A Sense of Free Will: the consciousness quagmire (Introduction)

by dhw, Sunday, November 15, 2015, 13:45 (3296 days ago) @ David Turell

DAVID: When I was agnostic I still accepted the immateriality of thought and consciousness without all this worry about religious implications. In my 'conversion' I never looked at or used religious precepts. You are still comparing yourself to religious thought from your childhood.-The problem is not the immateriality of thought and consciousness but, once again, the SOURCE of thought and consciousness. If it is not material, and if NDEs are what the patients think they are, there is a whole “spiritual” world beyond that of materials. Religion is not only about precepts: its basic premise is the existence of a god or gods, and so the existence of an immaterial mind is absolutely central to your belief in a God of “tough love” who started evolution - though you sometimes seem to be wavering towards creationism - in order to produce humans (who are different “in kind”). However, these questions are not a “worry” for me. On the contrary, I find them fascinating and stimulating. (See also "Different in degree...")