Profile for The Almighty Doer of Stuff

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...and again. in General
Shaper
Member # 73
Profile #27
*kicks Iffy in the jaw*

I will share the cookie. Iffy gets no more.

Mr. Stickybuns gets some cookie too.

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My Myspace, with some of my audial and visual art
The Lyceum - The Headquarters of the Blades designing community
The Louvre - The Blades of Avernum graphics database
Alexandria - The Blades of Exile Scenario database
BoE Webring - Self explanatory
Polaris - Free porn here
Odd Todd - Fun for the unemployed (and everyone else too)
They Might Be Giants - Four websites for one of the greatest bands in existance
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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
Posts: 2957 | Registered: Thursday, October 4 2001 07:00
Well, how can I know these answers? in General
Shaper
Member # 73
Profile #11
IMAGE(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v398/TheAlmightyDoerOfStuff/InspectorPeanut.jpg)

One day, several years ago, I was in Florida on vacation, and I purchased the above depicted plush tortoise. I didn't have a name for him. I had one time previously enlisted Morgan, Saunders, Khoth, and one other person (Drakefyre? Alec? I forget) to help me come up with a name for a plush goldfish I had purchased (Morgan suggested "Lampost" which I went with after some argument about how to spell "lamp post"), so I asked them for help again, and they suggested various names. Morgan again suggested an excellent name, Inspector Peanut, but during the course of the chat there was much joking about Inspector Peanut not being a plush tortoise, but a fluffy turtle, despite my protests. Eventually Inspector Peanut's existence came up here on the message boards (maybe through one of my "Around the ______ in however long it takes" RPs but I'm not sure), and from there some mythology regarding the fluffy turtles developed, including that they live under the door to Spidweb and that they eat the sanity that is left at the door, as per the greeting.

EDIT: Also, you skipped number 2. You jumped from 1 to 3 on your list of questions.

[ Monday, October 15, 2007 07:08: Message edited by: The Almighty Do-er of Stuff ]

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My Myspace, with some of my audial and visual art
The Lyceum - The Headquarters of the Blades designing community
The Louvre - The Blades of Avernum graphics database
Alexandria - The Blades of Exile Scenario database
BoE Webring - Self explanatory
Polaris - Free porn here
Odd Todd - Fun for the unemployed (and everyone else too)
They Might Be Giants - Four websites for one of the greatest bands in existance
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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
Posts: 2957 | Registered: Thursday, October 4 2001 07:00
The Political Compass (Armed and Dangerous) in General
Shaper
Member # 73
Profile #51
I've taken the test several times recently and don't feel like doing it again, but I'm somewhere around -8.2 economic, -8.7 social. Anyway, two points I'd like to make:

1. The site has an FAQ that adresses many of the questions and complaints posed here. I suggest you all read it.

2. The difference between "Agree" and "Strongly agree" isn't how stubbornly you hold your opinion, but how correct you believe the statement to be. Each question only moves you on one axis (so each answer isn't a different quadrant), a fact among many others given in the FAQ.

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My Myspace, with some of my audial and visual art
The Lyceum - The Headquarters of the Blades designing community
The Louvre - The Blades of Avernum graphics database
Alexandria - The Blades of Exile Scenario database
BoE Webring - Self explanatory
Polaris - Free porn here
Odd Todd - Fun for the unemployed (and everyone else too)
They Might Be Giants - Four websites for one of the greatest bands in existance
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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
Posts: 2957 | Registered: Thursday, October 4 2001 07:00
...and again. in General
Shaper
Member # 73
Profile #6
Um... Were you made a Flight (Right? Too small) Corporal?

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My Myspace, with some of my audial and visual art
The Lyceum - The Headquarters of the Blades designing community
The Louvre - The Blades of Avernum graphics database
Alexandria - The Blades of Exile Scenario database
BoE Webring - Self explanatory
Polaris - Free porn here
Odd Todd - Fun for the unemployed (and everyone else too)
They Might Be Giants - Four websites for one of the greatest bands in existance
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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
Posts: 2957 | Registered: Thursday, October 4 2001 07:00
...and again. in General
Shaper
Member # 73
Profile #5
Um... Were you made a Flight (Right? Too small) Corporal?

