PdF 2011 | Jim Gilliam: The Internet is My Religion

At Personal Democracy Forum 2011 (#PdF11), developer and activist Jim Gilliam gave this inspiring talk about his life, his battles with cancer, and how he found grace in the networks and connections that the Internet makes possible. Find out more at www.theinternetismyreligion.com. and for more from PdF, follow http://twitter.com/pdfteam or visit us at www.personaldemocracy.com.

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[Bruce Schuman]

"Wherever two or more are gathered in my name, there I AM in the midst of you...."

This is the spiritual power of the collective, in the "rock tumbler" of mutual respect and listening that polishes and refines and universalizes each honest participant in our common circle. This is a classical theological underpinning for Jim Gilliam's assertion, and a compelling reason for each of us to engage -- in whole or in part -- in the visionary integral communion that is emerging all around us.

[James Parenteau]

What a powerful story. I am sorry that he believes his good fortune is proof that people / the internet / activists have become god. At 10:13 he says "Each one of us is a creator, but together we are THE creator" and points to the ceiling.

[Dimitris Bardakas]

 Well said Jim...

[VisitorOf22]

If you're still asking me to prove the existence of God, you can't read at all... Keep watching vids and try to unprove the 'logic' of religion with your scientific approach, as I see it's your hobby.

You can't prove spirituality/religion with science buddy, that's why they are two seperate sectors.... :S

Enjoy!

[SquiggleBibble]

Actually it doesn't know how to survive. At all. It "knows" how to survive in the same way that a mechanical clock "knows" what the time is.

But I really don't get where you're going with this - all this talk of viruses etc... It just seems like a really convoluted way of trying to get out of demonstrating what I asked you to demonstrate...

[VisitorOf22]

Ah, correct, bùt, we all know a mere virus can not grasp the concept of science; it just instinctively knows (and just that) how to survive; it doesn't care where or how/why it lives; it just knòws how to survive; that's it.

Humans r cursed with reason, logic, doubt, etc. We feel the need to 'know how to prove the human we live in' (speaking from the virus-metaphor) because we THINK we NEED verification; and just that is the main issue destroying life itself; we forget to simply BE and b happy.

[SquiggleBibble]

Don't really know what you're getting at...

If we're anthropomorphising the virus, then it certainly could demonstrate that humans exist by gathering evidence (forget this notion of "proof" - the only place you get proof is in abstract mathematics, in real life you have "evidence" one way or the other) with its little virusy instruments - by measuring the structure of the world it lived in (blood, organs, cell replication etc.) and deducing that it was a living organism just like the virus.

[VisitorOf22]

500 chr is 2 little 4 dis reply - in short:

Would/could a virus in a human body deny the existence of humanity if it was told that humans exist? Does it NEED to realize that humans exist? Suppose that virus KNOWS humans exist (because they need one to live!), how would it PROVE humans actually exist; since they can't leave the host and actually show it's friends and go 'there, see, here's one', for without the host, they'd die.

Gods existence can never b proven while alive, we call that 'faith'.

[SquiggleBibble]

You're right - it is foolish of him to make a certain assertion like that. But you have to appreciate that "there's no such thing as X" or "X doesn't exist" is a very common, and commonly accepted, shorthand way of saying "there is insufficient evidence for me to believe in X's existence". Think about it... are you sure you've never uttered the words "Fairies don't exist" or something like that?

And I'm sorry that you hate being asked to provide evidence for *your* positive assertions...

[VisitorOf22]

And here's another atheist trying to turn this around 180 degrees... The reply, fyi, was not to you, dear sir, and the statement given by mr. DamionCrane was: God don't exist. <- He is ABSOLUTELY sure of his statement. There's no need for me to prove she DOES exist, because I question HIS statement. There's no need to be childish, sir, and bounce that same question to me while mine challenge has not been accepted. That is a typical atheist trademark, and I personally detest this way of debate.

[SquiggleBibble]

Technically, God's existence cannot be proved or disproved. What we can do however, is to amalgamate evidence one way or the other. The atheist position is the following (the vast majority of the time): It may not be said that there is no God - but it may be said that there's no reason to think that there is one.

There's just no evidence to support his existence, so we atheists sit here in the realm of the null hypothesis waiting for you religious folks to provide evidence for your claims. Go!