Half Audio – Jay on W.L. Craig, Atheism, Transcendental Arguments – Video

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Half Audio - Jay on W.L. Craig, Atheism, Transcendental Arguments
I had numerous requests for more theology, mathematics and metaphysics, so here you go. In this latest audio, I talk over William Lane #39;s talk over a Ted Talk. I thought it illustrative of both...

By: Jay D

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Half Audio - Jay on W.L. Craig, Atheism, Transcendental Arguments - Video

Muslim Gunned down while admiring snow | Islam on the New Atheism – Video

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Muslim Gunned down while admiring snow | Islam on the New Atheism
Another Muslim Is Killed in America. Anyone Care? After surviving years of war in Iraq, Ahmed al-Jumaili was gunned down after less than a month in Dallas. You are dead. We are going to...

By: TheDeenShowTV

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Muslim Gunned down while admiring snow | Islam on the New Atheism - Video

Atheism in Hinduism – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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Atheism (Sanskrit: , nir-vara-vda, lit. "statement of no Lord", "doctrine of godlessness") or disbelief in God or gods has been a historically propounded viewpoint in many of the orthodox and heterodox streams of Hindu philosophies.[1] Generally, atheism is valid in Hinduism, but some schools view the path of an atheist to be difficult to follow in matters of spirituality.[2]

Hinduism is a religion, but also a philosophy.[3]Klaus Klostermaier, a prominent scholar of Hinduism, says that Hinduism is more than myth, ritual, doctrine, as it affects other aspects of existence such as economics, politics, and law.[4] Among the various schools of Hindu philosophy, Mimamsa, and Samkhya while not rejecting Brahman, typically rejects a personal God, creator God, or a God with attributes. While Samkhya rejected the idea of an eternal, self-caused, creator God, Mimamsa argued that the Vedas could not have been authored by a deity.

Hindu atheists accept Hinduism more as a "way of life" than a religion. They are unlike other Hindus in their religious outlook, but they share the same cultural and moral values.[5]

The Sanskrit term stika ("pious, orthodox") refers to the systems of thought which admit the validity of the Vedas.[6] Sanskrit asti means "there is", and stika (per Pini 4.2.60) derives from the verb, meaning "one who says 'asti'". Technically, in Hindu philosophy the term stika refers only to acceptance of authority of Vedas, not belief in the existence of God.[7] However, though not accepted universally, stika is sometimes translated as "theist" and Nstika as "atheist", assuming the rejection of Vedas to be synonymous to the rejection of God.[8] In Indian philosophy, three schools of thought are commonly referred to as nastika for rejecting the doctrine of Vedas: Jainism, Buddhism and Crvka. In this usage, nastika refers to the non-belief of Vedas rather than non-belief of God.[6] However, all these schools also rejected a notion of a creationist god and so the word nastika became strongly associated with them.

The Rig Veda, the oldest of the Vedas, deals with a lot of skepticism when dealing with the fundamental question of a creator God and the creation of the universe. It does not, at many instances, categorically accept the existence of a creator God. Nasadiya Sukta (Creation Hymn) in the tenth chapter of the Rig Veda states:[9][10]

Whence was it produced? Whence is this creation? The gods came afterwards, with the creation of this universe.

The Brihadaranyaka, Isha, Mundaka (in which Brahman is everything and "no-thing") and especially Chandogya Upanishads have also been interpreted as atheistic because of their stress on the subjective self.[11]

Mimamsa was a realistic, pluralistic school of philosophy which was concerned with the exegesis of the Vedas.[12] The core text of the school was the Purva Mimamsa Sutras of Jaimini (c. 200 BCE200 CE). Mimamsa philosophers believed that the revelation of the Vedas was sacred, authorless (apaurusheyatva) and infallible, and that it was essential to preserve the sanctity of the Vedic ritual to maintain dharma (cosmic order).[13][14]:5253 As a consequence of the belief in sanctity of the ritual, Mimamsas rejected the notion of God in any form.[12] Later commentators of the Mimamsa sutras such as Prabhkara (c. 7th century CE) advanced arguments against idea of God.[15][16] The early Mimamsa not only did not accept God but said that human action itself was enough to create the necessary circumstances for the enjoyment of its fruits.[17]

Samkhya is an atheistic[18] and strongly dualistic[19][20] orthodox (Astika) school of Indian philosophy. The earliest surviving authoritative text on classical Samkhya philosophy is the Samkhyakarika (c. 350450 CE) of Ivaraka.[14]:63 The Samkhyakarika accepts the notion of higher selves or perfected beings but rejects the notion of God.[21]

Crvka, a materialistic and atheistic school of Indian philosophy, had developed a systematic philosophy by 6th century CE. Crvkas rejected metaphysical concepts like reincarnation, afterlife, extracorporeal soul, efficacy of religious rites, other world (heaven and hell), fate, and accumulation of merit or demerit through the performance of certain actions. Crvkas also refused to ascribe supernatural causes to describe natural phenomena. Crvka philosophy appears to have died out some time after 1200 CE.[22]

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Atheism in Hinduism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Hottest tech at South by Southwest: FireChat, 'mind cloning'

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AUSTIN, Texas -- As a plane with a Grumpy Cat flag flew overhead, courtesy of Friskies, the Technorati flooded into panel discussions and happy hour spots at the annual tech festival South by Southwest in Austin, Texas, on Sunday.

