Who introduced the Ultimate Boeing 747 gambit in response to the idea that there must be a god if there appears to be a deliberate design in the natural world?
a48f817f9cdcbe584963c736a9b37820
Ultimate Boeing 747 gambit The Ultimate Boeing 747 gambit is a counter-argument to modern versions of the argument from design for the existence of God. It was introduced by Richard Dawkins in chapter 4 of his 2006 book "The God Delusion", "Why there almost certainly is no God".
d4c38cb0967341eb7219653e5e3a38d3
Teleological argument The teleological or physico-theological argument, also known as the argument from design, or intelligent design argument is an argument for the existence of God or, more generally, for an intelligent creator "based on perceived evidence of deliberate design in the natural or physical world". It is an argument in natural theology.
8d8f0d51ec93bff4a29fab62fbccd334
On the Universe De mundo (Greek: Περὶ Κόσμου ), known in English as On the Universe, is the work of an unknown author who wrote under the name of Aristotle. Because of this, the author is referred to as a Pseudo-Aristotle. The date of the work is uncertain; it has been argued that it was composed before 250 BC or between 350 and 200 BC. It is found under the Bekker numbers 391–401. It should not be confused with "On the Heavens".
d72efd08fa43d9f25e6ac219b701258e
Gaia (mythology) In Greek mythology, Gaia ( or from Ancient Greek Γαῖα , a poetical form of Γῆ "Gē", "land" or "earth"), also spelled Gaea, is the personification of the Earth and one of the Greek primordial deities. Gaia is the ancestral mother of all life: the primal Mother Earth goddess. She is the immediate parent of Uranus (the sky), from whose sexual union she bore the Titans (themselves parents of many of the Olympian gods) and the Giants, and of Pontus (the sea), from whose union she bore the primordial sea gods. Her equivalent in the Roman pantheon was Terra.
43a4c1b94b24d4b75c6f79d89376c517
After the Deluge (painting) After the Deluge, also known as The Forty-First Day, is a Symbolist oil painting by English artist George Frederic Watts, first exhibited as The Sun in an incomplete form in 1886 and completed in 1891. It shows a scene from the story of Noah's Flood, in which after 40 days of rain Noah opens the window of his Ark to see that the rain has stopped. Watts felt that modern society was in decline owing to a lack of moral values, and he often painted works on the topic of the Flood and its cleansing of the unworthy from the world. The painting takes the form of a stylised seascape, dominated by a bright sunburst breaking through clouds. Although this was a theme Watts had depicted previously in "The Genius of Greek Poetry" in 1878, "After the Deluge" took a radically different approach. With this painting he intended to evoke a monotheistic God in the act of creation, but avoid depicting the Creator directly.
9a93295a0717f2b8d67101296503f4e7
John Murray Spear John Murray Spear (September 16, 1804 – October 5, 1887) was an American Spiritualist clergyman who is most notable for his attempts to construct an electrically powered Messiah which he referred to as the "New Motive Power".
4d1f1e7d73e28fd9c32218829c42ab71
Sun and moon allegory The Sun and Moon Allegory is used to image a medieval political theory that was espoused by the Roman Catholic Church and instantiated to some extent in medieval political practice. Finding this imagery in the "Book of Genesis", the Allegory images authentic spiritual authority as the Sun and any and all civil, or political or secular, authority as the Moon. By doing so, it illustrates that the Roman Catholic Pope, as "Supreme Pontiff", "Vicar of Christ", et cetera, and therefore the supreme universal spiritual authority on Earth, is like the Sun that is the one source of light for itself and all other celestial bodies orbiting it; while the Holy Roman Emperor, as symbolic and intended supreme civil, political, and secular authority on Earth, and having theoretically received his authority from and at the pleasure of the Pope, is like the Moon - that is, dependent upon the Sun for any illumination, merely reflects solar light, and ultimately has no light without the Sun. This theory dominated European political theory and practice in the 13th century. It is related to the general theory of Papal supremacy and "plenitudo potestatis" as articulated by the Roman Catholic Church.
0ece767d747356ea46d36c522a85ef5a
Argument from reason The argument from reason is an argument against naturalism and for the existence of God (or at least a supernatural being that is the source of human reason). The best-known defender of the argument is C. S. Lewis. Lewis first defended the argument at length in his 1947 book, "Miracles: A Preliminary Study". In the second edition of "Miracles" (1960), Lewis substantially revised and expanded the argument.
