Simon Paynton

@simonpaynton

You are right about one thing, but wrong about what it implies.

Yes: AI can verify internal logical consistency.
No: that does not mean what is being evaluated here is “mere formal validity detached from reality.”

Your critique assumes a sharp divide between logical validity and empirical reality, and then assumes this proof liv…[Read more]

jakelafort wrote:
I simply wonder how ritualized behavior originates and becomes coded.

Just guessing at an example, a ritualized behavior might have been facilitated by an odd genetic mutation, e.g. a vocal tract optimization that enhances communication just enough to help the vocalizer sound sexy and communicate juicy love (and so on) so he can…[Read more]

@SimonPaynton

”Good luck to them, but that’s the noisiest, busiest thing I’ve ever seen.”

No, it isn’t. I don’t know where you looked, but the site I’m on is very quiet.

Greetings Anth Dee – @infjempath.  No, your introduction was not too long.  By the way, I happen to NOT be an Atheist but a theist of the christian verity, and I’m black, African American, or whatever were called now days.   I’m very happy that you failed at your attempt!  Of course, @simonpaynton said, “Religious people can be unspeakably crue…[Read more]

@simonpaynton, Simon – thank you for your response.  The idea of upholding or violating a norm, or hindering or promoting a shared value may be a good enough answer to my question.  I’ll have to do more homework because, of course, collective values change over time, but this is a good place to start.  Yet, for just about every society that has ev…[Read more]

Doh! I see typos, at least, and some missing clarity. I’ll adjust the post after seeing the Feynman link.

@SimonPaynton Sieve of Eratosthenes is what I was trying to explain that costs too much programming-wise and in the computer resources it requires. And the more efficient sieve algorithms mentioned in that same wikipedia article make my head…[Read more]

@simonpaynton There wasn’t any hell until Jesus turned up.

@simonpaynton That’s precisely what they said multiple times quite directly. To read their paper and conclude otherwise, is to pull a Steven Pinker.

@simonpaynton So the stick is more potent than the carrot.  If you’re a donkey. No big surprise then.  Moral:- don’t be a donkey.

@simonpaynton You’re saying that we are fools to discard two petty metaphors that are actually irrelevant to the religion?  I’m still trying to understand where foolishness comes in and what I would lose, to my detriment, by discarding all religious speech as spouting nonsense.

You said we would be fools to ignore certain religious content.  Wha…[Read more]

@simonpaynton I am still waiting to hear what it is in religion that is so special and useful that I’d be a fool to throw it away.  That some religions mirror some aspects of morality is not a surprise, because humans carry that morality within them, and it will inevitably spill out into any religion they come up with.  But you have stated tha…[Read more]

So if I don’t know about a mustard seed as an analogy for something, that makes me a fool?  That I cannot be wise without a rock in some water?  I’ve already told you the Golden rule has nothing to do with religion, other than being claimed by an assortment of them.

Love god?  What the fuck has that got to do with wisdom?

Again, @simonpaynton, wh…[Read more]

@simonpaynton what exactly would I be throwing away when I throw away everything religion related?  “Some stuff” doesn’t really enlighten me.

@simonpaynton You said  “if we abandon all religion as having zero value, we are fools”.  What in religion, should we abandon religion altogether, would we not have?  Why would we be fools?  What would we lose that is otherwise unavailable?

The Golden rule has nothing to do with religion, other than occasionally being co-opted by a religio…[Read more]