[ Saturday, October 13, 2007 15:56: Message edited by: The Almighty Do-er of Stuff ]

--------------------
My Myspace, with some of my audial and visual art
The Lyceum - The Headquarters of the Blades designing community
The Louvre - The Blades of Avernum graphics database
Alexandria - The Blades of Exile Scenario database
BoE Webring - Self explanatory
Polaris - Free porn here
Odd Todd - Fun for the unemployed (and everyone else too)
They Might Be Giants - Four websites for one of the greatest bands in existance
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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
Posts: 2957 | Registered: Thursday, October 4 2001 07:00
Petition for Carbonized Character Editor in Blades of Exile
Shaper
Member # 73
Profile #8
I think Ormus fixed Conceal Ability in the Windows XP port.

--------------------
My Myspace, with some of my art
The Lyceum - The Headquarters of the Blades designing community
The Louvre - The Blades of Avernum graphics database
BoE Webring - Self explanatory
They Might Be Giants - Four official websites for one of the greatest bands in existence
Posts: 2957 | Registered: Thursday, October 4 2001 07:00
Thank You Master SpiderWeb!! in Nethergate
Shaper
Member # 73
Profile #2
quote:
Originally written by Iffy will bring you warm fuzziness.:

The limit is that of the limit of the imagination (and skill) of the entire Spiderweb community.
Don't forget free time. That's an important factor in the limit too.

--------------------
My Myspace, with some of my audial and visual art
The Lyceum - The Headquarters of the Blades designing community
The Louvre - The Blades of Avernum graphics database
Alexandria - The Blades of Exile Scenario database
BoE Webring - Self explanatory
Polaris - Free porn here
Odd Todd - Fun for the unemployed (and everyone else too)
They Might Be Giants - Four websites for one of the greatest bands in existance
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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
Posts: 2957 | Registered: Thursday, October 4 2001 07:00
I have glasses. in General
Shaper
Member # 73
Profile #40
Really? Aran looks like _____ Potter too! How funny.

EDIT: Cripes, two pages. Curses!

[ Saturday, September 29, 2007 16:52: Message edited by: The Almighty Do-er of Stuff ]

--------------------
My Myspace, with some of my audial and visual art
The Lyceum - The Headquarters of the Blades designing community
The Louvre - The Blades of Avernum graphics database
Alexandria - The Blades of Exile Scenario database
BoE Webring - Self explanatory
Polaris - Free porn here
Odd Todd - Fun for the unemployed (and everyone else too)
They Might Be Giants - Four websites for one of the greatest bands in existance
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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
Posts: 2957 | Registered: Thursday, October 4 2001 07:00
Erasing Saved Games in Avernum 4
Shaper
Member # 73
Profile #3
It is possible, LakiRa@. Alorael just explained how to do it on a Mac.

I have Windows, but I don't have A4, so I can't tell you how to do so on Windows. I do know that it's possible, however.

--------------------
My Myspace, with some of my audial and visual art
The Lyceum - The Headquarters of the Blades designing community
The Louvre - The Blades of Avernum graphics database
Alexandria - The Blades of Exile Scenario database
BoE Webring - Self explanatory
Polaris - Free porn here
Odd Todd - Fun for the unemployed (and everyone else too)
They Might Be Giants - Four websites for one of the greatest bands in existance
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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
Posts: 2957 | Registered: Thursday, October 4 2001 07:00
give me a clue about tom in Avernum 4
Shaper
Member # 73
Profile #5
The first letter of a sentence, such as the "T" in this sentence, the word "I" (as in "I went to the store")the first letters of proper nouns, such as the names of people, cities and countries, and letters in acronyms, such as USA (United States of America) or NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) should be capitalized. Most other letters should be lowercase. You may notice a key on either side of the keyboard labeled "Shift". Holding this down while you press a letter key will produce a capital letter. If you are not holding it down, then the letters will be lowercase. Caps Lock reverses this, to make it easier to type in all capital letters; however, this is not something you usually want to do, so it's usually best to keep Caps Lock turned off.

Also note that some keys depict two symbols. For instance, there is a key with a > symbol above a . symbol. Holding down Shift while pressing this key will create the symbol on top. Caps Lock generally does not affect this, because these symbols are not letters. The "Caps" in "Caps Lock" is short for "Capitals".

