We aspire to know everything, whether that be about the universe, ourselves, God, history, biology, anything. We want to know everything. Anything. We've even become experts in bullshit and bullshitting. Hence politics and crime.

Why is this? Is the will to absolute knowledge merely feeding our will to have absolute power? And why do we aspire to have either?

Of course, as most of you know I'm an idealist who thinks that God is expressed primarily through man, so I personally already have answers to these questions. I was just curious what the average atheist felt about the matter.

jamest wrote:We aspire to know everything, whether that be about the universe, ourselves, God, history, biology, anything. We want to know everything. Anything. We've even become experts in bullshit and bullshitting. Hence politics and crime.

Why is this? Is the will to absolute knowledge merely feeding our will to have absolute power? And why do we aspire to have either?

Of course, as most of you know I'm an idealist who thinks that God is expressed primarily through man, so I personally already have answers to these questions. I was just curious what the average atheist felt about the matter.

Want do you mean "we" paleface?

This atypical atheist doesn't care to know everything.

jamest wrote:We aspire to know everything...

I don't.

I don't even aspire to know everything currently knowable. Ain't nobody got time for that.

scott1328 wrote:

jamest wrote:We aspire to know everything, whether that be about the universe, ourselves, God, history, biology, anything. We want to know everything. Anything. We've even become experts in bullshit and bullshitting. Hence politics and crime.

Why is this? Is the will to absolute knowledge merely feeding our will to have absolute power? And why do we aspire to have either?

Of course, as most of you know I'm an idealist who thinks that God is expressed primarily through man, so I personally already have answers to these questions. I was just curious what the average atheist felt about the matter.

Want do you mean "we" paleface?

This atypical atheist doesn't care to know everything.

We all, individually, seek that knowledge which might satisfy our worldly outlook. On a grander scale, as a species, we've sought knowledge of everything commensurate with the diversity of our outlooks. And some of us have outlooks which transcend 'me'.

We are curious creatures by nature, it's beneficial for us to learn more about our environment. What this has to do with absolute power is anyone's guess.

SafeAsMilk wrote:We are curious creatures by nature, it's beneficial for us to learn more about our environment. What this has to do with absolute power is anyone's guess.

Please don't use the word 'nature' as though it were self-explanatory to a simpleton. And please don't reduce our desire to know everything to a desire to know everything about our physical environment. That's obviously not the case.

jamest wrote:

SafeAsMilk wrote:We are curious creatures by nature, it's beneficial for us to learn more about our environment. What this has to do with absolute power is anyone's guess.

Please don't use the word 'nature' as though it were self-explanatory to a simpleton.

It is though. But I'm sure you're obliged to reduce the term to complete meaninglessness in an effort to pretend you don't know exactly what I'm saying.

And please don't reduce our desire to know everything to a desire to know everything about our physical environment. That's obviously not the case.

I didn't say our curiosity is always applied in useful ways, merely that it can be beneficial to us when applied to something useful. Obviously it isn't always applied in a useful way. Just look at the OP, for example.

SafeAsMilk wrote:

jamest wrote:

SafeAsMilk wrote:We are curious creatures by nature, it's beneficial for us to learn more about our environment. What this has to do with absolute power is anyone's guess.

Please don't use the word 'nature' as though it were self-explanatory to a simpleton.

It is though. But I'm sure you're obliged to reduce the term to complete meaninglessness in an effort to pretend you don't know exactly what I'm saying.

Have a word with yourself. Our 'nature' is obviously questionable. That's what fuels ontology and metyaphysics threads. Or weren't you aware of this fact?

And please don't reduce our desire to know everything to a desire to know everything about our physical environment. That's obviously not the case.

I didn't say our curiosity is always applied in useful ways, merely that it can be beneficial to us when applied to something useful. Obviously it isn't always applied in a useful way. Just look at the OP, for example.

Sounds as though you're as cocksure of what usefullness is as you are of our nature. In other words, you're beginning to sound like a cock. Again. Maybe something I say will dawn upon you one of these days and I'll wake you up.

jamest wrote:

SafeAsMilk wrote:

jamest wrote:

SafeAsMilk wrote:We are curious creatures by nature, it's beneficial for us to learn more about our environment. What this has to do with absolute power is anyone's guess.

Please don't use the word 'nature' as though it were self-explanatory to a simpleton.

It is though. But I'm sure you're obliged to reduce the term to complete meaninglessness in an effort to pretend you don't know exactly what I'm saying.

Have a word with yourself. Our 'nature' is obviously questionable. That's what fuels ontology and metyaphysics threads. Or weren't you aware of this fact?

Us having curious natures isn't questionable, it's observable and demonstrable. You know, like a fact. The rest of your wibble, well, I already knew you didn't have any idea what a fact is. Just another thing to reduce to nigh-meaninglesness so it fits in with your 'philosophy'.

And please don't reduce our desire to know everything to a desire to know everything about our physical environment. That's obviously not the case.

I didn't say our curiosity is always applied in useful ways, merely that it can be beneficial to us when applied to something useful. Obviously it isn't always applied in a useful way. Just look at the OP, for example.

Sounds as though you're as cocksure of what usefullness is as you are of our nature. In other words, you're beginning to sound like a cock. Again. Maybe something I say will dawn upon you one of these days and I'll wake you up.

Usefulness can be demonstrated, and you've never demonstrated anything. Except for that cute thing where you bristle and try to act tough when someone pokes obvious holes in your half-baked ideas

Agnostically speaking I would settle for a better [more accurate] under understanding rather than knowledge

jamest wrote:We aspire to know everything, whether that be about the universe, ourselves, God, history, biology, anything. We want to know everything. Anything. We've even become experts in bullshit and bullshitting. Hence politics and crime.

...

