Posts Made By: Paul Kammueller

I think we all pretty much agree the Bible is not a science book.

I would think the subject matter of presentations like this is irrelevent, both to religious people who regard these events as miracles, and to non-religious people (or people of non-biblical religion) who would regard the events as irrelevant in any case. I don't quite get who the audience is for these sorts of things.

Sandy Stubblefield said:
[COLOR="Navy"]Question:
Does Good and Evil exist or, is it all relative to the situation?[/COLOR]

"Good" and "Evil" are words. They exist as long as we have a definition for them. "Good" generally refers to behavior that is conducive to the betterment of the community at large, while "Evil" is generally hostile to it. The 'community' can refer to the person's family, neighborhood, nation, planet, etc. depending on the context.

That said, I don't think 'good' and 'evil' exist in the same sense that an orange exists, or an aardvark or something. They are abstract concepts that we have devised to describe behaviors in simple terms based on their acceptability.

A person doesn't just wake up one day and say, "I think I'll join the forces of EEEEEEVIL today, MUA HA HA HA HAHAHAHAAAAA!" No, people generally manifest 'evil' traits when something breaks in the moral chain of command of an individual within their society -- this can be something as basic as brain damage, or short-circuiting of the moral judgment process by the chemical damage of drugs or alcohol. Or it can be something as complex as poor parenting, or non-existent parenting, leading to an individual not being indoctrinated with the moral code of society, or at best being just vaguely aware of it, but instead growing up learning the sociopathic code of organized crime, where violence is the order of the day and killing is expected. Not quite brain damage, but more like a computer booting up with the wrong software installed.

Of course, an 'evil' person usually doesn't themselves 'evil'. So maybe rather than specific to situations it's something that's more of a point-of-view thing. Visit the politics forum one and you'll see this -- the Republicans and Democrats generally both regard each other as 'evil'. Same usually goes for two sides fighting a war, each regards itself as the side for 'good'.

I have no problem with it.

We must have been posting at the same time, I posted some suggestions too

Bill Burghardt said:

ANYONE finding an offensive post contact the moderators, it may take time to respond.

MODERATORS: IF a QUESTIONABLE post appears, COPY IT IN TOTAL AND SEND IT TO THE OTHER MODERATORS. IF really bad delete it AFTER copying, it can be reposted from the copy.

OTHER MODERATORS: Review post, if there is a problem, SEND THE ENTIRE POST BACK TO THE ORIGINATOR FOR REVISION OR RECONSIDERATION AND REPOST.

IF the post is acceptable to other moderators repost it with explaination.

AT LEAST THE POST IS NOT LOST FOREVER UNLESS THE ORIGINATOR DOES SO, AND THE MODERATORS DELETE THEIR COPIES AT THE ORIGINATORS REQUEST WHICH MUST BE HONORED!

After brief discussion, all the moderators have agreed that this is an acceptable plan and it seems to have the support of everyone responding on the forum as well.

So without further ado, this will be how it goes, and WE WILL STICK TO IT (!) for consistency's sake, until there is some apparent need for an amendment, which will then also be announced prior to implementation.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming. 8)

Sandy Stubblefield said:
Speaking of choices... Do we really have the ability to change the course of our lives or, are we just acting out our part in the predetermined destiny of the universe?

Much of religion in our society seems predicated to some degree upon predestination. After all, this is necessary for prophecies to work. This is also necessary for God to know the future, if one presumes that He does. Of course, it also renders meaningless the whole exercise of living, notions of divine judgment, etc.

Scientifically it's not very cut and dried either, though. I mean, quantum uncertainty seems to dictate a certain impossibility of anything being 'predetermined' unless one subscribes to superdeterminism. But introducing subatomic 'randomness' isn't really the same thing as 'free will'.

To a considerable extent many of our 'decisions' are predetermined by our own history, upbringing, tendencies, etc. Then the question is, when we make a choice about something, have we really 'chosen' anything? Or have we just followed a course that would have been utterly predictable if someone just knew enough about our personality? If so, then what really is 'free will' anyway?

Just finished watching the movie with my wife. Setting is Jerusalem during the Crusades. Not a 'great' movie as far as script goes, the plot for the first half of the movie is basically a re-write of 'Gladiator' but the in last half of the movie the final battle is great, and the content and setting is certainly thought-provoking as an illustration of the consequences of 'extreme' religion. I was wondering if anyone else had seen it.

Sandy Stubblefield said:
DaveS has disappeared from the forum.
His replies have been deleted/ removed.
What I want to know is, how is it the thread he started, and all the replies from others who responded, have also disappeared?

I don't think this was a moderator action. It's not just one thread, I cannot find any of Dave's posts in any thread histories, anywhere. I've looked up older threads where I've replied to him, his posts are conspicuously absent from the threads. I also cannot find his user profile. It is as though he never existed.

Maybe he has been banned from Astromart altogether for some reason? Moderators can delete posts, but not entire persons. This is beyond the power of the moderators and can only come from 'above'.

This as good an opening as any, to post the final draft of the team of moderators' modus operandi, just as clarification, insofar as is possible, for what is and is not fair game for deletion and so forth. So without further ado:

BASIC MODERATING MECHANICS 8)
When an inappropriate post is deleted, it will be copied by the moderator who deleted it. A copy will be sent to the co-moderators with an explanation, as well as to the original poster so that the post can be edited and reposted if necessary, or if the poster wishes to point out a misunderstanding and appeal the deletion decision.