Compare:

"I like dogs. Dogs are furry and playful. I have a pet dog named Fido. He is a friendly dog."

"I LIKE DOGS. DOGS ARE FURRY AND PLAYFUL. I HAVE A PET DOG NAMED FIDO. HE IS A FRIENDLY DOG."

"i like dogs. dogs are furry and playful. i have a pet dog named fido. he is a friendly dog."

[ Friday, September 28, 2007 11:35: Message edited by: The Almighty Do-er of Stuff ]

--------------------
My Myspace, with some of my audial and visual art
The Lyceum - The Headquarters of the Blades designing community
The Louvre - The Blades of Avernum graphics database
Alexandria - The Blades of Exile Scenario database
BoE Webring - Self explanatory
Polaris - Free porn here
Odd Todd - Fun for the unemployed (and everyone else too)
They Might Be Giants - Four websites for one of the greatest bands in existance
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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
Posts: 2957 | Registered: Thursday, October 4 2001 07:00
Compiling BoE source code for Windows in Blades of Exile
Shaper
Member # 73
Profile #53
I think we decided that "Blades of Exile" would refer to the original, unmodified code and ports of it to other OSes that don't change the way scenarios or parties behave or are encoded, while "OBoE" (Open Blades of Exile) refers to the project that involves changing the way nodes behave, etc. There's no behavior or encoding changes for Windows yet (Ormus just ported it to XP, along with a couple minor aesthetic changes), but nodes have been modified for the Mac version.

At least that's how I think we were going to do it. It's what I remember, anyway.

--------------------
My Myspace, with some of my audial and visual art
The Lyceum - The Headquarters of the Blades designing community
The Louvre - The Blades of Avernum graphics database
Alexandria - The Blades of Exile Scenario database
BoE Webring - Self explanatory
Polaris - Free porn here
Odd Todd - Fun for the unemployed (and everyone else too)
They Might Be Giants - Four websites for one of the greatest bands in existance
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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
Posts: 2957 | Registered: Thursday, October 4 2001 07:00
Google Code project in Blades of Exile
Shaper
Member # 73
Profile #1
That was something we were hoping to avoid doing, really. I guess it's your prerogative, given the terms of the license, but consulting the community first would have been nice.

--------------------
My Myspace, with some of my audial and visual art
The Lyceum - The Headquarters of the Blades designing community
The Louvre - The Blades of Avernum graphics database
Alexandria - The Blades of Exile Scenario database
BoE Webring - Self explanatory
Polaris - Free porn here
Odd Todd - Fun for the unemployed (and everyone else too)
They Might Be Giants - Four websites for one of the greatest bands in existance
--------------------
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
Posts: 2957 | Registered: Thursday, October 4 2001 07:00
To whom it may concern. in General
Shaper
Member # 73
Profile #15
IMAGE(http://www.mccullagh.org/db9/10d-8/judge-robert-bork.jpg)

BEHOLD BORK


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My Myspace, with some of my audial and visual art
The Lyceum - The Headquarters of the Blades designing community
The Louvre - The Blades of Avernum graphics database
Alexandria - The Blades of Exile Scenario database
BoE Webring - Self explanatory
Polaris - Free porn here
Odd Todd - Fun for the unemployed (and everyone else too)
They Might Be Giants - Four websites for one of the greatest bands in existance
--------------------
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
Posts: 2957 | Registered: Thursday, October 4 2001 07:00
New Spiderweb product idea in General
Shaper
Member # 73
Profile #35
"Down With Shapers"

That would fit the Takers, not the Awakened.

--------------------
My Myspace, with some of my audial and visual art
The Lyceum - The Headquarters of the Blades designing community
The Louvre - The Blades of Avernum graphics database
Alexandria - The Blades of Exile Scenario database
BoE Webring - Self explanatory
Polaris - Free porn here
Odd Todd - Fun for the unemployed (and everyone else too)
They Might Be Giants - Four websites for one of the greatest bands in existance
--------------------
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
Posts: 2957 | Registered: Thursday, October 4 2001 07:00
El President Released!! in Blades of Avernum
Shaper
Member # 73
Profile #2
Why shouldn't there be a scenario devoted to Alec?

