My “Donald Hoffman Playing Basketball in Zero-gravity” project is practically complete, with this, chapter 7.04. This was my last planned post in the series, but I’m realizing I really should add at least another one: “Religion, easy as pie.”
I can have some fun baking up the foundation for a “religion” myself.
Although, I’ll happily admit, it contains no divine authority, and the only salvation it offers is a healthier personal outlook on this Earth and the life we find ourselves within. Still, it’s a heck of cool story for the imagination, if I can manage to wrangle up the words well enough. Cheers
MAY 7, 2021 - https://confrontingsciencecontrarians.blogspot.comAs I’ve followed the philosophical roots of “dualism” back to Descartes (1600s) and Anselm (1000s), one thing is clear. The entire philosophical edifice of this Mind-Body “Problem” was formed from within a Christian God-fearing mindset and it continues to reflect their dubious metaphysical assumptions and unreal confabulations.
The Christian worldview is one that perceives people as isolated objects, not only from each other, but also from ourselves and the landscapes we exist within.
Regarding the “Mind-Body Problem.”
It’s a confabulation.
Dr. Solms makes a wonderful analogy that highlights the error being made:
… Question: Was it lightning or thunder that killed the man?
… It’s a meaningless question.
… Lightning and thunder are simply different aspects of the same phenomena.
The “Mind” is the interior reflection of the living “Body” (both its interior happenings and its external interaction with the environment). You simply cannot have one without the other.
We are embedded within an interconnected web of life and are the direct products of Earth’s Pageant of Evolution.
Why isn’t that reflected in modern philosophical discourse?
Learning to appreciate the deep-time pageant of Evolution puts an entirely different richer light upon our interior existence. An awareness that encompasses the whole of time and this planet that created us.
It also gives us a deep appreciation for the continuity of life. Life is good, life is precious, but death is no enemy, painful though it may be. Death is part of the cycle that brings forth new life. Revel in the pageant you are blessed enough to be witnessing. While you can.
As for God?
Who is “God,” but a creation of our unique complex human minds?
Where did God come from?
From human curiosity and wonder.
From puzzling over observations and contemplating questions.
From love and hunger and fears in the night.
From looking at the suddenly dead carcass of a loved one.
From missing those who are gone.
From buried memories of being coddled within mom’s loving protective bosom.
From our need for someone truly personal, who’s always there, never dying, ready to listen to your constant talk and wishes in complete confidence.
Think about it, our relationship with our God is the most intimate relationship of our lives and reflects our ego in every way.
All of it, happening within our mind, or more descriptively, within our Mindscape.
Point being, GOD is a product of our mind, same as love, art, politics, science - all of them originate within our mindscape, and not out there in the physical reality that created us.
Furthermore, our conception of God is driven by our Ego.
Nothing wrong with that, if only we could bring ourselves to explicitly recognize as much.
For some these realities are jarring and resented, but that doesn’t make it any less the reality we exist within.
The key insight for advancing philosophy past its historic body-mind, dualist impasse?
Appreciating the Human Mindscape ~ Physical Reality divide.
All sorts of fresh insights flow from that simple explicit recognition of our human condition.
