The possibilities of physicalism (1 of 4)

Our consciousness has an entirely physical basis. This has certain unpleasant consequences, but it also holds the promise of incredible opportunities for transforming our very existence. http://emptv.com/

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[toweringQ2FL400]

The appendix. Another dysteleological organ responsible for uncountable numbers of fairly miserable deaths by septicemia.

Wisdom teeth. Unnecessary and usually troublesome, until modern dentistry they often meant a lifetime of discomfort.

Intelligently designed by a caring, loving god?

[toweringQ2FL400]

The tailbone. We have the genes to grow a tail but these genes are inhibited. Once in awhile this gene is not inhibited and a child is born with a tail. I leave it to your imagination what would have happened before the enlightenment.

Body Hair. We all have everything we need to be covered head to foot in hair. See hypertrichosis. Imagine being born this way in a different day, or a different place.

[Andrew4Handel]

Physicalism about the mind breaks the law of identity. Neurons firing and trillions of neurons are not the same as thoughts. You couldn't explain the link causally or in a law like fashion of emergence.

[Andrew4Handel]

The evidence of non physical things consists in dreams, logic, thoughts and experience which are only accessible to the subjective conscious self..

You make the assumption these are purely physical and I am only at 1.11.

Another issue that I am concerned you won't cover is in defining the physical which I think is impossible. usually definitions of material and physical are tautologous.

[magicalhearingman]

@toweringQ2FL400 Ignorance at its finest

[toweringQ2FL400]

@magicalhearingman Are the teeth proof? No, but yet another question that must be answered before any claim for a omnipotent omniscient masculine bearded caucasian anthropomorphic unconditionally loving Christian God's existence can be concidered, to whit: how could an omnipotent omniscient masculine bearded caucasian anthropomorphic unconditionally loving Christian God be so breathtakingly incompetent at bioengineering? Then we could move on to communication skills, or absence thereof.

[magicalhearingman]

@toweringQ2FL400 Are you honestly trying to say that wisdom teeth is supporting evidence for physicalism, because it proves that there is no omnipotent omniscient masculine bearded caucasian anthropomorphic unconditionally loving Christian God? What has the world come to

[AnduinX]

Also, John Lorber's work was posted in a leading medical journal in 1980, which was centered around hydrocephalus. In severe hydrocephalus, some patients are left with a small fraction of the brain mass of a normal person ( <5% ), with seemingly no mental deficits - some are in fact highly intelligent, as was the case of a mathematics student with "virtually no brain".

[AnduinX]

It's rare for people with brain damage to have clear thought as they approach death. Most people with severe brain damage never emerge from their dementia, but that it happens at all is a serious problem for materialism, I think. Why would people suddenly regain their sanity, cognitive abilities, and memory despite the fact that the brain damage supposedly responsible for their affliction is still very much there? There is no good materialist answer to this.

[AnduinX]

There's also a great deal of medical mystery that points to mind/brain separation. For example, those with severe brain damage (some with virtually no brain) often can't even remember the names and faces of family members, hold a conversation, or do much of anything - yet as they near death, some of these people enter a lucid state of clear thought where they are able to remember clearly and hold a conversation. The phenomenon is called 'Terminal Lucidity'.

[AnduinX]

people who hold that there is no evidence of the non-physical must not have looked very hard. Currently, there is an article that was just published in a leading psychology journal (Journal of Personality and Social Psychology) affirming ESP. The societies for psychical research have been publishing peer reviewed papers in journals for decades.

[AnduinX]

Quantum physicists often work with theoretical particles and dimensions that we have no direct evidence of (such as the Higgs Boson). These are theoretical constructs proposed to make our models of physics work.  By the same token, I would not say that there is no evidence for the non-physical. While the non-physical might not be directly observed, we could still postulate the existence of the non-physical by the effect the non-physical has on what we can observe.