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My Myspace, with some of my audial and visual art
The Lyceum - The Headquarters of the Blades designing community
The Louvre - The Blades of Avernum graphics database
Alexandria - The Blades of Exile Scenario database
BoE Webring - Self explanatory
Polaris - Free porn here
Odd Todd - Fun for the unemployed (and everyone else too)
They Might Be Giants - Four websites for one of the greatest bands in existance
--------------------
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
Posts: 2957 | Registered: Thursday, October 4 2001 07:00
Avernum 5 boat screenshot in Avernum 4
Shaper
Member # 73
Profile #19
quote:
Originally written by Fear, Favor, and a Few More:

Randomizer is a tester, but I think this is no terrible reveal. Boat movement really works identically to non-boat movement: you can click to move several spaces at once, or you can use the keyboard to move one space at a time. To get out of a boat requires clicking on it to spit your party back onto adjacent land.
You can use both. It combines the old Avernum movement system where you can use the keyboard and/or mouse to move one space at a time with the Geneforge system of moving to a distant space by clicking it.

Of course, you have to be careful not to cross the path of any pickpockets in the process of distance-click-automove movement. It's easier to see them coming and avoid them when you're controlling your characters manually than when they move on their own. After all, you wouldn't want them to steal your Chitrach eggsacs, would you? (You didn't hear this from me, but in Avernum 5, Chitrachs may or may not have been domesticated, making their eggsacs significantly more valuable...)

[ Sunday, September 02, 2007 13:21: Message edited by: The Almighty Do-er of Stuff ]

--------------------
My Myspace, with some of my audial and visual art
The Lyceum - The Headquarters of the Blades designing community
The Louvre - The Blades of Avernum graphics database
Alexandria - The Blades of Exile Scenario database
BoE Webring - Self explanatory
Polaris - Free porn here
Odd Todd - Fun for the unemployed (and everyone else too)
They Might Be Giants - Four websites for one of the greatest bands in existance
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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
Posts: 2957 | Registered: Thursday, October 4 2001 07:00
What's on your iGoogle page? in General
Shaper
Member # 73
Profile #8
Column 1:
Boston Globe - Massachusetts News
Boston Globe - National News
Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster blog feed

Column 2:
Gmail
Dictionary.com Word of the Day
Quotes of the Day
BBC News World Edition
Discovery News - Animals

Column 3:
The Weather Channel - Local weather for Revere, MA
The Weather Channel - Local weather for Boston, MA
They Might Be Giants Podcast
Current Moon Phase

Column 4:
Fordnox Clock
World Sunlight Map
Solar System

I have two tabs, one with the above and one with less stuff (for my laptop with smaller resolution). Is there any way, for instance by putting stuff in the URL, to make my laptop open the Laptop tab and my desktop open the Desktop tab as my home pages, instead of always going to the last one open on either computer?

--------------------
My Myspace, with some of my audial and visual art
The Lyceum - The Headquarters of the Blades designing community
The Louvre - The Blades of Avernum graphics database
Alexandria - The Blades of Exile Scenario database
BoE Webring - Self explanatory
Polaris - Free porn here
Odd Todd - Fun for the unemployed (and everyone else too)
They Might Be Giants - Four websites for one of the greatest bands in existance
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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
Posts: 2957 | Registered: Thursday, October 4 2001 07:00
noob info in General
Shaper
Member # 73
Profile #34
You're funny, Iffy.

--------------------
My Myspace, with some of my audial and visual art
The Lyceum - The Headquarters of the Blades designing community
The Louvre - The Blades of Avernum graphics database
Alexandria - The Blades of Exile Scenario database
BoE Webring - Self explanatory
Polaris - Free porn here
Odd Todd - Fun for the unemployed (and everyone else too)
They Might Be Giants - Four websites for one of the greatest bands in existance
--------------------
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
Posts: 2957 | Registered: Thursday, October 4 2001 07:00
A5 Questions again in Avernum 4
Shaper
Member # 73
Profile #6
The Exiles did not have attack animations. They had a static image for standing still, and a static image for attacking. They did, however, have animated terrains, in which the terrain would cycle through four graphics. Not sure if those were in all the Exile games, but it's in BoE and E3 at least.

