Rick, for me, as I said in an earlier post, and I'm still not sure what you think on this point, but I'd like to know genuinely, there just HAS to be a freestanding, objective, universal (as in astronomical universe), mathematical, physical (as in physics), chemical, biological, and any other term along those lines, REALITY. Otherwise, how can we, as you've said, use our senses to access it and then process it, as you've said, into OUR OWN REALITY each as an individual? Because I think we do individually have our own reality, but don't you think there is, "out there", an actual reality? I don't mean that as adversarial at all. We have to "get" the data we process somewhere, though it can be imperfect and affected by injuries, disease, etc.
But that leads me, to, yes, as I said, God, who created this reality. And this isn't far out: philosophers, scientists, and theologians from when our history began (and before, most likely) have postulated and argued for the existence of God. I've recommended books on this forum by Ian McGrath and John Polkinghorne, who are first rate scientists and who write of the confluence of science and religion. I don't pretend to know how He created it, but He (and I'm going to capitalize the word, though I don't presume to know gender!) is still actively involved in His creation, and I know I'm getting perilously close to the ridicule line, so I'll back off at this point, except to say,
that this above leads to a system of ethics and morality (and I don't mean about gay marriage, and all the right wing social stuff). I mean an accounting in that very real and separate reality (of which we can only glimpse at this point) for ethics, for "keeping track". I believe in free will, and it's true that injuries, disease, social circumstances, etc. lead to the evident conclusion that for people with those afflictions, well, how can it be said they have free will? What kind of god would do that to them? I have my own answer for that, but won't get into it. And by accounting I don't mean hell as popularly portrayed. But what kind of universe would we be living in if we just create our own view based only on our own senses? I don't believe that you can have morality without God, and whole debates have been staged on that premise alone. It's not just me talking away.
We are not automatons marching to the tune of just our biological processes, but are we biological? Yes, and it's a truly beautiful thing. Many scientists think we humans may be the only intelligent life in the universe, and we are very unique and special at the very least. I don't discount our physical selves at all. And the soul? I do put credence in some of the things in the articles Steve and I linked to in this thread about the existence of the soul.
But, then, if not soul, I'm going to repeat what I said earlier: let's call it mind. I believe that the actual idea, thought, concept that our brains somehow hold onto after generation by the neurochemistry is at that point chronologically and yes, spatially, SEPARATE from the brain. Am I going out on a limb? Absolutely, but I believe in that ephemeral, separately existing, thought/concept that exists freestanding: our mind.
Now, I could say, well, no, Kim, that wispy but very real thought is just like another window you open in your computer and it itself is running on some other level on a biological-only level of firing neurons, but it just seems to get more and more circular. But that alone speaks to a sophistication of our brains that makes it all the more wonderful, and why I don't think (like I think you don't, either) that we'll be able to truly reverse engineer or emulate the brain. The brain is biological and so sophisticated that to me the only thing that can make another brain is when the embryo in the mother's womb nourishes that genetic process. THAT indeed makes another brain.
Anyway, enough. I know that empirically I can't prove much of this, but at some point I have to make some decisions about what I think about the world and the cosmos, and I can't envision it without, yes, God. And we have the ability to use science and our brains to heal ourselves, as best we can, and you bet I go to the doctor, but in the end any injuries, diseases, misfortunes, cruelty at the hands of others, social circumstances, all that we as humans also partly create ourselves, will be explained in the end. We don't live in some cruel zoo, though it may seem like that at times, but at the same time, we are lost indeed if there is no actual state of, no genuine and objective, reality to search for using science, theology, history, and philosophy. Now THAT would be a cruel state indeed, if we are just, well what, existing in a void where there is no hope at all that we're anything but some chance happenstance who will never be able to see what reality is, really, out there. Kim
Seriously I don't misunderstand you. I just disagree with you.
