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What is better - eternal bliss or a simple bread?


rookie1ja
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What is better - eternal bliss or a simple bread? - Back to the Paradoxes

What is better than eternal bliss? Nothing. But a slice of bread is better than nothing. So slice of bread is more than eternal bliss.

This one is fun.

I think that as stated the thing that leads to a paradox is that "bread is better than nothing". Bread is 'good' but it isn't better than nothing. Things can be 'nuetral', 'good' and 'better' and "nothing" is not a thing.

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  • 2 weeks later...

1. anything "good" is better than nothing

and since "eternal bliss" is also good

=>eternal bliss better than nothing

2. what's better than eternal bliss? nothing.

=> nothing better than eternal bliss

therefore u see st8ment 1 and 2 lead to a paradox

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Isn't this moreso a case of zero versus null?

Null is preferable to X

0+1 is preferable to 0

ergo 0+1 is preferable to null

Zero and one can be ranked because they have relative value. Null can't be ranked since it's valueless. This is a paradox because people confuse zero with null; zero is a value while null is an absence of value.

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Isn't this moreso a case of zero versus null?

Null is preferable to X

0+1 is preferable to 0

ergo 0+1 is preferable to null

Zero and one can be ranked because they have relative value. Null can't be ranked since it's valueless. This is a paradox because people confuse zero with null; zero is a value while null is an absence of value.

Yeah, that's along the lines of what I am saying. Bread is not better than nothing because nothing is null and things can't be compared to null.

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This is a variation on the "nine tails" paradox:

"No cat has eight tails.

Every cat has one tail more than no cat.

Therefore, every cat has nine tails".

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yeah, this is no paradox. There isn't just two states: Good and Not-Good. there's a huge range of things that are SortofGood, Okay, Bad. You know what i mean? the "nothing" in the statement "Nothing is better than eternal bliss" doesnt refer to the "lack of anything" it means "eternal bliss is better than everything" so its just another play on words, not a true paradox

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This is where the English language is limited. Saying nothing is better than eternal bliss means there is no thing that is better. Saying bread is better than nothing means bread is better than having nothing to eat. Now, if everyone had the ability to think in, say, latin then this wouldn't even be a paradox. Darn our language is silly.

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It can really be solved with a simple equation cant it? I think it might go something like this:

A common misconception people might have is that Eternal Bliss=Nothing, but Bread> Nothing, therefore Bread> Eternal Bliss;

but thats wrong because "What is better than Eternal Bliss? Nothing." and that would lead people to believe that Nothing is better... than Eternal Bliss, but again thats wrong because "What is better than Eternal Bliss? Nothing." So nothing is the equivalent of Eternal Bliss, so Eternal Bliss has no equal or better, so it will always be better than Nothing; Eternal Bliss>Nothing, and since Bread > Nothing then; Eternal Bliss must = Bread, but nothing is equal to Eternal Bliss, therefore:

Eternal Bliss>Bread and in conclusion: Eternal Bliss> Bread> Nothing.

Well at least thats the way I like to look at it.

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Reversing the order might help with this one.

What is better than eternal bliss? Nothing.

Is the same as Anything is not-better than Eternal Bliss.

Bread is better than Nothing, because it is Something. Something falls within the subset of Anything - and Anything is not-better than Eternal Bliss.

Why?

Because (you know what's coming, don't you?) :

What is better than eternal bliss? Nothing.

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Ok,

11 is 0 more than 11

1 is more than 0

thus 1 is more than 11

Replace bliss with 11, nothing with 0 and bread with 1...

I prefer PBJ.

The fact that I chose 0, 1, 11 is irrelevant, ultimately it states the same, bread is greater than nothing and less than bliss...

This is slightly flawed, if you are going to give bread and bliss a value, then what value do you give them? You chose 1 and 11. I saw that you said that 1 and 11 are irrelivant, but they are relevant to an extant. You chose those numbers to prove your thinking, but I could use those same numbers the other way and have bread as 11 and bliss as 1. Nothing says what they should be, so cannot give them a value.

Also, I'm sure most of you noticed that the play on words IS the riddle. You guys are saying that nothing is being used seperately, which is true. But it will still have the same definition. Eternal bliss is a state of being. Bread is a physical object. So you guys are saying that from the given information, you can see what was meant. So tell me, what do I mean when I say, "I've got nothing."? Do I mean I don't know the answer to a question or problem, or am I saying I have no material? You have to assume that all times "nothing" is mentioned, it has the same value as all other times it's mentioned because nothing tells you what precicely is meant.

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  • 2 weeks later...

The only way to sole it is...

What is better than eternal bliss? Nothing of VALUE.

Bread has a value, as it is a real object, then it is not counted as being better than eternal bliss.

The original paradox equation could be this:

swap it to

Eternal Bliss>Everything (nothing is better than eternal blisss so eternal bliss is better than everything

Bread=Something

Thus, Bread Is Not more than bliss.

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'Nothing is better than eternal bliss' is an incorrect statement. It has to be stated 'There is nothing better than eternal bliss.' If correctly stated there is no problem.

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This is a version of the old epicurean philosophical problem of equating a moral value with pleasure. For example: If I derive more pleasure (bliss) from picking my nose than from reading a great book then picking my nose is a more moral and valuable activity than reading a great book. Of course that is nonsense. The question is framed incorrectly. The question should be: What brings eternal bliss? Doing the right thing or enjoying simple bread?

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  • 4 weeks later...

Nothing is better then E.B. => that entity(x) at present does not exist

Piece of B. is better then nothing => it is better then 0 (non-existence) entity (y)

two different entities

E.B. is better then P.O.B.

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Play on words

The Statement "What is better than eternal bliss? Nothing." must be read as "What is better than eternal bliss? There is nothing better than eternal bliss." due to context.

So "But a slice of bread is better than nothing." means exactly what it says (again, context.)

However, "something being better than nothing" is worse than "There is nothing better than (eternal bliss)" (due to the latter being an implied (context) explicit statement.)

Therefore the Statement "So a slice of bread is better than eternal bliss." is clearly false.

Regards, Izzie

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This is not a paradox. It's comparing a noun to a quantity. It is like saying "What is better, a a tree or zero." It's a play on words, but it's not a paradox. Another way of looking at it is this: "Everything is worse than eternal bliss, and a piece of bread is not better than everything."

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