--------------------
My Myspace, with some of my audial and visual art
The Lyceum - The Headquarters of the Blades designing community
The Louvre - The Blades of Avernum graphics database
Alexandria - The Blades of Exile Scenario database
BoE Webring - Self explanatory
Polaris - Free porn here
Odd Todd - Fun for the unemployed (and everyone else too)
They Might Be Giants - Four websites for one of the greatest bands in existance
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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
Posts: 2957 | Registered: Thursday, October 4 2001 07:00
Exile 3 or Avernum3 in The Avernum Trilogy
Shaper
Member # 73
Profile #9
I don't think we have anywhere near thousands of BoE scenarios, but we do have hundreds.

--------------------
My Myspace, with some of my art
The Lyceum - The Headquarters of the Blades designing community
The Louvre - The Blades of Avernum graphics database
BoE Webring - Self explanatory
They Might Be Giants - Four official websites for one of the greatest bands in existence
Posts: 2957 | Registered: Thursday, October 4 2001 07:00
The Sky Is Falling...? in General
Shaper
Member # 73
Profile #239
Are we discussing whether SkeleTony's views about the nature of the Whole Sort Of General Mish Mash are logical here, in the Man or God thread, or in a new thread? I'll continue here until someone tells me otherwise.

SkeleTony, I believe that you are not claiming that you not understanding something makes it not exist, as others have suggested. I think you are saying that if it's not understandable at any point ever, it doesn't exist. However, you define things as "not understandable ever" that you don't understand but we do. We understand perfectly well that time can have started at the Big Bang and how, for instance, but because you don't understand them or the methods used to understand them, you seem to assume, either consciously or subconsciously, that they must be non-understandable. This seems to be obvious to everyone in the discussion but you, and I find that amusing.

Here's an example of what could have existed before time besides nothing and infinite regression: eternity. Before you say we can't understand eternity, let me explain just what "eternity" is, as I understand it. Eternity can reasonably be defined as "the period of time that is simultaneously forever and no time at all". This seems like a contradiction in terms, but consider this: We know that the square root of -1 is i. i is what we call an imaginary number, but it certainly exists. It has real mathematical value and is useful in, and in many cases essential to, coming up with practical results. i is a seeming contradiction in terms: A number's square root multiplied by the same square root equals the number. However, multiplying a real number times another real number with the same sign, as multiplying a real number by itself inherently is, always yields a positive number. So how can we multiply a number (i) times itself and get a negative number? Simple: The number i transcends (yes, that word you don't like) the sequential number system. You cannot count to i, but i still exists, and there are several other non-real but still existent numbers like i. Like i transcends the sequential number system, eternity transcends sequential time. You may not like it or understand it, but that doesn't mean it's not true.

[ Wednesday, August 29, 2007 13:05: Message edited by: The Almighty Do-er of Stuff ]

--------------------
My Myspace, with some of my audial and visual art
The Lyceum - The Headquarters of the Blades designing community
The Louvre - The Blades of Avernum graphics database
Alexandria - The Blades of Exile Scenario database
BoE Webring - Self explanatory
Polaris - Free porn here
Odd Todd - Fun for the unemployed (and everyone else too)
They Might Be Giants - Four websites for one of the greatest bands in existance
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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
Posts: 2957 | Registered: Thursday, October 4 2001 07:00
Man or God in General
Shaper
Member # 73
Profile #7
None of the above. I have no idea. What I do have an opinion about is whether the Bible matters to me at this point, whether it's Godmade, manmade, both, or otherwise. My opinion is no, it does not.

By the way, see my post in the Sky Is Falling thread that I am about to make.

[ Wednesday, August 29, 2007 12:41: Message edited by: The Almighty Do-er of Stuff ]

--------------------
My Myspace, with some of my audial and visual art
The Lyceum - The Headquarters of the Blades designing community
The Louvre - The Blades of Avernum graphics database
Alexandria - The Blades of Exile Scenario database
BoE Webring - Self explanatory
Polaris - Free porn here
Odd Todd - Fun for the unemployed (and everyone else too)
They Might Be Giants - Four websites for one of the greatest bands in existance
--------------------
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
Posts: 2957 | Registered: Thursday, October 4 2001 07:00
The Sky Is Falling...? in General
Shaper
Member # 73
Profile #222
I like this debate. An observation: One of the things I like most about debates is that sometimes I will be fervently agreeing with one person and arguing heatedly with another, while another time the roles of the other two people are switched. For instance, in general Stillness and I are at odds in debates about logic, science and religion. Here I find that I am agreeing with him. It's an amazing world, isn't it?

