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  1. Polymath257

    Teleological Argument (Aquinas)

    This seems quite likely to be false. First, the phrase 'metaphysical explanation' mistakes how metaphysics can and does work. It *cannot* actually explain anything because it is fundamentally untestable. At best, it gives a framework from which we can get explanations by making observations and...
  2. Polymath257

    Lionizing Lyin Eyes.

    Yes, you basically have the options for a one dimensional space in a two dimensional spacetime. For three dimensional space in a four dimensional spacetime, there are more options. At that point, it is probably best to learn the mathematics and see what general relativity actually says. One...
  3. Polymath257

    Lionizing Lyin Eyes.

    Go up one dimension: how do we know when we are looking at a ball? That is entirely analogous to a 2D 'person' looking at a sphere. If a 4D 'person' pushed a 4D sphere through our 3D space, we would first see a point. Then it would grow as a sphere up to some maximum size (the equator) and then...
  4. Polymath257

    Lionizing Lyin Eyes.

    Time is one variable that can be used as a fourth dimension. Remember that dimension just means the number of variables needed to locate a point. No, things are not equally old, just like points on the Earth don't have the same latitude. So, the surface of a sphere is *two* dimensional because...
  5. Polymath257

    Lionizing Lyin Eyes.

    First, when discussing positive or negative curvature, we are usually talking about the *spatial* cross sections, not spacetime in general. So, imagine a trumpet shape and time corresponding to the axis of the trumpet. The spatial cross sections are circles that expand as you go outward along...
  6. Polymath257

    Lionizing Lyin Eyes.

    If you work in 4D and look at a 'sphere' (the figure of all points equidistant from a 'center'), you get a 3D manifold. That manifold is *one* of the possibilities for space in general relativity.
  7. Polymath257

    Lionizing Lyin Eyes.

    This is a misconception. We can determine curvature both externally and internally. There need not be an ambient space into which a curved 3D 'curves'. A positively curved 3D manifold is demonstrated by looking at triangles: the angles will add up to more than 180 degrees. For a negatively...
  8. Polymath257

    Lionizing Lyin Eyes.

    Exactly. Although, one difference with the balloon analogy, where the surface is positively curved, but the 3D space is flat, it is possible to have a curved 4D ambient space in which the 3D 'spatial' part is also curved.
  9. Polymath257

    Lionizing Lyin Eyes.

    That does not follow. The surface of the balloon is 2D. There are analogous 3D manifolds with very similar properties. And it is these 3D manifolds that show up in the math for the BB theory. For example, a 3D version of the surface of a ball is the 3D 'surface' of a 4D 'ball'. For this...
  10. Polymath257

    Why Didn't the Universe Always Exist?

    The term 'unobservable property or process' is meaningless. Actually, we *can* offer 'explanations' for many aspects of the universe. Those explanations are deductions from observed regularities that lead to hypotheses than can be used to predict behavior in novel situations. For example...
  11. Polymath257

    Why Didn't the Universe Always Exist?

    I know that is your belief. That is not mine. I don't believe in a (non-material) soul. Absolutely. Good for concentration. Part of my point is that *no* experience is self-justifying. No matter how powerful the experience or how 'real' it seems, there is *always* the possibility of...
  12. Polymath257

    Why Didn't the Universe Always Exist?

    Care to give a reference? Where did you give this information? No.
  13. Polymath257

    Why Didn't the Universe Always Exist?

    By testing the ideas to see if they work in practice. By looking at the logic and seeing if it works. Yes, I have. I also realized it was a brain state that was abnormal. It was an incredible experience, but I don’t believe it was more than a personal experience showing my own fallibility. Oh...
  14. Polymath257

    Why Didn't the Universe Always Exist?

    Well, then I missed them. Care to give them again? Not actually. His point dealt with how science changes paradigms and the fact that evidence is required for such changes and takes time to acquire is directly relevant to his point.
  15. Polymath257

    Why Didn't the Universe Always Exist?

    As an example, we cannot prove we are not in a simulation or brains in a vat. There is no possible evidence that would show those views to be wrong. And *that* is precisely why they should be rejected! The fact that there is no possible way, even in theory, to show them wrong is what makes them...
  16. Polymath257

    Why Didn't the Universe Always Exist?

    Not required. Reality is *defined* by what works.
  17. Polymath257

    Why Didn't the Universe Always Exist?

    Any recommendations for specific readings? Kuhn made some good points, but his analysis of the Copernican revolution had a lot of deficiencies. In particular, the time it took to accept the Copernican model had more to do with the time it took to get good evidence than it did any fundamental...
  18. Polymath257

    Why Didn't the Universe Always Exist?

    Or so philosophers like to claim. Not all thinking is philosophy. Once we get away from idle speculation into testing ideas through observation, we get away from philosophy and into science and knowledge.
  19. Polymath257

    Why Didn't the Universe Always Exist?

    Looks like the main alternative is legal evidence. If that is your point, then it seems pretty irrelevant to this discussion.
  20. Polymath257

    Why Didn't the Universe Always Exist?

    Nope. Both together. At all times. Compassion without thought is ineffective. Thought without compassion is inhuman. The heart is a very poor way to determine truth (as opposed to goals and values). use the brain for truth and the heart for values. Of course not. That's why they are models...
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