Medusa's Question Du Jour

[Hidelight]

I have to say I with Tank what is the point of this if you do not participate in the dialog...reading through this seems like a path to no where with all respect intended
I am very new and think you could stimulate interesting dialog with a thread like this
But so far this makes no sense

[Medusa]

Medusa, I would like to see your own answers to the questions you are posing if you don't mind. Obviously not immediately when you ask them as I expect you don't want to bias the response. But simply asking questions smacks of the behaviour of theists that come here looking for flaws in atheist arguments for their own purposes. I'm sure you don't want to keep giving that impression. Please engage in the discussions you start.

Jesus. You are weary and leery of new poeple. Like I said in the first post..I do this on every forum I am on. The questions come from here (just to ease your mind Tank)
http://5000questionsur.livejournal.com/?skip=40

I like to ask very random questions. You get the same questions I post in other places. Sometimes it's simply what's your fave food. Sometimes it's really tough questions. I was going to be a bit more random with the questions. Then I saw this got moved to philosophy and figured I should keep it to those type of questions?

And yes when I ask I don't want to bias the response. I am also known to just ask and forget to answer before the next one comes up. It's that simple. No ulterior motive. Calm down. I apologize I didn't answer my two questions. I will do so now. For future reference I will post my answer after a few have answered as to engage and not distort or lead the responses.

[Medusa]

What is the truest thing that you know?
The truest thing I know is that when you are in a hurry every single light you come on will always be red.

*serious answer*
No one knows what happens when you die. So I don't think about something I have absolutely no control of.

Have you ever had a spiritual experience (an experience that cannot be explained by science)?
Not a single one.
(oddly when I asked my boyfriend this, I was sure to get some great spiritual answer. He answered the same way. Which sort of threw me for a loop. But my Pagan friends seemed to have had those experiences. )

Can you have faith and reason?
Yes you can. But you have to be careful that your faith does not taint how you go about gathering your reason. And alot of times people tend to think they are the same thing or not really understand the difference.


Some people believe the Holocaust was a hoax?. What do you think of this?
I also agree with do the numbers matter way of thinking. And that they may need medication and/or to crack a book.

[Medusa]

2704. Are all persons exactly equal?
(from survey section 29)

[Tank]

Medusa, I would like to see your own answers to the questions you are posing if you don't mind. Obviously not immediately when you ask them as I expect you don't want to bias the response. But simply asking questions smacks of the behaviour of theists that come here looking for flaws in atheist arguments for their own purposes. I'm sure you don't want to keep giving that impression. Please engage in the discussions you start.

Jesus. You are weary and leery of new poeple. Like I said in the first post..I do this on every forum I am on. The questions come from here (just to ease your mind Tank)
http://5000questionsur.livejournal.com/?skip=40

I like to ask very random questions. You get the same questions I post in other places. Sometimes it's simply what's your fave food. Sometimes it's really tough questions. I was going to be a bit more random with the questions. Then I saw this got moved to philosophy and figured I should keep it to those type of questions?

And yes when I ask I don't want to bias the response. I am also known to just ask and forget to answer before the next one comes up. It's that simple. No ulterior motive. Calm down. I apologize I didn't answer my two questions. I will do so now. For future reference I will post my answer after a few have answered as to engage and not distort or lead the responses.

Sorry to have been a bit of an arsehole. It was deliberate in the sense that my questions were intended to see how you reacted to the questions and not the content of the answers themselves. Appologies for putting you on the spot, I won't be doing it again.  

[Medusa]

Hey new people coming in. Especially someone like me. I get the protective nature you got going on. I like it. 

[Tank]

2704. Are all persons exactly equal?
(from survey section 29)

IMO no two people, including identical twins, are exactly equal, physically or mentally. This would be based on the view that we are all a unique combination of genes, embryological development and later on memes and experience. Even identical twins have divergent experiences such as who gets fed first. While one is fed one has to wait, so although in the scheme of things the difference is small it is a difference none-the-less. As time passes the divergences accumulate. So even two nominally identical individuals really are not truly identical.

However if one takes the question in a legal sense of should people be considered equal in terms of the treatment they should receive in a societal setting I would say they would be nominally equal with adjustments for physical and mental capabilities.

[Davin]

2704. Are all persons exactly equal?

By all objective measurements? No; some people stronger, some people are smarter... etc. I'm also pretty sure there is no balancing between mind and body because some really smart people are also really strong and some really stupid people are also really weak. But I don't think that really counts or is important. And that's just crossing over from objective things into subjective things (who says one cannot value a lower IQ over a higher IQ?). I'd just leave it at: we don't currently have the means to determine whether people are equal or not.

If I need to make decisions on the matter, I think it's better if I assume that all people are equal.

[Tank]

Have you ever had a spiritual experience (an experience that cannot be explained by science)?
Not a single one.
(oddly when I asked my boyfriend this, I was sure to get some great spiritual answer. He answered the same way. Which sort of threw me for a loop. But my Pagan friends seemed to have had those experiences. )

I have had unexplainable experiences but would not consider them to be of a spiritual nature. Just after I was first married I was walking up the path to the front door and my wife, who was walking behind me, asked me if we had got any post. I replied "No, we haven't had any post." She said "Pardon?" It turned out she thought the question, but didn't say it. There are uncountable times when I have started whistling or humming a tune only to have my wife say she was thinking the song. Thus if people poo-poo telepathy I don't jump on that bandwagon!  The interesting thing is that these things happen when I am not thinking about it, when my mind is blank (or blanker than usual). This leads me to consider that as the process is apparently subconscious, thus when the likes of James Randi et. al. ask people to demonstrate telepathy in a scientific setting, i.e. consciously, they can't. The testing itself precludes the demonstration of the capability.

Some people believe the Holocaust was a hoax?. What do you think of this?
I also agree with do the numbers matter way of thinking. And that they may need medication and/or to crack a book.

As you say it's not a numbers game as such, 1 would be too many. But what makes the Holocaust unique is the number involved. Thus IMO disputing the number involved is singularly disrespectful to the memory of the atrocity. 

[Medusa]

2704. Are all persons exactly equal?
(from survey section 29)

Man, I had to ask a toughy. Part of me says of course yes! We are made up of the same dna across the board. We all have a right to be alive. The other part thinks that no, we are not. Some of us have advantages or disadvantages right from birth. The human part says yes, all equal. The Satanists says no, not all.

[Medusa]

2633. What is one movie character you identify with and why?

[Medusa]

303. What do you feel controlled by?

[Tank]

303. What do you feel controlled by?

The need to get a job!

[Tank]

2633. What is one movie character you identify with and why?

I've just scanned the top 250 movies at the IMDB http://www.imdb.com/chart/top and I didn't find any at all really. Except possibly Truman Burbank in The Truman Show 

[Medusa]

I am controlled by my need to support myself. Everything I do is about that.
But also my Diabetes. It controls my day. When to eat. When to take meds. When to work out etc. It's a timed chemistry experiment each day to see if I can pass the day wth a B or better.


As for character in a movie. Can I say Medusa from Clash of the Titans? Seriously. Have you ever read her true story? It's sad. Hits home with me.