The meaning of it all

dedicated to Evil Stormbringer and Wheeloffire

from GalCiv2 Forums
Evil did me right by starting his own thread on the "what's a thief" question. But a few posts later in that Grammar nazi sprawl thread, QuietlyObserving says "If we are to be a society founded on the Rule of Law, it would be prudent to maintain a healthy respect for language and the meaning of words, lest we slip into a dictatorship of unelected Judges."

This gives me a painfully beautiful opportunity to start a sister thread to Evil's, and ask you all to sink your fangs, fingers, etc., into the basic question "How does a law rule without a human to interpret and/or execute it?"

That's my latest hasty attempt at a longstanding interest in the gov't-of-law-and-not-men notion that's very popular here in the US. I've also known a few linguists and flirted with other philosphies enough to be taken aback by anyone who has too much certainty about the meaning of a particular word or phrase.

Unless you're a minor with parents who don't want you seeing PG-13 movies (I know we have some sharp youth out there, just want to respect your folks), I suggest finding and playing fword.wav before you finish a reply here.
off-topic
278,532 views 655 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
p.s. FortyTwo, I hope to see you here. I've long pretended I don't like Douglas Adams as much as I really do. The Hollywood thing wasn't nearly as bad as I'd thought it would be, when I finally broke down and watched it.
Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
All praise Deep Thought!!!
Ashes of the Singularity II
Reply #3 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
yea but deep thought couldn't answer a simple question
Reply #4 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
"How does a law rule without a human to interpret and/or execute it?"

This sounds a lot like "If a tree falls in the forest and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound?".

To me this kind of discussion is little more than mental masturbation. After struggling so hard to try and actually accomplish something these "thought problems" leave me limp, so to speak.

I do understand that this is merely an opening gambit to spawn an interesting conversation, and I can appreciate conversation for conversations sake, but isn't there something productive that could be accomplished instead.

I'm not trying to denigrate anyone here, I do indeed respect those that favor these kinds of conversations. I'm just trying to provoke productive thought as opposed to random thought.
Reply #5 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
in a perfect patern a little caos is good



wish i could spell
Reply #6 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
No wrong, Deep Thought answered the question, its the question people dont understand.

Back to topic.

In my opinion, law doesnt rule, its not a thing or a living being that can exert its own will. All the law is, is something written down and understood(hopefully) by the majority of the populous, its what makes us function as a society. Sure rigidity is not a good thing, but without law life would be quite brutis and short. So to answer your question, i dont think that law can function without someone to support it, and thats why it is oftenly changed.
Reply #7 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
normal is whatever the majority agrees it is
Reply #8 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
How does a law rule without a human to interpret and/or execute it?"


What is breathing if there are no living things to breathe?

Reply #9 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Exactly.
Reply #10 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
What is breathing if there are no living things to breathe?


You breathe living things? I breathe air.
Reply #11 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
You breathe living things? I breathe air


You breathe living things as well.

Germs are living things, and you breathe them in and out all the time.

Some of them even make you sick, or spread your sickness.



Oh, wait...

Do Kryo's even get sick?
Reply #12 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
O... he got you there Kryo.
Reply #13 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
What is breathing if there are no living things to breathe?

A concept.


What is a concept if there is no intelligence to conceive?

Reply #14 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
A foolish belief?
Reply #15 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
A foolish belief?

A foolish belief would be a conviction of the truth of some statement, or the reality of some being or phenomenon, especially when based on examination of evidence - which is lacking in sense, judgment, or discretion.

So, no, I don't think so. The formation of a belief still requires some amount of intelligence. Even if the belief itself is foolish.

Reply #16 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
You breathe living things as well.


Hey now, I don't poke holes in your mockeries.
Reply #17 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Hey now, I don't poke holes in your mockeries

And yet, if you were to find holes in my mockeries I would deserve it.

That would be a pretty big IF...


And I did not poke holes, I only exposed an already existing one.

  

Reply #18 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
You breathe living things? I breathe air.



I'll pay that, got a laugh out of me!

A concept.


What is a concept if there is no intelligence to conceive?


Is love a concept? can love have existed before the universe was borne? can love have ever not existed or is it simply a 'state' of existance that just 'is' ?


Reply #19 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
To me this kind of discussion is little more than mental masturbation.


You say this when you are so clearly a fan of PC games? Egad, sir! You denigrate an act that is most wholesome for prostate health, and probably also fundamental for female well-being in ways I do not fully understand.

p.s. I challenge any of you to try linking talk of orgasms to game mechanics!
Reply #20 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
p.s. I challenge any of you to try linking talk of orgasms to game mechanics!



I dunno...

What that transport ship heads straight into the planet to deposit its little troopers like that...
Reply #21 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Is love a concept? can love have existed before the universe was borne? can love have ever not existed or is it simply a 'state' of existance that just 'is' ?



1john 4:8 He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.

1john 4:16 And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.


Is God a concept? Can God have existed before the universe was borne? Can God have ever not existed or is God simply a 'state' of existence that just 'is'?
Reply #22 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Well by all statements of theology God had to have existed before the universe did, or else how would have he created everything. Lets go off on a tangent here, presuming that God exists in harmony with logic(oh man im wrong already) and scientific understanding. He would have had to be able to exist in nothing, compeltly nothing no matter not anything, which would mean that he would be sorta like an anti-matter, which also means he exploded when he came into to contact with matter(the universe) or became integrated into it(unlikely).

The big question here is can God explode?
Reply #23 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Is God a concept? Can God have existed before the universe was borne? Can God have ever not existed or is God simply a 'state' of existence that just 'is'?



Ah you found the truth behind my words!


Well by all statements of theology God had to have existed before the universe did, or else how would have he created everything. Lets go off on a tangent here, presuming that God exists in harmony with logic(oh man im wrong already) and scientific understanding. He would have had to be able to exist in nothing, compeltly nothing no matter not anything, which would mean that he would be sorta like an anti-matter, which also means he exploded when he came into to contact with matter(the universe) or became integrated into it(unlikely).


Befor and after are concepts one might wish to let go of to understand God.

we are "creatures of time" ergo - God is not.

Does the word 'forever' have any meaning without time?
Reply #24 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
TGE, I'm no theist, much less a monotheist, but I have to scoff your scoff. AFAIK, if you want to play formal cosmology games, theists are roughly as likely as atheists to win a given bout. To top that, no small number of polytheists, pantheists, animimsts, etc., think the one-god and no-god crowds are seriously missing the big picture.
Reply #25 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Are there any tangents in this thread?
I think not, since the thread is itself the tangent.

Your thinking that God existed in nothing is misleading.
Since energy can be neither created nor destroyed, then God would have existed (and does exist) as energy. God and energy are the only eternals, and I doubt they can be considered as totally separate.

And while the energy may not have existed in dimensional space, it still existed (and exists).

Part of that energy would have to be converted into matter (energy can be converted to matter, and matter to energy) by giving the non-dimensional waveform energy a particle nature as well, in order to create the physical universe.

The act of converting energy into matter could have resulted in what we term, the Big Bang.