Free Will: Egnor shows neurological proof - PART ONE (Introduction)

by David Turell , Sunday, December 27, 2020, 15:09 (1427 days ago) @ dhw
edited by David Turell, Sunday, December 27, 2020, 15:23

DAVID: Let's try to have you understand my view: I am my soul living essence. I am myself, and I reach them in my mind. Therefore the only way a thought can appear is if I think. I can only do that by using my brain and activating its networks. My brain cannot make thoughts on its own. My soul living essence has to use eth brain as its tool to create any thought. Non-functioning brain, no thought possible during life. Changed brain function by chemicals, by brain damage, or by lacking proper functioning circuits for the development of a conscience will all result in improper thought development. Summary: The brain is my tool to create thought. My sick brain will result in me having sick thoughts that I do not want to have, but I won't realize it in severe cases of sick brain (psychopath)

dhw: You keep using the pronoun “I”, which for the dualist consists of mind/soul and body/brain. By yet again glossing over the different functions of soul and brain, you manage to state obvious truths which will apply just as aptly to the materialist interpretation as to the dualist! Of course the only way a thought can appear is if you think! Of course the dualist’s soul uses the brain – to gather information and to give material expression to its thoughts –

This is the point where I question your fixed repeated statement in bold. Tell me how the soul uses the brain to create thought. What is the exact mechanism? I've told you my view. The soul must use the brain networks as its formative tool.

dhw: just as the thinking area of the materialist’s brain uses its information-gathering compartments and its compartments for material expression. “Non-functioning brain, no thought possible” is the whole basis of the materialist’s case. And of course the sick brain will result in sick thoughts – also implying that the brain is the source of thought.

Of course the brain is the terminal material source of thought as driven by a soul employing the circuits to create the thought. Without the circuits in functional action the soul cannot think. Immaterial living soul, living material brain working together

dhw: There is nothing in the above that supports the case for a soul! And this is epitomized by two of your statements: the “soul” receives “incorrect analytic thought” from the brain, and the psychopath’s brain is unable to form a correct judgement. There is no role for the soul if the brain does the analyzing and the judging!

Remember I am my soul. My brain does nothing unless unless I use it to think. A brain cannot think by itself.

dhw: So long as you continue to insist that the sick brain provides incorrect analyses and judgements, you are supporting materialism and determinism.

DAVID: There is nothing in my above discussion to support that conclusion. No one can think normally with a sick brain, one not functioning normally. The brain is our tool for thought. Broke tool, broke thought. I don't know why you are so confused. It must be previous wrong impressions you can't shake.

dhw: The statement that no one can think normally with a sick brain summarizes the case for materialism. The “broke” brain or thinking mechanism – whether psychopathic, epileptic, drugged or drunk – cannot think properly. I don’t know why you are so confused. It must be because you cannot shake your belief that the soul exists. You may be right. Psychic experiences support your belief. But diseased brains don’t.

Yes diseased brains do support my theory. They don't allow the soul (me) to think properly. I view myself as my soul. I am a living essence. My immaterial mind is the only driver of thought in my brain. Immaterial mind (soul) and material brain as its tool. PURE DUALISM. A broken tool does not work properly. I am the furthest from a materialist as one can find. You keep distorting what I describe. A brain in a vat is thoughtless. A living unconscious brain is not able to allow thought to be formed. A conscious soul must be active for thought to appear and as that soul enters the brain networks and forms thought using them. Nothing could be clearer. We all recognize we do not know how an immaterial consciousness drives a material brain but it does. Only I can form my thoughts using my immaterial consciousness to drive my material brain. Only dualism applies. My immaterial consciousness is my soul. It uses my living brain to think and after death it can form immaterial thought on its own.