Impossibilities

[sciman55]

I put this topic here because I couldn't find another good forum. Anyways, I am looking for a list of impossibilities in the real world. They could be scientific, could be social, whatever, I need them for a class project; any ideas for impossibilities?

[Queso]

a lot of people claim nothing is impossible. but try manifesting planets in the palm of your hand. or stopping time with your mind.

[Turtle]

___By Godel's Theorem proof, under any well developed system of math or logic, some propositions will always be impossible to prove. I like to call it Godel's hammer as in between the hammer & the anvil.

[C1ay]

A wind to blow out the sun.....

[TINNY]

the impossibility of free-will?

[sanctus]

To juggle with 25 balls for half an hour

 

to know that you are the smartest being ever existed

 

to prove the inexistence of a god

 

to fly (without LSD and friends)

 

to say something that can be interpreted in only one way

 

Hope all this impossibilities help for a start and welcome to the forum!

[bumab]

To be your own biological father...

 

To have your cake and eat it too... haha

[Fishteacher73]

To be your own biological father...

/QUOTE]

 

Robert Heinlein wrote a short story I believe called "All You Zombies" that was released in Expanded Universe. It was about a time traveling hermaphrodite that impregnated him/herself. The child then disapeared soon after it was born. Taken by the "father" and returned to the orphanage back in time to become the mother....

 

A bit like the snake eating its tail.....

[Tormod]

To know what is outside the observable universe.

 

To make pigs fly.

 

To make a starship fly at light speed.

[Biochemist]

the impossibility of free-will?

This is a postulate, not an impossibility.

[bumab]

In a deterministic universe, free will is an impossibility.

[Biochemist]

In a deterministic universe, free will is an impossibility.

As I have mentioned in another post, determinism does not preclude free will. If you presume that the Big Bang began the universe with all information load and that subsequent events are a result of that information load, this is determinism.

 

1) If you think the Big Bang was a natural event that did not involve a Creator, there would be no possibility of free will. This is Naturalism.

 

2) If you think a Creator set the Big Bang in play, and reserved some elements of humanity as separate (such as free will) you are a theist of some sort.

 

Either case is a postulate.

[bumab]

Sure. I am a #2- although I don't know if it's humanity that's seperate alone, or life in general. But to say free will exists is either a claim to supernatural forces (i.e. God) or it's an impossibility.

[Fishteacher73]

To make pigs fly.

 

That just takes a catapult... :friday:

[Biochemist]

Sure. I am a #2- although I don't know if it's humanity that's seperate alone, or life in general. But to say free will exists is either a claim to supernatural forces (i.e. God) or it's an impossibility.

Agreed.

 

It is also worth noting that free will is not the only casualty of Naturalism. Naturalism would also preclude beauty, morality and creativity. These perceptions would only be delusions that somehow advantage us in the selection process. Love itself would either be an additional delusion, or a derivitave delusion of one of the others.

 

For some people, this is a little at odds with experience.

[Biochemist]

That just takes a catapult... :)

:friday: Wouldn't this technically be a pigapult?

[Fishteacher73]

Stable parental care is advantageous to the offspring. Love facilitates this (although not always).

 

Morality is useful in a social setting. All social animals have a hierarchy and a sytem to maintain order. A moral system does this.

 

Creativity exists, IMO, in two forms. You have ingenuity; creative problem solving. This is what propelled humans to the hugly adaptable creatures that we are. The other is artistic creativity. This exists as an exercise to stimulate and advance the vital ingenuity. Just as soccer is not a theological constuct (although some would argue) it is an excercise (as may sports are) that train physical and mental development.

 

These are not perfect systems and even more so in our ever changing society and must be examined in a naturalistic view as opposed to how they are applied today.