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R.Wreck
SFN Regular

USA
1191 Posts

Posted - 01/01/2005 :  18:48:40   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send R.Wreck a Private Message
quote:
Why does nature not have consciousness...
Because it is not like ours...
Have we taught nature what to do..
No...
It has the knowledge itself...
Within it self...



Just because things happen, that does not mean there is concious thought behind them. If you are claiming that nature has consiousness, please provide some evidence.

quote:
Pathetic fallacy putting human emotions upon nature..
i.e. unforgiven tsnuami



Not exactly. Unforgiving tsunami would be a lot closer, implying that the tsunami has the capacity to forgive.


quote:
Are you going to tell me that the cells that keep my body alive are not conscious
I do not mean conscience the ability to know right from wrong but the ability to be aware of how to work how to function how to survive


Yes I'm going to tell you that your cells are not concious. They no more "know" how to keep you alive than your washing machine "knows" how to clean clothes.

The foundation of morality is to . . . give up pretending to believe that for which there is no evidence, and repeating unintelligible propositions about things beyond the possibliities of knowledge.
T. H. Huxley

The Cattle Prod of Enlightened Compassion
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Storm
SFN Regular

USA
708 Posts

Posted - 01/01/2005 :  19:02:57   [Permalink]  Show Profile  Visit Storm's Homepage Send Storm a Private Message
Explain?
So the components are put together independent of each other... than when all together they work?
Can we compare the human body to a washing machine
Our blood cells fight disease, transmit, messages, reproduce
Surely that cannot be compared to washing clothes
Sounds like a logical fallacy to me. or am I wrong in my meaning of that too
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R.Wreck
SFN Regular

USA
1191 Posts

Posted - 01/01/2005 :  19:22:24   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send R.Wreck a Private Message
quote:
Explain?
So the components are put together independent of each other... than when all together they work?
Can we compare the human body to a washing machine
Our blood cells fight disease, transmit, messages, reproduce
Surely that cannot be compared to washing clothes
Sounds like a logical fallacy to me. or am I wrong in my meaning of that too


Your original claim was that cells had consciousness. To the best of my knowledge, what we call consciousness is a manifestation of chemical and electrical activity in the brain. The cells that make up the body do not individually possess consciousness, but when arranged correctly (and that's the tricky part) consciousness can result.

I did not compare the human body to a washing machine. What I said was that an individual cell in your body had as much consciousness as a washing machine (which would be none), even though they both perform a function.

If, however, one were to compare a human body to a washing machine, one might be guilty of a logical fallacy, maybe a false analogy. Nice try though.

The foundation of morality is to . . . give up pretending to believe that for which there is no evidence, and repeating unintelligible propositions about things beyond the possibliities of knowledge.
T. H. Huxley

The Cattle Prod of Enlightened Compassion
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Wendy
SFN Regular

USA
614 Posts

Posted - 01/01/2005 :  20:06:34   [Permalink]  Show Profile  Send Wendy a Yahoo! Message Send Wendy a Private Message
quote:
Originally posted by Storm

I haved used the dictionary many times Wendy. But is not what I said Wendy the same as you. Only said differently

Um, no. This is what you said:
quote:
Originally posted by Storm
Are they without knowledge of God because of their doubt

This is what I said:
quote:
Originally posted by Wendy
No, we are without knowledge because proof of God's existence likely does not exist. Since we cannot prove a negative (in this case that God does not exist) we are agnostics.

I would rephrase, but since I was quite clear the first time, perhaps you should just re-read.

Millions long for immortality who don't know what to do on a rainy afternoon.
-- Susan Ertz
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Dave W.
Info Junkie

USA
26020 Posts

Posted - 01/01/2005 :  20:07:52   [Permalink]  Show Profile  Visit Dave W.'s Homepage Send Dave W. a Private Message
quote:
Originally posted by Storm

Are we accidents?
Don't you feel you want to be worth something
Just because the universe is grand and you are small in comparision does not mean you have no meaning no worth
Ah, an ancient fallacy, typically applied by religious people (like you, Storm) to non-religious (like many of us). Just because I (for example) know that my life isn't going to mean squat in 1080 years when the universe finally dies doesn't mean I don't assign value to my own life right now. We are accidents, but that doesn't mean we can't make the best of our situation. A failure to believe that "nature" is "conscious" doesn't change that attitude one little bit.
quote:
Let us not compare natures consciousness to ours..
No, first you'll have to demostrate that nature has consciousness. Just saying it is so doesn't make it so.
quote:
Are you going to tell me that the cells that keep my body alive are not conscious
Two other people already have, but they (perhaps in an attempt to avoid confusing you) failed to specifically point out that consciousness is an emergent property of trillions of neurons. No individual neuron is conscious, but the collection of them are (or, say, in the case of massive head trauma, are not).

For example, none of the 63,840 pixels in this image "knows" anything about Gillian Anderson or David Duchovny, or about walls or flashlights or even the color blue. That it is a promotional still for the X-Files is an emergent property of all of the individual data bits, grouped in a unique way, and interpreted via a particular method by your web browser.

So, consciousness as we know it is not an innate property of any single thing, but an emergent property of a pile of trillions of nearly-identical things hooked together in a particular way, yet each acting more-or-less alone. That chemical and physical laws could give rise to such an amazing thing as consciousness is, indeed, astounding, but it doesn't suggest any intention on the part of said laws.

- Dave W. (Private Msg, EMail)
Evidently, I rock!
Why not question something for a change?
Visit Dave's Psoriasis Info, too.
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