There isn’t too much that is impossible. In general, if we can imagine it, we can build it (because we have already built it—inside our brains).
Intuitive ideas are inconsistent upon reflection, with this fact conveniently glossed over by the brain, because the details simply aren’t there. The brain has to perform additional work, actually fill in the details, to notice inconsistencies.
1: Imagine an invisible unicorn.
2: Carefully examine the properties of your invisible unicorn.
Notice how those properties are being generated on the fly as you turn your attention to some aspect of the unicorn which requires a value for that property?
Tim, in one sense I agree: In the words of William Ralph Inge, “We have enslaved the rest of the animal creation, and have treated our distant cousins in fur and feathers so badly that beyond doubt, if they were able to formulate a religion, they would depict the Devil in human form.”
But I’m not convinced there could literally be a Cow Satan—for the same reason that there are no branches of Everett’s multiverse where any of the world’s religions are true, i.e. because of their disguised logical contractions. Unless you’re a fan of what philosophers call Meinong’s jungle (cf. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meinong’s_jungle), the existence of “Cow Satan” is impossible.
There isn’t too much that is impossible. In general, if we can imagine it, we can build it (because we have already built it—inside our brains).
Intuitive ideas are inconsistent upon reflection, with this fact conveniently glossed over by the brain, because the details simply aren’t there. The brain has to perform additional work, actually fill in the details, to notice inconsistencies.
1: Imagine an invisible unicorn. 2: Carefully examine the properties of your invisible unicorn.
Notice how those properties are being generated on the fly as you turn your attention to some aspect of the unicorn which requires a value for that property?
Tim, in one sense I agree: In the words of William Ralph Inge, “We have enslaved the rest of the animal creation, and have treated our distant cousins in fur and feathers so badly that beyond doubt, if they were able to formulate a religion, they would depict the Devil in human form.”
But I’m not convinced there could literally be a Cow Satan—for the same reason that there are no branches of Everett’s multiverse where any of the world’s religions are true, i.e. because of their disguised logical contractions. Unless you’re a fan of what philosophers call Meinong’s jungle (cf. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meinong’s_jungle), the existence of “Cow Satan” is impossible.