Defending Pantheism

[Alan V]

But this doesn't mean that all functions of the brain can't be described by looking at individual subatomic particles and molecular forces. It simply isn't feasible to do so.

The reductionist says that if our understanding was detailed enough, we could explain everything by the interaction of subatomic particles and the laws of physics.

The emergetist says that will never be true, because some properties can only be explained at their own level of complexity. The whole is greater than the sum of the parts.

This is our basic disagreement. Reductionists talk as if material realities must necessarily be reductionistic. Emergentists like me disagree. In fact, I think emergentism is so obvious -- as in the example of disassembling the bird -- that I can barely comprehend the confidence of reductionists at all. Materialism doesn't have to be reductionistic, and there is good evidence that it isn't.