omnipotent beings discussion

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I mentioned Carl Jung years ago on here somewhere. I got howled down, LOL! I was attempting to show people some of the shadow behaviours that were being expressed back then...and are on full show in this, and other threads today.

Things like harshly judging others. Not realising it, but pointing out your own insecurities as flaws in others. Being quick tempered and snide with those you believe are intellectually inferior...this is the shadow’s way of compensating for one’s own feelings of helplessness in the face of greater force. A willingness to step on others to achieve one’s own ends and to try and self glorify themselves and celebrate their own perceived greatness. Unacknowledged biases and prejudices. The messiah complex...when people think they can act and say whatever they like because they believe it to be a genuine effort to save people and to get them to see the light...which is actually spiritual bypassing.

I also find it interesting that Jung believed in God. Richard Dawkins called his belief blind faith...but is that true? Was he crossing his fingers and saying prayers...or was there more to it?

Jung was quoted in a newspaper interview in 1955 - "All that I have learned has led me step by step to an unshakable conviction of the existence of God. I only believe in what I know. And that eliminates believing. Therefore I do not take his existence on belief – I know that he exists."

Doesn't seem like "blind faith". His work as a psychotherapist and his mythological research had convinced him of God’s existence. It was the overall "image" of God that Jung disagreed with. He believed the truth about God was extremely complex because his nature is beyond human comprehension. When trying to understand God...he believed that as humans we try to form an image, and that image would never be accurate.

Jung said - "Whatever I perceive from without or within is a representation or image… caused, as I rightly or wrongly assume, by a corresponding “real” object. But I have to admit that my subjective image is only grosso modo identical with the object…

Our images are, as a rule, of something… The God-image is the expression of an underlying experience of something which I cannot attain to by intellectual means."


Just on the India thing...Do you know the meaning of the word Christ? Christ comes from the Greek word Christos, meaning "the anointed one." Christos is the Greek version of the word Krsna. Hmmmm...

I don't know if you've ever had a look at the hare Krishna's and Abhay Charanaravinda Bhaktivedanta Swami...but here's a link to some work by Srila Prabhupada. It's the transcript of a walk/talk he had with Father Emmanuel Jungclaussen, a Benedictine monk from Niederalteich Monastery in west germany in 1974. It's interesting to read how they believe Christos, Christ and Krsna are all one.

I first read this in a book called, The Science of Self Realization by Srila Prabhupada… it's on the net now... The Hare Krsnas - Comparison of Major Religions - Understanding Krsna and Christ

What got me going a few years ago was Jung's work on Gnosticism. (and ending up at the Matrix movie which has a lot of Gnostic themes). Its a shame they were all wiped out, their angle is better than current christians in my opinion. Even before we get to the new gospels.
 
What got me going a few years ago was Jung's work on Gnosticism. (and ending up at the Matrix movie which has a lot of Gnostic themes). Its a shame they were all wiped out, their angle is better than current christians in my opinion. Even before we get to the new gospels.
I wonder how far western civilisation and technological advancement would have gone by now if the Gnostics had dominated society. Remove the dark ages and the religious stranglehold on science and we might have been studying the birth of stars up close.
 
This has been fun but with the football about to restart I doubt many are interested in religion anymore. I have one question that I’d like Biff’s expert opinion on before we go.

Biff, why and how did human sacrifice and ritualised cannibalism becomes the cornerstones of Christianity?

I had previously heard it suggested the Yahweh started out as a pre- Canaanite god of war. That would have made sense if he had never lost his taste for blood. More recent, and supported, research suggests he was actually the god of volcanoes and, later, of metallurgy.
 
I couldn't help but notice, none of your posts actually mean anything (with possible exception the one about admitting you were a hooker)
It is something of a concern that in the midst of a global catastrophe (my word, official word is 'pandemic') one of ST's most verbose and enlightened members has, well, er ... not deigned to comment!
The virus is not of God's doing? OK! Nothing to do with religion? Marvelous!
But nevertheless, we have several threads running, how I wish you would guide us with your knowledge and wisdom. Even Biff has offered his thoughts, troubled times call for leadership, are you with us? Or are you merely a ghost*?


*polite term

On covid-19...follow the guidelines and hope others do too. Get the flu jab.

My posts have meant nothing? I've not typed anything you didn't already know? Then you must be the wise one.

I think your post proves incontrovertibly that you live in a perceived reality.

I actually played hooker, fullback and lock. I feel the need to clarify for you...not all at the same time.

I trust this post was short enough for your brusque self. lol
 

I am not convinced old mate P M robitaille can be taken seriously ....

