Define god (s)

[Sophus]

You need some Niche and Plato. You can define your self by virtue of experience.

Niche? You mean Nietzsche?

I'm not quite sure what you mean either. Nietzsche was an Existentialist but he hated Plato.

(Sorry, I'm just getting technical.)

[Heathen's Guide]

"Niche" is an old philosophy pun.  I should never attempt humor before my second cup of coffee.

The Platonic Form is the basic concept you guys have been bouncing around... the idea that you have a "self" that is actually a "soul" or higher-being.  Nietzsche's big thing was the pursuit of this "self", which he called the "Higher Man".

The difference between the two was that Plato saw the self as a manifest part of the human being, while Nietzsche saw it as a process.  So, for Plato the self just "is", even if you're in a coma.  For Nietzsche, the self was a goal to be achieved.  Ever-evolving, and capable of devolving into nothingness if you allow it to (entropy).

I've always thought of Plato as the father of existentialism because he was the one who came up with the idea of the Self as a unique being that functions independent of society.  Socrates et. al. saw the Self as a cog in a social machine.

You need some Niche and Plato. You can define your self by virtue of experience.

Niche? You mean Nietzsche?

I'm not quite sure what you mean either. Nietzsche was an Existentialist but he hated Plato.

[Sophus]

That's interesting. I'll have to read up on some Plato. I never thought of him that way.

Man, am I ever sick of the "God is that which holds the universe together" line.  Ever look at the universe?  Seen how many planets crash into each other?  Solar systems wiped out?  Super novas destroying everything then collapsing in on themselves?  Asteroids large and small crashing into the Earth?  Solar flares?

Your next book: The Heathen's Guide to the Galaxy?  

[Heathen's Guide]

I've got The Heathen's Guide to Xmas ready for Fall 2010, but the publishers want me to do HG to the Apocalypse because of the 2012 crap.  I am now considering how much of a literary whore I want to be...

Your next book: The Heathen's Guide to the Galaxy?  

[hvargas]

Here is something for your thoughts and a question. Your eyes produce an interpretation of you and therefore not a true image of who you are. When you look at another person what you see is the same, an interpretation of an image. All of that is processed in the brain. In order for your thoughts to form a true image of whatever it must have the true image and not a represantation of what something looks like. Before we can define god (s), we must have its true image and the same will be true for ourselves. The best that we can do is to define some qualities of ourselves be it negative or positive, and this is somewhat of what we can do to define god - with attributes as given by theist or their biblical writings. The question, are you sure 100% that the image of the person next to you is the real one or an interpretation of your sense of vision? When you looked at your own reflection comining from the mirror you get TWO INTERPRETATION. The first from the mirror which travels to the walls of your eyes and the second is reveal in your brain. This will be true for everything in our environment, philosophy or philosopher missed that.