Evidence for God from Science

nameless wrote:

K wrote:This becomes even more plausible when one factors in that we appear to have a default sense of an afterlife (as you noted earlier). Therefore our sense of immortality could be explained by a foundational knowledge, and one must therefore wonder why we have we begin with such desire if it is untrue and there is nothing to fulfill it.

That is not my view.

You said earlier: "For me at least, the concept of heaven and hell is a manifestation of the human need for immortality..." (bold mine)

Now if there is a human need for immortality, then humans have a desire for immortality, and a desire is a sense of feeling about something. Therefore, I was working with a view you presented that humans have a sense of immortality, and took the short step from immortality to an afterlife (which is obviously required if our sense of immortality is to make any sense despite our knowing that our physical bodies will die).

nameless wrote:Incidentally if you do have studies which show humans have innate sense of immortality, could you provide me with the source.

Ever heard the question asked, "what is the meaning to life?" There's a whole field in philosophy dedicated to life's absurdity. This topics deals with how we tend to think the things we do in life has some ultimate significance. Yet, for such to be the case, immortality is required, otherwise anything we do only has finite significance. Thus, some say life is absurd.

nameless wrote:I'm not familiar with the term foundational knowledge, if its not to much of a trouble, could you elaborate on that.

To briefly elaborate... there is a commonly recognised problem when it comes to justifying our knowledge. We develop a set of beliefs from prior beliefs, and our prior beliefs are developed from more prior beliefs, and so back and back our formulation of beliefs go. Now it obviously can't be the case that there exists an infinite regress to our held beliefs, seeing as we do come to certain conclusions about various things. If our prior beliefs were never-ending, then reaching conclusions wouldn't be possible. So, to get around this dilemma, philosophers posit that there exists a set of foundational beliefs. These beliefs are "basic beliefs" which have no prior support but should be accepted as true based upon their self-evident nature, or perceived truth to all.

Kurieuo.

hi k
when you said sense of immortality, I thought you were saying that humans had an innate sense that immortality and afterlife are true. Thanks for clearing up that point.

I agree with you on foundational knowledge, apriors are required.


returning to your earlier post.

one must therefore wonder why we have we begin with such desire if it is untrue and there is nothing to fulfill it.

Well having such desire would be advantegeous for the species propagation.

nameless wrote:

K wrote:one must therefore wonder why we have we begin with such desire if it is untrue and there is nothing to fulfill it.

Well having such desire would be advantegeous for the species propagation.

In what ways is our desire for our own immortality advantageous for propagation?

Kurieuo.

It is more likely that an organism which has the desire to 'live as long as possible' to live longer than an organism which doesnt.

in regards to what bassman started. how do you explain how some people believe in heaven and hell and some don't. doesn't anyone see that if we all thought through the same brain processes we would all believe in the same thing. if i thought like kurieuo and had them same logic as her then wouldn't i find it be easy for me to "choose" to believe in the same thing as her.