Tilting at Windmills

In Pseudoscience by Brian Koberlein30 December 201430 Comments

A few years ago I started blogging about astronomy and astrophysics. My goal was two-fold. First, to communicate as clearly as possible some of the amazing things we know about the universe. In the past few decades we’ve gained a deep understanding of astrophysics, and I wanted to bring that to the general population. Second, to counter the hype and misconceptions constantly in the news. With the rise of ad-driven websites, most popular science sites focus on outrageous headlines and copy-pasta press releases. Over time my effort has focused on writing an original post everyday, which I’ve been doing for more than two years. By the end of this week I’ll have written 800 posts. Despite that, there are many days where it feels like I’m tilting at windmills.
Consider, for example, the case of one Pierre-Marie Robitaille. Robitaille is a radiologist who around 2000 became convinced that physicists and astrophysicists were seriously wrong about basic physics. He believes that Kirchoff’s blackbody radiation law is wrong, and in 2002 he took out a full page ad in the New York Times to promote his ideas, because his theory is “both too simple and unexpected to stand any chance of publication in the peer reviewed physics literature
Robitaille makes several wild claims about astrophysics. He claims that the cosmic microwave background isn’t due to the thermal remnant of the big bang, but rather due to microwaves reflected off the surface of Earth’s oceans. He claims the Sun isn’t powered by nuclear fusion in its core, but is instead a layer of liquid metallic hydrogen at 7 million degrees. His work hasn’t been published in refereed astrophysics journals, but has appeared in vixra (created to counter the elitist arxiv) and Progress in Physics, which is an alternative science journal.



Blackbody curve of the CMB. Credit: Ned Wright

How do you begin to counter such ideas? Well, we could start with the fact that the blackbody law has been confirmed experimentally in numerous ways, or that the cosmic microwave background matches a thermal blackbody to extreme precision, or that stellar temperatures derived from the blackbody law match temperatures found by atomic line spectra. We could point out that the CMB has been observed by satellites millions of miles away from Earth, and aimed away from Earth’s surface, or that reflected microwaves wouldn’t give a blackbody curve due to absorption bands in both water and Earth’s atmosphere. You could point out that his liquid-metal Sun model relies upon thermal blackbodies to be impossible, that his argument in favor of a liquid photosphere is that it looks liquid, and that his main argument against gravity-driven solar fusion is that the model uses mathematics.
Many of you reading this might figure that Robitaille is so wildly wrong that I shouldn’t even bother trying to counter his claims. I should just respond with “Eppur si muove!” and get on with real science. But then for most of you I’m preaching to the choir. I’m tilting at windmills, because the great debate isn’t occurring on blogs or in the refereed journals.
It’s happening on YouTube.
 
I am not convinced old mate P M robitaille can be taken seriously ....

Tilting at Windmills

In Pseudoscience by Brian Koberlein30 December 201430 Comments

A few years ago I started blogging about astronomy and astrophysics. My goal was two-fold. First, to communicate as clearly as possible some of the amazing things we know about the universe. In the past few decades we’ve gained a deep understanding of astrophysics, and I wanted to bring that to the general population. Second, to counter the hype and misconceptions constantly in the news. With the rise of ad-driven websites, most popular science sites focus on outrageous headlines and copy-pasta press releases. Over time my effort has focused on writing an original post everyday, which I’ve been doing for more than two years. By the end of this week I’ll have written 800 posts. Despite that, there are many days where it feels like I’m tilting at windmills.
Consider, for example, the case of one Pierre-Marie Robitaille. Robitaille is a radiologist who around 2000 became convinced that physicists and astrophysicists were seriously wrong about basic physics. He believes that Kirchoff’s blackbody radiation law is wrong, and in 2002 he took out a full page ad in the New York Times to promote his ideas, because his theory is “both too simple and unexpected to stand any chance of publication in the peer reviewed physics literature
Robitaille makes several wild claims about astrophysics. He claims that the cosmic microwave background isn’t due to the thermal remnant of the big bang, but rather due to microwaves reflected off the surface of Earth’s oceans. He claims the Sun isn’t powered by nuclear fusion in its core, but is instead a layer of liquid metallic hydrogen at 7 million degrees. His work hasn’t been published in refereed astrophysics journals, but has appeared in vixra (created to counter the elitist arxiv) and Progress in Physics, which is an alternative science journal.



Blackbody curve of the CMB. Credit: Ned Wright

How do you begin to counter such ideas? Well, we could start with the fact that the blackbody law has been confirmed experimentally in numerous ways, or that the cosmic microwave background matches a thermal blackbody to extreme precision, or that stellar temperatures derived from the blackbody law match temperatures found by atomic line spectra. We could point out that the CMB has been observed by satellites millions of miles away from Earth, and aimed away from Earth’s surface, or that reflected microwaves wouldn’t give a blackbody curve due to absorption bands in both water and Earth’s atmosphere. You could point out that his liquid-metal Sun model relies upon thermal blackbodies to be impossible, that his argument in favor of a liquid photosphere is that it looks liquid, and that his main argument against gravity-driven solar fusion is that the model uses mathematics.
Many of you reading this might figure that Robitaille is so wildly wrong that I shouldn’t even bother trying to counter his claims. I should just respond with “Eppur si muove!” and get on with real science. But then for most of you I’m preaching to the choir. I’m tilting at windmills, because the great debate isn’t occurring on blogs or in the refereed journals.
It’s happening on YouTube.

