• Evidence of Consciousness Surviving the Body
    Then I have no idea what you're talking about.Sam26

    The body does not survive consciousness.

    Is what I said and what I meant.
  • Slaves & Robots
    It's not about pros and cons. It's about what's right and wrongTheMadFool

    Evil has benefits in the short term. Drawbacks in the long term.

    Take more spacetime into account and being good has more benefits most of the time.

    Taking more spacetime into account requires more intelligence and experience.

    But why do we need benefits? Because we are needy.
  • My favorite verses in the Tao Te Ching
    But check out how many variations could be:javi2541997

    Maybe the Tao Te Ching is a recipe for meat pie. lol
  • Slaves & Robots
    Yes, losing our "humanity"TheMadFool

    Well there is benefits and drawbacks to cooperation and competition.

    Society now considerers slavery to have more drawbacks then benefits.
  • Can an unintelligible statement be false?
    is the statement false or meaningless?Amalac

    It's art. Creatively sticking words together. :joke:
  • What is mysticism?
    Do you think experiences can be shared?Noble Dust

    All communication predicates shared memories.

    Two beings that are nothing alike can never communicate. One of them just saying hello might murder the other by accident.
  • Can an unintelligible statement be false?
    Would you say the statement “the round square exists” is false, or meaningless?Amalac

    It's just sticking two words together. Like orange blue.
  • My favorite verses in the Tao Te Ching
    Lao Tse does not describe anything in Taojavi2541997

    Describing is the main thing he does in the Tao. He describes the Tao, which is consciousness.
  • If God was omnibenevolent, there wouldn’t be ... Really?
    Based on what reasoning should we conclude that the presence of those things is evidence that God (if he exists) is not benevolent?baker

    With form (creation) comes opposites:

    up down

    left right

    good bad
  • Motivated Belief
    higher forms of consciousness in the universePantagruel

    You're talking about perception and intelligence not consciousness. Those are facets of and in consciousness not consciousness itself.

    If a lifeform has 100X more senses and brains then it might be able to perceive and think about alot more then we can. But it's consciousness will be equal.

    What good is perceiving and thinking about more if you don't need to? A rock is doing just fine without anything.
  • My favorite verses in the Tao Te Ching
    The opposite of belief is skepticismjavi2541997

    The opposite of belief is experience. and a description of something is not a belief about it.
  • Can an unintelligible statement be false?
    but in its technical sense it is more or less synonymous with nonsenseAmalac

    The when orange into it begone Thursday clock up language hot.

    meaningless

    Hot things are cold.

    contradiction
  • My favorite verses in the Tao Te Ching
    Taoism is about believingjavi2541997

    It's the opposite of that.

    He is pointing to something beyond the mind, and instead of looking and seeing you are getting lost in thought about the pointers.

    "The finger pointing at the moon is not the moon."
  • Anxiety explained with physics
    The anxiety is intense when the person is most original. — Søren Kierkegaard.

    Original = different, and difference from others can increase self doubt.

    So that quote just proves my original point.
  • My favorite verses in the Tao Te Ching
    This is the way you interpret it. For me, for example, it is speaking about omnipresence.javi2541997

    Consciousness is omnipresent.

    Problem is you just don't realize the true nature of consciousness. So then you don't realize he is talking about it.

    Consciousness is not in the brain, the brain is in consciousness.

    Look and see for yourself. Stop believing and start looking.
  • My favorite verses in the Tao Te Ching
    It is the first verse of Tao. You can interpret it as you want.javi2541997

    He is describing consciousness. And he is solving the hard problem of consciousness that plagues modern neuroscience (which used to be called the mind body problem). Although mind and consciousness are two different things.
  • What is mysticism?
    That's fine with me.Noble Dust

    So you didn't really explain anything. Or you simply displayed what "explanations" really are. They are nothing but pointers to experiences. and the experiences are ineffable. Therefore nothing is ever explained nor ever will be.
  • What is the importance of intelligence?
    intelligent people say interesting things.Shawn

    Intelligence doesn't exist

    The mind is nothing but a map of the territory. A map of high capacity and accuracy is said to be more "intelligent". The map is used to avoid pain and attain pleasure.

