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Any materialists have the support to debate 1:1?

Polymath257

Think & Care
Staff member
Premium Member
How do you know what people thought was light 2000 ago? The early Christian scriptures not only showed their views on what "light" was in reference to spirit, they had a much more knowledgeable view of it.

They explain the difference in darkness and light. Just because the orthodoxy the catholic ideology supports (Bible) doesn't mean the knowledge isn't there.

The "light" is the Chrism.

The chrism is superior to baptism, for it is from the word "Chrism" that we have been called "Christians," certainly not because of the word "baptism". And it is because of the chrism that "the Christ" has his name. For the Father anointed the Son, and the Son anointed the apostles, and the apostles anointed us. He who has been anointed possesses everything. He possesses the resurrection, the light, the cross, the Holy Spirit. The Father gave him this in the bridal chamber; he merely accepted (the gift). The Father was in the Son and the Son in the Father. This is the Kingdom of Heaven.- Gospel of Philip

The spirit within is the light. It is mind. Spiritual mind. It see's what those in darkness cannot. It has nothing to do with physical lumins.

Whether the view is more knowledgeable or not is a matter to be discussed. But they certainly viewed light as a spiritual thing. Now, the light of everyday existence was seen as 'contaminated' by the material world, but the light itself was seen as spiritual in essence.

As to how I know how people thought about light at that time period: I have read the philosophical discussions we have from that time and before. Light was not always understood as coming into the eyes from outside, for example. it was seen as non-material and thereby spiritual. It was even seen as divine.
 

Audie

Veteran Member
Actually, that was a copy and paste. But still brings a valid point. Maybe materialists don't know that they are materialists. The definition of the word is only seen by the individuals viewpoint, like God.

And maybe those few hypothetical persons
who have so little ability to think as to say
that material things are all that exist- if they even
exist, they are not here, and why talk about them?

Why notva thread on people who believe their cat
is a space alien? There reallt are people like that.
 

Audie

Veteran Member
I am a physicalist. The concept of 'matter' is one that breaks down at the subatomic level, but we can still acknowledge that electrons and quarks are physical. As are photons.

My specific position is that *everything* supervenes on the physical: once the physical situation is determined, everything else (ideas, emotions, etc) are determined.

Preemptively: math and logic are aspects of our language. They don't exist outside of minds, which are physically based.

I am pretty sure there is a great deal more to matn than that
 

1137

Here until I storm off again
Premium Member
1. Examples?

Physical vs Non-physical:

Spacial vs non spacial, public vs private, objective vs subjective, deterministic vs autonomous, accessible by the senses vs not, and many many more.

And matter is a certainty on which consciousness relies.

That's an unsubstantiated claim. We know our consciousness directly and everything else through it. That includes matter.

And no suggestion otherwise has any evidence.

Besides the things we are discussing...

Really? Proof?

Experience, argumentation like cosmological and teleological and Platonic arguments, scientific evidence like life fields, the Paleolithic Revolution, etc.

Math and logic are aspects of language, which is based on the ideas in our heads. Those ideas are physical processes.

Not at all. Mathematical ontology objectively exists, even if it's not assigned terms by an intelligent species with language.

But that's ok, people like @Audie will still pretend people like you who hold this position don't exist at all haha!

When we first figured out that planets orbit the sun, there was no known mechanism for gravity. That didn't negate the observations supporting those orbits. We have many observations showing how physical events affect and determine consciousness. That supports the premise that consciousness is determined by the physical situation. We don't need to know the specific mechanisms to be able to conclude that consciousness is a product of our physical brains. I agree, it would be nice. But it isn't necessary.

But you ignore that mental events also effect Consciousness. You ignore that you can't even do science or know matter except through consciousness. You expect me to accept you position despite only having one piece of evidence that doesn't even suggest materialism any more than Dualism or idealism. I know standards of evidence are technically subjective but... Have higher standards.

Except that for radio receivers we can actually detect the energy being received and know how to transmit it from a different source.

There is no evidence of energy loss from a brain, or energy transfer. So it is reasonable to assume that the brain is NOT a receiver, but the actual physical basis for the mind.

Unless, that is, you can present repeatable observations to the contrary?

So you damage the brain and consciosness gets staticy, same as a broken tv. Does that mean the channels cease to exist? You can disconnect it from consciosness with anesthetic like turning off a radio, does that mean the radio music ceases to exist? higher standards.

I am a physicalist. The concept of 'matter' is one that breaks down at the subatomic level, but we can still acknowledge that electrons and quarks are physical. As are photons.

