(February 3, 2015 at 9:27 am)FreeTony Wrote: I don't think it matters if you want to label the universe as either material, or consciousness. A bit like trying to label an electron as a particle or wave or field. It is none of these things, but by modelling it as such we can better predict how it will act.I already explained in the OP why it matters.
We observe the universe, and can see that it follows certain laws, and we mostly agree on these laws. You can say there is no material and only consciousness, but these laws still apply.
It doesn't mean that you can then invent things that don't follow these rules.
(February 2, 2015 at 3:11 am)Rational AKD Wrote: materialism implies determinism (we have no free will), atheism, and the absence of an afterlife. idealism implies libertarian free will, theism, and the possibility if not probability of an afterlife.
I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with senses, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use and by some other means to give us knowledge which we can attain by them.
-Galileo
-Galileo