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Hi, coberst, Last year I posted an entry in Philosophy Forums (The mind and the brain: Philosophy Forums) on this topic. I repost it here as a possible confirmation of Damasio's thesis: Hi, unenlightened, ... First, some terminology. Although this thread is replete with talk about "mental...

greymare, I am honored by your request to be friends with me. I look forward to our conversations. Dr Free

Levels of Interfaith Commitment Hi, Gregory, Yes, you are right that some people of almost every faith believe that people of other faiths are beyond salvation, but not everyone. A viable interfaith movement does not depend on getting everyone to participate. All that is needed is a critical...

Thank you. It has been a long winter. But signs of spring are already popping up. I look forward to our conversations.

Hi, juantoo3, Nice talking with you again. When my wife died last year, I fear I lost interest in the adversarial tone of the forum. But at last I can engage again, at least occasionally. Namaste

Nick, I've read and reread your reply, and am still uncertain what you are trying to say. The only paragraph that seems to make a somewhat definite statement are Are you saying that religion is essentially in the "transcendent", and what we do here on earth is essentially secular? Well, you...

An interesting distinction, Nick, but it seems to have led, both in this thread and others, to a polarizing interpretation, as though people interested in interfaith activity have to gravitate towards one pole or the other. I myself find both poles uncomfortable. The idea of a Transcendent...

I am one of the things I perceive. You are one of the things I perceive. I am more than what I perceive about myself. You are more than what I perceive about you. I am more than the totality of my perceiving. You are more than the totality of your perceiving. Namiste, Dr Free

Hi, Bandit, Actually the form of the faith that seems go along with the Gaia Hypothesis is panentheism, not pantheism. Pantheism is the belief that everything is divine, i.e., a god. Panentheism, on the other hand, is that we are all part of the divine. For a panentheistic Gaian, the earth is...

Hi, all, There are important differences, especially between Santa and the Jesus/God that has emerged through two millennia of Christianity: God requires us to believe in Him. Santa does not. God's existence is important to His believers. Santa doesn't have to exist to be real. God requires us...

Is Sin Real? Hi, SE, I can understand your reluctance toward the word 'sin'. Historically there has been a strong element with the various religions of the "people of the book" to explain sin as actions worthy of the infinite torments of Hell. Certainly the endless sermons on sinners in the...

The Fermi Plague Stanley Cramer offered one answer to Fermi's question in his editorial in the October 1998 edition of Analog, written a year and a half before September 11. Mr. Cramer referred to this answer as the Fermi Plague. To quote selectively from this editorial:I think I know the...

You already are God every day... Actually, you are a god, already, 24-7. You were created in God's image with the power of choice. (Sorry, omnipotence and omniscience were reserved for founding members.) Every choice you make, every adjustment to your course of action, wipes out an infinity...

Hi Quahom1, Maybe, but not necessarily in our generation. And it does depend a lot on what you count as imagination. Escher was quite imaginative. Namiste

Hi, jiii, You captured my skepticism quite well. Seems like there are a number of weaknesses in the multiverse theory: It sounds like abstruse mathematics searching for a realization. (Not everything that can be said in mathematics has a physical application.) It lacks any confirming...

Hi, mee, The hypothesis that truth is somehow natural and that untruth is man's perversion of the natural, is based on what I think is a mistaken assumption that the function of language is accurate communication. I think instead that Mr. Keaton (in Dead Poets Society) was closer to the truth...

The whole of creation is God's text. Anything less is a perspective that may mislead man's mortal mind. Pick one part at your peril. Namiste

Yup! Such is the nature of choice. Every time you choose (and you're choosing every moment), you wipe out an infinity of might-have-beens! Quite a responsibility, isn't it? Namiste

Re: Wilcox Poem Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! That is lovely, to the point, and well worth remembering. I've already looked up some sites that will let me enjoy her other poetry. Namiste

Very apt. We make our choices individually, and they influence the future, but what ends up happening depends not only on our choices but on those of everyone else, as well as on what every other thing, living or not, happens to be doing at the time. We are creators. Our choices do bring about...