Brain / Consciousness debate and age (please answer poll for psychological research)

[Saint Frankenstein]

and according to the story I got...it is the item that damned us.

The acquisition is essential. It is the cause for which we are here.
It is also the line drawn as we leave this life.

I say.....the acquisition of knowledge can damn us....wisdom saves.

Wisdom is the application of knowledge. You can't have one without the other. I'm not interested in your outdated fears of the unknown and notions that humans should draw a line in our explorations. Indeed, my religion specifically encourages the striving for more knowledge and progress along with beneficial applications of it for humanity and the world at large.

 

[nazz]

I can. It's one of the few things I am absolutely certain about.

Let's just put it this way. I've yet to see a single shred of physical evidence to support the existence of consciousness. Nada, zip. Yet when it comes to my own at least I am absolutely certain it does exist.

 

[Willamena]

Let's just put it this way. I've yet to see a single shred of physical evidence to support the existence of consciousness. Nada, zip. Yet when it comes to my own at least I am absolutely certain it does exist.

How is that not evidence?

 

[technomage]

How is that not evidence?

Subjective knowledge is ... well, depending on your philosophical presuppositions, it is either exceedingly difficult or impossible to gain objectinve knowledge from someone else's subjective experience. I can tell you I saw a vision of dancing pink unicorns, but without more substantial evidence to my claim, you would not be at all unjustified in wondering if my "dancing pink unicorns" may have come out of a bottle.

 

[1137]

Let's just put it this way. I've yet to see a single shred of physical evidence to support the existence of consciousness. Nada, zip. Yet when it comes to my own at least I am absolutely certain it does exist.

We shove it down your throat, you puke it back up. This does not qualify as lack of evidence. The color red does not cease to exist just because you keep your eyes closed.

I'm absolutely certain you're a troll.

 

[Norrin-6-]

I'm 28, I would say consciousness likely has a physical cause. It remains unclear, and maybe it's just ignorance on my part, what exactly this "non-physical 'stuff'" that could cause consciousness even is.

 

[Monk Of Reason]

How do you define evidence?

Let us propose (just for the sake of the discussion, mind you) that there _was_ a non-naturalistic component to thought.

What tools would you use to learn about, or even to discern, that non-natural component?

What can you provide as factual, compelling reasons for me to assume that there is an supernatural cause?

Though that is part of it isn't it? If we can find a supernatural cause and study it...it no longer is supernatural but is then natural. Just another new discovery about our world. So really if it can be discovered or studied then it would be natural and there is no such thing as the supernatural anyway.

 

[Saint Frankenstein]

I'm 28, I would say consciousness likely has a physical cause. It remains unclear, and maybe it's just ignorance on my part, what exactly this "non-physical 'stuff'" that could cause consciousness even is.

Pretty much something that can't be detected using our current tools. You can't directly examine consciousness like a cell or something like that. As for how consciousness could arise from a non-physical source, well, the closest analogy I can come to is kinda like being hooked up to a VR interface like being "jacked in" in the Matrix films. In that sense, your consciousness is emanating from a plane that we can't detect as of yet and is locked into this plane of reality through the interface of a brain. But I'm just guessing. That's just one possibility. We really don't know much of anything about consciousness. We've just started seriously studying the brain using modern technology, beyond simple gross anatomical dissections. I don't think we'll have it figured out in our lifetimes. We're just not advanced enough yet.

 

[Thief]

Wisdom is the application of knowledge. You can't have one without the other. I'm not interested in your outdated fears of the unknown and notions that humans should draw a line in our explorations. Indeed, my religion specifically encourages the striving for more knowledge and progress along with beneficial applications of it for humanity and the world at large.

So Adam and Eve acted wisely?

I say they passed that so called 'test'.
The alteration of Man (in Adam and his clone Eve).......took hold.

We are that creature of curiosity....even unto death.

 

[Saint Frankenstein]

So Adam and Eve acted wisely?

