I'm still alive! I was braindead for a while during the first two years of medical school, but now I've moved from the MD to the PhD and started thinking again. I feel so much better!
Just some quick sketches of thoughts. I've been listening to some lectures about philosophy of mind again. All of the terminology is vaguely familiar since I actually took a whole course on this in college, but since repressed the memory of it or something.
Anyway, one problem people have with the mind is that you can't explain it physically, and if you could, you couldn't explain the causality. But here's why I don't think it's a problem.
Imagine any question about the world around you, which most people say is pretty objective. Say, why do leaves change color in the fall (I may be off on the details since it's been a long time since I knew this).
A. because they are normally green due to green chlorphyll which is regulated by light, but with less light there's less green chlorophyll and the other pigmented chemicals dominate.
Q. Why does that make them change colors?
A. Because chlorophyll absorbs other wavelengths of light but not green, and other pigments have different light absorption profiles.
Q. Why do other pigments have different light absorption profiles?
A. Because they have different electron profiles, which can change energies and cause light absorption
Q. Why do they have different electron profiles?
A. Because they are made of different elements
Q. Why are they made of different elements?
A. Because their atoms have differently sized nuclei
Q. Why do their atoms have differently sized nuclei?
Now we are at a very basic level of physics/math which becomes very self referential. Why do falling objects follow mathematical equations? Because of calculus. Calculus=math, and it was invented using mathematical proofs. It's a loop at that level.
So ultimately, everything in the world, even normal questions about the physical world around us, are resolved in self-reference and some form of "that's just the way it is." All premises are inexplicable. At this point, I think there's no room for an argument against God. If nothing else can explain our essential universe, why not God? At this point you could ask, well what explains God? Though. However, it seems to me that there's not really any conflict between mind and brain and science and religion, because ultimately the answer to every rabbit hole is "just because," which makes causality rather irrelevant.
Just some quick sketches of thoughts. I've been listening to some lectures about philosophy of mind again. All of the terminology is vaguely familiar since I actually took a whole course on this in college, but since repressed the memory of it or something.
Anyway, one problem people have with the mind is that you can't explain it physically, and if you could, you couldn't explain the causality. But here's why I don't think it's a problem.
Imagine any question about the world around you, which most people say is pretty objective. Say, why do leaves change color in the fall (I may be off on the details since it's been a long time since I knew this).
A. because they are normally green due to green chlorphyll which is regulated by light, but with less light there's less green chlorophyll and the other pigmented chemicals dominate.
Q. Why does that make them change colors?
A. Because chlorophyll absorbs other wavelengths of light but not green, and other pigments have different light absorption profiles.
Q. Why do other pigments have different light absorption profiles?
A. Because they have different electron profiles, which can change energies and cause light absorption
Q. Why do they have different electron profiles?
A. Because they are made of different elements
Q. Why are they made of different elements?
A. Because their atoms have differently sized nuclei
Q. Why do their atoms have differently sized nuclei?
Now we are at a very basic level of physics/math which becomes very self referential. Why do falling objects follow mathematical equations? Because of calculus. Calculus=math, and it was invented using mathematical proofs. It's a loop at that level.
So ultimately, everything in the world, even normal questions about the physical world around us, are resolved in self-reference and some form of "that's just the way it is." All premises are inexplicable. At this point, I think there's no room for an argument against God. If nothing else can explain our essential universe, why not God? At this point you could ask, well what explains God? Though. However, it seems to me that there's not really any conflict between mind and brain and science and religion, because ultimately the answer to every rabbit hole is "just because," which makes causality rather irrelevant.
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