“Extraordinary evidence for the extraordinary claim, obviously.” – Welsh
I agree. That certainly applies the specific claims of most religions, including my own. But what all religions have in common is a belief in forms of reality other than the one governed by the laws of physics. I do not believe this general claim is particularly extraordinary based on the examples I provided.
“Your view of scientific method is... incomplete.” – Welsh
I subscribe to the philosophy of science promoted by Karl Popper. My understanding is that a scientific hypothesis is one that can be falsified by empirical observation. I maintain that a general epistemology includes other ways of knowing besides scientific inquiry. This includes but is not limited to mathematics and subjective experience.
Mathematics, as I have stated above, is a form of human knowledge independent of empirical verification. It could be a convenient fiction, but then what is it a fiction of. There must be ultimate and inviolate rules from which proximate rules derive. Presumably, mathematics was true before matter and energy came into being. The possibility of deity can only be considered if we believe in some kind of underlying order that informs the particular order in which we find ourselves.
The reason I raise questions about the self-awareness of other people and machine consciousness is this. Subjective experience provides at least one example of something most people consider real that cannot be objectively observed or subject to empirical falsification.
I agree. That certainly applies the specific claims of most religions, including my own. But what all religions have in common is a belief in forms of reality other than the one governed by the laws of physics. I do not believe this general claim is particularly extraordinary based on the examples I provided.
“Your view of scientific method is... incomplete.” – Welsh
I subscribe to the philosophy of science promoted by Karl Popper. My understanding is that a scientific hypothesis is one that can be falsified by empirical observation. I maintain that a general epistemology includes other ways of knowing besides scientific inquiry. This includes but is not limited to mathematics and subjective experience.
Mathematics, as I have stated above, is a form of human knowledge independent of empirical verification. It could be a convenient fiction, but then what is it a fiction of. There must be ultimate and inviolate rules from which proximate rules derive. Presumably, mathematics was true before matter and energy came into being. The possibility of deity can only be considered if we believe in some kind of underlying order that informs the particular order in which we find ourselves.
The reason I raise questions about the self-awareness of other people and machine consciousness is this. Subjective experience provides at least one example of something most people consider real that cannot be objectively observed or subject to empirical falsification.
