Jesus' Origin Story

[Cavebear]

Yes, but all absolute realists believe in Plato, and he has been dead for a long time.

I don't believe in Plato, and I consider myself a realist...

[Baruch]

I don't believe in Plato, and I consider myself a realist...

Most people's self examination is shallow ... much philosophy comes thru culture, not thru college courses.  Do you believe that any reality is absolute (as opposed to empirical (which is what I call realist))?  Then you are a Platonist in part.  Very few people aren't closet Plutonists.  Western Philosophy is mostly commentary on Plato.  I am a realist (as in empirical) ... I don't believe in reason (which can be used to deny empiricism) and I don't believe in absolutes.  It is relative, yet pragmatic ... what I see happening.

[Cavebear]

Most people's self examination is shallow ... much philosophy comes thru culture, not thru college courses.  Do you believe that any reality is absolute (as opposed to empirical (which is what I call realist))?  Then you are a Platonist in part.  Very few people aren't closet Plutonists.  Western Philosophy is mostly commentary on Plato.  I am a realist (as in empirical) ... I don't believe in reason (which can be used to deny empiricism) and I don't believe in absolutes.  It is relative, yet pragmatic ... what I see happening.

Plato and his followers were mystic idiots.  I grant them only scorn.

[Baruch]

Plato and his followers were mystic idiots.  I grant them only scorn.

So you deny his grand-daddy ... Pythagoras, and the whole arithmetical cult?

[Cavebear]

So you deny his grand-daddy ... Pythagoras, and the whole arithmetical cult?

Yes, actually.  Pythagorus and his followers considered the idea of irrational numbers too upsetting for the "others" to understand, hid knowledge, and made maths a mystical idea.  They set back human knowledge by centuries.

If not for them, we might be settled on solar planets by know and reaching the nearest stars.

[Baruch]

Yes, actually.  Pythagorus and his followers considered the idea of irrational numbers too upsetting for the "others" to understand, hid knowledge, and made maths a mystical idea.  They set back human knowledge by centuries.

If not for them, we might be settled on solar planets by know and reaching the nearest stars.

Yes, we must spread the gospel of Pee Wee Herman thru the universe!

[Cavebear]

Yes, actually.  Pythagorus and his followers considered the idea of irrational numbers too upsetting for the "others" to understand, hid knowledge, and made maths a mystical idea.  They set back human knowledge by centuries.

If not for them, we might be settled on solar planets by know and reaching the nearest stars.

I sometimes wonder how much farther we would have advanced today if not for religious idiots and the civilization delays they have caused.  It is so sad. 

[Baruch]

I sometimes wonder how much farther we would have advanced today if not for religious idiots and the civilization delays they have caused.  It is so sad.

Actually, we are approaching extinction.  Why get to the extinction event sooner?

[Cavebear]

Actually, we are approaching extinction.  Why get to the extinction event sooner?

Well, let's say the mystical Greeks did not out-argue the rational Greeks.  Let's suggest the possibility that the Greek civilization did not then collapse but continued.  Might we not then now be colonized on the Moon and Mars and looking to further expansion?

[trdsf]

Well, let's say the mystical Greeks did not out-argue the rational Greeks.  Let's suggest the possibility that the Greek civilization did not then collapse but continued.  Might we not then now be colonized on the Moon and Mars and looking to further expansion?

Indeed.

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

[Baruch]

This is all part of the Progressive or neoLiberal matrix ... it is crap.  If there were no humans to begin with, the biosphere of this planet might survive.

[Unbeliever]

Actually, we are approaching extinction.  Why get to the extinction event sooner?

Well, the average lifetime of a species is about a million years, so they all go, sooner or later. Once they're gone it hardly matters that they were ever here at all. Except for our digging them up they'd be absolutely forgotten by the world. The same will be true once were gone: it will (eventually, once the biosphere recovers) be as though we were never here at all. Oblivion sandwiches both sides of our species life, just as it does each of our individual lives. As Yeats wrote:

Many times man lives and dies   
Between his two eternities,

[Cavebear]

Indeed.

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

I re-watch Cosmos frequently.  I know that part well.  It is the mysticism of some of the Greeks that delayed our scientific understanding of the universe around us.

[Baruch]

Is that you Carl?  Do they have Internet in the after-life?

I really enjoyed the old Cosmos.  Didn't get to see much of the new one, but I heard it was dumbed down for the Millennials.

[fencerider]

Very few people aren't closet Plutonists

I cant be a Plutonist, I don't even know the guy, hell I've never even been to one of his schools or had any of his students teaching in my school