I say they passed that so called 'test'.
The alteration of Man (in Adam and his clone Eve).......took hold.

We are that creature of curiosity....even unto death.

Adam and Eve are mythological. But, yes - they were right in eating the fruit.

 

[Thief]

Adam and Eve are mythological. But, yes - they were right in eating the fruit.

Someone had to be first.
Mythical or not.

You could have said .....metaphorical.
Bu that would not explain Man's divergence from the Day Six version.

Something happened....garden style.
I blame God.

 

[Saint Frankenstein]

Someone had to be first.
Mythical or not.

You could have said .....metaphorical.
Bu that would not explain Man's divergence from the Day Six version.

Something happened....garden style.
I blame God.

No, I said mythological and I meant it. You Abrahamics have a sad tendency to get all offended when someone calls your stories myth (but are fine with having other culture's mythos "dismissed" as such because you types apparently think you're special), but that's what they are. Myth isn't a dirty word, despite how some ignorant atheists like to use it. My religion is partly based on mythology, as well.

Mythology - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

There was no literal Garden of Eden. Genesis isn't a history book or a science textbook.

 

[Thief]

No, I said mythological and I meant it. You Abrahamics have a sad tendency to get all offended when someone calls your stories myth (but are fine with having other culture's mythos "dismissed" as such because you types apparently think you're special), but that's what they are. Myth isn't a dirty word, despite how some ignorant atheists like to use it. My religion is partly based on mythology, as well.

Mythology - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

There was no literal Garden of Eden. Genesis isn't a history book or a science textbook.

Looks like a science experiment to me....all the earmarks are there.

 

[Saint Frankenstein]

Looks like a science experiment to me....all the earmarks are there.

Well, you have fun with your creationism myth but other people prefer actual scientific knowledge and evidence when it comes to the origin of humanity.

 

[Thief]

Well, you have fun with your creationism myth but other people prefer actual scientific knowledge and evidence when it comes to the origin of humanity.

yeah well...you'll wait forever for that.

You'll need that 'rib' for the evidence.

Otherwise you might learn to be satisfied with the mystery of Man's divergence with only the Creator as the possible Cause.

 

[Saint Frankenstein]

yeah well...you'll wait forever for that.

You'll need that 'rib' for the evidence.

Otherwise you might learn to be satisfied with the mystery of Man's divergence with only the Creator as the possible Cause.

There is no big mystery about the emergence of humanity. We evolved. Alien genetic experiments to give us an evolutionary "boost" are tantalizing, but there's no proof of that as of yet however that's a lot more likely than your rib woman in a garden story.

 

[Thief]

There is no big mystery about the emergence of humanity. We evolved. Alien genetic experiments to give us an evolutionary "boost" are tantalizing, but there's no proof of that as of yet however that's a lot more likely than your rib woman in a garden story.

There's no missing link to be found either.

God would be an alien btw.

 

[Saint Frankenstein]

There's no missing link to be found either.

God would be an alien btw.

If you want to preach creationism, take it to the correct section of the site. I don't have any time or patience for that nonsense.

 

[Thief]

If you want to preach creationism, take it to the correct section of the site. I don't have any time or patience for that nonsense.

The garden event was the change wherein we gained that difference...
where Man became much more aware.

Leaning to a brain discussion is fine.
Leaning to evolution is fine.
But we are in the religious debate section.

Can't really count God out.

 

[Saint Frankenstein]

The garden event was the change wherein we gained that difference...
where Man became much more aware.

Leaning to a brain discussion is fine.
Leaning to evolution is fine.
But we are in the religious debate section.

Can't really count God out.

As I said before, the Garden of Eden story is not literal history. It's just a rehash of older Semitic myths. There is not one shred of evidence for it.

I don't believe in any creator god or any god that created humans.

However, you are derailing this thread with your creationist talk. This thread is about the brain and consciousness. There's a whole section for discussing creationism and evolutionary theory. Go there if you want to talk about it. I'm not messing up this thread.