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Neurosurgeon Provides Evidence Against Materialism
#32
RE: Neurosurgeon Provides Evidence Against Materialism
(June 14, 2019 at 10:41 pm)ColdComfort Wrote: The chicken dance may be a bit flippant. Nevertheless, because the decision always, or almost always, corresponds to the behavior there is a clear causal explanation. If you insist that the conscious decision is not the real cause you not only have to demonstrate that the brain not only causes the decision but somehow an unconscious process always, or almost always, corresponds to the decision and the behavior. The brain apparently would also have to produce the idea that doing the chicken dance would be fun or whatever the reason might be. 
Some clear casual explanation beyond the fact that our decisions influence our actions, though?  Decisions happen, they exist.  They exist whether there's one substance or two, whether that substance is material or immaterial.  

Quote:Say you hate your job. Really hate it. The only other job offer you can find pays 30% less. You sit down and work on your finances. If you have dependants you predict what the effect on them would be. All sort of predictions on how your life would change are taken into account. Eventually you make a decision based on your planning and balanced against the desire to get out of a job you hate. 
Sure, the human condition.  But what does that have to say about the grounding of being or substance?  I think you promised more out of this home experiment than it could ever possibly deliver.

Quote:You're Michelangelo and you have the idea in your head of a statue of David....

All these conscious experiences provide me with a perfectly rational, causal sequence for the behavior that ensues. The idea that the conscious experiences are just illusions, but also miraculously correspond to behavior really being caused by  process in the brain seems incredible. The only reason for this line of thought seems to be the dogma that something immaterial cannot effect something material.
Would it be fair to say that everything that preceded this complaint about some other viewpoint was more foreplay than thorough investigation?

Imagine a ghostly AST.......so, no, it has nothing to do with any commitment to the interaction problem (which is, ofc, a problem).
I am the Infantry. I am my country’s strength in war, her deterrent in peace. I am the heart of the fight… wherever, whenever. I carry America’s faith and honor against her enemies. I am the Queen of Battle. I am what my country expects me to be, the best trained Soldier in the world. In the race for victory, I am swift, determined, and courageous, armed with a fierce will to win. Never will I fail my country’s trust. Always I fight on…through the foe, to the objective, to triumph overall. If necessary, I will fight to my death. By my steadfast courage, I have won more than 200 years of freedom. I yield not to weakness, to hunger, to cowardice, to fatigue, to superior odds, For I am mentally tough, physically strong, and morally straight. I forsake not, my country, my mission, my comrades, my sacred duty. I am relentless. I am always there, now and forever. I AM THE INFANTRY! FOLLOW ME!
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RE: Neurosurgeon Provides Evidence Against Materialism - by The Grand Nudger - June 14, 2019 at 11:40 pm

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