CONSCIOUSNESS IS SPIRITUAL?
After reading an interesting article on Neuroscience research, I realized that very educated intelligent people can come to conclusions which are totally unwarranted, simply out of a strong desire to draw conclusions, not because of what they learned through their research but because of their innate human drive to explain everything. An article in the Huffington Post showed an example of such a case.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bobby-azarian/post_10079_b_8160914.html
Titled “Neuroscience’s New Consciousness Theory is Spiritual”. The first part is great as the research confirms what other researches have found that consciousness is a brain function. The researcher then however, starts to speculate that the Integrated Information Theory (ITT) indicates that any large body with integrated information such as the worldwide net or even the universe (God?) could become conscious. Here is what, according to the Huffingpost’s journalist, the reply was to the question “So how do proponents of Integrated Information Theory attempt to explain subjective experience?” Christof Koch's answer: “Consciousness is a fundamental property of the universe. Wherever there is integrated information, there is experience. The theory takes its existence as a given and therefore doesn't have to explain the mechanism behind it. It's just a fact of nature that information has an inner side in addition to its bit-composed outer side”. Now wait a minute: “consciousness is a fundamental property of the universe”, “This theory takes its existence as a given” and “doesn’t have to explain the mechanism behind it”? “AS A GIVEN?” That is NOT a theory in the scientific sense. It is a belief of the researcher. He wants it to be true but nothing in his research warrants that even as a hypothesis. All his research proves is that consciousness is a function of the brain and using Occam’s Razor that would mean if the brain dies, awareness dies and so does “spirituality” (we can observe that by observing Alzheimer sufferers) thus the only logical conclusion would be that for the individual there is no conscious afterlife. No Heaven nor Hell. The rest of his “conclusions” are fantasy or wishful thinking,
Perhaps you are interested in the book (or as a Xmas gift) “Why You Won’t Go to Hell” available at Amazon.com or http://www.friesenpress.com/bookstore/title/119734000024050757
After reading an interesting article on Neuroscience research, I realized that very educated intelligent people can come to conclusions which are totally unwarranted, simply out of a strong desire to draw conclusions, not because of what they learned through their research but because of their innate human drive to explain everything. An article in the Huffington Post showed an example of such a case.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bobby-azarian/post_10079_b_8160914.html
Titled “Neuroscience’s New Consciousness Theory is Spiritual”. The first part is great as the research confirms what other researches have found that consciousness is a brain function. The researcher then however, starts to speculate that the Integrated Information Theory (ITT) indicates that any large body with integrated information such as the worldwide net or even the universe (God?) could become conscious. Here is what, according to the Huffingpost’s journalist, the reply was to the question “So how do proponents of Integrated Information Theory attempt to explain subjective experience?” Christof Koch's answer: “Consciousness is a fundamental property of the universe. Wherever there is integrated information, there is experience. The theory takes its existence as a given and therefore doesn't have to explain the mechanism behind it. It's just a fact of nature that information has an inner side in addition to its bit-composed outer side”. Now wait a minute: “consciousness is a fundamental property of the universe”, “This theory takes its existence as a given” and “doesn’t have to explain the mechanism behind it”? “AS A GIVEN?” That is NOT a theory in the scientific sense. It is a belief of the researcher. He wants it to be true but nothing in his research warrants that even as a hypothesis. All his research proves is that consciousness is a function of the brain and using Occam’s Razor that would mean if the brain dies, awareness dies and so does “spirituality” (we can observe that by observing Alzheimer sufferers) thus the only logical conclusion would be that for the individual there is no conscious afterlife. No Heaven nor Hell. The rest of his “conclusions” are fantasy or wishful thinking,
Perhaps you are interested in the book (or as a Xmas gift) “Why You Won’t Go to Hell” available at Amazon.com or http://www.friesenpress.com/bookstore/title/119734000024050757
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