Difference between Catholics and Protestants?
I'm wanting to look more in depth between the catholic faith before I convert. What at the major differences between Catholics and Protestants? Thanks for the help.
What is the difference between being alive and being conscious?
Animals, birds, plants, humans all are alive. That is we are living. But, only 1 alive being has the capability of being conscious i.e humans. I say capable because presently most of us are well barely living (alive). That is we do our routine stuff like animals do. We eat, sleep, drink, mate like most other animals, except, we also work for survival which other species don't have to. But, humans have another ability which other animals don't possess and that is being conscious. Google defines "alive" asAnd then it defines "conscious" as So, who is capable of having knowledge or capable of responding to one's surroundings? Only we are. Now being conscious would mean that we have the capability of "choosing" how to respond to one's surroundings. For eg. If someone is getting angry and hurling abuses at me. Most of us would respond in the similar manner that is get angry and hurl even more explicit abuses back at them. But, we are said to be conscious when we choose how to respond. That is even if someone is getting angry at me, I have the ability to choose my response of not getting angry at them. Dog's don't have choice. One barks the other's will follow suit. They react. But, we have the choice to respond consciously by having gained knowledge of the consciousness. This story about Buddha will make things much clearer.It is said that one day the Buddha was passing through a village. A very angry and rude young man came up to him and began insulting him, hurling all kinds of choicest abuses at him.The Buddha was not perturbed by these insults and he kept walking. The man followed him. After sometime the man was tired and he approached Buddha and stopped him in his tracks.The man said to Buddha "For the past half an hour I have been hurling all kinds of abuses at you. But, there is no reaction for your end??"Buddha asked the young man, “Tell me, if you buy a gift for someone, and that person does not take it, to whom does the gift belong?”The young man was surprised to be asked such a strange question and answered, “It would belong to me, because I bought the gift.”The Buddha smiled and said, “That is correct. And it is exactly the same with your anger. If you become angry with me and I do not get insulted, then the anger falls back on you. You are then the only one who becomes unhappy, not me. All you have done is hurt yourself.”Now this is being conscious while also being alive.
Deep down does everyone know the difference between right and wrong?
i dont think that people instinctively know right from wrong. i think our percpetions of right and wrong are almost totally dicated by society: just look to history and you will find plenty of people freely acting in ways, with much social and political support, that we now consider wrong: -most abrahamic cultures permitted you to kill your wife for cheating, some even required it! -the greeks having sex with boys -all cultures killing for freedom from the enemy oppressors -gun fights in the wild west -duels to the death for someone disrepescting your honor -the age of consent in new york being 12 in the early 1900's -"stealing from the rich to give to the poor" -race slavery -pictures of children smiling while attending lynchings -systematic rape in africa -gladiator games -the inquisition -the holocaust -the cultural revolution -caste system in india -genocide in rwanda
What is the difference between Animal consciousness and Human consciousness?
Humans have long range consciousness, meaning they can retain preceptions, cogitate on them, abstract from them, then recombine the abstractions into new concepts. This allows for sapience. Man's latin name is Homo sapiens sapiens (Homo sapiens is long dead. We are his only living cousin in the Homo genus.) The double use of the word means we have consciousness of our consciousness, and can build upon our knowledge, increasing the amount of sapience we contain in our minds. Anthropologisit Loren Eiseley said the consciousness of animals left them in the "eternal present," meaning because they cannot retain perceptions, then abstract, then recombine what they know, they are forever stuck in the same moment of time as their ancient ancestors. Ayn Rand called it "range-of-the-moment" consciousness, meaning that whatever ability they have to be aware of what is going on about them, it lasts only for the length of that moment, and when that moment is over, they are back in Eiseley's "eternal present." Chimpanzees are not only genetically closest to us, but they are closest to us in the evolutionary time scale which simply means that they are on the brink of full consciousness. They are said to have rudimentary language, and to use tools, and to do a little abstracting; but they don't retain what they abstract then add it to other abstractions. When a chimp "invents" something or can compose a word to use as its description of a thing, and then teach that word to other chimps, it will have taken a huge evolutionary leap. It is so close to that leap that scientists want to move the chimp from its genus Pan, and put it in the genus Homo with man.
Matter is constant for a dead and an alive body. What makes it conscious and biologically active when it is alive?
Here comes my favourite analogy: Imagine an organ (the big one in church). Now make it even bigger. Maybe as big as a town. Millions of pipes and valves and stuff. Now along a central road coming from this town there are even more pipes. Some leading to manufacturing sites or dumps or a central pumping station. As long there is wind in those pipes, they play a song that makes the pumping station work, the factories and even the dump. But as soon the wind stops (maybe because the pumping station broke down in an accident) there is no song left and all the other places fall to ruins sooner or later. Some may work longer than others, but in the end everything will break down and fall apart until something new is made of the debris.The organ is the central nervous system, you got cars of the enzymatic brand running next to it, trucks with a lot of things like fuel or oxygen or CO2. The places it goes are the organs or factories and all held together by their symbiotic interaction. Thats life. It is just a matter of dimension and complexity … but the difference of a bacteria and a human is just the difference between the Shanghai Region and a Hillbilly Coop in a remote forest. So the answer to your question is: The symbiotic interaction of the parts it consists of, esspecially the conciousness, which requires the pipes and the wind to play the song of your soul.
What is the difference between a vegetative state and locked-in syndrome?
A person in a vegetative state is defined as one who is arousable -- which means merely a reflexive response to a stimulus -- but unaware. It is not necessary to wake up to be aroused. If a vegetative state exists for six weeks to three months, it is deemed a "persistent" vegetative state. A person in a persistent vegetative state is not in a coma. A person in a coma is unconscious, and unable to be aroused. Locked-in syndrome is a condition in which a patient is aware and awake but cannot move or communicate verbally due to complete paralysis of nearly all voluntary muscles in the body except for the eyes. Total locked-in syndrome is a version of locked-in syndrome where the eyes are paralyzed as well. So a person in a vegetative state is not aware, while a person with locked in syndrome is aware. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Locked-in_s... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persistent_...
Being aware of the fact that "Death" is inevitable, why do we do things that does not even matter at the end?
As a direct result of our own mortality, typically people strive to establish a legacy. This can be in the form of scientific or technological advancements or research, philosophy, art, or more typically children.Think about it this way…how many of the ancient Greeks are still alive today? None. Nary a one. But nonetheless we hold fast to the concepts of democracy and republicanism. These concepts are the legacies of ancient Greek and Roman philosophers. Or Francis Bacon. A philosopher and scientist who is credited with inventing scientific method. You might not know his name or who he is, but chances are if you take any science class at a high school or university level, you will have to engage his legacy. If you’ve ever heard classical music by Beethoven or Bach, or seen pictures of the Mona Lisa, you’ve experienced an artist’s legacy.Our legacies are what grant us the immortality which we can biologically never attain.My only legacy will likely be my children. But to be honest, I wouldn’t wish for more.
Does death make life meaningless, or meaningful ?
Life and death in and of themselves are abstracts contemplated by the self aware. Death can provide a foundation for creating life's meaning only when one comes to terms with their own mortality. It is the gut acceptance of an end that allows the honest examination of the individual human condition and forces a recognition that without an internal assessment of the id then the life lived is truly wasted and death is a way of reclaiming the organism back into the biomass. When death is accepted as the final answer then the futility of living as a sentient being becomes clear and only when this occurs can one truly create meaning for their life. Because only then will their actions represent the legacy they wish to be known by