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The primary question of our time: Is Mind Brain?
September 4, 2011 at 12:50 pm
That's the big one for me, and I believe that the way it falls is going to determine more about how things shake out than any other.
If the materialists are correct, all notions of Divinity are down the tubes.
If the Consciousness folks are correct, materialism goes down the tubes.
I side with the latter camp, and my main kick against the materialists is that their a priori stance has severely impeded the study of consciousness as consciousness by maintaining it is simply an epi-phenomenon and tend to reject all evidence to the contrary out of hand, yet have absolutely no answer whatsoever as to why consciousness even exists.
Do you feel that mind is wholly reducible to brain?
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RE: The primary question of our time: Is Mind Brain?
September 4, 2011 at 12:56 pm
If the question, "Is mind brain?" came up in an exam I wouldn't have the foggiest clue as to what the hell the question was asking.
But that aside, yes I do feel mind is wholly reducible to brain as there is no evidence to say otherwise and medically we KNOW for a FACT that the brain is what produces consciousness.
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RE: The primary question of our time: Is Mind Brain?
September 4, 2011 at 1:06 pm
The answer of our time is yes.
I am the Infantry. I am my country’s strength in war, her deterrent in peace. I am the heart of the fight… wherever, whenever. I carry America’s faith and honor against her enemies. I am the Queen of Battle. I am what my country expects me to be, the best trained Soldier in the world. In the race for victory, I am swift, determined, and courageous, armed with a fierce will to win. Never will I fail my country’s trust. Always I fight on…through the foe, to the objective, to triumph overall. If necessary, I will fight to my death. By my steadfast courage, I have won more than 200 years of freedom. I yield not to weakness, to hunger, to cowardice, to fatigue, to superior odds, For I am mentally tough, physically strong, and morally straight. I forsake not, my country, my mission, my comrades, my sacred duty. I am relentless. I am always there, now and forever. I AM THE INFANTRY! FOLLOW ME!
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RE: The primary question of our time: Is Mind Brain?
September 4, 2011 at 1:07 pm
(September 4, 2011 at 12:50 pm)Fred Wrote: Do you feel that mind is wholly reducible to brain?
Yes.
There is no evidence for anything other than the brain being the whole story.
Near death experiences can be rather easily explained by chemicals in the brain.
You can fix ignorance, you can't fix stupid.
Tinkety Tonk and down with the Nazis.
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RE: The primary question of our time: Is Mind Brain?
September 4, 2011 at 1:08 pm
(This post was last modified: September 4, 2011 at 1:09 pm by The Grand Nudger.)
It also may be useful to point out that only those who survive "near-death" experiences recount the tale. Those who die, do not. No brain, no mind.
I am the Infantry. I am my country’s strength in war, her deterrent in peace. I am the heart of the fight… wherever, whenever. I carry America’s faith and honor against her enemies. I am the Queen of Battle. I am what my country expects me to be, the best trained Soldier in the world. In the race for victory, I am swift, determined, and courageous, armed with a fierce will to win. Never will I fail my country’s trust. Always I fight on…through the foe, to the objective, to triumph overall. If necessary, I will fight to my death. By my steadfast courage, I have won more than 200 years of freedom. I yield not to weakness, to hunger, to cowardice, to fatigue, to superior odds, For I am mentally tough, physically strong, and morally straight. I forsake not, my country, my mission, my comrades, my sacred duty. I am relentless. I am always there, now and forever. I AM THE INFANTRY! FOLLOW ME!
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RE: The primary question of our time: Is Mind Brain?
September 4, 2011 at 1:22 pm
What evidence is there to support the idea that the mind and brain are separate?
Even if the open windows of science at first make us shiver after the cozy indoor warmth of traditional humanizing myths, in the end the fresh air brings vigor, and the great spaces have a splendor of their own - Bertrand Russell
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RE: The primary question of our time: Is Mind Brain?
September 4, 2011 at 1:24 pm
Near death experiences may just be the mind coming to grips with the unusual messages sent by the body as it starts to shut down.
Or it could be chemicals flooding the brain (endorphins and such) that have a hallucagenic effect.
Se thats two better explanations than a non-physical entity that is in some undefinable way you leaving the body somehow, and I wasnt even trying.
You can fix ignorance, you can't fix stupid.
Tinkety Tonk and down with the Nazis.
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RE: The primary question of our time: Is Mind Brain?
September 4, 2011 at 1:32 pm
(September 4, 2011 at 12:50 pm)Fred Wrote: That's the big one for me, and I believe that the way it falls is going to determine more about how things shake out than any other.
If the materialists are correct, all notions of Divinity are down the tubes.
If the Consciousness folks are correct, materialism goes down the tubes.
I side with the latter camp, and my main kick against the materialists is that their a priori stance has severely impeded the study of consciousness as consciousness by maintaining it is simply an epi-phenomenon and tend to reject all evidence to the contrary out of hand, yet have absolutely no answer whatsoever as to why consciousness even exists.
Do you feel that mind is wholly reducible to brain?
Name the evidence and show how they unavoidably lead to something about the consciousness that is genuinely apart from the matter of the body and environs?
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RE: The primary question of our time: Is Mind Brain?
September 4, 2011 at 2:22 pm
As a former nurse student, who has had vocational training on a neurosurgical ward, I can safely say that yes, the mind is in fact the brain. People with e.g. hydrocephalus had almost always a change in mental activity as soon as they got the shunt they needed. People with head trauma were not the same when they left our ward after a week of care. Thus, when the brain matter is under stress, the psyche changes. It's as simple as that.
When I was young, there was a god with infinite power protecting me. Is there anyone else who felt that way? And was sure about it? but the first time I fell in love, I was thrown down - or maybe I broke free - and I bade farewell to God and became human. Now I don't have God's protection, and I walk on the ground without wings, but I don't regret this hardship. I want to live as a person. -Arina Tanemura
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RE: The primary question of our time: Is Mind Brain?
September 4, 2011 at 3:40 pm
The mind is merely the brain. It is a computer programmed for survival, and therefore sociability, reproduction, and all the 'helpers' that follow everything related to survivability. There is absolutely no ethereal mind.
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