In a message dated 6/28/2009 1:12:06 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time, atlas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx writes: >Answer the following questions in comprehensible prose. (1) why is there anything rather than nothing? Is there? Your question is loaded. >(2) What does "is" mean? Again. See Answer to (1) >(3) Does anything have meaning in and of itself, that is, outside the meaning we ascribe to it? How could we know that? I have to go to the bathroom. May I? >(4) Doth God exact day labor, light denied? That is to say, is there any moral concept that is not culturally contingent? How can we know that? Freud said incest is taboo in Native America. >(5) Is a thought a thing? Does it have existence? That is to say, is intentionality just another form of masturbation? De dicto. >(6) Where do new ideas come from? Heidegger seems (it seems to me) to suggest they develop out of a misunderstanding of words / concepts -- is creativity then a child of ignorance? New ideas? Like 'centaur': combination of man and horse? >(7) Belief in a god is shared by something like 90% of the human race. Why? And why is it that the extremist religious fanatics are almost always men? (I say it's fear of women -- is religion then but a male bulwark against their own cupidity? Surely it is.) In Sicily, it's mainly women who are catholic. >(8) Was Michael Jackson a real human being or a product of Pixar? I can't decide -- his life was so screwed-up that it had to be fiction, either that or it had to be true. I'm glad I wasn't Michael Jackson. He must have gone thru hell many, many times in his life. But watching him perform was equivalent to what philosophy means to me. See if you can decipher what that means. Let me know. I need to know. ----- Yes, he _was_ a good performer. And he did go to hell many times. I'm saddened LaToya Jackson ran so fast to his mansion to get all the jewels. Must rush. JLS **************An Excellent Credit Score is 750. See Yours in Just 2 Easy Steps! (http://pr.atwola.com/promoclk/100126575x1221323006x1201367222/aol?redir=http://www.freecreditreport.com/pm/default.aspx?sc=668072&hmpgID=62&bcd=Jun eExcfooterNO62) ------------------------------------------------------------------ To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off, digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html