Impossible Objects

The Journal of Applied Impossibility

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Thou Shalt Not Suffer a Determinist to Live.

2/26/2021

 
1.) Assumption: Objects and events affect our thoughts and beliefs. The determinist believes this, because it must be an object or event which determines thought. The non-determinist also believes this, because to think about something is to be influenced by it. Thus, everyone accepts that there is some influence over our thoughts on the part of external factors (debate being over its degree). 

2.) Either your thoughts are deterministic, or not. (Excluded middle)*

3.) Plantinga has argued against thought determinism -- in that one cannot claim to have arrived at this belief through reasoning.† If determinism is true, you can't be correct about it (in contrast to being wrong about it) -- you are merely 'caught up in a particular causal stream.' 

∴ If you believe in absolute determinism, there is no sense arguing. You might still argue (you would be fated to do so), but there is no sense in it. 


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The Objective Study of Religion

2/22/2021

 
From somewhere in my pile of notes, on one of the myriad pages of semi-waterproof paper I use when an insight strikes me in the shower -- pages that should eventually make their way into my commonplace book, is this fragment:​
The "objective" or "scientific" study of religion is the attempt to answer (without ever asking) the question, "Why do so many people believe the wrong thing?"
​(2018)
Every so often, I do something like this to myself. What on earth did this guy mean? And if he doesn't know, how does anyone else stand a chance? On reflection, I think I understand now what I meant, and I will boast that, if taken seriously, it would upend religious studies, and anything downstream of it -- which is most of the academy. 

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Consider the Stars (part 1 of n)

12/13/2019

 
Note: originally posted on my personal site. Date changed here to reflect original posting date as I migrate my blog here.
I recently found these notes, which I wrote on 18. July, 2016

There is an ancient argument for the existence of God. For many centuries it worked to produce pious men and women. Even brilliant thinkers were swayed by its simple clarity. The argument runs thus:

Consider the stars.

This alone was enough -- once to persuade the souls of men that there was an author of sublimity. But tonight, I look upon the night sky in my city -- which I have loved -- and see the glow of growth: reddish,  and when there is fog, possessing its own beauty. ...

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The Madness of Odysseus

2/19/2019

 
Note: originally posted on my personal site. Date changed here to reflect original posting date as I migrate my blog here.
He broke off and anguish gripped Achilles.
The heart in his rugged chest was pounding, torn…
Should he draw the long sharp sword slung at his hip,
Thrust through the ranks and kill Agamemnon now? --
 Or check his rage and beat his fury down?                                                                      -Homer (Illiad Book I; Robert Fagels, Transl.)
I'm a boss-a** b****, b****, b****, b****, b****, b****, b****
I'm a boss-a** b****, b****, b****, b****, b****, b****, b****
I'm a boss-a** b****, b****, b****, b****, b****, b****, b****
I'm a boss-a** b****, b****, b****, b****, b****, b****, b****
I'm a boss-a**...

 -Nicki Minaj
                                                 I. 
A dear friend once described the willfully ignorant to me: “It’s as though they had super-powers!” It is strange, indeed to think how one can believe what one knows not to be so. It is somewhat akin to flying. Upon reflection, it is perhaps even more to be desired. For flying is sometimes dangerous, and one must leave the comforts of home. To be able to believe oneself to be flying without leaving the living room -- why, that affords all of the delights of both! 

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