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

by dhw, Thursday, January 14, 2021, 09:27 (1198 days ago) @ David Turell

DAVID: You have agreed that we will always have the same disagreement.

dhw: And the disagreement is not over the design theory but over your interpretation of God’s purpose and method of achieving that purpose, which leaves you with no idea how to explain the combination. And I will not raise the subject again so long as you do not force me to do so!

DAVID: I can easily explain the combination by telling you it is God's choice of methodology, and He never tells me why.

In the immortal words of John McEnroe: “You can’t be serious!” You can easily explain the logic of your belief by the fact that you have no idea why your God would have chosen the illogical combination of premises you impose on him, but that’s his fault for not telling you. You're kidding, right?

DAVID: And the appearance/emergence of consciousness with self-awareness creates a dualism: the material brain and the conscious self. Materialism seems to invent a living driver to drive the material car. No material brain can think without first producing immaterial consciousness. So there is no escape from some form and interpretation of dualism.

dhw: Correct. And when you say no material brain can think without first PRODUCING consciousness, there is no escape from some form and interpretation of materialism. You have understood the compromise.

DAVID: I don't view it so much as a compromise than a recognition of the reality of how material brains have to be part of the process.

Since you claim to be a dualist who believes in two separate entities (mind/soul and brain/body), I would have thought your recognition of the materialist’s belief that consciousness - the very essence of mind/soul - is an emergent product of the brain represented a compromise. But it really doesn’t matter. My point is that the dichotomy between dualism and materialism disappears once we accept that the material produces the immaterial, the product is as real as its material source, and we have no idea how the process works or what happens to the product when its source is dead. Nor do we know how the material source first came into being.