So you would write of the electric universe theory totally?
 
So you would write of the electric universe theory totally?

I have't got the necessary qualifications or knowledge to have any worthwhile opinion ... but give me 5 mins and I will see what Interwebby Karen has to say on the subject ....
 
No doubt about it Mozgrame, you do bring an interesting dimension and perspective when you do take the time to post on here and for the better for sure . How do you think that the Capras may have gone this year in the Q cup before it was disbanded ?
 
I have't got the necessary qualifications or knowledge to have any worthwhile opinion ... but give me 5 mins and I will see what Interwebby Karen has to say on the subject ....
Karen is too busy researching bill gates and his father's eugenics background and how bill is going to finish his work.
 
On covid-19...follow the guidelines and hope others do too. Get the flu jab.

My posts have meant nothing? I've not typed anything you didn't already know? Then you must be the wise one.

I think your post proves incontrovertibly that you live in a perceived reality.

I actually played hooker, fullback and lock. I feel the need to clarify for you...not all at the same time.

I trust this post was short enough for your brusque self. lol
Yes thanks, nice and short!
I shouldn't have had a go at you (maybe my human nature is similar to yours) and in hindsight, unfair to expect more simply because you seem capable of stringing words and ideas together. And while I haven't read all your posts you definitely mention some things I didn't already know.
My own fault really for wandering back to this quicksand thread, another desperate move as isolation has been getting the better of me. Thankfully not too long until I'm back at work.
Oh, and I agree with your covid advice
Carry on!
 
Humans didn’t evolve from monkeys. We and the great apes share a common ancestor. Humans and monkeys are still subject to selective pressures determining survival and reproductive success. Every animal and every plant is still part of an evolving species.

Right now the survival and reproductive success of young humans is being determined by how well their immune system is able to cope with Coronavirus infections. The bubonic plague, smallpox, the measles and other infections have had the same effect in the past. It’s why the arrival of Europeans in the Americas and Australia was so disastrous for the first peoples. The Europeans had already undergone selection for resistance and the people who survived the infections and whose children came to make up most of the population carried several deadly diseases with impunity. The native people lacked immunity and were decimated.

When our modern human ancestors walked out of Africa 60 to 100 thousand years ago I’d like to think they looked like Maasai. Graceful, elegant people. They probably didn’t.What I do know is that they had a lot of pigment in their skin. You need a lot of pigment in your skin when you live in a hot, bright environment. If you don’t, too much UV gets through and you die of skin cancer.

Our ancestors made their way north into areas with less ambient light and this pigment became a disadvantage. Too little UV leads to vitamin D deficiency and rickets. Rickets kills the young before they can breed so there was a strong selective pressure to loose the pigment.

Natural selection only needs four things to function. Inheritance of traits. Excess production of young. Variation between offspring. And a selective pressure that results in some offspring being more likely to survive than others. When Darwin revealed this to church leaders they embraced it as the mechanism that God had created to run his planet. It’s only recently that Christians have felt threatened by the knowledge. Most Christians still don’t.

Did you ever hear the story of the moths in industrial Britain? No of course you didn’t. Anyway, after the introduction of coal power in Britain the air in some areas became so thick with coal dust that the trees turned black. The whiter a moth was the more it stood out from the black bark on which it perched and the quicker it was eaten by birds. Darker moths survived longer and their offspring eventually came to dominate the population. This went on generation after generation until the once white moths were black. After coal power died out and the dust cleared the black moths stood out more than the white ones and were eaten faster. Generation by generation, the moths turned white again. More than 100 different species of moths underwent this gradual transition from light to dark and back to light.

Yes I fart trees. You clearly didn’t look up photosynthesis and carbon metabolism.

May the love of the great koala be with you always.
Species adaptation is another interesting facet if you have not already referred to it . For instance when the cane toad was introduced to Queensland many decades ago , the local native goanna and lizard populations were adversely affected but gradually were either able to avoid close contact or maybe even built up a resistance to the toxin , Not too sure if it has ever been established . Pretty sure that there has not been any examples of any new species emerging or developing the
Humans didn’t evolve from monkeys. We and the great apes share a common ancestor. Humans and monkeys are still subject to selective pressures determining survival and reproductive success. Every animal and every plant is still part of an evolving species.

