10-16-2012, 08:16 PM
(10-16-2012, 07:30 PM)kandrathe Wrote: It is the latter, and our emotions that differentiate us from a hand held calculator.
The human brain is vastly more complex, and in most ways more powerful, than any computer ever designed. Who's to say that the difference is not in the complexity, rather than the emotions? You've never seen an artificial intelligence as complex as the human brain, and neither have I. This is a feel-good statement, not a statement of fact.
Quote:You are stating things without any supporting reference. I'd have to see a study documenting these claims. What is the "conversion" rate of the normal population, as opposed to just the "scientists". What do we mean by "conversion"? Who do we include in the "scientists"?
Agreed.
Quote: Anthropologically, you'd need to explain why disparate cultures have all gravitated toward embracing spirituality. It seems to be a human thing, not related to a specific idea that spread due to parental dominance and "brain washing".
This is the Texas Sharpshooter fallacy. We've labelled a whole series of disparate beliefs "spirituality," but they do not share any objective qualities. There is no inherent reason Buddha and Thor and Reiki and the Tao are part of the same phenomenon, except that we have post-hoc labelled them as such. Our modern category encompasses the set because we have built the category to do exactly that - it needs no further explanation.
Quote:If you've read them, then your opinion would be yours alone. If you survey enough people about the value of these books, then you'd have some data. If you haven't read them, then your talking from a nether orifice and your opinion is entirely bigoted.
Hunh? Is there any reason why a popular book is more true than an unpopular one? Does popularity have anything to do with truth? All you'd have is data on peoples' opinions, which has no traction on the truth at all.
Quote: There is power in faith, whether or not you believe it to be real or not.
Faith is real. The question is, whether the things you have faith in are. Crazy people can do things sane people cannot. That doesn't make crazy beliefs correct.
-Jester