Search:

"It's very difficult to explain exactly, i do think the brain is the engine of the body." (Orphan)

The brain is certainly the engine of the body but what controls the engine?
The nervous systems...

The Ghost in the Machine is a famous book by Gilbert Ryle in which he attempted to dispose of belief in the mind as an independent entity. Yet if the mind is produced by the brain its activity must...

To say that mental states can be controlled by the brain in what ever way it is trained implies that there is a trainer :)

I'm intrigued by your last statement: "meant" usually means "intended". Should we interpret that literally? If so, there is at least one state of mind that is not controlled by the brain :)

All our knowledge must be based on beliefs because we cannot begin with knowledge (unless introspection yields direct knowledge). So our answers are speculative but, as in science, they can be...

You can edit, Jim. You have a choice of rating, editing or quoting :)

The Big Bang theory does not explain what produced the Big Bang nor does it explain consciousness. :confused:

There seem to be only two possibilities:

1. From "something" that has always existed.
2. From nothing.

I believe #2 is a grossly inadequate explanation. To derive everything from nothing is...

How about love? :)

You do not seem to understand that belief in a Supreme Being is monistic. If mind and matter are both created they must have something in common - their origin and their contingency. They are both...

I am not a dualist in the original sense of the term - that ultimate reality is composed of mind and matter. I am a monist, believing that both our minds and bodies owe their existence to a Supreme...

Not at all. One has either answered questions or failed to answer them...

I think the best starting point in your quest is to ask yourself what you regard as more important than anything else...

Since you have failed miserably to answer my questions and refute the points I have made it would be equally facile and evasive to describe your logic contorted, your terminology sloppy and your...

Your idea of freedom is that it consists of rearranging thoughts in a particular sequence. I hope I'm not misinterpreting you :) The question arises as to what it is that rearranges thoughts......

It may help you to understand my viewpoint if I point out that the present stage of the discussion is concerned with freedom and responsibility. Obviously many of our thoughts, feelings, states and...

QUOTE=Akoue;1673101]You have just committed yourself to the wildly implausible view that beliefs and desires are not causes of behavior.
[/QUOTE]

:eek: You are distorting my views by taking one...

The biochemical events in our brains are not the same. Every brain has a different history. The fact that people think differently does not mean they are free to choose what to think. Freedom implies...

You may find that you're more interesting but that doesn't mean that you're more interesting to others! Old people have more experience of life but they are often boring because they tend to talk too...

Mental events and states are not causes but effects and cannot be regarded as responsible for anything. Neither can the brain because it has no control-centre. If responsibility exists it must be...

I don't see how results can constitute freedom :) I interpret freedom as the power of self-control. How can the conscious self be the effect of biochemical events which lack consciousness?

Are you implying that there is no difference between the way animals and humans regard each other? That animals can distinguish between good and evil, right and wrong? That both we and they reason...

Human accountability is based on our ability to distinguish between good and evil, right and wrong, whereas animal accountability is the result of their genetic makeup and environmental conditioning....

Dead right :) We often behave like cows or sheep but we are the only beings on this planet who are morally responsible - at least sometimes - for what we choose. We are not bio- machines operating...

We wouldn't know that it is wrong but that doesn't mean it isn't wrong. It would simply mean we are ignorant :) There is progress in morality just as there is in science. The UN Declaration would...

Whether it is comforting or not has no bearing on whether the belief is true :)

To say we can strive to be just implies that we can sometimes succeed. Otherwise there would be no point in...

Your suggestion that"some critical mass of individuals will have to relax their attachment to the more extreme forms of individualism" seems to imply they can choose whether to do so. How can...

I agree with you but we also get what we don't deserve! Both good and evil come our way because there is an element of chance in what happens. As Pascal wrote:

If Cleopatra's nose had been...

Why do we have to justify our existence? We didn't ask to be born! :)

But we should be grateful for being alive. We didn't ask to be born but we're not forced to stay alive: we can choose to live...

Give us some of your ideas and we'll tell you what we think of them :)

Individuals, forces and events are either positive or negative, creative or destructive, good or evil. Creation originates in the Creator. Destruction results from conflict between finite objects and...

Not all Christians believe Christianity is the only acceptable religion. It sounds as if your version wasn't worth having :)

Firm belief in something for which there is no conclusive proof does not imply that faith is "rather blind, and irrational". There is no conclusive proof that our minds exist but it is not irrational...

If faith were believing without any evidence it would be quite irrational. What constitutes evidence is controversial but even controversial evidence is better than nothing at all. Just to embark on...

Hi excon

Sorry to be a wet blanket but:

If we deserve nothing we 're not entitled to complain about anything :p

Philosophizing about an issue does entail thinking about the many possible positions there might be but it also entails selecting the best explanation :) Belief in justice, for example, is...

I agree with you but is morality restricted to human beings? In other words, are we entitled to apply that standard to reality as a whole? For example, does it make sense to describe life and death...

These definitions do not deal with the question of what we deserve :) For example, life "belongs" to us and is taken away from us but is it relevant to what we deserve?

The death penalty meted out by human beings is controversial but the issue at stake here is what we done to deserve to live and what we have we done to deserve to die?
:)

A possible definition of justice is "getting what we deserve". But what do we deserve?
Do we deserve anything? We are thought to have a right to life but what have we done to deserve to live?...

We are liberated by Christ's love but we can still choose to reject his love or respond half-heartedly. When we die not many of us are saintly enough to go to heaven. We need to atone for our lack of...

I prefer to live so that when I die everyone I will be celebrating the gift of life. That doesn't mean we'll all be smiling. Even though death is not the end of our existence we still have to face...

A few months ago I really became addicted to chess, sometimes playing until 4 in the morning. I was determined to beat the computer but the longer I played the more I lost. This went on for several...

Poverty certainly causes unhappiness if we can't afford the basic necessities of life or enjoy any luxuries but excessive riches bring their own problems: spiritual, psychological, social, physical...

If there's no meaning to life everything is meaningless and valueless - including your statement :eek:

The basic human rights are to life and liberty. Since the use of narcotic drugs poses a potential threat to the life and liberty of both the users and other people their use should be strictly...

It's a fascinating fact but leaves the problem of what caused the Big Bang unsolved :)

Your experiences are not unusual. I often find I've been driving several miles automatically without knowing where I was. It's quite a shock to realize I wasn't aware of what I was doing but it has...

Obviously I don't know that existence is infinite because I believe its nature is beyond our comprehension. But our recognition of infinity as a mathematical concept may well correspond to the...

I agree with you that we have no idea why the constants are as they are. The fact there would be no one here to ask this question if they were different does not imply that the constants must always...