My specific position is that *everything* supervenes on the physical: once the physical situation is determined, everything else (ideas, emotions, etc) are determined.

Preemptively: math and logic are aspects of our language. They don't exist outside of minds, which are physically based.

In all fairness, everyone should ignore those who believe logic is not objective. That's a terrifying stance.
 

1137

Here until I storm off again
Premium Member
And maybe those few hypothetical persons
who have so little ability to think as to say
that material things are all that exist- if they even
exist, they are not here, and why talk about them?

Why notva thread on people who believe their cat
is a space alien? There reallt are people like that.

You mean like the users SAYING EXACTLY THAT? Ugh, dishonest debators kill me
 

Polymath257

Think & Care
Staff member
Premium Member
I am pretty sure there is a great deal more to matn than that

Than being a language? Well, it is also a formal system with rules of deduction (which is how mathematicians do things). Sort of like a game with rules.
 

shunyadragon

shunyadragon
Premium Member
I propose that materialism is an unsupported, faith based position.

Propose if you like, but by definition materialism is not a faith based position. I am not a materialist, but it is better grounded in the objective verifiable evidence than ancient Theist beliefs based on ancient mythology, and scripture with limited to no provenance.

In defining faith in this context I consider it religious belief that is in part at minimum based on beliefs, such as the belief in God, that are not verifiable by objective verifiable evidence.
 

Polymath257

Think & Care
Staff member
Premium Member
Physical vs Non-physical:

Spacial vs non spacial, public vs private, objective vs subjective, deterministic vs autonomous, accessible by the senses vs not, and many many more.

That's an unsubstantiated claim. We know our consciousness directly and everything else through it. That includes matter.

Only if you start from a position of solipsism.

Besides the things we are discussing...

And simply because we discuss these, it is evidence?

Experience, argumentation like cosmological and teleological and Platonic arguments, scientific evidence like life fields, the Paleolithic Revolution, etc.

None of which prove the existence of deities or ghosts, as claimed.

Not at all. Mathematical ontology objectively exists, even if it's not assigned terms by an intelligent species with language.

I disagree. Math is an invented language that we use to order our thoughts. it is useful for building models which have predictive value. But the objects of mathematics do not exist independent of our thoughts about them. And I say this as a working mathematician.

But that's ok, people like @Audie will still pretend people like you who hold this position don't exist at all haha!

I guess it is possible to be wrong in more than one way.

But you ignore that mental events also effect Consciousness. You ignore that you can't even do science or know matter except through consciousness. You expect me to accept you position despite only having one piece of evidence that doesn't even suggest materialism any more than Dualism or idealism. I know standards of evidence are technically subjective but... Have higher standards.

OK, what evidence would support dualism or Idealism over materialism? We know matter exists. We know that our thoughts, emotions, etc, are greatly affected by the material aspects of our brains. We can point to specific places in the brain that mediate various mental activities (like language, planning, etc). This goes way beyond simply being a transmitter.

So you damage the brain and consciosness gets staticy, same as a broken tv. Does that mean the channels cease to exist? You can disconnect it from consciosness with anesthetic like turning off a radio, does that mean the radio music ceases to exist? higher standards.


And once again, there is energy coming into the radio, being thrown out from the transmitter, and it has consequences other than what we see in our radio receivers. In the case of consciousness, however, the only consequences are through our brains. That alone points to the brains being the significant factor and not something outside of them.

Unless, that is, you have evidence of energy coming in?

In all fairness, everyone should ignore those who believe logic is not objective. That's a terrifying stance.

Which logic? Aristotle's? Boyle's? propositional, prepositional, modal, three-valued? And why not quantum logic? The point is that there are many logical systems and which one, which language, is useful is to be determined by observation and testing. Some logical systems do away with the law of excluded middle. Some do away with using arguments from contradiction. Some require formal construction of every step. Some allow existence proofs without such construction.

Perhaps you should look into the variety of different sorts of 'logic' before you decide what is scary and what is not?
 

1137

Here until I storm off again
Premium Member
Only if you start from a position of solipsism.



And simply because we discuss these, it is evidence?



None of which prove the existence of deities or ghosts, as claimed.



I disagree. Math is an invented language that we use to order our thoughts. it is useful for building models which have predictive value. But the objects of mathematics do not exist independent of our thoughts about them. And I say this as a working mathematician.



I guess it is possible to be wrong in more than one way.



OK, what evidence would support dualism or Idealism over materialism? We know matter exists. We know that our thoughts, emotions, etc, are greatly affected by the material aspects of our brains. We can point to specific places in the brain that mediate various mental activities (like language, planning, etc). This goes way beyond simply being a transmitter.



