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If dualism was true then we would expect to see cases of minds existing independently of brains. There are none. We would not expect brain injuries to affect mental functions. They do. Mental development would not be dependent upon brain development. It is. This is very strong evidence that the two cannot be separated. If dualism was true I would expect to see cases that did not fit this pattern.
Isn't this the guy who exchanged words with Sam Harris, the neuroscientist, :) as well as several other scientists. I've not read the book, but I remember reading the Newsweek article, as well as several critiques of his story and attempts to explain it. It's not a convincing story.
Are you talking about near-death and out-of -body experiences? I don't think there is convincing evidence that they are caused by consciousness leaving the body. Experiences very similar to both NDEs and OBEs can be induced by use of drugs or by stimulating certain parts of the brain electrically or magnetically.
I also don't think the part about a disembodied consciousness being transferred to memory is accurate. The same thing happens when you fall asleep every night. You become unconscious. You are not awake or aware of yourself or the environment. Yet when you wake up in the morning you can remember what you dreamed about.
"Consciousness is separate from the brain. NOTE: I am making a clear distinction between consciousness and memory. Memory is not separate from the brain."
I would argue the opposite. Memory, not consciousness, can be separated from the brain.
You can write down your thoughts, tell them to someone else or speak them into a recording device. The medium used then becomes a store of your memories, and can be accessed by you or others in future to recall ideas or information. Conversely, there is no known way of transferring your consciousness outside your body. You cannot transfer your self-awareness to some other entity.
"When you die, your consciousness lives on..."
How do we know this for certain? And what new form does this consciousness take?
I think consciousness here refers to a property of mind, i.e. subjective awareness. You could argue that plants are aware of their environments because they can change physically as the environment changes. But they are not self-aware, they are not aware of their own identity.
When I wrote that the brain can be physically manipulated to change conscious states, I meant that physical causes can be used to explain changes in consciousness. The brain is controlled by chemistry and electrical impulses. Interfering with any of these can result in changes in consciousness. This is evidence for mental states being physical states.
Consider the evidence.
1. Is there an example of a consciousness that exists without a brain? No.
2. Is there a direct relationship between the integrity of the brain and consciousness? Yes.
3. Can the brain be physically manipulated to change conscious states? Yes.
I think this is strong evidence to show that consciousness cannot be separated from the brain.
That only exlpains life on EARTH, not life itself. In order for the alien to be plant life, it must be alive, so what gave the alien life? Another alien? And who gave that alien life?
The point he was trying to make when he said that life could have been seeded on earth by aliens is that ultimately you cannot explain away complexity by postulating more complexity. Even if life on earth was put here by aliens, you would have to explain the aliens themselves. The aliens would have had to have come about in one of two ways:
1. Been seeded by other aliens themselves. Then you would again need to explain how these new aliens came about. This regress cannot continue indefinitely since the universe is only about 14 billion years old, and that puts a limit on how far back this chain of aliens would go. Eventually you would have to explain the very first aliens using no. 2 below.
2. Evolved by natural selection (or an analogous process) somewhere else in the universe.
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