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You probably know that most of the claims are groundless, and based on bad scholarship about 150 years ago by a man who felt like ripping Christianity apart[^]. The example I give in my book is he said Mithras was born from a Virgin, yet in the myth he sprung forth fully formed from a rock!
Unfortunately Bill Maher - and others - repeat the claims without going into them in depth and seeing the falseness at their heart. Going to some of the original myths I concluded that Christianity isn't as derivative as many say it is, although it does contain some older roots like the 'sacrificial' one I pointed out. That was never brought to my attention during my religious turbulence, and is something I stumbled on in my own studies.
Although I am no longer religious in the usual sense I hold a deep respect for Christianity (and other religions). Religious thinking molded everyones' consciousness (including atheists) in ways we don't even think about. I hope my work helps us comprehend some of those things that have been forgotten till now.
Best wishes,
David
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Happy Easter Marc
Along with Antimatter and Dark Matter they've discovered the existence of Doesn't Matter which appears to have no effect on the universe whatsoever!
Rich Tennant 5th Wave
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Don't get hung up over Easter.
We can’t stop here, this is bat country - Hunter S Thompson RIP
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That's really, really bad... 
Will Rogers never met me.
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I think it's really really good - can't claim the credit though, Leon Russell said it on the "Mad Dogs and Englishmen" tour.
We can’t stop here, this is bat country - Hunter S Thompson RIP
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Not as bad as this: Kevin Bl**dy Wilson: Don't be a Bunny This Easter[^] - YouTube, NSFW!
Those who fail to learn history are doomed to repeat it. --- George Santayana (December 16, 1863 – September 26, 1952)
Those who fail to clear history are doomed to explain it. --- OriginalGriff (February 24, 1959 – ∞)
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Marc Clifton wrote: so forgive me for a complete violation of your personal beliefs, convictions, etc.
You are forgiven [1].
[1] This specific act of forgiveness by the party of the second part is good for this one (only) specific act of violation by the party of the first part: it is not granted as a plenary indulgence retroactively effective for outstanding previous violations; nor is it granted, ante bellum, for any future violations by the party of the first part.
Construal of this act of forgiveness as being a comment of any type, positive or negative, on any of the world's organized religions, humanist and trans-humanist philosophies, cults, etc., is strictly the responsibility of the forgivee, and the second party granting this forgiveness asserts this offer is proclaimed without malice or intent to criticize said collectivities.
Local laws and regulations may apply. This offer may be void in your state.
“I speak in a poem of the ancient food of heroes: humiliation, unhappiness, discord. Those things are given to us to transform, so that we may make from the miserable circumstances of our lives things that are eternal, or aspire to be so.” Jorge Luis Borges
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I'm pretty sure that consulting an attorney on Easter, or even socializing with one, is one of the original 8 cardinal sins.
Will Rogers never met me.
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It is impossible to vote on the mobile version of CP and is usually not worth the trouble of switching to the full site just to vote. This is one occasion where the trouble is justified.
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Time Magazine: "The Rapture of the Nerds" [^], April 17,2014.
"A new religion has set out to store memories for centuries and deliver its believers into a world where our souls can outlive our selves." While some humans, as discussed here recently, debate the dangers and opportunities of a future in which robots become "like humans," other humans are interested, evidently, in "immortality" through transferring their "consciousness" into computational machinery, or saving it in some form that, in the future, could be re-constituted.
While this Time Magazine piece may be a thinly-veiled promo for the new movie, "Transcendence," and the "Terasem Faith" [^] some kind of strange teratoma erupting from the flesh of SteamPunk-America (note the magazine article never mentions how many people might be using Terasem's services), other, more serious, writers have long proposed that many modern people effectively operate as-if they "believe" in "science and rationality" in the same way other people believe in male Sky Gods.
“I speak in a poem of the ancient food of heroes: humiliation, unhappiness, discord. Those things are given to us to transform, so that we may make from the miserable circumstances of our lives things that are eternal, or aspire to be so.” Jorge Luis Borges
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BillWoodruff wrote: A new religion has set out to store memories for centuries
I foresee huge halls where they can stare eons at their virtual belly-button lint, with a world completely uninterested in their memories.
BillWoodruff wrote: as-if they "believe" in "science and rationality" in the same way other people believe in male Sky Gods.
You should see the threads where fans of various telephone-manufacturers come together. The problem would solve itself if they were allowed arms.
Bastard Programmer from Hell 
If you can't read my code, try converting it here[^]
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The thing that everyone seems to forget (quite conveniently, haha) is that consciousness is deeply entwined with the unconscious. And since, by definition, we are not conscious of our unconscious, how can that be "digitized?"
Also, and quite interestingly, is the affects of hormones on the consciousness. Women who have taken testosterone have a feeling of being "on top of the world", "in control", aggressive, etc. Those are all conscious experiences that are directed not by thought, but by a chemical reaction with the brain. How is this to be captured?
Also, memories are not consciousness.
What's sad to me is that even a basic study of philosophy and biochemistry would reveal just how incredibly complex the concept of consciousness actually is. Yet again, education is clearly lacking, replaced by the misplaced euphoria of technological solutions.