04fcc06fe92979c8d4ff2455b258647b
Artificial stupidity Artificial Stupidity can be employed in a number of different ways but most commonly as humorous retort to the notion of artificial intelligence (AI). It is a derogatory reference to the inability of an AI program to adequately perform basic tasks. The term has appeared in connection with other subject areas, mostly related to computing technology but also with respect to human behaviour. Sadie Plant suggests that Ada Lovelace, the nineteenth century prophetess of computing, employed something like artificial stupidity to criticize those who underestimated the future potential for calculating machines. Artificial stupidity, for Avital Ronnel, describes the shocking misuse of intelligence measurement during the eugenics era in the USA. Hito Steyerl has been applying the term with reference to the political dangers of algorithms and systems becoming invisible. Artist and researcher Micheál O'Connell interrogated "artificial stupidity" for his doctoral thesis, considering the definitions above but also how the peculiar and usually dubious human ability to "act stupid" can be a means of creative unearthing. He cites John Roberts' attention to contemporary artists and their use of a "thinking stupidity" which can be a "rejection of the dominant discourses". O'Connell's suggestion is that one reason for the resilience of the "art system" is a cunning form of inverse pretentiousness: art seems stupid from the point of view of utilitarian objectives, commerce, entertainment, academia and politics. "Artificial stupidity"'s most valid usage though relates to the worlds of computing and AI. Within the field of computer science, "artificial stupidity" has one other significant application: it refers to a technique of deliberately "dumbing down" computer programs in order to introduce errors in their responses.
2b5e8f485eee5cd3c21a8b49b2053f1d
God and Other Minds God and Other Minds is the title of a 1967 book by the American philosopher of religion Alvin Plantinga which re-kindled serious philosophical debate on the existence of God in Anglo-American philosophical circles by arguing that belief in God was like belief in other minds: although neither could be demonstrated conclusively against a determined sceptic both were fundamentally rational. Though Plantinga later modified some of his views, particularly on the soundness of the ontological argument and on the nature of epistemic rationality, he still stands by the basic theses of the book.
a43a0f7abc28143948038824de3194a9
Bernard Loomer Bernard MacDougall Loomer (March 5, 1912 – August 1985) was an American professor and theologian. Longtime Dean of the University of Chicago Divinity School and a leading proponent of Process Theology, Loomer wrote “The world is God because it is the source and preserver of meaning; because the creative advance of the world in its adventure is the supreme cause to be served; because even in our desecration of our space and time within it, the world is holy ground; and because it contains and yet enshrouds the ultimate mystery inherent within existence itself. . . . The world in all the dimensions of its being is the basis for all our wonder, awe, and inquiry.” Loomer decried theological certainty and delighted in the wonder of existence: “Final answers are not to be trusted. We are born in mystery, we live in mystery, and we die in mystery."
2e7ce76acaf9a0d47ef2d58b0fed4e2c
The Evolution of God The Evolution of God is a 2009 book by Robert Wright that explores the history of the concept of God in the three Abrahamic religions through a variety of means, including archeology, history, theology, and evolutionary psychology. The patterns which link Judaism, Christianity, and Islam and the ways in which they have changed their concepts over time are explored as one of the central themes.
6cb2e0284ae58f8c5cf9e5ecb16653c8
Butlerian Jihad The Butlerian Jihad is an event in the back-story of Frank Herbert's fictional "Dune" universe. Occurring over 10,000 years before the events chronicled in his 1965 novel "Dune," this jihad leads to the outlawing of certain technologies, primarily "thinking machines," a collective term for computers and artificial intelligence of any kind. This prohibition is a key influence on the nature of Herbert's fictional setting.
5ce4363c00ee31ee1f5f16159a91dce3
Galileo's paradox Galileo's paradox is a demonstration of one of the surprising properties of infinite sets. The ideas were not new with him, but his name has come to be associated with them. In his final scientific work, "Two New Sciences", Galileo Galilei made apparently contradictory statements about the positive integers. First, some numbers are squares, while others are not; therefore, all the numbers, including both squares and non-squares, must be more numerous than just the squares. And yet, for every square there is exactly one positive number that is its square root, and for every number there is exactly one square; hence, there cannot be more of one than of the other. This is an early use, though not the first, of the idea of one-to-one correspondence in the context of infinite sets.
c566a8e1667cf0abe4d85b9056eb8cb6
God in Islam In Islamic theology, God (Arabic: الله‎ , "Allāh " ‎ , contraction of Arabic: الْإِلٰه‎ , "al-ʾilāh " ‎ , literally "the god") is the all-powerful and all-knowing creator, sustainer, ordainer and judge of everything in existence.
