Josh Friedman
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Josh Friedman commented on What is your definition of God? 100 words or less. on February 21, 2008, 2:38 PM
God is the unattainable. God is the extreme. God is that by which we define ourselves. God is that which man aspires to be, but has yet to become. God is knowledge we have yet to attain. God is subjective. God is a human concept. God is the artificial boundary man creates in an infinite reality. God is man's attempt to reconcile his desire for truth and unity in a reality in which he finds neither. God is an admission of defeat in man's absurd struggle with himself and his reality
Josh Friedman commented on On Libertarianism and Ron Paul on February 18, 2008, 7:31 PM
Warrior-I'm really confused as to what you are trying to say. Are you saying we are not free because we are controlled by big business? And if so, how could you possibly support Ron Paul, who believes that we should not only allow big business to continue on this path, but to remove any existing restrictions that keep the problem from being even worse?
Josh Friedman commented on Re: Why are you a vegan? on February 10, 2008, 10:16 AM
The debate on plants and pain is an interesting one:Google "Do Plants Feel Pain" and you'll see a ton of interesting information. Many new experiments are showing that plants do actually have a rudimentary nervous system, that there are neurotransmitters in plant cells that do transfer signals throughout the plant and that plants react to outside stimulus by releasing chemicals and hormones, just as people and animals do.It's easier to see pain in animals because they share more of our characteristics. We know how humans react to pain, and we see some similar reactions in animals. But just because we are not capable of seeing or understanding a plant's reaction to pain, does not mean it is not there.If the question is do plants feel pain in the human sense, I don't know if that question can ever be answered. But the same question cannot be answered for animals either. Just because animals look more like us than plants, does not mean they feel the same way. And just because plants look less like us than animals, does not mean they don't.I don't like to draw arbitrary lines. I have to eat life to survive. I personally see the only logical line as being that between humans (conscious beings) and everything else. If you want to draw some arbitrary line somewhere down the evolutionary tree, that's your choice
Josh Friedman commented on On Libertarianism and Ron Paul on February 10, 2008, 9:55 AM
Wow, if you think America is a tyranny, then you have a seriously warped view of the world. America is one of the most free countries on Earth. We have far less taxation than most civilized nations in the world. Read up on Stalin, Mao, and Hitler if you want to know what tyranny is. I can't believe you would even compare America to such regimes.AND, if anything, America is controlled by money and corporations, not by government. A Ron Paul government would only increase the power of corporations. If you want tyranny, Ron Paul is the path. We can all be slaves to the almighty dollar. I for one (and seemingly 90% of America) would rather not take the path
"The climax of every tragedy lies in the deafness of its heroes. Plato is right and not Moses and Nietzsche. Dialogue on the level of mankind is less costly than the gospel preached by totalitarian regimes in the form of monologue dictated from the top of a lonely mountain" - Albert Camus, The Rebel
Josh Friedman commented on IS FREE WILL AN ILLUSION? on May 5, 2008, 4:36 PM
I've seen nothing to make me believe that some being has a set plan for each person, so I reject determinism in that form. But as far as causality, things get a bit more murkyThink about it this way. Let's stop time at any given moment and look at the human brain. The brain is structure of neurons connected in a certain pattern. At any given time, the brain receives inputs from senses and from memory, and based on it's current configuration, it produces outputs and then reconfigures itself accordingly (learning and feedback).If you look at it this way, then your thoughts and actions at any time are determined by your brain's configuration at that time combined with the inputs it receives at that time. It would seem then that our actions are predetermined because there is only one possible outcome based on a given brain configuration and a set of inputs. But here's the kicker. We cannot stop time to see how the brain will react to given set of inputs, so to us, our future actions are unknown, which gives the appearance of free will. Also, since each human brain is unique and dynamic, we all act differently to different inputs at different times. This gives the appearance of choice. So in the end, the real question is - does it really matter if we have true free will if we cannot know otherwise? I say no. Whether true choice is an illusion or not, I don't think it should affect the way I live.