Brain Vs Emotion

[Yrth]

Ok, so I just had a long & frustrating conversation with my friend. He has almost totally thrown off Christianity & mysticism, but he's stuck on, um, the 'unexplainable' phenomenon of thought, emotion, and instinct. I tried explaining how it's all very much a product of brain matter, society, experience, etc but it just wasn't getting through. I'm basically running into a 'gap' argument that doesn't know it's a gap argument, someone who uses his own subjective amazement/pseudoscience to reject physiological 'rules' for this particular quadrant of the world.

 

So frustrating. He doesn't even have any alternative explanation to offer in its stead, & he clearly doesn't understand how inconceivable it is to have 'rules' separate from the natural order. Its just SO DUMB. All late night at a diner after seeing the Button movie which was, I think, a pretty decent film (as opposed to a movie?).

 

-__-

[mwc]

I'm basically running into a 'gap' argument that doesn't know it's a gap argument, someone who uses his own subjective amazement/pseudoscience to reject physiological 'rules' for this particular quadrant of the world.

What now?

 

I'm going to guess at what you're trying to say here. What about people that get brain damage and act in a totally different manner? Either altogether or in one (or several) areas of their life? Say someone who has some sort of stroke and then becomes a sex addict type (I saw something like this on television)? She was roughly the same in every way except after her brain episode she'd just have sex with whoever was around when she'd go off the store or wherever.

 

How would you account for this type of strange change via a "spirit" or external force acting upon us? How could the internal change cause this? There are tons of similar examples (I chose one that I happened to see recently).

 

mwc

[Kathlene]

mwc,

 

Thats the whole problem with xianity in a complete nutshell. It is largely based on emotions, events, how you feel at the time, yada yada. It was only a few months ago that I ever looked at my xianity in a rational way, and looked at the proof in the pudding so to speak. It was the historicity of jesus that really got me. So I started actually using my brain, instead of my feelings and found a whole lot of stuff that broke the bonds. It also helped that an atheist friend pointed out stuff to me. How can you argue with a religion that has a scripture and deluded worldview for every thing you say against it. It has made itself bullet proof, because it doesn't want to recognise the holes in it. So if everyone is experiencing wonderful emotions, and god is talking to them, why would they listen to the voice of reason. Whatever they are doing is keeping them in their own comfort zone.

 

There are even some days that I miss that feeling of prayer, connectedness, beauty in worship, whatever. But you know I realised I can get that same feeling by just as beautiful music that is not christian. Now what does that tell me? I was using my worldview and experiences to attribute to my feelings when I was a xtian. Remarkable isn't it. Wow, I am so darn glad I am out of it. Who wants to live a life filled with doubt, wondering confusion, and secondly why would god who is supposed to be this all powerful rational creator of the universe, people(?) and everything else, then expect us to relate to him in an illogical manner. It just doesn't make sense!! If he is so rational and far superior than any scientist we can come up with, why doesn't he want us to relate to him and know him in the same way?? Theres the whole pitiful downful. If god is who he says he is, he wouldn't expect us to be something different to him, leave our brains at the door and behave like drug addicted lunatics. Just my thoughts.