(February 10, 2012 at 8:12 pm)Rhythm Wrote: I'm sorry, I was just referring to the brain as an organ, ergo biology. That's where our disconnect was. Can you establish that we program our own biological computers by the way? Seems to me that the world around us is doing the programming, giving us the inputs. What would an example of our own self programming be?
Any self-taught behavior would be an example.
The world giving us inputs does not mean that it is doing the programming. The programming part comes in as getting the data, processing it (through the self-taught programs) and then giving the output. I don't believe the idea that any external input that comes your way automatically becomes a part of your programming. You can pick and choose which parts to retain and which to not.
For example, my family is mostly theistic and for quite some time I was too. And the idea of a god was hard for me to let go of. I went through theism, to deism to pantheism to finally atheism. That wasn't something that was biologically ingrained in me - in fact, I'm biologically ingrained not to let go of a long-held belief easily. It wasn't socio-cultural conditioning, since a great amount of input I was getting was pro-theism. It wasn't peer-group or online communities, because I came about such groups only after confirming my atheism. It wasn't even a necessary consequence. I could have, like so many people in the world, compartmentalized my theism and my rational outlook in two different parts of my mind. Yet, I chose to examine my beliefs and discard any irrational ones. And I still continue to do so. That would be an expression of my free-will.
