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  1. Yazata

    can i read about kabbalah if i am not a jew?

    Sure, why not? I know very little about it, but my impression is that lots of its ideas derive from Hebrew lore. So it might be hard for somebody who isn't raised in that way of thinking to understand it. (That might include many/most of today's secular Jews.) During the Renaissance...
  2. Yazata

    Poll: Inside Looking Out vs Outside Looking In Regarding Religion

    I voted 'Outside Looking In'. That's certainly true for all the organized religious denominiations where membership makes sense. I'm not a member of any of them and never have been. I've attended services like Catholic mass, but always felt like an outsider looking in on other people's faith...
  3. Yazata

    Elon Musk, a genius? Really?

    I'd never heard of him. (I don't follow mathematics.) But yeah, from the Wikipedia description, this guy clearly seems to show genius in mathematics. I couldn't agree more. That's why I don't place a lot of value on IQ. IQ is just a crude average of several different abilities, measured in...
  4. Yazata

    Evolution not God

    I don't understand what you are saying there. "the moral for humanity's standard"? Shouldn't that be 'the standard for humanity's morality'? In what follows that's what I will be taking you to have meant. Yes, I agree that's probably where our sense of morality originates. I agree that it's a...
  5. Yazata

    OpenAI GPT-4 Performs Better Than Most Humans on Bar Exam, GRE and Many AP Subject Exams

    It does better than 80% of humans on the Uniform Bar Exam, close to 80th percentile on the GRE quantitative and almost 100th percentile (better than almost all humans) on GRE verbal. https://openai.com/research/gpt-4
  6. Yazata

    Elon Musk, a genius? Really?

    Is Elon Musk a genius, really? I'd say obviously yes. Is there anyone else in our contemporary world that even comes close? I think that there are different kinds of genius. Elon's genius is very unlike Einstein's or Gauss's. Elon isn't a physical theorist like Einstein or a genius...
  7. Yazata

    Is the deist God most logical?

    I'd say 'yes'. (It's my opinion and other people's mileage might vary.) Basically I'm an agnostic regarding the biggest metaphysical questions, but I find myself drifting away from atheism towards what might be called deism. (My path is similar to Anthony Flew's I guess. (At one time he was the...
  8. Yazata

    Is the Bible Allegorical or Literal?

    Doesn't Bahai present the same kind of questions? It seems to me that most revealed religions would. In my opinion (which won't be shared by many Christians or Muslims) the early parts of Genesis are clearly myths. By 'myth' I mean stories that help people make sense of things. 'Myths' in this...
  9. Yazata

    Is This the Best-Ever Era for Learning?

    I've been thinking about this... For most of history in most literate cultures, books were hand-written. Lots of time and effort went into it. So a full-length book was a treasure. Ancient or medieval libraries only possessed a small number of books by today's standards. So what would happen...
  10. Yazata

    Was buddha like christ?

    The Buddha never claimed to be the "son of God" or God's human incarnation or anything like that. He never speaks of a monotheistic-style God at all. He does seem to have acknowledged the many polytheistic gods of his time and place, but they play no role in his system of salvation. That being...
  11. Yazata

    M=R does not imply that mind creates the object

    What other "authority" can you cite?
  12. Yazata

    Seymour Hersh says who took out the Nordstream Pipeline

    Yes, Biden's boast that he would "bring an end" to the pipeline looks very bad in retrospect. Certainly another in his seemingly endless stream of blunders.
  13. Yazata

    Is This the Best-Ever Era for Learning?

    It's certainly true that anyone with internet access has access to what a few decades ago would have been an extraordinarily good university library. That's doubly true for those willing to ignore a few copyright laws. Virtually every academic title in print is available for download for free...
  14. Yazata

    Seymour Hersh says who took out the Nordstream Pipeline

    I think that it's very possible that the US blew up the pipeline. But I consider it unproven. There's a whole list of those that might have done it. I certainly am unwilling to take Seymour Hersh's word for it. The guy calls himself a "reporter", but like so many 'reporters' these days, seems...
  15. Yazata

    Poll: Which Parts of Religion Do You Focus On the Most?

    From a Buddhist perspective, there's arguably only one: Practice. Practice can be divided into two subcategories, I guess: Ethical practice and meditative practice. I suppose that ritual can be considered a practice too. In my own case, ethical practice is my biggie. I don't meditate as much...
  16. Yazata

    Demons, is there any evidence they even exist?

    So do I. But is the testimony simply truthful about the psychological state? Or is it also truthful about the entity that is being attributed as the cause of the psychological state?
  17. Yazata

    Demons, is there any evidence they even exist?

    I don't believe that entity-demons exist, but I don't deny them exactly. That sounds like a contradictory position, but I don't think it is. The thing is that I don't personally know of any convincing reason to believe in demonic entities. So they don't play any role in my worldview. But...
  18. Yazata

    Demons, is there any evidence they even exist?

    Do I believe in demons? I guess that people sometimes suffer from psychological difficulties that they might imagine as coming at them from outside and refer to as their "demons". Obsessions, compulsions, delusions, voices and whatever. But actual sub-divine disembodied malevolent supernatural...
  19. Yazata

    Russia v Ukraine who do reckon will win?

    Who or what wins isn't a function of your or my moral judgements. It's a function of more objective factors. In wars, God is on the side of those with the most militarily effective armies. Of course moral judgements can have rhetorical force. They help sway other people's opinions. And...
  20. Yazata

    Russia v Ukraine who do reckon will win?

    I don't think that either of them can win. Ukraine can't defeat Russia, Russia's numerical advantage is too great and Russia has nuclear weapons. And it's become increasingly clear that Russia can't defeat Ukraine. This second one comes as a surprise to everyone, including Putin. His military...
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