Look at this thread. Physicalism is just dogma. No matter how many times I ask zenmode how the brain makes decisions, he just keep repeating that we cannot control the brain.
The most important unresolved scientific questions, in my opinion.
- Thread starter Cypress
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Simple - there is evidence that what was initially thought to be an expanding universe may actually be a curvature to space. Much like early navigators thought that going too far in the ocean would cause a ship to fall off due to the curvature of the earth creating the illusion of an edge.
The only evidence for a big bang is an expanding universe. If the universe is not in fact expanding, if what assumed to be expansion is nothing more than curved space then there is nothing to support the big bang.
Science is exploration and discovery - often times we discover that we were wrong about pet theories.
ZenMode
Well-known member
If you applied the same requirement for evidence to the existence of gods, that you apply to anything else in life (including Leprechauns, Big Foot, Magical Fairies), you wouldn't believe in gods. The only evidence for gods is books written by man. The only evidence for leprechauns is book written by man.
ZenMode
Well-known member
Not only has a "self" never been found, there's no reason, based on what you can experience, to believe there is a self. There's no separate "thing" sitting outside of your train of thought. There's no "self" sitting on the bank of the river of your thoughts, watching thoughts go by. Thoughts just appear in consciousness. You can't stop them from appearing, you don't know what their contents are going to be and there's no self to think them before you think them.
Go ahead. Try to think your next thought before you think it.
ZenMode
Well-known member
Again....
You brain is constantly working. Your brain is constantly thinking. ANY outside stimuli can trigger activity in your brain. Something you hear, see, smell, feel, etc.
You clearly cannot answer the question.
How does the brain make decisions, for what purpose?
If you were logical...you would simply say you do not know if gods exist or not.
But if you want to blindly guess that there are no gods and insist it is not a blind guess...just as the theists blindly guess there is a god and insist that it is not a blind guess...
...you are free to do so. I'll stick with the take I offered above.
Your opinions are blind guesses.
If that mumbo-jumbo makes you feel happy or safe...stick with it. Same thing goes with the theists. If the arguments you make for "there is a god" make you feel happy or safe...stick with it.
More blind guesses from you.
I don't know why it's so difficult to admit there is a lot about the brain and conciousness we just don't understand - and the attempts to say electrical impulses in the body explain everything about conciousness and self identify are not really explanations at all.
They just describe decisions we make and say it is the brain doing it.. Explains nothing.
That's not correct. There are multiple lines of evidence of the Big Bang.
-Red shifted spectrum of galaxies outside our local group.
-Cosmic microwave radiation background, which is a prediction of the Big Bang theory.
-Cosmic nucleosynthesis, which is a prediction of the Big Bang theory.
The curvature of the observable universe out to our cosmic horizon is flat. I don't see out flat curvature of space causes us to somehow misinterpret red shifted spectrum. It's possible that outside our observable horizon, the universe starts to exhibit positive or negative curvature of space, but we probably will never prove it because it's beyond our window of direct observation.
There are indeed problems with the original Big Bang theory as it was conceived of, but I don't think Bible thumpers know about them or can explain them. That's a story for a different day. Suffice it to say that Alan Guth proposed his cosmic inflation hypothesis in the 1980s to solve some of the lingering problems with the big bang theory as it was originally conceived - and the cosmic inflation theory has widespread, but certainly not universal acceptance among cosmologists.
ZenMode
Well-known member
I have no idea what the neurological functionality is going on in the brain. In general, it makes decisions based on past events. Like I mentioned, a child isn't born knowing what a stove or "hot" is, but the brain can learn that stoves can be hot very quickly.
There may not be a purpose. In the case of regulating organ functions and monitoring conditions within your body, the purpose is staying alive.
This is all a side topic, not related to free will.
Every time I directly respond to your post you say it is not the topic. I think you have no idea what "free will" even refers to.
That doesn't explain anything.
Watching an apple fall from a tree does not explain gravity. It's only an observation. Aristotle tried to actually explain gravity and got it completely wrong.
A genuine theory or hypothesis has real explanatory power at the level of first principles.
Well, he just said things tend to fall down. Yet, it is true.
ZenMode
Well-known member
I'm not blindly guessing. I'm looking at the evidence, or lack of in this case, and applying the same logic I've applied to people who claim to be psychic or astrologists who claim the stars predict your life.
There's no more evidence for the Christian God than there is for any god mentioned in the Iliad or Odyssey, leprechauns, fairy god mothers, Santa Claus, etc.
All we have a man-witten books. No evidence beyond that.
ZenMode
Well-known member
Free will is the belief that, if you rewound the universe to an hour ago, when you chose vanilla ice cream over chocolate, you COULD have chosen chocolate.
It's the belief that there is some part of us that is reasoning and using logic to make decisions. A part of us that is generating and filtering thoughts to come to a decision.
ZenMode
Well-known member
Billion of people believe in many gods because it makes them feel god., not because there's reason to believe.
I'd love to believe that, with the right thoughts bouncing around in my head, I could live forever in the clouds with my wife and kids.