"I love the concept of the noble adversary and how in philosophy it's so helpful to have somebody that might be completely on the other side of an issue but as long as truth is on the throne, then you both can be very helpful to one another."
"There are many within our species that argue it is impossible for Humanity to attain perfection, for we by our very nature are imperfect."
"If people listening agree with me that Free Will, in fact, doesn't exist, and simultaneously agree with you that Free Will is somehow necessary for the upkeep of civilization, then I would simply ask them to consider who's relying on the delusion here."
"Either all of them are wrong or one of them is right. All of them cannot be right at the same time."
"A potential human being is not a human being with potential."
"Huxley may be more right than Orwell in the big questions."
"The curious thing is that, well at least within the neural sciences, most neuroscientists would say that there is no freewill, that it is an illusion."
"Everything that's important rests on this. I find a god that failed so miserably to safeguard the most important fact in the universe, I find him pathetic and undeserving of my attention or respect or admiration."
"The claim here that the Cry of the human heart... is present to the creator of all things is... absurd perhaps, idiocy at least in US responds to that."
"A common objection to the prime directive, and one we explored more in Smug Aliens, is that taken to an extreme is not very ethical either."
"What makes you you is one hotly debated idea in philosophy."
"Whether or not you believe in God, you're more or less stuck with him."
"Does discussing scientific evidence that might conflict with the paradigm of naturalism equate with teaching religion in a science course?"
"We're not in the metaphysical debate over theism and atheism."
"I just think intellectual honesty is really important and I want to make this about the ideas."
"We are here arguing, questioning, discussing if this universe has a Creator or not."
"Preventing brain death is really playing God, but hey, that's if that's playing God then vaccines are playing God and antibiotics are playing God."
"There was a philosophical debate happening between the creator of the series and Kitase."
"Material analysis of history is going to tell you what's right or wrong or whether anybody's materialist or idealist."
"If the religious can say, 'Look at how much good there is in the world, this disproves the evil god hypothesis,' why can't the atheists say, 'Look how much evil there is in the world, this disproves the good god hypothesis?'"
"Wouldn't it be technically okay if we just made everyone happy artificially all the time?"
"If you have to enforce it, if you have to punish people for failing to recognize it, if you have to excise and kill people who disagree, doesn't exactly sound like the natural emergent morality you claim it is."
"Morality has truth only if God is the truth and it stands and falls with God."
"It seems callous to not save that first person. It seems insane morally speaking but this is why the meme says that this is the day the deontologist started questioning his belief system."
"That proposition, if X is not known to be impossible, that does not imply that X is possible, is provably not knowable."
"The universe is not just a machine, there is some kind of agency behind it all."
"The paradox here is that we have to continue making these premises in order to accept the logic of a syllogism. So the structure of the logical argument is illogical? Pretty much."
"Is it more reasonable to believe that there's an intelligent mind behind order and design, or is it more intelligent to believe there's no intelligent mind behind order and design?"
"If the Joker’s argument is that chaos is humanity’s true state, then it’s only appropriate for his backstory to have no stable foundation."
"So I guess the question always is how far do you take that because, you know, if we wanted to reduce suffering the most, then non-existence would be the furthest reduction of suffering possible."
"It's not about I'm right, you're wrong, it's about can all of these ideas exist in good faith."
"It's a bit of a sleeper path to say that we create reality, because there is one reality."
"Their goal is to prove that despair is better than hope."
"Truth and falsehood must contrast for truth to shine."
"Dawkins is refutation fails because he misunderstands Thomas's concept of perfection."
"It's a very difficult argument to make that we're somehow better off just because there's more people."
"No one is or was really arguing about the existence of god; we were arguing over the limitations of liberal progressive political projects to improve the condition of humanity."
"Those of us who are standing against the radicals who insist that the only human motivation is power can oppose that in part by putting forward the observation that the proper antithesis to that is the spirit of voluntary play."
"You don't have to be a good person at heart if you're doing good things. Your actions speak louder than what you are as a person."
"The rejection of faith in favor of science has led to the destruction of both faith and science."
"It's dealing with a form of that debate about the problem of evil... but rather than resolving it, the book of Job is actually trying to say it's better to question rather than just accepting everything at face value."
