I find books on neuroscience exciting. Sorry you don’t
Books on neuroscience are helpful, but they still beg the question, how do we have consciousness? We can point to corpuscles and say, corpuscles exist, but we can’t point to an idea. You can point to a lot on men on a battle field, but you can’t point to the virtue of courage on that field. Furthermore, how do you tell if someone is conscious or not? You can’t see consciousness out side of your own, you can’t point to a brain and see consciousness, you can’t even be 100% sure if another is conscious, you just have to, at some point, believe they are.
I really don’t understand how all these neurons made of fat protein and water mostly let consciousness arise. I don’t know if we are a ghost in the machines, or if there is a machine in the ghost. Maybe everything has a fundemantal bit of consciousness to it as David Chalmer’s argues, a notable philosopher from Berkley. I’m thinking that latter Is the case since it seems like we can manipulate whatever matter is in the brain, not that the brain is the only thing that has consciousness.
Brains produce consciousness and ideas. Looking for an idea inside the brain is like looking for a televised image inside a t.v. set. There is no ghost in the machine; the machine produces the ghost. There is no such animal as free floating consciousness outside of brains. The question that should be asked is how do brains make consciousness/ideas? What is the mechanics of brains that allows ideas to happen? Brains are organs that produce thought. Plants do not have brains, hence they have no ideas. Abstracting consciousness to some universal, not produced by brains is new wave religion, not neuroscience.
The neurological machine is the ghost. There is no human soul.
We are just neurons and electrons forming thought trapped in bodies of flesh.
Agree with the second statement, not with the first. About the second–brains make minds. About the first–there is a superego, which is involved in what we do concerning Others.
Good to see that they can at least get through grade school philosophy.
Excuse me?
The superego? The ego is a product of the brain and it’s chemical composition. There is no soul, spirit, or ghost.
Hogwash to naysayers about the absence of “A or THE” soul’s existence. I have one. There are other soul’s in Hell, but perhaps they are there for their own good, to struggle eternally, for my benefit. Might as well talk BS like the rest.
Seriously, how many years has it been since you figured that much out?
Once engaged, a reasonably intelligent man will make philosophical progress at least monthly, often weekly or even daily. It might take time to verify his revelations, but all in all, how long does it take to stop thinking that “there is no Santa Claus” is a relevant statement?
To a simple minded moron or to someone who is merely getting started, the idea that “there is no soul” will usually seem relevant. If and when they grow up, they discover how much of an idiot they were for even trying to draw such a conclusion whether right or wrong. Similarly with Santa Claus and with Women. If you think that Christmas is about Santa Claus, presents, or getting children to obey, you are clueless. If you think that what women do or think is relevant to your life, again … clueless … completely off track, totally lost in the confusion.
Whether the soul exists or not is ridiculously irrelevant to the subject matter and exposes such a huge degree of ignorance. Do you also wonder through the forest checking to see if money really grows on trees or not? It reminds me of the woman who seriously asked me if her computer virus was dangerous to her children. I was tempted to tell her that computer viruses were just a rumor to scare children. Sometimes the ignorance is so vast, it is better to just let them believe non-sense. Perhaps she would have been better off … similar with people who concern themselves with whether the soul is real.
Yes, Virginia, there really is such a thing as a stupid question. Anyone over the age of 17 shouldn’t be even thinking about it. And if they do think about it anyway, it shouldn’t take long at all to figure out the adolescence of the question.
So, with one statement you somehow think you’re smarter than me giving you probable reason to belittle me at the same time?
James, you’re really letting your own egoism go to your head. I would be careful with that.
No. Someone hardly has to be an intellectual to get tired of the same ole philosophically naive propaganda/dogma. You can’t get out of the rut by merely going with the flow. There is an “up” to growth and a “move on” to progress.
Try to progress to the stage wherein you realize that the word “soul” has always referred merely to your identity as an individual, your fundamental definition or characteristics. To say that you have “no soul” is to say that you don’t exist as an individual, that you are without rudiments, that there is nothing unique about you, that you are nothing. And your “spirit” is your type of behavior. A “holy spirit” merely means a perfect, all considerate and totally comprehensive (“whole”) manner of behavior.
You can’t get out of the rut if you can’t get passed the misunderstanding of language.
The very definition of soul since ancient times has been spirit or spiritual essence. Come on James…
It’s superstitious nonsense.
You have to be pretty arrogant to think that out of billions of people throughout history so concerned with this topic, they were ALL merely stupid primates and you are the one who figured it out and got it right.
What are the odds:
a) From the beginning of Man, all religious beliefs have been merely insane delusions and excuses … until you.
b) After a few millennia of contest and conquest, the language has been a bit distorted … because of people like you.
And then you can add to that concern, that I fully understand what they meant in a way that makes perfect sense from their perspective (as long as you understand that they didn’t speak 21c American). So the odds shift a little more because it becomes your personal analysis of ancient beliefs vs mine. When it comes to actual reality, there is nothing that I believe that you wouldn’t also believe once it was clearly explained. Do I really seem like the kind of guy who believes in a bunch of nonsense just because a bunch of other people did?
Like I said, get passed the "There ain’t no Santa Claus" stage and realize what it has all been about. It hasn’t been about superstitions (which is not to say that many people haven’t believed in such, because they even do that with modern physics. And they always will).
Genetics/environment-> neurons → consciousness → memes.
So many “meh” and garbage posts in this thread.
Drink your limeade. It’s barely worth the breathe to respond.
James, the first two sentences were cool then it turned to crap.
Joker, hes right, no shit theres a correlation to our neurons and consciousness. In other breaking news, 1+1=2.
To all the rest of you gatorade drinkers, we aren’t testing this on animals, because the whole damn point of this experiment is to experience the effect on our own consciousness in real time, and communicate to the world about it.
You get it? OUR own consciousness, not some animal that can’t communicate about how he felt.
I resurrected this thread when it was fading into oblivion during your absence. Are you back to serve invective to those who dared respond or do you have some further insight on the matter which we have not yet considered? I agree with most that you say about neurons and consciousness. But would disagree that any post here is garbage.
"Drink your Gatorade?’ Apparently your vacation from ILP has not taught you humility.
pretty much most of these posts in this thread are juv and not up to my standards.
Humility is like this…hollywood keeps pumping out shitty michael bay movies and like the bible says there is a time and place…now is not the time and place to be humility, now is the time to be a Critic.
and please dont post a laisse-fare response about ‘if you can’t make the movie yourself don’t complain about it’ as in this case I could “make” the movie myself’
my only response is that I should have let this thread die when it was about to do so.
ok mr.imsohumble
says things about humility, then gives himself the sole power and credit for determining the fate of my thread.