Idempotency

Yeah I see that we posted at roughly the same time :-)

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I've never liked finite state machines, although I agree the name is intriguing. The Universe just isn't like that though, they are great within the axioms of mathematics but you can't really apply them to the real world because of quantum mechanics, superposition of states, and the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle. The last one is a dead giveaway that finite state machines aren't real.

Interesting that you mentioned slavery with regards to the US Constitution, the passages John 2:1-12 show Jesus' implicit acceptance of slavery - and of course, why ever not? That was very acceptable at the time, all the rage. And I prefer water to wine, alcohol is the path to the devil if you ask me, so odd that Jesus would do this, but he is He and I am but me.

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Lewis wrote:

Just because the Naturalist thinks that nothing but Nature exists (in our spacetime continuum), the word Nature means to him merely 'everything' or 'the whole show' or 'whatever there is.'"

With my added words I think this view of what is natural is correct, which leaves the supernatural as something originating from outside of the spacetime of our Universe. I'm assuming that Lewis got this idea - as he was writing well after the Theory of General Relativity was established.

Interesting Lewis chose the words "Just because ..." rather than those words that would have been entirely sufficient, ie "Because .." .

I doubt Lewis was entertaining the notion of time travelers or alien visitors at the time of Jesus when he wrote the book.

Shame on him! A failure of nerve or a failure of imagination - or both? I wonder what Mr. Occam (of the clean shaven town) would say was more likely - an omnipotent (and all the baggage that comes with that) creator called YHWH or Kodos and Kang visiting from Planet X?

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I'm always astounded by any Christian (Gibson or otherwise) who is anti-semitic on the grounds that The Jews killed Jesus Christ. If Jesus Christ has not been killed in this fashion (sacrificial lamb cleansing our sins) then there is no chance of any of us getting into Heaven. The Jews played their part in your salvation Mr. Mel, as did Judas Iscariot.