Atheism and Purpose

[Shell B]

No, they're leaps ahead of you on that.

You're insufferable. You realize that, right?

For instance, you don't seem to realize that an MRI tech can tell you the same thing.

Where in this conversation have we discussed what MRI techs are incapable of? Ah, so you're making a leap? Awesome.

What neither of them can tell you is whether or not an injured brain has stopped producing consciousness or has stopped being able to use consciousness.

Bullshit. When you cannot respond to outside stimuli, you are unconscious. Edit: I should elaborate. Consciousness (according to some definitions) is an alert cognitive state. You can't use that or not use it. You are either in it or not. So, if you are not alert, you do not have consciousness. Your brain doesn't produce it. It is a state of being that is controlled by your brain.

I fell once while ice climbing and was knocked unconscious. All I saw during that time was a green light.

That explains a shitload.

So, was I unconscious?

Uh, yeah, like, duh. You can dream when you are unconscious. I suppose you can see a green light as well.

When people die in the ICU they become like furniture. One time I talked to a dead person for about thirty seconds before I realized they were dead. Now, that's unconscious!

No, smarty-pants. That's dead!

An EEG for that person would've been flat, absolutely. But it still wouldn't answer the question as to what comes first: Does consciousness need a working brain to be obvious to the rest of us, or does consciousness arise from a working brain?

If your brain doesn't work, you lose consciousness. Although, a perfectly good brain loses consciousness once a day, hopefully. What about that don't you get? If consciousness is gone when your brain does whatever it is that neither of us understands, than consciousness comes from the brain. It is simple. You are basically asking the what came first the chicken or the egg question and then adding, but do you need the egg to make the chicken? To most people, the answer would be obvious.

Honestly, I don't think neurologists are even the people to answer this question; I think ultimately cosmologists will.

Okey-dokey.

Ah, I see. You're like a redneck atheist. You don't need no dang crackpot theories about consciousness! On MSNBC they got them there celebrity neurologists who say all I need to hear, by god...by matter.

And you're a self-important douchebag with delusions of grandeur. (See, I can name call too. Mine are better, though. ) I don't need crackpot theories because they are a waste of time. Deduce all you want from it. It's simply a matter of not bothering to read shit by people who waste their time trying to answer questions that they are not qualified to address. Then, there are people like you who do that and then put on airs. You strut around (so to speak) acting like you are an authority on the subject.

Did you just say NASA? Heehee. QED I think. Talk about dead physics. All the physics NASA needs has already been formulated.

Are you a physicist? Are you even any kind of scientist at all? Not the mommy says I'm smart kind, that is. No? Than you're spouting off again.

I know, I know, you think we're going to seed other planets with humans. The great atheist hope.

Did I say that? No? You should close off that spout.

Call this a prophecy if you like, but this is what I think: we are going to die out, and civilization will definitely die out, long before we are ever able to escape our solar system, and we can't live anywhere but earth. We could have gone to Mars 30 years ago. We already have that technology. But there's no point. There's no point in even going to the moon again.

You could be right, but I won't call it prophesy. If you're right about anything, I would call it blind luck. Well, you could be right about some of it, but having the technology to go to Mars? Are you talking about people landing on Mars?

Ah, but my life isn't meaningless. I'm a medical professional, and I care for people in the course of my job three days a week, and when I'm not doing that, I think I really have a new cosmology that I am working on.

Fuck me running, that's the scariest thing I have ever heard. I hope you are a pathological liar. I'm not being sarcastic, either. The thought that they let you care for people scares the shit out of me. It explains a lot about health care, though. Update: Checked your profile, psych nurse, eh. I don't know if that's a relief or even more frightening.

It keeps me constantly interested in higher mathematics and cutting edge research on consciousness--the next frontier. .

How 'bout you?

My life is wonderful, thank you.

Oh, and I might as well add (I mean when talking to a religious atheist fundamentalist, what difference could it make?): I believe God, my Father, has given it all to me.

He gave you the shit end of the stick, buddy.