Search found 406 matches

by Mike Strand
Mon Jul 09, 2018 11:16 pm
Forum: Metaphysics
Topic: Can God be beyond the universe?
Replies: 87
Views: 21916

Re: Can God be beyond the universe?

The thread question, "Can God be beyond the universe?", calls for defining at least two words: "God", and "Universe". To illustrate again the power or importance of definitions, here's how the question can change into, "Is God nonexistent?" Define the universe...
by Mike Strand
Mon Jul 09, 2018 12:04 am
Forum: Metaphysics
Topic: Can God be beyond the universe?
Replies: 87
Views: 21916

Re: Can God be beyond the universe?

Interesting problem. 🇺🇲PhilX🇺🇲 Yes, it is interesting -- one reason for this is that the solution may vary, depending on how the terms are defined. For example: If "God" is the supernatural Being, the creator of the universe, and so on, suggested by religion, there is an inherent contradi...
by Mike Strand
Sun Jul 08, 2018 10:30 pm
Forum: Logic and Philosophy of Mathematics
Topic: Pick the Door with the Prize!
Replies: 25
Views: 7451

Re: Pick the Door with the Prize!

wtf wrote: Sun Jul 08, 2018 7:38 pm
Mike Strand wrote: Sun Jul 08, 2018 7:18 pm Is anyone still interested in these two exercises?
You should take a look at the infinite hat puzzle. Much more counterintuitive.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hat_puzzle
Looks like fun, wtf, and thanks for the link. Maybe you should start a thread on it.
by Mike Strand
Sun Jul 08, 2018 7:18 pm
Forum: Logic and Philosophy of Mathematics
Topic: Pick the Door with the Prize!
Replies: 25
Views: 7451

Re: Pick the Door with the Prize!

I hope someone now will answer the question of how much a gambling casino should charge a person to play the game. After that, I hope you'll be interested in looking at or presenting generalizations of the game: What the player should do to maximize the odds of winning, if there are more than three...
by Mike Strand
Sun Jul 08, 2018 12:17 pm
Forum: Philosophy of Religion
Topic: Will Adolf Hitler Be Saved (End Up in Heaven)?
Replies: 157
Views: 32664

Re: Will Adolf Hitler Be Saved (End Up in Heaven)?

To think that Hitler and suchlike could go in either direction presupposes some operating moral in the universe. Why it would have one is beyond conception. Whether Hitler or St. Francis of Assisi make no difference. They, we and all, without any recognition of Good or Evil, are fated to be neutral...
by Mike Strand
Sun Jul 08, 2018 5:30 am
Forum: Philosophy of Religion
Topic: Will Adolf Hitler Be Saved (End Up in Heaven)?
Replies: 157
Views: 32664

Re: Will Adolf Hitler Be Saved (End Up in Heaven)?

My opinion is, by information of the Archangels who I've connected with, that monsters like Adolf Hitler burn in Hell with excruciating pains for no less than a 1000 years, minimum! There is no particular promise in becoming a monster, doing the absurdly immoral, waging a war against all that's hum...
by Mike Strand
Sun Jul 08, 2018 5:23 am
Forum: Philosophy of Religion
Topic: Will Adolf Hitler Be Saved (End Up in Heaven)?
Replies: 157
Views: 32664

Re: Will Adolf Hitler Be Saved (End Up in Heaven)?

To think that Hitler and suchlike could go in either direction presupposes some operating moral in the universe. Why it would have one is beyond conception. Whether Hitler or St. Francis of Assisi make no difference. They, we and all, without any recognition of Good or Evil, are fated to be neutral...
by Mike Strand
Sat Jul 07, 2018 7:11 pm
Forum: The Lounge
Topic: Droll Implications of the Supernatural
Replies: 21
Views: 4960

Re: Droll Implications of the Supernatural

I think that we should make a distinction between 'supernatural' and 'paranormal'.Unless we do so we may fall into the god of the gaps error. Is there any philosophical usage of 'supernatural' which is not a part of the ontological substances model? If so I don't know what it may be. Mike, your def...
by Mike Strand
Sat Jul 07, 2018 6:34 pm
Forum: Logic and Philosophy of Mathematics
Topic: Parallel postulate
Replies: 12
Views: 3178

Re: Parallel postulate

My understanding is that Euclidean geometry is one of the systems that comes from the foundations of math. Math relies on definitions of objects and concepts, axioms (assumptions, postulates) concerning those concepts, and the use of logic to infer further characteristics, statements and relationsh...
by Mike Strand
Sat Jul 07, 2018 3:42 pm
Forum: Logic and Philosophy of Mathematics
Topic: Probability
Replies: 24
Views: 5013

Re: Probability

Can any of you sane-acting responders explain to me why you would attempt to engage rationally with someone who discusses X and Y in his argument but never defines them and doesn't show them on his diagram ?? In my case, I may not be able to claim sanity. However, given my interest in probability t...
by Mike Strand
Sat Jul 07, 2018 3:29 pm
Forum: Philosophy of Religion
Topic: Will Adolf Hitler Be Saved (End Up in Heaven)?
Replies: 157
Views: 32664

Re: Will Adolf Hitler Be Saved (End Up in Heaven)?

As human evil goes, Hitler was just one of the low-points we hit every 200-year cycle. Only reason he sticks out as an example is that WWII (which Hitler didn't make all by himself) um, actually he did start ww2. on Sept 2nd 1939. All by himself? One superannuated corporal charging across Europe, N...
by Mike Strand
Sat Jul 07, 2018 3:20 pm
Forum: The Lounge
Topic: Droll Implications of the Supernatural
Replies: 21
Views: 4960

Re: Droll Implications of the Supernatural

Thank you, Greta and Nick_A, for your extensive and insightful reviews of "Droll Implications ...", and also for your senses of humor. And thanks for the music videos!
by Mike Strand
Sat Jul 07, 2018 1:13 am
Forum: The Lounge
Topic: Droll Implications of the Supernatural
Replies: 21
Views: 4960

Re: Droll Implications of the Supernatural

Mike Thanks, Nick_A, really interesting thoughts and questions. The idea of a "miracle" projecting itself from a larger reality into our human understanding of nature or reality (or the part we live in) is intriguing. We can witness the event (at least some of its effects in our world), b...
by Mike Strand
Sat Jul 07, 2018 1:04 am
Forum: Philosophy of Religion
Topic: Will Adolf Hitler Be Saved (End Up in Heaven)?
Replies: 157
Views: 32664

Re: Will Adolf Hitler Be Saved (End Up in Heaven)?

Yup, Hitler will be fine - he was a powerfully destructive agent of entropy. So are volcanoes, storms, earthquakes, sinkholes, floods, droughts and, of course, Dalek Prime. The Buddhist model makes more sense to me. Rather than God and the Devil in conflict, there's Bramha the creator, Vishnu the p...
by Mike Strand
Sat Jul 07, 2018 12:51 am
Forum: Logic and Philosophy of Mathematics
Topic: Parallel postulate
Replies: 12
Views: 3178

Re: Parallel postulate

At one time this postulate wasn't thought to be a postulate because it looked too complicated. … I don't think it was because it was too complicated but that it was not clearly evident as the others were, i.e. it was not simply deducible from the other ones as the others were from each other. Now m...