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Science can not FULLY explain moods and feelings...

Druidus

Keeper of the Grove
I don't mean science can explain it now, I mean that given enough time, science could explain "everything". I'm also going to agree with Deut on the part of the origin of emotion.
 

Scuba Pete

Le plongeur avec attitude...
I mean that given enough time, science could explain "everything".
I think you and Deut have more faith in Science than many people have in God. Makes ya kinda go, "Hmmmnnn?"! :D
 

Ceridwen018

Well-Known Member
But, can science "explain moods and feelings"? Of course it can.
Really now? The origins as well? I have yet to see that.
Well, besides being able to document the different chemicals released in certain situations, and how those chemicals physically affect us (thereby causing emotions), science, specifically anthropology, can explain the origins and necessity for emotions. Displaying emotion is the oldest and simplest form of communication. In fact, it is widely used by other animals today. (Humans use it too, but not as often as animals with less sophisticated verbal languages, or none at all.) Animals help to warn each other by displaying fear, intimidate intruders by showing angry and agressive behavior, and even practice their own form of love by the endorphins that bond them to their young or mate, and the protectiveness that they then display. As you can see, the development of emotions is a critical part of survival.
 

kreeden

Virus of the Mind
Deut. 32.8 said:
Perhaps you could start here.
Deut. , that link is to a site selling books . ??? Which I'm sure you are aware of . :) But just because someone writes a book doesn't make it so . And adds aren't the best thing to base an arguement on , are they ?

Just wanted to say that I was a little disappoint when I got there . :(
 
Science can not FULLY explain moods and feelings...
You're right, it can't. Nor can science fully explain gravity. But that doesn't mean gravity doesn't have a scientific explanation - we just haven't figured out what it is yet. Ditto feelings.
 

Pah

Uber all member
NetDoc said:
So you have FAITH that science will deliver!
Nah there are some problems that may never be proven, - we may never reach the sophistication of measurement. And I don't have a problem with that. I do appreciate what has been proven and I like the "envelope" being pushed back.
 

Mercy Not Sacrifice

Well-Known Member
NetDoc said:
please prove me wrong! (I double dog dare you!)
Define "fully," and define "explain."

"Fully," 100%--no, never. We may get awfully close someday, but nature will always throw us a curveball that we can't grasp.

If by "explain," you mean how X neurotransmitter fires onto Y emotion...perhaps.
 

Ceridwen018

Well-Known Member
So you have FAITH that science will deliver!
Oy veh, I think you know you're hitting a nerve with this one. ;)

I also think you know the difference between blind faith in religion and faith based on probability for empirical science.
 

Scuba Pete

Le plongeur avec attitude...
Tap, tap, tap. <= Me hitting a nerve! :D

Of course I do. I love to show people when they commit the same sins they accuse others of committing. We would be PARALYSED if we did not use faith.

Have you noticed, that no one ever admits to having blind faith? Nope, they see "their faith" as reasoned, purposeful and insightful. Faith they don't understand however... that's blind. :D
 

Ceridwen018

Well-Known Member
Have you noticed, that no one ever admits to having blind faith? Nope, they see "their faith" as reasoned, purposeful and insightful. Faith they don't understand however... that's blind.
Agreed!
 

desi

Member
Prove you're right knucklehead. Science has shown how feelings are affected by neuropeptides, blood sugar levels, and drug use. Activity in the frontal cortex has been correlated to motivation and lack of that activity often seen after drug use correlates to lethargy. Drugs used to treat mental diseases act by manipulating the amount of different molecules which affect mood. In short science is deep into demystifying human emotion. The final coup de ta is neurolinguistic programming where words are used to set mood which is used to influence. Psychology and neuroanatomy are almost kissing cousins in their understandings, soon they will be more like siblings, after that there will be no distinction as research gets more and more targeted.
 
NetDoc said:
I love to show people when they commit the same sins they accuse others of committing.
Well NetDoc...I think faith that science may one day find an explanation for something is a bit different than, say, faith that leprechauns exist. The former implies a confidence based on evidence (science has, given time, found explanations for many past mysteries)...the latter is a belief held in spite of evidence (or rather, the lack thereof). The difference between the two is subtle, but significant.
 

michel

Administrator Emeritus
Staff member
I believe that science cannot fully explain........
moods and feelings? - intensity is one of the factors surely, have you yet seen a pain-ometer, a joymeter?

