RE: Do You Believe in Science? 🔭

Great post on topics I have been reading here and replying to, lately.

Scientific Method

science is the best tool we have for testing claims we make about reality

I agree. Science is a method that uses collected data to give weight to a hypothesis, which could become a tentative conclusion. If data comes in that contradicts, then we update the conclusion.

Science works pretty well. We're chatting on a system engineered on conclusions based on science. We probably use such science based engineering hundreds of times a day. We know how a lot of things work, and we're learning more all the time.

Agency Detection

innate, pre science instinct to attribute awareness to the world

This reminds me of Agency Detection. A quote from there:

the inclination for animals, including humans, to presume the purposeful intervention of a sentient or intelligent agent in situations that may or may not involve one.

It feels to us like there are agents out there doing things. It's good that living things tend to think this, as it makes them hyper wary of the other agents out there that definitely do exist and want to eat them! Run away from a possible agent and live to reproduce. Ignore and be lunch.

Define Consciousness

It's like the problem of consciousness - we don't really have a solid, scientific explanation for subjective experience, not just about how we process, but how we feel it. If we can't answer that precisely, how can we say where it stops - animals? insects? rocks?

In my opinion, consciousness is a process the brain does, like digestion is a process the digestive system does. It's just one part of the brain being aware of what other parts are doing. I'd even expand it to knowing what your digestive system is doing via the vagus nerve. So animals with smaller brains, or in some cases cells without brains might be thought to have some degree of consciousness if one system in them gets inputs from others. I don't see rocks as having consciousness as there are no signals traveling between its parts, if it even can be said to have any different parts.

Just my opinions. I am not married to my opinions. If I get more data, I am happy to update my opinions. Everyone is entitled to have their own opinions. I'm all for that!

Respect Other Opinions

Respecting persons with different opinions is very important, as long as those opinions aren't being forced on me or others. I'm not for forcing others to think a certain way. I was looking up Cinco de Mayo 2 days ago and found it had something to do with a war related to how much the Catholic Church should be politically involved in State matters in Mexico. I'm not for State religions, and I'm not for forcibly conquering other people groups and indoctrinating them with religion or anything else.

More Love, Less Hate

Let's keep conversing! Talk it out. Respect others. All You Need Is Love - The Beatles.

Have a Nice Day!

!ALIVE !BBH !UNI !PIZZA !LADY