common sense and ye olde suffering theory

[Dan L]

:eek: :drunk: :worried: :nervous: :freak: :blackeye: :crying:
*shudder*---- just had my physics exam at uni... If theres one thing I get out of exams it's a good think. I start to think about things in the time between when I finish the exam and when the exam finish.

Today the subject of my good think was-- common sense- does it exist?

You see a while ago at work I said something about intelligence to one of my friends and she asked, 'what's intelligence'... . . . after a brief exchange of funny looks i realised she was serious. That's when my assistant manager said 'isn't it when you dont have any common sense?' I was quite annoyed. Something about my exam today reminded me of this and I now have my own little theory.

Basically there are three types of people (I said BASICALLY. I know this is simplifying things a bit)
1- scientists
2- artists (note- this includes writers)
3- people with 'common sense'

all of which have different kinds of 'common sense'.
Scientists see a group of things and try to simplify them into one 'system' in which everything applies the same to one thing as it does to everything else. They are used to giving and recieving precise instructions on how to do things. Often they are forced to accept things that they never encounter nor need to think about in their everyday lives. As 'common sense' allows us to come to terms with our everyday surroundings, it is inadequate in most areas of science.

Artists see one thing and can expand it into many different things. They can make two pictures of the same thing and portray them both in different ways. They can add emotion to their work, give two conflicting ideas in the same peice of art, and portray the impossible in ways few others can. As opposed to scientists who need precise instructions, they can work on the most vague and abstract ideas known. A completely different form of common sense is required as they can look at something and see many differents sides to it.

Common sense is sufficient for all other people as it has evolved over many millions of years to allow us to come to terms with our environment. If we lived in a completely different environment we would require a completely different kind of common sense, and the common sense we know of today would not exist.

so theres my theory. The reason intelligent people dont seem to have any common sense is cos they dont have a very common (as in usual, not as in 'common' as a 'lower than me' kind of way) life or way of seeing things.



Now for part 2 'ye olde suffering theory'

For a long time people have turned away from religion for the following reason- 'theres too much suffering and evil in the world- how can there be a god?' I read the following in a book yesterday and thought i'd share it with you. There is a branch of mathematics called 'game theory' it basically has two or more 'players' who can do different things with associated costs and benefits. I have no idea how it works, therefore i'm not gonna criticise it, but an expert in game theory decided to use it on such theological ideas as the suffering idea. He found something quite remarkable. It turns out that the only strategy to do long-term good is to introduce such things as suffering and evil. This does not actually prove that a god exists. All it proves, or rather suggests, is that the question 'theres too much suffering and evil in the world- how can there be a god?' is irrelevant, and that the presence of suffering and evil can support both the non-existence and the existence of a god.


phew.... i was wondering when i'd finish that.... im a little hyped up after that exam... all the nervous tension.

[Duo Maxwell]

Okay... they were actully better theories than I've ever written.

'ye olde suffering theory' reminded me of a speech I had to make in society when we had religeion, it was either you belive in god or not and reasons why.
one thing I hated was everyone said 'seeing is believing' so I was thinking 'ahh... well I'm totally screw you guy's up!' and went for believing in god basicly my speech was about how everyone say's god does nothing for me so I said what do you do for god? then I went on about how we create the evil's, poverty and suffering in the world because we're like that and god has nothing to do with it... yada yada yada ...and I mentioned something about sin and stuff like that

[Hinata]

[COLOR=darkblue]Man you sure do have a lot to write after your exams.....
But on the note of common sense. That may be true for intelligent ppl not to have common sense yet many of them do. Not all intelligent people had a common life but those who were let's say in lower-income families had no choice but to express their intelligence(in order to be sucessful in school) and their common sense (in order to survive the streets.) Their are many situations that you have to develop both and I am one who has a little of both( but I may not choose to use them)
And on subject 2, that was a real interesting theory and I happen to agree but I personally side with the existence of God. Although there is no way to prove he is here I believe that he exists.[/COLOR]

[Dan L]

