TED Community » Lee Fishman

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• +1

  A reply on Talk: Richard Dawkins: Militant atheism

  Jun 8 2011: I think there are plenty of reasons to be "militant" about atheism (not militant in a violent sense obviously). Imagine if instead of Christianity being the dominant religion, people were still worshiping the Greek gods. If you are an atheist, there is really no difference between those two situations. Its all holding us back and affecting us negatively in every sense. We have to accept that we have no idea about the inner workings of the universe yet and move forward.
  
  You should read A Latif's comment above

• A reply on Talk: Richard Dawkins: Militant atheism

  Jun 8 2011: Everyone in the world needs to read what you have written here. This is the best thing I have ever read. Ever.
• +6

  A reply on Talk: Aaron O'Connell: Making sense of a visible quantum object

  Jun 2 2011: Haha Jorge, standard response of someone who's foundation has just been rocked. Don't fight new and radical knowledge- let it in. Allow your ideas and theories about the world to remain fluid and never stop adding to them. Take note that 99% of what we think we know about the universe, reality, matter, etc. is wrong, just as it has been since the beginning of our existence as a thinking species. Do not be surprised when someone discovers something that completely flips your current understanding of your surroundings because odds are we have a looooooong way to go.
• +1

  A reply on Talk: David Christian: The history of our world in 18 minutes

  May 20 2011: Well, yeah. You can't 100% prove anything because we haven't been around for infinite years to watch every single scenario play out. We have to use the clues we have and the clues we find in real-time to make sense of everything around us. While I obviously think skepticism is a good thing, disregarding all evidence towards a theory's credibility simply because "truth is absolute" seems to undermine the entire idea of science. I'm sure in 200 years we will think many of the theories of the 21st century were ridiculous but that doesn't take away their importance or their role as stepping stones to greater truth.
• +1

  A comment on Conversation: Atheists, you need to rethink your morals! How about it?

  Mar 22 2011: WOW are you all listening to yourselves? All this ridiculous babble about -isms...
  WHO CARES what you label yourself or anyone else? Its not about what you say. Its not about what you believe in. Its about what you DO. You can say you have good morals and that you're a good person and that you love Jesus and he loves you and blah blah blah but what have you DONE? Have you donated money you've made to help AIDS in Africa instead of renting a movie from Blockbuster or eating out? Have you given your spare time to build houses with Habitat for Humanity? I'm sorry but the majority of you are full of it because no matter what fake deity you believe in or how many cows and goats your ancestors sacrificed to their fake deities or which symbol your religious building has on it, nothing matters unless you have put your own selfish wants and beliefs aside, gotten on your hands and knees and helped your fellow man at the most basic, empathetic level. Everyone thinks their story is unique and that their feelings are so different from everyone else but they aren't! Everyone feels the exact same way you do all the time! So realize that no matter who you are, how much money you have, where you come from, or how good you think your own farts smell, there is not one single person on this Earth that is any better or worse than you. We are all people. Forget Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, Atheism, Moralism, and whatever; THEY'RE JUST WORDS! They only mean what you allow them to mean. Don't let words with finite definitions rule your lives- get up and do something for the world, for your fellow man! Let's phase out religion and phase in working together. Let's phase out gods and phase in progress. We are human beings, the most awesome force this planet has ever seen- we have to rid ourselves of ridiculous superstition and come together for a common good, for every common good.
• +2

  A reply on Talk: Charles Limb: Your brain on improv

  Mar 22 2011: I don't understand your comment.
  
  You don't experience the billions of atoms (that are mostly empty space) making up you and everything around you. You don't experience all the different waves going through you this very second like radio waves, etc. You don't experience the insane amount of activity going on in each one of your cells. What you can experience with your five senses makes up less than one-millionth of reality. Of course you don't feel the transition from brain signals to feelings. That wouldn't make any evolutionary sense if you did. Science CAN and WILL understand EVERYTHING; just because we haven't figured it out does not mean there is not an answer. I do not understand what the obsession with instant gratification is. Wouldn't you rather wait for the right answer than believe in magic? Come on human race, its time to get serious.
• +4

  A reply on Talk: Charles Limb: Your brain on improv

  Mar 22 2011: You assume that a spiritual portion exists. Science never falters; people attempting to look at the world through the extremely narrow and confining lens of 'spirituality' go crazy when they don't have an answer to a question, so they make one up. It would make much more sense to assume that consciousness and self-awareness are the consequence of the immense computing power of the brain and its need for a decision engine due to the complexity of all the processes going on within it.
  
  ...but it would be crazy to assume something as scientific and rational as that.
  It just wouldn't sell.
• +2

  A reply on Talk: Sebastian Seung: I am my connectome

  Mar 19 2011: Why do you assume that we are more than our brain? I find that the majority of people assume this because they have been drenched in talk of spirituality and religion and gods from birth. If you were brought into this world never having heard the concept of a god or heaven or anything like it, living in today's modern society, would these even be ideas in your head? As much as the slowly maturing human race wants to deny it we are swiftly leaving the era of gods. We are, little-by-little, uncovering the answers to all of the questions that so perplexed man when the gods were created and, in-turn, sending the whole of these ancient religions into a defensive whirlwind. I guess what I mean to say is this- our brains are biological, just like every other part of our bodies. The brain is an almost infinitely complex biological supercomputer running more computations and code than we could wrap it around. I say 'almost infinitely complex' because it is just that- finite. It has a beginning and an end of sorts. Given the right technology every molecule could be identified, mapped, and reproduced. In saying that "understanding the brain will still not explain the mystery of human consciousness," you are trying to fit science into the constraints of the world we have all grown up in; a static world in which thousand year old fairy tales that have been written and rewritten a thousand times are regarded as holy doctrine. In time we will have a scientific explanation for everything. Just because we don't have an answer to a question doesn't mean we have to make one up that seems plausible and appeals to the weak-minded. The stranglehold that spirituality has on the advancement of general human thought is astounding. We need to take the world from the ground up instead of seeing it from the top down. We require a consciousness to govern the ludicrous amount of processes going on in our bodies. A dog can't be a waiter because it would promptly drop a hot tray. Think about that.

• A reply on Talk: Sebastian Seung: I am my connectome

  Mar 8 2011: Rzgar I love your comment because it embodies everything that is wrong with current thinking. In order to move your understanding forward you need to stop assuming that there is a spiritual aspect in the first place. The age of worshiping deities needs to end. How have we not evolved past this yet? The Bible was written and rewritten a thousand times throughout the last several thousand years. Fox News can't even put out an unbiased report 15 minutes after the story breaks. Can we get serious and focus on science? Thanks. This video was incredible and I can not wait to see more information on this topic as it is unveiled.