So there is something I can do, besides scream like a woman?

Wesley ,'Chosen'


Natter .38 Special  

Off-topic discussion. Wanna talk about corsets, duct tape, or physics? This is the place. Detailed discussion of any current-season TV must be whitefonted.


Bob Bob - Aug 23, 2005 8:15:10 pm PDT #775 of 10002

I'm going to bed. Happy philosophizing, all!


§ ita § - Aug 23, 2005 8:19:15 pm PDT #776 of 10002
Well not canonically, no, but this is transformative fiction.

Can you attach any meaning to 'all-loving' that doesn't involve giving?

That's my whole point. I do, and have. I don't see that all-loving has to involve giving, therefore I don't get the beneficence link. Whether or not creation is something worth giving is my second question, and possibly quite irrelevant.


tommyrot - Aug 23, 2005 8:19:48 pm PDT #777 of 10002
Sir, it's not an offence to let your cat eat your bacon. Okay? And we don't arrest cats, I'm very sorry.

Similarly, imagine the odds of a universe being capable of housing intelligent life is 1/10^120, and we just happen to have a universe that is capable of housing intelligent life. Wouldn't you think our universe was rigged--i.e., designed--, especially when the odds of it coming to be randomly are so much smaller than winning at a slot machine ten times in a row?

No, I'd say that's one possibility. Other possibilities include the existence of some cosmological force we don't yet understand resulted in the universe being like it is, and maybe the fact that this universe supports intelligent life might be coincidental to this cosmological force. Or maybe there's a god-like entity that created the universe the way it is for some other reason besides being compatable with intelligent life - maybe this entity doesn't give a damn about life but likes the pretty stars arranged as they are.


billytea - Aug 23, 2005 8:21:42 pm PDT #778 of 10002
You were a wrong baby who grew up wrong. The wrong kind of wrong. It's better you hear it from a friend.

That's my whole point. I do, and have.

When, and how?

I don't see that all-loving has to involve giving, therefore I don't get the beneficence link.

So someone can love without giving love?


§ ita § - Aug 23, 2005 8:23:37 pm PDT #779 of 10002
Well not canonically, no, but this is transformative fiction.

When, and how?

I do right now. I'm not sure how to give you the insight into my brain to prove this to you, so you can either take my word for it, or dismiss it outright.

So someone can love without giving love?

Are you equating creating the universe to giving love, or is the universe created so that there's something to give love to?


billytea - Aug 23, 2005 9:08:05 pm PDT #780 of 10002
You were a wrong baby who grew up wrong. The wrong kind of wrong. It's better you hear it from a friend.

Are you equating creating the universe to giving love, or is the universe created so that there's something to give love to?

Neither at the moment, I'm asking about your conception of love and if it is congruent with the conception that Swinburne etc mean when they say 'all-loving'.


Volans - Aug 23, 2005 9:36:42 pm PDT #781 of 10002
move out and draw fire

Do the other major religions have an all-powerful, all-loving God?

Obviously Judaism does. Or at least the "all-powerful" part. I don't know if YHWH would be considered "all-loving." I defer to people who've actually studied the tenets of Judaism for this one.

Islam does: pretty much every part of the Koran starts with "In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful"

If you count Baha'i as a major religion, then it does, as it's an outgrowth of the monotheistic religions.

I don't think any other of the majors do though.


Jesse - Aug 24, 2005 3:01:48 am PDT #782 of 10002
Sometimes I trip on how happy we could be.

So, how about that local sports team?


Nilly - Aug 24, 2005 3:02:55 am PDT #783 of 10002
Swouncing

Poking head to post that it's Franny's birthday! Can you believe that she's two years old already? Happy birthday, Franny! And happy day to mommy Burrell as well.


Theodosia - Aug 24, 2005 3:11:56 am PDT #784 of 10002
'we all walk this earth feeling we are frauds. The trick is to be grateful and hope the caper doesn't end any time soon"

I'll defer talk of my local sports team to Nutty, who can actually name all of the players (and their batting averages, country of origin, English fluency, arrest records, and emotional quirks) and how each of them would do locked in a squash cage with a cheetah.

My new stove gets hooked up to the gas this morning, and then I will be literally cooking with gas! Woohoo!