Nevertheless, Stillness, I defy you to turn a screw with a sawzall. :P

As for SkeleTony:

quote:
False. Absence of evidence is some of the strongest evidence of absence we can possibly have! The above makes for a cute slogan but it is not logically sound. You also have to keep in mind the difference between ordinary claims and extraordinary claims. Not having positive evidence that my aunt works for NASA is NOT evidence that she does not. That would be true. But not having evidence that my aunt is a vampiric telepath from dimension 'x934' IS evidence that she is not.
Please explicitly define the terms "ordinary claims" and "extraordinary claims" and the difference between them.

quote:
Define these "souls" and "entities" for me and I will tell you. If they are vacuously defined or ambiguous then I simply lack assent to any claim that they exist and point out the error in reasoning that goes with claiming otherwise.
If they are defined in such a way that entails contradiction then I say they positively do NOT exist.
I'll define "souls" and "entities" when you define "black holes" without any use of Newtonian physics or anything more advanced. Unless you're positing that black wholes didn't exist until we discovered them and then retroactively came into past existance, which wouldn't surprise me given your claims about the nature of time.

--------------------
My Myspace, with some of my audial and visual art
The Lyceum - The Headquarters of the Blades designing community
The Louvre - The Blades of Avernum graphics database
Alexandria - The Blades of Exile Scenario database
BoE Webring - Self explanatory
Polaris - Free porn here
Odd Todd - Fun for the unemployed (and everyone else too)
They Might Be Giants - Four websites for one of the greatest bands in existance
--------------------
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
Posts: 2957 | Registered: Thursday, October 4 2001 07:00
The Sky Is Falling...? in General
Shaper
Member # 73
Profile #205
The conversation seems to have come to a point where I can easily argue by copying and pasting my arguments from the Venganza thread and then tweaking them to be relevant to this discussion. Much of this was originally, in this form or a slightly different one, in response to posters on Venganza, and where I use their specific contributions I will credit them.

quote:
Originally written by SkeleTony:

quote:
If I’m not mistaken the general consensus is something. If that something is someone, it does not seem farfetched, even if difficult to understand, that time is not the same for them as for us.
Even granting the premise that it was "someone"(for which there is NO reason to grant), we have EVERY reason to assume that time is time. What does it mean, for example, for a God to "create the universe" if there was not a preceding moment where the universe did NOT exist, followed by the act of "creation" and then the post-creation span? The "beyond time" or "Non-linear experience of time" is just word salad nonsense. Like claiming that square shaped circles might exist in Bizarro World without explaining HOW such a thing could be.

quote:
It also seems a pretty bold claim to assume we know everything must be natural and physical – that was your claim.
Not at all bold. By definition all things must be natural and physical for we live in a natural and physical reality. This fact remains until one of you can cough up reason to infer otherwise.

What you are doing here is citing the lack of proof for your own speculation as the case for your speculation being true. If we DO live in a material reality(as all evidence points to) then we CANNOT have evidence for or against a 'non-physical' reality, which is why we have that "burden of proof" thing that falls on YOU making such a claim.

SkeleTony, it appears you are commiting an Appeal to Ignorance fallacy. (See *NOTE at end of post before talking about the page the preceding link directs you. Feel free to disagree after you have read it, but I ask that you back up your argument with logic.) Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. I shall give you two examples:

In medieval times, humans had no observable evidence that what we now call black holes existed. Therefore, by the logic you appear to have used in your posts in this thread, because there was no evidence for them, it was reasonable to conclude that it was 100% certain that they did not exist.

You might say this is absurd, because we now have tools and methods for seeing them that medieval people did not and through their use we now do have evidence for their existence. However, could the same situation that applies to medieval people with regard to the existence of black holes not also apply to ourselves at the present with regard to the existence of currently undetectable souls and deities?

