“Rationalist” encyclopedia stumbles onto non-materialist neuroscience

_{Denyse O'Leary

August 29, 2007

Intelligent Design}

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Rationalwiki is an online encyclopedia struggling to be born. Judging from the copy I saw August 29, 2007 (which will probably change), it appears to be written by a group of people who see themselves as the guardians of reason, progress, and enlightenment, against “the anti-science movement” and “crank ideas”.

Nowadays, theirs is a pretty crowded field, in which hordes of half-educated and indifferently talented placeholders aim their resentment at anyone capable of questioning materialist dogmas.

Read more here (but NOT if you are drinking milk, okay?)

Comments

If u get bored, there is also this one: http://www.salvomag.com/new/ads/peti.htmlRobo_{August 30, 2007
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I expect you will enjoy this humor then: http://www.salvomag.com/new/ads/geobbels.htmlRobo_{August 30, 2007
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So proponents of nonmaterialist neuroscience are all members of the Religious Right? Somehow, I doubt that. A lot of the attacks on a purely materialist, reductionist view of the mind which sees it as purely identical to the brain seems to come from doctors and scientists who either come from the direction of the New Age, and so are liberal in political orientation, or simply don't advertise their political viewpoints. The quantum physicist, Dr. Fred Alan Wolf, who believes that the soul is a quantum phenomenon, is an example of a scientist approaching the problem from a New Age perspective. The British neurosurgeon, Dr. Peter Fenwick, whose work on the Near Death Experience convinced him of the reality of Cartesian Dualism, doesn't give any mention of which way he votes, nor of his religious views beyond a belief that the mind survives death. As for the right-wing nature of Cartesian Dualism, to my mind it's far more liberal than the alternative proposed by materialism: that consciousness does not exist, and humans have no free-will. Dr. Susan Blackmore of the University of the West of England here in Britain and the author of Introduction to Consciousness and Conversations on Consciousness takes that view. When I saw her speaking at the Cheltenham Festival of Science last year, she made it very plain that she didn't believe there was an 'I', tried to justify this by reference to Buddhist concepts of No-Self, and referred to the human organism as 'this machine'. Now this is profoundly dangerous. Christian doctrine insists that humans do indeed have free will, and that they aren't machines to be manipulated or discarded when they break down. Blackmore claims that recognising that she doesn't exist has given her a sense of freedom. Perhaps it has, but the price, it seems to me, is far too high. Free will means responsibility for one's actions. Now while that's certainly insisted upon by traditional right-wing Conservative parties, it's not exclusive to them. Sartre's existentialism is based on the terrible burden of free will. Removing this, and the notion of people as transcendent beings with an innate dignity, seems to me to lead inevitably to totalitarianism and a brutally utilitarian view of humans. It is materialism which is profoundly illiberal in this respect, not Cartesian Dualism.Beast Rabban_{August 30, 2007
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We are not actually an "encyclopedia" so wikipedia can keep that job. Thanks for the tip about "co-author" and a few other names to work with. Other than that I don't see much else to comment on. I guess the "science" will come out in your book?Trent_{August 30, 2007
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There's an even more "rational" online encyclopedia?! The fundamaterialist apologetic wikipedia (the original) isn't "rational" enough? It's like trading Syphilis for AIDS.UrbanMysticDee_{August 29, 2007
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So D.O., you are a "reactionary." Did you have to take special classes for that? Is there a club? Do you get a secret "reactionary decoder ring" with six box tops?BarryA_{August 29, 2007
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