The end of Dissection

i think he was a good musician !I respect him as a musician but as a human? I cant say what kind of a person he was really!
 
The first Christian response would be that from the eternal standpoint there would indeed be victory. But I'm going to lay that aside for a moment to address something else.

A reward that lies in his grave

The question is, what if the alternatives are worse? To deprive humankind completely of all will after their creation would very likely qualify--so would standing by and allowing complete self-destruction of the human race by not requiring them to try and fight at all. The third alternative--never creating other beings in the first place--may also be problematic, though less so than the other two. The nature of love is such that one must give it away in order for it to be complete, rather than keeping it inside solely for self-love. That turns the usual atheistic characterization of the Christian God as a megalomaniac of sorts on its head. Some criticize him for what he asks of humanity (respect, worship, etc.)...but it may well be that for love to have no beneficiary would be problematic and unbecoming of a being said to be perfect in love.

Once again, there is no rational basis for those alternatives.


I think we're operating off of two fundamentally different definitions of what the universe is.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiverse

Are you suggesting the "universe", if one of these theories is true, would contain everything described in this definition?

First of all you are looking up "Multiverse", as for the issue of multiverse the universe definition had to be first (at least I'm 99% sure, haven’t studied it too much). If the Universe def. was first than that cancels out the multiverse, if there were parallels it would be covered in the universe-the sum of matter. Its kind of like Batman-The Mask of the Phantasm came out before Batman Begins but then when Batman Begins came out it totally contradicted Mask of the Phantasm, those rotten bastards!


Right--this is the fundamental difference I'm trying to get at. You appear to believe that God can be conclusively proven not to exist.

I and an agnostic would agree that no such conclusion in either direction could be made based on scientific means.

Then why take a leap of faith that demand you devote your life to something that doesn't exist. Its a huge and life damning leap to take.


The best way I can approach your concept of original sin is to do a direct quote from Atlas Shrugged:

"Do not hide behind the cowardly evasion that man is born with free will, but with a "tendency" to evil. A free will saddled with a tendency is like a game with loaded dice. It forces man to struggle through the effort of playing, to bear responsibility and pay for the game, but the decision is weighted in favor of a tendency that he had no power to escape. If the tendency is of his choice, he cannot possess it at birth; if it is not of his choice, his will is not free."
 
dargormudshark said:
A reward that lies in his grave
The best way I can approach your concept of original sin is to do a direct quote from Atlas Shrugged:

"Do not hide behind the cowardly evasion that man is born with free will, but with a "tendency" to evil. A free will saddled with a tendency is like a game with loaded dice. It forces man to struggle through the effort of playing, to bear responsibility and pay for the game, but the decision is weighted in favor of a tendency that he had no power to escape.

Yes, sometimes it is like playing with loaded dice, to the extent that it's difficult, but the power to escape is always there. Almost every time I do something I know is wrong, I have made a conscious decision to do it anyway. There was nothing forcing me to do it or not do it.

If the tendency is of his choice, he cannot possess it at birth; if it is not of his choice, his will is not free."

Why couldn't he possess it at birth? When we are born, we have a tendency to 'relieve ourselves' whenever the urge strikes. Over time, we learn to utilize proper restraint and wait until we have found a toilet.

How was it not your choice to be potty trained? You can still continue to poop your pants if you wanted to, and you can still use a toilet if you want to.
 
Jon was a great composer during the 90's. Why judge him unless you really knew him?