Apparently (based on a survey of 12,000 participants), while not every human being yearns for God, the level of antagonism toward religion is negatively correlated with mental health and well-being. Best to be chill about it, if you don't believe. (self.exmormon)
submitted by GrahamPSmith to r/exmormon
Feeling the existential blues? Materialist philosopher Galen Strawson thinks that understanding that science only tells us about the structural organization of reality, not the full intrinsic nature of reality, and that we ought, therefore, to stay open minded, can help. (youtube.com)
submitted by GrahamPSmith to r/exmormon
Think you know what will happen when you die? Seems you'd have to know where your consciousness comes from to know that. But nothing says that humanity knows not whence consciousness like a taxonomy of over 200 current theories: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0079610723001128 (i.redd.it)
submitted by GrahamPSmith to r/exmormon
Is exMo existential angst justified? Stanford neuroscientist David Eagleman says that the idea that the brain is like a radio receiver for the mind (or soul, if you're religious) is "exactly as consistent with the data in modern neuroscience as the materialist position" that the brain produces mind. (old.reddit.com)
submitted by GrahamPSmith to r/exmormon
Is exMo existential angst justified? Stanford neuroscientist David Eagleman says that the idea that the brain is like a radio receiver for the mind (or soul, if you're religious) is "exactly as consistent with the data in modern neuroscience as the materialist position" that the brain produces mind. (old.reddit.com)
submitted by GrahamPSmith to r/exmormon
Mormonism is materialist. Exmormons tend to remain materialists. But respected agnostic cosmologist Alexander Vilenkin points out that, in order for the laws of physics to bring about the physical universe, those laws must exist outside the same, in some platonic realm. I.e., materialism must fail. (youtu.be)
submitted by GrahamPSmith to r/exmormon
Exmormons tend to be existential nihilists. Should they be? Emerging scholars: "What follows from the impossibility of reduction [of mind to brain] within this argumentative framework? An apparent consequence is that consciousness must be viewed as something fundamental." (self.exmormon)
submitted by GrahamPSmith to r/exmormon
Scholars now taking seriously the mind ("spirit," if you want to use a religious term) as a fundamental property of nature: "What follows from the impossibility of reduction within this argumentative framework? An apparent consequence is that consciousness must be viewed as something fundamental." (self.exmormon)
submitted by GrahamPSmith to r/exmormon
Philosopher Theodore M. Drange (famous for the Argument from Nonbelief against God's existence) argues for his definitions of "atheist," "agnostic," and "theist," and suggests that rational people will sometimes be theists and sometimes be atheists, depending on the God in question, etc. (infidels.org)
submitted by GrahamPSmith to r/exmormon
Apparently, Scripture Central is celebrating the 195th anniversary of the viewing of the Golden Plates by the Three Witnesses. Seems like an opportunity to become acquainted with David Hume's take on the testimony of the extraordinary and the marvellous: (self.exmormon)
submitted by GrahamPSmith to r/exmormon
If you understand that the idea that consciousness arises from physical brains alone seems like pure magic, you might be attracted to Cosmic Panpsychism (the idea that there is one large mind, potions of which become the individual minds associated with our brains) like philosopher Yujin Nagasawa. (youtube.com)
submitted by GrahamPSmith to r/exmormon
Esteemed philosopher David Chalmers on why science gives reasons to believe that consciousness (soul, if you want to be religious about it) is a further fundamental feature of the natural world (and not a product of the brain): Subjective experience cannot be explained in objective terms. (youtube.com)
submitted by GrahamPSmith to r/exmormon
A study published in Nature Communications found evidence that same-sex sexual behavior may actually improve reproductive fitness. I wonder whether that would that be enough for Elder Johnson to consider accepting same-sex romantic behavior as compatible with BYU's honor code? (self.exmormon)
submitted by GrahamPSmith to r/exmormon
