Is everything material?
All living creatures are made of dead inorganic matter (like carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen) and water. So the brain creates an illusion that we are alive (Sam Harris). Is there really a spirt of some kind? We have emotions that make us feel spiritual, but there is no "soul". Vote "yes" if you believe there is nothing but material matter, and vote "no" if you believe there is something that exists beyond material, like a spirit or soul.
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There’s no option there for me to check.
All existence is spirit. There is no matter except as an illusion.
Sir Arthur Eddington:
“The universe is of the nature of a thought or sensation in a universal Mind... To put the conclusion crudely — the stuff of the world is mind-stuff.”
WilliamFleming
Level 8
Sep 22, 2019
1
Sorry, didn't think of that. Good point. reminds me of an adage, "The best activities in life are the ones that increase our awareness that we are alive."
Sam Harris explains that our brains play our lives before us (kinda like a movie on a screen), giving us the impression that we are alive. Perhaps this is because of some inherited gene or adaptation such as the mistical "mirror gene". Apparently mankind is the only animal that is aware that it is alive and has the ability to know that one day he/she/other will die. maybe that is why 1/2 the people on Earth believe that they were created special by a god and should have dominion over all the earth.
See [kurzweilai.net] if interested.
Grecio
Level 7
Sep 22, 2019
0
Which horse told you that?
@LenHazell53 Governing our brain is like a rider on an elephant. As long as we can guide it we're OK, but if that elephant wants to go somewhere else then we are powerless to stop it. Maybe criminals are just poor at controlling their brains. I dunno. Try closing your eyes and not thinking of anything for one minute. I can't do it.
@Grecio Having studied and practiced meditation since the age of 13 I can do that and for far longer than a minute.
Personally having read a number of his books I find Sam Harris to be a sensationalist and very derivative, the so called "Mirror Gene" you speak of is only an expansion on Lacan's Mirror stage theory, without the part where it can be applied to animals too, since both they and children can become self aware when a familiar figure appears in the mirror too, allowing them to deduce what a reflection is.
It has been proven many times that many species other than man are aware of their own existence and of mortality, orca's, dolphins, Bonobo chimps, elephants, dogs and cats for example, most prominently however in rats who have been proven not only to be sentient, but to have a sense of humour and be one of the few other species apart from ourselves who laugh.
@LenHazell53 Len, that is very enlightening. Thanks..Bye the way, how did they prove that the animals are aware that they will die at some point? Interesting.
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