Study Says Videogames "Problematize" Religion as Violent

[ReiverCorrupter]

Well, I was never trying to say that different dimensional objects can't interact, I was just saying that they can't interact in the classical sense of reciprocal causal interaction between discreet objects. That kind of interaction requires that things exist in the same dimension.

You're right, the conversation did originally involve the idea of God. What I was essentially trying to say was that God, as a timeless being, couldn't interact with temporal objects within time, though he could definitely affect time from the outside. I think this conversation arose out of a confusion over the narrow definition of interaction that I was using. On that note, it occurs to me that God would be a special case because he pretty much has to be the ultimate cause of all dimensions by definition. That being said, I guess you could say that an aspect of God can exist in time etc.; just not the big guy himself.

I don't buy the causal bit still, because 'causal' is just our mind building up rules by experience and actually all causal happenings are fundamentally wrapped up in gravity which is possible multi-dimensional, but your conclusion makes sense in many ways

Well, I'll grant you that one can have a broader definition of causality. Though you should keep in mind that ALL scientific inquiry is just "our mind building up rules by experience", and that includes our knowledge of gravity and multiple dimensions. Just because the distinction that I was arguing for was largely conceptual, doesn't mean that it isn't useful. I think it ultimately helps us to distinguish between different concepts of causality so that we don't confusedly think that one implies the other. Saying that God causes things to happen in time (in the broad sense of causality) doesn't mean that God exists in time and causes those things to happen by interacting with they physically as a 3 + 1 dimensional object. Same thing with gravity. Gravity certainly causes a lot of things to happen at the three dimensional level, but that doesn't mean that gravity is a three dimensional object that interacts with other three dimensional objects. That was really my entire point.

 

[BrotherRool]

Well, I was never trying to say that different dimensional objects can't interact, I was just saying that they can't interact in the classical sense of reciprocal causal interaction between discreet objects. That kind of interaction requires that things exist in the same dimension.

You're right, the conversation did originally involve the idea of God. What I was essentially trying to say was that God, as a timeless being, couldn't interact with temporal objects within time, though he could definitely affect time from the outside. I think this conversation arose out of a confusion over the narrow definition of interaction that I was using. On that note, it occurs to me that God would be a special case because he pretty much has to be the ultimate cause of all dimensions by definition. That being said, I guess you could say that an aspect of God can exist in time etc.; just not the big guy himself.

I don't buy the causal bit still, because 'causal' is just our mind building up rules by experience and actually all causal happenings are fundamentally wrapped up in gravity which is possible multi-dimensional, but your conclusion makes sense in many ways

Well, I'll grant you that one can have a broader definition of causality. Though you should keep in mind that ALL scientific inquiry is just "our mind building up rules by experience", and that includes our knowledge of gravity and multiple dimensions. Just because the distinction that I was arguing for was largely conceptual, doesn't mean that it isn't useful. I think it ultimately helps us to distinguish between different concepts of causality so that we don't confusedly think that one implies the other. Saying that God causes things to happen in time (in the broad sense of causality) doesn't mean that God exists in time and causes those things to happen by interacting with they physically as a 3 + 1 dimensional object. Same thing with gravity. Gravity certainly causes a lot of things to happen at the three dimensional level, but that doesn't mean that gravity is a three dimensional object that interacts with other three dimensional objects. That was really my entire point.

Fair enough. This has probably been the most expanding conversation I've ever had on the Escapist

 

[ReiverCorrupter]

Well, I was never trying to say that different dimensional objects can't interact, I was just saying that they can't interact in the classical sense of reciprocal causal interaction between discreet objects. That kind of interaction requires that things exist in the same dimension.

You're right, the conversation did originally involve the idea of God. What I was essentially trying to say was that God, as a timeless being, couldn't interact with temporal objects within time, though he could definitely affect time from the outside. I think this conversation arose out of a confusion over the narrow definition of interaction that I was using. On that note, it occurs to me that God would be a special case because he pretty much has to be the ultimate cause of all dimensions by definition. That being said, I guess you could say that an aspect of God can exist in time etc.; just not the big guy himself.

I don't buy the causal bit still, because 'causal' is just our mind building up rules by experience and actually all causal happenings are fundamentally wrapped up in gravity which is possible multi-dimensional, but your conclusion makes sense in many ways

Well, I'll grant you that one can have a broader definition of causality. Though you should keep in mind that ALL scientific inquiry is just "our mind building up rules by experience", and that includes our knowledge of gravity and multiple dimensions. Just because the distinction that I was arguing for was largely conceptual, doesn't mean that it isn't useful. I think it ultimately helps us to distinguish between different concepts of causality so that we don't confusedly think that one implies the other. Saying that God causes things to happen in time (in the broad sense of causality) doesn't mean that God exists in time and causes those things to happen by interacting with they physically as a 3 + 1 dimensional object. Same thing with gravity. Gravity certainly causes a lot of things to happen at the three dimensional level, but that doesn't mean that gravity is a three dimensional object that interacts with other three dimensional objects. That was really my entire point.

Fair enough. This has probably been the most expanding conversation I've ever had on the Escapist

Me too, I've thoroughly enjoyed it!