this post was submitted on 17 Dec 2024
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[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

You do know we can't measure consciousness either right? But we still know it happens, it's the only thing we can know for sure happens because we're all experiencing it right now.

We still don't know a lot about how the brain works, and again, it's pretty weird that this is universe that recycles everything except consciousness: Matter and energy cannot be destroyed, they only change form.

Ever look into NDEs? Weird stuff, they thought it was just oxygen deprived hallucinations, but then they keep finding very specific and powerful brain activity after the patient is declared dead that suggests something is going on in a big way. Something much bigger than neurons randomly firing in an attempt to reignite the brain, the brain's ignited like never before despite the fact that it should be dead. They also keep finding that Near Death Experiences are so damn universal that for the weird magic sounding stuff to be a hoax, then hundreds of thousands of people would have to have been in on it since the dawn of man.

Never assume that science knows everything. Not because "Religion has all the answers", but because science is not a religion, it's not a big book that you can just find answers in. It's an on-going process of questioning everything and then going "That's funny, that shouldn't be happening." right before learning about a new set of questions to ask.

It's actually really beautiful.

Update: Oh yeah Information can't be destroyed either, not even by a black hole... and you really think Conciousness is the one exemption?

[–] [email protected] 0 points 23 hours ago* (last edited 23 hours ago) (1 children)
Matter and energy cannot be destroyed, they only change form

Yes, and the energy in your body is not ever destroyed. Your consciousness is electrical and chemical energy running a biological computer (brain). That energy is NOT lost when you die. Your brain will rot and be broken down by bacteria and worms, they will get that energy and it will continue FOREVER. The data, your consciousness, does not survive this energy transfer.

I highly suggest you read Demon Haunted World by Carl Sagan. He really breaks down how much of this speculative stuff gets taken as fact without any proof, or even with proof to the contrary. It really is applicable today when people are rejecting reality in favor of religion, crystals, and energy healing. He uncovers the psychological processes that make this happen over and over in the course of human existence.

TLDR; It's all bullshit (he puts it way more respectfully)

[–] [email protected] 1 points 16 hours ago

It's time to stop the assumption that anyone who believes differently from you is an "unwashed ignorant fool."

I've actually read the book, did you miss the part where he actively encourages the reincarnation research of Ian Stevenson, and describes James Randi as an angry little man who is impossible to take seriously?

Sagan was a skeptic, but he, unlike many modern skeptics, meant that he should be skeptical of things stated as fact without evidence not that anything contradicting his world view was idiocy.