"Religion is not an answer to this problem. Belief in God is not only unnecessary for a universal morality, it is itself a source of moral blindness."
"It's more important to be morally right than factually correct."
"The brain is not the source of consciousness."
"When you take away their free speech, you turn them into that very thing."
"But if you're just like you might as well be an atheist calling up say hey I can solve the problem of evil there is no god that's essentially what Bruno did."
"All objective markers of identity are erased and human existence is reduced to a murky puddle of ambiguity."
"Freedom, in and of itself, is not a valid defense."
"Opposition to moral relativism seems to me to take only one form whether it's being attacked from the left or from the right and it's the weakest argument I've ever heard."
"When ethics and expedience conflict with legality, which should prevail? To answer this age-old question, we need to take a detour and go back a mere eight hundred years, enter the medieval doctrine of just war."
"You never get to any firm grounding or any kind of first principle way to move the debate forward."
"You can basically pick one: you can either claim to merely lack belief in god or you can compare god to beings that you believe don't exist."
"If there is no soul, there can be no free will."
"If you freely came to be an atheist and hold religious people accountable, then something like a soul must exist."
"What if T'Challa became a Star-Lord? Exploring the classic nature vs nurture debate."
"Materialists have to imagine that there is something outside consciousness called matter."
"I have no compelling evidence to believe that a creature could create itself."
"There are no universal normative criteria for distinguishing acceptable from unacceptable forms of power."
"Nobody can disprove it; that's the scandal of philosophy."
"Everyone's born an atheist. No they're not, they say. Oh really? So you're telling me everybody's born not believing in God, yes exactly."
"If the Sun is just an ordinary star... then there is no God."
"If humans are valuable because they are made in God's image, can they even have any value without God?"
"Good and evil have an objective nature... it transcends human subjectivity."
"Whether Einstein believed in God tells us nothing about whether a God exists. It's about reason, not opinions."
"Atheism is the falsifiable proposition, theism is not."
"You're betting against that concept of a God, you're taking it for granted that the thing in your head somehow is more reasonable than the thing I'm saying."
"Science cannot prove identity. The question of identity is a meta-scientific issue."
"Don't stretch the value of Justice to such an extent that it's in your conception becomes meaningless."
"If we empower sophists, sophistry does not have to be answered in order to proceed."
"You can go from the possible non-existence of god to the actual non-existence of god."
"Sentience is just a weird word because you know you could argue that an insect has sentience."
"It's like very advanced but like sentience is just a weird word because like you know you could argue that an insect has sentience."
"Of the three alternatives before us - physical necessity, chance, or design - the most plausible as an explanation of the cosmic fine-tuning is design."
"Why did Jehovah create a global ecosystem of fear, pain, and death? Excuse me, He didn't."
"Any society that puts equality ahead of freedom will end up with neither equality nor freedom."
"It's funny how people believe that we're designed but they don't believe in a designer."
"If objective morality does not exist, then all the outrage we feel merely reflects our preferences and opinions."
"I don't believe there's ethical consumption under capitalism."
"Objective morality or an objective moral standard... it wouldn't matter if every last person on the entire planet rejected it, it would still be objectively true."
"One of the best things I ever read was to argue there isn't a God is as ridiculous to argue there is one."
"Any pursuit or defense of truth is not going to erase God. Quite the opposite."
"When Dostoevsky was concerned that he had presented too compelling a case for atheism, part of me thinks good, make the argument for atheism as strong as possible and then dismantle it in a kiss."
"Who is more irrational: the guy that believes in a God he doesn't see, or a guy who's offended by God he doesn't believe that much?"
"Arguments appear and disappear about God's existence, but almost all philosophers believe that the most serious argument against God's existence is the problem of evil."
"How can you not know who you are when they can't even?"
"The Pied Pipers of the Sophists are constantly trying to draw you away from reality."
"Consciousness is the heavyweight championship of competing worldviews."
"Why be closed-minded here? Why be so dogmatic in opposition to this?"
"The evidence for the Judeo-Christian God does not hold water."
"Even if physics doesn't answer those questions, what on earth makes you think that religion can?"
"Miracles can disprove naturalism if they're authentic."
"If this is a legitimate miracle, it would seem to show that the supernatural exists."
