Posted on 02/11/2002 7:11:08 AM PST by dead
I know you are speaking here of faith rather than ETs, but the principle is the same. If you have faith, I hope it is because you have encountered some confirming evidence in your own life. I certainly don't put much faith in the rantings of preachers. It is self evident from the condtradictions of the varius faiths that most are either wrong or seriously deranged. So it comes down to what you can confirm for yourself.
As for ETs, I will believe in them when I see them, or when communication is established that provides some unmistakable new knowledge. My guess is that earthlike planets are very rare and that human-like life is even more rare.
It is quite possible that other intelligent beings exist and that we will never find them.
Hmm... Atheists might be troubled by that juxtaposition (intelligence and non-discovery).
Not really. An intelligence that we will never find (nor evidence that this intelligence ever did exist) would be, in practice, the same as an intelligence that didn't exist in fact. Such an intelligence may still be compatible with Deism, but that's as far as a theist could take it.
Many times.
I think there's this cat that a lot of people argue over that would fall into your definition.
Hasn't been much news of the ekpyrotic model since WTC911. Actually we had assumed there would be no news at all until the gravitational blueshift had been observed, at which time we could all switch over.
By the time we observe the blueshift, the contraction will have already been underway for 15 billion years. This phase of the universe will be mostly over and we will have only just arrived. But such news will not change my plans for the weekend.
Not quite.
The longer and more thorough our search -- if the results remain negative -- the more certainty we have of the rarity of intelligent life. Rarity would be an important finding.
If faster than light travel is possible, then it stands to reason that other civilizations would have achieved it, given a billion or so year's head start.
So where are they, other than in the imagination of X-File writers? If they are indeed observing us, then with their advanced technology they have complete control over whether we see them (disregarding Douglas Adams' theory that aliens are really just teenage ETs out joyriding).
If faster than light travel is not a practical possibility, and civilizations are more than a hundred light-years apart, then commerce is unlikely. I mean would you give up a couple hundred years of medical progress to sell hundred year old products door-to-door?
An intelligence that we will never find (nor evidence that this intelligence ever did exist) would be, in practice, the same as an intelligence that didn't exist in factI think there's this cat that a lot of people argue over that would fall into your definition.
But I don't think I could ever have a relationship with Schrodinger's Cat. You could never depend on it being there when dinner's ready.
Technically speaking shouldn't that be ".... when dinner's ready, or not ready"?
Until then, it is all a conjecture.
And even if it turns out to be correct, I still have questions regarding there being any causal connection between the "current" Universe and the nth-1 Universe, and so on..... If that is the case, whatever went on in the "preverses" has no effect on our current Universe, which is equivalent to there being no "preverses" (from the point of view of the present Universe).
And none of this changes the pile of Turtle turds that are piling up down there.
That's true. However ... there are philosophical implications.
1. An infinite number of prior universes very neatly does away with the troublesome First Cause and nihil ex nihilo problems.
2. As compensation for the religious, an infinite sequence of universes is a fitting environment for an infinite deity.
3. Which neatly does away with the problem of where God came from (no more nonsense about "beyond space and time").
4. However, there is still that infernal Ocham's Razor for the religious to contend with.
5. Eternal existence (which is what an infinite sequence of universes means) seems consistent with the conservation laws.
Yes, but now the universe has become God's Lava LampTM.
"This thing is so cool, how it lights up, expands, flickers to darkness, then lights up again over and over and over. Sometimes, just in the in-between time, I can see all kinds of busy stuff going on in there."
Kinda puts your gall bladder in perspective, doesn't it?
This also has implications for Nietzsche's idea of the eternal return or the eternal recurrence of the same, a type of immortality.
The razor is used to break ties, the equivalent of a coin-toss. For the religious the tie has been broken, otherwise that individual would be agnostic(which also means the tie is broken for the atheist). There is no logical imperative in its use. The admonition in today's terms is KISS.
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