In fact, our sense faculties are entirely fine tuned to our sense objects. If I push against a wall, I know exactly how much force is stopping me from toppling it over. Perception didn’t evolve in a test tube. It evolved hand in hand with the environment. The sense objects in the environment are not illusions - and the relationship between sense faculty and sense object is one to one.
Yes, everyone, we’re falling for a troll, which is Rat Spit. Personally, I’d question if he even believes half the stuff he says about his god.
Re: Rat Spit
Just my personal opinion, but even if he is a troll, he is much better than the others we have been getting here. You have to admit, he is fairly well-behaved (which is more than I can say for myself... *chuckle*) and reasonably polite. Heck, to tell the truth, I like having him around. He has a pretty good sense of humor that I understand and appreciate, and I rather enjoy interacting with him. Honestly makes no difference to me if he believes what he says or not. If he does believe all that he says, then he seems to be handling it well enough as far as I can tell. And if he does happens to be "trolling" and making it all up just for shits and giggles to entertain himself, then I have to admit I am fairly impressed at the fantastic job he is doing with it. Regardless of which it is, he isn't causing any harm as far as I can tell. Might as well have fun while we can. *grin*
@ Tin-Man
I concur. Although I do not contribute much to this thread, as said, I do lurk around for the giggles.
rmfr
@arakish Same here.
hissss!!! I’m a snake. Not a troll.
@Sheldon - I appreciate your concern. I see now how much I need help. I will be self administering black market haldol to keep my subjective hallucinations under the rug. Thank you for pointing out my idiocy.
@ rat spit
See. A nice chuckle. Lurking can have its benefits.
rmfr
@Arakish Re: Rat Spit's response to Sheldon
LMAO... Aw, hell! Chuckle my ass! I about fell out of my chair laughing so hard!.... LMAO
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