219b9775bd263f23b68dcb9370fe6c66
God, A Guide for the Perplexed God, A Guide for the Perplexed is a non-fiction book by Keith Ward arguing the compatibility between science and religion.
d1444b5b3f0a1427e87c5fa1c85d1016
God game A god game is an artificial life game that casts the player in the position of controlling the game on a large scale, as an entity with divine and supernatural powers, as a great leader, or with no specified character (as in "Spore"), and places them in charge of a game setting containing autonomous characters to guard and influence.
7f9559a8d131eb3b9ecdd8297dcee841
747 Supertanker The 747 Supertanker is an aerial firefighting aircraft based on a Boeing 747 widebody aircraft. Initially developed by Evergreen International Aviation, the first Supertanker was based on a 747-200 (N470EV, tanker/tail number 947), and never entered service. The second Supertanker (N479EV, tanker/tail number 979) was based on a 747-100 originally manufactured by Boeing in 1971 for Delta Air Lines. It entered service for the first time in 2009, fighting a fire in Cuenca, Spain, and made its first American operation on 31 August 2009 at the Oak Glen Fire. On 31 December 2013, Evergreen International Airlines filled a Chapter 7 petition in federal bankruptcy court in Delaware, USA with all of the assets (including all 747 airframes) subsequently sold to a parts salvage re-seller, Jet Midwest Aviation. On July 12th, 2017, tail number 979 was intentionally destroyed for salvage at Pinal Airpark, in Marana, AZ.
52396465e1ff5d4b7f67c6681dd898d6
Zeus Zeus ( ; Greek: Ζεύς "Zeús" ] ) is the sky and thunder god in ancient Greek religion, who ruled as king of the gods of Mount Olympus. His name is cognate with the first element of his Roman equivalent Jupiter. His mythologies and powers are similar, though not identical, to those of Indo-European deities such as Indra, Jupiter, Perun, Thor, and Odin.
773435a8e3938af538759f9353781a0d
Theomachist Theomachist is a term used to refer to an individual who resists God or the divine will. The term comes from the Greek words "theos", meaning God and "machē", meaning battle. Karl Marx was considered by many to be a theomachist. The atheists who established the Cult of Reason in Revolutionary France have also been described with this term.
18dca12031eecffa0aeb230c08acffb2
Aetherius Society The Aetherius Society is a millenarian, New Age, UFO religion. It was founded by George King in the mid-1950s as the result of what King claimed were contacts with extraterrestrial intelligences, whom he referred to as “Cosmic Masters”. Regarded as firmly based in Theosophy, the Aetherius Society combines UFO claims, yoga, and ideas from various world religions, notably Hinduism, Buddhism, and Christianity. Stefan Isaksson notes that it has “become a complex religious belief system that includes an extraterrestrial hierarchy of various spiritual masters and such concepts as universal karma and religious healing.” The religion's goal is to prevent worldly destruction by improving cooperation between humanity and various alien 'masters', and by using 'spiritual energy' to improve the spiritual calibre of the world. The society has claimed that various disasters may be prevented or relieved by prayer, often aided by "Spiritual Energy Batteries" meant to store healing psychic energy The society also believes that it is to make the way for the "Next Master," a messianic figure who will descend upon Earth in a flying saucer, possessing 'magic' more powerful than all the world's armies. The society is named after Aetherius, a being King claims to have telepathically contacted and channeled. Aetherius is believed to be a Cosmic Master from Venus, as are Buddha and Jesus. The society's membership, although international in composition, is not very large. David V. Barrett suggested in 2011 that the worldwide membership was now into the thousands, with the largest number of members being in the United Kingdom, United States and New Zealand.
eb85fcdcf4ea4ff47ab6a810903becb0
Adam and Steve "Adam and Steve" is a phrase that originated from a conservative Christian slogan "God made Adam and Eve, but Satan came along with a Serpent named Steve", intended to concisely summarize Judeo-Christian Bible-based arguments against gay sexual practices or homosexuality. Among other things, it implies that the natural way of life for humanity is illustrated by the Biblical account of the creation of human beings as a male-female pair. The talking serpent who deceived Eve, later took the form of a handsome man who distracted Adam from Eve in his later years.