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Old 08-07-2007, 06:00 PM
Yafi Yafi is offline
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Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Colorado, USA
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Quote:
Originally Posted by alextsakiris View Post
What I believe… I believe there is sufficient empirical evidence to overthrow the commonly held belief that our conscious experience is only the result of the physical processes of our brain.

What do you believe?
It's not a "commonly-held belief". It's a scientific consensus based on the ideas that, first, there's no evidence for consciousness external to the physical brain (yes, I know you say there's evidence; so where is it?) and second, that there's no physical mechanism in any case - one suggestion is that the brain is a "receiver", but if that's the case where are the signals that it receives? If the brain is receiving, then the signals must be able to interact with physical matter; we know of three forces that interact with matter (electroweak, gravity, strong nuclear) and none of these would fit the bill (we know all about the electromagnetic spectrum, the strong and weak forces only operate at atomic or subatomic distances, signaling using gravity would require moving large masses around). So are you suggesting another force? One that can interact with brain tissue, and yet has never been detected?

Let's say that some real, solid evidence that anyone can see, actually showed up. Would it "overthrow" anything? Don't be daft, of course it wouldn't. It'd be like 1905 when Einstein "overthrew" Newtonian physics, or when Hubble discovered the expansion of the Universe, or just about ANY major scientific discovery. If it proved to be true, it would become part of our understanding, new science, new truth.

You talk about "overthrowing" science like it's a despotic government. It shows that you have no clue what science really is, or what skepticism really is.
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