"Thomas Aquinas had such amazing prudence to fight for his right to use Aristotle."
"The best argument we're in a simulation is considering the probability that we are in a simulation."
"Miracles aren't impossible because they violate the laws of nature... possibility needs to be demonstrated as does impossibility."
"The idea that we are alone is absolutely beyond ludicrous."
"Belief in the idea of Free Will has become dangerous."
"Capitalism is a religion and Marxism is a religion."
"Technology can only stave off the inevitable, and if there isn't an equal amount of belief serving as a bedrock for civilization, argues Tob, they will be washed away by the current of time."
"Christian apologists are simply not interested in playing by the rules of reason in the first place."
"You can't settle the question of truth by a majority vote."
"Morality is subjective, there's no morality without a law Giver."
"There's an interesting controversy here, does the multiverse remove God?"
"If Stephen can produce a sound deductive argument with an ort in the conclusion, that doesn't derive from an is, I will change my mind and believe morality to be objective immediately."
"This isn't after truth; this is after the way people feel, the traditions and the standards that people have invented. It is deceptive and it is a vain philosophy."
"Super soldiers cannot be allowed to exist. Isn't that how gods talk? Blood isn't always the solution, man."
"This opposition between technology and nature is itself a construct which doesn't make a lot of sense."
"The very idea that we must then believe the stories to be true or we must redefine truth in such a way that it lumps this in is absurd."
"It really is a debate over philosophy – that is how does one ultimately interpret the evidence that they're looking at?"
"Is it evil to use evil for the sake of defeating evil? I don't think so."
"In a world where time zones make us question reality, reasonable minds can differ on what time it really is."
"Looking back at history...shows us that we are once again emboldened in a pursuit of holding the bigger, heavier stick in what amounts to a new frontier of war, philosophically right or wrong, that's up to the individual."
"What can atheism and faith offer in terms of these ultimate questions?" - Mohammed
"How much does philosophy or ideology weigh over biology?"
"Forcing someone into a life is an imposition because that person has no say in it."
"Faith is not a tool of cognition for understanding reality."
"Many atheists will say, regarding science, 'Well, you got science, you don't need God.' My contention is, you need God to have science."
"There is no neutrality neutrality is a myth it's either man's word or God's word really it's either the religion of secular humanism or Christianity."
"The concept of gods is a tricky one... you'll have a better idea of who really comes out on top."
"Is a murder justified if it's seemingly warranted?"
"Evil itself is contingent upon a moral standard."
"Well by definition science can only prove things inside the natural world and by definition God is something outside the natural world so science can neither prove nor disprove God."
"We shouldn't say none of this is real instead we should say well we're in a it's from bit universe."
"The real question is whether we should, not whether we can."
"There's never been a moment of clarity of good and evil than right now."
"Very few stances in philosophy can properly be regarded as unassailable."
"Even if the problem of evil works, all it would prove is that there isn't a god who's not a dick."
"Utilitarianism breaks down into a kind of cost-benefit analysis. If I take action A, will it result in a net increase in pleasure or a net increase in pain?"
"I think the world has changed a lot since Jefferson and Washington were around, but that's an invalid dismissal of their ideas."
"If there is no morality, then there can't be anything that's wrong."
"Most people appeal to some kind of universal norm to apply and they assume it to be true for everybody."
"It's not worth even a moment of my time if we are in essence Spiritual Beings...am I supposed to just believe that for no reason too? No, sorry, I don't accept your premise."
"The basic philosophical opposition here is one where we are the ones on the side of social justice."
"Freedom itself is a remarkable value. It makes you a happier person, it's morally right, and it gives greater opportunities for the use of your own independent faculties."
"Hell is inconsistent with a merciful and just God."
"Those who would give up Liberty for security will find that at some point in time you will have neither Liberty nor security."
"Our ability to reason is the thing which is going to lead you to truth or lead you to falsehood."
"Remember Ben Franklin: 'Those that give up Liberty for security will get nor deserve neither.'"
"Sorry Reese's, you shouldn't have to deconstruct deconstruction."
"Science has pushed past religion and philosophy in daring to tackle this most fundamental of questions."
"The debate is over personhood, that's a philosophical debate not a scientific debate over when humanity begins."
