A THEORY OF INTELLIGENCE Part Two (Identity)

by David Turell , Tuesday, May 08, 2018, 22:54 (2390 days ago) @ dhw

dhw: I would rewrite your statement as follows: Thought is always completely immaterial unless given material expression or implementation, and this can only be achieved when the s/s/c uses the brain networks. Do you agree?

DAVID: Yes. The s/s/c must use the brain to think during life.

dhw: You say yes, and then you repeat the formula I disagree with! The s/s/c uses the brain to give material expression/implementation to its thoughts.

DAVID: I will stick to my view. The s/s/c must think in life using the brain networks.

dhw: A subtle change, as we agree that the s/s/c thinks and uses the brain networks, which is quite different from it using the brain networks to think. This is becoming a game of words, but perhaps your next comment will be more productive.

Not a subtle change, but my view all along, repeated over and over.

dhw: Consciousness or intelligence is not material, whether you call it “pure quantum energy” or a “soul”. So do you agree that your God might have designed a mechanism whereby materials produce the conscious energy which dualists call “soul”?

DAVID: No, I think God gave us part of His consciousness added to a material brain.

dhw: This is the essence of theistic dualism. Would you then agree that without the addition of God’s consciousness, the material brain itself would be without consciousness?

As in apes.

dhw: And would you agree that thinking is impossible without consciousness?

Yes.

dhw: If so, and bearing in mind your belief that the piece of God’s consciousness still thinks/remembers/feels/ makes decisions etc. when the brain is dead, would you not agree that the FUNCTION of God’s consciousness in life is to conduct all the mental processes, and the FUNCTION of the material brain is to provide the information that is processed, and to give material expression/implementation to the thoughts of God’s consciousness?

The consciousness God gives us becomes our consciousness and uses our brain networks to think during life.

dhw: NB All these questions relate to David’s form of theistic dualism. My “theory of intelligence” presents a very different explanation, though still open to theistic interpretation.