Perhaps it's not even undetectable simply due to being beyond the limitations of our current scientifically determined methods like telescopy and infrared photography, etc. (for instance, if it is only unobservable until we die, as some religions claim), but simply because they're beyond the limitations of our current technology (i.e. far enough away that our most powerful telescopes can't see it and that its gravitational effects are miniscule to the point where we can't currently detect them). Perhaps somewhere very far away dragons and unicorns do exist. You can say that there's no evidence and that it's therefore 100% certain that they don't exist, but then the same could be said of black holes in medieval times.

Here is my second example:

You claim that nothing non-physical/material/observable exists. Can you offer proof that such things do not exist? I posit that you cannot. However, can anyone offer proof that they do exist? I don't believe that anyone can, and if I understand your argument properly I would say you agree with that statement. Therefore, there is no evidence for the lack of non-physical/material/observable things, and therefore it is 100% certain that there is no lack of non-physical/material/observable things.

Therefore, they both exist and don't exist simultaneously. I find that this does not make much sense. Perhaps you disagree with me?

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As it turns out, logically, in order to argue that the existence of non-physical/material/observable things isn't logical in the face of evidence against their natural/physical/material/observable occurrence, you have to put faith into the reliability of evidence. If observable evidence turns out to be false (for instance, if a Flying Spaghetti Monster is always there altering the data as we collect it, as The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster (a.k.a. Pastafarianism) asserts, or if you are a Boltzmann brain), then your argument is moot. Appearances can be deceiving, of course, and logic appears to tell us that.

The implication of all this seems to be that we know nothing at all with absolute certainty (as RandomSam from the thread at Venganza observed) by this definition of "certainty" (which, incidentally, is actually the one used by most dictionaries from what I can tell). However, it seems that we may as well behave as though we do because it appears to make things significantly easier. Just because nothing being truly certain is an uncomfortable thought doesn't mean it can be disregarded out of hand.

Therefore, assuming my logic holds (and I believe it does, although you may disagree and say so if you wish, in which case I ask that you back it up with reasoning), it appears you have two options: you can either stop using observable-evidence-based logic, or you can simply accept my conclusion as logical (again, ASSUMING MY LOGIC HOLDS and I'm not saying I must be right and you're stupid, because I could be wrong, in which case tell me so and why if you wish). If you accept my conclusion as logical, then it appears you have two choices: You can either accept that appearances can be deceiving and go insane thinking about it, or (this is the option I choose) you can accept that appearances can be deceiving and then simply behave as though they weren't both for an apparent preference for sanity and for an apparent lack of anything else to go by.

Choosing the second option of the second set of options that comes as a result of choosing the second option of the first set of options, of course, leaves us in an interesting position. Since it neither appears that there are things that cannot be directly observed nor appears that there aren't, then it appears to me that we have another choice: The three best ways to preserve sanity are to either simply abandon appearance-based logic (perhaps putting faith in non-appearance-based things such as a book or person that tells you global warming, or evolution, or the existence of black holes, is false), leading us back to the first option of the first set of options that we initially overlooked, or apply it in some situations and not others (for instance, via some ruleset, an hierarchy of what things are more true than others [Bible > science > anecdotal experience > random conjecture, for instance]), or to simply accept and acknowledge it, not waste any more time thinking about it except when relevant to conversation, and behave as we would if appearances were not deceiving with regards to those things which appearances are even meaningful, and simultaneously believe or not believe whatever we want about those things that we have no evidence for or against yet until the point comes that we do have evidence (i.e. whatever you derive the most happiness from believing or not believing).

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Then, provided we do not choose to go insane ourselves, we are left with the question of how we deal with those who disagree with the manner in which we choose not to go insane (and perhaps those who do go insane, but in those cases institutionalization of the insane accompanied by attempts to make them not insane appears to be the most popular choice in developed countries). I personally find that acceptance and tolerance of other ways to deal with the apparent possible deceptiveness of apparent appearances is a good way to deal with said other ways, provided my own apparent ability to choose my own way to deal with the apparent possible deceptiveness of apparent appearances is not infringed upon, although you personally may disagree.

