What's your opinion on Liberal Religion?

[Belacqua]

Science has done a good job of taking the piss out of mysticism.

Of the cases Kripal describes, which have been described through known scientific explanations?

How would a scientist go about demonstrating that mystical experiences described by, say, Plotinus, are of known natural origin?

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But again, if it does turn out that mind is always and only dependent on the existence of a physical brain, I am skeptical that this would bring any significant change to Christianity.

Just out of curiosity, how do you come to that conclusion? If you just mean that Christianity would be resistant to the implications, then I have no doubt, as it resists everything, but if you mean it would somehow be convincing evidence for theism, I personally can't see how (hence the question)... it certainly wouldn't convince me, and indeed would be the final nail in the coffin of any potential Christian belief in me.

Basically that is and always has been my own biggest question in all of this... if the mind is 100% dependent on the brain, or more specifically for me, if all conscious states are neurally represented in the brain... then all mental processes are therefore shown to be deterministic and/or quantum (however that applies if it does) but either way not compatible with the idea of a disembodied soul or free will. Being a hard determinist (hence my avatar) and a materialist it should be obvious that I strongly suspect that to be the case, but I don't know it to be the case... it remains an open question for me; ie if it turns out there's anything in consciousness that can't be explained by the brain, even theoretically... ie suggesting that consciousness is somehow above and beyond brain function rather than being a representation/mirror of it, as I believe it to be... then all bets would off at that point, and I'd have to rethink everything.

But to be clear, I don't expect to get the answer to those sorts of questions here... and it certainly wouldn't come from any claimed experience of people (ie NDEs, visions etc)... that's not what I'm talking about... that's content and reasonably explainable by appeal to brain states... what I'm talking about is mechanisms and theory, which can only be answered, for me, by psychology/neuroscience, and that's a long term question.

So yeah, that's where I stand on this, but just curious what you meant.

Is it your experience that most Christians base their religion on issues such as the mind/body problem? 

Or is it more of a sociological phenomenon, involving behavior, ethics, and goals?