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The thought determinism paradox, continued

Denyse O'Leary
January 25, 2021
Intelligent Design, Mind, Neuroscience
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Brain electrochemistry data does not describe actual thoughts; it certainly can’t trace thoughts to origins outside of the brain itself:

Yet thought determinism says that every aspect of the pretty lady’s perceptions and thoughts in the infinite mirror results from cause-effect physics that can be traced to yesterday, last week, last year, and ultimately to the Big Bang. Such a causal chain, however, has never been shown to exist.

Richard W. Stevens, “The Infinity Mirror Trap: Part 2: The Thought Determinism Paradox” at Mind Matters News

Here’s the first part: Why the idea that the human mind is an illusion doesn’t work. There is a simple way to test whether our thoughts are all illusions. A fatal paradox, the infinity mirror, shows that they can’t just be illusions. What causes these experiences?

Comments
Seversky: No physical brain – no consciousness, no thoughts. You can't even describe the difference between red and blue, and yet you claim to have a full account of the relationship of the brain with consciousness? Hahaha.mike1962
January 26, 2021
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Semi-materialists (people that believe there is both a material world and a non-material world) have an even bigger problem: the domain translation gap between the physical world the non-material, or mental world. The material world does not have the commodity of "experience" to provide a mind. Experiences are not found in the chemicals of the brain or the bio-electric energy. You can't bust open a brain and see the "yellow" or the music the subject is experiencing anywhere in there. Matter cannot provide what it does not have to give: personal mental experience. One might argue that the material components are somehow translated into non-material experience; how does that work? Unless there is a material receiver in mind that can interact with the material chemical coding, how does mind interface with the material elements to produce a mental experience? Enter quantum physics; mind is not interacting with a material world at all. It is interacting with mental information. There is no "domain translation gap" because everything is mental in nature. Thus, Mental Reality Theory wins. Materialism and semi-materialism fail miserably.William J Murray
January 26, 2021
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Seversky said: No physical brain – no consciousness, no thoughts. Physical brain but no electrical activity – no consciousness, no thoughts. What would you infer from those observations? If you ignore the many cases of people born without a brain, or born without 90% of a brain, who live normal lives, and you ignore NDEs that occur with no brain activity being recorded, then okay.William J Murray
January 26, 2021
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No physical brain - no consciousness, no thoughts. Physical brain but no electrical activity - no consciousness, no thoughts. What would you infer from those observations?Seversky
January 26, 2021
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True, Mike. But the atheist/materialist will simply yawn, shrug her shoulders and proclaim that time is on her side (time is evolution's best friend, you know). All such scientific "gaps" in knowledge will be discovered in the future. Such is the thinking of committed atheists/materialists. They have tremendous FAITH in their atheistic/materialist worldview.Truth Will Set You Free
January 26, 2021
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If brain chemistry was responsible for consciousness we would be able to describe the conscious difference between red and blue in chemical terms. Or neurological terms. Or neuro-network terms. Nobody can do that. It doesn't make sense.mike1962
January 25, 2021
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