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Author Topic:   Life on other Planets?
lyx2no
Member (Idle past 4716 days)
Posts: 1277
From: A vast, undifferentiated plane.
Joined: 02-28-2008


(1)
Message 39 of 160 (594521)
12-03-2010 6:54 PM
Reply to: Message 1 by Bolder-dash
12-02-2010 11:32 PM


Directly
Yes, I believe there is life on other planets.
I also have the ability to distinguish what I believe from what I know. My beliefs have a much higher probability of being wrong. If I were to end my investigations at the point of developing a belief I'd probably think something silly like "Of all the religions in the world, mine is the one true religion." or "Of all the problem gamblers in the world who think they always win, I'm the one who really does."

Be still, the demands I make upon your conscience are slight. It is only your flattery I seek, not your sincerity.

This message is a reply to:
 Message 1 by Bolder-dash, posted 12-02-2010 11:32 PM Bolder-dash has not replied

  
lyx2no
Member (Idle past 4716 days)
Posts: 1277
From: A vast, undifferentiated plane.
Joined: 02-28-2008


(3)
Message 58 of 160 (594556)
12-03-2010 9:33 PM
Reply to: Message 44 by Bolder-dash
12-03-2010 8:30 PM


Joy
Now how can that be, that 100% of the people here say yes, its either likely, or they believe it is true-and yet those exact same people absolutely scoff at the notion that there is a God.[sic] If you asked the exact same question and just replaced it with God, the numbers would totally flip flop.
Was that all the point you were trying to make? Did you really think you had to fool us to get there? The sad part is for all the saying of "Life on other planets yes, because and "Ecto-dimensional creators no, because" you failed to hear any of it.
It's not the sci-geek side of any argument that is hard to pin down; i.e., ask any one of us for an example of the scientific method in action and you'd get a dozen examples from each of us. The same would apply to just about any question you could think of.
But, par usual, the fundi-kook questions aren't really designed to garner information, are they? They're simply gantries to launch non-sequiturs from.
Oh! and thank God someone finally noticed I was a Star Trek geek. Now I can take off the T-shirt long enough to wash it.

Be still, the demands I make upon your conscience are slight. It is only your flattery I seek, not your sincerity.

This message is a reply to:
 Message 44 by Bolder-dash, posted 12-03-2010 8:30 PM Bolder-dash has replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 61 by Bolder-dash, posted 12-03-2010 10:00 PM lyx2no has seen this message but not replied
 Message 62 by Bolder-dash, posted 12-03-2010 10:10 PM lyx2no has replied

  
lyx2no
Member (Idle past 4716 days)
Posts: 1277
From: A vast, undifferentiated plane.
Joined: 02-28-2008


(2)
Message 73 of 160 (594583)
12-03-2010 11:03 PM
Reply to: Message 62 by Bolder-dash
12-03-2010 10:10 PM


Re: Joy
Let me see if I can somehow try to decipher your code.
No code, that's just you pretending that my statement wasn't patently obvious so that you can continue to pretend that Jesus loves you.
You mean I might have known from the outset that hypocrisy that everyone of you would believe in alien life but not in a God?
What hypocrisy? That two utterly different things are treated in utterly different way? That's called discretion not hypocrisy.
Now, that there is a ubiquitous belief in gods among human societies is evidence that there would be a similar belief in gods among possible intelligent societies on other worlds. And yes, that is without knowledge of any actual existence of intelligent societies on other worlds. But neither there nor here is belief in something evidence of that thing.
You keep getting caught up in that 'belief' thing, while ignoring how someone got to the belief. That makes your whole point kind of trivial. If you just pulled your beliefs out of your backside and I just pulled my beliefs out of my backside we'd be on equal footing. That "equal footing" bit is the bit you seen to rely on in many of your arguments. But neither of us pulls our beliefs out of our backsides, now do we? I form mine from the best and most profound efforts of the greatest minds available to me; whereas, you form yours from the stuff pulled out of the backsides of 5000 years worth of the best effort of astrapophobic troglodytes. Our distinctly differing beliefs not on equal footing. And in case you think that's some sort of code let me restate it: your beliefs are laboriously stupid.

Be still, the demands I make upon your conscience are slight. It is only your flattery I seek, not your sincerity.