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by sweetreyes [/i]
[B][COLOR=darkblue]
But on the note of common sense. That may be true for intelligent ppl not to have common sense yet many of them do. Not all intelligent people had a common life but those who were let's say in lower-income families had no choice but to express their intelligence(in order to be sucessful in school) and their common sense (in order to survive the streets.) Their are many situations that you have to develop both and I am one who has a little of both( but I may not choose to use them) [/COLOR] [/B][/QUOTE]

yes... thats the problem when you try to divide people into groups. You can form as many stereotypes as you want but the vast majority are somewhere in between them. I think I was a bit vague when I said 'intelligent people'. Most people who do not appear to have a lot of common sense are the 'genius' kind of intelligence that very few of us can ever hope to acheive. The famous scientists and artists. And as you say (sort of), different circumstances make people different.

[Duo Maxwell]

and once me an' my friends were 'debating' whether god exists, I was the only one for god un-fair two against one but hey, one of me friend's mum is like full-on into god and she asked her why she believes in him, all I got was something to do w/a car accident and them getting their house. I know this is gonna sound stupid but they were just so harsh that they actully made me cry... yeah well I was just glad they couldn't see me, one thought I was laughing and the otherone got her sister on the phone to try and make me laugh. tradgic... *deep sigh*

[Guest Voodookanaka]

........the latter theory though makes me realise if there is a God hes a complete bastard. -_-

[Fall]

I could never write a better theory than that..... I believe that common sense does exist, you've just gotta find it in your mind..... :D

I actually read through all that! :) I find that very interesting..... :rolleyes:

[Cibo]

Voodoo!!!!! How did you get that stick figure fight as an avatar? How did you get it so small?!

[Heaven's Cloud]

[color=indigo] Ahhh!!! thet is way to much to ponder this early in the morning. As for common sense, I'm not sure if I agree with you entirely. I don't think common sense can be catagorized like you have it...ie: intelligent people, artistic people, people with common sense. I think common sense is a seperate entity all together. I would like to think that I am pretty intelligent and that I have a fairly good amount of common sense, however I know a lot of people that are both smart and complete idiot all around the spectrum that have no common sense whatsoever (and usually those people are really annoying).[/color]

[woody]

Very interesting.

[Dan L]

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by Heaven's Cloud [/i]
[B][color=indigo] Ahhh!!! thet is way to much to ponder this early in the morning. As for common sense, I'm not sure if I agree with you entirely. I don't think common sense can be catagorized like you have it...ie: intelligent people, artistic people, people with common sense. I think common sense is a seperate entity all together. I would like to think that I am pretty intelligent and that I have a fairly good amount of common sense, however I know a lot of people that are both smart and complete idiot all around the spectrum that have no common sense whatsoever (and usually those people are really annoying).[/color] [/B][/QUOTE]

to answer that, I quote an earlier post of mine u probably just didnt see...

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by Deus Ex Machina[/i]
thats the problem when you try to divide people into groups. You can form as many stereotypes as you want but the vast majority are somewhere in between them. I think I was a bit vague when I said 'intelligent people'. Most people who do not appear to have a lot of common sense are the 'genius' kind of intelligence that very few of us can ever hope to acheive[/QUOTE]

Although when I say 'Most people who do not appear to have common sense' I am not including the idiots who just don't have any sense at all (I see a lot of them where I live..... theyre everywhere...)

[Hinata]

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by Deus_Ex_Machina [/i]
[B]

yes... thats the problem when you try to divide people into groups. You can form as many stereotypes as you want but the vast majority are somewhere in between them. I think I was a bit vague when I said 'intelligent people'. Most people who do not appear to have a lot of common sense are the 'genius' kind of intelligence that very few of us can ever hope to acheive. The famous scientists and artists. And as you say (sort of), different circumstances make people different. [/B][/QUOTE][COLOR=coral]
Okay now I see where you're going with this and on the note ppl classified as "genius" don't really have any common sense....that I do agree with 100%[/COLOR]