DA RULES 8)
These are hard and fast rules: meaning, if you break ‘em, your post will be deleted by the very first moderator to spot it – no ifs, ands or buts. The usual copy-and-explanation process applies, but rest assured these will be almost instantaneously deleted with a shoot-first-ask-questions-later policy:


THREATS :C – This is pretty obvious. The Internet is a crazy place full of crazy people and we are all justified in harboring a certain degree of paranoia. If you post something that looks even vaguely like a threat against someone’s person, their family, their home, their telescope, etc. it will be summarily deleted. You may also be recommended for being banned outright by the Almighty Herb.

PROFANITY > – Profane language is right %&@#$!! out. This is a family forum and we intend to keep it Rated G for the most part. So no cuss words, effenheimers, etc. Replacing a single letter with a character such as * or _ does NOT make it OK. Cartoon-style swearing, such as typing &*@#$%! is permissible.

RACIST/SEXIST LANGUAGE – Talking fairly obvious stuff, particularly racial epithets and using the word for a female dog and so forth. Don’t do it.

ATTACHING BLATANTLY OFFENSIVE/RACIST/PORNOGRAPHIC IMAGERY TO POSTS 8O – Don’t even think about it.


ZE GUIDELINES 8)
These are not hard and fast rules, but subjective ones. That means, there’s a gray area here, and just recognize that you may be skating close to the edge. If you skate close to the edge, you MAY get deleted, if you seem to be pushing the limits, or if the moderator on duty is having a bad day. This is an up-front disclosure that we’re not gods, we’re mortal humans, and as such may be prone to certain predispositions, nay, even errors in judgment and/or reading comprehension at times. If you find our capacity for judgment unacceptable,you can tell Herb to dock our pay!

RESPECT – Show a reasonable level of respect and decorum. This is an admittedly “fuzzy” statement, and some considerable leeway is implied by the subject matter of this forum, since it is sometimes a very fine line between criticizing someone’s reasoning and calling them a stupid moron. Sometimes a double meaning with racist or sexist connotations is taken but not intended, and these will be open to appeal by the process stipulated earlier. A good rule of thumb is, if you wouldn’t say it directly to their face, don’t say it.

TIT-FOR-TAT AD NAUSEUM > > > – Occasionally several posters may get into a fast-posting duel about which of them is the more offensive poster because of what so-and-so said three threads ago, or three months ago, or two posts above this one, or what have you. These typing-endurance contests quickly reach a point where they have nothing to do with the forum’s subject matter at all, and have no interest to any parties other than the two who are in a snit with each other. This stuff is boring for everyone and time-consuming to sift through and life is too short for this rubbish. Moderators reserve the right to delete an entire sub-thread that goes too far down this tedious path. If you don’t like it, TOUGH NOOGIES!!

GOING FOR VOLUME > > :S – This is rarely a problem, but it happens occasionally, often when a new participant arrives on the scene. A poster will sometimes show up and flood the forum with posts evangelizing, ridiculing, cutting & pasting, etc. to the extent that nobody can get a word in edgewise. And besides we have to moderate all this stuff – this isn’t our full-time job guys, we have a life and family and stuff. If the forum gets too gummed up by one poster, that person will get a gentle warning to sloooooowww down. If the warning is ignored, a second warning will be issued. If THAT warning is ignored, moderators will come out of their corners swinging. 8) 8) 8) 8)

Sandy Stubblefield said:
If what we are now is life and the essential element of life is energy and energy cannot be destroyed and our energy continues to exist after the body expires, where does this energy go?
If we call this energy spirit and this spirit contains the essence of it's owner, wouldn't it be possible for the spirit, no longer bound by the physical world, to be able to create the afterlife we imagined during our life on earth?

Most of us do this every night when we sleep but, the difference is that now our spirit is still tethered to our physical body.

If the energy or 'spirit', which is principally electromagnetism, could hold its organization together after death, what you're suggesting would in theory be possible. But while the 'spark' of your consciousness comes from energy, the identity of your consciousness comes from the arrangement of your neural structure, i.e. the memories, personality and so forth that are stored in your brain.

The 'spark' of consciousness, of self-awareness, is energy -- but the identity is dictated by matter. Once the last few sparks of energy are discharged in the brain and the associated energy dissipates into the immediate environment, while the identic structure in the brain still exists for a short time, the 'spark' has gone out, literally and physically rejoining the universe-at-large.

While that small amount of energy has fallen into a disorganized state (i.e. the 'self' is lost) what may be interesting to note is that it is now part of a much larger-scale of energy structure (your energy has gone into a component of the energy warming this planet for example).

This higher energy hierarchy has energy differential structures all across the universe with planets, stars, galaxes supernovae etc. all discharging and radiating different quantities in different places, and on this scale there is another matter-based information storage structure, in the form of solar system arrangements, geologic strata that store planetary sedimentary histories, cratered surfaces that record bombardment history and who knows what else.

If our own consciousness derives essentially from electromagnetic energy (electricity) acting within the bounds of a matter-based information storage system (the brain), is it just possible that the solar system, the universe, etc., being simply higher-order energy discharges, acting within higher-order matter-based information storage arrangements, constitutes another, much higher order of consciousness or some sort, with its own physical identic structure, one that we can hardly even relate to?

8O 8O 8O

Sandy Stubblefield said:
[COLOR="Maroon"]SPRINGFIELD, Ill. - A federal judge ruled Friday that Illinois' restrictions on the sale of violent and sexually explicit video games to minors are unconstitutional and barred the state from enforcing the law [/COLOR]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10301540/

I think this clearly proves Dr. Stanley's point, don't you?

I don't see th connection myself -- the article was about the decency or indecency of what we expose our kids to, the article had nothing to do with fearing god.

The ruling is stupid but speaks to basic decency and corruption of kids, not religion. The next logical step I guess will be requiring stores to sell porno magazines to children as well, the argument would be the same.