There is another factor - that of politics. There has recently been evidence (of a sort!) that mercury content in dental amalgam fillings can produce mercury toxicity - something that attacks the brain, and has such a plethora of symptoms . However, here in the U.K , the dental regulatory body refuses to accept the possibility. Why, a) because it is hard to diagnose, b) because it would cost the medical profession a fortune in litigation etc;:)
 

Jayhawker Soule

-- untitled --
Premium Member
NetDoc said:
I think you and Deut have more faith in Science than many people have in God. Makes ya kinda go, "Hmmmnnn?"! :D
No, it makes you "kinda go, 'Hmmmnnn?'". If by 'faith you mean unevidenced belief, I see very little need for it other than as an expedient/heuristic.

I do, however, have confidence in science. Why?

The known world expands, and the world of impenetrable mystery shrinks. With every expanse, something is explained which at an earlier point in history had been permanently consigned to supernatural mystery or metaphysical speculation. And the expansion of scientific knowledge has been and remains an epistemological threat to any claims which have been fashioned independently (or in defiance) of such knowledge. We are confronted with an asymptotic decrease in the existential possibility of the supernatural to the point at which it is wholly negligible.

-- Methodological Naturalism and Philosophical Naturalism by Doctor Barbara Forrest
 

Scuba Pete

Le plongeur avec attitude...
You know...

You treat "science" as an absolute. Science merely explains the physical. It ATTEMPTS to describe the absolute. To its credit it has come a long, long way. It has also had its stunning reversals. Lead into gold? Only four elements and one of them is fire? Indeed, it seems that the very ROOTS of science are buried in man's greed. We want; no we need to manipulate our environment. We use our science not to understand, but to invent "new stuff" which we must need since our garages and homes are filled with it.

But what man has really needed through the ages is peace, contentment, even happiness as it were.

We have tried to find this through science. "Better living through pharmacology" and so forth. Yet wars are still being waged by the most advanced civilization we have ever known. These wars AREN'T defensive in nature against a less advanced culture either. So, instead of using science for that peace, contentment and happiness, we have relegated it to furthering our hold on acquiring "more stuff".

But science isn't responsible for these wars and other atrocities. No the blame is firmly on man, and his desires. Consider those heinous acts that seem to be motivated by "religion". They are driven by naked greed and hatred. Even to the point of using our science against us.

James 4:1 What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don't they come from your desires that battle within you? 2 You want something but don't get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God. 3 When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.


And you are convinced that science will explain why we want more than we could ever possibly use? Why we can't control our insatiable desire for more stuff and more fulfillment. Why we smile when a baby coos? Why my cat purrs when she is content. Why is she even content? She doesn't seem to need all this "stuff"!!! Where does that satisfaction come when I do something right? Do think science will ever explain why I went ga-ga when I first met my wife? You seem to have more faith in Science than I do in God. Oh sure, they might get some chemical reactions and even be able to discern synapses. They might get the "how", but they come up empty with the "why".

As for "evidence"... you merely choose to ignore the spiritual side of life. Because you can not "see" it, you discard and even mock. To this end you claim that I have no evidence for my beliefs. And yet another day has come and has convinced me once more there is a God. I have evidence alright, and I mourn the fact that you can not discern it. It is not a blind faith either for I am surrounded by evidence most compelling. Each one of us has a spiritual side. We are either going to use it, or lose it. Your choice. I have made mine.
 

Pah

Uber all member
So, Doc, it comes to what divides us - what is at the core of our being. The question wasn't really about science and emotion.

I am human and, in varying degrees, have all the proclivities of human beings. I am evil, I am good. I soar with the majesty of art and fall with the depression of worthlessness. I love, I hate, I have aggression and I have peace. I take joy and sorrow as part of my human life. I experience the sectrum of emotions and capabilities innate to humanity in the extremes of the range each of those can have. I am human.

Do I need science to tell me why I am? No - because I am. I am a given and the product of all the "giants" that went before me. Do I need science to show my purpose? No - because I am and that is sufficient purpose. Do I owe a debt to science? No - because because it is humanity that makes me what I am and science was absent for much of that "making".

My continuence is a product of science - I live and cheat death because of science. My heart would have literally stopped years ago if it were not for science. But that, my dear friend, is the shell of what I am. What is inside the shell is the product of all my experience and long ago mutated genetics - the nuture and nature of humanity passed to another human.

I have been taught faith and alternatives to faith. I chose an alternative and it is probably no better nor worse than the one you chose. It is just a different core.
 
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