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Re: Religious talk...

Quote:

Originally Posted by RevdKathy (Post 377666)

You injust two sets of plants (I believe they soak seeds in saline solution). One set you pray for their recovery, the other you don't. If the prayed for group recover quicker then the control or grow better,you have a result. ;)

The way you are describing it, the plants should be praying to you, to spare them from the scourge. Has anyone researched into this subject? There may be some artifacts to confirm the cult of humans among plants, like altars built by plants for their human gods, plant sacrificial rites, etc... Do plants ingest other plants (like marijuana) to get closer to their deities and achieve enlightenment?

Re: Religious talk...

There's more than adequate evidence for "religion", but only if one accepts the possibility that one's assumptions are wrong; specifically, the assumption that the senses of touch, taste, smell, hearing and sight are the only ones we have available to us.

My belief in God and my religion's tenets are the result of following the scientific method while challenging said assumptions. This is hinted at in the Bible e.g. Galatians 5:22.

Re: Religious talk...

Quote:

Originally Posted by RevdKathy (Post 377652)

There are a few very interesting scientific experiments going on to explore whether there isn't rather more to the nature of consciousness and human existence than the mere material. Qole quoted one in the other thread about people praying for plants. They've done the same with heart patients. There are quiet corners of science exploring (and getting statiscally significant result for) telepathy, distant mental influence of living systems, even a rather nice experiment at Oxford looking at NDEs and trying to check them out.

None of which will 'prove God' - but they may (if taken seriously) go a long way towards suggesting that a purely materialistic view of existence and humanity is incomplete. They may even go some way towards supporting a view that human consciousness is not dependent on the body, and so could 'survive death',

My opinion is that in addition to the 'scientific' evidence, there's a huge amount of qualitative, anecdotal evidence: religions are culture's way of codifying that into something that makes sense. (And along the way, religions get badly used as a way of controlling, exploiting and abusing people sometimes - just like any good thing). In that sense, you 'pick' the one that most fits with your own experience. Unfortunately, as your experience is internal and non-communicable, that doesn't make it 'provable'. "I believe in God because I've met him" is a damned good reason for me, but pissing in the wind for you unless you have had the same experience.

One interesting statistic: religious belief and practice is very strongly correlated with better health, longer life-expectancy and higher contentment/satisfaction. In fact, if a chemical produced the same stats, it wouldn't be sold over the counter, it would be put in the water supply. ;)

Being a scientist I understand the processes that are required to statistically prove the validity of a hypothesis within an experiment. Saying that statistics is still flawed, especially if used incorrectly. Furthermore without repetition of the experiment by third parties it is still not absolute proof. There can still be confounds within the experimental paradigm. I will reserve judgment, but will just say that the simplest explanation is often the best.

Re: Religious talk...

Quote:

Originally Posted by qole (Post 377670)

There's an article on this, in a book that's a bit older than Wikipedia (and one of my all-time favorites)...

<ot>
Did you watch the movie, if so and were you as disappointed as I was with it?
</ot>

@ Kathy and Chris: As a former (rather strongly believing) Catholic I always held that trying to "prove" the (non)existence of a God/god/gods is doomed to failure. I personally believe that there is as much proof (= bugger all) for the existence of a God/god/gods as there is for his/her/its/their nonexistence. In my opinion, proof of existence actually removes an essential element from the religious experience.
In any case, I choose to believe in the causality of nature and the mechanical nature of the universe and, in my opinion, that automatically excludes a deity in the Judeo-Christian tradition. As I said, I have no proof on which to base my decision and I would not want one.

Re: Religious talk...

Quote:

Originally Posted by pinsh (Post 377544)

The only thing I'm interested in, does the Bible predict the shipping date of the N900? If so, when will I get mine?

It is easy to make the Bible predict this. Unfortunately, it is only possible to do this retrospectively, i.e. after the fact. You don't have to use the Bible, however. The latest Terry Pratchett novel, for example, will do nicely too. It's only a matter of adjusting the algorithm.

Re: Religious talk...

Quote:

Originally Posted by convulted (Post 377764)

<ot>
Did you watch the movie, if so and were you as disappointed as I was with it?
</ot>

No, I didn't see it. I'd heard how awful it was and so I avoided it. I couldn't bear to watch yet another of my Sacred Texts desecrated by the greasy paws of Hollywood. The most egregious desecration, a metaphorical "pissing in the baptismal font," was, for me, the movie "I, Robot" with Will Smith that did exactly the opposite of what Asimov was trying to achieve with his Robot stories. After that blasphemy, I will only watch a movie version of a favorite author's work if I read several good reviews from like-minded geeks.

Re: Religious talk...

omg ..................

Re: Religious talk...

Quote:

Originally Posted by ysss (Post 377650)

Why are you guys talking about outdated buggy firmwares?

Thanks, +1 ;)

Re: Religious talk...

Quote:

Originally Posted by RevdKathy (Post 377652)

One interesting statistic: religious belief and practice is very strongly correlated with better health, longer life-expectancy and higher contentment/satisfaction. In fact, if a chemical produced the same stats, it wouldn't be sold over the counter, it would be put in the water supply. ;)

I do not know about that one, but I have heard about studies. They say that there seems to be a correlation between intelligence and being religious.
I am not going to say which way it goes, though, as it is so easy to unintentionally upset religious people. They seem to tend to react irrationally, sometimes.

Re: Religious talk...

Quote:

I think this should be an ok topic here. Not sure why Reggie killed the other thread. I like real intellectual topics. Here's the reply I didn't get to make, and if anyone wants the math trick, let me know PM.

Well for some reason, the "no religious or political topics" description for Off-topic was removed when the itT forums were converted to TMO. It's back up. Thanks for reminding me.

Thread closed.