TED Community » David Roemer

More About Me

I'm passionate about

The conflict between science and religion.

An idea worth spreading

I believe Jesus is alive and in a new life with God for two reasons: 1) The large number of people who believe in life-after-death. 2) The historical Jesus was a Jewish prophet who preached the coming of the Kingdom of God. He was an exorcist and a healer, and his followers swore up-and-down that he appeared to them after he died. It can be said, Jesus saved mankind for meaning because he taught that our purpose in life is to serve God in this world, to be with Him in the next world.

Comments

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• A reply on Conversation: Materialists and those who think humans evolved from animals are irrational.

  Sep 6 2012: What I meant is that there are no mysteries in science. There are only as yet unanswered questions. The human mind is however a mystery. A way of expressing this is to say humans are embodied spirits or spirited bodies.

• A reply on Conversation: Materialists and those who think humans evolved from animals are irrational.

  Sep 6 2012: When humans observe that the sky is blue, they ask two questions: 1) Why is the sky blue? 2) What is knowing that the sky is blue? The first step is coming up with educated guesses. The next step is to marshal evidence and decide whether the educated guess is probable. Consciousness is just another word for knowing.

• A reply on Conversation: Materialists and those who think humans evolved from animals are irrational.

  Sep 6 2012: Your comments show that you have bad judgment. You are not good at marshaling evidence and deciding what is true.

• A reply on Conversation: Materialists and those who think humans evolved from animals are irrational.

  Sep 6 2012: What evidence is there that the dog decided to open the door. What evidence is there that it was not instinct or a reflexive reaction. When humans do something, they will tell you why they rejected the alternatives.

• A comment on Conversation: Materialists and those who think humans evolved from animals are irrational.

  Sep 5 2012: Baggini's view is that the self is always changing. This is a correct observation. What is absurd in his remarks is that he attributes to other people the idea that the self is unchanging and constant.
  
  Saying humans are embodied spirits means that the relationship between the mind and the body is a mystery.
  
  When animals have nothing to do they go to sleep. Only humans ask questions, and just because a human asks a question doesn't mean there is an answer. There are mysteries.
  
  There are no mysteries about questions that come from seeing and hearing. Questions like this have a record of success in being answered.

• A reply on Conversation: Materialists and those who think humans evolved from animals are irrational.

  Sep 5 2012: I look forward to your critique of this analysis. There are four solutions to the mind-body problem: 1) dualism (there exist spiritual substances), 2) materialism (the mind is an illusion), 3) idealism (the body is an illusion), and 4) It is a mystery.
  
  #4 is the solution with the most evidence. When animals have nothing to do, they go to sleep. Only humans ask questions about the causes of things and the relationship between things. Just because a human asks a question, doesn't mean there will be an answer. Questions about science are a different matter. There is a track record of success for questions about what we observe with our senses. We don't observe free will and conscious knowledge with our sense organs.

• A comment on Conversation: Materialists and those who think humans evolved from animals are irrational.

  Sep 4 2012: @Brian Klink
  Baggini is under the false impression that the "self" is unchanging and constant. That is absurd. I exist now and I existed 10 years ago. I am the same person. However, I am different from the person I was 10 years ago. This raises the question of how I can be both different and the same. This question is similar to the question: What is the relationship between myself and my body?
  
  For the question of how a being can change and yet be the same there is a metaphysical explanation. A being that changes through time is a composition of substance and accidents. The substance is the principle that makes the being the same. The accidence is the principle that makes the being change.
  
  For the second question, there is no metaphysical explanation. It is a mystery. Hence, humans are embodied spirits.
  
  This is not the same as Cartesian dualism. In Cartesian dualism, there is a spiritual little man located behind the eyes that controls the body like a stage coach driver controls a team of horses. There is no evidence for dualism or the existence of any kind of spiritual substances. It is nonsense to say the self is separate from the brain or the body. There is only one being, not two beings or many beings.

• A comment on Conversation: Materialists and those who think humans evolved from animals are irrational.

  Sep 4 2012: @Mitch SMith
  I started to watch and listen to Antonio Damasio. He mentioned the mystery that is consciousness. Then he said,
  "How does the brain create consciousness?" This is not the mystery. The mystery is: What is consciousness? He has a blind spot. He only undersands dualism and materialism. He understands that dualism is irrational, so that leaves materialism. He assumes materialism is true. So to Damasio, the only question is: How does the brain create consciousness?
  
  Take, for example, knowing that this page is white and black. It means more than that light is entering the eye and a signal is going to the brain. It means an "awareness" of this. What is this "awareness"?
  
  There is a metaphysical definition or explication of self-consciousness: It means turning in on oneself and catching oneself in the act of our own existence.
  
  Human beings are indefinabilities that become conscious of their own existence. Humans are embodied spirits.

• A reply on Conversation: Materialists and those who think humans evolved from animals are irrational.

  Sep 3 2012: So, what is the relationship between ourselves and our bodies? What are mental images and other mental constructs? What is truth?

• A reply on Conversation: Materialists and those who think humans evolved from animals are irrational.

  Sep 3 2012: I don't know. But I know why I stick to a difficult diet: I decided to stick to the diet.