Right now the survival and reproductive success of young humans is being determined by how well their immune system is able to cope with Coronavirus infections. The bubonic plague, smallpox, the measles and other infections have had the same effect in the past. It’s why the arrival of Europeans in the Americas and Australia was so disastrous for the first peoples. The Europeans had already undergone selection for resistance and the people who survived the infections and whose children came to make up most of the population carried several deadly diseases with impunity. The native people lacked immunity and were decimated.

When our modern human ancestors walked out of Africa 60 to 100 thousand years ago I’d like to think they looked like Maasai. Graceful, elegant people. They probably didn’t.What I do know is that they had a lot of pigment in their skin. You need a lot of pigment in your skin when you live in a hot, bright environment. If you don’t, too much UV gets through and you die of skin cancer.

Our ancestors made their way north into areas with less ambient light and this pigment became a disadvantage. Too little UV leads to vitamin D deficiency and rickets. Rickets kills the young before they can breed so there was a strong selective pressure to loose the pigment.

Natural selection only needs four things to function. Inheritance of traits. Excess production of young. Variation between offspring. And a selective pressure that results in some offspring being more likely to survive than others. When Darwin revealed this to church leaders they embraced it as the mechanism that God had created to run his planet. It’s only recently that Christians have felt threatened by the knowledge. Most Christians still don’t.

Did you ever hear the story of the moths in industrial Britain? No of course you didn’t. Anyway, after the introduction of coal power in Britain the air in some areas became so thick with coal dust that the trees turned black. The whiter a moth was the more it stood out from the black bark on which it perched and the quicker it was eaten by birds. Darker moths survived longer and their offspring eventually came to dominate the population. This went on generation after generation until the once white moths were black. After coal power died out and the dust cleared the black moths stood out more than the white ones and were eaten faster. Generation by generation, the moths turned white again. More than 100 different species of moths underwent this gradual transition from light to dark and back to light.

Yes I fart trees. You clearly didn’t look up photosynthesis and carbon metabolism.

May the love of the great koala be with you always.
Species adaptation is an interesting facet .One example also was when the cane toad was introduced to Queensland some decades ago and almost immediately the goanna and lizard population was adversely affected until they gradually started to refrain from close contact or maybe even built up some resistance to the toxin . Has not seemed to be any new species emerging the last couple of millenium or so , guess that general climatic and environment conditions has not altered that much during that time . as for future millenium , probably in the lap of the gods so to speak .
 
This is an interesting podcast by the NY Times on Youtube and the effect it is having on shaping the current generation. Worth a listen. Opens your eyes to the power that a company such as Google now has over the dissemination of information in the age of the internet. They can almost shape thought patterns and public opinion to suit whatever agenda they may or may not have (outside of the very obvious one of maximising profit above everything else).


Critical thought seems a dying artform.
 
This is an interesting podcast by the NY Times on Youtube and the effect it is having on shaping the current generation. Worth a listen. Opens your eyes to the power that a company such as Google now has over the dissemination of information in the age of the internet. They can almost shape thought patterns and public opinion to suit whatever agenda they may or may not have (outside of the very obvious one of maximising profit above everything else).


Critical thought seems a dying artform.

This is one of the things that worries me in modern life.

Being a bit "old school" I look for different viewpoints and watch different news services to get a bit more of a balanced view on things.

If you watch the ABC it leans to the left more than the leaning tower of Pisa, but alternately if you watch Sky its the complete opposite, the truth (as we know) is somewhere in the middle.

My daughters (as much as I love them) are perfect examples.......news for them is Instagram, maybe a little bit of Facebook and if they want to know anything Dr Google and just click on the first thing that comes up.

Its funny that I read a few days ago that you shouldn't have the flu shot as Bill Gates had implanted microbots in there to control your thought patterns........LOL, old Bill doesn't need to do that the software he create is doing it already!!
 
Species adaptation is another interesting facet if you have not already referred to it . For instance when the cane toad was introduced to Queensland many decades ago , the local native goanna and lizard populations were adversely affected but gradually were either able to avoid close contact or maybe even built up a resistance to the toxin , Not too sure if it has ever been established . Pretty sure that there has not been any examples of any new species emerging or developing the

Species adaptation is an interesting facet .One example also was when the cane toad was introduced to Queensland some decades ago and almost immediately the goanna and lizard population was adversely affected until they gradually started to refrain from close contact or maybe even built up some resistance to the toxin . Has not seemed to be any new species emerging the last couple of millenium or so , guess that general climatic and environment conditions has not altered that much during that time . as for future millenium , probably in the lap of the gods so to speak .
Nice to hear that the native predators are adapting and surviving. When the toads started spreading we all feared it would resulted in some native species going extinct.
 

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