Problems with this section (Agnosticism)

by Frank Paris , Thursday, October 29, 2009, 22:54 (5503 days ago) @ dhw

"This may explain why you're so anxious to play down what I see as the difficulties."-Frankly, I don't feel the slightest anxiety about this. Sorry to have misled you.-"you attach great importance to mystical experiences, which are not normally associated with the physical world."-But of course they are associated with the physical world! Mystical experiences arise out of the physical possibilities of the organization of our brain matter. But as I've tried to point out, that just shows how infinitely magnificent the potentialities of matter are. I don't seem to be getting this point across to you. All the "spiritual" is is the highest flights of the physical. And why be surprised by any of that, since the physical is grounded in divinity at its bottom?-"Materialists believe that human consciousness arises from the cerebral cortex."-As do I. I freely own up to being a materialist. It's just that I recognize the "spiritual" possibilities of materialism. I think Alan Watts had the same insight.-"My question is therefore a serious one: if the world is exclusively physical, what is the physical source of God's infinite consciousness?"-The entire physical world rests on God as the ground of its being. You're putting the cart before the horse in asking that question. The ground of the world is God, and so it is not surprising that highly conscious, physical organisms can peer down into themselves and experience mystical union with God.-"Science cannot refute what it cannot test, and it cannot test the existence of God any more than it can test my other-universe fantasies."-You won't get any argument from me there. Do you think I said anything that implied that? I thought I've been making it clear that my religious beliefs are just theories, rationalizations that try to be consistent with canonical, modern scientific findings and my own internal experiences.