"Part of the reason why we don't believe in determinism... is because we want to believe that we have free will."
"Are you telling me that the person who gives you life isn't allowed to take it from you?"
"The time has arrived for the initiation of a very serious conversation among the laity about the profound philosophical and Theological questions that are posed to our human family by the discovery of life elsewhere in the universe."
"Why isn't atheism more accepted? It is the rejection of a proposition, not a proposition to be accepted."
"You never choose safety over freedom because if you do you don't deserve either one of them."
"If pleasure is the highest good and pain is the worst evil, you've got a pretty knock-down argument against the existence of God"
"This entire conversation has been about... arguments from ignorance."
"So, my favorite argument for the existence of God that I find the most compelling is a version of the cosmological argument."
"Can I argue you out of your Christian faith? Your question assumes my faith is a state of mind, but it's a state of existence."
"Mary the color scientist challenges the idea that complete knowledge of physical facts is sufficient for understanding consciousness."
"Determinism has stirred extensive debate, especially concerning the concept of free will."
"Is Squall actually dead? Is this not actually just the dying dreams of a man clinging desperately onto life trying to make sense of everything that's going on?"
"It is written that some things are destined, but within that, we still have free will."
"Rationalism and idealism are superior to empiricism and materialism."
"Fine-tuning is evidence that theism is true or, if we find that necessity and chance are implausible explanations for fine-tuning, that only leaves design."
"Science and religion find accommodation, not conflict."
"I think that's an important distinction that we shouldn't just do determinism versus freedom there's always a play in all of us between those two things."
"It's important to take the argument against Art seriously."
"This is the extreme stick of the carrot created by people who, if you're too smart or not shallow enough to buy into the heaven story, can threaten you with a fate worse than death."
"If morality is subjective, then it's justifiable."
"The very implication that we exist to do things for the greater good is totally antithetical to the purpose of being human."
"Without God, there are no rights and there are no wrongs."
"We're tired of the philosophical convolutions that the church went through in order to arrive at what they call the Trinity." - Anthony Buzzard
"Jean Grey's response is, 'Well, our people driving in cars could be dangerous. The question is flawed.' I mean they can or can't be, just like a person. Are humans dangerous? Well, some are and some aren't."
"For the most part, science has nothing to do with the existence of God."
"Everything that's legal isn't always moral." - Legal vs. moral considerations.
"All mathematical structures are equally real."
"That's the middle road is to say that well sometimes the formalists are right and sometimes the extreme realists are right in the hard cases."
"I regard Nozick's work as a challenge, a very important challenge, just because it draws what I think of as malign consequences from the position."
"chicken came first as wait but the chicken came from the egg egg"
"Fate versus Free Will and how much control do we truly have over things that happen that govern all of humanity."
"You can't sit here and tell me that we have to preserve Free Will and allow terrible things to happen in the world because the thing that God already knew was going to happen happened and he did nothing to stop it. That's his problem, not our problem."
"Post-modernism vs. modernism: life vs. death."
"The debate about emotions and humanity was almost a tradition in classic stories."
"It's interesting and practically philosophical to see the characters debate the merits of survival versus morality."
"The big big story for our time right now around which a whole lot of religious philosophical and scientific wheels are turning."
"Being altruistic makes you feel good, therefore it's not a selfless act, right?"
"Is free will genuine, contra determinism?"
"Philosophical differences exist in various fields."
"The traditional disputes of philosophers are, for the most part, as unwarranted as they are unfruitful."
"Some claim all religions reflect the same truth."
"The theoretical anti-humanism he had been talking about was not, of course, a practical inhumanism."
"How do you fight an idea? The answer is with another idea."
"Only if good exists, does evil become a problem."
"What's at the heart of Dead of Night is a debate about whether there are more things on heaven and earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy."
"The mystery of faith will never be solved by science."
"Experience comes first, and it's not an argument about which one's right and what's wrong."
"And after his defeat, his wife, Shrimati Ubhai Bharti ji, did Shastrarth with Adi Shankaracharya and almost defeated him."
"These are the questions people I hope will be still debating in a hundred two hundred years' time."
"Which one makes more sense, that's what I mean by these philosophical arguments."
"Paradise Lost is also considered as a philosophical debate between free human will and chance."