Marc
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Marc Clifton wrote: What's sad to me is that even a basic study of philosophy and biochemistry would
reveal just how incredibly complex the concept of consciousness actually is.
Yet again, education is clearly lacking, replaced by the misplaced euphoria of
technological solutions.
Let's just say that this already did not work very well in Star trek  It was the same idea in 1966 and despite all that has happened since then it'ss still science fiction. Besides that, why would I want to have an immortal copy of myself?
Marc Clifton wrote: The thing that everyone seems to forget (quite conveniently, haha) is that
consciousness is deeply entwined with the unconscious. And since, by
definition, we are not conscious of our unconscious, how can that be
"digitized?"
Inaccessible for you, but not to the device that does the scanning and digitizing, obviously. Still, the complexity remains. Evolved systems can have a fearsome complexity. I would not be surprised if it was discovered that even quantum states play a role in some biological processes, together with biochemistry and electricity.
The language is JavaScript. that of Mordor, which I will not utter here
I hold an A-7 computer expert classification, Commodore. I'm well acquainted with Dr. Daystrom's theories and discoveries. The basic design of all our ship's computers are JavaScript.
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CDP1802 wrote: I would not be surprised if it was discovered that even quantum states play a role in some biological processes, together with biochemistry and electricity
The novel Mindscan by Robert J. Sawyer[^], which I just finished reading a few days ago, addresses this approach.
Software Zen: delete this;
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BillWoodruff wrote: in "immortality" through transferring their "consciousness"
It's not a transfer, it's a copy. There is no immortality, original meat still dies. Why would anyone want a digitized copy of themselves running around?
And talk about narcissism. Here you go universe, I'm so awesome you're going to want a copy of this for all time. I'm sure the copy wont run out of interesting things to say... But who knows, I'll be long dead.
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thrakazog wrote: Why would anyone want a digitized copy of themselves running around?
It might be useful to have a copy of Stephen Hawking to kick around.
Psychosis at 10
Film at 11
Those who do not remember the past, are doomed to repeat it.
Those who do not remember the past, cannot build upon it.
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Unless his work has flaws in it nobody else is smart enough to understand. Leading us down the wrong rabbit hole for eons.
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"Wait let me take a Selfie.."
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I love thinking about and discussing these issues and ideas.
However, the main problem I see is that there exists no commonly agreed upon definition of many vital terms:
- soul
- god/God
- consciousness
- intelligence
- spirituality
- faith
- religion vs. Religion
Is there some "essence" at the core of my existence that is of itself transferable to another vessel such as a mechanistic host such that the original vessel becomes "not me" and the new one "me"?
Or is it only possible to create a "mere copy" of the original, presumably neuronal, configuration - which precludes ACTUAL immortality?
But hey. It's fun to ruminate.
"Norman coordinate." Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! Beeeeeeeeeeee.......
Cheers,
Mike Fidler
"I intend to live forever - so far, so good." Steven Wright
"I almost had a psychic girlfriend but she left me before we met." Also Steven Wright
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Did the $7 each lesson run by the park rangers, it was good, The troughs of gravel are seeded, so you do get to see if your technique sucks or not. Then you can buy a plastic pan and go down to the river where Marshall found gold and started it all and try your luck there.
The ranger said its best to go deep, so, even without any tools; all you are allowed are hands and plastic pan, I went deep. And after an hour I got one fleck of gold! A real fleck, from the very same place Marshall did 166 years ago!
Anyway, its a lot of fun. If anyone is out there its worth spending a day in lovely countryside (really, it is stunning) and having a go panning while slobbing out with a nice picnic.
Next time I have to sneak a shovel in with me.....
"The whole idea that carbon dioxide is the main cause of the recent global warming is based on a guess that was proved false by empirical evidence during the 1990s." climate-models-go-cold
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I did something similar with a friend of mine some 6-8 years ago. We spent a few days driving up through the whole area on highway 49 and seeing sights from Oakhurts to Coloma (Clicky[^]). We walked around at the park in Coloma, but did not do the tour you mentioned.
Somewhere along the way, we drove down to one of the rivers deep in a canyon and tried our luck for a few hours. We were wading through shallow waters, panning the dirt. I think the stuff we found was Fool's Gold, but the sunburn on my back was real enough  .
All in all it was a great drive through a significant historical area with beautiful scenery.
Soren Madsen
"When you don't know what you're doing it's best to do it quickly" - Jase #DuckDynasty
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SoMad wrote: beautiful scenery
It reminds me a lot of NZ, really stunning.
"The whole idea that carbon dioxide is the main cause of the recent global warming is based on a guess that was proved false by empirical evidence during the 1990s." climate-models-go-cold
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Good for you; I did the same 50 years ago, though there weren't any rangers selling lessons. Luckily, my Dad taught me to pan on the East Fork of the San Gabriel River in the San Gabriel mountains just north of our house. I got a fair bit of gold, too, though I got more in our local river. These days I don't pan anymore, though there's plenty of gold where I live. Once in a while I did up a 5 gallon pail of dirt in the desert and bring it home, then pan it evenings. It always produces some material, but never enough to be commercially viable.
Still, it's a fun hobby, and once in a while - like Marshall - you get lucky. Good trip! 
Will Rogers never met me.
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