What was it that you thought didnt make his case Still thinking?
Do Animals Have Souls?
by Cold Steel 165 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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still thinking
OMGosh Seraphim...I'd have to find the video, and I would have to rewatch it to make a list. Don't get me wrong. I didn't disagree with everything he said. I just don't think it really explained consciousness, well not to my satisfaction. I haven't watched the video cofty has posted. But I have bookmarked it to watch.
I am quite a Dan Dennet fan...and have read some of his books. But not on consciousness...I've only watch one of his videos on that.
I think it was this video I watched.
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still thinking
Daniel Dennett's book on consciousness...cofty
I'm going to add that to my reading list too...thanks.
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Seraphim23
still thinking I posted the video just to provide some evidence that consciousness survives the inactivity of brain function, that was all. He is what I would call a credible witness to what he saw I would say. I was referring to the video I posted just to clarify, not the one coftie put up. I haven’t had time to watch her one yet.
I don’t think consciousness can be defined really because I don’t see it as limited by the physical. Considering as we don’t even have a scientific theory that harmonises the contradictions between quantum and classical theory, which are the main two scientific theories to explain the physical world divided between the very small and large, and that there is evidence that both domains operate within the brain, it is not a surprise that something as allusive as consciousness is not going to have a good definition despite attempts to do so. I personally go further than that though in that I think there can never be a theory of everything without inherent contradiction, because I see the physical world a bit like an iceberg, in that most of what supports it is below the realm of the physical and thus not physical but that is another thread I guess.
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still thinking
I don’t think consciousness can be defined really because I don’t see it as limited by the physical.
I'm not so sure about that. Without the physical...I don't think we are conscious. The physical is what creates our consciousness. How conscious were you before you were born?
When you are anaesthetised you are totally unconscious. Much more so than when you are just asleep. Drugs have stopped your ability to be aware of anything, they have targeted the part of your brain that disables your ability to think, hear, feel pain, dream, all the things that a conscious person can do. There is just a void of time, it's an odd thing being anaesthetised, time leaps from one place to another. Quite different to being asleep where you awaken still feeling like you had that time.
Your body continues to function without you even knowing it. It uses a different part of your brain. When we can separate the brain into areas and control it this way, shutting down one function whilst leaving another in tact...it kinda proves that consciousness is physical don't you think?
What we perceive as emotions, thoughts etc are merely the process of survival that we have expanded on and developed into a form of intelligence. The traits are there, even in animals...but the ability to transfer thoughts into action is a very human trait. To be able to control our environment the way we do now goes far beyond animals capabilities. Humans have somehow developed different ways to survive and in that process have developed a way to destroy ourselves too. THAT isn't very intelligent at all.
Of course...another way of thinking about consciousness is...
- Some part of our being knows this is where we came from. We long to return. And we can. Because the cosmos is also within us. We're made of star-stuff. We are a way for the cosmos to know itself....Carl Sagan
I love Carl Sagan so much...I'm going to leave another couple of quotes
- We wish to pursue the truth no matter where it leads. But to find the truth, we need imagination and skepticism both. We will not be afraid to speculate, but we will be careful to distinguish speculation from fact. The cosmos is full beyond measure of elegant truths; of exquisite interrelationships; of the awesome machinery of nature
- We on Earth have just awakened to the great oceans of space and time from which we have emerged. We are the legacy of 15 billion years of cosmic evolution. We have a choice: We can enhance life and come to know the universe that made us, or we can squander our 15 billion-year heritage in meaningless self-destruction. What happens in the first second of the next cosmic year depends on what we do, here and now, with our intelligence and our knowledge of the cosmos.
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Seraphim23
I like him too. Ill ponder and give you a thoughtful reply later. My brain aint working at the moment lol