Top tech influencers pondered immortality and mind cloning. FireChat, an app that lets smartphone users connect via mobile chat even without a cellular connection, was another hot topic. Here's a look at the most notable trending topics Sunday at the tech jamboree.

Off-the-grid mobile chat

No cell service? No problem.

An app called FireChat uses phone signals such as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth to connect to other users' phones and enable chats without any network connection. The app, created by a San Francisco startup called Open Garden, debuted in 2012 and was a hit last August at the Burning Man festival in Black Rock, Nevada, where cell phone service is scarce.

It links people via what it calls a "peer-to-peer mesh network," connecting through phone signals rather than a network. The range is about 90 feet but the connection can jump from phone to phone if there's a crowd. It's software-only, says co-founder and CEO Micha Benoliel. Currently the app supports public group chats and hashtags; private messaging is coming.

The app, which is a finalist for South by Southwest's innovation awards, has 5 million users and has been used by tens of thousands of people in India and the Philippines at political protests. As a new startup, Benoliel says his first time at South by Southwest has been positive. "The best surprise has been going to parties and having people asking how they can use FireChat for their event," he says.

Transgender and beyond in tech

United Therapeutics CEO Martine Rothblatt, who considers herself a "transhumanist," discussed advances in "mind cloning" in a keynote Sunday. She said she believes people will one day be able to clone their cognitive functions, and detailed her biotech company's advances in cloning organs and making the process of transferring organs from donor to recipient more efficient.

Rothblatt urged everyone to question authority and noted that in other eras she might not have survived as a transgender person.

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Hottest tech at South by Southwest: FireChat, 'mind cloning'

NATO Continue Black Sea Drills Near Occupied Crimea: USS Vicksburg leads naval rapid reaction force – Video

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NATO Continue Black Sea Drills Near Occupied Crimea: USS Vicksburg leads naval rapid reaction force
NATO ships continued a joint exercise in the Black Sea off the Romanian coast on Monday. The naval rapid reaction force in the Black Sea drills consists of a United States flagship, the guided...

By: UKRAINE TODAY

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NATO Continue Black Sea Drills Near Occupied Crimea: USS Vicksburg leads naval rapid reaction force - Video

NATO Allies Come to Grips With Russia's 'Hybrid Warfare'

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Riga: NATO allies are scrambling to protect vulnerable Baltic partners from the threat of hybrid warfare; a Russian tactic that officials and experts say is based on deception rather than formal declaration of war.

Russian President Vladimir Putin's use of anonymous "little green men" to slice Crimea away from Ukraine last year sent alarm bells ringing throughout the three small Baltic NATO and EU members.

They endured decades of Soviet occupation after the Red Army rolled in during World War II. While a full-scale invasion is improbable now, hybrid meddling and destabilisation tactics designed to test NATO's commitment to collective defence are not.

Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite did not mince her words when she said: "The first stage of confrontation is taking place, I mean informational war, propaganda and cyber-attacks. So we are already under attack."

Trojan Horse

According to James Sherr of Britain's Chatham House think-tank, hybrid warfare is "designed to cripple a state before that state even realises the conflict has begun.

"It's a model of warfare designed to slip under NATO's threshold of perception and reaction."

NATO Deputy Secretary General Alexander Vershbow has called it a modern example of the ancient Trojan Horse tactic.

NATO is "looking at how we prepare for, deter, and, if required, defend against hybrid threats," the former US ambassador to Moscow said recently at a security conference in the Latvian capital Riga.

Not to be caught off guard amid an increased Russian military presence in the Baltic, alliance members have mounted a series of troop rotations into the region.

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NATO Allies Come to Grips With Russia's 'Hybrid Warfare'

NATO exercises have Russians worried

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(CNN) -

As the U.S. and several Eastern European NATO countries conduct a series of military exercises near Russia's border, Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered his Northern Fleet "to full alert in a snap combat readiness exercise" in the Arctic, state-run media reported Monday.

At least one Russian leader described the drill as routine and unrelated to the "international situation."

The fleet got its orders at 8 a.m. Monday, according to Sputnik, launching a land, sea and air drill that will involve 38,000 troops, 41 ships, 15 submarines and 110 aircraft.

"The main task of the (combat readiness drill) is to assess the armed forces from the Northern Fleet's capabilities in fulfilling tasks in providing military security of the Russian Federation in the Arctic region," Russian Defense Minister Gen. Sergey Shoigu told the media outlet. "New challenges and threats of military security demand the further heightening of military capabilities of the armed forces and special attention will be paid to the state of the newly formed strategic merging (of forces) in the North."

The drills will run through Friday, Sputnik reported.

A flotilla of minesweepers will support the Northern Fleet's nuclear submarines in the Barents Sea as part of the drill, the Tass news agency reported, citing a Defense Ministry statement.

"Mine-sweeping groups of the Kola Flotilla have moved to the designated areas of the Barents within the framework of a snap check of combat readiness of the Northern Fleet forces for supporting the deployment of the main forces of the fleet, including the deployment of nuclear and diesel submarines of the Northern Fleet," the statement says.

The ships will conduct magnetic, acoustic and contact demining sweeps during the drill, Tass reported.

Despite a number of countries participating in various military drills in Eastern Europe, a Kremlin spokesman described the Northern Fleet inspection as routine practice aimed at improving military capabilities.

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NATO exercises have Russians worried