Specifically, it seems to me that one should believe or not believe what they please. If Tim the Religious wants to believe in religion, I personally see no reason why one should not let him unless he interferes with one's ability to believe what one wants, assuming one doesn't want him to interfere with said ability, which for all I know one may. If he interferes and one decides to believe that he is interfering when he shouldn't and that one can and should stop him, then by all means one should go ahead. What it essentially boils down to, or so it appears to me, is social contracts (with regard only to human society's current state and disregarding any speculation about the origin of our society.)

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So to sum up, yes, you can say it is impossible for things that are non-phsyical/natural/material/observable to exist, in the understanding of all in the discussion that "exist" is redefined to mean what you describe. I don't disagree and I don't think Thuryl does either (him being a scientist himself and all). We (or me at least, and Thuryl as far as I can tell) were merely playing devil's advocate. I still say it's perfectly valid to say that logic and reason are fallible, although thankfully ("thankfully" in my opinion at least) the majority of our society tends to agree that reason is good, and thus, due to social contracts, in most developed countries we run scientific medical hospitals instead of sacrificing pigs and praying to the gods of health to heal us (although many combine prayer with science, and those that rely solely on mystics tend to die and/or kill/maim someone and/or get arrested.)

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*NOTE: I linked to that Appeal to Ignorance Fallacy page because I find the basic form and explanation of what the fallacy is that the page gives to be essentially satisfactory. However, it does say this

quote:
When extensive investigation has been undertaken, it is often reasonable to infer that something is false based upon a lack of positive evidence for it. For instance, if a drug has been subjected to lengthy testing for harmful effects and none has been discovered, it is then reasonable to conclude that it is safe. Another example is:

If there really were a large and unusual type of animal in Loch Ness, then we would have undeniable evidence of it by now.
We don't have undeniable evidence of a large, unfamiliar animal in Loch Ness.
Therefore, there is no such animal.

As with reasoning using the closed world assumption, auto-epistemic reasoning does not commit the fallacy of Argument from Ignorance.
and one therefore might be tempted to argue that, if one's argument falls under that exception, then the argument is not an Appeal To Ignorance Fallacy. However, the author of the website does not appear to be infallible. I posit that the part of the Appeal To Ignorance Fallacy page I quoted is, or at least appears to be, itself committing an Appeal To Ignorance Fallacy. Of course, it depends on how you define "reasonable". "Reasonable" does not necessarily mean "true" or "perfect". It could simply mean "good enough and useful given that observable evidence is true" (practical instead of logical, as Thuryl said). A lot of scientific philosophy and logic goes on the assumption that appearances are true.

[ Monday, August 27, 2007 17:07: Message edited by: The Almighty Do-er of Stuff ]

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The Sky Is Falling...? in General
Shaper
Member # 73
Profile #182
This conversation that Thuryl has derailed the thread into reminds me of a thread on the Venganza boards, in the Comparative Theology and Theosophy forum, called "Atheism: Faith or Not? (and other -isms too)". www.venganza.org I think you have to register to view that section of the forums. I joined the discussion on the fourth page, I think, and started arguing something similar to what I think Thuryl is arguing, although in a somewhat different context.

At one point I mentioned Social Contract Theory, by which I meant the train of thought I expounded upon in my response to Cardinal Queequeg's post on the second page of the "Alright..." thread in the Political Issues forum and which seems to me to be the basic idea behind the Social Contract Theory real philosophers discuss, based on tangential mentions in previous conversations and cursory Wikipedia examination afterward. (Thanks to TM (I think) for the ROAR!!! by the way. I had been waiting for an opportunity to borrow that since I saw him (I think) use it.)

[ Sunday, August 26, 2007 18:16: Message edited by: The Almighty Do-er of Stuff ]

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My Myspace, with some of my audial and visual art
The Lyceum - The Headquarters of the Blades designing community
The Louvre - The Blades of Avernum graphics database
Alexandria - The Blades of Exile Scenario database
BoE Webring - Self explanatory
Polaris - Free porn here
Odd Todd - Fun for the unemployed (and everyone else too)
They Might Be Giants - Four websites for one of the greatest bands in existance
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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
Posts: 2957 | Registered: Thursday, October 4 2001 07:00

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