And once again, there is energy coming into the radio, being thrown out from the transmitter, and it has consequences other than what we see in our radio receivers. In the case of consciousness, however, the only consequences are through our brains. That alone points to the brains being the significant factor and not something outside of them.

Unless, that is, you have evidence of energy coming in?



Which logic? Aristotle's? Boyle's? propositional, prepositional, modal, three-valued? And why not quantum logic? The point is that there are many logical systems and which one, which language, is useful is to be determined by observation and testing. Some logical systems do away with the law of excluded middle. Some do away with using arguments from contradiction. Some require formal construction of every step. Some allow existence proofs without such construction.

Perhaps you should look into the variety of different sorts of 'logic' before you decide what is scary and what is not?

Did you really delete my response? Fantastic. Still done with you.
 
Last edited:
1. Consciousness has non-physical properties.

Such as?

2. Consciousness is a certainty that all knowledge of matter relies on.

?

3. All the proposed evidence for materialism fails to actually suggest or support materialism.

Please explain.

4. There are already non-physical minds like deities and ghosts.

I have yet to see any credible evidence for the existence of any deity or ghost.

5. There are many nonphysical things like math and logic as well.

So? Computers can do math. Do computers have non-physical minds?

6. There is no proposed mechanism by which consciousness arises from matter.

If consciousness is the result of a physical brain than this statement is false.
 

qaz

Member
Experience, argumentation like cosmological and teleological and Platonic arguments, scientific evidence like life fields, the Paleolithic Revolution, etc
gKqNY.gif
 

shunyadragon

shunyadragon
Premium Member
Not sure here how you interpret the Paleolithic Revolution? as evidence of anything else other than the spread of humans out of Africa and rise of the early tribal structure of humanity most often attributed to climate change and the development of vast prairie environments and abundant food resources of herd animals and vegetable resources.

From: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/jqs.1041

The chronology of abrupt climate change and Late Upper Palaeolithic human adaptation in Europe

ABSTRACT: This paper addresses the possible connections between the onset of human expansion in Europe following the Last Glacial Maximum, and the timing of abrupt climate warming at the onset of the Lateglacial (Bo¨lling/Allerød) Interstadial. There are opposing views as to whether or not human populations and activities were directly ‘forced’ by climate change, based on different comparisons between archaeological and environmental data. We review the geochronological assumptions and approaches on which data comparisons have been attempted in the past, and argue that the uncertainties presently associated with age models based on calibrated radiocarbon dates preclude robust testing of the competing models, particularly when comparing the data to non-radiocarbonbased timescales such as the Greenland ice core records. The paper concludes with some suggestions as to the steps that will be necessary if more robust tests of the models are to be developed in the future. Copyright # 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

similar changes in climate in China, Asia Prairie region, and the Middle East resulted in wide spread Prairies and abundant food resources for the rapid development of Palaeolithic human cultures.
 

Audie

Veteran Member
Than being a language? Well, it is also a formal system with rules of deduction (which is how mathematicians do things). Sort of like a game with rules.

Calculus 1 was as far as I got, I am no mathmatician.

I did read this book-who knows if he is right. It fits with my
idea that math would exist whether or not there was a universe.
So of course that prejudiced my take on whether I thought
the book is interesting.

Book review: Our Mathematical Universe, by Max Tegmark
 

Polymath257

Think & Care
Staff member
Premium Member
Calculus 1 was as far as I got, I am no mathmatician.

I did read this book-who knows if he is right. It fits with my
idea that math would exist whether or not there was a universe.
So of course that prejudiced my take on whether I thought
the book is interesting.

Book review: Our Mathematical Universe, by Max Tegmark

And there are certainly Platonists in mathematics: those that think mathematical objects exist in some external sense and that mathematicians seek to learn the truth of such objects. I am more of a formalist in my philosophy. Math is done by assuming axioms and rules of deduction and seeing what those lead to. It is then useful as a language to organize our thoughts.
 

Audie

Veteran Member
And there are certainly Platonists in mathematics: those that think mathematical objects exist in some external sense and that mathematicians seek to learn the truth of such objects. I am more of a formalist in my philosophy. Math is done by assuming axioms and rules of deduction and seeing what those lead to. It is then useful as a language to organize our thoughts.

All that, sure.

I as a non mathmatician and thus as equipped as a creationist is to critique
genetics, geology etc, see it as a process of discovering what was always
there, eternal and unchanging.
 
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