Daniel Dennett has passed

U

unbound

Active member
No, he's not dealing with any deity/s or any other mythological minions.

Simply back to nature.

Grow up already.
 
I knew about this yesterday, but did not post due to certain members' penchant for dancing on graves.

The Medieval poet Dante put virtuous pagans in the highest level of his hell, which was basically a big eternal debate society with Plato, Aristotle, and other thinkers. If Dennett does have to deal with mythological creatures, hopefully it is merely in this pleasant way. Very sad.
 
unbound said:
No, he's not dealing with any deity/s or any other mythological minions.

Simply back to nature.

Grow up already.
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And you know this how? Did he come back and tell you that there are no deities or any other "mythological minions?" Did he come back and tell you that atheists have it right, spread the word?

As for his eternal destiny and whether he is in heaven or hell, that is between him and God. God is the judge.
 
romishpopishorganist said:
And you know this how? Did he come back and tell you that there are no deities or any other "mythological minions?" Did he come back and tell you that atheists have it right, spread the word?
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We know it through natural revelation, observation, and personal experience. We were existence free before we were given form by our parents, and we will return to that existence free state when the form gives out. It’s just logic based on a model of our personal experience of the world, our form, and our own personal past with and without it. These are things we actually know from the common personal experience we all share.

Just like Paul claims we all know god exists - but deny it, we don’t need Paul to tell us that you know this common reality is true. Because unlike Paul’s claim, reality and our common personal past of non existence is something we all actually do share. You just deny it.
 
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5wize said:
We know it through natural revelation, observation, and personal experience.
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All of which from your "lack thereof" you have universalized upon all mankind with no evidence whatsoever. It's like reading Marlee Matlin denying the existence of thunder or Stevie Wonder denying the existence of rainbows.
 
stiggy wiggy said:
All of which from your "lack thereof" you have universalized upon all mankind with no evidence whatsoever.
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We all share the same history of non-existence... unless, of course, you can share with us your recollection of being the mental eunuch you are now in a previous life. That I’d believe.
 
5wize said:
We know it through natural revelation, observation, and personal experience.
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Yes, we know that things made of matter decay and, if they are sentient, eventually die. Our earthly lives come to a close when we die. That is true and observable.

No theist, and no Christian takes issue with the above. So far we are agreed.
5wize said:
We were existence free before we were given form by our parents, and we will return to that existence free state when the form gives out. It’s just logic based on a model of our personal experience of the world, our form, and our own personal past with and without it. These are things we actually know from the common personal experience we all share.
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So far, again, I agree.
5wize said:
Just like Paul claims we all know god exists - but deny it, we don’t need Paul to tell us that you know this common reality is true. Because unlike Paul’s claim, reality and our common personal past of non existence is something we all actually do share. You just deny it.
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You are talking about the material world.

Why should we infer that there is no God becasue one's earthly life comes to a close when one dies?
 
Dennett wrote a book with Douglas R. Hofstadter called the Mind's I, an anthology of science fiction short stories with comments. My wife had to read it as part of her degree, and so (a few years later, but long before CARM) I read. Well worth a read if you like science fiction.

It was that book that swayed me from undecided to pretty sure that we have no soul. And yes, the stories were fiction, but the comments on them were philosophy.
 
romishpopishorganist said:
Yes, we know that things made of matter decay and, if they are sentient, eventually die. Our earthly lives come to a close when we die. That is true and observable.

No theist, and no Christian takes issue with the above. So far we are agreed.

So far, again, I agree.

You are talking about the material world.

Why should we infer that there is no God becasue one's earthly life comes to a close when one dies?
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I think you missed the point about our past non existence. Our personal sentience and consciousness came with our little slice of the material - our physical form. Given that our form was its advent and is its current reality, what warrant other than words on paper do you have to think differently when the form returns to its ashes and dust?
 
I don't know who he was but it seems you atheists respected him. I would deenwhat his last words were before he died.


Famous atheists last words

 
Lastdaysbeliever said:
I don't know who he was but it seems you atheists respected him. I would deenwhat his last words were before he died.


Famous atheists last words

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I would be carefull of supposed last word quotes. This is from the Wiki page on Voltaire, the second subject in the video ....

The accounts of his deathbed have been numerous and varying, and it has not been possible to establish the details of what precisely occurred. His enemies related that he repented and accepted the last rites from a Catholic priest, or that he died in agony of body and soul, while his adherents told of his defiance to his last breath.[107] According to one story of his last words, when the priest urged him to renounce Satan, he replied, "This is no time to make new enemies."[108] However, this appears to have originated from a joke in a Massachusetts newspaper in 1856, and was only attributed to Voltaire in the 1970s.
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Found here.
 
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unbound said:
No, he's not dealing with any deity/s or any other mythological minions.

Simply back to nature.

Grow up already.
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Curious thing about this.
Jesus described it as follows...

Luke 16:19-31 NKJV — “There was a certain rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and fared sumptuously every day. “But there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, full of sores, who was laid at his gate, “desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man’s table. Moreover the dogs came and licked his sores. “So it was that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s bosom. The rich man also died and was buried. “And being in torments in Hades, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. “Then he cried and said, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.’ “But Abraham said, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things; but now he is comforted and you are tormented. ‘And besides all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed, so that those who want to pass from here to you cannot, nor can those from there pass to us.’ “Then he said, ‘I beg you therefore, father, that you would send him to my father’s house, ‘for I have five brothers, that he may testify to them, lest they also come to this place of torment.’ “Abraham said to him, ‘They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.’ “And he said, ‘No, father Abraham; but if one goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ “But he said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rise from the dead.’ ”
 
Lastdaysbeliever said:
I don't know who he was but it seems you atheists respected him. I would deenwhat his last words were before he died.


Famous atheists last words

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Christopher Hitchens said the following about a potential deathbed conversion (when he knew his cancer was not treatable):
If that comes it will be when I'm very ill, when I'm half-demented either by drugs or by pain; I won't have control over what I say . . . . I can't say that the entity that by then wouldn't be me wouldn't do such a pathetic thing, but I can tell you that, not while I'm lucid, no.
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Source
 
5wize said:
I think you missed the point about our past nonexistence. Our personal sentience and consciousness came with our little slice of the material - our physical form. Given that our form was its advent and is its current reality, what warrant other than words on paper do you have to think differently when the form returns to its ashes and dust?
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Is it your assertion that the material world is all there is? Put another way, are you asserting that only physical entities exist, and that these entities can be known through the use of the scientific method and mathematical modeling?

I cannot respond to you until I know exactly what you believe.
 
Gus Bovona said:
Christopher Hitchens said the following about a potential deathbed conversion (when he knew his cancer was not treatable):

Source
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Well, what's that old saying...oh yea...you make your bed, you lay in it. Personally I would love to see everyone come to a saving knowledge of Jesus but too I'm also aware the Father only draws to Jesus, free will is when those being drawn exercise it to ignore Him. God will only draw so long before He then hardens the heart from which there is no return. Perhaps Hitchens is one of those, even you Gus. I don't know because I'm not Him. God only knows and if Hitchens died the only ones who know whether he cried out to Jesus in the minutes or the instance of hos death is him and the Lord. Perhaps I'll see this Hitchens when I am called home. You never know.
 
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