    So the map is a conversion. A conversion of sense data into a usable model. The better and faster the conversion the more "intelligent" the mind.
  • My favorite verses in the Tao Te Ching
    Taoism which is a philosophical belief so free and open to interpretation.javi2541997

    No it's not. You only think it is because you don't know what its talking about. Because you have not experienced it, or recognized your experience of it.
  • What is mysticism?
    "Sweet like sugar, thick and sticky, and slightly floral". Easy.Noble Dust

    You just proved my point. You tried to explain the taste of honey using other shared experiences.

    I still don't know what honey taste like. When I taste it only then will I realize it was a little bit similar to what you described but also 100% different.
  • To Theists
    Where are you?Corvus

    I'm inside your solipsism.
  • What is mysticism?
    "If you can't explain it to a forum of cantankerous autodidact philosophers, you still don't understand it."Noble Dust

    Try to explain the taste of honey to someone who has never tasted it and realize its impossible and nothing can be explained, for all "explanations" are dependent upon shared experience and experience is ineffable.
  • The Social Dilemma
    Did you expect more?unenlightened

    Have no expectations and receive no disappointments.
  • My favorite verses in the Tao Te Ching
    that's not how I see it.T Clark

    That is how you see it. Unfortunately your thinking and your seeing is not in alignment.
  • My favorite verses in the Tao Te Ching
    What is truth for you, it can be false for me...javi2541997

    There is only one objective reality. Math is the same for everyone. Feelings are different.
  • Can we explain the mystery of existence?
    exploration of our existence, including scientific models and descriptions.Jack Cummins

    The mind is nothing but a map of the territory. Creating a map of something unknown does not make it known. It merely copies it so we can use it.
  • What is mysticism?
    there is more to it than that.T Clark

    "If you can't explain it to a 12 year old you still don't understand it."
  • The best argument for having children
    No. I will never teach any kid that. Teaching a kid that narcissistic type of crap will destroy lives. Like Trump's positive thinking.PulsarDK

    Self reflection and self responsibility are the opposite of narcissism.
  • Brains in vats...again.
    What does this mean? It means look with your understandingConstance

    No it doesn't.

    Consciousness and mind are two very different things.
  • Evidence of Consciousness Surviving the Body
    I think you have your words switched around. Don't you mean to say, consciousness doesn't survive the body?Sam26

    No I didn't
  • Is Most of life random chaos?
    How predictable human behavior in the physical worldCidat

    Open a psychology book and you'll read about yourself following predictable patterns.
  • The Social Dilemma
    If I could rephrase that to 'absolute control' or 'total control', then I would agree.unenlightened

    You have enough control to find food. Which allows you to live a short while before you die. lol
  • To Theists
    I got a funny feeling that I might had seen you before.Corvus

    “Look down on me and you see a fool, look up at me and you see a god. Look straight at me and you see yourself.”
  • What is Information?
    I would have said everything is information, rather then nothing.Pop

    Reality contains patterns and connections and cause & effect. You can interpret that as "information" if you want but it's not.

    "Information" is just a word that stands for parts of reality the mind uses to create a map then used to avoid pain and attain pleasure.
  • Slaves & Robots
    Slaves are human and yet we treated them like robots!TheMadFool

    Sure, but it was at a very high cost to ourselves.
  • Meta-Anarchism
    Anarchismthewonder

    Privatize everything and you have anarchism without chaos.
  • Does anyone have any absolute, objective understanding of reality?
    does anyone continuously hold an absolute truthCidat

    Something exists, is an absolute truth. It's not refutable because the refutation would prove it true.
  • My favorite verses in the Tao Te Ching
    we should to figure out what the book says because it is translated from Ancient Chinesejavi2541997

    Truth is the same across all nations and races and languages. Once you know the truth you do not need to translate anything. It's not found in books.
  • Are there any limits to human behavior, outside natural laws?


    Humans don't exist, so neither does our behavior. Only reality exists, and reality is eternal cause and effect. "Humans" are just a tiny aspect of that, and completely bound by it in every way.

    This is reality speaking to itself. According to itself, and its own laws.
  • Approximating Moral Facts
    yield an understanding of underlying laws governing moralityToothyMaw

    Morality is just fairness. Once you realize that everything will become simple and clear.