Group #2 - Sec. 017:
According to Spinoza, since substances are by their very nature completely self-contained, there can be one and only one substance. That substance is “God.” This Supreme Being is therefore one with the universe, and the distinction between creator and creation. God or Nature is illusionary.
Reflecting on Spinoza’s vision, there is no ultimate distinction between different individuals. We are all part of the same single substance, which is also “God.” This means that our sense of isolation from and opposition to one another is an illusion and it also means that our sense of distance from God is mistaken.
We also discussed Logic versus Faith, and we specifically talked about the miracles in which the dead are brought back to life. The problem with this is that by the time 3 days had gone by (in the case of Jesus or Lazarus), the body would have gone into an extended state of decay, all tissue in the body being dead and the brain having suffered irreversible damage. Unless Jesus and Lazarus could spontaneously regain the chemicals and electric signals that made up their memory (which defies all proven laws of the inability for matter to appear out of nothing), they would have been brought back to life with almost complete memory loss, not to mention their muscles being stricken with rigor mortis (which beings after 3 hours and takes over 72 hours to dissipate), which would have made them unable to even hold their bodies upright and stand. –Yup, Reason wins again-
Personal Note:
“Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day; teach a man to fish and he will eat for a lifetime; give a man religion and he will die praying for a fish.”
Group Members:
* Teresa.
* Zach.
* Hicham (Pronounced HE-Sham). - GROUP LEADER
* Matt.
* William,
* Tracey.
* Jacob.
P.S. If you are having trouble posting your comments, please email me so I can help you with that.
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I'm not in your group or class, but I wanted to comment anyway.
ReplyDeleteThank you guys for understanding that it is biologically impossible for people to reanimate after days of being deceased. I thought that rigor mortis and tissue, cell, and brain damage was a foreign concept these days... I love the pictures posted, too! The mice are so cute, and the cavemen are right. 2012, anyone?
Funny, but next time I teach "Atheism & Spirituality" I'll again be debunking the notion that atheists don't believe anything (or have any content for their pamphlets).
ReplyDeleteThis coming Spring semester, btw, I'll be teaching "Atheism & Ethics"...
I agree with everything that was said in our group on this day! The conversation was so interesting, but what really made me think was the guy who thought our emotions were controlled by our bodies and he asked the question.."Do we cry because we are sad, or are we sad because we cry?" Think about it...
ReplyDeleteTere'sa states that she completely agrees with the previous post and she believes that you can not have one with out the other. Or Can you???
ReplyDeleteTo be completely honest, it sort of ruffles my feathers when I read (or hear) information that contradicts the tale of Jesus coming back from the dead. I understand that believing that Jesus couldn't do so is using so-called logic, but I tend to side with the faith side of things. I really do believe in Jesus Christ. I believe that Jesus came back from the dead in order to save us all!
ReplyDeleteIn some ways spinozas views were similar to those ofthr stoics in which he believed everyone should discard their emotions and live equally in a single society
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