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Old 08-06-2007, 08:30 PM   #1
MikeWaters
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Default from the mystical to the scientific

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main...evitate106.xml

I always like this sort of thing. The idea that what we think or imagine God doing, can be accomplished through scientific application.

Jesus descends from the sky, without ropes or wires. Or levitates from the ground to the heavens.

Maybe in a few decades this will not seem like fantasy or magic.

I say this not to discredit belief in God, but to take us away from the "God is magic" paradigm.

Are we not Gods, or potentially Gods?
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Old 08-06-2007, 08:52 PM   #2
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Quote:
Originally Posted by MikeWaters View Post
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main...evitate106.xml

I always like this sort of thing. The idea that what we think or imagine God doing, can be accomplished through scientific application.

Jesus descends from the sky, without ropes or wires. Or levitates from the ground to the heavens.

Maybe in a few decades this will not seem like fantasy or magic.

I say this not to discredit belief in God, but to take us away from the "God is magic" paradigm.

Are we not Gods, or potentially Gods?
I missed the part of the article that talks about God or Jesus.

This kind of populist extrapolation does a disservice to serious and sophisticated thought and discussion about science and religion. It is part of what gives religion and religious people a bad name; red meat for the likes of Richard Dawkins. William James would more than blush, probably he would puke reading this post.
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Old 08-06-2007, 08:57 PM   #3
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I missed the part of the article that talks about God or Jesus.

This kind of populist extrapolation does a disservice to serious and sophisticated thought and discussion about science and religion. It is part of what gives religion and religious people a bad name; red meat for the likes of Richard Dawkins. William James would more than blush, probably he would puke reading this post.
I do nothing more than point out that some magical acts once thought beyond the reach of mortal man is within reach or highly plausible.

The Liahona must have appeared to be a magical talisman to Joseph Smith and early Saints.

To replicate the Liahona in 2007 is so trite as to be almost ridiculous.

By the way, SU, in case you didn't know, I don't care wtf you think.
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Old 08-06-2007, 10:00 PM   #4
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To replicate the Liahona in 2007 is so trite as to be almost ridiculous.
The Liahona didn't take much imagination in 1830. As the BofM says, it's essentially a compass, which were well known and in use in 1830. Maybe a compass conflated with an eight ball.
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Old 08-06-2007, 10:01 PM   #5
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The Liahona didn't take much imagination in 1830. As the BofM says, it's essentially a compass, which were well known and in use in 1830. Maybe a compass conflated with an eight ball.
how many compasses had a little digital text display back then?
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Old 08-07-2007, 03:59 PM   #6
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Quote:
Originally Posted by MikeWaters View Post
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main...evitate106.xml

I always like this sort of thing. The idea that what we think or imagine God doing, can be accomplished through scientific application.

Jesus descends from the sky, without ropes or wires. Or levitates from the ground to the heavens.

Maybe in a few decades this will not seem like fantasy or magic.

I say this not to discredit belief in God, but to take us away from the "God is magic" paradigm.

Are we not Gods, or potentially Gods?
I decided this post is actually very clever, a humorous diamond in the rough. It's classic Waters the very smart guy yielding to a penchant to play the class chimp (see also, Waters' current avatar, masturbation threads, and his darkly comical obsession with imminent Second Coming in Missouri). What's so funny is that levitation is actually the most prosaic of Christ's miracles. To One as highly evolved as Christ, levitation would be like adding and subtracting to you and me.

Hey Waters, you be sure and post the articles when scientists figure out the physical properties of walking on water, turning water into wine, making lepers whole, raising to life dead people so far gone their corpses have started to stink, and making yourself wake up from being dead three days.
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Last edited by SeattleUte; 08-07-2007 at 08:01 PM.
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Old 08-07-2007, 04:01 PM   #7
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Originally Posted by SeattleUte View Post
I decided this post is actually very clever, a humorous diamond in the rough. It's classic Waters the very smart guy yielding to a penchant to play the class chimp (see also, Waters' current avatar, masturbation threads, and his darkly comical obsession with imment Second Coming in Missouri). What's so funny is that levitation is actually the most prosaic of Christ's miracles. To One as highly evolved as Christ, levitation would be like adding and subtracting to you and me.

Hey Waters, you be sure and post the articles when scientists figure out the physical properties of walking on water, turning water into wine, making lepers whole, raising to life dead people so far gone their corpses have started to stink, and making yourself wake up from being dead three days.
cryogenics, antibiotics, transmutation.

actually I wouldn't be surprised if the levitation effect linked in that article would allow someone to be repelled by the surface of water and thereby walk on it.
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