Comments on: The Soul Seeker: A Neuroscientist’s Search for the Human Essence

By: bozh

bozh — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 01:04:59 +0000

If nature-god duet or oness did not thus far, or never will, give us some understandings of some events, then it perforce must be ok.
But we do know a lot. So, we can talk ab what we know. We know when we are hungry of angry. We know to wake up and fall asleep. We know when we are belittled, enserfed by others, etcetc.
We know how to grow good food. We know how to govern selves, if clerico-plutocratic ‘elite’ wld let us.
We know how to look out for one another to the degree that nature-god intended-allowed.
We know that it is best for us to be one for all and all for one. And we know how and why we shld passs onto children what we know and not what hobbes, descartes, nitzsche, kant, jesus, mohammed, moshe, hegel wrote and thought and other philsophers, who produce nothing of value.
All these people were smitten by s’mthing [?cult] and were not able to think properly.
We have survived and even trived by merely using our ears, nose, fingers to feel, tongue to taste, and eyes to see and thus, and only thus gather knowledge for survival-peace-nourishment-joy.

So i suggest, let’s stop hunting for snarks; just tell me what ur 5 senses sense.
Actually i only read a few sentences of what jensen or keye wrote. That sufficed for me to stop reading on.
Let them come dwn on earth first and stop complexifying simplicities or muddy the clear waters of knowledge.
And i am using the label knowledge as undefinable term. It just is! tnx

By: observing

observing — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 21:36:03 +0000

Sometimes it pays not to take ourselves (the human race) too seriously. My core belief is loosely based on a segment intro for the “Red Green Show”.
(For those who have never encountered this wryly wise little show,
http://www.redgreen.com/ )

Harold says, “Now we come to Expert portion of our show where we examine those three little words men find so hard to say, I DON’T KNOW.”

I substitute “mankind” for “men”, but those “three little words” can be used to defuse the most belligerent fundamentalist, of religious, philosophical OR scientific bent. We simply don’t know most of what makes ourselves, our world or our Universe, work. Period.

It is a amazingly freeing and humbling experience to truly look out at the world and the universe within and beyond it, and realize we do not “know” much.

But most important is to realize IT IS OK NOT TO KNOW. Particularly, the religious “answers” handed down to us become pale imitations of what our reality may consist of compared to the little we do “know”.

For example, gravity. Humans have no idea HOW gravity works. We can work out with high mathematical precision WHAT it does in certain conditions, but that does not explain the HOW. The closer we look as such primal phenomena, the more “answers” we discover, the more questions spring up to be resolved. Black holes and muons and quarks, oh my!

The foundations of consciousness and whether humans have souls (and other living things don’t) is in the same realm as gravity. The phenomena that leads to belief is absolutely present, but the HOW and the WHY escapes us.

As all of history shows, it is our nature to seek the answers, the true knowledge of ourselves and the Universe we are aware we inhabit. But it’s time to stop making up gods, metaphysical imaginings and such to fill in the spaces in our knowledge.

It’s OK to say “We don’t know” and just keep looking. Just try it, it’s fun… really!

By: lamella

lamella — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 18:54:51 +0000

Great read. Neuroscience needs more “outside the box” researchers like Dr. Eagleman.

By: bozh

bozh — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 18:08:26 +0000

If we wld only stop hunting or searching for love, understandings we wld be much better off.

Respecting all people equally is all we need to do. And we did that once, until possibly 10-15 k yrs ago.
By giving respect to all people equally, i mean to say that all people shld be fed according to their needs. All people shld have the right to obtain medical treatment and/or care.
All peole shld have roof of their heads and the right-opportunity to be tutored-guided by ALL people and not solely by chosen few; in order to render them incapacitated to think humanely.

Whether love or some emotion akin to that emerges from respect or simply granting people their inheritance, we need not worry.
Let’s do it and we will find out! Otherwise, we remain beastly to one another as intended by the chosen ‘teachers’. tnx