I beg to difer. Crime is mainly a result of wanting money, not knowledge. If it was knowledge, all scientists would be criminals.

jamest wrote:

SafeAsMilk wrote:

jamest wrote:

SafeAsMilk wrote:We are curious creatures by nature, it's beneficial for us to learn more about our environment. What this has to do with absolute power is anyone's guess.

Please don't use the word 'nature' as though it were self-explanatory to a simpleton.

It is though. But I'm sure you're obliged to reduce the term to complete meaninglessness in an effort to pretend you don't know exactly what I'm saying.

Have a word with yourself. Our 'nature' is obviously questionable. That's what fuels ontology and metyaphysics threads. Or weren't you aware of this fact?

You seem to have forgotten, once again, that assertionism =/= philosophy.
Not even adding 'it's obvious' to each assertion, helps.

jamest wrote:

And please don't reduce our desire to know everything to a desire to know everything about our physical environment. That's obviously not the case.

I didn't say our curiosity is always applied in useful ways, merely that it can be beneficial to us when applied to something useful. Obviously it isn't always applied in a useful way. Just look at the OP, for example.

Sounds as though you're as cocksure of what usefullness is as you are of our nature. In other words, you're beginning to sound like a cock. Again. Maybe something I say will dawn upon you one of these days and I'll wake you up.

Oh look, personalised infective, rather than actually adressing the point. How original.

jamest wrote:We aspire to know everything, whether that be about the universe, ourselves, God, history, biology, anything. We want to know everything. Anything. We've even become experts in bullshit and bullshitting. Hence politics and crime.

Why is this? Is the will to absolute knowledge merely feeding our will to have absolute power? And why do we aspire to have either?

Of course, as most of you know I'm an idealist who thinks that God is expressed primarily through man, so I personally already have answers to these questions. I was just curious what the average atheist felt about the matter.

Knowledge is conducive to survival and reproduction. That is about as much a fact I think is needed to explain why we have a tendency to seek it.

Nevertheless, I don't fully buy into the idea that we all want to know everything and anything. I have had interactions with people who think some forms of knowledge, even if true, is worthless and inconsequential. Oddly enough, these people were deeply religious conservative christians. Go figure.

To be fair, I have had similar sentiments. Some things simply bore me to no end. Others repulse me and I have a hard time imagining wanting to truly "know" about them. To pick something out of a hat, I don't feel a need to know how some particular organic tissues smell at some particular stage of decomposition. Or to make it really visceral, I also don't want to know how it feels to rape a child (or be raped as a child). To put it mildly, there are some pieces of knowledge I really don't want at all, and if they were to be imparted on me would bring me great discomfort. Perhaps such cases are rare, but truly in those ignorance is bliss.

DavidMcC wrote:

jamest wrote:We aspire to know everything, whether that be about the universe, ourselves, God, history, biology, anything. We want to know everything. Anything. We've even become experts in bullshit and bullshitting. Hence politics and crime.

...

I beg to difer. Crime is mainly a result of wanting money, not knowledge. If it was knowledge, all scientists would be criminals.

They are.

Rumraket wrote:

jamest wrote:We aspire to know everything, whether that be about the universe, ourselves, God, history, biology, anything. We want to know everything. Anything. We've even become experts in bullshit and bullshitting. Hence politics and crime.

Why is this? Is the will to absolute knowledge merely feeding our will to have absolute power? And why do we aspire to have either?

Of course, as most of you know I'm an idealist who thinks that God is expressed primarily through man, so I personally already have answers to these questions. I was just curious what the average atheist felt about the matter.

Knowledge is conducive to survival and reproduction. That is about as much a fact I think is needed to explain why we have a tendency to seek it.

What's conducive to survival and reproduction doesn't suffice as a reason for why we have those abilities in the first place, you numpty. It only suffices to explain why those abilities are useful. Have a fucking word.

jamest wrote:We aspire to know everything,

A false premise as responses here show.

whether that be about the universe, ourselves, God, history, biology, anything. We want to know everything. Anything.

Followed by false supporting premises and conclusion.

We've even become experts in bullshit and bullshitting. Hence politics and crime.

Another unsubstantiated non sequitur with a non sequitur as a conclusion.

Why is this? Is the will to absolute knowledge merely feeding our will to have absolute power?

More non sequiturs. How do you get from knowledge to power, especially absolute power? What power do you speak of?

And why do we aspire to have either?

You haven't shown we aspire for either.

Of course, as most of you know I'm an idealist

Your argument above shows that. Lots of words no substance.

who thinks that God is expressed primarily through man,

Don't know what this means.

so I personally already have answers to these questions.

Why do you have to follow "I" with "personally"? Are they different to you? And by answers do you mean answers that work for you only or that work for everyone?

I was just curious what the average atheist felt about the matter.

A false statement. You just want to debate and ridicule the answers people provide.

jamest wrote:

Rumraket wrote:

jamest wrote:We aspire to know everything, whether that be about the universe, ourselves, God, history, biology, anything. We want to know everything. Anything. We've even become experts in bullshit and bullshitting. Hence politics and crime.

Why is this? Is the will to absolute knowledge merely feeding our will to have absolute power? And why do we aspire to have either?

Of course, as most of you know I'm an idealist who thinks that God is expressed primarily through man, so I personally already have answers to these questions. I was just curious what the average atheist felt about the matter.

Knowledge is conducive to survival and reproduction. That is about as much a fact I think is needed to explain why we have a tendency to seek it.

What's conducive to survival and reproduction doesn't suffice as a reason for why we have those abilities in the first place, you numpty. It only suffices to explain why those abilities are useful. Have a fucking word.

You'd think someone who's been around here this long would have the first clue how evolution works. Guess not!

I want to know what President Trump is having for dinner tonight.