1. Math Religion Trouble

Comment #118249 by timeby on January 30, 2008 at 2:04 pm

Your comment, miaka,

"... All of quantum mechanics is essentially talking about Hilbert spaces. Fourier transforms--another Hilbert space topic. The list goes on and on...."

brought to mind an anecdote (possibly true?) related to me by Professor H. Davis (if I recall correctly) many years ago about the society session where Fourier first presented his work on harmonic analysis. It is said that those present held a toast "To Fourier analysis: may it never be useful!"

I suspect that all mathematics, however arcane it seems at the time, will eventually be useful somewhere.

2. Hinduism and Buddhism offer much more sophisticated worldviews (or philosophies) and I see nothing wrong with these religions.

Comment #104076 by timeby on December 27, 2007 at 7:31 pm

EmilFremy is quite correct as she describes a few of the organized Buddhist sects but, as I read the earliest descriptions of Siddhartha teachings, he would not consider these sects to be Buddhist!

Atheism is entirely consistent with the teachings of a gentleman named Siddhartha Gautama who, it is said, went on to obtain Buddahood (enlightenment). The very essence of Siddhartha's teachings is that he was a man, and nothing more, hence any man can attain enlightenment just as he had done. The only thing that matters is how you act (the eightfold path): no god or gods are required, thank you. However, should you prefer to have a god lying around it's OK but, if you are Buddhist, you do not let it interfere with anything, especially with anything important because the god you invented is, after all, irrelevant!

3. Those fanatical atheists

Comment #103644 by timeby on December 26, 2007 at 11:41 am

Comment #38443 by tolerance

".... For example Einstein stated through thought experiments that light has a mass. This was not able to be proved until some time later when physical experiments were undertaken showing it to be true. "
[Huh? - Einstein's thought experiment concerned the SPEED of light. Light (the photon) has zero mass; if it had mass it could not travel at the speed of light!]
If you are going to invoke a scientific argument please get the science right!

Comment #38455 by dsquare

Do you have anything new to add to the "argument", or are you just going to regurgitate --- Harris---aka The Atheistic Buddhist--whatever the hell that means?

[Huh??? Atheism is entirely consistant with the teachings of a gentleman named Siddhartha Gautama who, it is said, went on to obtain Buddahood (read Enlightenment). The very essence of Siddhartha's teachings is that he was a man, and nothing more, hence any man can attain Enlightenment just as Siddhartha had done. The only thing that matters is how you act (the eightfold path): no god or gods are required, thank you. However, should you prefer to have a god lying around it's OK but, if you are Buddhist, do not let it interfere with anything, especially with anything important because the god you invented is, after all, irrelevant!]

4. Bible bashing dying out in Kansas

Comment #103249 by timeby on December 24, 2007 at 4:57 pm

I see, my dear Flagellant, by your comment "when reading about the lovely CBC lady who wanted to slap somebody" that some of you Brits are becoming nearly as geographically confused as my neighbours to the south. I understand that you have a broadcasting company called BBC for British Broadcasting Company. We, non Americans, have one designated CBC, The C does not stand for American.