Comments on Everything Is Pointless: Ramachandran, the Temporal Lobes & God

I'd rather say that everything just seems pointles...

2007-08-12T00:03:00.000+01:00

I'd rather say that everything just seems pointless because the overwhelming majority of the populace are totally ignorant, and so ignorant in fact that it's almost impossible to "attack"/penetrate them with strong, well founded, rational, scientific facts!
They usually go defensive and say: "bah, it's just theory anyway"
Ramachandran's work is truly remarkable in bridging the gap, not only between theory and empirical evidence/scientific facts, but also between the lay audience, not so interested, average Joe in the street and theese "new" findings.

I strongly recommend the book "Phantoms in the brain" by him, it's funny and written for a lay audience (you can get a taste at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/reith2003/ Dennet is also as mentioned, a very "strong" philosopher (don't let the anti-zombie arguments ruin his perspective for you, as Rama points out we have both conscious, and unconscious pathways..
Do people still ask "what is life?"
DNA explains a lot about life, the whole self organizing etc.. but it doesn't explain WHAT it is...
Im guessing/hoping this is the case about the whole "consciousness/qualia" debate too.

Further: heres a good collection of papers on "Consciousness":
http://consc.net/online.html

Nietzsche killed "God", people are just living in denial.

1. Shock
2. Denial
3. Emotional confusion and guilt
4. (hopefully) Awakening, compromise with emotions and learning to deal with it.

Same as with rapevictims...

- Kaizer

I've had something similar happen to me - the only...

2007-07-03T18:41:00.000+01:00

I've had something similar happen to me - the only sort of trauma I ever had before was a severe concussion when I was two.

I was under a lot of stress between a girl and a job I had. I was raised a Lutheran, but have never really been religious. I somehow felt that I should pray this night because I was at a new low. The next thing I knew I was having a seizure and I couldn't move, my hands were stuck together and what I truly felt was that all of the anger inside me was being removed and I could actually feel it.

I felt like it was an experience with God and that night I didn't get any sleep. Before I had this feeling of a knot inside and afterwards the same knotty feeling of pure anger and frustration had been removed. Directly after I went into shock and then remained manic, full of energy, and just kept writing and writing, when I looked at the walls it was almost like I was tripping on psychedelic drugs - it was very frightening. I felt like I had discovered God, but after a couple years of pondering this I think it was due to chemicals being released in the brain.

I advise also reading David Chalmers on the other ...

2007-02-14T13:43:00.000Z

I advise also reading David Chalmers on the other side of the debate. There are many papers here, including responses to Dennet's arguments:

http://consc.net/chalmers/

Anonymous. I found this on Daniel Dennett's Wikipedia page:
In Consciousness Explained, Dennett's interest in the ability of evolution to explain some of the content-producing features of consciousness is already apparent, and this has since become an integral part of his program. He defends a theory known by some as Neural Darwinism. He also presents an argument against qualia; he argues that the concept is so confused that it cannot be put to any use or understood in any non-contradictory way, and therefore does not constitute a valid refutation of physicalism.
I'm intrigued, so Dennett's book is next on my list to read, and then I'll get back to you properly...

That was a very thought provoking clip. When I wat...

2007-02-13T12:58:00.000Z

That was a very thought provoking clip. When I watch somthing like that i ask the question

what is being explained?

I think the best way to start an answer is to ask what is there here that needs explaining, and we can see that the patient reports a number of conscious experiences and in this verbal report he forms a set of relationships between those experiences. For example, the patient might describe an object as being tremendously significant. So there are two types of thing that need explaining here - a set of relationships between conscious experiences and the experiences themselves.

This clip only provides an explanation for an assocation between different experiences, for example, a description of physical relationships between the amygdala and temporal lobes. But lets not be fooled into thinking that this is an explanation for the existence of qualitative experience of an object or the qualitative feeling of significance. No attempt is made by Ramachandran to explain this, the most interesting aspect of consciousness. Perhaps he chooses not to. In the language of physical relationships, the brain can be used to explain the many wonderfull ways in which our experiences associate with one another but it cannot be used as an explanation for the existence of qualitative experience.

Thanks again for sharing the vids and if you think...

2007-02-12T15:34:00.000Z

Thanks again for sharing the vids and if you think about it, it's not pointless to strive to show that everything is pointless. Um, uh oh. Maybe you're right!

Interesting comment. As for fighting theism being ...

2007-02-12T11:02:00.000Z

Interesting comment. As for fighting theism being anything but pointless - it's still pointless, just not as much as spending your life worshipping a non-existent deity.

Glad you liked the clips though. He's a very interesting man.

Wow. I've had similar experiences while very manic...

2007-02-12T03:04:00.000Z

Wow. I've had similar experiences while very manic. Off meds, I can go about 3 years with no symptoms other than mild depression. Then bam! As I get more and more manic, everything means something. That's right, everything has a point.

I've had a middle-aged psychiatrist say to me "You're the most psychotic patient I've ever seen." Like a seizure, extreme mania can stimulate your brain excessively. But unlike a seizure, it is a constant and progressive climb. It's addictive, the feeling is so powerful that nothing comes close: sex, drugs, etc.

Thoughts would race faster and faster and each one seemed so meaningful that I had to buy a digital recorder (no, 3) because I found myself trying to write notes while driving. Nearly every thought at times was like a revelation.

I never thought I was god, but I did have the delusion that I was Jesus. Three times. It was the only way my brain could explain how I felt and perceived the world.

And much like in the video, I've experienced a degree of pure ecstasy so powerful that once I just slowly dropped to the floor. I squirmed around feeling as though god had me in his grasp or I was being spiritually fondled by angels. It is my firm belief that the mystics of the past would today be treated with medication, as I am.

Each of my episodes ended with my brain racing too fast and I committed myself to a loony bin. Once sanity was restored, I would read my notes and listen to some of my digital snippets of speech. It was then that I would usually come to realize that everything I had thought was so meaningful was actually pointless. I did have some profound thoughts, however.

These experiences have led me to conclude that all religions are based on the individual experiences of mania and seizures. Mania is a crapshoot, if the right circuits in your brain light up, you can be more intuitive, creative and enhanced in many ways...or you can be agitated.

The link between manic-depression and creativity/original thought is firmly established and well documented. This supports my theory, for Jesus was a creative and original thinker. The list of famous manic-depressives, BTW, is astounding.

I think Jesus caught a really nice manic wave that ultimately crashed and left him obviously psychotic. And that is why he was crucified as a heretic. He convinced thousands that he was the real deal and then dissapointed them all once it was clear that he was a fraud.

It makes me feel about as close to the mainstream as a gay black Jew. But it is my mission in life to play whatever role I can in debunking theism. And that, Louie, is anything but pointless! Lastly, sorry my "comment" became an essay, but the video clips were really inspiring.