This message is a reply to:
 Message 62 by Bolder-dash, posted 12-03-2010 10:10 PM Bolder-dash has not replied

  
lyx2no
Member (Idle past 4716 days)
Posts: 1277
From: A vast, undifferentiated plane.
Joined: 02-28-2008


(2)
Message 117 of 160 (594771)
12-05-2010 8:59 AM
Reply to: Message 107 by Bolder-dash
12-05-2010 5:00 AM


Directly redox
Do you believe in life on other planets, even without evidence, because I think that is a hypocritical intellectual position?
I'd hope not.
It's possible I'd believe it based on the assessment of others whom I trust without ever having thought about it personally. There are many things that I believe based on that. I believe that the Empire State Building is on Fifth Avenue based on a wiki page I read this morning, but I've never been there to see it for myself. And it's not like wiki even attempted to offer any argument to support its contention. I just blindly followed along.
But as there is evidence for life on other worlds that answer would be speculation. And knowing how you feel about speculation I was a bit hesitant to offer it.
Well, looky there a different question a different answer. How'd that happen?
It's possible that different questions mean different things. But that's speculation again. I've over looked the possibility that a question may be a rhetorical devise to guide others towards an intended goal, a la, Socrates, instead of a direct attempt at discovery.
There is a story about Socrates and a slave boy. Socrates is asking the boy a series of questions with the intent of establishing that even the simplest of minds held knowledge of the deepest workings of the Universe. His quiz was geometry based, and he asked the boy " do you think we will have a square that is eight feet?" the boy said, "You mean like a spider?"
"No, not like a spider. Eight feet to a side."
"A spider eight feet to a side. There is no such thing: is there?"
"Of course there are no spiders eight feet to a side. I was asking about squares."
"But a square has four sides. And now that I think about it, spiders don't even have feet, they have tarsi."
"Tarsi is just another name for foot."
"Why do you keep going on about spider?"
"You're the one on spiders."
"I'm not on a spider."
"Okay already. What were we talking about?"
"I forget."
"Me too."
"Can we go get a sandwich?"
"That's not one of those rhetorical questions is it?"
"Was that?"
"Was what?"
"Your original question about us believing about life on other planets."
"Did I ask that?"
"Yes, you did. But after you got answers you went off on a tangent about Crashfrog lying about giant spiders. So, what is your interest about us believing in life on other planets?"
"What about the sandwich?"
Edited by lyx2no, : "Giant" spiders.

Be still, the demands I make upon your conscience are slight. It is only your flattery I seek, not your sincerity.

This message is a reply to:
 Message 107 by Bolder-dash, posted 12-05-2010 5:00 AM Bolder-dash has not replied

  
lyx2no
Member (Idle past 4716 days)
Posts: 1277
From: A vast, undifferentiated plane.
Joined: 02-28-2008


Message 130 of 160 (594932)
12-05-2010 5:23 PM
Reply to: Message 128 by Granny Magda
12-05-2010 5:04 PM


Re: I Have Questions
Do you believe that there was ever an individual who was both human and alien and that he loves you?
She: 7 of 9, but that was short lived.
No to all the rest. I could make guess as to sizes and body shapes in a limited fashion because they'd be constrained by the laws of physics. There are, for example, no stilt creatures seventy meters tall with legs as big around as rigatoni. Chemistry says they won't be composed of solid bismuth. And they'll hate spam (the eighth pillar of life.).
Edited by lyx2no, : sp.

Be still, the demands I make upon your conscience are slight. It is only your flattery I seek, not your sincerity.

This message is a reply to:
 Message 128 by Granny Magda, posted 12-05-2010 5:04 PM Granny Magda has not replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 131 by crashfrog, posted 12-05-2010 5:36 PM lyx2no has seen this message but not replied
 Message 133 by frako, posted 12-06-2010 5:00 PM lyx2no has replied

  
lyx2no
Member (Idle past 4716 days)
Posts: 1277
From: A vast, undifferentiated plane.
Joined: 02-28-2008


Message 135 of 160 (595467)
12-08-2010 5:19 PM
Reply to: Message 133 by frako
12-06-2010 5:00 PM


Re: I Have Questions
  • B'Elanna Torres: Prober.
  • Spock: Prober.
  • 7 of 9: Short lived because of her excessive stress on the first syllable of "assimilate". Resistance was paramount.

Tofu cars taste even better than regular cars World's first green truth.

This message is a reply to:
 Message 133 by frako, posted 12-06-2010 5:00 PM frako has not replied

  
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